Jihad Update

Here’s the latest news about the “Facing Jihad World Tour” for ‘Fitna’. 

 

The International Free Press Society (IFPS) has issued an open letter to the British Government in response to their barring Dutch MP Geert Wilders’ entry to the country for the screening of ‘Fitna’ in the House of Lords.

 

The full letter is attached or can be found here:  http://tiny.cc/Q0a0m

 

Please let me know if you need any additional information.

All the best,

Elie

Elie Klein
Account Executive
Ruder Finn Israel
Direct: +972-2-589-2013
Mobile : +972-544-676-967
E-Mail: elie@ruderfinn.co.il
Website: www.ruderfinn.co.il

Obama’s Culture Of Death

Study after study has shown that ADULT stem cells are more promising for medical research reasons than EMBRYONIC stem cells. And yet, both the stem cells research “scientists” and now the Obama administration are just Hell-bent on embryonic stem cells research. We really need to ask why.

~Eowyn

 

Submitted by GW west coast editor Eowyn.

Obama to OK embryonic stem cell research
Plans reversal of Bush policy as alternative adult cells prove successful
———————-
Posted: February 10, 2009 10:01 pm Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
WorldNetDaily
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88572

NEW YORK  In a closed-door meeting with House Democrats at their retreat at the posh Kingsmill Golf Resort in Williamsburg, Va., President Obama gave his “guarantee” he will sign an executive order overturning President Bush’s executive order restricting federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Obama’s reversal of Bush’s policy comes in the face of scientific evidence that more than two decades of embryonic stem cell research have failed to produce medically valuable results, while adult stem cell research has resulted in successful medical treatments for a wide range of illnesses.

By using an executive order to approve embryonic stem cell research for human therapeutic uses, the Obama administration plans to bypass congressional discussion and debate, seeking instead to reverse the Bush executive order without introducing any new legislation, the Washington Times reports.

Obama appears determined to push the embryonic stem cell political agenda, despite medical concerns that therapeutic results in human medical treatments over decades have proved that adult stem cells and stem cells derived from human placenta produce results, while embryonic stem cells produce tumors hazardous to human health.

“Most of the media report only ‘stem cell’ research, not distinguishing between embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells,” David Prentice, senior fellow for life sciences at the Family Research Council, told WND.

“Embryonic stem cell research relies upon the destruction of a young human embryo,” he emphasized. “You have to cannibalize a young human life to get embryonic human stem cells, something you do not need to do if you work with adult stem cells.”

Dr. William R. Prather, RPh, MD, a registered pharmacist as well as a board certified internist and geriatrician, told WND there’s a “very good chance we will never get an FDA-approved product from an embryonic source.”
Dr. William R. Prather, RPh, MD

Prather has decided not to work with any corporation involved with embryonic stem cell research, preferring instead to devote his energies to companies advancing adult stem cell therapies.

He currently services as senior vice president for corporate development for Pluristem Therapeutics Inc., a publicly-listed bio-therapeutics company dedicated to commercial medical applications of adult stem cell therapies applied to a variety of severe nerve and autoimmune disorders where current medical therapies are unavailable or inadequate.

“In order to be defined as an embryonic stem cell, those cells by definition form tumors, called teratoma tumors,” Prather said.

“Because embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, embryonic stem cells able capable of developing into all the rest of the tissue that comprise the human body,” he stressed. “But being pluripotent is a double-edged sword. Those favoring embryonic stem cell research want to use embryonic stem cells because they are pluripotent, but that is also the reason not to use embryonic stem cells.”

Prather explained that teratoma tumors typically result from embryonic stem cells.

Teratoma cells are typically tumors that contain a wide variety of differentiated cells, including cells that produce hair, limbs, teeth, muscles and bone, all embedded in the tumor mass.

Medicine.net defines tertoma as a tumor that contains several different types of tissue, including mature elements such as hair, muscle and bone.
Evidence of limb, hair and teeth can be seen in teratoma cell

“Embryonic stem cell companies try to get around the teratoma problem by genetically engineering the embryonic stem cells to the point where the scientists feel the cells will focus more on developing into neurological tissue, instead of heart tissue or limb tissue,” Prather explained.

“As a result, embryonic stem cells are very expensive to produce for medical purposes, and you may end up with a product that might work, but even if you get a product that is working to some degree, it will be prohibitively expensive to distribute to people,” he said.

“You always have to ask when the embryonic stem cells injected into humans are safe,” he pointed out. “Is it safe if the embryonic stem cells don’t form a teratoma tumor after one year, or do you have to wait two years, or more?”

StemCellResearch.org documents peer-reviewed references showing applications of adult stem cells that have been proven to produce therapeutic benefits for human patients in a wide range of medical conditions and illnesses, including cancer, autoimmune diseases, immune-deficiencies, anemia, other blood conditions, metabolic disorders, replacement of ocular tissue and heart damage.

In sharp contrast, StemCellResearch.org lists no proven medical applications of embryonic stem cells applied to deliver therapeutic benefits for human patients.

WND reported the Food and Drug Administration approved within three days of President Obama’s inauguration the first permission ever granted to begin testing embryonic stem cell treatments on human subjects. The FDA approved an application from Geron Corporation, based in Menlo Park, Calif., to inject stem cells derived from human embryos into people paralyzed from the chest down by spinal cord injuries.

“It will be years before we know if Geron has an embryonic stem cell product that is provable to produce positive therapeutic results on human subjects,” Prather said.

Adult human stem cells include human bone marrow cells as well as human placenta cells that do not involve killing a fetus in order to derive the cells.

“It’s very confusing when doctors or journalists just talk about ‘stem cells,’ without differentiating between embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells or stem cells derived from the placenta,” Prather emphasized. “At Pluristem Therapeutics, we get our stem cells from the placenta. We are not killing babies, and we get our stem cells from the medical waste of the placenta that remains after a live birth.”

Pluristem Therapeutics obtains stem cells from placentas of mothers who deliver Caesarian births.

“The reason we use placentas from Caesarian births is that the mothers have already gone through the infections disease testing,” he said. “So, it is a simple decision for the mother to donate placenta tissue that otherwise will be thrown away.”

“People need to understand not all stem cell research involves embryonic stem cells,” he said. “While adult stem cells have been repeatedly been proven for over 40 years to be efficacious for human medical treatments of a variety of ailments, embryonic stem cells have yet to produce a single beneficial medical treatment for human illnesses.”

Prather contended proponents of embryonic stem cell research “do not want the word out that adult stem cell research has 40 years of successful human medical treatments, because embryonic stem cell research has become a political cause.”

“People who want to have continual abortions push embryonic stem cell research, because they want to be able to cite a reason that killing babies is beneficial to human health,” Prather concluded.

The Moronic Elite

This post is about the most moronic cry-babies in our country… University Professors. Ok, not all of them, just the ones who think the USA is evil, and religion should only be taught in prisons.

If you worked for a Catholic University, wouldn’t you expect the University to celebrate its religion in and/or out of the classroom. And here I thought Professors are supposed to be smart! Yeah, I know, this is one of those “DUH” moments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It would do these professors a world of good for them to learn a bit of Latin. Right there in the official seal of Boston College it states in Latin… “For Religion & the good arts”.

Gio-

Submitted by GW west coast editor Eowyn.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=88609
BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS
Outrage! Crucifixes appear at Catholic university
Professors in distress after Christian symbols found on classroom walls
—————————————————————–
Posted: February 11, 2009
11:40 pm Eastern
By Chelsea Schilling
2009 WorldNetDaily

Professors at a private Catholic university are expressing outrage after Christian art, including crucifixes, appeared in their classrooms after the recent winter break.

“A classroom is a place where I am supposed, as a teacher, to teach without any bias, to teach the truth,” Amir Hoveyda, the chemistry department chair at Boston College, told Inside Higher Ed. “And when you put an icon or an emblem or a flag, it confuses the matter.”

Hoveyda said he felt comfortable in the university’s teaching environment for 18 years  but then something unexpected happened.

“[A]ll the sudden, without any discussion, without any warning, without any intellectual debate, literally during the middle of the night during a break, these icons appear,” he said.

College spokesman Jack Dunn told the online news magazine many of the crucifixes were provided by students who returned from immersion trips to Central and South America and Europe. He said some classrooms were previously devoid of religious art.

“The effort was to present Christian art in those remaining classrooms as a way of manifesting our pride and our commitment to our religious heritage,” he said.

One faculty member referred to the crucifixes as a “tsunami” of Christian art.

In a statement, Rev. T. Frank Kennedy, chair of the committee on Christian Art, wrote the following:

I suppose a question might be posed to Boston College as to what purpose this Christian Art serves? In a world that is pretty successfully driven by media (imagery) ours is a response that seeks to pose the age-old invitation of Christ to enter into love  a love that is made perfect in its unselfishness. John Paul II spoke of the crucifix on September 15, 2002 saying ‘It is the sign of God, who has compassion on us, who accepts human weakness, who opens to us all, to one another, and therefore creates the relation of fraternity.’ The Pope also went on to say that though this symbol has been abused in history, it is the Christian’s duty to reclaim that symbol as an invitation to love. An invitation to love, and an invitation to faith is exactly that, an invitation. One is not required to respond, one can decline, and one can have many reasons for declining the invitation, but to imply that a Jesuit and Catholic university is not free to offer this invitation is simply an impossibility. But Dwayne Eugne Carpenter, chair of the romance languages and literatures department and co-director of the Jewish studies program, said the symbols are divisive.

“I think it’s naive to believe that affixing crucifixes is going to fan the flames of religious devotion. On the other hand, it can have a negative effect on students” who may see the art as an unwelcome sign, he said.

Carpenter told the online magazine the university’s department chairs debated the issue in a recent meeting and that he’d like an open forum on the matter.

“It’s a Jesuit institution and as such it has every right to place images wherever it wants,” he said. “It’s just that it’s not a very smart thing to do.”

Carpenter referred to the issue as an “identity crisis” because the school wants to declare its Catholic affiliation while also appealing to a wide range of prospective students.

“You can’t recruit the best by placing crucifixes in every classroom,” he said. “You’re simply going to limit the number of people who will come here. And I’ve already heard of several faculty who have said, ‘You know, this is not a welcoming place, this is not the place that hired me, and I’ll be looking for a job elsewhere.’”

According to the report, Boston College often compares itself to Georgetown University, another Jesuit college.

Georgetown “has a crucifix in every classroom and that’s been true for at least a dozen years,” said John Glavin, and English professor at the university.

However, Hoveyda said Boston College didn’t display the Christian art when he applied for his position several years ago.

“I can only tell you from my personal experience if I saw the same icon when I interviewed in December 1989, this place would not be under consideration for me,” he said. “I’ve had several offers to leave. If I knew icons of this type would appear  I most likely would not have made the decision I did [to stay].”

——————-

Note to Mr. Hoveyda… Do the University a favor and take one of those other offers. A School of Boston College’s reputation does not need morons for professors. It makes the school look bad.

Gio-

Oh No

 Growing up is hard to do…

 

Poor kid, I know how he feels.

Gio-

LCB – Lying Comrade Obama

The Value Of Propaganda

By Dan Scott

President Obama went on the road this week to sell his supposed economic rescue bill and naturally talked up the need for the bill.  What was fascinating were the Orwellian like claims he used and the stark terms of catastrophe if we don’t do as he demands.  He made demonstrably false claims like there is no pork in this bill and he did so with a straight face. It seems pork is not pork if Obama says it’s not. His entire case rested on the premise, “we must do something, doing nothing is not an option.”  The premise is also false since the CBO scored the bill as totally ineffective in the long run and in fact harmful to the economy as it would reduce, not increase economic output over the years of it’s implementation.  President Obama would have you believe there aren’t any alternatives to the one that is on the table, a demonstrable falsehood.  The GOP alternative is half the price with twice the results and even Obama’s own economic advisor admits to it.

Setting aside the reasons for President Obama’s false statements, whether that be of sheer incompetence and ignorance of economics or his willingness to say anything to sell something to which he stakes his name (ego) or if he has a hidden agenda of malice, it is the tactics in which he and his associates uses that should be at issue.  Making demonstrably false claims by public officials is a violation of the public trust no matter how well intentioned (political direction) and rationalized (fear) they may be.  The MSM is also complicit in supporting this never-ending stream of misstatements.  Lying, misrepresenting or deceiving is not an act of Transparency.

What we are seeing being waged is a disinformation campaign using serial one liner falsehoods.  It only takes 10 words or so to make a false statement, it takes more than a hundred words to expose the falsehood.   Due to time constraints of TV broadcasts, by the time you finish exposing the first falsehood, your opponent has already spewed 10 more falsehoods leaving you no time to make your own point.  This is what I call the Joe Biden propaganda method. Remember the VP debate?  Joe Biden literally uttered one misstatement after another to the point Sarah Palin had to acknowledge there was no way to counter each and every point with the time allotted.  Now who wants to listen or read through a seemly never-ending cascade of explanations?  The public is ADD, they will never fully hear the exposing of each and every falsehood because after 10 minutes or so their eyes glaze over.  In the liberal worldview, if you don’t refute an (false) assertion it becomes the accepted truth by repetition. Liberals like Obama will continue to assert a false statement until he sees the position is no longer tenable. This is why reacting to a series of lies is futile, you must proactively set out in a conscious manner to brand the perpetrator as a liar instead of responding to each and every lie, by discrediting the perp you inoculate the audience against their lies.

With this understanding listen to the debate between Steele (RNC chair) and Kaine (DNC chair) you will see what I mean.  As I listened to a number of news broadcasts I was struck by the similar methodology (serial one liners) used by those who promoting the so called economic stimulus package whether that be Kaine of the DNC or the rest of the MSM pundits. 

Disinformation by spewing one-liners has the effect of derailing discussion.  Where there is no discussion implies the debate is settled and there is no difference of opinion, just one accepted opinion and therefore one solution. (Sound familiar to the AGW claims?) Disinformation is also about sewing doubt.  When false statements are not adequately exposed due to time or attention constraints they have the effect of dividing the sheep and keeping them from coming to a conclusion that is contrary to the Party line.  It’s called waging a disinformation war by word attrition.  If one spews enough disinformation, as one lie builds upon another people become lost as in a maze.  When someone is lost they ask for direction, which brings us to the real purpose of disinformation.  Those with the loudest most authoritative voice will attract the most people and people having a herd instinct will follow the crowd.  If you act and talk like you know what you are doing people will follow like sheep.  Disinformation is about manipulation and it is a dysfunctional form of leadership. 

As a rule, those who use disinformation to run a country are not benefactors of the public good but are dictators with malevolent selfish interests.  You can fool all of the people some of the time, you can fool some of the people all of the time but you can’t fool all the all the time. A dictator must continuously engage in disinformation in order to retain power. Transparency is the hallmark of a Democracy as it allows members of society to collectively arrive at the most appropriate solution and policy by seeing all the facts. Dictatorship by one person or an elite group (as in the case of Democrats) is all about controlling the masses and disenfranchising them in regards to the decisions which affect the whole.  Lying, misstatements, and deception characterized by using Orwellian claims that cumulatively add up to a propaganda program are the antithesis of Democracy.  The only way to break a propaganda program is to confront the perpetrators as liars.  As each lie is exposed, the public must be reminded that if they were lying about one thing, what else are they lying about?  Those who are known to be serial liars ceased being believed. 

The point of lying is to manipulate other people’s opinion or thought process, otherwise why do it? The success of a manipulator is totally dependent upon their credibility with the public, destroy the credibility and you defeat the manipulator.  The question is, does the GOP have the backbone to call Obama, Pelosi and Reid a liar?  Can the GOP leadership set aside their political self-preservation instincts for the good of the country to confront the lies and expose it to the public without succumbing to the fear they will be marginalized if they fail in their efforts?  Let me put this in another way for the GOP leadership.  If you don’t proactively confront Obama, Pelosi and Reid now, how do you expect to successfully oppose them reactively for the next two years?  The best defense is a good offense.

———————

Angry American!

I have this uneasy feeling that we, the American people, have just about reached our tipping point. A march on Washington may be in order. It’s time to let the ruling class know that they work for us, not the other way around.

 

Time to clean house in DC.

 

What do you think?

Gio-

Fear Mongering Comrade Obama Out-Fears Bush

Fear Mongering Comrade Obama Out-Fears Bush by a thousand miles, or should I say, by about a Trillion Dollars.

I really wanted to do this post some justice, but after Obama got his Trillion dollar pay-off earlier this evening, I just could not bring myself to do an indepth job. Call it Comrade Obama burn out if you want to, just don’t call it a Comrade Obama victory.

Because Comrade Obama went to the well so many times on trying to urge passage of this stimulus bill, I started to wonder if I was the only one that had noticed the tactics he was using, were exactly what the left claimed Bush was using all during his presidency, namely…. “fear mongering”. At first I was trying too hard, and was using too long strings of words to Google ‘fear mongering’ info. I got some weird results, so I took some advice and kept it simple by only using this term… “Obama fear mongering”.

Google then treated me kindly and gave up the info I wanted. The one thing that stood out the most, at least to me, was how Comrade Obama stacked-up against ex-president George Bush. According to Google…

A. President Bush had 574,000 entries listed using the term “Bush fear mongering”.

B. Then came Comrade Obama which netted some 539,000 entries listed using the term “Obama fear mongering”.

Those are some fascinating numbers considering that Comrade Obama has only been in office for 3 weeks, while President Bush had 8 years in which to garner his numbers.

If this race for the most “fear mongering” president continues at this pace, it looks as if Comrade Obama will overtake President Bush as the most “fear mongering president” in about 3 days.

I guess the guy deserves some credit. He has done something in a little over 3 weeks, that took Bush to do in 8 years.

Congratulations you Marxist bastard!

Gio-

At Least Ecofascists Are Funny!

I found these tid-bits of useless leftist clap-trap and thought it was only fair that I share…

Gio-

Actor Ted Danson to speak in front of House committee

Actor Ted Danson, a longtime ocean advocate and Oceana board member, is set to testify Wednesday morning about what he believes are the “chief threats” of offshore drilling and the impact of 120 million gallons of oil discharged annually into the world’s oceans.

The actor is scheduled to testify before the House Natural Resources Committee and will hold press availability outside the hearing room at 9:45 a.m., just before his testimony commences at 10. Blah blah blah…

What in the hell does Ted Danson know about off-shore drilling? Oh that’s right, he may have shot a movie on an Oil rig. Never mind!
The Politician Who’s Ready to Reclaim Our Food Chain Now

Who’s minding the store, though? Will Obama even attempt to emancipate eaters from the military industrial complex cabal that helped Big Ag give small farms the boot? Our government’s policies have played a scandalously large role in exiling wholesome, unprocessed, uncontaminated foods to the fringes of our culture. Blah blah blah…

“emancipate eaters from the military industrial complex cabal” You gotta admit, that line is funny as hell! 

Global Warming Partly To Blame For Australia Wildfires Blah blah blah…

C’mon, you knew damn well that those fires in Australia were going to be blamed on Global Warming, right? Gee, has anyone ever thought about looking into the history of droughts in Australia? Does anyone take time to learn that Australia has always been one of the driest countries on earth. At least since humans have recorded such things about Australia.

Enough insanity for one night. No more posting for me until tomorrow. Which of course will bring another round of stupidity from the left!

Gio-

It’s Official!

The official collapse of the United States of America has begun. I will sadly mark this day on my calendar 2/10/09 as the day “we the people” were ignored. I expect an uprising to come of this, one which I may join!

The Senate approved the stimulus bill 61-37 on Tuesday, setting up negotiations with the House, which passed a slightly different version last week.

The year is 2009. Americans gather for the very last time to bury what's left of the once great Nation of the United States of America.

 

 

 

 

 

San Fran Stumped!

 

Muslim terrorist infiltrates San Francisco neighborhood. Authorities claim they are having a hard time finding him because he blends into the general population.

Big Brother Moron

Thank God this idea will never catch on here in the States. Or will it?  

Gio-

 Submitted by GW west coast editor Eowyn.

UK environment czar looking at limiting holiday trips to save CO2
Monday February 9, 2009
http://www.atwonline.com/news/story.html?storyID=15528

The UK’s so-called “environment czar” last week raised the possibility of rationing air travel, limiting UK citizens to just a few vacation trips abroad by air per year in order to reduce the impact of carbon dioxide emissions.

Adair Turner, chairman of the independent Committee on Climate Change that advises UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, made the proposal before Parliament’s Environmental Audit Select Committee on Feb. 5. In remarks widely reported by UK media, Turner said, “We will have to constrain demand in an absolute sense with people not allowed to make as many journeys as they could in an unconstrained manner.”

The proposal was strongly condemned by FlyingMatters, a UK-based coalition of airlines, airports, aerospace manufacturers and other aviation- and tourism-related groups. “One always suspects with these half-baked proposals that the people who put them forward really intend them to apply to ordinary people, many of whom have only recently gained access to air travel, rather than to themselves,” the organization said in a statement.

Turner’s remarks came as a report from the TaxPayers’ Alliance revealed that the UK government spent 18.5 million ($26.9 million) on flights last year, a figure that does not include travel by the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence, according the Daily Mirror.

by Perry Flint

Jihad Update

This is one update I wish I did NOT have to post. For those of you that have no idea what this is all about, first check out this post… “The Third Jihad”

This email came to me today with the attached info. Just thought I would share this with anyone that is following this incredible story.

Gio-

——————————-

I hope this letter finds you well.

 I just wanted to update you with the latest news about the “Facing Jihad World Tour” for ‘Fitna’. 

 Though Geert Wilders’ controversial film was scheduled to be screened in the House of Lords in London on January 29, complications forced the screening to be postponed for two weeks (PLEASE NOTE: New information confirms that Lord Nazir Ahmed’s threats to organize mass demonstrations and storm the parliamentary chambers did not force the postponement.).  The new screening date is this Thursday, February 12.

 

The full details are attached or can be found here:  http://pitch.pe/4322

 

Please let me know if you need any additional information.

All the best,

Elie

Elie Klein
Account Executive
Ruder Finn Israel
Direct: +972-2-589-2013
Mobile : +972-544-676-967
E-Mail: elie@ruderfinn.co.il
Website: www.ruderfinn.co.il

————————————————

UK Parliament to show controversial film ‘Fitna’
Twitter Pitch
Parliament has ordered extra security for a House of Lords event with the controversial Dutch MP Geert Wilders.

Post to  Full Release

Parliament has ordered extra security for a House of Lords event with the controversial Dutch MP Geert Wilders. The private screening of Wilders’ film Fitna was initially postponed to allow time for clarification on issues concerning freedom of speech. Despite threats of demonstration from a British Peer and Muslim community leaders, the meeting will go ahead on Thursday 12 February.

Wilders’ film Fitna features verses from the Quran alongside images of the terrorist attacks in the US on 11 September 2001, Madrid in March 2004 and London in July 2005. The film equates
Islam’s holy text with violence and ends with a call to Muslims to remove ‘hate-preaching’ verses from the Quran. It provoked protests in Muslim-majority countries including Indonesia and Pakistan.

The leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, Wilders has lived under 24 hour police protection since 2004. Following Fitna’s release online in March 2008 al-Qaeda issued a fatwa calling for Wilders’ murder.

Wilders currently faces prosecution in Holland for incitement to hatred and discrimination. The charges are based on his film Fitna and comments in the Dutch press last year in which he argued
that as Mein Kampf has been banned in Holland, the Quran should similarly be banned in under Dutch incitement laws.

Wilders called the Dutch Court of Appeal’s decision to prosecute an attack on freedom of expression. “Participation in the public debate has become a dangerous activity. If you give your opinion, you risk being prosecuted,” he said.

The court ruled that prosecution does not conflict with Wilders’ right to freedom of speech. “Statements which create hate and grief made by politicians, taken their special responsibility into consideration, are not permit ted according to European standards,” the court said in a statement.

The House of Lords event, originally scheduled for January, was not postponed in response to the threats made by the British Peer, Lord Ahmed. However, Lord Ahmed told the Pakistani press
that the decision to stop the screening was “a victory for the Muslim community.”

Following the private screening there will be a press conference:

“The Quran and Freedom of Speech”
A screening of Fitna (2008 – 17 mins)
Q&A with Geert Wilders MP (Holland)
No. 1 Abbey Gardens
Thursday 12th February
6:00 – 7:00pm

Notes to editor:
1.) The House of Lords event is hosted by Lord Pearson, a UKIP Peer with a special interest in the European Union, Islamism and education. It will be chaired by Baroness Cox, a crossbench Peer and a human rights campaigner with a strong commitment to
humanitarian aid and education; she is a founder of The International Islamic Christian Organisation for Reconciliation and Reconstruction.

Contact: Lord Pearson of Rannoch
Telephone UK: 207 735 3170
E-mail: PeersandMPs@aol.com

Obama Watch Poll

Comrade Obama had his first prime time face-to-face with the nation last night. Although I care about what he said (lied about), I could not bear to watch. But evidently an awful lot of people did watch. Did you?

 

 

Gio-

Obama’s Lousy 3 Weeks!

Very nice wrap-up of Obama’s first 3 weeks in office.

Gio-

h/t to GiovanniWorld member The Doktor.

Now we know what Socialism looks like, and it's not a pretty site.

 

 

 

American Thinker – February 10, 2009

Change: The First Three Weeks

By Randall Hoven

Far be it from me to criticize Barack Obama before he’s even had a chance to rule.  Well, he’s had almost three weeks in office as I write, and some patterns are beginning to emerge.  Here is a list of accomplishments 20 days into President Obama’s first term.

Prior to taking office.

 

• Bill Richardson withdrew his nomination for Secretary of Commerce “under pressure of a federal investigation into how his political donors landed a lucrative transportation contract.”  
• In December, President-elect Obama introduced a $775B stimulus plan, which  enjoyed a 79% approval rating in the polls at the time .
• By January 12, the cost of the stimulus was up to $850B and “43% of people surveyed called it a ‘good idea,’ while 27% said it is a ‘bad idea.’ The rest didn’t have an opinion,” according to the Wall Street Journal .

 

January 21.  Day One in office, or “Clean Government Day.”

 

• Obama issued an Executive Order on “Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel,” which requires Obama’s appointees to sign a statement saying they won’t violate existing laws on things like gifts from lobbyists.  That is, if you work for Obama, you are expected to obey the law.  It’s a new era.
• Obama issued an Executive Order on “Presidential Records,” which makes it easier to obtain former Presidents’ documents over objections on grounds of executive privilege.  It specifically revokes George W. Bush’s Executive Order 13233.  If you had been planning to take Bush to court, your job just got a little easier.
• Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum on “Pay Freeze,” which says, “I intend to freeze the salaries of senior members of the White House staff”, and directs the Assistant to the President and the Chief of Staff to get back to him on that in 30 days.  The 30 days aren’t up yet, so the freeze level is unknown at this time.
• Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum on the “Freedom of Information Act,” which, from what I can tell, does nothing new except direct the Attorney General to issue guidelines “reaffirming the commitment to accountability and transparency.”  So existing policy is reaffirmed.

 

January 22, “Be Nice To Terrorists Day.”

 

• Obama issued an Executive Order on “Ensuring Lawful Interrogations,” which defines “outrages upon personal dignity (including humiliating and degrading treatment)” as “torture” or the equivalent of torture, and not allowed by any agency of the US government, at least upon persons in custody.  (If you are not in custody, it is still OK for the government to humiliate you.)  This order also says all interrogations must be in accordance with the Army Field Manual – unless, of course, “the Attorney General with appropriate consultation provides further guidance.”  I believe waterboarding used to require a go-ahead from the President or Vice President; now Eric Holder is good enough.
• Obama issued an Executive Order on “Closure of Guantanamo Detention Facilities,” which says Gitmo “shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than 1 year from the date of this order.”  It also orders a halt in all military commissions there, while the Gitmo situation gets reviewed.
• Obama issued an Executive Order on “Review of Detention Policy Options,” which  establishes a task force to study what to do with “individuals captured or apprehended in connection with armed conflicts and counterterrorism operations.”
• Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum on the “Review of the Detention of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri,” who is being held as an enemy combatant in the Navy brig in Charleston, South Carolina.  He is the only enemy combatant known to be held in the continental US.  He is a citizen of Qatar, but was arrested in Peoria, Illinois, because, according to the New York Times , “government officials contended that he was an al-Qaeda sleeper agent, sent to the US to commit mass murder and disrupt the banking system.”  This presidential memorandum says his case should be reviewed, just like all the Gitmo cases.  Apparently, the problem is not whether enemy combatants are held in Gitmo or somewhere else; the problem, apparently, is holding those who intend to commit mass murder at all.

 

January 23, “Be Nice To Abortionists Day.”

 

• Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum on “Mexico City Policy and Assistance for Voluntary Population Planning.”  The Mexico City Policy was enacted by President Reagan, rescinded by President Clinton and reinstated by President Bush.  Now President Obama is rescinding it again.  The policy prohibits nongovernmental organizations from using federal funds “to pay for the performance of abortions … or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions.”  So rescinding that policy allows US government funds to pay for abortions or to coerce people to have or provide them.

 

January 26, “Help the US Automobile Industry Go Broke Quicker Day.”

 

• Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum on the “State of California Request for Waiver Under the Clean Air Act.”  This memorandum orders the EPA to review the decision denying California a waiver to enforce stricter auto emissions standards.  If the waiver is granted, California will become the defacto arbiter of auto emissions standards in the US.  So in a case of obvious interstate commerce with enormous national economic impact, President Obama rediscovers the value of states’ rights.
• Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum on “The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.”  This memorandum directs the Secretary of Transportation and the Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to do their jobs.  Federal law requires that the NHTSA publish a final rule on fuel standards for model year 2011 vehicles by March 30, 2009.  This memorandum says the NHTSA must comply with that federal law.

 

January 27, “Be Nice to Terrorist Lovers and Tax Cheats Day.”

 

• Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum on “Unexpected Urgent Refugee and Migration Needs Related to Gaza.”  This memorandum directs that up to $20.3 million be used for “humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and conflict victims in Gaza.”  In a totally unrelated story one week later, “Armed police officials with the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza seized United Nations refugee supplies at gunpoint.”  
• Timothy Geithner was confirmed as Secretary of the Treasury.  Geithner suffered a short-lived controversy for failure to fully pay taxes.  He paid $34,000 in back taxes.  After admitting to “careless mistakes” in doing his own taxes, he is now in charge of tax collection for the government of the United States.

 

January 28, “Bipartisan Schmipartisan Day.”

 

• Obama’s stimulus package passed the House with a vote of 244-188.  That version of the plan was $819B.  All 288 yea votes were from Democrats.  The opposition was bipartisan: all 177 Republicans and 11 Democrats.

 

January 29, “No Statute of Limitations on Anything Day.”

 

• Obama signed into law the “Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act,” making it easier to file equal-pay lawsuits.  Before, such a lawsuit had to be filed within 180 days of the date the pay was agreed upon.  Now the limit is within 180 days of the most recent paycheck.  So trial lawyers can now search for pay discrimination decades into the past.
• “A day after President Obama struck a conciliatory tone toward Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Washington on Wednesday to apologize for its actions toward his country for the past 60 years.”  Iran has also given the preconditions necessary before talking with Obama: send all US military forces back to the US.

 

January 30, “Payback the Unions and Keep Joe Busy Day.”

 

• Obama issued an Executive Order on “Notification of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws”, which revokes George W. Bush’s Executive Order 13201, which forced employers to notify employees of their rights.  However, government contractors will be forced to “post a notice, of such size and in such form, and containing such content as the Secretary of Labor shall prescribe, in conspicuous places in and about its plants and offices.”  So the notices will no longer contain what President Bush wanted them to contain (e.g., their rights under the law), but what the new Secretary of Labor wants them to contain.
• Obama issued an Executive Order on “Economy in Government Contracting”, which says government contractors will no longer be reimbursed for “any activities undertaken to persuade employees to exercise or not to exercise” the right to organize and bargain collectively.
• Obama issued an Executive Order on “Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers Under Service Contracts”, which says a government contractor can’t just hire who he wants, but must first try to hire the same people who worked for the previous contactor – the contractor who likely lost a competitive bid to the new contractor.
• Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum on “White House Task Force on Middle-Class Working Families.”  This puts Joe Biden in charge of a task force to “focus on raising the living standards of middle-class working families.”  The task force must provide annual reports on its findings and recommendations.

 

February 3, “Being President is Hard Day.”

 

• Tom Daschle withdrew as Secretary of Health and Human Services due to controversy involving failure to fully pay his taxes from 2005 to 2007.  He ultimately paid $128,000 in back taxes plus $11,964 in interest.  He was also criticized for his lobbying ties to the health industry, after having made over $5 million in the last few years.
• Nancy Killefer withdrew as deputy director at the Office of Management and Budget and the first “performance officer” in the White House due to tax problems, including failure to pay unemployment compensation on household help.
• According to the Financial Times, “India has warned US President Barack Obama that he risks ‘barking up the wrong tree’ if he seeks to broker a settlement between Pakistan and India over the disputed territory of Kashmir… the new US administration was in danger of dredging up out of date Clinton administration-era strategies… The warning comes as Richard Holbrooke, Mr Obama’s special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, prepares to come to the region for the first time.”
• Support for Obama’s stimulus package, now flirting with a $900B price tag, fell to 37%, according to Rasmussen.
• Iran denied visas to the US Women’s Badminton Team, sent by the US in hopes of easing tensions between the two countries.

 

February 4, “More Socialized Medicine Day.”

 

• Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum on “State Children’s Health Insurance Program.”  This memorandum withdraws previous limits on the flexibility of states to set income eligibility standards for SCHIP.

 

February 5, “Community Organizing, Low-Flow Coffee-Makers and Trade-War Day.”

 

• Obama issued an Executive Order on “Amendments to Executive Order 13199 and Establishment of the President’s Advisory Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.”  For some reason, the phrase “community initiatives” will be replaced with “neighborhood partnerships” throughout all language on the initiative.  Whatever “neighborhood partnerships” are, they have equal footing with faith-based ones.  In other words, the local Planned Parenthood or ACORN center will be treated like a house of God, in the eyes of the federal government.
• Obama issued a Presidential memorandum on “Appliance Efficiency Standards.”  This memorandum directs the Secretary of Energy to do his or her job.  The Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, and a later court decree, require the DOE to issue efficiency standards for appliances by certain dates.  This memorandum says DOE should comply with the Act of 1975 and the later court decree.
• According to Time, “Europe’s euphoria over Barack Obama is fading fast. As Congress wrangles over the President’s $819 billion stimulus package, a ‘buy American’ clause has the European Union threatening legal action and retaliatory sanctions and opening up the prospect of an explosive trade war.”

 

February 6.  “Be Even Nicer to Unions and Terrorists Day.”

 

• Obama issued an Executive Order on “Use of Project Labor Agreements for Federal Construction Projects”, which revokes President Bush’s Executive Orders 13202 and 13208.  This new order encourages federal executives to require government contractors and subcontractors to use union-organized labor.
• Pakistan released Abdul Qadeer Khan from custody.  Khan was the father of Pakistan’s bomb and also provided plans for nuclear weapons to Iran, Libya and North Korea.  He is considered a major nuclear proliferation threat.
• In response to President Obama’s Executive Order of January 22, charges were dropped against Gitmo detainee Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, an al-Qaida suspect in the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, which killed 17 US sailors.

 

February 8.  “Republican Moderates to the Rescue of the Rescue Day.”

 

• The AP reports that the stimulus package is still in some trouble in the Senate.  The Senate version costs $827B, or just $8B more than the House version, after having been pared back from $900B, supposedly, due to the influence of a handful of Republican moderates.  That is, in the House, zero Republicans supported the stimulus, and its cost was $819B.  But in the Senate, due to support from a handful of Republican moderates, the cost will only be $827B.  That is how Republican moderates compromise.
• Yemen released 170 al-Qaida suspects .

 

I should also report on the progress of the Democratic Congress.  Here is what the House did already in 2009:

 

• Established January 2009 as “National Stalking Awareness Month.”
• Supported the ideals of “National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week.”
• Established a redress process for individuals, such as suspected terrorists, wrongly delayed or prohibited from boarding a flight.
• Reauthorized SCHIP.
• Delayed digital TV.
• Encouraged states to report to the feds information regarding people who die in the custody of state law enforcement agencies.

 

President Obama also said many words in these first 20 days: press conferences, speeches and op-ed pieces, but I left these out of the above list in order to concentrate on actions rather than words.  (To my knowledge, Obama did not complete another autobiography in the last three weeks.)

 

I probably missed a few things, but I think you get the drift.  Undo whatever Bush did.  Expect appointees to obey the law, with a mulligan given for first-time offenses less than $128,000.  Pay back Democratic special interests like unions, trial lawyers and Planned Parenthood.  Define “bipartisanship” as inviting Republicans to lunch and telling them, “I won.”  Spend really, really huge amounts of other people’s money.  Make terrorism a law enforcement issue instead of a national defense issue.  And watch terrorists and nuclear proliferators be released, from Pakistan to Yemen to Gitmo.

 

President Obama has lived up to my expectations.

 

I believe these first 21 days could best be summarized in the immortal words of Mark Steyn, who said, “We have nothing to hope for but hope itself.”

(The dates given might not be exact, but close enough.  The source for Executive Orders and Presidential Memoranda was the White House.)

 

Randall Hoven can be contacted at randall.hoven@gmail.com or  via his web site, kulak.worldbreak.com.

Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/02/change_the_first_three_weeks_1.html at February 10, 2009 – 03:14:14 AM EST

Dangerous Random Thoughts

Ok, we all know that the sh*t is about to hit the proverbial fan, so why get upset… I mean, heck, Obama is in charge now, all our problems should be gone, right?

I’ll give you a moment to clean off your monitor screen of all the spittle you just blasted on it. Enjoy this pic while we wait for the other screen cleaners…

Alright, down to business.

We have radical Islamic religious nuts in Tehran that want to bring the end-times upon us faster because their particular Islamic beliefs ask them to.

Then you have the other radical Islamic religious nuts that want two things from the rest of the world. (1.) Denounce their own religions and accept the Muslim religion. (2.) Or the other option… DIE! Although that second option seems pretty extreme, it may actually be easier to take than to denounce your whole lifes worth of faith. 

We also have to deal with our very own freedom loving scum-bags here in the USA that want us to throw away our Judeo-Christian faith and the beliefs that go along with them. In fact, it would give these assholes great pleasure to see all Bibles in our country burned on the front lawn of the White House. These are some of Obama’s people. Remember, Obama is NOT a Christian.

Another problem facing us is how rapidly Socialism seems to be taking over this country.

Not to be outdone, Communism has been working a plan flawlessly over many years, with very little attention given to the problem. And without most people ever being aware of it, Communism has been advanced under the guise of Socialism, which has been advanced under the guise of the Democrats.

And finally, the one problem that has been an active participant in helping the other problems (see above) succeed, is the Democrat Party.

This leads me to ask my fellow citizens, what are you willing to do about it?

Gio-

Hey, Peaceful Muslim, Gotta Match?

Another loving, caring moment, brought to you by the “Religion of Peace”.

Gio-

Submitted by GW west coast editor Eowyn.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/islam-group-urges-forest-fire-jihad-20080906-4b53.html?page=-1
Islam group urges forest fire jihad
Josh Gordon
September 7, 2008

AUSTRALIA has been singled out as a target for “forest jihad” by a group of Islamic extremists urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires as a weapon of terror.

US intelligence channels earlier this year identified a website calling on Muslims in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to “start forest fires“, claiming “scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels’ forests when they do the same to our lands”.

The website, posted by a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network, argues in Arabic that lighting fires is an effective form of terrorism justified in Islamic law under the “eye for an eye” doctrine.

The posting  which instructs jihadis to remember “forest jihad” in summer months  says fires cause economic damage and pollution, tie up security agencies and can take months to extinguish so that “this terror will haunt them for an extended period of time”.

“Imagine if, after all the losses caused by such an event, a jihadist organisation were to claim responsibility for the forest fires,” the website says. “You can hardly begin to imagine the level of fear that would take hold of people in the United States, in Europe, in Russia and in Australia.”

With the nation heading into another hot, dry summer, Australian intelligence agencies are treating the possibility that bushfires could be used as a weapon of terrorism as a serious concern.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the Federal Government remained “vigilant against such threats”, warning that anyone caught lighting a fire as a weapon of terror would feel the wrath of anti-terror laws.

“Any information that suggests a threat to Australia’s interests is investigated by relevant agencies as appropriate,” Mr McClelland said.

Adam Dolnik, director of research at the University of Wollongong‘s Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention, said that bushfires (unlike suicide bombing) were generally not considered a glorious type of attack by jihadis, in keeping with a recent decline in the sophistication of terrorist operations.

“With attacks like bushfires, yes, it would be easy. It would be very damaging and we do see a decreasing sophistication as a part of terrorist attacks,” Dr Dolnik said.

“In recent years, there have been quite a few attacks averted and it has become more and more difficult for groups to do something effective.”

Dr Dolnik said he had observed an increase in traffic on jihadi websites calling for a simplification of terrorist attacks because the more complex operations had been failing. But starting bushfires was still often regarded as less effective than other operations because governments could easily deny terrorism as the cause.

The internet posting by the little-known group claimed the idea of forest fires had been attributed to imprisoned Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab Al-Suri. It said Al-Suri had urged terrorists to use sulphuric acid and petrol to start forest fires.

Obama Porn?

Leave it to someone in the NYT’s to come up with a sick story like this…

Gio-

Obama likeness - coincidence?

 Submitted by GW west coast editor Eowyn.

Judith Warner
NY Times
February 5, 2009, 9:00 pm
Sometimes a President Is Just a President
http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/sometimes-a-president-is-just-a-president/

The other night I dreamt of Barack Obama. He was taking a shower right when I needed to get into the bathroom to shave my legs, and then he was being yelled at by my husband, Max, for smoking in the house. It was not clear whether Max was feeling protective of the presidents health or jealous because of the cigarette.

The other day a friend of mine confided that in the weeks leading up to the election, the Obamas’ apparent joy as a couple had made her just miserable. Their marriage looked so much happier than hers. Their life seemed so perfect. “I was at a place where I was tempted daily to throttle my husband,” she said. This coincided with Michelle saying the most beautiful things about Barack. “Each time I heard her speak about him I got tears in my eyes  because I felt so far away from that kind of bliss in my own life and perhaps even more, because I was so moved by her expressions of devotion to him. And unlike previous presidential couples, they are our age, have children the same age and (just imagine the stress of daily life on the campaign) by all accounts should have been fighting even more than we were.”

As we all know, in journalism, two anecdotes are just one short of a national trend. I figured that my friend and I couldn’t possibly be the only ones dreaming, brooding or otherwise obsessing about the Obamas. Were other people, I wondered, being possessed by our new first family?

I launched an e-mail inquiry. And learned that they were. Often, in strikingly similar ways.

Many women  not too surprisingly  were dreaming about sex with the president. In these dreams, the women replaced Michelle with greater or lesser guilt or, in the case of a 62-year-old woman in North Florida, whose dream was reported to me by her daughter, found a fully above-board solution: Michelle had divorced Barack because he had become too much of a star. He then married my mother, who was oh so proud to be the first lady, the daughter wrote me.

There was some daydreaming too, much of it a collective fantasy about the still-hot Obama marriage. Barack and Michelle Obama look like they have sex. They look like they like having sex, a Los Angeles woman wrote to me, summing up the comments of many. Often. With each other. These days when the sexless marriage is such a big celebrity in America (and when first couples are icons of rigid propriety), that’s one interesting mental drama.

Most dreams, however, were, like mine, more prosaic.

There was a dream, sent from Minneapolis, about buying Barack the perfect sandwich, and a dream from Westport, Conn., about inviting Michelle and the girls over for lunch and a play date: I told her I’d make tuna fish sandwiches and cupcakes, and told her that she didn’t need to worry about the kids, no need to hire a sitter or extra secret service, that I had a nice basement/playroom for them. I explained how hard it was to move to a new home, and to take her time if she needed to unpack or run to Costco or something. She asked me about other supermarkets, and I told her that Stop & Shop had a sale on tuna fish and paper towels. And one woman in Wisconsin had frequent daydreams about having the Obamas over for a glass of wine.

One woman wrote that when she couldn’t get to sleep at night, she lay in bed and thought about the Obama girls in their rooms at the White House. I thought about Marian Robinson up on the third floor. And about Barack and Michelle, a couple who clearly have a thing for each other, spooning together in bed. It helped me relax.

I understood perfectly where these cozy dreams of easy familiarity came from. It was that sense so many people share of having a very immediate connection to Barack Obama, whether theyr’e black or biracial, or children of single parents or self-made strivers; or they’re lawyers or community organizers or Ivy League graduates or smokers or basketball players or Blackberry users or parents or married or Democrats. A lot of people share the fantasy that having the Obamas over for dinner and a game of Scrabble, as one daydreamer put it to me, is something that really could just about happen.

This is the first president I’ve known who looks, talks and acts like a peer, is how one Washington man explained it to me. Notwithstanding his somewhat exotic life story, I feel like I understand what he’s like and where hes coming from. And despite his incredible achievements, he still seems like a lot of people I know. If you stopped the clock in 2004, in fact, or maybe a couple of years earlier, he’d feel roughly like a peer in terms of accomplishments, too. Of course I know nobody with his political gifts, speaking skills and confidence, and hes also a gifted writer and thinker. But I feel like one or two different turns for Obama or me and he could have been someone my friends and I wouldn’t think it extraordinary to have in our circle.

Sometimes this sense of close identification turns a bit dark. There’s a subcategory of people who feel that they really should have true intimacy with the Obamas. Because they went to school with them. Because they used to dream like them. Because, with one or two different turns, they maybe could have been them.

These are not the people made most happy by thinking about the Obamas.

They do seem to have it all together  a great marriage, beautiful children, a modern day Norman Rockwell family, said a divorced Harvard grad with children in a top D.C. private school. Why them, not me?

These are people for whom the Obamas are not just a beacon of hope, inspiration and demigodlikeness, as a New York lawyer put it, but also a kind of mirror. And the refracted image of self they see is not one they much admire.

“I keep thinking about how I squandered my education and youth,” the New York lawyer wrote to me. “I went off to college from high school being completely community-minded, doing a lot of volunteer work for the homeless and for hunger and tutoring poor kids. Then I got to college and forgot my ideals. Barack was my year at Columbia. Why wasn’t I hanging out with him and being serious and following my ideals instead of hanging out in clubs? Same with law school. I partied my way through instead of taking advantage of all that I could have. Both Obamas were there when I was. I feel like if I’d been a better person I would have gotten to know them.”

A Washington lawyer expressed similar sentiments: “I feel like I know Barack, that I have worked grassroots and have created change in the way that he has. I [also] have feelings of a mom who had possibility but ended up running school auctions and mediating family business matters rather than having the opportunity to be out there on a national level creating change. So when I watch Barack I feel like: I can do that  and what am I doing with my life? Even though he is way smarter and more articulate than me.”

Another Washington woman, a global health care consultant, expressed her sense of Obama-inadequacy in a dream: “I dreamed I was an Obama girl. I had a chance to be in the same room with him for the first time. There were dark velvet chairs and he was standing there with all this dark and mist around him. His lips so purple and sensuous as if to be otherworldly, she wrote to me. I moved gently toward him and then I said the wrong thing. Obama tamped it down like some vapor that didn’t register. He wasn’t even flattered.”

(“Like a lot of folks, I have anxiety about being outside of the Obama administration universe right now,” she then explained to me. “Even though I was at the it ball of inauguration balls, I still felt like other balls were greener, or more purple, or with credentials completely out of my control – more young. I really feel like I’m scrambling internally – to deserve Obama cred and all I’ve got is this over-my-head wonder for the man that amounts to being an Obama girl.”)

For some, not knowing the Obamas has almost turned into a feeling of being snubbed or excluded. Like in middle school. It’s funny. Almost.

“Why won’t my kids be sleeping over at the White House? And as my daughter noted, why couldn’t she get to sit front and center and see the Jonas Brothers and Miley perform at the kids’ inaugural concert? If she went to Sidwell, then she might have these chances, she said,”  wrote a mother whose kids are not at Sidwell Friends school with Sasha and Malia.

“Will Michelle stay down to earth? She could prove it by joining our book club,” wrote a Sidwell mom.

This is, perhaps, the price of faux-familiarity. If I were Barack Obama (or Michelle, for that matter), I’d be a little scared. After all, when people are wearing their egos on their sleeves, it’s so easy to bruise their feelings. What will happen if fantasy turns to contempt?

Allies Worried About Obama

Ally wants to know why we elected Obama. So do I.

h/t to Giovanniworld member The Doktor.

By Melanie Phillips

President Obama has had, by general consent, a torrid First Fortnight. To put it another way, it has taken precisely two weeks for the illusion that brought him to power to be exposed for the nonsense that it so obviously was. The transformational candidate who was going to sweep away pork-barrel politics, lobbyists and corruption has been up to his neck in sleaze, as eviscerated here by Charles Krauthammer. Despite the fact that he came to power promising to ‘ban all earmarks’, his ‘stimulus’ bill represents billions of dollars of special-interest tax breaks, giveaways and protections — which have nothing to do with kick-starting the economy and everything to do with favouring pet Democrat causes.

He has been appointing one tax dodger, lobbyist and wheeler-dealer after another. After appointing one official,Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who had unaccountably forgotten to pay his taxes, he then watched his designated Health Secretary Tom Daschle fall on his sword because he too had taken a tax holiday. Daschle was furthermore a prominent actor in the world of lobbying and influence-peddling. Leon Panetta, Obama’s nominee for Director of the CIA has also, according to the Wall Street Journal, consulted for prominent companies and sat on the board of a public affairs firm that lobbies Congress. The Weekly Standard reports that Secretary of Labour nominee Hilda Solis was not only involved with a private organization lobbying her fellow legislators on a bill that she helped sponsor, but she apparently kept her involvement secret and failed to reveal a clear conflict of interest.

In foreign policy, Obama has started by trashing his own country through grossly misrepresenting its history and grovelling to America’s enemies such as Iran, which has flicked him aside with undiluted contempt.  He has gratuitously upset America’s ally India by suggesting that America should muscle in and resolve the Kashmir question.

His right hand doesn’t seem to know what his left hand is doing. He reportedly asked retired Marine General Anthony Zinni to be US ambassador to Iraq, but then abruptly withdrew the appointment without explanation after it had been confirmed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And the precise role he is offering Dennis Ross – special envoy to Iran? Special adviser to Hillary? Special adviser to other special advisers? – remains mired in confusion.

I have argued before however that, given Obama’s radical roots in the neo-Marxist, nihilist politics of Saul Alinsky, it is the undermining of America’s fundamental values that is likely to be this President’s most strategically important goal. I have also suggested that, since this agenda is promoted through stealth politics which gull the credulous middle-classes while destroying the ground upon which they are standing, his second-tier appointments should be closely scrutinised.

And here’s a humdinger. Obama has picked a man called David Ogden to be deputy Attorney-General. Ogden has made his legal career from representing pornographers, trying to defeat child protection legislation and undermining family values.  As FoxNews reported this week, he once represented a group of library directors arguing against the Children’s Internet Protection Act, which ordered libraries and schools receiving funding for the Internet to restrict access to obscene sites. And on behalf of several media groups, he successfully argued against a child pornography law that required publishers to verify and document the age of their models, which would have ensured these models were at least 18.

The Family Research Council has more examples of his contribution to upholding American and western values. In one such case, he expressed the view that abortion was less damaging to a woman than having children:

In sum, it is grossly misleading to tell a woman that abortion imposes possible detrimental psychological effects when the risks are negligible in most cases, when the evidence shows that she is more likely to experience feelings of relief and happiness, and when child-birth and child-rearing or adoption may pose concomitant (if not greater) risks or adverse psychological effects …

In another, co-authored brief, he argued that it was an unconstitutional burden on 14-year old girls seeking an abortion for their parents to be notified — because there was no difference between adults and mid-teens in their ability to grasp all the implications of such a decision:

There is no question that the right to secure an abortion is fundamental. By any objective standard, therefore, the decision to abort is one that a reasonable person, including a reasonable adolescent, could make. [E]mpirical studies have found few differences between minors aged 14-18 and adults in their understanding of information and their ability to think of options and consequences when asked to consider treatment-related decisions. These unvarying and highly significant findings indicate that with respect to the capacity to understand and reason logically, there is no qualitative or quantitative difference between minors in mid-adolescence, i.e., about 14-15 years of age, and adults.

And how did the 44th President react to the growing public dismay over the mess he was making? He threw his toys out of the pram — or perhaps that should read, he got into the pram. For he fled the scene of the disaster and sought the company of seven year-olds instead. As the Telegraph reported:

‘We were just tired of being in the White House,’ he told a group of excited seven-year-olds before discussing Batman and reading them a book.

Tired of being President – after two weeks!

Tax cheats, pork-barrel politics, ancillary child abuse, incompetence, chaos, treachery and infantilism. America – what have you done?!

Family Bad For Human Rights

A symbol of evil?

This is one of those articles that will raise your blood pressure. For me, it’s just another good reason why the United Nations should be abolished forever!

Gio-

 Submitted by GW west coast editor Eowyn.

United Nations Population Fund Leader Says Family Breakdown is a Triumph for Human Rights

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

MEXICO CITY, February 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A leader in the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has declared that the breakdown of traditional families, far from being a crisis, is actually a triumph for human rights.

Speaking at a colloquium held last month at Colegio Mexico in Mexico City, UNFPA representative Arie Hoekman denounced the idea that high rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births represent a social crisis, claiming that they represent instead the triumph of human rights against patriarchy.

“In the eyes of conservative forces, these changes mean that the family is in crisis,” he said. “In crisis?  More than a crisis, we are in the presence of a weakening of the patriarchal structure, as a result of the disappearance of the economic base that sustains it and because of the rise of new values centered in the recognition of fundamental human rights.”

“Day after day, Mexico experiences a process of this diversity and there are those who understand it as a crisis, because they only recognize one type of family,” one of the speakers on the panel also told the audience.

The comments followed close on the heels of the World Meeting of Families, which was held in Mexico City in January, and which strongly reaffirmed the importance of the traditional family and its indispensible role in transmitting values to the next generation.  It was opened by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who observed that high rates of divorce and out-of-wedlock births were contributing to the rise of violence and crime in Mexico.

Leonardo Casco, a member of the Pontifical Council for the Family and a citizen of Honduras, told LifeSiteNews that he wasn’t surprised that the UNFPA was denying the crisis in the family.

“They definitely have to deny that there is a crisis in the family, because they have created the crisis,” he said.

Calling the UNFPA “bureaucrats at the service of death,” Casco observed that “after 45 years of birth control, the pill, disrespect for marriage for the family, for children, etc, this is the result. Because of that we have violence, war, lack of respect of women, children.”

Through their promotion and distribution of contraceptives the UNFPA has become “a birth control agency at the service of the most powerful countries” said Casco.  “They have destroyed the family, values, this is undeniable, it’s what everyone says … but they always have to deny it.”

Regarding Hoekmans comments about human rights,  Casco responded that UNFPA bureaucrats have invented a series of new ‘human rights’, that did not exist when the concept was defined in 1948, with which they wish to justify all of their actions.

The UNFPA recently celebrated the restoration of US support after seven years, during which they were denied funding by the Bush administration. UNFPA has cooperated with and even helped to subsidize China’s One Child Policy, which persecutes and performs forced abortions on women who have more than one child.

In addition to its support for forced abortions, the UNFPA has helped to administer forced sterilizations in South America and is involved in the distribution and promotion of contraceptives and sterilization worldwide, with a focus on poorer countries.

Related Links:

UN Complicit in Forced Sterilizations
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1417

UNFPA: A Runaway Agency
http://www.pop.org/main.cfm?EID=427

Related LifeSiteNews Coverage:

United Nations Agency Involved in Forced Abortions in China Celebrates New Funding from Obama Administration
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jan/09012913.html

UNPFA Loses $235 Million Due to Pro-Life Group’s Efforts
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jul/08070206.html

UNFPA Population Awards Honor Abortion Advocates
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08052910.html

UNFPA Pitches Abortion as a Means to Reduce Child Poverty
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jul/05070404.html

49 States of USA?

 Has the break-up of the USA begun?

Submitted by GW west coast editor Eowyn.

http://patdollard.com/2009/02/new-hampshire-fires-first-shot-of-civil-war-resolution-immediately-voids-several-federal-laws-threatens-counterstrike-against-breach-of-peace/

 

New Hampshire Fires First Shot Of Civil War – Resolution Immediately Voids Several Federal Laws, Threatens Counterstrike Against Federal “Breach Of Peace”
February 4th, 2009 Posted By Pat Dollard.

The Betrayal:

The New Hampshire state legislature took an unbelievably bold step Monday by introducing a resolution to declare certain actions by the federal government to completely totally void and warning that certain future acts will be viewed as a “breach of peace” with the states themselves that risks “nullifying the Constitution.”

This act by New Hampshire is a clear warning to the federal government that they could face being stripped of their power by the States (presumably through civil war!

The remarkable document outlines with perfect clarity, some basics long forgotten. For instance, it reminds Congress “That the Constitution of the United States, having delegated to Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States, piracies, and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations, slavery, and no other crimes whatsoever;. . . . . therefore all acts of Congress which assume to create, define, or punish crimes, other than those so enumerated in the Constitution are altogether void, and of no force;”

Federal gun crime laws? Void. Federal drug crime laws? Void. The gazzillion other federal criminal laws that deal with anything other than the specific enumerated crimes? ALL VOID.

One would think that if any lawyer anywhere in the entire country was worth his salt, all federal criminal trials would have ended years ago. This seems to prove that most lawyers are dullards.

New Hampshire deals a complete death blow to the pending federal hate crimes legislation by pointing out “That, therefore, all acts of Congress of the United States which do abridge the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, are not law, but are altogether void, and of no force; . . . . .”

Later in the Resolution, New Hampshire makes clear what the feds are now risking if they proceed further: The removal of all powers from the federal government by the States!

Quoting directly from the Resolution: “That any Act by the Congress of the United States, Executive Order of the President of the United States of America or Judicial Order by the Judicatories of the United States of America which assumes a power not delegated to the government of United States of America by the Constitution for the United States of America and which serves to diminish the liberty of the any of the several States or their citizens shall constitute a nullification of the Constitution for the United States of America by the government of the United States of America. Acts which would cause such a nullification include, but are not limited to:
I. Establishing martial law or a state of emergency within one of the States comprising the United States of America without the consent of the legislature of that State.

II. Requiring involuntary servitude, or governmental service other than a draft during a declared war, or pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

III. Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service of persons under the age of 18 other than pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

IV. Surrendering any power delegated or not delegated to any corporation or foreign government.

V. Any act regarding religion; further limitations on freedom of political speech; or further limitations on freedom of the press.

VI. Further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition; and

That should any such act of Congress become law or Executive Order or Judicial Order be put into force, all powers previously delegated to the United States of America by the Constitution for the United States shall revert to the several States individually.”

I have reported on this blog for quite some time that we here in the United States are heading toward Civil War. Many of you told me I was a nut for thinking that.

The simple fact is that we are long overdue for another Rebellion in this nation and I heartily endorse the idea of having one again very soon; preferably starting THIS year!

We must stop our federal government dead in its tracks because it is out of control and very dangerous. If stopping them means attacking them and destroying them by force, then so be it.

The full New Hampshire resolution is printed below, or you can to the Government’s website and read it there.

HCR 6 – AS INTRODUCED

2009 SESSION

09-0274

09/01

HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 6

A RESOLUTION affirming States’ rights based on Jeffersonian principles.

SPONSORS: Rep. Itse, Rock 9; Rep. Ingbretson, Graf 5; Rep. Comerford, Rock 9; Sen. Denley, Dist 3

COMMITTEE: State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs

ANALYSIS

This house concurrent resolution affirms States’ rights based on Jeffersonian principles.

09-0274

09/01

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Nine

A RESOLUTION affirming States’ rights based on Jeffersonian principles.

Whereas the Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, Part 1, Article 7 declares that the people of this State have the sole and exclusive right of governing themselves as a free, sovereign, and independent State; and do, and forever hereafter shall, exercise and enjoy every power, jurisdiction, and right, pertaining thereto, which is not, or may not hereafter be, by them expressly delegated to the United States of America in congress assembled; and

Whereas the Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, Part 2, Article 1 declares that the people inhabiting the territory formerly called the province of New Hampshire, do hereby solemnly and mutually agree with each other, to form themselves into a free, sovereign and independent body-politic, or State, by the name of The State of New Hampshire; and

Whereas the State of New Hampshire when ratifying the Constitution for the United States of America recommended as a change, “First That it be Explicitly declared that all Powers not expressly & particularly Delegated by the aforesaid are reserved to the several States to be, by them Exercised;” and

Whereas the other States that included recommendations, to wit Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Virginia, included an identical or similar recommended change; and

Whereas these recommended changes were incorporated as the ninth amendment, the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people, and the tenth amendment, the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people, to the Constitution for the United States of America; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives, the Senate concurring:

That the several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a General Government for special purposes, — delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government; and that whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force; that to this compact each State acceded as a State, and is an integral party, its co-States forming, as to itself, the other party: that the government created by this compact was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers delegated to itself; since that would have made its discretion, and not the Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all other cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each party has an equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress; and

That the Constitution of the United States, having delegated to Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States, piracies, and felonies committed on the high seas, and offences against the law of nations, slavery, and no other crimes whatsoever; and it being true as a general principle, and one of the amendments to the Constitution having also declared, that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people,” therefore all acts of Congress which assume to create, define, or punish crimes, other than those so enumerated in the Constitution are altogether void, and of no force; and that the power to create, define, and punish such other crimes is reserved, and, of right, appertains solely and exclusively to the respective States, each within its own territory; and

That it is true as a general principle, and is also expressly declared by one of the amendments to the Constitution, that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people;” and that no power over the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, or freedom of the press being delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, all lawful powers respecting the same did of right remain, and were reserved to the States or the people: that thus was manifested their determination to retain to themselves the right of judging how far the licentiousness of speech and of the press may be abridged without lessening their useful freedom, and how far those abuses which cannot be separated from their use should be tolerated, rather than the use be destroyed. And thus also they guarded against all abridgment by the United States of the freedom of religious opinions and exercises, and retained to themselves the right of protecting the same. And that in addition to this general principle and express declaration, another and more special provision has been made by one of the amendments to the Constitution, which expressly declares, that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press:” thereby guarding in the same sentence, and under the same words, the freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press: insomuch, that whatever violated either, throws down the sanctuary which covers the others, and that libels, falsehood, and defamation, equally with heresy and false religion, are withheld from the cognizance of federal tribunals. That, therefore, all acts of Congress of the United States which do abridge the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, are not law, but are altogether void, and of no force; and

That the construction applied by the General Government (as is evidenced by sundry of their proceedings) to those parts of the Constitution of the United States which delegate to Congress a power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imports, and excises, to pay the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States,” and “to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers vested by the Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof,” goes to the destruction of all limits prescribed to their power by the Constitution: that words meant by the instrument to be subsidiary only to the execution of limited powers, ought not to be so construed as themselves to give unlimited powers, nor a part to be so taken as to destroy the whole residue of that instrument: that the proceedings of the General Government under color of these articles, will be a fit and necessary subject of revisal and correction; and

That a committee of conference and correspondence be appointed, which shall have as its charge to communicate the preceding resolutions to the Legislatures of the several States; to assure them that this State continues in the same esteem of their friendship and union which it has manifested from that moment at which a common danger first suggested a common union: that it considers union, for specified national purposes, and particularly to those specified in their federal compact, to be friendly to the peace, happiness and prosperity of all the States: that faithful to that compact, according to the plain intent and meaning in which it was understood and acceded to by the several parties, it is sincerely anxious for its preservation: that it does also believe, that to take from the States all the powers of self-government and transfer them to a general and consolidated government, without regard to the special delegations and reservations solemnly agreed to in that compact, is not for the peace, happiness or prosperity of these States; and that therefore this State is determined, as it doubts not its co-States are, to submit to undelegated, and consequently unlimited powers in no man, or body of men on earth: that in cases of an abuse of the delegated powers, the members of the General Government, being chosen by the people, a change by the people would be the constitutional remedy; but, where powers are assumed which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy: that every State has a natural right in cases not within the compact, (casus non foederis), to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of power by others within their limits: that without this right, they would be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever might exercise this right of judgment for them: that nevertheless, this State, from motives of regard and respect for its co-States, has wished to communicate with them on the subject: that with them alone it is proper to communicate, they alone being parties to the compact, and solely authorized to judge in the last resort of the powers exercised under it, Congress being not a party, but merely the creature of the compact, and subject as to its assumptions of power to the final judgment of those by whom, and for whose use itself and its powers were all created and modified: that if the acts before specified should stand, these conclusions would flow from them: that it would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights: that confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism — free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power: that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go. In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution. That this State does therefore call on its co-States for an expression of their sentiments on acts not authorized by the federal compact. And it doubts not that their sense will be so announced as to prove their attachment unaltered to limited government, whether general or particular. And that the rights and liberties of their co-States will be exposed to no dangers by remaining embarked in a common bottom with their own. That they will concur with this State in considering acts as so palpably against the Constitution as to amount to an undisguised declaration that that compact is not meant to be the measure of the powers of the General Government, but that it will proceed in the exercise over these States, of all powers whatsoever: that they will view this as seizing the rights of the States, and consolidating them in the hands of the General Government, with a power assumed to bind the States, not merely as the cases made federal, (casus foederis,) but in all cases whatsoever, by laws made, not with their consent, but by others against their consent: that this would be to surrender the form of government we have chosen, and live under one deriving its powers from its own will, and not from our authority; and that the co-States, recurring to their natural right in cases not made federal, will concur in declaring these acts void, and of no force, and will each take measures of its own for providing that neither these acts, nor any others of the General Government not plainly and intentionally authorized by the Constitution, shall be exercised within their respective territories; and

That the said committee be authorized to communicate by writing or personal conferences, at any times or places whatever, with any person or person who may be appointed by any one or more co-States to correspond or confer with them; and that they lay their proceedings before the next session of the General Court; and

That any Act by the Congress of the United States, Executive Order of the President of the United States of America or Judicial Order by the Judicatories of the United States of America which assumes a power not delegated to the government of United States of America by the Constitution for the United States of America and which serves to diminish the liberty of the any of the several States or their citizens shall constitute a nullification of the Constitution for the United States of America by the government of the United States of America. Acts which would cause such a nullification include, but are not limited to:

I. Establishing martial law or a state of emergency within one of the States comprising the United States of America without the consent of the legislature of that State.

II. Requiring involuntary servitude, or governmental service other than a draft during a declared war, or pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

III. Requiring involuntary servitude or governmental service of persons under the age of 18 other than pursuant to, or as an alternative to, incarceration after due process of law.

IV. Surrendering any power delegated or not delegated to any corporation or foreign government.

V. Any act regarding religion; further limitations on freedom of political speech; or further limitations on freedom of the press.

VI. Further infringements on the right to keep and bear arms including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition; and

That should any such act of Congress become law or Executive Order or Judicial Order be put into force, all powers previously delegated to the United States of America by the Constitution for the United States shall revert to the several States individually. Any future government of the United States of America shall require ratification of three quarters of the States seeking to form a government of the United States of America and shall not be binding upon any State not seeking to form such a government; and

That copies of this resolution be transmitted by the house clerk to the President of the United States, each member of the United States Congress, and the presiding officers of each State’s legislature.