It seems President Obama might know Michaele Salahi and Tareq - the State Dinner Crashers - after all, if the above photo isn't part of some elaborate right-wing Photoshop conspiracy. And it seems the Salahi's are radical leftists. Who woulda thunk it?
Tareq Salahi, the polo-playing intruder, is a Palestinian nationalist with ties to the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) , a pro-Palestine lobby demanding the “right of return” for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants. The “right of return” has long been considered the backdoor to Israel’s destruction. But not only that: ATFP President Ziad Asali is an America-basher who blamed 9/11 on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Asali was a lead U.S. official to PLO terrorist Yassir Arafat’s funeral in 2004. And in a position paper in 2007, the ATFP called for a power-sharing agreement at the Palestinian Authority, which would have included the State Department’s designated-terrorist group, Hamas.
Pictured (l-r): A Proud Marxist and a Lying Marxist Photo: Gateway Pundit
New Zeal is reporting on yet another Marxist who is tight with Barry O:
The push to socialize US Heathcare came, not from from the “people”, but from small clique of Marxists, led by a man with close persional ties to president Barack Obama.
This group’s goal is fully socialized, government run “single payer” healthcare-as long promoted through Congressman John Conyers’ National Health Insurance Act, or HR 676.
The leader of this Marxist clique is Quentin Young-a retired Chicago physician, a life long Marxist activist and long time friend and political ally of Barack Obama.
Yikes. And, you guessed it, it gets much, much worse:
Obama…learned about single-payer health care from his old friend and neighbor Dr. Quentin Young, the longtime coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program.
Quentin Young told Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, that while an Illinois State senator, Obama was a strong supporter of “single payer.”
"Barack Obama, in those early days—influenced, I hope, by me and others—categorically said single payer was the best way, and he would inaugurate it if he could get the support, meaning majorities in both houses, which he’s got, and the presidency, which he’s got. And he said that on more than one occasion…. ”
Well, that certainly explains this video compilation of Obama's confusing and contradictory claims regarding healthcare reform, the public option and single-payer healthcare:
More on Dr. Young:
Quentin Young is one of America’s most committed socialists, beginning with his time in the Young Communist League in late 1930s Chicago.
After WW2, into the mid 1970s, Young was closely associated with the Communist Party and was accused of belonging to the Bethune Club (a communist doctor’s club) by a US Congressional Committee investigating the riots at the 1968 Democratic Party convention in Chicago.
Rahm Emanuel... Is he orchestrating Obama's failure in the Middle East? Photo: San Francisco Sentinel
The New York Times has soured on President Obama's strategy for achieving peace in the Middle East:
Peacemaking takes strategic skill. But we see no sign that President Obama and Mr. Mitchell were thinking more than one move down the board. The president went public with his demand for a full freeze on settlements before securing Israel’s commitment. And he and his aides apparently had no plan for what they would do if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said no.
Most important, they allowed the controversy to obscure the real goal: nudging Israel and the Palestinians into peace talks. (We don’t know exactly what happened but we are told that Mr. Obama relied more on the judgment of his political advisers — specifically his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel — than of his Mideast specialists.)
The idea made sense: have each side do something tangible to prove it was serious about peace and then start negotiations. But when Mr. Netanyahu refused the total freeze, President Obama backed down.
Mr. Netanyahu has since offered a compromise 10-month freeze that exempts Jerusalem, schools and synagogues and permits Israel to complete 3,000 housing units already under construction. The irony is that while this offer goes beyond what past Israeli governments accepted, Mr. Obama had called for more. And the Palestinians promptly rejected the compromise.
Stunning. When the New York Times doesn't blindly support your efforts in the Middle East, you are either a conservative or a failure.
It should be noted that Rahm Emanuel served as a civilian volunteer at an Israeli military base during the first Gulf War. You might think such a stunning conflict of interest would make him biased towards Israel... Apparently not.
Frida Ghitis of the Bradenton Herald points out that Obama's foreign policy missteps have come at a time when Israelis are showing unprecendented support for a two-state solution:
Obama has lost his mojo in the Middle East. Nobody listens to him, nobody trusts him. A poll found 70 percent of Palestinians have a negative view of the U.S. president. His standing in Israel is no better.
It is extraordinary that this is happening even as majorities of both Israelis and Palestinians offer strong support for the two-state solution. The War & Peace Index poll showed a record 75 percent of Israelis support negotiations, but 68 percent of Israelis also say Obama is not likely to preserve Israel’s interests in the long run.
Ed Morrissey at HotAir puts the New YorkTimes article into perspective:
As the editorial says, Obama and Mitchell couldn’t think past their own opening move and game out the possibilities. Why might that be? The foreign-policy team that includes Emanuel and Samantha Power (at the National Security Council) has ideological interests in getting Israel to surrender. Power suggested a few years ago that the Western nations should invade and occupy Israel in order to set the Palestinians free. With that kind of advice flowing at the White House, this diktat on settlements is hardly surprising, nor is its end result.
When Newsweek and the New York Times tells a Democratic president that he’s screwing up foreign policy, it’s time to clean house and start getting professional help. Unfortunately, neither of these publications considered the ramifications of endorsing an inexperienced ideologue for the top job when it counted.
This story has nothing to do with a failure of the Obama administration. But it does tie in with Obama's war on the Chamber of Commerce, via his proposed consumer protection agency. The story begins in Germany and ends in October. Confused? Here's a roadmap:
German banker steals $11 million, is dubbed the "Robin Hood Banker"
ABC News picks up the story, lamely ties it to evil US banks and proposed banking regulations
Obama! Obama! Obama!
Let's jump into the story:
A German bank employee has been convicted of stealing more than $11 million from her bank's customers in 117 unauthorized transfers.
The employee was accused of allowing overdrafts for customers who would not normally qualify for them.
She then used the money from richer customers to temporarily disguise the loans during the bank's monthly audit of overdrafts.
Here's the kicker: Since she transferred the money from the accounts of wealthy customers to poorer ones, the banker has been dubbed "The Robin Hood Banker" by European media outlets.
Really.
Germany’s most generous banker was finally collared after she began subsidising a small taxi firm in addition to private customers.
"She's definitely in the wrong for doing that but, at the same time, the old putting-it-to-the-man mentality is good to see," said Craig Kear, 50, a Kansas City man who estimates he has paid nearly $3,000 in overdraft fees in the past two years.
Keep in mind, the "man" who it was getting it put to were unsuspecting bank customers, who had nothing to do with the bank's fees or policies. But ABC News didn't stop there:
Others agreed. "I wish she had found my bank account," joked Kelley Jackson, 46, of Atlanta, who once faced $700 in overdraft fees in one month. The banker, Jackson said, shouldn't have committed the crime but "her heart was in the right place.
"She saw an injustice," she said.
Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve announced new rules that would ban banks from charging overdraft fees on debit card and ATM transactions unless a consumer opts in to an overdraft program. The rules do not apply to checks, which can still trigger overdraft fees. The changes will go into effect July 1.
Obama that is... See, the new Fed overdraft rules are at the heart of Obama's proposed federal consumer protection agency:
Overdraft fees have become a hot political issue this year, with President Obama criticizing the banking industry for padding their profits with fees from customers who overdraw their accounts. The banking industry brings in billions of dollars in fees each year related to people overdrawing account.
Let's jump in the wayback machine for some refreshing:
President Obama on Friday made his strongest push yet for the creation of a new consumer protection agency, lashing out against those who have lobbied hard to stand in its way.
"They're doing what they always do -- descending on Congress and using every bit of influence they have to maintain a status quo that has maximized their profits at the expense of American consumers," Obama said in televised remarks made at the White House. "That's why we need a Consumer Financial Protection Agency that will stand up not for big banks and financial firms, but for hardworking Americans."
The president reserved his harshest criticism for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which he said "is spending millions on an ad campaign to kill" the proposal. The Chamber of Commerce launched an ad campaign opposing the proposal, featuring a butcher and baker concerned about its possible impact on their businesses.
Socialists, Socialites... What's the difference anymore? Photo: Drudge Report
It was President Obama's first state dinner. You just knew something was going to go wrong...
A couple of aspiring reality-TV stars from Northern Virginia appear to have crashed the White House's state dinner Tuesday night, penetrating layers of security with no invitation to mingle with the likes of Vice President Biden and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
Amazing. Not only did they get INTO the party, but they managed to get photos with Clueless Joe Biden.
The US Secret Service is investigating how the couple, who its spokesman, Ed Donovan, confirmed were not on the guest list, managed to breach security and attend the 300-strong event.
Donovan said an initial finding indicated that a checkpoint did not follow proper procedures to ensure the two were on the list.
In fairness to the Secret Service, when Marxists, Maoists and socialists like Van Jones, Anita Dunn and Valerie Jarret have cleared background checks, what's the harm in allowing a couple of gatecrashing wannabe socialites into the party?
US President Barack Obama has sent a letter to the leader of the main Muslim rebel group in the Philippines, a guerrilla official said Saturday.
The letter to Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Murad Ibrahim was delivered to rebel peace negotiators by Deputy Assistant State Secretary Scot Marciel, according to Muhammad Ameen, chairman of the MILF secretariat.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front... Hmm... What are these guys all about? Let's see...
The southern Philippines has become the training center for Al Qaeda's Southeast Asia affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah, drawing recruits from a number of countries, according to Western and Philippine officials.
The training camps are in an area under the control of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has been waging a guerrilla war for an independent state for 25 years, officials said.
Hundreds of Qaeda recruits trained at Moro camps in the late 1990's, including some of the men being tried in the Bali bombing, Western officials said. But those camps were destroyed by the Philippine Army in 2000, and Moro rebels have steadfastly denied any links to Al Qaeda.
2003? Come on! That's so YESTERDAY! What has the MILF been up to lately?
Apparently, they've been strengthening ties with Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah. In case you aren't familiar with these terrorist groups, check out the Council on Foreign Relations' report on Abu Sayyaf:
Counterterrorism efforts by the Philippine government seem to have pressured the group in recent years: In 2007, the government killed 127 members of Abu Sayyaf and captured an additional thirty-eight. But Abu Sayyaf has been improving ties with regional organizations, like Jemaah Islamiyah and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, an Islamic separatist group dating from the 1970s located in the southern Philippines. Thus, even though Abu Sayyaf's armed strength fell from an estimated one thousand in 2002 to between two hundred and four hundred in 2006, the capabilities of the organization may be growing. The 2008 U.S. State Department estimates the group to consist of between two hundered and five hundred members.
The ASG is a violent Muslim terrorist group operating in the southern Philippines. Some ASG leaders allegedly fought in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion and are students and proponents of radical Islamic teachings. The group split from the much larger Moro National Liberation Front in the early 1990s under the leadership of Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, who was killed in a clash with Philippine police in December 1998. His younger brother, Khadaffy Janjalani, replaced him as the nominal leader of the group.
Activities
The ASG engages in kidnappings for ransom, bombings, beheadings, assassinations, and extortion. The group's stated goal is to promote an independent Islamic state in western Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago, areas in the southern Philippines heavily populated by Muslims, but the ASG primarily has used terror for financial profit.
Recent bombings may herald a return to a more radical, politicized agenda, at least among certain factions. The group's first large-scale action was a raid on the town of Ipil in Mindanao in April 1995. In April 2000, an ASG faction kidnapped 21 persons, including ten Western tourists, from a resort in Malaysia.
In May 2001, the ASG kidnapped three U.S. citizens and 17 Filipinos from a tourist resort in Palawan, Philippines. Several of the hostages, including U.S. citizen Guillermo Sobero, were murdered. A Philippine military hostage rescue operation in June 2002 freed U.S. hostage Gracia Burnham, but her husband Martin Burnham and Filipina Deborah Yap were killed. U.S. and Philippine authorities blame the ASG for exploding a bomb near a Philippine military base in Zamboanga in October 2002 that killed a U.S. serviceman. In February 2004, Khadaffy Janjalani's faction bombed SuperFerry 14 in Manila Bay, killing 132.
In March 2004, Philippine authorities arrested an ASG cell whose bombing targets included the U.S. Embassy in Manila. The ASG also claimed responsibility for the 2005 Valentine's Day bombings in Manila, Davao City, and General Santos City, which killed 8 and injured more than 150.
The October 2005 suicide bombings in Bali that killed twenty people and injured 129.
The September 2004 suicide car bombing outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta that killed three people and left more than 100 wounded.
The August 2003 car bombing of the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta that killed twelve people.
The October 2002 bombing of a nightclub on the predominantly Hindu island of Bali that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists from Australia and elsewhere. Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, a forty-one-year-old mechanic from East Java, was convicted on August 8, 2003, for buying the vehicle used in the main explosion and buying and transporting most of the chemicals used for the explosives. He was the first of thirty-three suspects arrested for the bombings to be convicted.
A December 2000 wave of church bombings in Indonesia that killed eighteen.
A December 2000 series of bombings in Manila that killed twenty-two people.
A 1995 plot to bomb eleven U.S. commercial airliners in Asia.
What do Dick Cheney, Angelina Jolie and a majority of Americans have in common? Let's find out in today's edition of Obama Fail Watch!
1.) More bad polling news... President Obama's approval rating has dropped to 45% in the Rasmussen Reports daily tracking poll. [Rasmussen Reports]
2.) The Los Angeles Times is shocked that some on the left are agreeing with former VP Dick Cheney's analysis that President Obama is a dithering amateur. [Los Angeles Times]
"I think it's fundamentally harmful and it shows in my mind that this is a guy, a president, who would bow, for example, who doesn't fully understand or have the same perception of the U.S. role in the world that I think most Americans have," he says.
4.) During the Hennen interview, Cheney blasted Obama's dithering on Afghanistan. He pointed out that valuable time has been lost, regardless of Obama's final decision:
"I worry that there’s a lack of understanding of what this means from the perspective of the troops," he said. "You know, if you’re out there on the line day in and day out and putting your life at risk on a volunteer basis for the nation and you see the Commander in Chief unable to or appearing to be unable to make a decision about the way forward here – you know that raises serious doubts."
Cheney went on to suggest the "very costly" delay in a decision could be attributed to "inexperience" and argue that "every day that goes by raises doubts in the minds of our friends and allies in the region about what you’re going to do."
5.) President Obama (dba Congressman David Obey) is floating the idea of a "war tax." Buckle your seatbelts, this won't be pretty, but it will be petty! [CBS News]
6.) Although most of Hollywood has succumbed to Obamamania, Angelina Jolie apparently hasn't:
“She hates him,” a source close to Jolie tells Us Weekly. ”She’s into education and rehabilitation and thinks Obama is all about welfare and handouts. She thinks Obama is really a socialist in disguise,” adds the source. But don’t expect to see her rally against Democrats on Fox News like her staunch Republican father, Jon Voight.
“Angie isn’t Republican, but she thinks Obama is all smoke and mirrors,” the source says.
Welcome to the semi-daily Obama Fail Watch, wherein we examine the latest failures of the Obama administration. Please forward this link to your moderate and independent friends, as it may help them see the truth about the misguided incompetence of the Obama administration.
Here goes:
1.) The 'real' jobless rate is at 17.5%... Hope and change! [CNBC]
2.) Germany's Der Spiegel is calling Obama "Relatively Unsuccessful" and "A Lot Like Jimmy Carter." [Der Spiegel]
Besides his gaffe-tastic bow to the Japanese Emperor, there weren't many memorable moments during President Obama's recent trip to Asia. There weren't many successes either:
President Obama’s nine-day trip to Asia is worth a look back to fix two potent problems, past and future. First, the trip’s limited value per day of presidential effort suggests a disturbing amateurishness in managing America’s power. On top of the inexcusably clumsy review of Afghan policy and the fumbling of Mideast negotiations, the message for Mr. Obama should be clear: He should stare hard at the skills of his foreign-policy team and, more so, at his own dominant role in decision-making. Something is awry somewhere, and he’s got to fix it.
Source: The Daily Beast ["Amateur Hour at the White House" by Leslie H. Gelb]
The Times of London agrees:
Obama’s Asian adventure perceptibly increased the murmurings of dissent when he returned to Washington last week, having failed to wring any public concessions from China on any major issue.
For most Americans, the most talked-about moment of the trip was not the Great Wall visit but his low bow to Emperor Akihito of Japan, which the president’s right-wing critics assailed as “a spineless blunder” and excessively deferential.
While some commentators acknowledged that behind-the-scenes progress may have been made on issues such as North Korea, financial stability and human rights, even the pro-Obama New York Times noted in an editorial yesterday that “the trip wasn’t all that we had hoped it would be”.
The aforementioned NY Times had one of the more targeted attacks on the trip (surprise!):
It was also dispiriting that Mr. Obama agreed to allow China to limit his public appearances so markedly. Questions were not permitted at the so-called press conference with Mr. Hu, and his town hall meeting with future Chinese leaders in Shanghai not only had a Potemkin air, it was not even broadcast live in China. It’s obvious that the last thing Mr. Hu wanted was to get questions about issues like his brutal repression in Tibet and Xinjiang. That doesn’t explain Mr. Obama’s acquiescence in such restrictions.
Mr. Obama did not meet with Chinese liberals. In Shanghai, he spoke of the need for an uncensored Internet and universal rights for all people, including Chinese, and at the press conference he called for dialogue between Beijing and the Dalai Lama. He delayed a meeting with the Dalai Lama until after the China summit and should schedule it soon.
American Thinker gives a detailed explanation on how important it was for Obama to secure a trade agreement with China:
President Obama went to Asia this month with great hopes that he could persuade the Chinese government to let its people buy more American products. He failed.
The Chinese government only lets its people buy about 25¢ of American products for each $1 the U.S. buys from them. They not only keep out American products through currency manipulations, but also through a wide variety of tariff and non-tariff barriers...
Balanced trade with Asia would lead to a huge boost in demand for American exports. The result would lead to investment in the American manufacturing sector which would pull the American economy out of the recession. Rising American income would lead to rising purchases by Americans for Asian products. Both America and Asia would grow together as each would buy more and more of the other's products.
Leslie H. Gelb - who is the president emeritus at the Council on Foreign Relations - explains how the trip could have been more effective:
If most Asia hands inside and outside the government had designed the Obama trip, here’s what they would have advised: Go beyond the usual and trite message of building mutual understanding and cooperation, and stop invoking the God of Multilateralism without spelling out America’s leadership role. Asia is now overflowing with multilateral organizations. Washington is a member of a few key ones, like Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Asian Development Bank. But that has little to do with other new and key groupings such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (Russia, China, Uzbekistan, etc.) and ASEAN, the association of Southeast Asian nations. Asian nations are increasingly organizing themselves into these groups, and Washington hasn’t really figured out its role. Most Asian nations want that role to be a prominent one—in fact, the leadership position. They’re afraid of China, afraid that China won’t be as attentive to their concerns in the future as America was in the past. At the same time, they don’t want Washington to come into these groupings and cause problems with Beijing. They want Washington to figure out a leadership position constructed on the proven American ability to help solve common problems in the common interest. They want an America they remember, one that can get things done and doesn’t let problems fester.
Source: The Daily Beast ["Amateur Hour at the White House" by Leslie H. Gelb]
Five Afghan border guards were killed when a roadside bomb blast hit their patrol in the troubled southern province of Kandahar Sunday, police said.
The attack occurred in the Spin Boldak district bordering Pakistan during a pre-dawn patrol, said General Abdul Raziq, provincial border police commander.
"In an explosion this morning all five border policemen were killed when their vehicle was hit," he told AFP.
4.) Former Ambassador John Bolton is analysissin' all over President Obama's recently concluded trip to Asia. His verdict? It was a failure:
Barack Obama's first visit to Asia since his inauguration was one of the most disappointing trips by any U.S. president to the region in decades, especially given media-generated expectations that "Obamamania" would make it yet another triumphal progression. It was a journey of startlingly few concrete accomplishments, demonstrable proof that neither personal popularity nor media deference really means much in the hard world of international affairs.
Many media analysts attributed the lack of significant agreements in Beijing to the "rising China, declining America" hypothesis, which suits their ideological proclivities. But any objective analysis would show that it was much more Mr. Obama's submissiveness and much less a new Chinese assertiveness that made the difference. Mr. Obama simply seems unable or unwilling to defend U.S. interests strongly and effectively, either because he feels them unworthy of defense, or because he is untroubled by their diminution.
1.) President Obama's ratings continue to slip. Yesterday's Gallup tracking poll indicates his approval rating has slipped below 50% for the first time. [Gallup]
2.) President Obama (DBA Senator Harry Reid) is pushing an ObamaCare bill in the Senate that contains a marriage penalty that will target couples making $50,000/year. [Washington Times]
3.) President Obama has surrendered to FoxNews after starting a war with the network a little over a month ago. [Obama Fail Blog]
6.) President Obama (DBA American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists) has told women to cut back on their pap smears. Change! [Sweetness and Light]
The economy is in shambles. And Tim Geithner is in the crosshairs.
Growing discontent over the economy and frustration with efforts to speed its recovery boiled over Thursday on Capitol Hill in a wave of criticism and outright anger directed at the Obama administration.
Episodes in both houses of Congress exposed the raw nerves of lawmakers flooded with stories of unemployment and economic hardship back home. They also underscored the stiff headwinds that the administration faces as it pushes to enact sweeping changes to the financial regulatory system while also trying to create jobs for ordinary Americans.
Even Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a friend of the administration, suggested that Geithner had been inconsistent in addressing China's practice of keeping its currency low against the dollar.
And Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said Wednesday on MSNBC that he thinks Geithner should step down, pointing to his handling of the aftermath of American International Group's meltdown.
Geithner's testimony was par for the course for the Obama administration - petty, catty, blame-shifting and contentious:
Treasury Secretary Tim ‘Turbo Tax’ Geithner was asked to step down by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX). Geithner was extremely defensive, blamed it all on Bush and refused to step down. Brady asked Geithner where he was working at the time of the financial meltdown and Geithner stuttered his response.
Picture it – your bosses call you in for a performance evaluation. They point out where you’re lacking and you get belligerent and blame your predecessor. Only in government can people get away with this. (Via Gateway Pundit)
Of course, Geithner's arrogance, thin-skin and overall incompetence make him a perfect fit for this administration. Coupled with his father's close history with Barack Obama's mother, you can bet Tim Geithner is here to stay.
1.) House Republicans have are standing up to President Obama's decision to grant civilian trials to Islamist terrorists:
One-hundred-sixty-nine GOP lawmakers co-sponsored the “Keep Terrorists Out of America” Act, which would place stringent restrictions on where the administration could relocate the enemy combatants in light of the president's executive order last January to close the notorious detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within one year.
Bypassing Democratic leaders, however, would require all 177 House GOP lawmakers to sign onto the petition, as well as 41 Democrats, in order to reach the 218 signatures, a majority of the House.
2.) Human Events has extensive coverage of Eric Holder's testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Senator Lindsey Graham ran circles around Holder:
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: Here’s my concern. Can you give me a case in United States history where an enemy combatant caught on a battlefield was tried in civilian court?
HOLDER: I don’t know. I’d have to look at that. I think that, you know the. . . the determination I’ve made. . .
GRAHAM: We’re making history here Mr. Attorney General. I’ll answer it for you: the answer’s no. The Ghelani case, he was indicted for pre-nine…for the Cole bombing before 9/11 and I didn’t object going into federal court. But I’ll tell you right now, we’re making history and we’re making bad history. And let me tell you why. If Bin Laden were caught tomorrow would it be the position of this administration that he would be brought to justice? … When does custodial interrogation begin in his case? If we capture Bin Laden tomorrow would he be entitled to Miranda warnings at the moment of capture?
HOLDER: Again, I’m not… it all depends.
GRAHAM: Well it does not depend. If you’re going to prosecute anybody in civilian court, our law is clear that the moment custodial interrogation occurs, the defendant, the criminal defendant, is entitled to a lawyer and to be informed of their right to remain silent. The big problem I have is that you’re criminalizing the war. That if we caught Bin Laden tomorrow, there are mixed theories and we couldn’t turn him over to the CIA, the FBI, or military intelligence for an interrogation on the battlefield because now we’re saying that he is subject to criminal court in the United States and you’re confusing the people fighting this war. What would you tell the military commander who captured him? Would you tell him you must read him his rights and give him a lawyer? And if you did tell him that would you jeopardize the prosecution in a federal court?
HOLDER: We have captured thousands of people on the battlefield, only a few of which have actually been given their Miranda warnings.
GRAHAM: … if we’re going to use federal court as a disposition for terrorists, you take everything that comes with being in federal court. And what comes with being in federal court is that the rules in this country, unlike military law, you can have military operations, you can interrogate somebody for military intelligence purposes and the law enforcement rights do not attach. But under domestic criminal law, the moment the person is in the hands of the United States Government, they’re entitled to be told they have a right to a lawyer and can remain silent. And if we go down that road we’re going to make this country less safe, that is my problem with what you have done.
3.) Wizbang Blog has news on Joe Biden's motorcade troubles:
It seems "Bumbling Joe Biden Syndrome" is contagious. Over the past two weeks, members of his motorcade have been involved in three accidents, including one, in which, unfortunately, a pedestrian was killed. I can't help thinking what kind of garbage would bubble up from the sewers of the left had Dick Cheney's motorcade been involved in something like this. His hunting accident was talked about for months, and provided endless comedic fodder for late-night talk shows.
"It was a surprise to watch a ... legendary political machine so finely tuned and experienced as Chicago, who prided themselves, as no other U.S. city, on their ability to manage elections, telling people how they are going to vote before they even approach the polling station, so totally miss the plot," Payne said in the December/January edition of the magazine.
"As the 18-vote first round so clearly showed, Chicago totally failed at the very first rule of elections; they never really understood the electorate and how to communicate with them," said Payne.
Despite fervent denials by the White House staff, President Obama sat down for a FoxNews interview during his current Asia trip. The interview amounts to a surrender in a war that Obama started preemptively over a month ago.
President Obama appears on FoxNews for an interview with Major Garrett.
During this time, the war against FoxNews took precedence over Afghanistan, Iran, the economy and virtually ever other major issue. And then... surrender. Poof. Just like that.
The regimes in Iran and North Korea must be thrilled to know the leader of the free world is such a pushover.
Ladies and gentleman, the mask is off the Obama domestic agenda. And it is no surprise that the mask was pulled off by Joe Biden, unwittingly or not:
In an interview with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central's The Daily Show Tuesday evening, Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged the anger and frustration many taxpayers feel over the way financial institutions seem to have favored status in Washington D.C.
Pointing to the hundreds of billions of government dollars that have been spent to keep banks from failing, he recalled a "great expression" of his grandfather, Ambrose Finnegan: "It's socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor," Biden said.
That's Joe Biden, doing his job... His job, of course, is to lob a bombshell into the public's psyche to soften the path for President Obama. You can bet that there will be denials from Robert Gibbs, to the effect of "Nobody's talking about socialism," or "What the Vice-President MEANT to say was..." but facts is facts:
The Vice President of the United States just proclaimed that socialism is being used to punish the most successful Americans.
Talking tough is not the same as acting tough, but Eric Holder and President Obama are too busy failing to know the difference:
President Barack Obama predicted that professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be convicted and executed as Attorney General Eric Holder proclaimed: "Failure is not an option."
Even if a terror trial suspect were acquitted, Holder said, he would not be released in the United States.
Err... Uh... Failure already happened. A terrorist who has confessed to plotting to kill thousands of American citizens is being granted a federal trial. He is being afforded the rights of a US citizen - innocent until proven guilty, jury of his peers, all that jazz...
Even if a terror trial suspect were acquitted, Holder said, he would not be released in the United States.
In one of a series of TV interviews during his trip to Asia, Obama said those offended by the legal privileges given to Mohammed by virtue of getting a civilian trial rather than a military tribunal won't find it "offensive at all when he's convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him."
President Obama (dba Eric Holder) is granting a trial to KSM
Obama has declared -BEFORE HIS TRIAL - that KSM will receive the death penalty
Andrew McCarthy - who prosecuted Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman for his involvement in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center - weighs in on this madness:
In a meeting with the press in China, President Obama said that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be "convicted" and had "the death penalty applied to him" . . . and then said he wasn't "pre-judging" the case. He made the second statement after it was pointed out to him — by NBC's Chuck Todd — that the first statement would be taken as the president's interfering in the trial process. Obama said that wasn't his intention. I'm sure it wasn't — he's trying to contain the political damage caused by his decision — but that won't matter. He has given the defense its first motion that the executive branch, indeed the president himself, is tainting the jury pool. Nice work.
The New York Times is reporting that President Obama will fail to meet his own deadline for closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.
President Obama acknowledged for the first time on Wednesday that his administration would miss a self-imposed deadline to close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, by mid-January, admitting the difficulties of following through on one of his first pledges as president.
“Guantánamo, we had a specific deadline that was missed,” Mr. Obama said in an interview with NBC News in Beijing during his weeklong trip to Asia. Mr. Obama said that he now hoped to shut down the detention facility sometime next year, but he did not set a new deadline.
Don't forget that the news of Obama's latest failure is coming to light under the following circumstances:
Obama is in China
The nation is still reeling from Eric Holder's announcement that federal trials will be granted to 9/11 terrorists.
Obama's deadline for closing Guantanamo Bay is still two months away (January 22, 2010)
It would seem that these factors are not coincidental. With Obama out of the country and the focus still on Holder's press conference, it definitely diffuses any discussion of Guantanamo Bay. The administration began diffusing this issue months ago by leaking hints that Obama may miss his deadline and then blaming it on White House legal counsel Greg Craig, who has since been forced to resign.
By the time January rolls around, the administration will almost surely diffuse any further mention of this issue with a roll of the eyes and a comment by Robert Gibbs to the effect of, "That's old news."
A follow up to a story posted in this morning's Obama Fail Watch:
Rep. David Obey (D-WI) is not happy with the failure of the Obama administration to accurately report the results of the stimulus:
The inaccuracies on recovery.gov that have come to light are outrageous and the Administration owes itself, the Congress, and every American a commitment to work night and day to correct the ludicrous mistakes.
Credibility counts in government and stupid mistakes like this undermine it. We've got too many serious problems in this country to let that happen.
We designed the Recovery Act to be open and transparent and I expect the the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, who oversees the recovery act web site and data to have information that is accurate, reliable and understandable to the American public.
1.) ABC News is reporting about the success of the stimulus in Arizona's 15th congressional district, except that district doesn't exist:
Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the Web site set up by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says.
There's one problem, though: There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts.
And ABC News has found many more entries for projects like this in places that are incorrectly identified.
Late Monday, officials with the Recovery Board created to track the stimulus spending, said the mistakes in crediting nonexistent congressional districts were caused by human error.
Gov. Paterson on Monday joined critics questioning the White House's plan to put the accused 9/11 terrorists on trial in New York.
"This is not a decision that I would have made," he said when asked about the upcoming trials of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his four underlings in Manhattan Federal Court.
"It's a little inconsistent with what he told me last week," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told the Daily News last night after being honored on the East Side with the Brennan Center for Justice Legacy Award.
3.) Regarding Holder's claim that Paterson is contradicting himself, Holder is claiming he didn't consult with Paterson, Obama or anyone else in positions of power. Of course, these are either blatant lies or Eric Holder is the most dangerous man in the free world. Lil' bit of both, most likely:
4.) Spiegel Online is declaring that Obama has "failed the world on climate change." Author Christian Schewergel blames Obama for lying and being too self-centered and incompetent to do what is right - a sentiment that everyone can agree on, regardless of their views on climate legislation:
Obama Lied to the Europeans
Barack Obama cast himself as a "citizen of the world" when he delivered his well-received campaign speech in Berlin in the summer of 2008. But the US president has now betrayed this claim. In his Berlin speech, he was dishonest with Europe. Since then, Obama has neglected the single most important issue for an American president who likes to imagine himself as a world citizen, namely, his country's addiction to fossil fuels and the risks of unchecked climate change. Health-care reform and other domestic issues were more important to him than global environmental threats. He was either unwilling or unable to convince skeptics in his own ranks and potential defectors from the ranks of the Republicans to support him, for example, by promising alternative investments as a compensation for states with large coal reserves.
Accent #2: The Inner City Community Organizer Photo: The Freedom Post
The Associated Press is trying to figure out the source of Sarah Palin's accent:
When Sarah Palin burst onto the national political stage there was a lot of talk about her distinctive way of talkin', you betcha.
Heck, she moved to Alaska when she was too young to speak and grew up in the small town of Wasilla, but doggone it, why did she talk like someone from the movie "Fargo"?
Three University of Wisconsin-Madison linguists tackled the conundrum in a research article to be published in the Journal of English Linguistics next month. The answer lies in something that happened in the 1930s.
This isn't exactly "news," and it isn't exactly "new." A quick Google search for "Sarah Palin's accent" yields 88,000 results, most of them from the 2008 campaign:
Sarah Palin's accent explained: The Swamp
Placing Sarah Palin's accent
Sarah Palin's accent
Palin's Accent Examined : NPR
Mr. Verb: Sarah Palin's accent and American dialects
The overriding theme is one of confusion and ridicule caused by and aimed at Palin's manner of speech, which sounds to many like a Midwestern accent. The implication here is simple: Sarah Palin's accent is either a put-on or it is proof that she isn't too bright.
You betcha!
But... According to the UWM researchers, Palin's accent can be easily explained:
The UW researchers said people living in Alaska's Matanuska and Susitna valleys, where Wasilla is located, are largely descendants of farmers who moved there in the 1930s from the Upper Midwest. More than 200 farm families moved to the Wasilla area in 1935 as part of a government program to start a new farming community.
While Palin has the expected Upper Midwestern speech patterns, she also has what Salmons called "screaming hallmarks of western speech."
For example, Palin pronounces the word "feel" like "fill" and "peel" like "pill." Those inflections were not picked up on by the media or those who lampooned Palin, including Tina Fey on "Saturday Night Live," Salmons said.
"It wasn't part of the stereotype," he said.
They found that she dropped the -ing at the end of words nearly 12 percent of the time, said the words "darn" and heck" two times each, referred to her grandmother as "gramma" and offered a "shout out" to a third-grade class in Alaska.
So there you go. Sarah Palin speaks like a woman from Wasilla, Alaska. Case closed.
But what about President Obama?
A similar search for information on Obama's accent yields only 7,200 results. That is interesting, given his unorthodox upbringing:
Obama's mother was a white girl from Kansas, who lived in several states before moving to Hawaii at age 18. (Source: Wikipedia)
Obama's father was born in Kenya and spent roughly five years in the United States in his early and mid-twenties. (Source: Wikipedia)
Obama himself spent the first six years of his life in Hawaii and the next four in Indonesia, before moving back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents.
Currently, African-Americans make up only 2.3% of Hawaii's population. It is safe to assume that number was never much higher in the 1970s. (Source: Wikipedia)
Obama left Hawaii for Occidental College at the age of 18.
Given his diverse ancestry and unique upbringing, it would follow that the media would be fascinated by how it shaped our president. After all, he has three distinct speech patterns, each with its own tone and pacing. At times, he even shifts his accent depending on the audience.
Accent #1: The Northeastern Elitist
Accent #2: The Inner City Community Organizer
Accent #3: The Teleprompter Reader
So how did our president develop his speech patterns? Why does he "put on airs" when speaking to an affluent, liberal audience? Why does he put on a "blackcent" when speaking to inner city groups and unions? Why does his vocal delivery completely change when reading a teleprompter?
The people that raised him - his biological parents, step-father and maternal grandparents - were not African-American. They weren't Northeastern liberal elites. They were not descendants of a long line of measured, monotonous teleprompter readers.
According to The Linguist List, accents can continue to develop into a speaker's early twenties:
Accents can be expected to change until we are in our early twenties. This is usually the time we come to some sort of decision about who we are. But even after that, if you want (and need) to change your accent, you can.
To change your accent you have to want to. Really want to, deep down. This usually happens without much effort because you move to a new place, mix with different people, or develop new aspirations.
It would seem President Obama has three distinct ways of speaking to three different audiences. It would be nice to see ANY analysis of this by the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, Allahpundit over at HotAir thinks that this may not be Obama's fault - his incompetent staff could be to blame:
...I’m not convinced that the “groveling” explanation for the bow is necessarily the correct one. For one thing, his protocol office is famously run by imbeciles. They may very well have simply given him bum advice: “Be sure to hunch way the hell over and stare at the ground. They all do it that way.” For another thing, and somewhat notably, Japan isn’t a stop on The One’s world apology tour. It could have been, but he declined the opportunity to turn it into one. So why give the emperor the full Hopenchange treatment, then? Is it just … reflex at this point?
1.) Former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani is blasting Obama's decision to grant trials to the Islamist terrorists behind the 9/11 attacks:
“It is an unnecessary advantage to give to terrorists,” Giuliani said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I don’t know why you’d want to give terrorists advantages, and, secondly, it’s an unnecessary risk.”
Giuliani also warned that opting for a civilian court trial over a military commissions proceeding would mean lengthy delays.
“Our federal system has an enormously protracted process that’s going to go on forever. ... It grants more benefits than a military tribunal will grant. There’s always the possibility of acquittal, change of venue,” the ex-mayor said on ABC’s “This Week.”
2.) Troop morale in Afghanistan is down - and ABCNews is overlooking the most obvious reason - Obama's dithering.
3.) Politico is reporting that President Obama was upset with a question from AP's Jennifer Loven during a press conference in China:
President Barack Obama made no effort to conceal his irritation when his press corps used the first question of his maiden Far East trip to ask what was taking him so long on Afghanistan.
Jennifer Loven of The Associated Press had asked: “Can you explain to people watching and criticizing your deliberations what piece of information you're still lacking to make that call.”
“With respect to Afghanistan, Jennifer,” the president scolded, “I don't think this is a matter of some datum of information that I'm waiting on. … Critics of the process … tend not to be folks who … are directly involved in what's happening in Afghanistan. Those who are, recognize the gravity of the situation and recognize the importance of us getting this right.”
The cool president’s heated response reflected second-guessing from the press and Pentagon about a process that has spanned eight formal meetings with his war cabinet, totaling about 20 hours.
4.) Wizbang is analysissin' the hell out of Obama's response to Loven's question:
Herein is a just a small measure of a thin skinned White House on the matter of Afghanistan policy. Considering that the source is Politico, which covets its White House access, and the quoted question came from none other than AP Obama maven Jennifer Loven, it can only be concluded that, to a small degree, some in the media are seeing themselves as Hope and Change chumps.
One wonders where this strange new respect for "those directly involved in what is happening" was during the Iraq War and the successful surge strategy that then Senator Obama opposed. Could it be that this President is being mugged by reality and doesn't like the scrutiny that often accompanies the perquisites of the office of POTUS?
6.) Jake Tapper is reporting - via a message from a trusted source on Japanese culture - that O-bow-ma's stunt with Akihito is an embarrassment:
Obama's handshake/forward lurch was so jarring and inappropriate it recalls Bush's back-rub of Merkel.
"Kyodo News is running his appropriate and reciprocated nod and shake with the Empress, certainly to show the president as dignified, and not in the form of a first year English teacher trying to impress with Karate Kid-level knowledge of Japanese customs.
"The bow as he performed did not just display weakness in Red State terms, but evoked weakness in Japanese terms....The last thing the Japanese want or need is a weak looking American president and, again, in all ways, he unintentionally played that part.
