How Far America Has Fallen - A Cross on Public Land Goes to the Supreme Court

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Wednesday that a lower court went too far in ordering the removal of a congressionally endorsed war memorial cross from its longtime home atop a remote outcropping in California.

Signaling support for keeping the cross, the justices ordered the federal court in California to look again at Congress' plan to transfer a patch of federal land beneath it into private hands.

The lower court had barred the land transfer as insufficient to eliminate concern about a religious symbol on public land — in this case, the Mojave National Preserve.

The ruling was 5-4, with the court's conservatives in the majority.

The VFW erected the large cross in the federal preserve more than 75 years ago. - FOX News Story

Lawmakers Push for National Guard Troops Along US/Mexico Border

Democratic and Republican lawmakers from border states are asking President Barack Obama to send National Guard troops to the southern border—and to allow them to shoot back.

“We urge you to deploy the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border, as has been requested by a number of border state governors,” the group of lawmakers wrote to Obama Wednesday. “Any National Guard troops that are deployed…should be armed and allowed to defend themselves if fired upon or attacked.”

The letter was spearheaded by Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) and signed by Democratic Reps. Gabrielle Giffords (Ariz.) and Harry Teague (N.M.), among others.

The move echoes calls from Arizona’s Republican senators, John McCain and Jon Kyl, to send 3,000 troops to the state’s southern border after the murder of rancher Rob Krentz.

The request is also backed by the National Border Patrol Council, the section of the AFL-CIO union that represents border patrol employees.

This letter is also the latest salvo in the accelerating debate on immigration, especially in wake of a new Arizona law that requires police to ask people for citizenship papers if they have a “reasonable suspicion” that someone is in the U.S. illegally. McCain, who had been a moderate voice on immigration, has backed the law, calling it a “step forward” and a “good tool.”

Giffords has also stepped carefully around the law, calling it a response to “frustration” with Washington’s failure to secure the southern border. - Politico Story

Third Straight Day Gop Stalls Finance Bill and Picks up a Democrat Vote

For the third consecutive day, Republicans united to block a Wall Street reform bill from hitting the Senate floor as frustrations grew over the pace of negotiations – with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) labeling the GOP “un-American” for blocking the bill.

The vote was 56 to 42, with Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) voting no for a third day, saying that his requested changes haven’t been made to the bill.

Leaders from both parties continued to trade barbs leading up to the procedural vote, even as top negotiators planned to proceed with their talks to find resolution on major policy points, including provisions on "too big to fail banks," derivatives and a new consumer financial protection agency.

But senators on both sides of the aisle grew irritated Wednesday as a comprehensive deal appeared less and less likely.

"Even some Democrats would like to offer amendments on this bill. All of this talk from Republicans about wanting to do something about this bill before it gets on the floor is really anti-Senate and anti-American," Reid said in a news conference just minutes before the vote. - Politico Story

Finance Regulation Stalls on Second Vote in Two Days

Democrats once again failed to corral the 60 votes needed to advance their Wall Street regulation bill Tuesday, as Republicans held together for the second day in a row to prevent the Senate from starting debate on the package.

The 57-41 vote was the same as the night before. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to call for yet another vote on Wednesday.

The exercise could end up affecting the ongoing negotiations between Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. The two are trying to reach a compromise, and Shelby has said he's hopeful a deal can be reached.

But with Democrats slamming Republicans for voting against the package, one senior Republican aide told Fox News that Reid's push for daily votes could have an effect on whether Shelby decides to introduce his own Republican bill.

"We will have to see how Harry's vote-a-thon affects the dynamic," the aide said. - FOX News Story

Could Cuts to Social Security Help Close Budget Deficit?

Interest groups are sounding the alarm that President Obama's newly created debt commission could start hacking away at Social Security benefits in the name of closing the budget gap.

As the 18-member panel held its first meeting, top executives from seniors groups and other organizations called for full transparency in its negotiations in the months ahead and urged the commission to consider the implications of putting entitlement programs on the chopping block. Some activists also criticized the commission's co-chairmen for planning to attend a fiscal summit Wednesday in Washington hosted by billionaire banker Peter Peterson, known for his criticism of Social Security.

"Social Security is important not just to seniors, but to their children and grandchildren," Donna Butts, director of Generations United, said in a written statement. The National Council of La Raza noted the importance of the entitlement program to Latino communities. Paralyzed Veterans of America noted the importance of the program to veterans.

Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future, said in a statement that Peterson's summit on Wednesday is part of an "endless campaign to gut Social Security and Medicare." - FOX News Story

Media - White House is thin-skinned, controlling, eager to go over their heads

One of the enduring storylines of Barack Obama’s presidency, dating back to the earliest days of his candidacy, is that the press loves him.

“Most of you covered me. All of you voted for me,” Obama joked last year at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

But even then, only four months into his presidency, the joke fell flat. Now, a year later, with another correspondents’ dinner Saturday night likely to generate the familiar criticism of the press’s cozy relationship with power, the reality is even more at odds with the public perception.

President Obama and the media actually have a surprisingly hostile relationship – as contentious on a day-to-day basis as any between press and president in the last decade, reporters who cover the White House say.

Reporters say the White House is thin-skinned, controlling, eager to go over their heads and stingy with even basic information. All White Houses try to control the message. But this White House has pledged to be more open than its predecessors – and reporters feel it doesn’t live up to that pledge in several key areas:

— Day-to-day interaction with Obama is almost non-existent, and he talks to the press corps far less often than Bill Clinton or even George W. Bush did. Clinton took questions nearly every weekday, on average. Obama barely does it once a week.

— The ferocity of pushback is intense. A routine press query can draw a string of vitriolic emails. A negative story can draw a profane high-decibel phone call – or worse. Some reporters feel like they’ve been frozen out after crossing the White House. - Politico Story

Arizona Had No Choice - Federal Government Not Doing Anything

PHOENIX -- Arizona had to pass a tough immigration law because the Obama administration failed to "secure our borders," Arizona Sen. John McCain said Tuesday.

Calling the situation in his state "the worst I've ever seen," McCain said drugs are pouring into the southwestern United States from Mexico because of ineffective border enforcement.

Arizona Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill Friday to give state police the authority to question whether an individual is in the United States legally and would consider it a crime for people to be unlawfully in the state. She said she was forced to act because Washington has failed to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs from Mexico.

But opponents of the law, who have staged protests in the capital of Phoenix since last week, used refried beans to smear swastikas on the state Capitol and have demanded a boycott of the state, are taking their case to court for a judge to decide whether the state can enforce federal laws.

"If you look or sound foreign, you are going to be subjected to never-ending requests for police to confirm your identity and to confirm your citizenship," said Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, which is exploring legal action.

President Obama has also questioned the legal authority for Arizona to enforce federal law, arguing it would be a violation of civil rights for state law enforcement to question the legality of an individual's residency.

But McCain told CBS's "The Early Show" that he's talked to law enforcement officials and believes the new law can be implemented "without racial profiling," a chief concern of opponents.

He added that over a million pounds of marijuana were intercepted on the border at Tucson just in the last year.

Separately, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer agreed Tuesday that the federal government hasn't secured the border with Mexico

"I think they’re right," said Hoyer. "The Feds haven't done their job."

Currently, many U.S. police departments do not ask about people's immigration status unless they have run afoul of the law in some other way. Many departments say stopping and questioning people will only discourage immigrants from cooperating to solve crimes.

Under the new Arizona law, immigrants unable to produce documents showing they are allowed to be in the U.S. could be arrested, jailed for up to six months and fined $2,500. That is a significant escalation of the typical federal punishment for being here illegally -- deportation.

People arrested by Arizona police would be turned over to federal immigration officers. Opponents said the federal government could thwart the law by refusing to accept them. - FOX News Story

Retired Navy Man age 95 - Letter to Obama

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WW II Battleship sailor tells Obama to shape up or ship out ! This venerable and much honored WW II vet is well known in Hawaii for his seventy-plus years of service to patriotic organizations and causes all over the country. A humble man without a political bone in his body, he has never spoken out before about a government official, until now. He dictated this letter to a friend, signed it and mailed it to the president.

Dear President Obama,

My name is Harold Estes, approaching 95 on December 13 of this year. People meeting me for the first time don't believe my age because I remain wrinkle free and pretty much mentally alert.

I enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1934 and served proudly before, during and after WW II retiring as a Master Chief Bos'n Mate. Now I live in a "rest home" located on the western end of Pearl Harbor , allowing me to keep alive the memories of 23 years of service to my country.

One of the benefits of my age, perhaps the only one, is to speak my mind, blunt and direct even to the head man.

So here goes.

I am amazed, angry and determined not to see my country die before I do, but you seem hell bent not to grant me that wish.

I can't figure out what country you are the president of.

You fly around the world telling our friends and enemies despicable lies like:

" We're no longer a Christian nation"

" America is arrogant" - (Your wife even

announced to the world," America is mean-

spirited. " Please tell her to try preaching

that nonsense to 23 generations of our

war dead buried all over the globe who

died for no other reason than to free a

whole lot of strangers from tyranny and

hopelessness.)

I'd say shame on the both of you, but I don't think you like America, nor do I see an ounce of gratefulness in anything you do, for the obvious gifts this country has given you. To be without shame or gratefulness is a dangerous thing for a man sitting in the White House.

After 9/11 you said," America hasn't lived up to her ideals."

Which ones did you mean? Was it the notion of personal liberty that 11,000 farmers and shopkeepers died for to win independence from the British? Or maybe the ideal that no man should be a slave to another man, that 500,000 men died for in the Civil War? I hope you didn't mean the ideal 470,000 fathers, brothers, husbands, and a lot of fellas I knew personally died for in WWII, because we felt real strongly about not letting any nation push us around, because we stand for freedom.

I don't think you mean the ideal that says equality is better than discrimination. You know the one that a whole lot of white people understood when they helped to get you elected.

Take a little advice from a very old geezer, young man.

Shape up and start acting like an American. If you don't, I'll do what I can to see you get shipped out of that fancy rental on Pennsylvania Avenue . You were elected to lead not to bow, apologize and kiss the hands of murderers and corrupt leaders who still treat their people like slaves.

And just who do you think you are telling the American people not to jump to conclusions and condemn that Muslim major who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounded dozens more. You mean you don't want us to do what you did when that white cop used force to subdue that black college professor in Massachusetts , who was putting up a fight? You don't mind offending the police calling them stupid but you don't want us to offend Muslim fanatics by calling them what they are, terrorists.

One more thing. I realize you never served in the military and never had to defend your country with your life, but you're the Commander-in-Chief now, son. Do your job. When your battle-hardened field General asks you for 40,000 more troops to complete the mission, give them to him. But if you're not in this fight to win, then get out. The life of one American soldier is not worth the best political strategy you're thinking of.

You could be our greatest president because you face the greatest challenge ever presented to any president.

You're not going to restore American greatness by bringing back our bloated economy. That's not our greatest threat. Losing the heart and soul of who we are as Americans is our big fight now.

And I sure as hell don't want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle...

Sincerely,

Harold B. Estes

Obama - "the vast majority of the money I got was from small donors all across the country." - FALSE!

New financial regulations are pending in Congress, but both political parties get a lot of campaign contributions from the people they intend to regulate -- Wall Street.

The financial sector donates millions to both Republican and Democratic candidates. And during the last couple of election cycles, Democrats have outstripped Republicans, who have traditionally been thought of as more business friendly. Those political realities have made for interesting dynamics as the negotiations on financial regulation continue.

President Barack Obama answered questions on this topic in an interview with CNBC's John Harwood on April 21, 2010.

"In the 2008 campaign, you got a lot of money, about $1 million from employees of Goldman Sachs," Harwood said. "Your former White House counsel Greg Craig is apparently going to represent Goldman Sachs. In light of this case, do either of those things embarrass you?"

"No," Obama said. "First of all, I got a lot of money from a lot of people. And the vast majority of the money I got was from small donors all across the country. And moreover, anybody who gave me money during the course of my campaign knew that I was on record again in 2007, and 2008, pushing very strongly that we needed to reform how Wall Street did business. And so, nobody should be surprised in the position that I'm taking now because it is one that I was very clear about in the course of the campaign."

What jumped out at us in this exchange was Obama's statement, "the vast majority of the money I got was from small donors all across the country." We've seen that statement repeated elsewhere, but the evidence doesn't back it up. - Politifact

Financial Reform Bill - "Will End to big to Fail" or Maybe Not

The battle over financial reform continued on the Sunday morning shows on April 25, 2010, including the pivotal question of whether a pending bill in the Senate would end the notion that some giant financial services companies could receive special government protection because they are "too big to fail."

On ABC's This Week, for instance, Austan Goolsbee, a member of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, told host Jake Tapper, "Well, the president is totally committed, and it's one of his key principles that we're going to end too-big-to-fail, we're going to end the bailout era that began under the last president, for good. That's not going to happen anymore." Meanwhile, on NBC's Meet the Press, Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said that when it comes to the question of too big to fail, "We're going to shut that down forever."

On This Week, Tapper asked Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, "Sen. Brown, let me ask you a question about the legislation itself. I have a copy of it here, and it says right at the top of the bill that the purpose is to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end too-big-to-fail, and for other purposes. Sen. Brown, does this bill end too-big-to-fail?"

Brown responded, "Yes, it does." - Politifact