Before America’s Congressional cowards passed the abomination now known as Obamacare in March of 2010, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the American people that we would have to let them pass Obamacare so “that we will know what is in it”.  Here are three lies that the president boldly told us before they passed Obamacare and the truth uncovered about these three lies since then:

1)  LIE:  Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) said in an address to a joint session of Congress, to sell health care reform, in September 2009:

One more misunderstanding I want to clear up — under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.

And then:

Whitehouse.blogs.com 3/21/10 – Today, the President announced that he will be issuing an executive order after the passage of the health insurance reform law that will reaffirm its consistency with longstanding restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion.

While the legislation as written maintains current law, the executive order provides additional safeguards to ensure that the status quo is upheld and enforced, and that the health care legislation’s restrictions against the public funding of abortions cannot be circumvented.

The President has said from the start that this health insurance reform should not be the forum to upset longstanding precedent. The health care legislation and this executive order are consistent with this principle.

The President is grateful for the tireless efforts of leaders on both sides of this issue to craft a consensus approach that allows the bill to move forward.

TRUTH:  Last week, news leaked out that The Health and Human Services Department is giving Pennsylvania $160 million for the establishment of a new high-risk insurance pool that will cover any abortion that is legal in the state.

 2) LIE:   Also in September of 2009, Obama gave an interview to George Stephanopoulos, former member of the Clinton administration and now an anchor for ABC News.  Here is an excerpt from that interview:

By the way, was that a lateral career move?  But I digress…

STEPHANOPOULOS:  …during the campaign.  Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don’t. How is that not a tax?

OBAMA:  Well, hold on a second, George. Here — here’s what’s happening.  You and I are both paying $900, on average — our families — in higher premiums because of uncompensated care.  Now what I’ve said is that if you can’t afford health insurance, you certainly shouldn’t be punished for that.  That’s just piling on. If, on the other hand, we’re giving tax credits, we’ve set up an exchange, you are now part of a big pool, we’ve driven down the costs, we’ve done everything we can and you actually can afford health insurance, but you’ve just decided, you know what, I want to take my chances.  And then you get hit by a bus and you and I have to pay for the emergency room care, that’s…

OBAMA:  No, but — but, George, you — you can’t just make up that language and decide that that’s called a tax increase.  Any…

STEPHANOPOULOS:  Here’s the…

OBAMA:  What — what — if I — if I say that right now your premiums are going to be going up by 5 or 8 or 10 percent next year and you say well, that’s not a tax increase; but, on the other hand, if I say that I don’t want to have to pay for you not carrying coverage even after I give you tax credits that make it affordable, then…

TRUTH:  Under Obamacare, signed into law by Obama in March, the majority of Americans will have to maintain “minimum essential coverage” starting in 2014. Many people will be eligible for federal subsidies to assist in paying their premiums.

In a brief defending the law, the Department Of Justice says the requirement for people to carry insurance or pay the penalty is “a valid exercise” of Congress’s power to impose taxes.

Congress can use its taxing power “even for purposes that would exceed its powers under other provisions” of the Constitution, the department said. For more than a century, it added, the Supreme Court has held that Congress can tax activities that it could not reach by using its power to regulate commerce.

While Congress was working on the health care legislation, Scooter would not acknowledge that a mandate to buy insurance, enforced by financial penalties, was equivalent to a tax.

 3)  LIE:  At a town hall event Aug. 15 in Grand Junction, Colo., Obama said:

[i]f you like your health care plan, you keep your health care plan. Nobody is going to force you to leave your health care plan. If you like your doctor, you keep seeing your doctor. I don’t want government bureaucrats meddling in your health care. But the point is, I don’t want insurance company bureaucrats meddling in your health care either.

And he also said:

I expect that after reform passes, the vast majority of Americans are still going to be getting their insurance from private insurers.

TRUTH:  As the deadline for Obamacare’s launch nears, the country’s biggest insurers have started promoting less expensive plans with reduced premiums that will force participants to choose from a narrower selection of doctors or hospitals.

The plans, being tested in places like San Diego, New York and Chicago, will be very popular among small businesses that already provide insurance to their employees, but are concerned about the insurance costs skyrocketing.

Large employers, as well, are starting to pay attention. Insurers and consultants believe that, over time, businesses of all sizes will gravitate toward these plans in an effort to stay in the black.

Companies may be able to reduce their premiums by as much as 15 percent, by offering the more limited plans.

More Americans will be paying higher prices for the privilege of choosing or keeping their own doctors if they are outside the new networks.  Obama told Americans over and over again that consumers would retain a variety of health-care choices.

Y’know, I’ve always heard that there are 3 kinds of lies:

a.  Little white lies

b.  Bold-faced lies

c.  Statistics

It seems to me that we should add a new category to those:

d.  Obamacare lies

Because there sure were some whoppers told about this legislation in order to get it passed.

Sources:  abcnews.com, nytimes.com, factcheck.org, foxnews.com

On Friday, the Prince and his Royal entourage left the confines of their Royal palace on the Potomac and traveled on two separate winged steed (one to carry the Royal canine) to the far-off place of Bar Harbor, Maine.  Upon  their arrival Friday afternoon, the Royal family “took the air” and amused themselves by biking, hiking and boating their way around Mount Desert Island, the third-largest island on the Eastern Seaboard and home to the 47,000-acre Acadia National Park.

After they disembarked from their winged steeds  on Friday, the Royal family exuberantly participated in  90-minute bike ride on the verdant wooded trails surrounding Witch Hole Pond at the northern end of the island.   Then they proceeded to enjoy a leisurely stroll on Cadillac Mountain, at 1,530 feet the highest peak on the East Coast.  This was followed by a stop for ice cream  in downtown Bar Harbor, where the Prince graciously took a momentary break from his coconut ice cream cone to be photographed with the local gentry.

Their first day of their Royal vacation ended with a National Park Service boat ride on Frenchman Bay and a waterfront dinner at Stewman’s Lobster Pound.    Deciding to sup outdoors,  The Royal family, who arrived at the restaurant via boat, sat at a table on a pier overlooking the bay.  The Prince and Princess dined on lobster, while their daughters shared a shrimp basket, according to restaurant manager Jeff Buffington, who also noted that the Prince “shook hands with everybody” and was “very friendly” to the surprised diners on the pier. 

 How lovely for them.

On Saturday, the Royal Family kept up their pursuit of the outdoor life with a morning of tennis at the Bar Harbor Club, an elegant compound constructed by J.P. Morgan in 1929.  In the afternoon, they sojourned to Southwest Harbor, where they grabbed a spot of lunch at the waterfront Claremont Hotel before inspecting the Bass Harbor Head lighthouse, which sits atop a rocky precipice on the southern tip of the island.

The Royal canine, Bo, joined in at the next stop, an afternoon stroll along the rocky Ship Harbor trail. The Royal family sauntered for about an hour, taking breaks to skip rocks along the water, play with Bo and chat with the families of the local gentry, according to Katie McCormick-Lelyveld, her Majesty’s press secretary.

This Royal Holiday Tour follows one the Royal family took last summer to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Canyon National Park, where whitewater rafting and peach-picking were among the activities they engaged in to show their connection with the common people.

The Royal family’s other recent holiday travels included Martha’s Vineyard, Hawaii and a brief Memorial Day trip to Chicago.  In all, the Royal Family has gone on holiday 7 times since that tawdry affair in the Gulf of Mexico began in April.

Meanwhile, humble fishermen in the fiefdom of  Mississippi are upset that under the terms of BP’s $20 billion oil spill fund, money they earn doing the mundane chore of clean-up will be subtracted from their claim against British Petroleum.

These common fishermen reacted in such a manner after Lord Kenneth Feinberg, His Majesty’s official in charge of administering the compensation fund, announced the decision at a town hall meeting with the serfs in Biloxi on Friday.

Some of the common people walked out of the meeting, protesting that it was pointless to work under the Vessels of Opportunity program, established by BP to help clean up the damage from the tawdry affair in the Gulf of Mexico.  Oil stopped flowing from the leak on Thursday.

Tuget Nguyen, who works with family members as a fisherman in the royal hamlet of Pass Christian, Mississippi proclaimed:

I am furious about this.  If he takes away the money we are making from BP when we get our claims, then nobody is going to work for BP to clean up this oil and we will not rent our boats to BP either. It is not fair.

Thousands of the common people who toil as fishermen in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, are out of work because His Majesty’s minions have closed much of the Gulf to fishing.  instead, these serfs are working for the Vessels of Opportunity program, skimming oil from the water and protecting coastlines.

Lord Feinberg told the meeting of the rabble:

Vessels of Opportunity workers can file a claim, but we will subtract the amount they are paid from BP from their claim. That is how it has to work …. Of course you can file a claim. You must file a claim, but you cannot get paid twice.

Fishermen garner between $1,000 and $3,000 a day renting their boats under the program and individuals can earn upward of $1,400 a day. Charter boat captains can make even more.

The figures represent less than what could be earned at the peak of a shrimping season, curtailed because of the spill, but more than fishermen who have claimed against BP for economic losses have been paid.

Because of this, the program has created division in some communities between those serfs lucky enough to be working in the program and others still without a job.  Fishermen from this hamlet also complain that outsiders have profited from the program at the expense of those who have lost their livelihood.

Larry Dossett, a commoner from the hamlet of Biloxi said.

This (Lord Feinberg’s ruling) means I am actually losing money because I have to pay my crew out of the money BP is paying me to clean up this oil.  If he only pays me the difference, I am in the hole. We are financially dead already.

Have no fear, lowly serf.  His Lordship, Barack Hussein Obama, (Peace be unto him)  may graciously visit your hamlet soon.  Perhaps while there, he will squat his royal personage down to humbly pick up and play with tar balls.  And you will profit by him simply being near as those in Maine have this weekend.  Won’t that be simply lovely?

Sources:  drudgereport.com, washingtonpost.com, yahoo.com

NBC and CBS have refused to broadcast this 60 second spot, sponsored by the National Republican Trust, a conservative organization that promotes American values and supports candidates running for government positions. 

As of Thursday afternoon, “Kill the Ground Zero Mosque,” has gotten more than 134,000 hits on YouTube . The ad, which pulls no punches, presents graphic footage of the September 11 attacks, including a clip of one of the hijacked planes crashing into one of the Twin Towers and one of the victims plunging to his death.  It also dares to show Islamic militants. 

The advertisement asks Americans to join the fight to “kill the Ground Zero mosque.”  

Part of the narrative of the ad reads as follows:

On September 11, they declared war against us and to celebrate that murder of 3,000 Americans, they want to build a monstrous thirteen-story mosque at ground zero.  Where we weep, they rejoice. That mosque is a monument to their victory and an invitation for war. A mosque at ground zero must not stand. 

NBC Universal advertising standards manager Jennifer Riley claims the use of the word “they” is open for misinterpretation.  She wrote in a letter:

An ad questioning the wisdom of building a mosque at ground zero would meet our issues of public controversy advertising criteria.  However, this ad, which ambiguously defines ‘they’ as referenced in the spot, makes it unclear as to whether the reference is to terrorists or to the Islamic religious organization that is sponsoring the building of the mosque. Consequently the ad is not acceptable under our guidelines for broadcast.

What are the motives of  “the Islamic Religious Organization” that is behind the Cordoba initiative, lead by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf ?  Here is some revealing information, from militantislammonitor.org:

The American Society for the Advancement of Muslims proclaims their Islamism by name. ASMA promotes jihad through da’wa and the Islamization of the West by grooming “Muslim Leaders of tomorrow”.   At the Saudi backed 2006 MLT conference in Denmark “moderate”Islamists discussions of how to increase Muslim political and social influence were euphemistically termed “bridge building”.

The Cordoba Initiative /Islamic Dialogue is led by ASMA and is also headed by the Imam of the New York Masjid Al Farah. Together with his wife Daisy Khan, they are trying to put a yuppie face on Islamism.   ASMA can be viewed as an American version of Hizb ut Tahrir after an “extremist makeover” where the khalifate idea has been couched in kumbaya.  ASMA’s young and contemporary facade makes their radical ideology harder to detect, which poses more of a threat then an overtly aggressive organisation which refers to non-Muslims as kuffars. In reality, ASMA members share the same hard-line as the radicals and their use of legal and stealth Islamist strategies makes it difficult to thwart their da’wa attempts which are made under the guise of interfaith and tolerance but are actually pushing Islam as the only true religion . An ASMA Q&A reveals the Islamist view that the “perfection” of Judaism and Christianity is found only in Islam and is another example of the concept of all non-Muslims “reverting” back to what is presented as the origins of their religions.

Although CBS did not issue an official statement, a spokesperson told The Washington Times that the ad “did not meet broadcast standards.”  Weasels.

Plans to build the $100 million, 13-story Islamic center near the site of the September 11 attacks have been in the news since May.  A vast majority of Americans believe it would be inappropriate and insensitive to families who lost loved ones during the attacks. 

More than half of New York voters oppose building the mosque, a  Quinnipiac University poll published July 1st, found.

A solid 52% of voters in the five boroughs don’t want the mosque to be built-in lower Manhattan, and just 31% support it.

Manhattan voters are the most supportive of the mosque, with 46% in favor.  More Liberals live there.

The strongest opposition came from Staten Island, where 73% of voters are dead set against it.

Community Board 1, representing lower Manhattan, voted in favor of building the mosque in May. Most politicians who represent the area have thrown their support behind it.

Those for and against the proposed mosque almost got violent during a passionate three-hour hearing of New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission Tuesday night.

The hearing was supposed to be a forum for testimony on whether the building at 45-47 Park Place, near Ground Zero, is worth preserving.  The structure dates back to the late 1850s. Preservation Commission spokeswoman Elisabeth de Bourbon said the building housed the headquarters of the Merck pharmaceutical company in the 1920s and in more recent years served as a discount clothing store.  She said she was not sure what the current owner, the Muslim outreach group the Cordoba Initiative, has been up to in the building, but people there at Tuesday night’s meeting said it was being used for prayer services.

The commission is scheduled to vote in August on whether to grant the structure landmark status, even though the Community Board of lower Manhattan, in a vote that was apparently pre-determined before they even showed up, proclaimed earlier this month that the building wasn’t architecturally significant enough to merit landmark status.

De Bourbon said just being declared a landmark would not prevent the Cordoba Initiative from making alterations to the existing structure or making it into an Islamic cultural center (mosque).  Landmark status is designed to preserve the exterior appearance of a building in New York.  It does not restrict the use of a building, nor does it prevent a property owner from adding on floors, she said.

Even if the proposed site for the mosque on Park Place is declared a landmark, “changes can be made to a landmark building with approval from the Landmark Preservation Commission,” de Bourbon said.

What happened at the hearing was fairly expected, because if the commission rules that the building doesn’t deserve the landmark status, the Muslims won’t need any additional city permission to demolish the old building and move ahead with the mosque construction.

New York residents against the building of the mosque took over the hearing.

One woman said:

It would be a terrible mistake to destroy a 154-year-old building in order to build a monument to terrorism.

Some of those at the hearing, including Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio, expressed their concerns over the suspicious nature of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the head of the Cordoba Initiative.   Feisal just happened to be out of the country and did not attend the hearing.

Lazio called for an investigation into the funding of the mosque.

Per Lazio:

We’re asking for a delay in the process to get some answers.

Given the perceived rush by New York City Government officials and the way they have bent over backwards for Imam Rauf and the Cordoba Initiative, answers would be very welcome in this appalling mess.

Sources:   you tube,washingtontimes.com, cnn.com, militantislammonitor.org

Whitehouse.blogs.com 3/21/10 – Today, the President announced that he will be issuing an executive order after the passage of the health insurance reform law that will reaffirm its consistency with longstanding restrictions on the use of federal funds for abortion.

While the legislation as written maintains current law, the executive order provides additional safeguards to ensure that the status quo is upheld and enforced, and that the health care legislation’s restrictions against the public funding of abortions cannot be circumvented.

The President has said from the start that this health insurance reform should not be the forum to upset longstanding precedent. The health care legislation and this executive order are consistent with this principle.

The President is grateful for the tireless efforts of leaders on both sides of this issue to craft a consensus approach that allows the bill to move forward.

 

Evidently, that Executive Order and Obama’s word aren’t worth a hill of beans.

The Health and Human Services Department is giving Pennsylvania $160 million for the establishment of a new high-risk insurance pool that will cover any abortion that is legal in the state.
 
Republican House of Representatives Leader John Boehner said Tuesday:

The fact that the high-risk pool insurance program in Pennsylvania will use federal taxpayer dollars to fund abortions is unconscionable.  Just last month at the White House, I asked President Obama to provide the American people with a progress report on the implementation of his Executive Order, which purports to ban taxpayer-funding of abortions. Unfortunately, the President provided no information, and the American people are still waiting for answers.

 
President Obama told Congress and the American people that, under his health care plan, “no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.”  
 
Boehner sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on May 13th,  asking if her department had given the states instructions on how to carry out the president’s Executive Order on abortion funding.   Boehner also asked Sebelius if  abortion coverage was excluded from the new federal high-risk pools. 
 
He says his questions remain unanswered.

Boehner wrote to Sebelius:
 
Millions of Americans care deeply about this aspect of the new law and its implementation, and no progress report is complete without detailed information about it.

  
The Family Research Council reports that the $160 million in taxpayer funds that Pennsylvania will receive is the first known instance of direct federal funding of abortions through the new high-risk insurance pools.

Tom McClusky, senior vice president of the Family Research Council’s political action committee said:

The abortion funding for pool participants validates the arguments pro-life groups made throughout the health care debate – that taxpayer dollars will fund abortions.
 
For our efforts to remove the bill’s abortion funding, we were called ‘deceivers’ by President Obama and ‘liars’ by his allies. Now we know who the true deceivers and liars really are. 

This action by the Obama Administration also exposes the worthlessness of President Obama’s Executive Order that supposedly would prevent federal funding of abortion, but which both sides, including Planned Parenthood, agreed was unenforceable.
 
While the American people deserve an apology from President Obama for his deception, we should only be satisfied when this Pennsylvania abortion funding is rescinded and the health care law repealed.

Per McClusky, the new health care law also includes $12.5 billion for community health centers, and $6 billion for CO-OPS, both of which can fund abortions.  There are even tax credits available in Obamacare to help women pay for plans that cover abortion.

Before we move along, allow me to tell you what a co-op is.  This description is from a study of Obamacare commissioned by Health Insurance Brokers and prepared by attorneys: 

A Co-OP initiative would be established to foster the creation of non-profit, member-run health insurance companies in all 50 states and District of Columbia to offer qualified health plans.

A grant or loan would not be awarded unless the following conditions are met to be a qualified health insurance issuer:  an organization must not be an existing health insurer or sponsored by a state or local government, substantially all of its activities must consist of the issuance of qualified health benefits plans in each state in which it is licensed, governance of the organization must be subject to a majority vote of its members, must operate with a strong consumer focus, and any profits must be used to lower premiums, improve benefits, or improve the quality of health care delivered to its members.Any profits made would be used to lower premiums, improve benefits, or to otherwise improve the quality of health care delivered to its members.

The cooperative would coordinate with the implementation of state insurance reforms required by this bill.

$6 billion would be appropriated to finance the program and award loans and grants to establish CO-OPS by 7/1/2013.

Translation:  Each state will have a bunch of political hacks deciding which health insurance companies will be allowed to do business there.  It’s the current State Health Insurance Commissioner system on steroids.

 McClusky said:
 
Even before it’s fully implemented, the Democrats’ health care plan “is already being exposed as a high-taxing, poorly thought-out, and taxpayer-funding-of-abortion monstrosity.

Republican leader Boehner says House Republicans plan to codify the Hyde amendment, thereby prohibiting all authorized and appropriated federal funds from being used to pay for abortion.  Any health plan that includes abortion coverage would not receive federal funds under the Republican plan.

I, like the majority of Americans, am firmly against the use of our taxes to pay for ending an innocent life.  This action by Obama and his administration clearly demonstrates why this president faces a credibility crisis.  The great disconnect between him and the American people is not going to heal any time soon.

 Sources:  drudgereport.com, cnsnews.com

San Fran Nan Pelosi is torqued off at Baghdad Bob Gibbs, White House Press Secretary for daring to speak the truth:  The Democrats could lose control of the House of Representatives in November.   But wait, there’s more!

Much to the Liberals’ chagrin,  Democratic control of the Senate may also become a fond memory.   While President Barack Hussein Obama’s (mm mmm mmmm) approval ratings continue to tank, and now hover at dangerously close to 40 per cent according an ABC-Washington Post poll published on Tuesday, the future of his former colleagues in the Senate is in even worse shape.

Within the last week, polls have shown Republican challengers taking the lead over Democratic incumbents, such as Barbara Boxer in California and Russ Feingold in Wisconsin.  In fact, pundits are now prognosticating that the Republicans could win the Senate seats formerly held by both President Obama in Illinois, and Joe Biden, vice-president, in Delaware.

Also possibly added to the Trophy Wall for the Republicans is Harry Reid, the Senate Democratic majority leader, in Nevada, whose seat may be won by  Sharron Angle, Tea Party supporter.   So, it now looks like the republicans have a legitimate shot at controlling both houses of Congress. What’s even sweeter is the fact, that, due to the American public’s awakening as to the true nature of President Obama, he is a liability on the campaign trail, not an asset. 

So, to break it down for those of y’all in Ripley, Mississippi:  There ain’t squat Scooter can do about it!

Bill Galston, a former Clinton official,  has been saying for months the Democrats could lose the House.  His opinion?

If you ask me where the silver lining is for President Obama, I have to say I cannot see one.  Just as BP’s failure to cap the well has been so damaging, Obama’s failure to cap unemployment will be his undoing. There is nothing he can do to affect the jobless rate before November.

Obama’s ship of state has hit an iceberg. 

Stanley Greenberg,  liberal pollster and close friend of Rahm “Rahmbo” Emanuel, Obama’s chief of staff, a majority of US citizens see Mr Obama as “too liberal”.   Greenberg runs Democracy Corps, which per their website is:

…an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to making the government of the United States more responsive to the American people.  The organization was born out of outrage over the impeachment of President Bill Clinton when the leadership in Congress preferred radical partisanship to addressing the issues which really matter to American families.

The secret is out.   55 per cent of citizens think Mr Obama is a “socialist” as opposed to only 39 per cent who refuse to believe the truth. The same poll shows 48 per cent support for Republicans against just 42 per cent for Democrats.  The numbers are reminiscent to 2006, except that it was George W. Bush and the Republicans who were on the receiving end four years ago.

Rob Shapiro, former Clinton official and Obama supporter, opines:

The bottom line here is that Americans don’t believe in President Obama’s leadership.  He has to find some way between now and November of demonstrating that he is a leader who can command confidence and, short of a 9/11 event or an Oklahoma City bombing, I can’t think of how he could do that.

What are Scooter’s supporters telling him behind closed doors?

 According to one, who wishes to remain anonymous, the US public’s loss of confidence in Mr Obama’s leadership is a factor above and beyond their dissatisfaction over the state of the real economy, which continues to slow as last year’s $787bn stimulus starts to run dry.  He admitted that the public did not know what Mr Obama really believed.   Examples include his lukewarm support last year for a public option in the healthcare bill and his equally lukewarm support today for a Senate bill that would extend unemployment insurance and aid state governments to keep teachers in their jobs. 

In other words, this numskull whines that Obama is not Liberal enough!  Spare me.

In both cases, Scooter has offered only token, negotiable, support.

Per this disillusioned sycophant:

I never thought I would say this, but even I’m unsure what President Obama really believes.  Instead of outsourcing decisions to Congress, he should spell out his bottom line. That is what leaders are for.

Yeah!  What happened to the unicorns we were promised?

Next week, Scooter is supposed to double down and sign an unwanted Wall Street re-regulation bill into law, just like he did with Obamacare. Even though polls show the American public opposes these socialist laws.

Per Obama’s heart-broken fan:

The longer this goes on, the more it looks like Obama wasted his first year on healthcare. It’s still the economy, stupid.

Well, Duuuuuh.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 50% of voters now view President Obama’s handling of the economy as poor. This is the president’s highest negative rating in this area since he took office in January 2009.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for today shows that 24% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Scooter a Presidential Approval Index rating of -18.

Finally,a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey reports that 44% of Likely Voters would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate, while 38% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. 

I hope you Democratic congresscritters and senators have some actual real-world skills you can fall back on after you’re booted out in November.

Welcome to “fun”employment!

 Sources:  drudgereport.com, ft.com, sourcewatch.org, rasmussenreports.com

First Lady Michelle Obama spoke to the NAACP Monday in Kansas City, Missouri. delivering the keynote speech at their annual convention.  Here’s an excerpt of what she said:

The past several days have seen an emphasis on racial issues in the headlines.  This renewed fire has seemingly been re-ignited by the civil rights commission’s ongoing investigation into the decision not to prosecute two members of The New Black Panther Party who were caught on camera intimidating with billy clubs and verbally harassing white voters at a voting precinct in Philadelphia on Election Day 2008.

As the days went along, previously unseen videos of King Shabazz surfaced.   One of the videos featured Shabazz ranting and raving to a gathering crowd on a street corner, advocating the murder of white babies.  Another, shown last night on Fox News, featured New Black Panther Party Leader Malik Shabazz making fun of the whole DOJ situation, bragging about the two members not being prosecuted.  Another video, from 2002, showed Shabazz asking the audience to applaud for Osama Bin Laden!  He refused to apologize for it on “Geraldo at Large” last Weekend when Geraldo asked him to.

That brings us to today, when the nation’s largest civil rights group is expected to condemn what it calls racist elements in the Tea Party movement.

According to the proposed resolution,  Tea Party members have used “racial epithets,” have verbally abused black members of Congress and threatened them, and protestors have engaged in “explicitly racist behavior” and “displayed signs and posters intended to degrade people of color generally and President Barack Obama specifically”. 

NAACP spokeswoman Leila McDowell told ABC News:

We’re deeply concerned about elements that are trying to move the country back, trying to reverse progress that we’ve made.  We are asking that the law-abiding members of the Tea Party repudiate those racist elements, that they recognize the historic and present racist elements that are within the Tea Party movement.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in coordination with 170 other groups, including labor unions, is planning a protest march in Washington, D.C., Oct. 10 in a futile attempt to build momentum against the Tea Party.

According to Ms. McDowell:

The “One Nation” march is designed as an antithesis to the Tea Party, and it’s about “pulling America together and back to work.

I wonder if this new organization is affiliated with another one I found by simply “Binging” “One Nation”?   This is from their website, onenationforall.org:

One Nation is a national philanthropic initiative that promotes pluralism and inclusion in America.

One Nation does this by developing strategies that help Americans connect on a person-to-person basis to highlight our shared values and aspirations as Americans. By bringing Americans together, regardless of faith or background, we seek to help change misperceptions about American Muslims, a minority group that has faced increased marginalization since 9/11.

We also sponsor resources, such as this site, that provide media professionals easy access to experts that can speak credibly about issues related to the American Muslim community and information that more accurately reflects the American Muslim experience.

I have no proof that the two groups are affiliated.  I just thought it was interesting that this new group did not do any research to see if that name was already out there.

Why is all this racial hatred making the headlines during an administration that was supposed to be post-racial?

Dr.  Thomas Sowell, distinguished Economist and senior fellow at the Hoover Institute in Stanford, Calif., wrote these remarkable words in an article titled,”A Post-Racial President?”, on July 28, 2009:

Many people hoped that the election of a black President of the United States would mark our entering a “post-racial” era, when we could finally put some ugly aspects of our history behind us.

That is quite understandable. But it takes two to tango. Those of us who want to see racism on its way out need to realize that others benefit greatly from crying racism. They benefit politically, financially, and socially.

Barack Obama has been allied with such people for decades. He found it expedient to appeal to a wider electorate as a post-racial candidate, just as he has found it expedient to say a lot of other popular things, about campaign finance, about transparency in government, about not rushing legislation through Congress without having it first posted on the Internet long enough to be studied– all of which turned to be the direct opposite of what he actually did after getting elected.

…To think that someone who has spent years promoting grievance and polarization was going to bring us all together as president is a triumph of wishful thinking over reality.

Not only Barack Obama’s past, but his present, tell the same story. His appointment of an attorney general who called America “a nation of cowards” for not dialoguing about race was a foretaste of what to expect from Eric Holder.

The way Attorney General Holder has refused to prosecute young black thugs who gathered at a voting site with menacing clubs, in blatant violation of federal laws against intimidating voters, speaks louder than any words from him or his president.

Those actions are speaking to the American people, almost a year later, in a louder voice than ever.  And Americans do not appreciate its’ tone.

Sources:  drudgereport.com, abcnews.go.com, realclearpolitics.com, onenationforall.org

Democratic governors told 2 White House representatives in a private meeting this weekend that the illegal immigration lawsuit against the state of Arizona was a bad idea.

The official agenda at the summer meeting of the National Governors Association, listed the failing economy as the main topic of the meeting.  However, the governors’ concern over Obama’s immigration policy was the topic on everyone’s minds in the closed-door session between Democratic governors and White House officials and made the three-day event pretty lively.

Saturday, some Democrat governors whined about the timing of the Justice Department lawsuit, according to two governors who spoke anonymously so that there would not be any repercussions.

Gov. Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, a Democrat, said:

Universally the governors are saying, ‘We’ve got to talk about jobs.’   And all of a sudden we have immigration going on.

It is such a toxic subject, such an important time for Democrats.

Obama and his administration seemed to be trying to make a deal on Sunday.   Homeland Security Secretary Janet “Big Sis” Napolitano was supposedly in town to give the governors a classified national security briefing.  While there, she had a private meeting with Jan Brewer, the  Republican who (thankfully) succeeded her as governor of Arizona.

 While that meeting was going on, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. threatened on one of the Sunday talk shows that the Justice Department could bring yet another lawsuit against Arizona if there is evidence that the immigration law leads to racial profiling.

Go ahead, double down, Obama.  Let’s see if you can get the whole country to completely despise you.

Gov.  Brewer reported that she and Big Sis did not discuss the lawsuit. Instead,they had a “cordial” conversation about Arizona’s request for more National Guard troops along the border with Mexico, as well as other resources.  Uh Huh.

The Democrats’ get-together exposed the tensions between the White House and states over the lawsuit, filed by the DOJ last week in federal court in Phoenix.  There are nineteen Democratic governorships in play this year. Republicans wish to use those positions as tools for leverage in the 2012 presidential race.

The lawsuit contends that controlling immigration is a federal responsibility.

Republican governors at the Boston meeting also jumped on the lawsuit, saying it interfered with states’ rights.  They also voiced their support for Gov. Brewer.

Gov. Dave Heineman of Nebraska, a Republican seeking re-election, said:

I’d be willing to bet a lot of money that almost every state in America next January is going to see a bill similar to Arizona’s. 

 However, the trepidation of Democratic governors, seven of whom are seeking re-election,was palpable.

Per Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. of Colorado, a Democrat who had to pull out of his re-election bid because he was losing in an embarrassing fashion :

I might have chosen both a different tack and a different time.  This is an issue that divides us politically, and I’m hopeful that their strategy doesn’t do that in a way that makes it more difficult for candidates to get elected, particularly in the West.

The White House did not confirm reports of complaints from some Democratic governors.

The president’s senior adviser, David Axelrod,  re-affirmed on Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the president remained committed to passing an immigration overhaul, and that addressing the issue did not mean he was ignoring the economy.

Axelrod hastily added:

That doesn’t mean we can’t have a good, healthy debate about the economy and other issues.

Obama talked about the economy last week during campaign stops in Kansas City and Las Vegas, and has been hypocritically calling on Congress to offer additional tax relief to small businesses as a cover for the outrageous taxes that will hit all of us as a result of Obamacare and his elimination of tax cuts.

The heads of Scooter’s national debt commission,  Alan K. Simpson and Erskine B. Bowles, were on hand at the conference Sunday to talk about America’s economy.

America’s total federal debt next year is expected to exceed $14 trillion. Mr. Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming, and Mr. Bowles, a Democrat and the White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, foretold a bleak future if spending is not brought under control even more.

 Mr. Bowles said:

This debt is like a cancer.  It is truly going to destroy the country from within.

As important as our economic situation is, the issue of illegal immigration was in the forefront of this weekend’s conference.

Gov. Brewer, called the lawsuit “outrageous”.  She added that the state was receiving donations from around the country to help fight it.

Gov. Brewer also said:

I think Arizona will win.  And we will take a position for all of America.

Democratic governors and the two White House officials, Patrick Gaspard, Obama’s political director, and Cecilia Munoz, director of intergovernmental affairs did not just discuss immigration.  But several governors, including Christine Gregoire of Washington, said it was a particularly heated issue.

Gov. Gregoire, who is not up for re-election, complained that the White House was doing a poor job of showing the American public that it was working on the problem of illegal immigration:

They described for me a list of things that they are doing to try and help on that border.  And I said, ‘The public doesn’t know that.’ 

We’ve got a message void, and the only thing we’re hearing is that they’re filing a lawsuit.

Several Democrats and a few RINOs were calling for Congress to pass an immigration policy overhaul this year.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana, a Democrat opined:

There are 535 members of Congress.  Certainly somebody back there can chew gum and hold the basketball at the same time. This is not an either-or.

Gov. Bill Richardson, Democrat from New Mexico, and part of the Democrat “in-crowd” praised the Justice Department’s lawsuit, saying his fellow Democrats’ concerns were “misguided.”

Gov. Richardson, who is Hispanic and will be driven out of office this year by term limits, said:

Policy-wise it makes sense.  And Obama is popular with Hispanic voters and this is going to be a popular move with them nationally.

Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland, a Democrat who voiced apprehension about the lawsuit in the private meeting, according to the two anonymous informants, said something quite different in public:

The president doesn’t have control over some of the timing of things that happen.  When those things arise, you can’t be too precious about what’s in it for your own personal political timing or even your party’s timing. When matters like this arise, I think the president has to take a principled stand.

Gov. Bredesen said that in Tennessee, Democratic candidates, in the middle of a tight race, were already on the defensive about the federal health care overhaul, and the suit against Arizona further weakened them. According to Bredesen, Democratic candidates are already “disavowing” the immigration lawsuit:

Maybe you do that when you’re strong.  And not when there’s an election looming out there.”

Mr. Ritter of Colorado said he wished the Justice Department had waited to sue Arizona until after the law went into effect, to give the public a chance to see how difficult it would be to enforce:

It’s just an easier case to make.  I just think that law enforcement officers are going to have a terribly difficult time applying this law in a constitutional way.

Thinking like that is why you’re out of a job, Gov. Ritter.

The overwhelming majority of Americans, in poll after poll, support Arizona and their new illegal immigration law.  For Obama and his DOJ to file their ill-advised lawsuit and threaten another one is both ignorant and arrogant:  Intentionally ignorant to the wishes of the American people and arrogant to believe that there will not be a price to pay at the polls in November.

Sources:  drudgereport.com, nytimes.com

On the 82nd day of the Gulf Oil Disaster, robotic submarines, a mile down in the now-murky waters of the Gulf of Mexico removed the leaking cap from what is left of the Deepwater Horizon oil well.   Millions of gallons of crude will now flow freely into the sea for until Monday, when a new seal can be mounted in an attempt to plug the hole until relief wells are finished in August.

 Coast Guard spokesman Capt. James McPherson said:

It’s not just going to be, you put the cap on, it’s done. It’s not like putting a cap on a tube of toothpaste.

If tests show that this new cap can hold under the pressure of the oil and is working, the Gulf region would experience its biggest piece of good news since the April 20 explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 workers.

Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president, said of the round-the-clock operation:

Over the next four to seven days, depending on how things go, we should get that sealing cap on. That’s our plan.

The federal government estimates that between 87 million and 172 million gallons of oil has poured into the Gulf as of Saturday.

Officials said as much as 5 million gallons will gush into already fouled waters before this new cap is securely in place.

Paul Bommer, a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Texas at Austin wrote in an e-mail Saturday:

If the new cap does work and they shut the well in, it is possible that part of the well could rupture if the pressure inside builds to an unacceptable value. 

If the new cap doesn’t work, BP is ready to place a backup similar the old one on top of the leak.

The government estimates 1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons of oil a day are spewing from the well.  The previous cap collected about 1 million gallons of that.   With the new cap and a new containment vessel, the system will be capable of capturing 2.5 million to 3.4 million gallons, essentially all the leaking oil,according to officials.

The plan to replace the cap was sped up to take advantage of a window of good weather lasting seven to 10 days.  Gulf Coast residents are not impressed.

 Deano Bonano, director of emergency preparedness for Jefferson Parish said:

This is probably the sixth or seventh method they’ve tried, so, no, I’m not optimistic.

He spent his Saturday inspecting beaches at Grand Isle lined with protective boom and bustling with heavy equipment used to scoop up and clean stained sand.

He said:

Even if they turn it off today, we’ll still be here at least another six weeks, on watch for the oil.

 Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation opined:

Shutting off the oil is a very important step, but we should not assume this disaster is over.   I think it’s important to recognize that there’s an enormous amount of oil still in the Gulf.

For the hard-working Americans on the Gulf Coast who make their living off of tourism, the spill couldn’t have come at a worse time.   Summer is prime tourist season on the Gulf.   Louisiana saw $1.36 billion of its more than $8 billion in tourism dollars generated by its Gulf region last year.  Alabama’s beaches produced 25% of the $9.2 billion in tourism dollars gathered by the state in 2009.   And of the 19 million visitors who visited Mississippi July 2008 through June 2009, 5.5 million traveled to the state’s three coastal counties. 

In the Magnolia State, this catastophe could result in a $120 million loss to non-casino tourism in the state’s coastal areas this summer, per a study released this month by the University of Southern Mississippi.  The average daily rates for hotels in the Gulf region are in freefall, according to the travel website Travelocity.   Before May 15, hotel bookings for June in Panama City, Fla., were averaging $122 a night through Travelocity.   However,  June bookings made from May 15 to June 22 fell on average to $96. 

Vacationers who otherwise would have gone to the Gulf Coast  say they’re planning trips to other parts of the South, such as North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Arizona, the Caribbean and Europe also are alternative destinations, according to travel watchers and planners.

But, hey, no worries.  The President’s not going to let a little thing like an 83 day ongoing disaster ruining an entire region of the country stand between him and another family vacation.

The first family is going to spend next weekend vacationing on Mount Desert Island, Maine, per U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree.

President Barack Obama and his family will arrive Friday, July 16, and stay through Sunday, July 18.

Where the family would stay and the sightseeing they would do while visiting Maine was not known as of Friday night.  The visit is a personal family vacation.  No public appearances are scheduled, Pingree said.

She also gushed (No pun intended, but it was pretty good.  Wasn’t it?)

What an honor that the Obama family has chosen Maine for vacation when they could have gone anywhere in the country.  I think the Obamas will really enjoy the quiet woods, beautiful coast, wonderful people and everything else that brings thousands of families here every year.

While White House officials did not say where on the island the first family would stay, Obama has political connections on MDI.  George Mitchell, U.S. special envoy for Middle East peace, owns a home in Seal Harbor. Mitchell and his wife, Heather, have two children, Andrew, 12, and Claire, 9. The Obama children, Malia and Sasha, are 12 and 9, respectively.

In August 2009, the first family visited Yellowstone National Park and Grand Canyon National Park. The Obamas also spent time on Martha’s Vineyard in August 2009.

Not to mention the 39 rounds of golf that the president has played since the Gulf Oil Disaster began in April.

Information about whether the family would arrive in Air Force One, the presidential jet, was not given out.  Air Force One can not land at either the Bar Harbor Airport in Trenton nor the Portland International Jetport.  The runways are not long enough.

Air Force One may land at Bangor International Airport and the Obamas could take a helicopter to the airport in Trenton, then take a motorcade to MDI.   Last summer, Air Force One landed on Cape Cod.  Then the family took a helicopter to Martha’s Vineyard, then rode in a motorcade to the 28-acre compound where they stayed.

Mr. President, I’m glad to know that you’re able to “work in” another vacation while the great Americans on the Gulf Coast are seeing their lives sink into a pit of black ooze.   You are the most insensitive, aloof, uncaring, and narcissistic President that this country has ever seen.  The American people are on to you.  And we are not impressed.

Sources:  drudgereport.com, yahoo.com, bangordailynews.com, usatoday.com

Given the news of this past week, here are some quotes.  I want you, gentle reader, to identify the speaker:

White folk done took this country.  You’re in their home, and they’re gonna let you know it.

You are not now, nor have you ever been, nor will you ever be a brother to white folk.  And if you do not realize that, you are in serious trouble.

The educational system in America is designed by whites to miseducate blacks “not by benign neglect but by malignant intent.”

Ethiopian Jews are despised by white Jews: “And now the Knesset [Israeli parliament] is meeting with European Jews, voting on whether or not these African Jews can get into [Israel].”

The civil-rights movement, our mystery guest said, was never about racial equality: “It was always about becoming white . . . to master what [they] do.” Martin Luther King was misguided for advocating nonviolence among his people, “born in the oven of America.”

We probably have more African-Americans who’ve been brainwashed than we have South Africans who’ve been brainwashed.  Unfortunately, I got in trouble with a fella for saying this . . . All your commentaries are written by oppressors. At the mention of Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan … black leaders “go cuttin’ and duckin’.

Was it Malik Shabazz?  King Shabazz?  Khalid Abdul Muhammad? 

Nope.  Maybe this will help.  Here are some words from a close confidant of our mystery guest:

Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect.

Evidently, this fellow must not have paid much attention to our mystery guest or he’s rewriting history to protect himself.

Awww…you guessed.   Our mystery guest is The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Pastor Emeritus of Trinity Church in Chicago.  I know this, because it says so on the rugs that line the church doorways.  So, of course, that means that the close confidant was President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), who sat under his teaching for 20 years.

By now, you’re saying:  KJ, what good does it do to bring up Rev. Wright’s quotes from the past? 

You would be right, except those quotes are from June 2010.  They were given at the Chicago Theological Seminary during a 5 day course that Rev. Wright taught there.  The course, advertised as focusing on politics and public policy in South Africa and America, was taught in a small, ground-floor room and was attended by about 15 to 20 students, mainly older African-American women.  The course cost the ladies a little over $1,000 if taken for college credit and $300 if taken without.

During the course, Rev. Wright pointed out the writings of Bill Jones — author of the book “Is God a White Racist?” — as proof that white people cannot be trusted.

Bill said, ‘They just killed four of their own at Kent State. They’ll step on you like a cockroach and keep on movin’, cause you not a brother to them.’

Charming.  Simply charming.

Since leaving Trinity Church in 2008 after serving since 1972, Wright has traveled the country, preaching and lecturing.   He claims he’s been working “all year long” with Trinity’s preschool program and has called US Education Secretary Arne Duncan a disaster.  The most honorable Reverend said that Duncan, a former college basketball star, was given the job only because Obama enjoys his “good jump shot in the back yard”.

Wright doesn’t just “lecture” to black audiences.  Last month he lead a two-day “men’s empowerment revival” in Florida.   However, he is careful not to say anything racist or inflammatory in mixed company.

Someone asked about the African-American experience and the Reverend said “God is working on your behalf.”

He just couldn’t help himself.

Why didn’t Americans hear about Rev. Wright’s comments at the Chicago Theological Seminary from the Main Stream Media?  Why has the MSM refused to cover King Shabazz’s threats against Glenn Beck and his street corner rant about killing white babies?  Why was Fox News the only one to cover the New Black Panther Party’s voter intimidation in the 2008 Presidential Election?

Are they afraid of embarrassing the president?  Is it some sort of  “nudge nudge wink wink” game the Liberals’ propaganda machine is playing with the administration?  Or are they scared of being called a bunch of racist “crackas”?

If this were a bunch of good ol’ boys from Texas who were frat buddies of George W. Bush saying violent, racist things, the MSM would be all over it 24/7.  However, when it comes to anything that might damage President Barack Hussein Obama, silence is golden.

Sources:  nypost.com