Obama Waives Ethics Rules Again

When Bob Bauer replaced Greg Craig last year as White House counsel, it seemed inevitable that he’d be working on some of the same issues he had in his previous job as President Barack Obama’s personal and campaign lawyer.

So late Friday afternoon, in recognition of that reality, the White House issued Bauer a waiver to ethics rules established by Obama that prohibit officials in his administration from working on issues affecting their former clients for two years.

Those rules would have prevented Bauer “from performing roles that someone in the Counsel’s position ordinarily performs” and, therefore, neither “make sense” nor are they “in the public interest,” wrote White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen in a post on the White House blog.

Eisen, who works under Bauer and wrote the waiver, stressed that it is limited, applying only to Bauer’s work at the powerhouse Democratic firm Perkins Coie as a private lawyer for the Obama family, and for the Democratic National Committee.

Bauer also served as the top lawyer for Obama’s presidential campaign and his confluence of positions made him a powerful member of Obama’s inner circle as well as the most influential Democratic election lawyer in town until he replaced Craig in November. - Politico Story

FEMA Broke - Obama Needs More Money

With a flooded Tennessee becoming the latest disaster to strike the United States, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is confronting its own emergency as its relief funds run perilously low.

Last month, FEMA Director W. Craig Fugate wrote a letter to Congress warning that its relief fund had fallen to $693 million as of April 7 but the agency owed $645 million to 47 states for past disasters. That doesn't include the $1.7 billion settlement the agency owes to the Gulf Coast state and city governments for Hurricane Katrina.

Now FEMA is handing out money to the residents of Tennessee after deadly floods ravaged the region last weekend.

FEMA has already approved $4.1 million in individual assistance and more than 16,200 Tennesseans had registered with FEMA for disaster assistance by Saturday morning with 650 inspections complete.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday that FEMA will probably need a shot of supplemental funding. The administration is seeking $5.1 billion in emergency funding from Congress. - FOX News Story

Obama Touts Health Care Helping Millions - But, It isn't In Effect Yet?

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said Saturday that millions of Americans already are reaping benefits from the new health care law, including tax breaks for some small businesses

and help for families with young adults.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama vigorously defended the new law, which passed Congress with no Republican votes and continues to stir strong emotions nationwide. He acknowledged that many provisions will not take effect for years. But he said others are helping some families now.

Four million small business owners and organizations have been told of a possible health care tax cut this year, Obama said. On June 15, some elderly people with high prescription drug costs will receive $250 to help fill the so-called doughnut hole in Medicare's pharmaceutical benefits.

"Already we are seeing a health care system that holds insurance companies more accountable and gives consumers more control," the president said. - FOX News Story

Obama's Change Requires Him to Subvert The Constitution

Barack Obama promised to “fundamentally transform” America as our nation’s president. That’s not surprising, because in various ways most presidential candidates say they will do just that.

But it’s different with President Obama, because his plans, dreams, and vision for the United States are irreconcilably at odds with the most important thing our nation’s Founders gave us and hoped for us to keep safe forever: our Constitution. The Constitution of the United States stands in the way of what Barack Obama wants to do.

For Obama to remake our country into what he wants it to be, he must subvert the Supreme Law of the Land.

Key parts of the Constitution are designed to protect us from our own government. Obama knows he must execute an aggressive strategy to disarm those constitutional safeguards, to free himself from its constraints so that he can truly “fundamentally transform” this nation.

And that’s what he’s doing. - The Blue Print Book

Is Greece a Preview of America? Maybe, If we Don't Quit Spending Money We don't Have

While Barack Obama was making his latest pitch for a brand new, even more unsustainable entitlement at the health care "summit," thousands of Greeks took to the streets to riot. An enterprising cable network might have shown the two scenes on a continuous split-screen - because they're part of the same story. It's just that Greece is a little further along in the plot: They're at the point where the canoe is about to plunge over the falls. America is further upstream and can still pull for shore, but has decided, instead, that what it needs to do is catch up with the Greek canoe. Chapter One (the introduction of unsustainable entitlements) leads eventually to Chapter 20 (total societal collapse): The Greeks are at Chapter 17 or 18.

What's happening in the developed world today isn't so very hard to understand: The 20th century Bismarckian welfare state has run out of people to stick it to. In America, the feckless insatiable boobs in Washington, Sacramento, Albany and elsewhere are screwing over our kids and grandkids. In Europe, they've reached the next stage in social democratic evolution: There are no kids or grandkids to screw over. The United States has a fertility rate of around 2.1 – or just over two kids per couple. Greece has a fertility rate of about 1.3: 10 grandparents have six kids have four grandkids – i.e., the family tree is upside down. Demographers call 1.3 "lowest-low" fertility – the point from which no society has ever recovered. And, compared with Spain and Italy, Greece has the least-worst fertility rate in Mediterranean Europe.

So you can't borrow against the future because, in the most basic sense, you don't have one. Greeks in the public sector retire at 58, which sounds great. But, when 10 grandparents have four grandchildren, who pays for you to spend the last third of your adult life loafing around?

By the way, you don't have to go to Greece to experience Greek-style retirement: The Athenian "public service" of California has been metaphorically face down in the ouzo for a generation. Still, America as a whole is not yet Greece. A couple of years ago, when I wrote my book "America Alone," I put the Social Security debate at that time in a bit of perspective: On 2005 figures, projected public pensions liabilities were expected to rise by 2040 to about 6.8 percent of GDP. In Greece, the figure was 25 percent: in other words, head for the hills, Armageddon outta here, The End. Since then, the situation has worsened in both countries. And, really, the comparison is academic: Whereas America still has a choice, Greece isn't going to have a 2040 – not without a massive shot of Reality Juice. - Politico

White House Spin Machine Being Questions on Oil Spill Reaction

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Questions continue to mount about the administration's sluggish response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Now in response, some of its highest ranking members are insisting they are absolutely on top of things and have been from day one.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

JANET NAPOLITANO, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: We had DOD resources there from day one.

NAPOLITANO: From day one they were already pre-deploying vessels and boom.

NAPOLITANO: The Navy has been onsite from day one.

NAPOLITANO: From day one we were prepositioning more than 70 vessels.

NAPOLITANO: They actually have been there from day one.

NAPOLITANO: From day one.

NAPOLITANO: From day one.

NAPOLITANO: From day one.

KEN SALAZAR, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR: From day one.

SALAZAR: From day one we've been preparing for the worst case scenario.

SALAZAR: They've been working really from day one to try to figure out a way of stopping it.

SALAZAR: The president has directed from day one that we spare nothing at all in terms of the effort to prevent damage onshore.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HANNITY: Alright, now even at this point The New York Times is calling attention to the administration's inadequate response, quote, "The federal government had opportunities to move more quickly but did not do so while it waited for a resolution to the spreading spill from BP."

Now that only that but the former manager of oil spill cleanup at the government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association revealed that the government actually has a plan to deal with oil spills that was not activated even though it was preapproved for immediate use.

Quote, "They had preapproval. The whole reason the plan was created was so that we could pull the trigger right away instead of waiting 10 days to get permission."

And if that wasn't enough, the White House is now saying that this spill may jeopardize plans it had announced earlier this year for offshore drilling.

I knew it wouldn't take long for them to politicize the issue.

And joining me now with reaction is the author of the book — brand-new book, it's called "Power Grab," Chris Horner. And Eco Entrepreneur, clean tech investor, Howard Gould is with us.

Guys, welcome aboard.

You know, back to this guy from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, because his comments are even more devastating than that. He said they probably didn't have the materials on hand to conduct the burn because the plan was — which they had preapproved — that they could burn this oil off so it wouldn't get onshore.

That they didn't implement it. And they didn't have the materials there. And he says it's unconscionable. Is he right? - FOX News Story

Obama Administration Official Rushed to Oil Spill Site - Two Days Late and After White-water Rafting

The interior secretary's chief of staff went on a trip to the Grand Canyon last week as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico worsened, marking the second time in recent months that a top-level official has taken off in the middle of a major security incident.

Tom Strickland, who serves as chief of staff to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, had to cut his trip short as the administration upped its response to the spill. A Park Service helicopter was used to airlift him out of the canyon and bring him directly to the Gulf.

ABC News first reported that Strickland was on the trip with his wife and that it included a white-water rafting excursion.

But Interior Department spokeswoman Julie Rodriguez said Strickland, who is also the assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, is responsible in that role for overseeing Grand Canyon National Park and Colorado River management. She said the trip last week was an "official" visit.

"As part of his official duties as assistant secretary, he participated in an official trip to the Grand Canyon to investigate issues related to that park's management," she said in a written statement.

She said the review covered everything from beach erosion to safety to wilderness management and that Strickland was accompanied by National Park Service staff members. She noted that spouses on the trip "covered their own personal expenses."

Rodriguez said Strickland was in "constant contact by satellite phone" with headquarters and other operations in the Gulf but that he "cut short the trip" after two and a half days so he could be in the Gulf to "oversee and help accelerate" response efforts. - FOX News Story

School Sends Students Home for American Flag Shirt - Now Tensions are Increasing

Tensions are rising at a California high school where five students were sent home for wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo.

More than 200 Hispanic students reportedly skipped class on Thursday and marched to school district headquarters while chanting "we want respect" and "si se puedes" -- "yes we can" -- the Morgan Hill Times reported.

"We did this to support the Latino/Hispanic community," Francine Roa, a 2005 Live Oak High School graduate, told the newspaper.

At least six Morgan Hill police vehicles traveled alongside the students, many of whom carried Mexican flags. No arrests were made related to the march, the newspaper reported.

Police have been told to be on alert for gang-related retaliation against the boys, according to Ken Jones, whose stepson, Daniel Galli, was one of the students who refused to turn their T-shirts inside-out when asked by a vice principal on Wednesday.

"We just want this whole thing to die down," Jones told FoxNews.com. "We're not trying to keep these flames firing."

The five teens -- Galli, Austin Carvalho, Matt Dariano, Dominic Maciel and Clayton Howard -- were sitting at a table outside Live Oak High School Wednesday morning when Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez asked two of them to remove their American flag bandannas, one of the boys' parents told FoxNews.com. The youths complied, but were asked to accompany Rodriguez to the principal's office.

The students were then told they must turn their T-shirts inside-out or be sent home, though it would not be considered a suspension. Rodriguez told the students he did not want any fights to break out between Mexican-American students celebrating their heritage and those wearing American flags, the parent said.

But Jones said the preemptive action was unnecessary, and that Rodriguez "overstepped his bounds."

"The issue was, there was nothing going on," Jones told Fox News on Friday. "There was no sense of violence at all amongst the students, there was no conversation, there was no bullying.

"We just feel like the vice principal overstepped his bounds. He jumped in too quickly. We can understand he might be concerned something would happen, but there was no indication that was going to happen at all."

Officials at the high school, a 1,300-student institution in Santa Clara County, near San Jose, have not returned several messages seeking comment.

As of late Thursday, Jones said the five boys' parents have no plans to sue the school or Morgan Hill Unified School District, which has characterized the incident as "extremely unfortunate" and is conducting an ongoing investigation. Several attorneys have contacted the families offering to represent them pro bono, Jones said. - FOX News Story

Majority of Americans Support Arizona Immigration Law

Most American voters think Arizona was right to pass its own immigration law, and think the Obama administration should wait and see how the new law works rather than try to stop it, according to a Fox News poll released Friday.

The new poll finds 61 percent of voters nationally think Arizona was right to take action instead of waiting for the federal government to do something on immigration. That's more than twice as many as the 27 percent who think securing the border is a federal responsibility and Arizona should have waited for Washington to act.

Most Republicans (77 percent) and independents (72 percent) support Arizona taking action. Democrats are divided: 43 percent think the state was right, while 41 percent think Arizona should have let the federal government take the lead.

Click here to see the poll.

Republican Gov. Jan Brewer said Arizona had to act because Washington has failed to stop the stream of illegal immigrants from Mexico. Demonstrators and others opposed to the new law have called on President Obama to stop it from being implemented. The president has said the law is "misguided," and called on the Justice Department to examine it. - FOX News Story

Pelosi Gaining Unchecked Power in House

The fiercest old bulls who roamed the House when Nancy Pelosi came to power will be gone by the beginning of next year — replaced by new bulls who more clearly owe their positions to the powerful speaker.

At the beginning of this Congress, Pelosi ally Henry Waxman ousted House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell.

Sander Levin got the Ways and Means Committee chairmanship earlier this year after Charles Rangel gave it up under an ethics cloud — the result in part of Pelosi’s maneuvering to avoid an all-out mid-session race for the prestigious post.

Norm Dicks took over the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee after the death of John Murtha in February, and now he’s poised to take control of the Appropriations Committee after Dave Obey retires at the end of this term.

While Dingell, Rangel, Murtha and Obey were powerful House veterans long before Pelosi picked up the speaker’s gavel, each of the new bulls will owe his rise in part to the speaker’s good graces — and, in some cases, her political muscle.

It amounts to a subtle but striking natural consolidation of authority for a speaker who by any measure already wields historic levels of institutional and personal power within Congress.

Pelosi’s power is enhanced by her role in picking the new chairmen — with their ascent dependent upon her assent — and by the departure of veteran lawmakers who came to power before she did. - Politico Story