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Note: This page begins with the events of May 1st, 2009.  It's organization is chronological.  Events are summarized and detailed descriptions can be seen on the "daily pages" -- click the "date link" in the "date" column.  Sources and links are on the daily pages.

Current entries are on the "Latest News" page.
Air
Farce
One

 

This picture cost taxpayers $380,000

 
5/1/09 1.  Moving quickly to release Chinese Uighur terrorists into the United States, Obama has -- for the second time -- overridden objections of federal agencies responsible for national security.

2.  "To the Muslim world," said Barack Obama in his Inaugural Address, "we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect." After 100 days, how’s that going?

3.  During Obama's 100th-day presser, he said he had recently read an article about Winston Churchill during the London blitz.  "Churchill said, 'We don't torture,' when the entire British -- all of the British people were being subjected to unimaginable risk and threat," Obama said.  "And then the reason was that Churchill understood, you start taking short-cuts, over time, that corrodes what's -- what's best in a people.  It corrodes the character of a country."

4.  Yahoo! Answers has the following report posted as an "Open Question."

5.  Well, now we know why ACORN got 5 Billion$ from the Stimulus Bill, and why the White House took control of the US Census Bureau.  A perfect excuse to start tagging homes in America for the next Census scheduled for 2010, though it directly violates Sec. 223, Title 13, U.S. Code, Chapter 7, Subtitle 2 which provides the Fed NO authority to GPS paint your front door.  It is in direct violation of the Constitution and no one is doing anything to stop it.
5/2/09 1.  Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index

2.  In his press conference Wednesday night, Obama offered a nice little sermonette on "shortcuts."

3.  Video:  After 100 days, do you feel safer?

4.  Obama makes e a short statement about the retirement of Justice Souter in which he outlined what he will be looking for in Souter's replacement.

5.  Obama and congressional Democrats are intent on nationalizing media in the U.S. much the same way they nationalized the U.S. auto industry and the nation's banking and financial institutions.

6.  Michelle Obama takes casual to a haute new level.
5/3/09 1.  When John Hawkins was in college, he studied Southern Long Fist Kung Fu for more than a year and his teacher told him something that he never forgot.  He said that when you're being attacked, the aggressor sets the rules and if you want to survive, you have to play by those rules.  In other words, if your opponent is trying to cut your head off with a sword while you're trying not to hurt him, chances are that you're going to end up dead.  This is a lesson that conservatives can and should apply to politics.

2.  On Thursday, PowerLine's John Hinderaker wrote about the banana republic capitalism that we are experiencing under the Obama administration.  In connection with the Chrysler bankruptcy, Obama, ignoring laws that assign priority to secured creditors, has tried to bully lenders into abandoning their legal rights in favor of the United Auto Workers Union.  To my knowledge, there is no precedent for this sort of arrogant lawlessness in American history.  (Germany, Italy and Argentina are familiar with it.)

3.  The New York Times reports that the Obama administration is considering reviving military tribunals to try the detainees at Guantanamo Bay.  An anonymous administration official sums it up.

4.  President Vice Chairman Jim Press sure knows how to put a positive spin on bad news.

5.  Barack Obama is reveling in presidential power and influence unseen in Washington for decades.
5/4/09 1.  House Democrats just refused to pay for President Barack Obama's plan to relocate prisoners from the Guantanamo detention facility where enemy combatants are being held.

2.  CIFTA is the proposed Organization of American States treaty on firearms trafficking, known by its Spanish initials as CIFTA.  Obama is working to get the CIFTA treaty through the Senate.  This push is a result of his recent trip to Mexico and and his claimed attempt to halt to flow of guns into Mexico.

3.  Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor, considered a leading contender to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), speaks on a panel at Duke University Law School in 2005.  She is responding to a question on the pros and cons of different types of judicial clerkships.

4.  Former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Sunday blasted Obama for setting itself on a collision course with Israel and endangering the Jewish state.

5.  Video:  White House reporters stand for Obama, but not for Bush.

6.  Andrew W. Smith writes that the Portuguese water dog and Alaskan hillbillies "news stories" apparently leave little time for anything remotely skeptical of Barack Obama -- and they wonder why folks aren’t buying the papers like they used to.
5/5/09 1.  Creditors to Chrysler describe negotiations with the company and the Obama administration as "a farce," saying the administration was bent on forcing their hands using hardball tactics and threats.

2.  If Obama expected the senior creditors of Chrysler to fold their tents under political pressure, they may have gotten a rude shock today.  Thomas Lauria, who accused the White House of threatening the creditors withn humiliation at the hands of the White House press corps, has filed a motion to halt the administration’s machinations on behalf of the UAW in the Chrysler bankruptcy.  Lauria and his allies claim that the Obama administration has violated the Constitution in their bid to devalue the senior creditors’ holdings on behalf of junior creditors, and have some precedent to support the allegation.

3.  Paul Mirengoff writes that Obama has said that the U.S. "lost its moral bearings" under President Bush.  In so asserting, Obama is making both a claim about morality and a claim about history.  He is saying that Bush's policies with respect to detainee interrogation (the subject about which Obama was speaking) were immoral and he is saying that they represent a major departure from past policy.

4.  Obama vowed Monday to "detect and pursue" American tax evaders and go after their offshore tax shelters.

5.  Obama has given his personal warranty on cars from Detroit -- if a fuel pump on your new Pontiac falls apart and the dealer won't make it good, just call the White House and ask for Obama.  Happy days are here again.

6.  Mary Katharine Ham likes to note these little incidents when they happen, not because she thinks it makes Obama an idiot because he occasionally stumbles over his words, but because his somewhat overblown reputation as the most cerebral, eloquent, utterly erudite president of all time could really use a pricking every now and then.

7.  A dissertation written by Obama's late mother is being published.
5/6/09 1.  The Washington Times reports that Barack Obama may counter demands from Israel to confront Iran over their nuclear program by confronting Israel over theirs.  Eli Lake has the exclusive on the Obama administration’s strategy to force Israel under the umbrella of the non-proliferation treaty, apparently as a condition to getting Iran to surrender their nukes.  The effort will include India and Pakistan, and comes from a 2006 Saudi peace plan that would leave Israel at the mercy of the armies surrounding the state.

2.  After he reviewed the Obama stimulus bill and the proposed fiscal 2010 budget for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Matthew Vadum told the Washington Examiner that ACORN and other left-wing advocacy groups could have a shot at pocketing up to $8.5 billion this year.

3.  A Google News search does not produce a story or even a brief mention of the fact military police were on hand at the Kentucky Derby to keep the restless in line.  However, an Associated Press photograph, posted on the Yahoo! News website, shows two MPs in combat fatigues with side arms restraining a man at the derby.

4.  Why are federal authorities investigating the possible illegal use of campaign funds by John Edwards, but not investigating Barack Obama?

5.  FreeRepublic.com's Jim Robinson asks, which clause of the constitution authorizes Obama to take over a major corporation like General Motors?

6.  Barack Obama's lawless conduct in connection with the Chrysler bankruptcy is sending shock waves through the business community.  It is important to understand what is happening here.  Many think that Obama is merely engaging in crony capitalism, favoring his political supporters (most notably the Auto Workers Union) at the expense of others.  That's true, of course, but it is much worse than that: Obama has tried to bully those who have not bought his favor -- Chrysler's non-TARP secured creditors -- into giving up their legal rights by threatening to use the powers of the White House to damage their businesses.  This sort of lawlessness is common in some of the more corrupt Third World countries, but it is brand new to the United States.
5/7/09 1.  On his first day in office, January 21, 2009, Obama signed Executive Order 13489.  This order was entered into the Federal Register on January 26, 2009.

2.  Obama may be the most mysterious and secretive president in American history.

3.  Got that -- PHOTO -- singular! -- $328,835 for a single photograph of the backup Air Force One that buzzed lower Manhattan last week.  If you Google, "Air Force One," Google returns 1,520,000 images of the aircraft.  The last thing the world needs is another one.

4.  Yesterday, in Riyadh, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he spoke to Saudi Assistant Minister of the Interior Muhammed bin Nayaf about sending the roughly 100 Yemeni detainees currently in the detainee center at Guantanamo Bay to Saudi Arabia to the Saudi government's rehabilitation program for jihadis.

5.  Obama is preparing to reinstate a fraud-riddled immigration program that has brought over 36,000 Somalis into the United States under questionable circumstances, including two dozen Minneapolis men that the FBI fears may be planning a terrorist attack.

6.  Michelle Obama, ventured publicly into the policy realm on Tuesday, announcing that the Obama administration planned to create a $50 million "social innovation fund" to help finance and expand promising nonprofit agencies.
5/8/09 1.  Here are a few of many examples of what a patriotic American president does not do.

2.  The march of corporatism continues today as the Obama administration’s "stress tests" for TARP-funded financial institutions await release.  Now the Obama administration has heavily hinted that it will expect these institutions to change management if they don’t do well on these mid-term exams, apparently aiming for the decapitation of CEOs at companies like CitiGroup and BankAmerica just as Obama did with General Motors.

3.  Under the guise of cutting wasteful spending, President Obama is terminating support for the Yucca Mountain spent nuclear fuel repository in Nevada.  While not unexpected, this development means that there will be no place to store nuclear waste, probably for decades, other than at temporary storage locations at each of the nation's nuclear power plants.

4.  Obama wants to cut almost in half a benefits program for the families of slain police and safety officers.
5/9/09 1.  A White House military aide who authorized an Air Force flyover of New York that caused panic among some people in the city resigned on Friday.

2.  Obama will make his promised speech to the Muslim world from Egypt, a White House official said on Friday.
5/10/09 1.  This is a great video.  It shows the three aircraft orbiting over the Statue of Liberty during the Air Farce One incident.  (The money shot is near the end)

2.  Obama has targeted the Department of Defense to absorb more than 80 percent of the cuts he has proposed in next year's budget for discretionary programs.

3.  Obama is threatening to rescind billions of dollars in federal stimulus money if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers approved in February as part of the budget.

4.  Obama is a history buff.  When he makes a political point he instinctively reaches for the historical parallel: the Lincolnesque "team of rivals" making up his cabinet, Winston Churchill's attitude to torture or his own family's experience of World War II.

5.  The Obama administration has reversed a Bush administration decision and is proposing to restrict development on 74,000 acres in Sonoma County that is habitat for the endangered California tiger salamander.
5/11/09 1.  White House Budget Director Peter Orszag said that the high U.S. budget deficits are being driven by an economic crisis that Obama inherited.

2.  The grand mufti of Egypt has invited Obama to address Muslims around the globe from one of the most important mosques in the Islamic world.

3.  Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday continued his verbal attack against Obama, saying that the country is more vulnerable to a potential terrorist attack since the Obama administration took power.

4.  Obama's passivity before the threatened foreign prosecution of Bush administration officials achieves by inaction what he fears doing directly.

5.  A sharp-eyed reader of the Texas Darling blog has submitted a series of photographs that she believes provides evidence that the Air Farce One photograph released by the White House has been Photoshopped.
5/12/09 1.  Generally, folks don't know that Hawaii law, even in 1961, provided for several types of birth records, most of which are not what people think of when they think of birth certificates.  The following is a description of those, including certificates for people not born in Hawaii.

2.  This billboard is now up in two locations on Interstate 80/90 at the exits leading into South Bend, IN, and will remain up for a month.

3.  Yesterday's item about the Photoshopping of the Air Farce One photo released by the White House continues to raise questions.

4.  Keeping a campaign promise, the first thing Obama did on January 20th was to sign an executive order to release the "brothers" from Gitmo.  It mattered little that he didn't have any place to send them.

5.  On Monday, Obama said a coalition of U.S. health groups would cut rising costs by $2 trillion over the next decade, a move he said would encourage Congress to adopt major healthcare reform this year.

6.  A couple of weeks ago Innocent Bystanders published an item on the predicted unemployment numbers for April.  Well, the real numbers came in today, and the result was exactly what they predicted: 8.9% unemployment.
5/13/09 1.  If the eyes are the windows to the soul, doesn't that glare give you a warm, comfortable feeling?

2.  Michael Crowley, writing at The New Republic, says that Obama's new budget plan includes a little-noted sea change in U.S. nuclear policy, and a step towards his vision of a denuclearized world.  It provides no funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead program, created to design a new generation of long-lasting nuclear weapons that don't need to be tested.  (The military is worried that a nuclear test moratorium in effect since 1992 might endanger the reliability of an aging US arsenal.)

3.  American soldiers, American civilians, and other innocent people are going to die because Obama wants to release photographs of prisoner abuse.  Note: I said, "wants to release" -- not "has to release," or "is being forced to release," or "will comply with court orders by releasing."  The photos, quite likely thousands of them, will be released because Obama wants them released.  Any other description of the situation is a dodge.

4.  The U.S. Justice Department has decided to release another detainee from Guantanamo, a Yemeni named Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi.  It is not entirely clear why Batarfi has been cleared for release.  But we can be reasonably sure, based on Batarfi’s own freely given testimony, that he was no innocent swept up in the post-9/11 chaos of Afghanistan, as his lawyers claim.
5/14/09 1.  Obama has sent a message to Benjamin Netanyahu demanding that Israel not surprise the U.S. with an Israeli military operation against Iran.  The message was conveyed by a senior American official who met in Israel with Netanyahu, ministers and other senior officials.  Earlier, Netanyahu's envoy visited Washington and met with National Security Adviser James Jones and with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and discussed the dialogue Obama has initiated with Tehran.

2.  Paul Mirengoff writes that Obama has reversed himself and decided to appeal a court decision ordering the release of photos showing U.S. troops abusing prisoners.  Suddenly, it has occurred to Obama that the pictures would "further inflame anti-American opinion" and endanger U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

3.  Obama is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on U.S. soil -- indefinitely and without trial -- as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

4.  George F. Will, writing in The Washington Post reminds us that anyone, said T.S. Eliot, could carve a goose, were it not for the bones.  And anyone could govern as boldly as his whims decreed, were it not for the skeletal structure that keeps civil society civil -- the rule of law.  The Obama administration is bold.  It also is careless regarding constitutional values and is acquiring a tincture of lawlessness.

5.  It's only a matter of time before Obama's vast popularity runs aground on his energy policies.  In the name of saving the planet from global warming, he has delayed new oil drilling, an action that will have major political repercussions once the world economy recovers.  Instead of using some the stimulus billions to produce more gas and oil, Obama's wild-eyed supporters dream of "renewable" energy derived from corn, wind, sunshine, and even grass.

6.  A Virginia congressman, very quietly, has signed onto a measure in Congress that would require presidential candidates to verify their eligibility to hold the highest elected office in the United States.
5/15/09 1.  If somebody were deliberately trying to undermine the very fabric of these United States, he would first vow not just to change its policies but to completely "change America," and then would do just about everything Barack Obama already has begun to do as president.

2.  A former FBI agent who recently won a lawsuit defeating FBI attempts to muzzle him tells Newsmax that the agency's morale may be at its lowest ebb ever, and warns the "chilling" effect of Obama administration policies is making another terrorist attack on the U.S. homeland "inevitable."

3.  Obama has given permission for military trials to restart at Guantanamo Bay in an announcement that effectively repudiated one of his first decisions in office.

4.  The Obama administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on U.S. soil -- indefinitely and without trial -- as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

5.  Obama raised the prospect on Thursday that China and other nations could stop buying U.S. debt and said the United States needed to tackle its deficit to avoid long-term economic damage.

6.  Relations between Obama and U.S. corporate leaders have grown tense in recent weeks, with business groups bristling over his sharp rebukes of lenders and multinational companies in particular.

7.  Obama in his own words clearly acknowledged his close association with ACORN, his acceptance of ACORN's radical methodology and his appreciation for the support of the organization in his run for the presidency.

8.  Obama expanded his $50 billion mortgage aid program on Thursday, announcing new measures that would help homeowners avoid a foreclosure if they don't qualify for other assistance.
5/16/09 1.  With a vote of 368-60, the House on Thursday wholeheartedly approved of Obama's request for extra funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2.  Some things your tax money shouldn't buy.

3.  In his commencement address at Arizona State University on May 13, President Obama said that, "building a body of work…is about the daily labor, the many individual acts, the choices large and small that add up to a lasting legacy."

4.  The White House has posted the personal financial disclosure reports for Obama, and here are some interesting tidbits.

5.  Bob Unruh reports that an Ohio State University associate professor who includes election law among his specialties says there is a logical legal strategy to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on the issue of Barack Obama's eligibility to be president.

6.  Wade and Dale Rathke are the founders of Citizens Consulting, Inc. (CCI), and they are incredible organizers.  And it was Wade's vision that allowed ACORN to progress to kind of where it is today.  Recently, board members discovered that there is a lot of money missing.
5/17/09 1.  David Frum believes Barack Obama made an unwise commitment during his campaign.  Actually he made quite a number of them, but this column will have to settle for dealing with just one:  Candidate Obama promised to deliver a major speech to the Muslim world from a Muslim capital.  On June 4, Obama will make good on that promise in Cairo.

2.  I was told today that 0bama has not traveled with his wife to any Muslim country, and that no official Muslim leader ever travels with his wife.

3.  Obama’s 2009 Supplemental Appropriations for Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Pandemic Flu was revised and "passed by the full committee."  Not sure what the next step is, but based on the summary, it gives billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to countries and entities that support Sharia law and/or harbor, hide and support those who want to destroy the U.S. and our allies.

4.  Powerline blog's Scott reminds us that during the campaign Barack Obama made hay of the Bush administration's wanton abuse of the rights of terrorist detainees at Guantanamo.  Speaking at a town hall meeting in Pennsylvania in June, Obama addressed the Supreme Court's Boumediene decision granting Guantanamo detainees the right to challenge their confinement through habeas corpus proceedings in federal court.  Obama asserted that the "principle of habeas corpus, that a state can't just hold you for any reason without charging you and without giving you any kind of due process -- that's the essence of who we are."

5.  "I’m laughing at Obama, but I’m also thanking him for doing the right thing and reasonably tolerant of the way he’s tried to save face by pretending he’s not doing exactly the same thing Bush did."

6.  One of the things that one increasingly hears around and about among the millions of Americans who are clearly disturbed by the direction in which Obama is taking the country is that so much information is thrown at us that it's difficult to keep up.

7.  You gotta see this -- click the image.
5/18/09 1.  Ahead of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's trip to Washington this week, the US has been urging Israel to "tone down" its rhetoric on Iran and to stop threatening a military strike on its nuclear installations, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

2.  After receiving an honorary doctorate in law at the University of Notre Dame’s graduation ceremony yesterday, Obama delivered a speech to the school's graduating seniors that sought to legitimize his position in favor of the legal killing of unborn children.

3.  Obama will visit Africa for the first time since being sworn in as the first black U.S. leader when he travels to Ghana in July, a trip many Africans hope will herald powerful help for their poor continent.

4.  Acknowledging what the blogosphere has known for weeks, the New York Times finally went on record to admit that just before last Election Day it killed a politically sensitive news story involving corruption allegations that might have made the Obama campaign look bad.
5/19/09 1.  On June 6, 1944, the United States and its allies launched the largest air and sea armada in world history.  The purpose of this mission was clear: liberate Europe from the grip of Nazi despotism.

2.  Obama's stated aim to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat" Al-Qaeda has already resulted in "serious pressure" being brought to bear on Al-Qaeda's leaders, believed to be hiding in Pakistan's border regions.

3.  Readers may recall that in late April, former Vice President Cheney requested the declassification and release of CIA memos which showed how effective enhanced interrogations, including the waterboarding of only THREE terrorists, were in providing the information that Cheney asserts saved thousands of American lives.

4.  Obama plans to announce new vehicle emission standards and pair them with a broader goal of reducing pollution.

5.  Supreme Leader Obama -- who usually appears on television at least once a day -- recently spoke at a high school to a group of his adherents in Rio Rancho, NM.  Now that he and his minions have systematically gutted the US Treasury, Obama may have finally uttered a truth.  Of the now close to $2 TRILLION in debt that he has already instituted against We-the-People Obama said:  "We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt."

6.  Obama said in a report Sunday that he saw the new "Star Trek" film recently -- and not just because it was last week's top-grossing movie.

7.  Thousands of U.S. gun owners gathering in Phoenix for the National Rifle Association's convention have one target firmly in their sights: any attempt to curb gun rights by the new guys in Washington.

8.  Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. and Bill Ayers paired up Sunday to lead community activists, clergy, and residents in Oak Park on an annual walk to rally for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  The two drew over 400 people to a forum before the walk held at the First United Church of Oak Park and urged a new perspective on the Mideast conflict more in line with Obama’s.
5/20/09 1.  Donations are being accepted for a national billboard campaign with this simple message.  "Where's the Birth Certificate?"

2.  An attorney handling one of the many lawsuits challenging Barack Obama's eligibility to occupy the Oval Office is urging a court to deny a demand from a lawyer for the president for still more time to answer simple questions such as whether Obama was born in Hawaii, citing the dangers of having an president many identify as a "usurper" in office.

3.  Some soccer moms will have to give up hulking SUVs. Carpenters will still haul materials around in pickup trucks, but they will cost more. Nearly everybody else will drive smaller cars, and more of them will run on electricity.  The higher mileage and emissions standards set by the Obama administration on Tuesday, which begin to take effect in 2012 and are to be achieved by 2016, will transform the American car and truck fleet.

4.  Obama has asked Congress to let aid to Palestinians continue if Hamas backers are included in a new unity government, observers say.

5.  According to a key spokesman for the Islamist Hamas movement, Fawzi Barhoum, Obama's proposals for a new regional peace initiative are "misleading."

6.  Obama has asked Congress to authorize $100 billion in loans to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help create a $500 billion global bailout fund.

7.  Obama may earn millions from taxpayer-funded schools in his new book deal.
5/21/09 1.  "Now, understand that part of the reason that it's so important for us to take a diplomatic approach [toward Iran] is that the approach that we've been taking, which is no diplomacy, obviously has not worked.  Nobody disagrees with that."  Obama then added a few illustrations to bolster his case:  "Hamas and Hezbollah have gotten stronger.

2.  There are growing indications that the US has come to terms with a nuclear-armed Teheran, two analysts told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

3.  The missile test-fired by Iran is the longest-range solid-propellant missile it has launched yet, a U.S. government official said Wednesday, raising concerns about whether the sophistication of Tehran's missile program is increasing.  The U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss technical details of Iran's missile program, said Tehran has demonstrated shorter-range solid-propellant missiles in the past.

4.  Anyone surprised by this?  An unreleased Pentagon report provides new details concluding that about one in seven of the 534 prisoners already transferred abroad from the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has returned to terrorism or militant activity, according to administration officials.

5.  Obama defended his decision to close the Guantanamo detention camp Thursday and said some of the terror suspects held there would be brought to top-security prisons in the United States despite fierce opposition in Congress.

6.  Perhaps Obama spent so little time in the Senate because he has little tolerance for the glacial pace at which Congress was designed to move.
5/22/09 1.  Yesterday morning, Obama’s terror law speech was profoundly candid. Over and over again, in words that were at times eloquent and at times simple, the president conceded the limitations of the executive branch’s ability to easily or quickly solve some of the very same legal issues that beguiled the Bush Administration for nearly eight years.

2.  Obama is expected to outline a far-reaching proposal for a Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement in Cairo next month that will flesh out the Saudi-initiated Arab Peace Plan proposed in 2002 in a way that makes it more palatable to Jerusalem but also requires the Jewish state to make major concessions.

3.  Has Obama inadvertently given Iran the green light to develop an atom bomb?  I only ask because it appears to be the logical conclusion to be drawn from his announcement this week that he is giving Iran until the end of the year to decide whether or not to co-operate with the West over its controversial nuclear program.

4.  John Hinderaker at Powerline blog reminds us that a principal theme of Barack Obama's speech today was that the Bush administration had shredded the Constitution and imperiled the "rule of law."  Obama delivered his speech at the National Archives, before an inscription that said "the Constitution of the United States of America" and just a few steps away from the Constitution itself.  His speech, among many other attacks on the Bush administration (as I noted earlier tonight), repeatedly suggested that the Bush administration had been lawless.  He claimed that his administration had restored the rule of law.

5.  May God save the United States of America from this kind of leadership that borders on criminal ignorance of the motivating factors of our most deadly enemy.

6.  Obama was on TV again.  This time he was delivering an address on national security, terrorism, and the closing of Guantanamo Bay prison at the National Archives in Washington.

7.  In April 2009, David Axelrod, Senior White House Adviser, said, "The 'TEA Party' movement is an unhealthy mutation from public dissatisfaction with the Obama administration’s economic policies."
5/23/09 1.  It took Barack Obama only 123 days to bankrupt America.

2.  Is Obama growing a moustache?

3.  The electoral system has failed to satisfy lingering questions about Barack Obama's eligibility to serve as president.

4.  Obama used the backdrop of the US Naval Academy graduation ceremony to argue that founding US ideals must guide the future battle against terrorism, a day after trying to quell raging debate over Guantanamo Bay in a major speech.

5.  Obama has issued an executive order that Guantanamo will be shut down no later than Jan 22, 2010.  He has tried to charm and persuade our allies to accept some prisoners -- and has gotten virtually nowhere.  He still hasn’t settled on which procedures will be used to dispose of the cases involving the most hardened al Qaeda detainees.  And now, the Senate has voted -- by a 90-to-6 margin -- to deny Obama the $80 million he sought to pay for closing down Guantanamo.

6.  As a resident of Massachusetts, I see real parallels between the rise and fall of our first black governor Deval Patrick, and the rise and coming fall of the first black president, Barack Obama.  Let's get to some politically correct, uncomfortable-to-say for some, specifics.

7.  Obama has approved plans for the United States to help the United Arab Emirates become the first Arab nation with a nuclear power industry that will fuel the country's growing demand for electricity.

8.  Almost 140 miles off the Louisiana coast, aboard the drill ship Noble Paul Romano, workers punch an 8-inch steel pipe four miles under the ocean in search of America's next barrel of oil.
5/24/09 1.  I listened today to the "anointed one" pontificating about how we have been seriously wrong in the way we have allegedly been treating suspected terrorists.

2.  The United States is now relying heavily on foreign intelligence services to capture, interrogate and detain all but the highest-level terrorist suspects seized outside the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to current and former American government officials…

3.  John Hinderaker never thought much of Barack Obama's policies, and he's starting not to think much of him as a human being. Today Obama continued his gratuitous and graceless attacks on his predecessor in the inappropriate context of Memorial Day.

4.  Clarice Feldman says her friend Danube commented on how many times Obama used the first person singular in his latest speech.

5.  Jack Cashill said his involvement in this occasionally harrowing literary adventure began in July 2008, entirely innocently.  A friend sent him some short excerpts from Dreams and asked if they were as radical as they sounded.  Cashill bought the book, located the excerpts, and reported back that, in context, the excerpts were not particularly troubling.

6.  Filling in as guest host for radio talk-show host Bill Bennett this week, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Barack Obama was simply never vetted by the press because it fell in love with him.
5/25/09 1.  Scott at Powerline blog says the underground nuclear test announced by North Korea appears to come as something of a surprise to Obama. Yet he has acted with nothing but complacency about the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran.  In a May 20 Wall Street Journal column, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton predicted.

2.  A bill approved by the House of Representatives and referred to the Senate would prohibit federal employees of executive branch from being compelled to release any document unless a court makes a specified determination by a preponderance of evidence -- legislation at least one group suspects is designed to protect Barack Obama's elusive birth certificate from release.

3.  Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vowed at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva in Jerusalem Thursday night that the Israeli flag will continue to fly over the Western Wall (Kotel).  The first prime minister in years to appear at the venerable yeshiva on Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), he ignored Barack Obama’s apparent trial balloon that he wants to see the United Nations flag fly over the Old City holy sites.

4.  With Obama as president, health care and the economy can be "reformed," U.S. troops can be evacuated from the Middle East, a second stimulus bill can be passed, the criminal justice system can be overhauled and union rights can be expanded -- in other words, it's a Christmas list come true -- declared the leader of the Communist Party USA.

5.  So far the score card, in my opinion, is not too pretty for the Messiah.  He is wrong on Afghanistan, wrong on Gitmo, wrong in taking over Chrysler and General Motors, obviously wrong on the Banks as they all want to give the money back, wrong on trying to push unproductive Unions down our throats, wrong on who is supplying weapons to Mexican drug cartels, wrong on many aspects of healthcare, wrong to apologize to the Mexicans, Europeans, and Muslims in the name of all Americans, and now; he is spitting into the wind with a fantasy of going green with energy.
5/26/09 1.  At 10 AM, Washington time, Obama will announce the selection of Sonia Sotomayor as his first choice for the Supreme Court.

2.  The No.2 Republican in the Senate took President Obama to task Sunday for claiming Guantanamo Bay created more terrorists than it ever detained by serving as a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda.

3.  It's more than a honeymoon at this point.  Forgiving press coverage and public adulation of Obama and his emerging policies is a given. Few dispute the fact that Obama is a likable "brand," and the historic nature of his election has true staying power.  Even Republicans caution one another not to wish failure on Obama.

4.  Doug Ross reports that a tipster alerted him to an interesting assertion. A cursory review by that person showed that many of the Chrysler dealers on the closing list were heavy Republican donors.

5.  Obama's Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood told a group of reporters at the National Press Club on Thursday that he wants to "coerce people out of their cars."

6.  Michelle Obama, has added a new string to her bow as "minister of culture" in her husband’s administration.
5/27/09 1.  Obama makes European men seem manly.

2.  Official Obama Administration Scandals List.

3.  Presidential Approval Index = 1.

4.  Evidently, the characteristics that matter most for a potential nominee to the Supreme Court have little to do with judicial ability or temperament, or even so ephemeral a consideration as a knowledge of the law.  Instead, the tag line for this appointment says it all.  The president wants to choose "a daughter of Puerto Rican parents raised in Bronx public housing projects to become the nation’s first Hispanic justice."
5/28/09 1.  Somebody finally asked Barack Obama's White House press secretary about the president's elusive birth certificate.

2.  Congratulations to you and FOXNEWS for being the first news agency to bring Obama's birth certificate controversy into the mainstream.

3.  It is troubling that Obama is a pathological narcissist caught up in the thought patterns of Darwin, Marx, and Alinsky.  Even more troubling is the fact that the Mainstream Media (MSM), suffering from an Obama-inspired narcosis, shirks its duty, refusing to publish or even explore any aspect of Obama's dark side.  There is room for much optimism, however.  If the ancient story of Narcissus and Echo plays itself out as Ovid recorded it, and Obama and the MSM are their contemporary counterparts, both will fade away in the not too distant future.

4.  One day after North Korea launched a successful test of a nuclear weapon, Obama said that the United States was prepared to respond to the threat with "the strongest possible adjectives."

5.  The nation's two intelligence chiefs are locked in a turf battle over overseas posts, forcing National Security Adviser James L. Jones to mediate, according to current and former government officials.
5/29/09 1.  Obama's elusive long-form birth certificate that would establish his eligibility to serve as president as a "natural born citizen" is the hottest discussion topic at the Fox News Channel's website.

2.  The federal government owes $63,800,000,000,000.  Your share is $668,621.

3.  Obama's Justice Department is dropping charges against the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and two of its members who were involved in voter intimidation on Election Day at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania polling station.

4.  The other day I sought a respite from current events by re-reading some of the writings of 18th century British statesman Edmund Burke.  But it was not nearly as big an escape as I had thought it would be.

5.  Obama's Inauguration Day promise to open his hand to hostile world leaders if they would "unclench their fist" has been met with belligerence from North Korea's Kim Jong-il and defiance from Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, testing the efficacy of Obama's emphasis on diplomacy.

6.  Charles Payne, Obama's great uncle offered some blunt language as to why his nephew is visiting the memorial at the former Buchenwald concentration camp next week during his trip to Europe and the Middle East.

7.  This website is offering "Usurper in Chief Certification of Live Birth Toilet Paper" (UIC COLB TP) for you and your senator or congressman.
5/30/09 1.  For the first time since another Democrat occupied the White House, investors from Beijing to Zurich are challenging a president’s attempts to revive the economy with record deficit spending.  Fifteen years after forcing Bill Clinton to abandon his own stimulus plans, the so-called bond vigilantes are punishing Barack Obama for quadrupling the budget shortfall to $1.85 trillion.  By driving up yields on U.S. debt, they are also threatening to derail Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s efforts to cut borrowing costs for businesses and consumers.

2.  It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American descent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive people.

3.  Russian Prime Minister Vladamir Putin has said the US should take a lesson from the pages of Russian history and not exercise "excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence".

4.  Arguments that had been expected to be taking place before a federal appeals court right about now on whether U.S. citizens have a right to know that their president is eligible for the office he holds have been delayed.
5/31/09 1.  Obama and his administration told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a meeting last week the U.S. foresees the creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, according to a top PA official.

2.  Obama will offer a "personal commitment" to bridge US differences with Muslims in his long-awaited speech to the Islamic world next week in Egypt, aides said.

3.  Michael Barone has written previously that the Obama administration’s transfer of property from Chrysler bondholders to the United Auto Workers is "gangster government" and has noted that this will make it more difficult for unionized companies to sell bonds.  But don’t take just his word for it.  Here is Daniel Indiviglio of theatlantic.com making the same point.

4.  A new White House policy on permissible lobbying on economic recovery and stimulus projects has taken a decidedly anti-First Amendment turn.  It's a classic illustration of Big Government trying to control every aspect of a particular activity and in the process running up against civil liberty.

5.  Obama and Michelle had another of their famous "date nights" Saturday.   Instead of clogging traffic in Washington, D.C. to visit a restaurant, they hopped on the Marine One helicopter to Andrews Air Force Base, jumped on Air Force One (a Gulfstream 500, not the 747) then flew up to New York City followed by TWO OTHER PLANES for staff and press (the 747 would have been cheaper).

6.  Is the mainstream media lauding and giving a pass to the president because they agree with him, or because they fear him?  There is mounting evidence that it may be a bit of both.

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