Friday, July 24, 2009
Obama Administration in Damage Control Mode
It was damage control at the highest level of the U.S. government.
"If you got to do a job, do it yourself," said President Obama as he made a surprise Friday afternoon appearance in the White House briefing room.
The job he felt compelled to perform was to try to defuse the "media frenzy" over his comment that Cambridge police "acted stupidly" last week in arresting his friend, Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
"I could have calibrated those words differently," said the president in a six minute statement.
He said he "unfortunately gave an impression" that he was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. James Crowley, the officer who arrested Gates.
He said he called Crowley to explain his poor choice of words, and then told reporters, "he was an outstanding police officer and a good man." - CBS News Story
Democratic Lawyer Investigating Palin in Ethics Probe has ties to Obama
The independent investigator who has accused Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin of violating state ethics laws is a major donor to the Democratic Party as well as a partner in a law firm that represented Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
Thomas Daniel was hired by the Alaska Personnel Board in late April to investigate several complaints against Palin, including one filed by an Alaska resident who claims the governor used her official position for personal gain by authorizing the creation of a trust to use as her legal defense fund.
In a July 14 report leaked to The Associated Press and major news organizations, Daniel accused Palin of drawing improper gifts and unwarranted benefits. His report recommended that Palin refuse to accept payment from the defense fund and settle the complaint to avoid a formal hearing before the board.
Palin's supporters say the governor, who will resign on Sunday, needs the legal fund because of a quirk in Alaska law that prevents state officials from defending the state's chief executive against ethics allegations.
"The whole situation is nuts," said John Coale, a prominent Washington attorney who helped set up the legal fund, which so far has accepted $500,000 in donations. "Alaska has an ethics law that is unsustainable."
Coale also accused the personnel board of being "either vicious or idiotic" to hire Daniel, whose law firm is closely tied to the Democratic Party.
Daniel has contributed $3,500 in recent years to Democratic causes, including $1,500 to Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004 and $1,000 to Alaska Sen. Mark Begich's senatorial campaign last year.
The law firm where he is a partner, Perkins Coie, serves as counsel of record for the Democratic Party and its candidates, and attorneys there recently represented Obama's presidential campaign.
"Whatever happens, you know there's going to be a huge explosion at the end," Coale said. - FOX News Story
Democrats are At War with Each other over Health Care
The Democratic Party is at war with itself, trying to pump out a deal on health care reform without fracturing on the floor of Congress.
Negotiations broke down Friday afternoon, at least temporarily, between party leaders and the group of fiscally conservative Democrats known as the Blue Dogs, who are trying to win concessions on the health care package.
"It pretty much fell apart this afternoon," said Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., part of the Blue Dog Coalition.
"I've been lied to. I've not had legitimate negotiations," Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., another Blue Dog, said after talks hit a wall between his group and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The intra-party drama almost certainly means Democratic leaders have to readjust their timetable for reaching a deal or risk completely alienating a key faction of the party.
It's unclear which path they will take.
The committee is the only House panel yet to vote on the health care bill. With committee members unable to reach a deal, party leaders have floated the potentially destructive option of bypassing that panel and taking the bill straight to the floor of the House.
"I won't allow them to turn over control of the committee to the Republicans," Waxman said, threatening to bypass the committee process.
"I don't see what alternative we have," Waxman said of talks that have raged for days with the Blue Dogs. "This can't be an interminable discussion."
Waxman said he hopes it doesn't come to that, and later in the afternoon he publicly apologized to Ross. Standing together, Ross and Waxman said all options are back on the table and they still hope to reach a deal next week.
As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushes for a floor vote before the August recess, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., said he'd rather wait until there's agreement before forcing a vote. - FOX News StoryAs the polls are dropping for both Congress and the President, Democrats are fighting within their own party.
Obama Finds himself in Firestorm after Showing his True Colors
President Obama stopped short of an apology to Sgt. James Crowley on Friday for saying he "acted stupidly" for arresting black Harvard scholar Henry Lewis Gates Jr., but said he should have chosen his words more carefully.
At an impromptu appearance at the daily White House briefing, Obama said he spoke with Crowley over the phone, and said he wanted to share a beer with Crowley and Gates at the White House.
"Because this has been ratcheting up and I helped contribute to ratcheting it up, I want to make clear that in my choice of words I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley specifically and I could have calibrated those words differently."
"My sense is you've got two good people in a circumstance in which neither of them were able to resolve it the way the wanted to resolve it," Obama added.
Earlier in the day Friday, the Cambridge and area police unions voiced their support for Crowley and called for an apology from Obama for his statement.
"His remarks were obviously misdirected but made it worse yet by suggesting somehow this case should remind us of a history of racial abuse by law enforcement," Dennis O'Connor, president of the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, said at a news conference. - FOX News Story
Obama got himself caught up in quite a firestorm after he jumped into something that he either knew nothing about or had chosen to support the racist claims of a friend. Either way, the President stepped off the script and showed his true colors and is paying quite a price for that mistake. Both in Public Opinion and in Approval Polls.
Obama Loses Majority in Latest Poll
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 30% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -8 (see trends).
Just 25% believe that the economic stimulus package has helped the economy.
The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve. It is updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update). Updates also available on Twitter.
Overall, 49% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. Today marks the first time his overall approval rating has ever fallen below 50% among Likely Voters nationwide. Fifty-one percent (51%) disapprove. - Rasmussen Reports Poll
Obama went on Prime Time TV to push for Health Care Reform and to rally the American People behind him. It appears that at this point that has backfired on him significantly.
Polls show that support for the Health Care Bill is dropping by the day and the remarks that Obama made concerning the arrest of Obama Friend and Harvard Mate in Cambridge about race has proved a land mine for the President.
Did Obama Lose his Cool with Race Comments?
Saying that the white sergeant acted "stupidly" in arresting Gates, Mr. Obama inflamed an already volatile topic. Although he backed off that comment slightly Thursday, Mr. Obama stood by his assessment that the arrest of the Harvard professor "doesn't make sense."
After years of deftly defusing racial land mines, why did Mr. Obama speak out now? Because Gates is a friend and fellow Harvard man? Because racial profiling is an issue close to the president's heart?
Or could Mr. Obama, contemplating the idea of a white cop questioning a black man in his own home, have lost his legendary cool?
"I think he was responding emotionally. It was a visceral reaction," said Mary Frances Berry, a University of Pennsylvania history professor and former chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
"It is a milestone, in a sense" said Berry, who was watching the news conference when Mr. Obama made the original statement. "It's his first foray into putting his tippy-toe into the water, to respond directly to something about race."
The journalist Ellis Cose, author of "The Rage of a Privileged Class," about anger among successful blacks, pointed out that Mr. Obama had sponsored legislation while an Illinois state senator to combat racial profiling.
"To the extent that he did drop his sort of nonracial face, so to speak, it was because this is an issue he feels personally passionate about and an issue that has clearly touched most black men in America of a certain age," Cose said. "I think he was personally outraged."
From the start, Gates' claims that he was racially profiled seemed like a case from the divided past, when truth was subjective, sympathies color-coded - and most presidents stayed neutral.
Indeed, since Mr. Obama's election, many Americans see improving race relations. A CBS News poll in April found that 23 percent of whites and 33 percent of blacks felt Mr. Obama's presidency has improved relations in the country, compared with just 7 percent and 5 percent, respectively, who said his election has worsened them. (Read more about recent CBS News polling on race). - CBS News Story
Has Obama Alienated himself from Law Enforcement Officials?
BOSTON — Many police officers across the country have a message for President Barack Obama Get all the facts before criticizing one of our own. Obama's public criticism that Cambridge officers "acted stupidly" when they arrested black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. could make it harder for police to work with people of color, some officers said Thursday.
It could even set back the progress in race relations that helped Obama become the nation's first African-American president, they said.
"What we don't need is public safety officials across the country second-guessing themselves," said David Holway, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which represents 15,000 public safety officials around the country. "The president's alienated public safety officers across the country with his comments."
The Cambridge Police Patrol Officer's Association president also strongly criticized the president's remarks in an interview with The Huffington Post.
"That was totally inappropriate. I am disgraced that he is our commander-in-chief," Stephen Killion said. "He smeared the good reputation of the hard-working men and women of the Cambridge Police Department. It was wrong to do. It was disgraceful," the web site quoted him as saying.
Gates was arrested July 16 by Sgt. James Crowley, who was first to respond to the home the renowned black scholar rents from Harvard, after a woman reported seeing two black men trying to force open the front door. Gates said he had to shove the door open because it was jammed.
He was charged with disorderly conduct after police said he yelled at the white officer, accused him of racial bias and refused to calm down after Crowley demanded Gates show him identification to prove he lived in the home. The charge was dropped Tuesday, but Gates has demanded an apology, calling his arrest a case of racial profiling. - FOX News Story
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Democrats Stopping Information from Getting out to Public?
House Republicans suggested Thursday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is standing in the way of Republicans who want to send constituents a chart that is in the official record of the House Ways and Means Committee.
The chart, recently submitted for the record during a Ways and Means hearing on the Democrats' health care reform bill, shows the Republican interpretation of the Democrats' proposed legislation. The Franking Commission, which is responsible for determining which mailings can be paid for with the congressional frank, or stamp, deemed the mailing unacceptable.
Republican members are scratching their heads at the ruling.
The chart is "part of the official record and now we're told it can't be communicated," said Republican Rep. Dan Lungren of California.
He suggested that the decision to prevent the publication of the chart came from someone higher than the House mail office, perhaps even as high as the speaker's office.
"I've been told it was above the Franking Commission and our committee. This is not accidental," Lungren said.
A spokesman for the House Administration Committee, which has oversight of the House Franking Commission, did not respond to the accusation against Pelosi, but said, "There are ongoing discussions to try and resolve the issue in good faith."
The author of the chart, Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, alleged that Democrats are afraid of the purported visual representation of their reform plan.
"This is the most outrageous example of censorship I have seen in Congress," he said.
Lungren said Republicans were told they would be allowed to mail the chart if they added a disclosure at the top that states the chart "might be inaccurate."
"I would agree to that if it said that on the speaker's rostrum," he said. - FOX News
Obama Stands By Remarks about Stupid Cops
President Obama told ABC News Thursday that he is "surprised" by the controversy that has greeted his comments that the Cambridge police acted "stupidly" in arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. inside his home.
"I think it was a pretty straightforward commentary that you probably don't need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane, who's in his own home," the president said, arguing that Gates should not have been arrested.
Mr. Obama added that he has "extraordinary respect for the difficulties of the job that police officers do." He told ABC that his "suspicion" is "that words were exchanged between the police officer and Mr. Gates and that everybody should have just settled down and cooler heads should have prevailed."
The president said it is his understanding that the sergeant who arrested Gates, James Crowley, is an "outstanding police officer." But he said Crowley made a mistake in arresting "a guy in his own home if he's not causing a serious disturbance."
Crowley, who reportedly teaches a class on racial profiling, has said he is disappointed by the president's position, arguing that "he's way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts, as he himself stated before he made that comment."
Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Hass stood by Crowley in a Thursday afternoon press conference. He said officers "were very much deflated" by the president's comments.
Sgt. Crowley is a stellar member of this department," Hass said. "I don't consider him a rouge cop in any way." - CBS News Story
Town Fires Manager for Being Married to Porn Star
FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. — A South Florida town manager who married a porn star last year was fired at an emergency meeting after the mayor and council members learned about it.
Fort Myers Beach town council voted 5-0 to fire Scott Janke "without cause" after Mayor Larry Kiker called the Tuesday night meeting.
Kiker told the News-Press of Fort Myers he learned that afternoon that Janke's wife is an adult film star, and the elected officials took the action a few hours later.
"We did everything we could not to judge," Kiker told the paper. "It's not about him and her. It's about the town."
Adult Industry News recently reported that Janke's wife, Anabela Mota Janke, goes by the stage name Jazella Moore.
Kiker said a clause in Janke's contract permitted the council to fire him with a majority vote. He said he considers the Jankes friends.
"Our heads are held high," Janke told The Associated Press. "We have nothing to be embarrassed about. We've done nothing wrong."
Janke said the mayor called him before the meeting, but didn't invite him to attend. He said Kiker called after the meeting to tell him the outcome, and Janke said he hasn't heard from him or any council member since. Janke will get a severance package worth six months salary, which comes to about $50,000, plus health benefits.
Janke said he and his wife were married in October and are taking care of their three teenage children. He wouldn't comment on any possible legal action against the town.
Kiker acknowledged that Janke had violated no rules or laws and added that he had done a good job for the island town that had about 6,500 people, according to the 2000 Census. But the mayor was concerned whether Janke could remain effective. - FOX News Story
GOP Attacks Obama on Comments About Cambridge Police
(CNN) – The National Republican Congressional Committee came to the defense of the Cambridge, Massachusetts police officer who arrested black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., attacking President Obama for saying Wednesday night the officer 'acted stupidly.'
In a statement targeting several House Democrats from Massachusetts, NRCC communications director Ken Spain said, "This is certainly a questionable rush to judgment coming from a president who hasn't exactly been quick to call out unconscionable behavior by a merciless foreign dictator or gotten his facts straight before advocating a trillion-dollar mistake to address our ailing economy."
"Is it really presidential for him to cast harsh judgment of a law enforcement official without all the facts?" said Spain.
The statement calls on Massachusetts Democrats to say whether they agree with the president's assessment. The National Republican Senatorial Committee also launched a Web ad Thursday asking whether it was appropriate for Obama to reach a judgment on the matter after he himself admitted he did not know all the facts. - CNN
Cambridge Cop to Obama - Butt Out!
The police officer who arrested a Harvard professor for disorderly conduct said Thursday he wants President Obama, who is the educator's friend, to butt out of the incident.
Cambridge, Mass., Sgt. James Crowley arrested Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his home last week after he responded to a report of two black men attempting to break in to Gates' home.
It turned out that Gates, head of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, had broken into his own home after being unable to find his keys upon his return from a trip to China.
Asked about the incident, Obama, who is friends with the professor and documentary filmmaker, told reporters at a Wednesday night press conference that he didn't know all the facts. But he said, "the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home."
Crowley told WEEI sports radio network that it was "disappointing that (Obama) waded into what should be a local issue that plays out here."
Crowley told the radio station that he supports the president "to a point, I guess."
A police report of the incident written by Officer Carlos Figueroa, who responded to the call with Crowley, says Crowley was already in the house when he walked in. The report says Crowley had asked Gates for some identification and Gates shouted that he would not give any information and called the sergeant a racist.
According to the report, Gates then yelled, "This is what happens to black men in America." When Crowley tried to calm him down, Gates shouted, "You don't know who you're messing with."
The report continues that the shouting went on after Gates and the officers walked out onto the front porch. When Gates allegedly wouldn't cooperate or calm down, Crowley arrested him.
Only in America!
ONLY IN AMERICA .....CAN WE SPEND BILLIONS BECAUSE WE CAN'T LET GM AND CHRYSLER GO BANKRUPT, AND THEN, LET GM AND CHRYSLER GO BANKRUPT.
ONLY IN AMERICA ....CAN CONGRESS FORCE FANNIE AND FREDDIE TO BUY SUB PRIME LOANS, AND THEN BLAME FANNIE AND FREDDIE FOR BUYING SUB PRIME LOANS. THEN FIRE THE CEO's WITH GIANT SEVERANCE PACKAGES AND NATIONALIZE THE COMPANIES SO THE TAX PAYERS CAN PAY OFF ALL THE DEBT!!
ONLY IN AMERICA ....DOES A FINANCIAL CRISIS REQUIRE SWIFT ACTION BY CONGRESS TO PASS A BILL WITHOUT READING IT, THEN THEY GO ON VACATION FOR THREE DAYS BEFORE THE PRESIDENT FINDS THE TIME TO SIGN IT.
ONLY IN AMERICA ....CAN YOU BE LEGALLY, ILLEGAL.
ONLY IN AMERICA ....CAN CONGRESS MAKE LAWS THAT THEY DON'T HAVE TO, OR INTEND TO, FOLLOW.
ONLY IN AMERICA .....DOES VICE PRESIDENT DECLARE 'JOBS' A 3-LETTER WORD.
ONLY IN AMERICA ....CAN YOU GET A TAX REFUND FOR TAXES YOU DIDN'T PAY.
ONLY IN AMERICA ....CAN POLITICIANS BLAME OTHERS FOR THEIR OWN FAILURES.
ONLY IN AMERICA ....CAN YOU HAVE MORE RIGHTS BEING ILLEGAL, THAN YOU DO IF YOU'RE LEGAL
ONLY IN AMERICA ....CAN YOU BE 13 AND HAVE AN ABORTION WITHOUT TELLING YOUR PARENTS, BUT YOU MUST HAVE A WRITTEN NOTE FROM YOUR PARENT EXPLAINING WHY YOU MISSED SCHOOL.
ONLY IN AMERICA ....DO WE WORRY ABOUT 3 GUYS THAT GET WATER UP THEIR NOSES, WHILE THEIR ASSOCIATES ARE BEHEADING CAPTIVES AND BLOWING UP CROWDS OF PEOPLE WITH SUICIDE BOMBERS.
ONLY IN AMERICA ....CAN YOU BECOME PRESIDENT WITHOUT HAVING A BIRTH CERTIFICATE.
ONLY IN AMERICA .... CAN WHATEVER GOES WRONG ALWAYS BE PRESIDENT BUSH'S FAULT.
President Obama's Numbers are Getting Gloomy
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 29% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-six percent (36%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -7 (see trends).
Thirty-one percent (31%) now say the U.S. is heading in the right direction. That’s down nine points from the 2009 peak. Investor confidence is at the lowest level since March. Fifty-three percent (53%) of investors believe the economy is getting worse while just 26% say it is getting better.
Fifty-three percent (53%) now oppose the Congressional health care reform package. That’s up eight points over the past month. Just 20% now see health care as the most important of the President’s priorities. Nearly twice as many, 37%, say deficit reduction is most important. - Rasmussen Reports PollThe reason that you saw the Stimulus happen so fast and support for the Auto Bailout and the Presidents budget, was the Political Capital that Obama had. That capital is disappearing and disappearing fast. He no longer has high approval numbers and Americans are not supporting his plans with high numbers.
Without the long coat tails, Democrats are worrying for their own political capital. They can no longer afford to ride the Obama Wave which is slowly becoming a ripple.
Majority of Americans Believ Obama is a Partisan Democrat
Fifty-three percent (53%) of U.S. voters say President Obama is now governing like a partisan Democrat, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Just 32% say the president is governing in a bipartisan fashion, while 15% are not sure. But it is important to note that the survey was taken prior to the president’s Wednesday prime-time press conference and his expanded effort to sell his health care reform plan. - Rasmussen Reports Poll
Obama - Cambridge Police acted Stupidly
President Obama's comments about the arrest of prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates has added further fuel to the fiery story that has dominated headlines and stirred national discussion about race in America.
When asked about the Gates' case at the end of Wednesday night's prime-time news conference that was intended to be chiefly about health care, the president said, "I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that."
But Obama went on to say, "But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact." - ABC News Story
So, in the eyes of the President, it is justified for you to not cooperate with police, yell and scream at them and just plain be a nuisance without any ramifications because there is a long history of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately?
Why do I get the feeling that instead of Obama's election being a breakthrough in the Glass Ceiling for Raicism in America, we are getting ready to see the progress that has been made quickly reversed? It is this type of attitude that hurts race relations.
Actions are right or wrong no matter what the color of the skin on someone. You can't justify either sides action because of how a particular race has been treated or not treated. That is what creates the divide. Either the actions or right or wrong!
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal - Presidents Push for Health Care Reform is Rhetoric not Reality
"His marketing is the best part of this," the Republican governor said Thursday on CBS' "The Early Show", the morning after Mr. Obama addressed the nation in a prime time news conference aimed at jumpstarting support for his health initiative.
"[Obama] said, he does not want to increase the deficit, does not want government control of health care. He wants people to keep their insurance. He wants to crack down on the abuse, the over utilization. All that's great. The problem is that's not what's in the House Democrat bill. The House Democratic bill increases the deficit by $250 billion [and] increases the burden on employers. Why would we want to do that during one of the worst recessions in decades?"
In his news conference, Mr. Obama emphasized the importance of reform, but pledged that he would not support any plan that increased the federal deficit or placed an economic burden on middle-class families.
Mr. Obama has insisted that a public plan option will increase competition and drive costs down in the private sector. Jindal agreed that the "status quo is not acceptable" but said a government-run plan is not the solution.
"Nobody is defending the status quo," said Jindal, who has been mentioned as a possible GOP presidential candidate in 2012. "We don't want a bureaucrat telling us which treatments we can receive, which providers to go to, how much they'll be paid. We don't want government competition in TV stations, in factories, in stores, in groceries. Why do we think we need government competition in healthcare? Why do we need the government to run a plan to make healthcare work?"
"This is the fundamental issue here. How do you have the government, which is paying for health care, regulating health care, now competing with the private sector?"
Jindal also said the tax penalties for not participating in the plan would place an undue burden on individuals and business owners.
"Look, in the House plan they're talking about an 8 percent tax on employers who don't want to participate [and a] 2.5 percent tax on individuals who don't want to participate. Our top tax rates in many states are going to be higher than what you see in Europe. We don't need to be increasing taxes during these economic times." - CBS News Story
Gates Daughter Stands up for Dad
"My father was so sad about this," Elizabeth Gates, told CBS' "The Early Show" Thursday. She said her father may have been "one of the last black men on earth who actually believed in the justice system."
Henry Gates' arrest came after a neighbor reported a possible burglary. The neighbor allegedly saw Gates force open front door and called the police. The arriving officers demanded that Gates show identification. Gates was arrested shortly afterward for disorderly conduct, a charge that was dropped Tuesday.
Gates said the officer, Sgt. James Crowley, walked into his home without permission and arrested him as the professor followed him to the porch, after repeatedly demanding the sergeant's name and badge number.
Elizabeth Gates, a writer for the Web Site The Daily Beast, described her father as a law abiding citizen upset over his treatment by the Cambridge police.
"My father has always been on the right side of the law," she said. Elizabeth Gates added, "he believes in following the rules."
The incident has drawn lots of attention the past few days with even President Obama weighing in on the case. - CBS News Story
Come on seriously? "one of the last black men on earth who believed in the justice system." Really? Based on the information I have read, he didn't have any belief in the Justice System or the Police. If he would have been cooperative with the Police, the incident would have been resolved within a few minutes.
Sounds like a big song and dance from a man who thinks that he is above all of us average people.
President Calls Police Stupid in Gates Arrest
Well, Mr. President, I think you are the one that is stupid. You have made a habit out of talking about things you don't know about. Gates, a friend of the President, was loud, obnoxious, and racist in his own right which led to his arrest.
Click Here for the police report
Upon reading the reports of the Officers that responded to the scene, Mr. Gates was not cooperative, insisting that they were only there because he was Black. He also threatened them with "you don't know who you are messing with".
After reading the report, I think that the Police handled the situation correctly, and that it is Mr. Gates who was 100% in the wrong.
Obama called the Police on Network TV during a Prime Time News Conference Stupid. Go Figure.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
250 Rabbis Send Letter to Obama - Hands Off Jerusalem
(IsraelNN.com) Heads of the Pikuach Nefesh rabbinical committee have begun collecting the signatures of rabbis in Israel on a letter to United States President Barack Obama. The letter demands that Obama cease talking about ending Jewish construction in Jerusalem and stop pressuring Israel in that direction.
In a reference to the upcoming “nine days” which culminate in Tisha B’Av, the rabbis tell Obama that “during these days, in which the Jewish people mourns the destruction of Jerusalem and marks the disgraceful memory of its destroyers, we are certain that you, Mr. Barack Obama, do not want to enter that disreputable list of those who raise their hand to strike Jerusalem and those who live in it.”
The rabbis note that during his visit to the Middle East, Obama showed impressive erudition” in the Koran. “As one who is familiar with the Koran, you surely know that the city of Jerusalem is not even mentioned in it once,” they said.
Jews pray towards one place
“The Arab and Muslim world never recognized Jerusalem as belonging to it,” the letter went on. “On the other hand, all of the world’s nations knew for thousands of years that the Jews pray towards one place only – the holy city of Jerusalem.”
The rabbinical letter ends with a clear request: “If you, Mr. Obama. Wish to leave any chance at all for peace and quiet in the Middle East, take your hands off the Holy City of Jerusalem right now!” - Israel National News Story
Only 31% Believe Country is Headed in Right Direction
Just 31% of likely voters now believe the United States is heading in the right direction, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Down one point over the past week, it’s the lowest level found on the question since mid-February.
Sixty-three percent (63%) of voters say the country is moving down the wrong track, up a point from last week and the highest finding since the second week in February. This finding is back to the same level it held the week in January that Barack
The percentage of voters who believe the country is moving in the right direction spiked at 40% in early May, hovered around 37% through June and now has been in the low- to mid-30’s the past two weeks. The new finding is up nine points from the week Obama was elected president in November. - Rasmussen Reports Story
Obama White House - House of Secrecy Not Transparency
The Obama Administration is taking more flak today for a lack of transparency regarding White House visitors.
A public interest group is planning a lawsuit after the organization's Freedom of Information Act request for White House visits by health-care executives was rejected by the Secret Service, which cited executive privilege, the LA Times reports.
The Times noted that the rejection conflicts with Obama's pledge to craft a health-care bill in public on C-CSPAN. MyDD and the Plum Line blog argue that it also conflicts with Obama's promise to do "regulatory policymaking" in public. Certainly, it does run against the spirit of that promise, but crafting legislation is not technically "regulatory policymaking."
The more basic campaign pledge Obama is breaking here is this one: "The White House is the people’s house and the people have a right to know who visits." It's still on Obama's campaign website, too.
My recollection from the presidential primary race is the Obama folks kept upping the ante on transparency as they exploited perceptions that Hillary Clinton and her husband ahd a penchant for secrecy. That's why there are at least a couple versions of these transparency pledges floating around. - Politico Story
It is worth noting that just minutes before Obama went on Prime Time, They reluctantly released the information.
Pennsyvania Sen. Arlen Specter's 20 Point Lead Drops to 1 Point
(CNN) — A new poll of Pennsylvania voters suggests that Sen. Arlen Specter's double-digit lead over Republican challenger Pat Toomey in his bid for re-election next year has disappeared.
Forty-five percent of people questioned in a Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday say they'd back Specter if the 2010 election were held today, with 44 percent supporting Toomey. That's a dramatic change from early May, soon after Specter switched from the Republican to Democratic parties, when a Quinnipiac poll indicated Specter held a 20 point lead over Toomey.
By a 49 to 40 percent margin, the poll indicates that Specter does not deserve to be re-elected to a sixth term next year. And 47 percent approve of how Specter's handling his duties as senator, matching his lowest approval rating ever in Quinnipiac polling. Forty-six percent disapprove, the highest disapproval rating ever.
"Sen. Arlen Specter's 20-point lead over former Congressman Pat Toomey less than three months ago has virtually vanished," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "Voters see Sen. Specter much less favorably than they once did and are net negative about giving him a sixth term in the U.S. Senate." - CNNHouse Democrats Dispute Pelosi's Assertion that She has Votes to Pass Health Care
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Indiana Democrat Baron Hill, a Blue Dog congressman negotiating with leaders on health care, disagreed with Speaker Nancy Pelosi's statement Wednesday that Democrats have the votes to pass health care in the House.
"I think the Speaker was well intended because she was hearing optimistic things, but I don't believe there are the votes on the floor as of right now," he said Wednesday.
Hill said he and other Blue Dogs were meeting again Wednesday night with Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman. Hill said they're "making progress," but still have significant issues to resolve. Nancy Ann DeParle from the White House was involved in an earlier meeting with Blue Dogs, he said.
Michigan Rep. Bart Stupak, who is trying to change the bill to make it clear it would not use taxpayer money for abortions, also disagreed with the Speaker.
"It would be easier to fit a camel through the eye of a needle than to pass this bill," said Stupak.
Stupak said Democratic leaders can't lose 40 votes if they want to pass the bill and predicted "she [Pelosi] would lose more than 40 on the right to life issue alone. There's just no way."
Stupak said he doesn't want to block the bill, but wants leaders to agree to add language on the abortion issue before it comes to the House floor. - CNN
Michelle Obama's Patient Dumping Program
Sen. Barack Obama's wife and three close advisers have been involved with a program at the University of Chicago Medical Center that steers patients who don't have private insurance -- primarily poor, black people -- to other health care facilities.
Michelle Obama -- currently on unpaid leave from her $317,000-a-year job as a vice president of the prestigious hospital -- helped create the program, which aims to find neighborhood doctors for low-income people who were flooding the emergency room for basic treatment. Hospital officials say such patients hinder their ability to focus on more critically ill patients in need of specialized care, such as cancer treatment and organ transplants.
Obama's top political strategist, David Axelrod, co-owns the firm, ASK Public Strategies, that was hired by the hospital last year to sell the program -- called the Urban Health Initiative -- to the community as a better alternative for poor patients. Obama's wife and Valerie Jarrett, an Obama friend and adviser who chairs the medical center's board, backed the Axelrod firm's hiring, hospital officials said.
Another Obama adviser and close friend, Dr. Eric Whitaker, took over the Urban Health Initiative when he was hired at U. of C. in October 2007. Whitaker previously had been director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. Obama has said he recommended Whitaker for the state job, giving his name to Tony Rezko, who helped Gov. Blagojevich assemble his Cabinet. Rezko, a former fund-raiser for Obama and Blagojevich, was convicted in June on federal corruption charges tied to state deals. - Chicago Sun Times Story
The First Lady helped create a notorious program that dumped poor patients on community hospitals, yet the national media ignore the story. Imagine if her husband were a Republican.The University of Chicago Medical Center has received a good deal of justly opprobrious press over its policy of "redirecting" low-income patients to community hospitals while reserving its own beds for well-heeled patients requiring highly profitable procedures. Substantial coverage was given to a recent indictment of the program by the American College of Emergency Physicians. ACEP's president, Dr. Nick Jouriles, released a statement suggesting that the initiative comes "dangerously close to ‘patient dumping,' a practice made illegal by the Emergency Medical Labor and Treatment Act, and reflected an effort to ‘cherry pick' wealthy patients over poor." - American Thinker Story
Report to Show Widespread Corruption with ACORN
A new report from Republicans on a House oversight committee accuses ACORN of fraudulent activities and widespread corruption and calls for a criminal investigation into the advocacy group.
ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform, has been under constant fire from conservatives since last year for its support of Barack Obama's presidential candidacy and its planned participation in next year's 2010 census.
But the report -- to be released Thursday by Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and Issa's GOP colleagues -- offers the first detailed account of the allegations that have dogged the organization in recent months.
The executive summary of the report says ACORN provided contributions of financial and personnel resources to indicted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and candidate Obama, among others, in what the report calls a scheme to use taxpayer money to support a partisan political agenda, which would be a clear violation of numerous tax and election laws.
"Both structurally and operationally, ACORN hides behind a paper wall of nonprofit corporate protections to conceal a criminal conspiracy on the part of its directors, to launder federal money in order to pursue a partisan agenda and to manipulate the American electorate," an executive summary of the report reads.
ACORN, which was sent a copy of the executive summary by FOXNews.com, dismissed the report as a "partisan attack job." - FOX News Story
Stars Aligned for Health Care Reform
Facing criticism from both sides of the aisle that he's pushing too hard and fast on health care reform, President Obama on Wednesday defended his "rush" to get it done and said Congress must take advantage of this rare opportunity.
"The stars are aligned," Obama said in prime-time news conference, and the American people are depending on Congress to reach a compromise promptly. He wants a deal by Congress' August recess.
"If you don't set deadlines in this town, things don't happen. The default position is inertia," the president said, singling out his critics for playing political "games" with health care reform.
Reform is critical for rebuilding the economy and controlling the deficit, Obama argued. But with momentum slowing considerably in the effort to reach a deal on time, the president conceded that he wants to "do this right" and said he wouldn't sign a bill that doesn't achieve key objectives like reducing costs.
At the news conference, called to rally support for health care reform, Obama acknowledged that Americans are "understandably queasy" about debt and deficits -- and the impact health care reform would have on both.
Obama used the news conference to try to put skeptics at ease, both inside and outside the Beltway. He said health care reform would not only improve the quality of care they receive at reduced cost but in the long run actually rein in spiraling deficits and debt.
"If we do not control these (health care) costs, we will not be able to control our deficit," he said. - FOX News Story
I hate to say it, but if we are really out to control our defict, WE NEED OBAMA REFORM!!!! TARP, STIMULUS, BUDGET, HEALTH CARE, etc. etc. etc.
Obama Fighting for Health Care as He Drops in Polls
According to Real Clear Politics (Who Averages all the Polls together) has Obama's approval at 55.9% and Disapproval at 38.9%. In just one month Obama ha seen his Approval number drop almost 5% from 60.8%. Even more Troubling for him is that his Disapproval number has shot up more than 6%. He is off drastically from his highs of 65.4% approval and 22.6 Disapproval.
He is banking all his Political Capital left on Health Care which he must hope will rebound him, because the further he drops the more defections you will see from him in his own Party and it could spell doom and gloom at election time for the Democrats.
What could be even more Troubling for the President is that his Party is falling behind in Generic Balloting. RCP has the GOP holding a 4% advantage which has been unheard of in recent years.
Rudy Giuliani - Obama Presidency Worse than Expected
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that President Obama's presidency so far has been "much worse" and "much further to the left" than he had initially expected.
Specifically going after the stimulus plan, the former New York City mayor said most of the money "has been spent for political priorities." He also criticized Obama for bailing out General Motors, saying that in his "worst fears of the Obama administration," he never thought the president would "nationalize" the auto industry.
"It was a massive, unprecedented kind of Christmas tree of Democratic programs that were being supported," Giuliani said in an interview with Wolf Blitzer on the Situation Room. "It was a spending at a level at which I've never seen before. I think what he has added to the debt is catastrophic. I think it will create enormous burdens for our children. And I think it creates the real risk of inflation."
Giuliani also said that Obama's health care plan could have a "destructive impact on the American system as we know it." In a speech to the American Enterprise Institute earlier on Wednesday, Giuliani reportedly suggested that Republicans back down and let the Democrats figure out the specifics.
"I think we should allow the Democrats to battle it out without getting too involved in their battle, because then when we get involved, the media realizes, or at least a big portion of the media realizes, they hate us more and then we become the target," Giuliani said, according to HuffingtonPost.com. "So, if we let them battle it must be something really wrong if Democrats are disagreeing." - CNN
Obama's Treasury Department - Not Transparent and Costing Americans Trillions!
On this week’s ABC News Shuffle podcast, we spoke to Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), who just this week released a report on the whopping potential federal obligation of the bailout and other programs to jumpstart the economy.
You can download the podcast on iTunes or listen to it HERE.
Barofsky told us that the Treasury Department “is not being transparent with respect to the TARP,” the $700 billion in funds (and more) the government is using as loans and bailouts to help stabilize the financial markets. “They’ve failed to adopt some very basic recommendations we’ve had toward transparency,” he said.
Called the “SIGTARP,” Barofsky appeared before Congress this week and told them that the government’s commitment to fix the financial system could potentially reach $23.7 trillion, and criticized the Treasury Department for calling his team’s estimate “inflated.”
“I think that the Treasury Department ought to read the report before they make comments, at least the spokesperson’s office,” Barofsky said. “Our methodology is laid out in black and white in the report. ... As far as the numbers being inflated, where do you think we got the numbers from? We got it from the Treasury Department, we got it from the Federal Reserve. ... If these numbers are inflated, it’s because they inflated them when they put them out in the public, not because of us.”
The inspector general defended the numbers outlined in his report, saying that all his team has done is to “gather the 50 programs, put them in one place, and told the American people what the government has said about the maximum of each of these programs.”
“Perhaps their criticism is that we dare to do math,” he said. He added that his team tried to convince the Treasury that they were wrong, and that recipients should be required to report on how they use the federal funds, and those should be shown to the American people so that they know it’s “not being thrown into a black hole.” - ABC News Story
Senior Senator Walks Away from Health Care Negotiations
A senior Republican senator who sits on the two Senate committees dealing with health care legislation said Wednesday that he is stepping away from the negotiating table, citing concerns about the towering cost of the plans on the table and the lack of bipartisanship.
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah had been part of a bipartisan group of seven lawmakers trying to hash out a health care reform compromise, but he has been absent from the talks for more than a week. He sits on the Finance Committee, where the bill is stuck, and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which approved its version of the package last week.
"I told (Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus) it would probably be better if I didn't come," Hatch told reporters Wednesday. He cited concerns with the cost of the $1 trillion-plus bill, with an employer mandate for coverage which he said would hurt low-income individuals and with a possible expansion of Medicaid beyond what many cash-strapped states would be able to absorb.
Hatch is vehemently opposed to a government-run health insurance plan, an option included in the House and Senate plans. His departure from discussions is just the latest sign that moderate and conservative negotiators are concerned their voices are not being heard in the push to strike a health care reform deal in the next couple weeks.
In a written statement released Wednesday afternoon, Hatch again cited concerns about cost and said he had grown "increasingly concerned" that President Obama and his congressional allies have been "unwilling" to prevent a bipartisan package from being "gutted" on the floor of the Senate or in a conference committee with the House.
He praised Baucus but said "it has become increasingly clear to me that Senator Baucus has not been given the flexibility necessary to construct a realistic health care reform bill that can achieve true bipartisan support."
Hatch told reporters he decided to "stand aside" because he didn't want to "mislead anyone."
He said he's worried that Democratic congressional leaders "really are trying to pass either the House bill or the HELP committee bill."
Obama, who has made daily public pleas for Congress to pass legislation out of both chambers by the August recess, plans to hold a prime-time news conference Wednesday night. - FOX News
American Medical Association in Disarray after Supporting Health Care Bill
As President Obama pushes for passage of his first major domestic policy change, some physicians are waging an all-out war against a health care reform bill they say amounts to nothing more than socialized medicine.
America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 would create a public health insurance alternative and require coverage for most Americans and from most employers.
The American Medical Association -- the nation's largest physician organization with nearly 250,000 members -- initially opposed the president's plan, but backed the House Democrats' version of the bill last week. That has led to an internal dispute that has resulted in some physicians leaving the nation's largest doctors' association.
Some doctors charge the bill will lead to inferior patient care as physician offices around the country triple their patient lists and become forced to ration care.
"This is war," Dr. George Watson, a Kansas physician and president-elect of the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, told FOXNews.com Thursday. "This is a bureaucratic boondoggle to grab control of health care. Everything that has been proposed in the 1,018 page bill will contribute to the ruination of medicine."
Watson said the president's reform bill is loaded with rules and regulations that will ultimately result in shoddy patient care and long waiting lines. He blasted the bill as "insidious" by forcing doctors contracted with Medicare into the nationalized plan -- a "trap" he described as "involuntary servitude." - FOX News Story
Great Explanation of Obama's Plans
That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".
All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.
The second test average was a D!
No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
Could not be any simpler than that.
Wisconsin to Spend Millions of Stimulus Funds on Rail System to No Where
Well, this is awkward. A week after Governor Doyle announces that's he's gone out bought two train sets from Spain, a new report from the Wisconsin center for Investigative journalism raises a series of questions about "high-speed" rail plans here.
Read between the lines: it screams "Boondoggle." Some of the findings:
It would reach downtown Milwaukee, but stop nearly six miles shy of downtown Madison.
Nobody knows how many people would ride.
Yet a proposed high-speed rail line linking Wisconsin’s two largest cities — with a price tag of half a billion dollars — remains at the heart of an intensive campaign by top state officials including Gov. Jim Doyle to land federal stimulus money....
But an investigation by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism students found the state might not be quite ready for rail:
Wisconsin officials haven’t estimated how many passengers would use the system. In fact, state officials say they don’t know how many people currently commute along the route between Milwaukee and Madison. State transportation spokesman Christopher Klein countered that record ridership in Wisconsin on Amtrak, the nation’s passenger rail service, proves the state is ready for more. “Wisconsin doesn’t need to prove we want to ride trains,” Klein said. “We already have.”
Officials in four cities where stops are planned — Brookfield, Madison, Oconomowoc and Watertown — are enthusiastic supporters, but remain unaware of many of the details. Klein said Wisconsin is ahead of most states in planning, but cited a federal report that acknowledged some details aren’t worked out because “states have had little time to prepare for a … program for intercity passenger rail of this magnitude.”
Critics question the viability of the planned stop at the Madison airport, which is nearly six miles from the city’s major destinations. Klein said bringing the train downtown would add half an hour to the trip, which would be “extremely undesirable” for passengers not stopping in Madison.
Late last month, DOT officials told the Center that the state would request $13.8 million for a downtown Madison rail connection. But officials quickly removed the item from the cost estimates provided to the Center, saying the project wasn’t ready for inclusion — raising questions about how firm the state’s plans for passenger rail are.
Other benefits of such projects have been thrown into doubt by a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report that concluded rail projects would have “little impact on the congestion, environmental, energy and other issues that face the U.S. transportation system.”
The description “high-speed” is a misnomer. State transportation officials say the train likely would average about 70 miles per hour the first few years. The new passenger rail service, which would start running around 2013, will take one hour and seven minutes, which DOT officials say shaves an estimated 20 minutes off the driving trip between Wisconsin’s two largest cities when factoring in traffic. One online site that provides driving directions estimates the drive at one hour and 18 minutes. completes additional safety improvements. Doyle announced last week that Wisconsin will buy $47 million in new high-speed rail cars from Talgo for the existing Milwaukee-to-Chicago line. The company, which agreed to locate manufacturing and maintenance facilities in Wisconsin, would be the vendor for additional train sets if Wisconsin secures federal stimulus funding, the governor said. - 620 WTMJ
Obama and Democrats Undermine Security and the CIA
The Obama administration and its congressional supporters committed major blunders last week by canceling, leaking and then deciding to investigate a highly classified program to eliminate al Qaeda leaders. Although much remains hidden from public view, the controversy highlights peculiarities in President Obama's view of his responsibilities as commander in chief.
Consider the legality and morality of using intelligence agencies to try to kill or capture key terrorists. In the post-Watergate congressional frenzy following President Nixon's resignation, House and Senate committees happily exposed formerly covert operations in full detail, including purported assassination plots against foreign leaders.
Although assassination attempts had hardly been commonplace and rarely had succeeded, Democratic legislators nonetheless mounted a substantial effort to prohibit them. President Ford countered with an executive order generally to the effect of blocking such actions in order to avert even more draconian Hill action. Mr. Ford succeeded, with the added advantage that his order and subsequent modifications were worded carefully to keep open the assassination option, at least in some circumstances.
Today, many in Congress are again saying they are outraged at the possibility of "targeted killings" of al Qaeda leaders by U.S. intelligence operatives. Why this should be so is puzzling. America's military forces have properly and legitimately been hard at work killing terrorists and destroying their capabilities since the murderous attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Obviously, however, in the war on terror, al Qaeda leaders do not conveniently dispose themselves on military battlefields, so the intelligence community's clandestine efforts appear perfectly suited to the "war in the shadows" that terrorists typically employ very well. Surely the terrorists care little whether they are being killed by CIA agents disguised as peasants or by grunts in camouflage uniforms and dirty combat boots.
America was attacked with deadly force on Sept. 11 and before, and we are entitled to respond in self-defense, including using deadly force, until the threat from the terrorists and their state sponsors is ended. - Washington Times Commentary
Republicans Highest in Generic Congressional Poll in 2 Years - Democrats Lowest
Support for Republican congressional candidates has reached its highest level in over two years as the GOP lengthens its lead over Democrats in the latest edition of the Generic Ballot.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 42% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 38% would opt for the Democratic candidate.
Support for Republican candidates rose two points over the past week, while support for Democratic candidates is up one point. Last week, support for Democrats fell to its lowest level in over two years. - Rasmussen Reports Story
Majority of Americans Now Oppose Health Care Bill
The health care reform legislation working its way through Congress has lost support over the past month. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% of U.S. voters are at least somewhat in favor of the reform effort while 53% are at least somewhat opposed.
Today’s 44% level of support is down from 46% two weeks ago, and 50% in late June.
Opposition has grown from 45% in late June to 49% two weeks ago and 53% today.
As in earlier surveys, those with strong opinions are more likely to oppose the plan rather than support it. The current numbers: 24% strongly favor and 37% strongly oppose. - Rasmussen Report Story
Obama Taking Over Prime Time for Health Care - Majority Oppose
"I want to keep the pressure on because we're making steady progress," Mr. Obama said Tuesday in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric.
There has been some legislative progress, but support for Mr. Obama and his health care plan is slipping as reflected by recent polls and Congressional head counts.
The president spent an hour yesterday with so-called Blue Dogs, conservative Democrats concerned about the cost of the health care plan, the tax hikes needed to pay for it and projections it will send annual deficits and the national debt soaring.
"There's a number of potential cost-cutting measures, which I think the American people expect before we consider any kind of new revenue," said Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., one of the Blue Dogs to meet with Mr. Obama. Ross said taxpayers "want us to squeeze every ounce of savings that we can out of the current system."
A Washington Post/ABC News poll Monday, showed support for President Obama’s handing of the health care issue at 49 percent, down from 57 percent in April. - CBS News Story
Senate Set to Vote on Concealed Weapons
Under an agreement of Senate leaders, 60 votes were needed to pass the measure, an amendment to a defense spending bill, and the outcome was uncertain. But the gun rights lobby, putting together Republicans and pro-gun Democrats from rural states, has a strong winning record in recent years.
Backers, led by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., say truckers and others with concealed weapons permits should be able to protect themselves when they cross into other states. Opponents say the measure would force states with strict procedures for getting permits to accept permits from states with more lax laws.
The provision, Thune said, will ensure that the nation's 5 million concealed-carry permit holders can travel through the 48 states allowing concealed weapons without infringements on their fundamental rights. Only Illinois and Wisconsin have no concealed weapons laws.
But Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said the proposal would allow people from states that give permits to people with alcohol problems, or child abuse convictions, or which don't require any firearms training, to carry concealed guns in states with rigorous conditions for issuing permits.
"The visitors can ignore the law of the state, the law that the elected representatives of the people of that state have enacted," he said.
The gun proposal would make concealed weapons permits from one state valid in other states as long as the person obeys the laws of other states, such as weapons bans in certain localities. It does not establish national standards for concealed weapons permits and would not allow those with permits to carry weapons into Wisconsin and Illinois. - CBS News Story
Obama Says NO Healthcare for Illegals
"First of all, I'd like to create a situation where we're dealing with illegal immigration, so that we don't have illegal immigrants," he said. "And we've got legal residents or citizens who are eligible for the plan. And I want a comprehensive immigration plan that creates a pathway to achieve that."
"The one exception that I think has to be discussed is how are we treating children," he continued. "Partly because if you've got children who may be here illegally but are still in playgrounds or at schools, and potentially are passing on illnesses and communicable diseases, that aren't getting vaccinated, that I think is a situation where you may have to make an exception." - CBS News Story
The trick will be to keep this promise, or is it just cheap talk to get votes?
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Democrats Offering Bribe to Doctors for Support on Health Care
WASHINGTON -- House Democrats want to give doctors a $245 billion sweetener that helps ensure their critical support for a health care overhaul bill. Next up: Trying to explain how they could do it without breaking President Barack Obama's promise that health legislation won't increase the federal deficit.
Obama reiterated the pledge in a "CBS Evening News" interview Tuesday, saying: "It's got to be deficit neutral. It can't add to our deficits."
So what of the Congressional Budget Office's conclusion that the House bill does add to the deficit?
Democrats and the Obama administration argue that the $245 billion included for doctors -- the approximate 10-year cost of adjusting Medicare reimbursement rates so physicians don't face big annual pay cuts -- does not have to be counted in the overall cost of the health care bill.
Their only-in-Washington reasoning is that they already decided to exempt it from congressional "pay-as-you-go" rules that require new programs to be paid for. In other words, it doesn't have to be paid for because they decided it doesn't have to be paid for.
The administration also says that since Obama already included the so-called "doc fix" in his 10-year budget proposal, it doesn't have to be counted again in the health overhaul bill. - FOX News Story
Public Losing Trust in Obama and Democrats
Trust in President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies to identify the right solutions to problems facing the country has dropped off significantly since March, according to a new Public Strategies Inc./POLITICO poll.
Just as Obama intensifies his efforts to fulfill a campaign promise and reach an agreement with Congress on health care reform, the number of Americans who say they trust the president has fallen from 66 percent to 54 percent. At the same time, the percentage of those who say they do not trust the president has jumped from 31 to 42.
The president’s party has taken a similar hit since the last Public Trust Monitor poll, with only 42 percent of respondents saying that they trust the Democratic Party, compared with 52 percent who do not. The party’s numbers are nearly the inverse of March’s survey, in which 52 percent said they trusted Democrats and 42 percent did not.
Obama’s personal approval rating has fallen below 60 percent in a number of recent major polls, and according to a Washington Post/ABC News survey out Monday, support for the president’s leadership on several key issues has fallen below 50 percent. - Politico Story
Democrat Leader Attacks GOP for Not Supporting Health Care - Struggling with Own Party
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid followed President Barack Obama's lead today in blasting Republicans for opposing a plan to overhaul the nation’s health care system and create a government-subsidized insurance program.
“On something as important as health care you would think people would be interested in working together,” Reid told reporters Tuesday. “Republicans aren’t interested in working with Democrats. That’s pretty clear.”
Reid went on to excoriate Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) for asserting earlier that failure to pass health care reform would “break” Obama, and he took on Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele for a National Press Club speech Steele delivered yesterday criticizing Obama’s plan.
“What’s his name?” Reid asked, referring to Steele.
“Let’s step back after these brilliant statements made by my Republican colleagues,” Reid added. “The party of no is hoping that we trip and fall.”
Yet Reid still has trouble in his own caucus, as Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has yet to produce a consensus on how to pay for health reform.
And Reid would not commit to passing a health care bill by the August recess. He went on to say he was hopeful that the long-awaited completion of the Senate Finance Committee bill would be completed this week and that a markup would begin on Saturday. - Politico Story
Democrats Lowering Expectations on Health Care Deadline
President Obama may have ratcheted up his rhetoric on health care reform, but late today it appeared Democratic support was wavering for the president's goal of passing health care bills in the House and Senate before the August recess.
"Members have concerns, and they're not just Blue Dogs," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters today, referring to the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition of House Democrats. "I want to make it very clear that there's progressives, Blue Dogs and everybody in between who have expressed concerns, and we're working on that."
Hoyer said there is still disagreement about proposed tax increases on the wealthy and the option of a government-run insurance program that would compete with private plans.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., expressed similar concerns over Obama's August deadline. "No one wants to tell the Speaker [Nancy Pelosi] that she's moving too fast and they damn sure don't want to tell the president," Rangel told another lawmaker, according to The Associated Press.
On the other end of Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has consistently said that a bill will be passed in the Senate by the August recess, today shifted his tone, telling reporters, "The goal is not deadlines; the goal is comprehensive health care reform."
Reid said today that Obama is the quarterback when it comes to reforming the health care system. "He's been calling the plays," he told reporters. - ABC News Story
Are you kidding me. Grow a set and tell them! You are sent to Capitol Hill to Represent the Speaker of the House or the President! You are there for the people in your district. If things are moving to fast, it is your JOB to tell them, slow down and get it right at least in your mind.
The President and The Speaker are just big bullies, the rest of these people are wimps. Stand up to the Bullies and do things the way it is suppose to be, not the way the President and Speaker want it.
Holy $%#%, I can not believe this load of crappy crap crap.