The rags to riches fable (supported by a cast of thousands) of Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) begins like any other, with his parents, Ann Dunham and Barack Obama, Sr. They met in a Russian language class in 1960, right in the middle of that time of history known as the Cold War, when America and Russia were poised to start lobbing missiles at each other.   In 1961 they were married and later that year Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. (peace be unto him) was born.

When Barack, Jr. was 3-years-old, his parents divorced.  Obama only saw his father one time after that.  Dad moved to Kenya and his mother married an Indonesian man, Lolo Soetoro.  From ages six to 10, Barack Obama, Jr., attended a private school for well-off families in Jakarta.

At age 10, he moved back to Hawaii and lived with his grandparents.  As kids his age often do, young Barack eventually took up with a family friend named Frank, also known as Frank Marshall Davis. 

Frank Marshall Davis (1905 – 1987) was an author, liberal activist, Stalinist agent, and self-admitted pedophile (Would you let your children hang around him?) .  Davis was involved in Chicago’s South Side Community Art Center, “a meeting place for young African-American writers and artists during the 1940s”.   Coming out of the New Deal Federal Art Project, the Art Center was a hangout for the “Culture Group,”  a circle of Communist Party members and sympathizers including Richard Wright, Margaret Burroughs, Marion Perkins and Arna Bontemps. Another guy who hung out at the center was a young journalist named Vernon Jarrett. Davis and Jarrett worked together on the black run newspaper, the Chicago Defender.  Vernon Jarrett is the father of Obama’s closest advisor and administration member, Valerie Jarrett.   

Davis was in the FBI’s security index.  This meant he could be arrested and detained in the event of a national emergency.  Davis stated singer Paul Robeson, (He sang Ol’ Man River in the movie, Showboat.) a secret communist, was instrumental in helping him move to Hawaii.

Robeson suggested Davis contact Harry Bridges, head of the International Longshoremen and Workers’ Union, the most powerful labor union in Hawaii.  Bridges then suggested that Davis get to know Koji Ariyoshi, Editor of the Honolulu Record, a newspaper that supported the policies of the Communist Party of the U.S.A.  

Robeson, Bridges^[45] and Ariyoshi were all Communist party operatives. Ariyoshi gave Davis a regular weekly column in the Honolulu Record entitled “Frankly Speaking.” When Davis’ column first appeared in May 1949, the Record bragged that he was a member of the national executive board of the Civil Rights Congress, which had been named as a Communist subversive organization by Truman Attorney General Tom Clark.  While sponsored by the Civil Rights Congress, Davis signed a statement in defense of Gerhart Eisler, a notorious Comintern agent who escaped jail for passport fraud by fleeing to East Germany.

I’m sure that Barry and Frank just talked “hoops” all the time, aren’t you?

At 19, Scooter enrolled at Occidental College.  Guess how he spent his time there?

From Obama’s Book, Dreams of My Father:

Political discussions, the kind at Occidental had once seemed so intense and purposeful, came to take on the flavor of the socialist conference I sometimes attended at Cooper Union.

And when he wasn’t going to socialist conferences, Obama hung out around campus and decided to make friends:

To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.

Chandoo is now a financial consultant who was formerly a broker at Oppenheimer & Co. He  contributed to Obama’s campaign and helped raise more than $100,000 for him as a bundler.

A US Senate committee has approved a wide-ranging cybersecurity bill that will give President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) the authority to shut down parts of the Internet during a cyberattack.

Bill sponsors, including Senator Joe Lieberman,  have denied charges that the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act gives the president an Internet “kill switch.”   They claim that the bill puts limits on the powers the president already has to cause “the closing of any facility or stations for wire communication” in a time of war, as described in the Communications Act of 1934.     This was the act that created the Federal Communications Commission “for the purpose of regulating interstate and foreign commerce in communication by wire and radio”.   A breakdown of the bill  can be found on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee website.

The committee unanimously approved an amended version of the legislation by voice vote last Thursday.   A vote by the full Senate has not yet been scheduled.

The bill would create a White House Office for Cyberspace Policy and a National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications.  This office would work with private US companies to create cybersecurity requirements for the electrical grid, telecommunications networks and other critical infrastructure.

This bill would all Obama to take emergency actions to protect critical parts of the Internet.  He would be able to order owners of critical infrastructure to implement emergency response plans, during a cyber-emergency (including a possible shutdown of their services).    Obama can declare a national cyber-emergency for 120 days by Executive Order.   The president would need congressional approval to extend a national cyber-emergency beyond 120 days under an amendment to the legislation approved by the committee.

Joe Lieberman said that the legislation would give the US Department of Homeland Security (headed by Big Sis) authority that it does not now have to respond to cyber-attacks:

Our responsibility for cyber defence goes well beyond the public sector because so much of cyberspace is owned and operated by the private sector.  The Department of Homeland Security has actually shown that vulnerabilities in key private sector networks like utilities and communications could bring our economy down for a period of time if attacked or commandeered by a foreign power or cyber terrorists.

Other sponsors of the bill are Senators Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat.  I’m shocked, I tell you.

One critic said Thursday that the bill will hurt the nation’s security, not help it.  Wayne Crews, vice president for policy and director of technology studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an anti-regulation think tank said that security products operate in a competitive market that works best without heavy government intervention.

 Crews wrote in an e-mail:

Policymakers should reject such proposals to centralize cyber security risk management.  “The Internet that will evolve if government can resort to a ‘kill switch’ will be vastly different from, and inferior to, the safer one that will emerge otherwise.

Cybersecurity technologies and services thrive on competition.  The unmistakable tenor of the cybersecurity discussion today is that of government steering while the market rows.  To be sure, law enforcement has a crucial role in punishing intrusions on private networks and infrastructure. But government must coexist with, rather than crowd out, private sector security technologies.

Last Wednesday, 24 privacy and civil liberties groups sent a letter expressing their concerns about the legislation to the sponsors.  The bill gives the new National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications “significant authority” over critical infrastructure, but doesn’t define what critical infrastructure is covered, the group wrote in their letter.

The letter, signed by the Center for Democracy and Technology, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other groups also said:

Without a definition of critical infrastructure there are concerns that “it includes elements of the Internet that Americans rely on every day to engage in free speech and to access information.

Changes are needed to ensure that cybersecurity measures do not unnecessarily infringe on free speech, privacy, and other civil liberties interests.

In more administration messing with the Internet news:

The White House outlined a massive program to make online transactions more secure on Friday. This move is the most ambitious scheme to emerge from a cybersecurity policy intended to blunt the growing menace of online crime.

Howard Schmidt,Obama’s cybersecurity co-ordinator since early 2010, released the strategy paper after 12 months of discussions led by the National Security Council and involving scores of private sector groups, critical infrastructure owners and privacy advocates.

A set of standards would let multiple vendors offer authentication services, while people whose identities have been verified would be able to move from website to website without resubmitting information.  A cyber version of a National ID card?  Papers.  Let me see your papers, please.

Privacy protections would require companies involved to limit their collection and dissemination of personal data, for example confirming that a consumer is over 21 without passing along the person’s birth date.  Uh huh.

The government would take the lead by establishing the standards and subscribing to authentication services.  Yeah.  I feel safer already.

Internet companies and government agencies have been behind the idea of multipurpose identification systems for a while now, but it never has been implemented in part because of limited incentives for participation. As a result, a bank will have one set of protocols for establishing a client’s identity, while a state agency and hospital have others. 

Obama and his administration will rely on Congressional and private sector support to push forward this new effort.

Aris Schwartz, vice-president of the Center for Democracy and Technology said:

This is a vision and you need that, but they’re going to need to work with Congress and get government agencies to test out different pieces of this.  

Legislation involving internet security issues is hard to draft because it overlaps into so many political areas.  However, in the maddening push by Obama and his adminstration to go full Alinsky with his ideological plans, his minion, Sen Dinghy Harry Reid, is doing all he can to keep the pedal to the metal, along with some seemingly oblivious accomplices.

Does anyone have a used CB radio they want to sell?

Sources:  drudgereport.com, techworld.com, ft.com, criminalgovernment.com

The Vice-President of the United States had an interesting visit to a Milwaukee Frozen Custard Shop yesterday and had some choice words for the manager who told him to “lower our taxes”.

Vice President Joe Biden also took time to share a defeatist view of the American Economy Saturday, telling an audience of supporters:

There’s no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession.

While appearing at a fundraiser with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) in Milwaukee, Biden said that by the time he and President Obama took office in 2008, the gross domestic product had shrunk and hundreds of thousands of jobs had been lost. (How many times can they blame Bush?)  

Singing the same song that he and Obama have perfected through repetition, Biden complained:

We inherited a godawful mess…[there was] no way to regenerate $3 trillion that was lost. Not misplaced, lost. 

Claims for jobless benefits fell by the largest number in two months last week, but were said to signal weak job growth.  (Where?)   Meanwhile, the Senate on Thursday failed to pass an extension of unemployment benefits. 

Vice-President Biden said Saturday that the economy is improving and bragged that in the past four quarters, there has been 4 percent growth in the economy. Over the last five months, more than 500,000 private sector jobs were created. 

The vice-president admitted:

We know that’s not enough.  So do we.  

The White House put out a Recovery and Reinvestment Act update last week, claiming that between 2.2 million and 2.8 million jobs were either saved or created because of the stimulus as of March 2010. In signing the Recovery Act into law on Feb 17, 2009, Mr. Obama said the measure “will create or save 3-and-a-half million jobs over the next two years.”

So far, it hasn’t done much of anything.  Here are some interesting facts from gop.com:

3.5 MILLION: Jobs Obama Promised Stimulus Would Create By End Of 2010.

3.3 MILLION: Jobs Lost Since Obama Made That Promise.

  

6.8 MILLION: Jobs Obama Must Now Create To Keep Promise By End Of 2010.

  

1.1 MILLION: Jobs Obama’s Economists Project Will Be Created By End Of 2010.

  

5.7 MILLION: Jobs By Which Obama’s Economists’ Projection Leaves Him Short In Keeping Promise. 

  

6 PERCENT: Not Surprisingly, Number Of Americans That Say Obama’s Stimulus Created Jobs. 

 

7.7 PERCENT: Unemployment Rate When Obama Was Selling Stimulus In January 2009.

 

8 PERCENT: Unemployment Rate Obama Pledged Stimulus Would Prevent Us From Reaching.

 

9.7 PERCENT: Current Unemployment Rate.

 

16.5 PERCENT: Current Unemployment Rate When Underemployed And Discouraged Workers Are Included.

 

334,000: Americans That Have Given Up Looking For A Job Since Stimulus Was Signed.

 

47: States That Have Lost Jobs Since Stimulus Was Signed. 

 

10: States That Moved From Single-Digit To Double-Digit Unemployment Rate Since Stimulus Was Signed. 

 

$862 BILLION: Updated Cost Of Stimulus, $75 Billion Increase From Last Year’s Cost Estimate.

 

440: Number Of Nonexistent Congressional Districts That Received Stimulus Funds.

 

$6.4 BILLION: Amount Of Stimulus Funds That Went To Nonexistent Congressional Districts.

 

$18 MILLION: Cost Of Stimulus Website, Recovery.gov.

 Don’t worry, boys and girls, Scooter has a plan.

Fresh from the exhilaration of  the all night Congressional piracy of the Dood-Frank Bill, a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street regulations, yesterday Obama urged Congress to take up his proposal for a $90 billion, 10-year tax on banks as the next step in reform. (This is sure going to encourage economic recovery, isn’t it?) 

Scooter wants to impose a 0.15 percent tax on the liabilities of the biggest U.S. financial institutions, supposedly to recoup the costs to taxpayers of the financial bailout.

Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address:

We need to impose a fee on the banks that were the biggest beneficiaries of taxpayer assistance at the height of our financial crisis — so we can recover every dime of taxpayer money.

Obama is in Canada to attend gatherings with leaders of the world’s biggest economies.  He took a moment of his weekly address to praise a deal by congressional negotiators on a historic rewriting of U.S. financial regulations.

Obama hopes to brag to the European leaders about these socialist changes to our economic system, offering the Dodd-Frank Bill as a model for other countries at the Group of 20 summit on Saturday and Sunday.

Scooter said:

I hope we can build on the progress we made at last year’s G20 summits by coordinating our global financial reform efforts to make sure a crisis like the one from which we are still recovering never happens again.

The Dodd-Frank Bill would set up a new financial consumer watchdog, create a protocol for dismantling and taking over troubled financial firms, and mandate higher bank capital standards, under the cover of trying to prevent a repeat of the 2007-2009 financial meltdown.

The bill, which would be the biggest changes to America’s financial regulatory structure since the 1930s, still needs final approval from both chambers of Congress.

Obama, who, in a sad bit of irony, hopes to sign the legislation by July 4, has pleaded with Congress to push the bill “over the finish line.”

Obama hopes the financial reform and the bank tax idea will resonate with those of his Liberal base who are upset over perceived Wall Street risk-taking that led to the financial meltdown and the worst recession in decades. With a political massacre to rival Little Big Horn looming in November, Obama wants to get as much of his ideologically driven economic plan in place, before a Republican-led House and Senate are put in place by the American people to thwart him.

Some lawmakers have indicated they are would listen favorably to the bank tax proposal but others are questioning whether it is fair to impose the tax on banks that have already repaid money from the Troubled Asset Relief Fund (TARP) to make up for losses by American International Group Inc and General Motors.

Financial companies with more than $50 billion in assets and hedge funds with more than $10 billion in assets will be clobbered by the new taxes upon enactment and lasting until 2020.

This administration doesn’t get it.  American ingenuity and self-determination is what turned the wheels of our economic engine for decades.  It wasn’t an over-abundance of regulations, stifling taxes, and an enormous federal government trying to run Americans’ daily lives that caused America to grow into the greatest nation in the world.  If this adminstration is allowed to proceed in meeting all its socialist goals, our ill economic system will need Hospice care.  Socialism has never worked, wherever it has been tried.  Those governments that tried it have all been scooped into the dustbin of history.  Obama and his cadre of clueless academics seem to be trying to ensure America’s demise, intentionally or unintentionally.

Sources:  drudgereport.com, youtube.com, cbsnews.com, reuters.com

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer tells President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) how the cow ate the cabbage in the above 60 second spot.  She solidifies the anger felt by the majority of Americans over Obama’s inexcusable dereliction of duty very succinctly.

What does the POTUS do?  Does he handle this egregious situation with alacrity and an overwhelming concern for the safety of U.S. Citizens?  Nope.

Meet the new director for the ICE Office of State and Local Coordination in Washington D.C., former Phoenix and Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt.  

Hurtt was the Chief of  the Phoenix Police Force from 1998 to 2004, when the department had a reputation for being trigger-happy.  Stats at the time put Phoenix at the top of the list for police shootings, on a per-cop basis.

Hurtt was the first police chief in the nation to give Tasers to every officer in the department.  “Experts” say that this move cut the number of shootings by police in half.

He served as Houston’s Police Chief from 2004 – December, 2009. 

Hurtt and former Houston Mayor Bill White were blasted during their tenures because of their attitudes about immigration enforcement.  Much of the conflict during the past year focused on HPD’s lack of cooperation with ICE’s 287(g) program, which trains local law enforcement to assist ICE with immigration screening.

Hurtt and the former mayor announced in spring 2009 that the city would participate in 287(g), nut only if it was confined to the city’s jails.  (Hey, that’s effective.)   Hurtt refused to allow Houston officers to question people in the field about their immigration status.

Some members of the police union and anti-illegal immigrant advocates lambasted Hurtt and the Houston Mayor, but “leaders” in Houston’s “immigrant” community proclaimed that their lack of action was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Wednesday, Hurtt gave the excuse that he was reluctant to allow field questioning of illegals, in part due to HPD’s “resource capabilities.”

I had concerns about officers in the field concentrating their efforts and resources on the enforcement of immigration.

He also claimed that he was afraid that having officers question suspects in the field would result in fewer members of immigrant communities coming forward to report crime.

Hurtt said:

I think that was a legitimate concern and still is.

Hurt and Mayor White decided not to participate in 287(g), but instead chose another ICE program, euphemistically named Secure Communities.  This program runs fingerprint-based immigration history, checks on all suspects booked into the local jails, and notifies ICE automatically of any “hits” in the system. So, if you’re an illegal immigrant who is not in their data base, having not committed a crime, except for being here illegally, do they let you go?

Per ICE, Hurtt will work on “outreach and communication” between ICE and local cop shops, tribal governments, and other groups.

Homeland Security assistant secretary for ICE, John Morton, praised Hurtt’s appointment:

Chief Hurtt is a respected member of the law enforcement community and understands the concerns of local law enforcement leaders.

Of course, John Morton, also said, in regard to Arizona’s Illegal Immigration Law:

We’ll wait to see what the attorney general and his team decides.  In the meantime, we’re not going to approach enforcement in Arizona any differently than we do now, which is on the merits and [within] the resources that we have.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer said:

I believe today, under the circumstances that we’re facing, that the majority of the illegal trespassers that are coming into the state of Arizona are under the direction and control of organized drug cartels and they are bringing drugs in.

There’s strong information to us that they come as illegal people wanting to come to work. Then they are accosted and they become subjects of the drug cartel.

Jaime Farrant, policy director for Tucson-based Border Action Network, responded:

We have some stories of people being forced to carry drugs  We disagree with the assessment that people are crossing (to carry drugs). We have no evidence that’s the truth. We think most people come in search of jobs or to reunite with their families.

In a related story, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed Sergio Adrian Hernandez Huereca  June 7 while in the process of trying to arrest illegal immigrants crossing the muddy bed of the Rio Grande.  According to witnesses, a group of people on the Mexican side were throwing rocks at the agents.  The Border Patrol has been given the right to use lethal force against rock throwers.

Hernandez, as he is known, has now been revealed to be among El Paso’s most wanted juvenile immigrant smugglers.

Federal arrest records show that Hernandez had been arrested at least four times since 2008 and twice in the same week in February 2009 on suspicion of smuggling illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border. Hernandez was repeatedly arrested along the U.S. side of the border near downtown El Paso,close to where he was killed, but was never charged with a crime by federal prosecutors.

The records also show that in at least one case, Hernandez was to be paid $50 a person for smuggling four people into the U.S.

Illegal Immigration Activists blasted the Border Patrol concerning this incident.

However, the viewpoint of these people and  the Obama Adminstration, including ICE, is definitely not the viewpoint of the majority of Americans.

A recent Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 56% of U.S. voters oppose the federal Government filing a lawsuit against Arizona over its’ Immigration Law. 

Only 26%  of Americans believe the Justice Department should challenge the legality of Arizona’s law in court. Eighteen percent (18%) are undecided in the survey conducted May 26 and 27.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of voters favor passage of a law like Arizona’s in their own state.

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of voters believe a police officer should be required to check the immigration status of anyone stopped for a traffic violation or violation of some other law if he suspects the person might be an illegal immigrant.

I understand that people want a better life for themselves and their children.  We are all immigrants in this land, expect for American Indians, and they got here by crossing the Bering Straight.  But there is a huge difference between immigrating here legally and sneaking in illegally, between assimilating into an existing culture, and insisting on replacing a country’s existing culture with that of the country you left.

I’m all for assisting anyone in becoming a legal citizen of the United States, if that is their wish.  But, it must be done the right way, and they must accept responsibility for their illegal entry, show a willingness to learn our language, and embrace our American way of life, including respecting the American Flag.

A wide-open Southern Border is as big a threat to the sovereignty of the United States as anything that our enemies can throw at us right now.  Mr. President, quit playing political games.  The safety of America is at stake .  SECURE THE BORDER NOW.

Sources:  drudgerepot.com, phoenixnewtimes.com, chron.com, mywaynews.com

John Harris, Gov Rod Blagojevich’s former chief of Staff, testified Wednesday that he believed Barack Obama knew of Blagojevich’s plot to win himself a presidential Cabinet post in exchange for appointing Valerie Jarrett to the U.S. Senate.

Harris said on the stand in the former governor’s corruption trial that three days after the Nov. 4, 2008, presidential election, Blago told Harris he felt confident Obama knew he wanted to swap perks.

In the tape, Blagojevich is heard talking about another idea — to ask Obama to ask Warren Buffett or Bill Gates to throw $15 million into a health-care related charity account that Blago would manage and live off. In exchange, he’d appoint Valerie Jarrett to Obama’s Senate seat.

Blago had just seen on the news that Obama had changed his mind about putting Valerie Jarrett in the Senate.  Instead, he was considering her for a cabinet post.   But Blago’s not convinced, and he advances his new fund-raising idea.

Rod: This is one of those things where you’re the president-elect of the United States. His people, they go get the money.
Harris: I think that’s a lot easier for them than an appointment, sure…
Rod: You go to these big Democratic multi-billionaires … and you ask them all to give 2, … a couple million each … That’s all they got to do for Valerie Jarrett… that’s not hard for them.

Harris had his doubts. The Obama camp “may have higher priorities,” he related from the stand. But he went along anyway.

Harris told the court:

I was just being agreeable with him.   Just keeping the conversation moving along. There was other matters i was hoping to get to.

Later on the tape, Blago says he wants Harris to find some other Senate candidates.

Blago asked:

Why don’t we start looking for an African-American Tammy Duckworth?  We can, can’t we?

Harris explained the recording this way:

The president understands that the governor would be willing to make the appointment of Valerie Jarrett as long as he gets what he’s asked for. . . . The governor gets the Cabinet appointment he’s asked for.

Harris stated that Blago had the impression that Obama knew what he wanted after talking to a local union representative, who in turn spoke with labor leader Tom Balanoff, with whom Blagojevich met to discuss a Jarrett appointment. 

Harris’ testimony contradicts the government’s previous public statements that Obama knew nothing about deal-making involving the Senate seat appointment, according to Blago’s attorneys.

Wednesday, the defense moved to force the prosecution to turn over FBI reports of the president’s interview with federal agents in December of 2008.   At this time, he is not accused of any wrongdoing.

From the lawyers’ filing:

Testimony elicited by the government from John Harris and wiretaps played in court raise the issue of President Obama’s direct knowledge and communication with emissaries and others regarding the appointment to his Senate seat.

This filing came on the trial’s third day of the lengthy playback of recordings in which Blagojevich is heard over and over again talking with others about ways to personally capitalize on his Senate seat appointment power.

Blagojevich could also be heard cussing and snapping at his wife, Patti, and negating the possibility of a federal position that pays $190,000 a year.

Blagojevich tells national Democratic consultant Fred Yang:

I make $170 . . . So Fred, that has no appeal to me . . . I want to make money. I might as well go out and find a way to make money.

The 2008 internal report from Obama about his staff’s contacts with Blagojevich at the time shows that Balanoff told Valerie Jarrett that Blagojevich was interested in a Health and Human Services Cabinet post.

Recordings also related that Blago had tried to get the Chicago Tribune’s editorial board canned after it ran a series of less-than-flattering stories about the then-governor.

Harris testified that he ignored Blagojevich’s firing directive.

U.S. District Judge James Zagel refused to gag the talkative Blagojevich as prosecutors had asked.  Zagel said Blagojevich keeps proclaiming his innocence, and that anyone who says otherwise is a liar.

The repetition, Zagel said, has made Blagojevich’s out-of-court talk unnewsworthy.

Thursday, the jury got a look  at a short list of candidates President Obama had chosen to replace him in the U.S. Senate.
Harris tells Blago “He doesn’t want to say who he doesn’t like,” adding that if a person Blagojevich was considering was not on Emanuel’s list, “he’s not high on them.”  Harris let Blago know that the message from Emanuel was that Illinois Senate President Emil Jones was not a favored candidate for the U.S. Senate spot.

Federal prosecutors played a tape of the first official message from the new Obama administration about who the president supported for his Senate seat. 

Blago’s chief of staff, John Harris, tells his boss on the phone that Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s future guard dog, had called him to give him a list of four people who Obama would be okay with as his successor in the Senate.  They were Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.; injured Iraq War vet Tammy Duckworth; U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Illinois State Comptroller Dan Hynes.

Under oath Harris said that Emanuel told him that no one else in the Obama camp was authorized to talk about the Senate seat. That contradicted previous messages from a union official that Jackson Jr. was not one of Obama’s preferred candidates.

But Blago doesn’t seem to buy the fact that the list Emanuel provided is a genuine list of Obama’s preferences for the Senate seat.  He says:

It’s a *.*. list.  Expletive Initials deleted.

Harris went on to say that the list appeared to be a political maneuver to show that Obama backed a diverse crop of candidates for the Senate seat. The four names included an African-American male, Jackson; a white female, Schakowsky; an Asian-American female, Duckworth; and a white male, Hynes.

Of course, if Blago’s attorneys can get Obama’s interview with the FBI and  the report collaborates Harris’ testimony, things could get very interesting.  Unfortunately, until that happens it is still just hearsay.

Until then, it’s still one of those things that make you go:

Hmmmm. 

Sources:  drudgereport.com, suntimes.com, cbs2chicago.com

Tens of thousands more gallons of oil were released into the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday.  This new setback happened after an undersea robot bumped a venting system, forcing BP to remove the cap that had been containing some of the crude.

The setback, one of many in the nine-week effort to stop the gusher, came as Pensacola Beach in Florida was invaded by thick globs of oil washing up on the formerly pristine sands.  At the same time, the clueless Obama administration was trying to figure out how to side-step a Federal Judge’s ruling overturning Obama’s six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling.

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said Gas escaped through the vent that carries warm water down to prevent ice-like crystals from forming, when the robot bumped the system just before 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Crews were inspecting the well to see if crystals had formed before putting the cap back on.   BP is unsure how long it will be until the cap is back in place.

The containment cap had collected about 700,000 gallons of oil in 24 hours and sucked it up to a ship on the surface before the incident.   The oil that was collected is now pouring into the Gulf.  Another 438,000 gallons was burned on the surface by a different system.  Thankfully, this system was not affected by the issue with the cap.

An incident like this thwarted the attempt to put a bigger containment device over the blown-out well in May.   BP had to abandon the four-story box it was trying to place over the well after the crystals called hydrates clogged it, threatening to make it float away.

This smaller cap had been in place since early June.   Crews had to slice away a section of the leaking pipe to get it there, meaning the flow of oil could be stronger now than before.

The latest worst-case estimate of the amount of oil entering the Gulf from the well is about 2.5 million gallons a day.  Estimates are that 67 million to 127 million gallons have flowed in the Gulf since the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers and blew out the well 5,000 feet underwater.   BP PLC had a lease arrangement on the rig from owner Transocean Ltd.

President Barak Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) and his administration were trying to figure out what to do next yesterday after U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans overturned Scooter’s moratorium on new drilling.  The Judge said that the government simply assumed  (and we know what that does) that because one rig exploded, the others pose an imminent danger, too.

Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, Judge Feldman has reported investments in the oil and gas industry, including owning less than $15,000 of Transocean stock, according to financial disclosure reports for 2008, the most recent available.

The White House threatened an immediate appeal of his ruling. The Interior Department imposed the moratorium last month, following Presidential orders,  in the wake of the BP disaster.  This halted approval of any new permits for deepwater projects and suspending drilling on 33 exploratory wells.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar proclaimed that within the next few days he would issue a new order imposing a moratorium that eliminates any doubt it is needed and appropriate.

This weasel told a Senate subcommittee yesterday:

It’s important that we don’t move forward with new drilling until we know it can be done in a safe way.

Translation:  We don’t care about all the Americans who are out of work.  Obama wants to get cap and trade passed so that he can pay off his investors, including helping Mr. Soros with his investment in Petrobras.

Several companies, including Shell and Marathon Oil, said they would await the outcome of any appeals before they start drilling again.  See?

 BP managing director Bob Dudley said on yesterday’s NBC’s “Today” show that his company will “step back” from the issue while it investigates the rig explosion.

BP announced yesterday that Dudley has been appointed to head the new Gulf Coast Restoration Organization, which is in charge of cleaning up the spill.  He takes over from embattled BP CEO Tony Hayward.

Meanwhile, back in Florida, dozens of workers used shovels to scoop up pools of oil that washed up overnight, turning the sand orange.

Tar balls have washed up as far east as Panama City, Fla.  Thicker oil is predicted to wash ashore further east along the coast line in the coming days.  Oil has already washed up on beaches in Alabama and coated wetlands in Louisiana.

In another brilliant move yesterday, the federal government shut down the dredging that was being done to create protective sand berms in the Gulf of Mexico.  

The berms are meant to protect the Louisiana coastline from oil. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department is upset about where the dredging is going on. The department says one area where sand is being dredged is a sensitive section of the Chandeleur Islands, and the state failed to meet an extended deadline to install pipe that would draw sand from a less-endangered area.

The ecological damage being caused by this disaster is horrible.   But what about the damage to American citizens?

William Allen Kruse, 55, a charter boat captain, was recently hired by BP as a vessel of opportunity out of Gulf Shores, AL.  He and his two deck hands prepared to set sail on his boat, The Rookie, yesterday morning, as they always did.  The deck hands said that he seemed normal as he sent them for some ice while he pulled around to the gas pumps.   When he did not show up at the pumps, the deck hands found the boat still moored where they left it.  They went inside to find their captain dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Stan Vinson, coroner for Baldwin County, which includes Gulf Shores, said:

He had been quite despondent about the oil crisis.

Vinson said Kruse was in good health, was not mentally ill and was not taking psychotropic medications.

Dr. Vinson said it’s not surprising the oil spill had weighed heavily on his mind, as it has on many local fishermen no longer able to support themselves with deep-sea sport fishing trips for marlin and the like.

All the waters are closed. There’s no charter business anymore. You go out on some of the beaches now, with the oil, you can’t even get in the water.   It’s really crippled the tourism and fishing industry here.

Today is the 66th day since the Deepwater Horizon Explosion.  Procrastination and the lack of a clear plan by the Obama Administration is not only ruining the ecology of the Gulf Coast Area, but irreparably harming the lives of Americans who depend on the Gulf Waters to provide for their families.

If this procrastination is intentional, designed to further his ideology and political power, then Obama is the most cold-hearted and, dare I say, treasonous,  president in American History.  However, even if he is just incompetent, that will not reduce the damage already done by him and his administration’s procrastination in dealing with this crisis.

Whether clueless or calculating, Obama has cemented his place in history through his mishandling of this disaster.

Please keep the American families affected by this crisis in your prayers.  And continue to pray for our country.

Sources:  breitbart.com, wdsu.com, latimes.com

Before Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) ascended to the throne of The Regime, he did something no other candidate for American President has ever done.  He campaigned in Europe, where he was treated like a rock star, by both the Europeans and the sycophantic Main Stream Media.  This set the stage for Obama’s Foreign Policy efforts as President.

There have been so many issues that have weakened America on the world stage as Obama has pursued his Foreign Policy, it’s hard to know where to begin.  Come along as I try to relate a few high (low?) points.

1.  The World Apology Tour – Shortly after he took office, President Obama set off for the first of a two-part “World Apology Tour”.   After less than 100 days, he had apologized on three continents for what he viewed as the sins of America and previous presidents.

Per Karl Rove:

Mr. Obama told the French (the French!) that America “has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive” toward Europe.  In Prague, he said America has “a moral responsibility to act” on arms control because only the U.S. had “used a nuclear weapon.” In London, he said that decisions about the world financial system were no longer made by “just Roosevelt and Churchill sitting in a room with a brandy” — as if that were a bad thing. And in Latin America, he said the U.S. had not “pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors” because we “failed to see that our own progress is tied directly to progress throughout the Americas.”

By apologizing to the world, White House Press Secretary Robert “Baghdad Bob” Gibbs said that Scooter had “changed the image of America around the world” and made the U.S. “safer and stronger.”

Having the British call him “President Pantywaist” has made us “safer and stronger”?

2.  Global War on Terror –  In a memo e-mailed the week of March 25th, 2009, in the middle of the World Apology Tour, to Pentagon staff members, the Defense Department’s office of security review proclaimed that “this administration prefers to avoid using the term ‘Long War’ or ‘Global War on Terror’ [GWOT.] Please use ‘Overseas Contingency Operation.’ ”  And so it began.

On Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at the University of Cairo, Obama addressed the Muslim World.  Here is an excerpt from the 6:35 a.m. speech:

Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance. We see it in the history of Andalusia and Cordoba during the Inquisition. I saw it firsthand as a child in Indonesia, where devout Christians worshiped freely in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. That is the spirit we need today. People in every country should be free to choose and live their faith-based lives upon the persuasion of the mind, heart, and soul. This tolerance is essential for religion to thrive, but it is being challenged in many different ways.

Among some Muslims, there is a disturbing tendency to measure one’s own faith by the rejection of another’s. The richness of religious diversity must be upheld – whether it is for Maronites in Lebanon or the Copts in Egypt. And fault lines must be closed among Muslims as well, as the divisions between Sunni and Shia have led to tragic violence, particularly in Iraq. 

Freedom of religion is central to the ability of peoples to live together. We must always examine the ways in which we protect it. For instance, in the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That is why I am committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat. 

Likewise, it is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit – for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear. We cannot disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism.

Scooter believed that by reaching out to the Muslim world through changing and softening our terminology as it pertained to the Jihad declared against the United States by Muslim Extremists, his administration would make huge inroads in America’s relationship with the Islamic World.  So far, it has done nothing but encourage our enemies, as evidenced by the increasing number of attacks by Muslim Extremists here in our country.

3.  Smart Power! – At her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State nominee Hillary Clinton said:

Kamikaze:  adjective: having or showing reckless disregard for safety or personal welfare

President Barack Hussein Obama  (mm mmm mmmm) told ABC’s “World News” anchor Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview on January 25, 2010:

I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president. 

At the time, we did not know that “really good” was based on his own definition of that term.  Over the next two days, I will outline Obama’s polices and the effect they are having on America.  I believe one could compare his actions to that of a Kamikaze pilot in World War II’s Pacific Theater of Operations.

1.  The Stimulus Package – One of Obama’s first acts as president was to push through a 787 billion dollar Stimulus Package, designed to create jobs and get the economy moving again.  Almost a year and a half later, we have found out that the total cost is 862 billion dollars, 75 billion more than expected.  Americans have also found out that it is a miserable failure.  Here is a breakdown by the numbers, courtesy of gop.com:

3.5 MILLION: Jobs Obama Promised Stimulus Would Create By End Of 2010.

3.3 MILLION: Jobs Lost Since Obama Made That Promise.

  

6.8 MILLION: Jobs Obama Must Now Create To Keep Promise By End Of 2010.

  

1.1 MILLION: Jobs Obama’s Economists Project Will Be Created By End Of 2010.

  

5.7 MILLION: Jobs By Which Obama’s Economists’ Projection Leaves Him Short In Keeping Promise. 

  

6 PERCENT: Not Surprisingly, Number Of Americans That Say Obama’s Stimulus Created Jobs. 

 

7.7 PERCENT: Unemployment Rate When Obama Was Selling Stimulus In January 2009.

 

8 PERCENT: Unemployment Rate Obama Pledged Stimulus Would Prevent Us From Reaching.

 

9.7 PERCENT: Current Unemployment Rate.

 

16.5 PERCENT: Current Unemployment Rate When Underemployed And Discouraged Workers Are Included.

 

334,000: Americans That Have Given Up Looking For A Job Since Stimulus Was Signed.

 

47: States That Have Lost Jobs Since Stimulus Was Signed. 

 

10: States That Moved From Single-Digit To Double-Digit Unemployment Rate Since Stimulus Was Signed. 

 

$862 BILLION: Updated Cost Of Stimulus, $75 Billion Increase From Last Year’s Cost Estimate.

 

440: Number Of Nonexistent Congressional Districts That Received Stimulus Funds.

 

$6.4 BILLION: Amount Of Stimulus Funds That Went To Nonexistent Congressional Districts.

 

$18 MILLION: Cost Of Stimulus Website, Recovery.gov.

In a related issue, the Labor Department will issue regulations this week ordering businesses to give gay employees equal treatment under The Family and Medical Leave Act.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will announce Wednesday that the government would require employers to extend the option that has been available to heterosexual workers for almost two decades, two officials briefed on the plan revealed Monday. 

The Family and Medical Leave Act allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave each year to take care of loved ones or themselves. The 1993 law, which also allows employees to take time off for adoptions, has previously only been applied to heterosexual couples.

Obama will sign an Executive Order authorizing this action,  which means future presidents could reverse the decision.