News Blog for social, fiscal & national security conservatives who believe in God, family & the USA. Upholding the rights granted by God & guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, traditional family values, "republican" principles / ideals, transparent & limited "smaller" government, free markets, lower taxes, due process of law, liberty & individual freedom. Content approval rests with the ARRA News Service Editor. Opinions are those of the authors. While varied positions are reported, beliefs & principles remain fixed. No revenue is generated for or by this "Blog" - no paid ads - no payments for articles.Fair Use Doctrine is posted & used. Blogger/Editor/Founder: Bill Smith, Ph.D. [aka: OzarkGuru & 2010 AFP National Blogger of the Year] Contact: editor@arranewsservice.com (Pub. Since July, 2006)Home PageFollow @arra
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. -- Plato
(429-347 BC)
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Lest We forget Why Why America is in Political Trouble . . .
Marcus Tullius Cicero (January 3, 106BC – December 7, 43BC): "A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear." -------------------- . . . And MANY more! Tags:America, Chicago politics, photos, PoliticsTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by Charles Krauthammer at Townhall: Janet Napolitano -- former Arizona governor, now overmatched secretary of homeland security -- will forever be remembered for having said of the attempt to bring down an airliner over Detroit: "The system worked." The attacker's concerned father had warned U.S. authorities about his son's jihadist tendencies. The would-be bomber paid cash and checked no luggage on a transoceanic flight. He was nonetheless allowed to fly, and would have killed 288 people in the air alone, save for a faulty detonator and quick actions by a few passengers. . . .
The reason the country is uneasy about the Obama administration's response to this attack is a distinct sense of not just incompetence but incomprehension. From the very beginning, President Obama has relentlessly tried to downplay and deny the nature of the terrorist threat we continue to face. Napolitano renames terrorism "man-caused disasters." Obama goes abroad and pledges to cleanse America of its post-9/11 counterterrorist sins. Hence, Guantanamo will close, CIA interrogators will face a special prosecutor, and Khalid Sheik Mohammed will bask in a civilian trial in New York -- a trifecta of political correctness and image management.
And just to make sure even the dimmest understand, Obama banishes the term "war on terror." It's over -- that is, if it ever existed. Obama may have declared the war over. Unfortunately al-Qaeda has not. Which gives new meaning to the term "asymmetric warfare."
And produces linguistic -- and logical -- oddities that littered Obama's public pronouncements following the Christmas Day attack. In his first statement, Obama referred to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as "an isolated extremist." This is the same president who, after the Ford Hood shooting, warned us "against jumping to conclusions" -- code for daring to associate Nidal Hasan's mass murder with his Islamist ideology. Yet, with Abdulmutallab, Obama jumped immediately to the conclusion, against all existing evidence, that the bomber acted alone.
More jarring still were Obama's references to the terrorist as a "suspect" who "allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device." You can hear the echo of FDR: "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 -- a date which will live in infamy -- Japanese naval and air force suspects allegedly bombed Pearl Harbor."
Obama reassured the nation that this "suspect" had been charged. Reassurance? The president should be saying: We have captured an enemy combatant -- an illegal combatant under the laws of war: no uniform, direct attack on civilians -- and now to prevent future attacks, he is being interrogated regarding information he may have about al-Qaeda in Yemen. Instead, Abdulmutallab is dispatched to some Detroit-area jail and immediately lawyered up. At which point -- surprise! -- he stops talking.
This absurdity renders hollow Obama's declaration that "we will not rest until we find all who were involved." Once we've given Abdulmutallab the right to remain silent, we have gratuitously forfeited our right to find out from him precisely who else was involved, namely those who trained, instructed, armed and sent him.
This is all quite mad even in Obama's terms. He sends 30,000 troops to fight terror overseas, yet if any terrorists come to attack us here, they are magically transformed from enemy into defendant.
The logic is perverse. If we find Abdulmutallab in an al-Qaeda training camp in Yemen, where he is merely preparing for a terror attack, we snuff him out with a Predator -- no judge, no jury, no qualms. But if we catch him in the United States in the very act of mass murder, he instantly acquires protection not just from execution by drone but even from interrogation.
The president said that this incident highlights "the nature of those who threaten our homeland." But the president is constantly denying the nature of those who threaten our homeland. On Tuesday, he referred five times to Abdulmutallab (and his terrorist ilk) as "extremist(s)."
A man who shoots abortion doctors is an extremist. An eco-fanatic who torches logging sites is an extremist. Abdulmutallab is not one of these. He is a jihadist. And unlike the guys who shoot abortion doctors, jihadists have cells all over the world; they blow up trains in London, nightclubs in Bali and airplanes over Detroit (if they can); and are openly pledged to war on America. Any government can through laxity let someone slip through the cracks. But a government that refuses to admit that we are at war, indeed, refuses even to name the enemy -- jihadist is a word banished from the Obama lexicon -- turns laxity into a governing philosophy. Tags:Barack Obama, Charles Krauthammer, Islamic terrorism, Janet Napolitano, Jihadist, warTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
H/T Conservative Hideout: The people have spoken, and, in fact, Nancy won quite a few times this year. Insuring her place in the history of useful idiocy. Congratulations Nancy, you deserve it. But just remember the fate of useful idiots! Once the socialists take over complete power, the useful idiots are no longer useful to them! [P.S., If you agree and are on FaceBook, have some fun and Join the Impeach Nancy Pelosi Fan Page]
Tags:2009, American Idol, Impeach Nancy Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi, idiotTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
2009 is over!2010 is here! Time to save this young damsel in distress, and all of our other grandchildren and great grandchildren! Make copies of the photo; carry them in your billfolds.
Give them to friends. Time for "Real Change" in 2010! [ARRA News Service]
Tags:2010 Elections, ARRA News Service, children, National DebtTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by Sammy Benoit: When we look back at the decade 2000-2009, we may well define it by three crises: the crisis that didn't happen, the crisis that wasn't supposed to happen, and the crisis that we don't realize is happening. We haven't learned the lessons of the first two, and our ignorance of the third may doom us to be slaves to our government, rather than the other way around.
Leading into the changeover from 1999-2000, we faced Y2K, the crisis that didn't happen. Many people thought computers' dates would go from 1999 back to 1900, causing our computer-dominated world to fail: bank accounts disappearing, air-traffic systems (and airplanes) crashing, and everything leading to economic collapse and a return to the Stone Age. Some scientists told us the world would end, but it didn't. And the solution didn't necessitate everyone throwing out their computers and buying new ones. We should remember this non-crisis when we think about global warming.
On September 11, 2001, America faced the crisis that wasn't supposed to happen. Islamists attacked the United States' biggest city/financial center and the headquarters of our nation's military. This is America; we have the most powerful military in the world and the best intelligence. How could it happen?
A major cause of the September 2001 attacks was our own negligence, our political correctness, and our refusal to learn lessons from previous attacks, such as the bombing of our barracks in Lebanon, the attack on the USS Cole, and the first Trade Center bombing. Immediately after 9/11, it seemed as if we learned from the attack. Our government's first priority was to fight the Islamist terror threat, and the people were willing to do whatever it took to fight Islamic terrorism at home and abroad.
The lessons of 9/11 have long since been forgotten. Our politically correct government is refusing to call our enemy by name (Islamists). The vast majority of Muslims in the U.S. are law-abiding people, but that doesn't change the fact that we are being attacked by Muslim terrorists. An army must know its enemy; otherwise, it cannot recognize and defeat them. . . .
The third crisis is the one that very few realize is happening. This may well be the crisis that defines the next decade: a government takeover of our lives. Our largest manufacturing industry -- automobiles -- was taken over by the government, who took equity from investors who had advanced cash to the firms and then gave to the unions. The banking system was taken over after a crisis caused by government forcing banks to make bad loans to people who could not afford them. A pay czar is setting salary levels for businesses we have taken over and making salary "recommendations" for others.
The role of government in the economy has spiked. Government spending now represents 40% of the U.S. gross national product. The Congress, directed by the president, is working to take over the health care system, despite the objections of the American people. The threat of this bill is more than simply controlling another 16% of the economy. The ObamaCare bill creates government control over our lifestyles, from what we eat to what we put in vending machines to when and how we die.
Our government is trying to control how we consume energy. They have prepared legislation which will control everything from transportation to creating a smart grid that will move the thermostat in our houses without our permission. None of this -- none -- is supported by the Constitution that has kept us free for some 222 years. . . . [Full Story]Sammy Benoit blogs at YID With LIDTags:9-11, crisis, decade, Islamic terrorism, Islamic ViolenceTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
John Hawkins, Right Wing News: 40) If people plunder you on the sea, that"s piracy. If people plunder you on land, that's the Obama administration. -- Frank J. 37) The president has borrowed more money to spend to less effect than anybody on the planet. -- Mark Steyn 36) The Left has declared war on Palin because she threatens their existence. Liberals need women dependent and scared so that women, like blacks, will vote Democrat. -- Robin of Berkeley 27) Since this is an era when many people are concerned about "fairness" and "social justice," what is your "fair share" of what someone else has worked for? -- Thomas Sowell 26) It's hard to appreciate an entity's leading role in the world when it's been sucking on your tit for 60 years as Europe has with regard to the United States, parasitically. -- Charles Krauthammer 23) "President Obama can ban the phrase "war on terror" but he cannot ban the terrorists' war on us. That war continues, so there is no reason to turn terrorists loose before it ends. They chose to make it that kind of war. We don't need to risk American lives to prove that we are nicer than they are." -- Thomas Sowell 11) Intellectualism has become the readiness, willingness and ability to call dangerous things safe, and safe things dangerous. -- Morgan Freeberg 8) The government competes in the private sector the way an alligator competes with a duck. -- Mike Pence 6) Bowing to the Saudi king is not an energy policy. -- Newt Gingrich 2) The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil. -- Sarah Palin 1) You Lie! -- Joe Wilson during a Barack Obama speech to Congress Read Them All:
Tags:2009, news politics, quotesTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Obama & Napolitano Have Not Done Anything to Make Our Country Safer
U.S. Rep. John Boozman, AR-03: An attempted terrorist attack on Northwest Flight 253 Christmas Day highlights a failure in aviation security and has renewed the discussion of safety in the air. This breach of security is a serious cause for concern and as a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Aviation Subcommittee, U.S. I will work to find solutions that prevent future attacks.
The Christmas Day act of terrorism proves the national security policies of President Obama and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, have not done anything to make our country safer. This is not a time to play political games. Our nation must take the necessary steps to protect the safety of its citizens, but the out of touch priorities of this administration threatens the security.
Over the last year, it would appear that the Administration and Secretary Napolitano are more concerned about closing Guantanamo Bay detention facility, bringing terrorists to the U.S, and profiling our nation’s veterans and right-to-life advocates as terror threats than they have been with identifying and closing the loopholes that jeopardize the safety of Americans. The war on terror is something we fight every day and we must on stay one step ahead of the bad-actors of the world. We must focus on real threats, adopt proven security tactics, prevent leaks and improve interagency coordination, and stop finger pointing at the Central Intelligence Agency. We are all on the same team and its time that we act like it. Tags:All Barack Channel, AR, AR-03, Arkansas, Janet Napolitano, John Boozman, terrorismTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
End of Year Rerun: Dragnet Detectives School Barack Obama on Obamacare & America
Dusting this video off again. Two old Dragnet detectives, Joe Friday & Bill Gannon give Obama their ideas on his attempts to dismantle our country.
[Video] Tags:Barack Obama, big government, Dragnet, health care, socialism, videoTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by Ken Blackwell, Contributing Author and Ken Klukowski: “Ever since Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform in 1912, seven presidents — Democrats and Republicans alike — have taken up the cause of reform time and time again,” President Obama said in a statement hailing the Christmas Eve Senate vote to take over 1/6 of the nation’s economy. “Such efforts have been blocked by special-interests lobbyists who have perpetrated the status quo that works better for the insurance industry than it does for the American people.”
Note the date of TR’s “calling” for reform. It’s 1912. Nationalized health care was part of the platform of the Progressive Party that year and every year thereafter. Americans are more familiar with the name Theodore himself gave to that third party bid. After being shot by a would-be assassin in Milwaukee, TR said it takes more than a single bullet to stop a Bull Moose. Instantly, the colorful sobriquet was applied to the Progressive Party.
What did Theodore himself think of his new-found allies, the Progressives? He was sincerely committed to reform. And he certainly thought he had been cheated out of the Republican Party presidential nomination in 1912. After all, he had won all the state party primaries in the limited number of states that held them. But TR also recognized that some of his Progressive supporters went over the top. For them, he coined the wonderful phrase, “the lunatic fringe.”
TR did not want to wage war against wealth, only against the abuse of wealth. He termed the plutocrats of his time “malefactors of great wealth.” In modern terms, TR was for jailing the Bernie Madoffs and freeing the Bill Gateses. TR understood that economic growth was essential to modern industry. He protected our natural resources—more than any previous president—but you could count him among those who stood for conservation. He believed America’s treasury of natural beauty could be conserved for future generations while enabling Americans of his own time to responsibly use and replenish their nation’s bounteous resources.
Today, it would be fair to say the lunatic fringe is in charge. The healthcare bill just passed in the Senate is a hodge-podge of giveaways and bribes. Why should Nebraska not pay Medicaid costs imposed by her senior senator on 49 others states? And why should Nebraska citizens be forced to pay for abortions in New York and California?
President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency has issued an “endangerment ruling” on carbon dioxide. What must this ultimately mean for American industry? For the American population? Every human being discharges carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by the simple act of breathing. Can it be that Everyone Pollutes the Atmosphere?
Theodore Roosevelt could rightly be called America’s first “pro-family” president. He studied the Census Bureau statistics. He was deeply concerned about rising divorce rates and lowering birth rates. He understood that healthy children raised by loving, married parents were the true source of a nation’s strength. On a train trip to the West Coast, TR welcomed crowds of farm families that swarmed to meet the president. He praised them for bumper crops of wheat, corn, oats, and barley. But mostly, he welcomed a bumper crop of healthy American children. Among the majestic redwoods of California, he refused to speak until tacky billboards were removed from the stand of ancient trees TR regarded almost as a sacred grove. When will we have another president who is not only a tree-hugger, but also a baby-kisser?
The recent economic meltdown began in the housing industry. David Goldman, a savvy Wall Streeter, has written in First Things that young families with dependent children are the drivers of the home mortgage industry. And the U.S. has no more of these today than we had in 1969. This is the source of the real economic crisis. Theodore Roosevelt would certainly understand this.
How unfortunate that President Obama takes his inspiration from TR’s greatest error. Roosevelt was wrong to run on a platform that called for socialized medicine. He was even wrong to run at all in 1912. His Bull Moose candidacy fatally split the Republican majority and allowed the election of the disastrous Woodrow Wilson as a minority president. Nonetheless, for his undoubted achievements — including a Nobel Peace Prize awarded - imagine this — for actually making peace — TR deserves his place on Mount Rushmore. Will President Obama’s lunatic fringe demand he be placed there, too? ----------------- Mr. Ken Blackwell is a conservative family values advocate. He submitted this article to the ARRA News Service Editor which also appears in his Big Government. Blackwell is a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission and is a senior fellow at the Family Research Council and American Civil Rights Union. Mr. Ken Klukowski is a fellow and senior legal analyst with the American Civil Rights Union.
Tags:Barack Obama, Ken Blackwell, Ken Klukowski, Mount Rushmore, Obamacare, Teddy RooseveltTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Tags:Barack Obama, job approval, New Years, political cartoon, William Warren, the countdown, December, 2009To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families: ABC is reporting that two of the jihadist leaders behind the Northwest Airlines bomb plot were formerly Guantanamo prisoners who were released in November 2007. Before the day is over, Obama operatives and their media allies will be blaming George Bush for the Christmas Day plot.
Nice try – but no sale. During Bush’s second term, every liberal senator including Barack Obama was demanding that Guantanamo prisoners be put on trial or released. Liberal courts sniped at every step the Bush Administration took to deal with the “GITMO” prisoners. The ACLU and big media complained that the prisoners were being denied their rights. Steps taken to get information from the prisoners were condemned as torture. There were more negative stories about the U.S. soldiers guarding these thugs than about the thugs themselves. Liberal Illinois Senator Dick Durbin compared GITMO and our military prisons to a Nazi facility.
In that atmosphere, the Bush Administration started allowing limited releases from GITMO of prisoners they felt were least dangerous. At the same time, President Bush warned that some released prisoners had already gone back to the battlefield against the U.S. We were critical of the releases but also understood that it was a response to liberal pressure.
Now let’s fast forward to today. President Obama took office and his first official act was to sign an order to close GITMO, releasing as many prisoners as possible and bringing the rest to the U.S., where they would be granted all the rights of our Constitution. For the last year, Obama has fought to implement his plan in spite of all the evidence that he will make us less safe by doing so.
Now read this and weep. ABC is reporting that just this weekend the number of prisoners at GITMO dropped to fewer than 200 because President Obama transferred a dozen jihadist suspects to the governments of Yemen, Afghanistan and Somali. Meanwhile, other GITMO prisoners are getting their attorneys for the circus trials that will be held in New York as the result of another Obama decision. Finally it was Barack Obama’s administration that failed to keep an obviously high-risk individual from boarding the Northwest Christmas flight. That failure almost cost hundreds of lives.
The Obama Administration has one tune in its repertoire. It’s called “Blame Bush.” But it won’t fly this time, as we become less safe with each passing day [of the Obama administration]. Tags:Barack Obama, Campaign for Working Families, Gary Bauer, Gitmo, Islamic terrorismTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Rep. Michele Bachmann Becoming National Conservative Icon
TPM reports: Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-MN) celebrity status as a national conservative icon is just getting bigger, with the Congresswoman set to travel to Ohio in February, where she will speak to the Hamilton County (Cincinnati) Republican Party. Bachmann may only be a second-term Congresswoman in the minority party, but make no mistake -- she's a huge hit among the grassroots right nationwide. As the Minnesota Independent points out, it was at an event in Colorado this past August that Bachmann called upon conservative activists to "slit our wrists" and become blood brothers, in a pact to stop the Democrats' health care proposals. . . . [Full Story] Tags:Arkansas Federation of Republican Women, conservative, icon, Michele BachmannTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Howard Dean, Obama Officials and Dems Support Global Socialism
By Cliff Kincaid, Accuracy in Media: Former Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean said on December 8 that "cooperation" between European socialists and the Democratic Party has "intensified significantly" over the last several years and involves "regular contact" at "Congress, Senate, party and foundation levels." He added that "efforts have been remarkable from both sides." . . . The conference was held in Madrid, Spain under the patronage of Spain's socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, whose pro-homosexual and pro-abortion policies have led to street protests by thousands of supporters of traditional values. Zapatero is also under fire for a jobless rate of nearly 18 percent. . . .
Dean called for a "long-term global vision" for the transformation of the global economy and mentioned that disgraced Democratic President Bill Clinton had previously spoken at a meeting of the PES-sponsored Global Progressive Forum. The April 2-3 Global Progressive Forum also featured Robert Borosage of the left-wing group that calls itself the Campaign for America's Future.The Global Progressive Forum is also sponsored by the Socialist International, whose U.S. affiliate, the Democratic Socialists of America, includes long-time backers of Barack Obama.
"Free-market globalization alone cannot achieve social justice," Dean told the PES convention. "What the world needs is a global New Deal." He defined this as a "transition to a low-carbon economy" involving "a major transformation in the patterns of production and consumption." This will include "large-scale investments and mechanisms" to share the costs and the policies, he said. His remarks came on the eve of the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen. Dean never used the words "world government," but did declare that "We need a new institutional framework to govern, manage and monitor implementation."
In order to bring this about, the PES Congress issued a "Call to Action" urging the imposition of a "global financial transaction tax" that would generate hundreds of billions of dollars and "provide funding for long-term public investments, to finance global development and climate change." As AIM has disclosed, there is a secret plan by left-wing non-governmental organizations to bring about this global tax over the next several months. In another PES document, "A New Direction for Progressive Societies," the group urged a "progressive peace policy" that says "...we fully support the initiative of the US administration in favor of global disarmament" and urges the "deepening [of] transatlantic cooperation with the new US administration."
"It is our profound conviction that we must secure a Global New Deal for a new global order of social justice, equality, sustainable development and democracy," the document concludes. . . . The "Global New Deal" was also the theme of the October "Global Progress Conference" in Madrid, Spain, sponsored by the Center for American Progress, the IDEAS Foundation, and the Heinrich Boell Foundation, an affiliate of the German Green Party. A summary of remarks said that the conference was perceived to be the "starting point for a new global progressive alliance." The Center for American Progress is a George Soros-funded entity run by former Clinton official John Podesta, who co-chaired the Obama-Biden Transition Project.
Obama pollster Benenson has a website which says that he "was the lead pollster and a senior strategist for President Barack Obama during the 2008 election, and he continues in that role today." In addition to Obama and various Democratic Party candidates, elected officials, and campaign organizations, his clients have included the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Brookings Institution, the Soros Foundation, and the Working Families Party, an ACORN front. The Benenson Strategy Group has represented several foreign governments and currently represents British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a prominent advocate of a global tax who is facing re-election in June 2010. Brown's socialist Labor Party is a member of the PES. Tags:Accuracy in Media, AIM, Barack Obama, Cliff Kincaid, global, Global tax, Howard Dean, socialismTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Conn Carroll has another outstanding articles quotes below which is why many people read The Foundry Blog hosted by The Heritage foundation. Thank you Conn! by Conn Carroll: Refusing to interrupt his Hawaiian golf vacation for almost three full days after the Flight 253 attack, President Barack Obama finally emerged on December 28th to assure the American people that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was “an isolated extremist” and that he had already “been charged with attempting to destroy an aircraft.” Continuing to treat the incident like a common law-enforcement problem Obama referred to Abdulmutallab as the “suspect” five times and promised he would “not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable.”
Perhaps Obama should have stayed on the links for another 24 hours, because by yesterday it had become exceedingly clear that Abdulmutallab was in no conceivable way “isolated” and was instead very much part of al Qaeda’s larger war on the United States. Here’s what we know so far:
According to CBS News, as early as August of 2009 the Central Intelligence Agency was picking up information on a person of interest dubbed “The Nigerian,” suspected of meeting with “terrorist elements” in Yemen.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the father of Mr. Abdulmutallab warned the CIA of his son’s likely radicalization at the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria. That led to a broader gathering of agencies the next day, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Department, in which the information was shared.
According to CNN, information on Abdulmutallab, including his passport number and possible connection to extremists, had been sent to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, but it sat there for five weeks and was not disseminated.
Also according to the Wall Street Journal, the National Security Agency who had been monitoring former Guantanamo detainees in Yemen had communications intercepts suggesting a Nigerian was being prepped for a terror strike by al Qaeda operatives in that country.
And the Washington Post reports that not only did the British government reject an Abdulmutallab visa application this May, but that British Home Secretary Alan Johnson said that U.S. officials should have been told about the rejection and that he believes they were.
Faced with this preponderance of evidence that Abdulmutallab did not act alone President Obama finally admitted yesterday that “a systemic failure has occurred. And I consider that totally unacceptable.” It may have taken Obama four full days to reach this conclusion, after both White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano spent all of Sunday trying to convince the American people that “the system worked”, but his belated acknowledgment of the seriousness of the situation is welcome.
Also belatedly welcome is the acknowledgment that al Qaeda is a major force in Yemen that must be dealt with carefully. The Washington Post describes al Qaeda in Yemen as a ;”major new threat to the United States,” but there is nothing new about it. In fact, al-Qaeda’s first terrorist attack against Americans came in Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden’s father, who had migrated to neighboring Saudi Arabia before the birth of the al-Qaeda leader. In December 1992, bin Laden’s followers bombed a hotel in Yemen that was used by U.S. military personnel involved in supporting the humanitarian food relief flights to Somalia. And in October 2000, seventeen American sailors on board the USS Cole, were killed in an al-Qaeda bombing in the harbor of Aden, Yemen’s main port.
The Obama administration must stop thinking of al Qaeda and Abdulmutallab as mere criminals. Obama’s blindness to Abdulmutallab’s al Qaeda connections and his insistence on calling him a “suspect” in the “alleged” bombing is the same mindset dictating Obama’s decision to send Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other terrorists to New York for a civilian trial in federal court. Hopefully this incident will prod Obama into revisiting that historically bad decision. There were some great comments on this article which clearly identify that people are not pleased with President Obama's performance:
Jim, Wisconsin writes: Don’t be stupid.
Of COURSE Obama realizes we’re at war.
The clueless ones are the people in this country who don’t realize that Obama is on the other side.
Ron Bell Springfield, IL writes: Hey, Give this Guy a break, He has to first be told what to say,then he has to poll what he has to say,and then it has to be put on his official teleprompter, and then he has to read it to his focus group for content, this takes time, he makes decisions based on what his handlers let him say,and look Presidential all at the same time.
Toledofan writes: I don’t think that Obama or his administration will ever say that we are at war nor will they acknowledge that terrorism exists. To do so would mean that their whole premise of being able to talk and reason with the terrorists to leave us alone or to go bother someone else, would collapse or be failed logic on their part. I suspect this administration will continue to blame Bush, make life a little tougher with body scans, and continue to treat these as isolated incidents.
Jayne Frank, Lake Ann, FL writes: Obama does not think we are a super power, dislikes this Country immensely, and wants to play nice with the terrorists that want Americans to die. Terrorists don’t discriminate or profile; they don’t care whether you are black, Muslim, white, a woman or child. Because they hate our capitalist society (which Obama’s wealth distribution administration is also against), they just want to create as much destabilization and unrest as possible. 9 plots in the last 6 months have been foiled but he still wants to call them “suspects.” That is what happens when you have a boychild as your Commander in Chief.
Jonathan Seid, Williamsburg VA writes: President Obama is intellectually afraid of his friends who are liberal. He has painted himself into a corner with no exit because he is surrounding himself with people who tell him how righteous, how right and how special he is. He can deny that the baby is ugly all day long. When others see how ugly the baby really is, they will decide for themselves how foolish and wrong he is. So it goes with this war. The President doesn’t have the perspective, the maturity and the common-man’s sense, to admit that the baby is ugly. He is a shallow man who holds the highest elected office in the land. Our enemy knows this and will exploit this weakness.
Don Harper, Lubbock, TX writes: "According to CNN, information on Abdulmutallab, including his passport number and possible connection to extremists, had been sent to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, but it sat there for five weeks and was not disseminated." This failure by the CIA is inexcusable, but perhaps to be expected. Being told that their efforts over the past 7 years to keep us safe were illegal, it should not surprise us to find out that morale and work ethic have suffered. After all, if national security is less important than terrorists’ rights, just how important is national security? Not very, it seems.
What are your comments? Tags:al Qaeda, Barack Obama, bomber, Islamic terrorist, Morning Bell, The Heritage Foundation, warTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by William Warren:
55% of Americans are opposed to health care bill
62% in Nebraska disapprove of the health care bill
Only 17% of Nebraskans approve of Medicaid deal rasmussenreports.com
With Ben Nelson's Health Care infomercial set to air this evening, let's remember what he did to the state of Nebraska Tags:Ben Nelson, government healthcare, Nebraska, snake oilTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Editorial Comment: Jamet Naplitono is Blind as a bat and Dumber than a terrorist. If the "System Worked," she would not have her head up her #$@% and she would not be of "Homeland Security." Indeed, it may be "a time to worry."
by Matthew Vadum, American Spectator: ACORN critic Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is mystified that both the Democratic-controlled Congress and the Obama administration aren't doing much about the tax-subsidized organized crime syndicate ACORN even as evidence of its wrongdoing continues to pile up. In an exclusive interview, the House Judiciary Committee member describes the ACORN saga as "the largest corruption crisis in the history of America."
"It's thousands of times bigger than Watergate because Watergate was only a little break-in by a couple of guys," said King. "By the time we pull ACORN out by its roots America's going to understand just how big this is."
Unlike the Nixon-era Watergate scandal, the ACORN scandal reaches not only to the highest levels of government, but also to states and localities across America. The president himself and his political advisor Patrick Gaspard used to work for ACORN and the radical advocacy group has allies throughout congressional leadership who are bending over backwards to protect it. President Obama has also hired as White House counsel Bob Bauer, whom King described as "the number one defender of ACORN in the country."
ACORN has ties to unions such as SEIU and has business relationships with Wall Street. It has offices across the globe in places like Canada, Kenya, and India. . . . it stands accused of political corruption, election fraud, racketeering, money laundering, and countless other violations of the law. It is involved in major campaigns pushing for socialized medicine, green energy and cap-and-trade, enhanced welfare benefits, higher minimum wages, greater federal regulation of the financial services industry, and for a major expansion of the Community Reinvestment Act.
"The legislative branch will not investigate. [House Judiciary Committee chairman John] Conyers will not. [House Judiciary subcommittee chairman Jerrold] Nadler will not. It's not going to come out of [House Ways & Means Committee chairman Charles] Rangel's committee. It's not going to come out of [House Financial Services Committee chairman] Barney Frank's committee or from anybody in the Senate. They're going to protect ACORN."
Congress is deliberately dragging its heels on ACORN . . . In Congress Democrats "got out their arsenal and now they're using everything to protect ACORN because that's the machine that keeps them in office." . . . Attorney General Eric Holder has made it abundantly clear he has no interest in investigating his radical friends at ACORN. Holder's Justice Department released a legal opinion late last month that allows the Obama administration to ignore the will of Congress. He's also ignored the 88-page report on ACORN's systemic corruption and flagrant racketeering activities that was issued this summer by Republican investigators on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
King said he doesn't hold out much hope that the Obama administration or Congress will decide to do the right thing and investigate ACORN. This is one-party gangster government and they know what they're doing," he said. . . . [Full Story] [H/T AR Vets Coalition]Tags:ACORN, acorn scandal, corruption, DOJ, US Congress, WatergateTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Bottom line: When it comes to profligate spending, the Blue Dogs are anything but watchdogs. And the moderates make Paris Hilton look tight-fisted.
The ALG analysis includes votes on the $789 billion "stimulus", bankruptcy mortgage "cramdowns," ACORN funding, a $108 billion International Monetary Fund expansion, the Waxman-Markey carbon emission caps, the $2.1 trillion "public option" health system, the $154 billion assistance program for bankrupt states, and the $290 billion debt limit expansion.
In short, they were some of the most controversial measures to pass the House this year. And to be certain, they all passed. Instead of being stalwart financial watchdogs, these so-called “moderates” in the House have turned out to be nothing more than supine lapdogs sleeping through the greatest financial burglary in human history. They have proven unable or unwilling to stop a single piece of budget-busting legislation this session. . . . [Full Story] How Did Rep Marion Berry (Arkansas Cong. Dist. 1) Fair in His Voting? Summary: Very Bad! Pelosi Lap Dog!
H. Res. 5 – Rules of the House 1/6/09 Vote Yea
HR 1 ‐‐ $819 billion “stimulus” 1/28/09 Yea
HR 1 Conf. ‐‐ $789 billion “stimulus” 2/13/09 Yea
HR 1106 – bankruptcy mortgage “cramdowns” 3/5/09 Nay
HR 1388 – national service bill w/ ACORN funding 3/31/09 Yea
HR 1728 – ACORN funding in “Anti‐Predatory Lending 5/7/09 Not Voting WHAT!
H. Res . 425 – Vote to Table Flake Resolution Against 5/12/09 Yea
HR 2346 ‐‐ $108 billion IMF expansion 6/16/09 Yea
HR 2454 – Waxman‐Markey “Cap‐and‐Tax” 6/26/09 Nay (after he voted Yea to let it out of committee)
HR 3962 – $2.1 trillion House “public option” 11/7/09 Yea
HR 2847 ‐‐ $154 billion bankrupt state‐union bailout 12/16/09 Yea
HR 4314 – $290 billion debt limit expansion 12/16/09 Yea H/T Boot Berryy Tags:AR-01, Arkansas, Blue Dogs, government, Lap Dogs, Marion Berry, spendingTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by William Warren: Tags:DHS, Homeland Security, Islamic terrorist, Janet Napolitano, Political Cartoons, security, William WarrenTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
It's So Cold . . . I saw a Democrat with their hands in their own pockets.
Tags:Democrats, global cooling, humor, WeatherTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by John Allison III: For weeks, Senator Blanche Lincoln allowed Arkansas voters to believe she just might save them from the prospect of a government-run health care system. It turned out she had no intention of listening to the majority. Senator Lincoln chose to represent the Harry Reid/leftist zealot-wing of the Democrat Party, against the will of the majority of Arkansas voters.
Following her vote to support passage of the final version of Harry Reid’s 2,034 page bill, Senator Lincoln sent an “eNewsletter” to those who had previously contacted her about this issue. Following the Democrat game plan that’s been used throughout the debate on health care reform, Lincoln’s letter is filled with lies, omissions, and misrepresentations.
Senator Lincoln Lies About Her Priorities
Near the end of her newsletter, Lincoln claims “my first priority remains the people of Arkansas and not any political party or partisan organization, and I will not support legislation that does not serve the best interests of our great state.” In fact, her vote to support this legislation is a slap in the face to the 64% of Arkansans who oppose the bill.
It was obvious to anyone paying attention as far back as November that Arkansans were demanding she vote against this bill, and Lincoln would have to have been wearing blinders if she didn’t notice. Before she voted for cloture on the bill drafted by the Senate Finance Committee, Zogby released a poll showing the sitting Senator held a slight lead over her potential Republican challengers in next year’s election. When asked who they would vote for if Lincoln voted for the health care bill, the tide turned.
But when voters were asked how they would vote in a Lincoln-Baker race if Lincoln voted in favor of the healthcare legislation, the incumbent Democrat fell behind her possible GOP challenger 37-49.
It’s quite obvious Lincoln’s first priority wasn’t with the people of Arkansas when she voted for Reid’s government takeover of the US health care system.
Senator Lincoln Lies About Medicare Cuts
Lincoln’s newsletter also claims “I have worked hard in this bill to ensure seniors will not see a reduction in the Medicare coverage and benefits they have always relied upon.” But that’s not consistent with the near $500 billion in cuts to the program that even President Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services says is likely to cause fewer doctors to treat medicare patients.
Though she states “I believe in the promise our government made to working Americans – that if we work hard, Medicare will be there to help us in our golden years,” she voted for Reid’s bill that will, according to Senator Tom Coburn (a medical doctor from Oklahoma), deny treatment for ailing seniors!
For instance, the Reid bill (in sections 3403 and 2021) explicitly empowers Medicare to deny treatment based on cost. An Independent Medicare Advisory Board created by the bill—composed of permanent, unelected and, therefore, unaccountable members—will greatly expand the rationing practices that already occur in the program.
Evidently Lincoln believes in empty government promises to Arkansas’ seniors!
Senator Lincoln Lies About Transparency
Lincoln also boasts in her newsletter, “Throughout this process, I have pushed to ensure the Senate is conducting this debate in a public and transparent manner.” But her definition of transparent may not be as clear as one would expect.
Though she did set up a health care resources page on her website, Lincoln didn’t quite fulfill her promise to post ALL relevant information on the page in a timely manner.
In fact, Lincoln was a participant in closed-door meetings that forged the final version of Reid’s bill. The text of that “compromise” apparently wasn’t considered a “health care resource” because it wasn’t posted on her site for all to see. Even though Harry Reid sent the text to the Congressional Budget Office two weeks before the first vote on the bill, Lincoln agreed to keep it hidden from her constituents in Arkansas!
“[T]he real action on the bill is taking place not on the Senate floor, but in [Majority Leader Harry] Reid’s office, just steps away. That’s where he’s struggling to bring together the liberal and moderate wings of his caucus, in an effort to get the 60 votes he needs to thwart the united GOP front that will otherwise prevent the bill from winning final approval. On Sunday, Obama will address a closed meeting of Senate Democrats, presumably for a pep talk, and also to give them more guidance on just what he wants from a final health bill”
Apparently the Senator grew tired composing her newsletter, because she lumped several blatant lies all in one sentence when she said, “I support the revised Senate health care plan because it will curb rising health care costs over the long term, expand access to quality, affordable, health insurance plans to more than 400,000 uninsured Arkansans, and reduce the federal deficit by $132 billion in the next 10 years-all without a new government plan that places taxpayers at risk.”
Senator Lincoln Lies About Bill’s Impact on Deficit
First, the $132 billion deficit reduction is a flat-out lie that was exposed the day before Lincoln voted for passage of the Senate bill. Democrats, including our less-than-transparent Senator Lincoln utilized accounting methods that would have been the envy of Bernie Madoff and Enron to come up with their fictitious figure.
Harry Reid had to shift more than $200 billion in costs to a separate “doctor fix” bill to arrive at his contrived figures. Taking that into account instantly puts the net cost of the bill in the red, but there’s even more trickery up the sleeves of Blanche Lincoln and Harry Reid. The day before the final vote, the CBO released a statement showing the devious Democrats were inappropriately double counting $300 billion to arrive at their claimed deficit reduction.
It won’t be any surprise this CBO report didn’t make the Senator’s health care resources page either.
Assuming Lincoln, Reid and the rest of their Democrat colleagues didn’t take any as yet undiscovered lessons from Madoff and Enron, we’re looking at a $370 billion increase in the deficit over the next 10 years. Hardly the deficit neutral bill promised by Lincoln and the other dishonest Democrats.
Senator Lincoln Lies About Bill’s Impact on Health Care Costs
According to the Obama Department of Health and Human Services’ own Office of the Actuary (OACT), Reid’s bill will increase national health expenditures over the next 10 years. The OACT reports that we can expect health care costs through 2019 will be $234 billion more than they will if Congress doesn’t pass this bill. OACT states that, if this bill passes, $20.90 of every $100 will be spent on health care in 2019. If Congress does nothing, Americans are expected to $20.80 of every $100 for health care in that year.
Contrary to Lincoln’s claim, health care costs will increase under the bill she voted for last week.
Senator Lincoln Lies About Government Plan
Actually Senator Lincoln claimed this bill doesn’t have a “a new government plan that places taxpayers at risk.” What she actually means is this isn’t going to be a taxpayer funded government plan, but a plan that is owned by private industry and run by the government.
The bill calls for the government to dictate to private insurance companies what benefits they must include in their plan, who must be qualified to participate in their plan, and how much they can charge for their plan.
A government-run plan, but privately owned. How long does anyone expect that to last? At least 64% of Arkansans don’t expect it to last, and more likely expect it to turn into a single-payer government system before all is said and done. Senator Lincoln doesn’t represent Arkansans, she represents big-government liberals seeking more control of our lives and freedoms.
Blanche Lincoln is perfectly willing to twist the facts and make back room deals behind closed doors to satisfy her wealthy out-of-state donors. With their money, Lincoln believes she can do the bidding of Harry Reid and Barack Obama then spend enough to make Arkansas voters believe her lies.Tags:2010 Elections, Arkansas, Blanche Lincoln, Harry Reid, health care, John Allison, liesTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Calls consolidation of power in National Security Agency 'bad strategy'
Rod A. Beckstrom has resigned director of the National Cyber Security Center in the Department of Homeland Security. The official in charge of coordinating the U.S. government’s cyber-security operations has quit, saying the expanding control of the National Security Agency over the nation’s computer security efforts poses “threats to our democratic processes.”
“Even from a security standpoint, it is unwise to hand over the security of all government networks to a single organization,” said Rod A. Beckstrom, the head of the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) when speaking to United Press International. “If our Founding Fathers were taking part in this debate [about the future organization of the government's cyber-security activities], there is no doubt in my mind they would support a separation of security powers among different [government] organizations, in line with their commitment to checks and balances,” he said.
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano last week, Mr. Beckstrom said the NSA “dominates most national cyber efforts” and “effectively controls DHS cyber efforts through detailees, technology insertions and the proposed move” of the NCSC to an NSA facility at the agency’s Fort Meade, Md., headquarters.
“I believe this is a bad strategy on multiple grounds,” Mr. Beckstrom wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by UPI. “The intelligence culture is very different than a network operations or security culture. In addition, threats to our democratic processes are significant if all top-level government network security and monitoring are handled by any one organization.” Article is at National Policy Institute. H/T to The Snooper ReportTags:cybersecurity, Obama administrationTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Luck Prevents Airline Disaster - Another Obama Lie
Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families:Luck Prevents Airline Disaster - God must have been looking after America and prevented a terrorist attack on Christmas Day because the Obama Administration clearly wasn’t. Muslim Jihadist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who bought his airline ticket with cash and had no luggage, was able to bring a chemical bomb on a U.S. aircraft flying to Detroit. He did so even though his father, a prominent wealthy Nigerian, had warned the U.S. months ago that his son was a threat to the U.S.
I watched airport security people putting 70-year-old Americans in wheelchairs through elaborate pat-downs in the Atlanta airport this weekend in reaction to the near catastrophe on Christmas Day. Perhaps we should waste less time checking senior citizens and more time looking carefully at young Muslim men whose parents try to turn them in as Al Qaeda sympathizers.
Abdulmutallab, apparently rejecting President Obama’s repeated contention that Islam is a religion of peace, became more war-like as he became more devout in his Muslim faith. This is not a unique pattern, nor will Abdulmutallab be the last of his breed. Multiple sources are reporting this morning that dozens of his “clones” are being trained in Yemen right now to launch 9/11-style attacks on U.S. aircraft.
Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano went on the Sunday talk shows and caused a media firestorm when she claimed that the system had worked perfectly. “Everything happened that should have,” she said. But of course it didn’t work at all. The only reason we did not suffer another blow is that his detonator didn’t work properly and brave passengers decided to defend themselves rather than rely on our sleep walking government. This morning, Napolitano made a hasty retreat on her claims. Here’s an idea – fire her now and fire anyone else who did not do his or her job.
Abdulmutallab was arraigned in a Detroit court yesterday. We learned the poor fellow suffered some third degree burns in his botched effort to slaughter hundreds of innocent people. He is currently getting first class health care (lucky for him Obamacare is not law yet) and may need a skin graft before he stands trial. I say he should have already been turned over to the U.S. military for the most intense interrogation this administration and its ACLU allies will permit. We need to know who trained him, how he met them, where he got the chemicals, where the training facilities are located and what he does or does not know about other plots.
“O,” who is vacationing in Hawaii, has not spoken on the incident, but we are assured that he is on top of the situation. Feel better? Here’s a closing thought. What if, God forbid, this jihadist thug had succeeded and blew up the plane? Why do I suspect that this administration’s first response would be to assure the public that it had nothing to do with Islamic terrorism?
Another Obama Lie - Remember when President Obama addressed Congress and claimed that his healthcare reform would not provide taxpayer money for abortions? He was adamant about it. He suggested that anyone saying otherwise was intentionally misleading the public. Fast forward to today. The Senate has passed a healthcare bill that funds abortions. The House has passed a healthcare bill that bans abortion funding. Guess which one of the two Obama wants to prevail? According to ABC News correspondent Jake Tapper, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told him Obama wants the pro-abortion Senate bill!Tags:abortion, Barack Obama, Campaign for Working Families, Gary Bauer, terrorist attackTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Americans Agree Congressional Bills Too Long and Deceptive
(CNSNews.com)– More than 80% of Americans agree that Congress drafts lengthy, complex bills to hide spending on special interests and to prevent constituents from understanding what's in them before a vote is taken, according to a new survey. According to a Zogby poll conducted last week, 83.5% of respondents agreed at least “somewhat” with the lengthy-bill premise, and 61.2% of Americans agreed strongly. Only 14.4% disagreed, and just 5.8% did so strongly.
The question Zogby asked was: “Some contend that the reason federal legislation is often thousands of pages long is because provisions to benefit special interests can be more easily buried in long bills, and so citizens cannot decipher the legislative language quickly enough to be able to communicate support or opposition to their Senators or Members of Congress before a vote is taken. Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree with this opinion?”
Overwhelming support for the opinion came from every age group, race, religious faith and other demographic category, according to Zogby. In each subgroup, at least 50% of the respondents “somewhat” or “strongly agreed” with the statement.. . . Liberals registered the lowest levels of support, at 66.1%, while moderates at least somewhat agreed 82.2% of the time, and conservatives did likewise 96.9% of the time. The ideological difference translated to political party as well, with Democrats at least somewhat agreeing 69.1% of the time, and Republicans agreeing 94.9% of the time. Independents, like moderates, fell somewhere in the middle, at 89.3%.
The poll was commissioned by Let Freedom Ring, Inc., a grassroots public policy organization that promotes constitutional government and economic freedom. . . .The Zogby poll was conducted between Dec. 15 and Dec. 18 and surveyed likely voters. The overall result carries a margin of error of +/- 1.7 percentage points, while the demographic data carry a higher margin.
When CNSNews.com asked members of Congress whether they planned to read the full text of the health care legislation, many of them admitted they would not. In October, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said he would not read the legislative text before voting it out of the Senate Finance Committee, its first step toward passage, because it was so “confusing.” “I don’t expect to actually read the legislative language because reading the legislative language is among the more confusing things I’ve ever read in my life,” Carper told CNSNews.com.
In July, CNSNews.com asked House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) whether he supported a pledge Let Freedom Ring . . . which stipulated that the signatories would read the bill before voting on it. Hoyer laughed at the notion and said, “If every member pledged to not vote for it if they hadn’t read it in its entirety, I think we would have very few votes.”
. . . [I]n July, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers (D-Mich.), also said the language in the long health care bill was Byzantine. “What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?” he asked. . . .Tags:US Congress, Zogby pollTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by Adam Bitely:This clip shows a strange Max Baucus. You decide the state of mind he was in: Patrick Gavin, Politicol: A speech by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on health care has been generating buzz on the Internet, as the Drudge Report and others are suggesting that Baucus was slurring his speech and possibly "intoxicated" during his remarks. "DRUNK WITH POWER? TOP DEM SLURS ON SENATE FLOOR ..." reads the Drudge Report headline.
Newsbusters.org writes: "How can one explain this incredibly bizarre performance by Max Baucus on the Senate floor? Was Baucus so intoxicated by the sound of his own voice that he went off the deep end? Or perhaps he was so drunk with power over shaping the Senate health care bill that it explains his strange rant." Ralph Alter, American Thinker: Max Baucus, Senator from Montana, has certainly been squandering his 15 minutes of fame. His babbling, incoherent slurring speech in Senate debate on December 23 is perhaps the crowning achievement in his fall from respectability. . . .In the middle of his determined effort to pass some form of health care reform, it was revealed that Baucus had been on the receiving end of huge contributions from the health care sector, including insurance and pharmaceutical companies:
"From 2003 to 2008, Baucus received $3,973,485 from the health sector, including $852,813 from pharmaceutical companies, $851,141 from health professionals, $784,185 from the insurance industry and $465,750 from HMOs/health services, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.[42][43] A 2006 study by Public Citizen
Once Baucus's compromising position was revealed, he declared a temporary moratorium on accepting new donations from the industry (July 1, 2009.) He did not, however, agree to return any of the money that at least had the appearance of being tainted. . . . Then in December of 2009, it was revealed that Mad Max had nominated his girlfriend, Melodee Hanes, to the vacant position of U.S. Attorney from Montana. Her nomination was only withdrawn by Baucus after a newspaper threatened to disclose his perfidious nepotism.
------------ Although the unions love him, appears Montana needs a new Senator. What is your opinion? Drunk? Deranged? Embarrassed that Reid got the credit? Bought off - numerous times? Tags:government healthcare, Max Baucus, Montana, US Senate, videoTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
by Kerby Anderson, Point of View: America's history textbooks are not teaching accurate history, and Professor Larry Schweikart is not pleased. He is a history professor at the University of Dayton and has been investigating what history textbooks are teaching America's students. He says that if you "surveyed ten of the most widely used American history survey textbooks looking at the twentieth century" you would expect that the most commonly used picture would be Franklin Delano Roosevelt. If not that, perhaps you would think it would be a picture of the atomic bomb or even the famous picture of the sailor kissing the woman in Times Square signaling the end of World War II. Sadly the most used picture is a picture of the Ku Klux Klan. In fact, many of the textbooks take two pages to describe the Klan. Schweikart goes on to say that the implication of the pictures and text suggest that the "Roaring Twenties" were racist and economic growth in the decade was due to nativism and intolerance.
Schweikart finds all sorts of half-truths and lies in history books and history textbooks. One is: "The founders envisioned a wall of separation between church and state, keeping religious influence out of government." Whole books have been written to dispute this idea. Schweikart dispatches it in a few pages. The problem with this issue of church and state is that it can influence students (future judges, politicians, and citizens) to have an incorrect view of the First Amendment. Likewise, poor history books can also give us an incorrect view of the Second Amendment.
Michael Bellesiles, wrote a book titled, Arming America in which he argued that few people in early America owned guns. He then launches into an attack on the American gun culture. Schweikart points out that there have been journal articles and entire books criticizing the serious errors all through the book. Many critics show that the errors were not a result of careless mistakes but deliberate falsifications. The half-truths and lies in history books and especially in history textbooks have consequences. Schweikart shows that these books need serious revision. I'm Kerby Anderson, and that's my point of vTags:History, Kerby Anderson, Point of View, textbooksTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!iew.
Michele Bachmann - Rare GOP Lovable Little Fuzz Ball
Extracted from an article by Kathleen Hennessey: When Michele Bachmann [R-MN] took the podium at a rally against health legislation this month, she dutifully hit the highlights of the Republican argument against the bill: It's too expensive, it will depress wages, it punishes the middle class. But because she is Michele Bachmann, she did not stop there.
In less than eight minutes, the Minnesota congresswoman told the cheering crowd of conservative activists that the Democratic healthcare bill isn't just bad policy -- it's unconstitutional. She invoked Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade," though it memorializes a suicide mission. She dissed the United Nations, recalled Elian Gonzalez's journey from Cuba, and offered this holiday greeting: "That is our wish for fellow citizens here in the United States -- for freedom, not for government enslavement!" The crowd roared.
. . . A new GOP website aimed at rebutting President Obama's jobs proposal, which features only a few lawmakers, includes Bachmann along with Republican leaders. And recently, the Republican National Committee put Bachmann on a conference call to discuss healthcare with a host of grass-root groups, including tea party activists. "There's no question that congresswoman Bachmann fires up the base," said LeRoy Coleman, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. "She's a powerful and galvanizing voice for this party."
That is not how all Republicans see Bachmann, 53, who once said that she was "hot for Jesus" and is quick to call Obama's governing plans "socialism." Some want to keep her at arm's length. When Bachmann declared that she would ignore almost all questions on the census form, calling it an unconstitutional effort to collect personal data, three fellow House Republicans called her stance "illogical, illegal and not in the best interest of our country."
. . . Taking up issues outside the mainstream, she proposed a constitutional amendment that would bar the president from adopting a currency issued by an entity other than the United States. Bachmann had asserted that China wanted to create a "multinational" currency.
Last year, she introduced the "Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act," opposing a government-ordered phase-out of traditional light bulbs in favor of more efficient bulbs. Last spring, she worried about expanding AmeriCorps community service programs, calling them "reeducation camps for young people" and "politically correct forums." . . .
"Only Sarah Palin seems to send them into wilder convulsions of hate and arrogance and condescension," it read. Bachmann claims she is not intentionally provoking those convulsions. "I'm a lovable little fuzz ball," she told MinnPost .com -- borrowing a phrase that Rush Limbaugh has used to describe himself. Tags:GOP, Michele Bachmann, MN, RepresentativeTo share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
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Rod A. Beckstrom has resigned director of the National Cyber Security Center in the Department of Homeland Security. The official in charge of coordinating the U.S. government’s cyber-security operations has quit, saying the expanding control of the 
