Iran Backhands Obama

Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families: Iran delivered another blow to Barack Obama’s appeasement foreign policy over the weekend. Iranian “president” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced in an interview with the official Islamic Republic News Agency that Iran will build ten new uranium-enrichment sites. While it would take years for Iran to complete such a project, the decision is a slap in the face to the Obama Administration. This announcement comes in the wake of Barack Obama’s futile attempts to “engage” with the radical mullahs on how to end Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Ahmadinejad called Obama’s bluff and upped the ante.

In his ten months in office, Obama has tried to reach out to the Iranian leadership multiple times. This included his personal “New Year’s greeting” to the Iranian people, his repeated condemnations of Israel and, perhaps most disturbing, his lack of support of the pro-democratic reformers who took to the streets after Iran’s flawed presidential election. The United States and the free world have become less secure because of these policies. It is safe to say that Ahmadinejad is making the leader of the free world look like a fool.

During the Bush Administration the liberal elites continuously pointed to poll numbers showing America’s popularity declining in the Muslim world. But, a new Pew Global Attitudes survey shows that Obama hasn’t changed Muslim views much, and in some cases he has made them worse. Here’s a summary from the Wall Street Journal:

“In the Palestinian territories, 15% have a favorable view of the U.S. while 82% have an unfavorable view. The Obama speech in Ankara didn’t seem to help in Turkey, where the favorables are 14% and those unreconciled, 69%. In Egypt, a country that’s reaped nearly 40 years of American aid, things stayed roughly the same: 27% have a favorable view of the U.S. while 70% do not. In Pakistan, a place of great consequence for American power, our standing has deteriorated: The unfavorables rose from 63% in 2008 to 68% this year.”Obama and the Left don’t get it. Muslims in these countries don’t like us because we’re American. The Left has convinced itself that the unfavorable views of the U.S. held by many Muslims are based on the president and his policies. None of that matters. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were not popular in the Middle East either. The average Muslim is captive to state-owned media and fanatical Islamic dogma. They are taught to hate everything that Western Civilization – and the United States and Israel in particular – stands for. It is time for the Obama Administration to stop bowing to these tyrannical thugs and to stand up for the principles that make this nation great.  See also: Iran Defies International Community With Another Nuclear Announcement

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Tags: Barack Obama, Campaign for Working Families, Gary Bauer, Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Muslim, nuclear weapon, uranium enrichment To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Manhattan Declaration Hits 200,000 Signatures

Kim Trobee, CitizenLink: Statement on Christian beliefs is a clarion call to reach out to the poor and suffering. The Manhattan Declaration was unveiled at a press conference Nov. 20. Now, more than 200,000 [Now 212791] people have signed the document that outlines Christian teaching on abortion, marriage and rights of conscience.

Chuck Colson, founder of The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview, said on his daily Breakpoint commentary that the declaration was a proclamation that Christians will protect the tenets of their faith. "There, in front of all those cameras and lights, Christian leaders lovingly, winsomely and firmly took a stand," he said. "I will never forget the picture. I stood between Archbishop Wuerl of Washington and Cardinal Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia. I looked over at Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Jim Daly of Focus on the Family, and Ron Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action. It was a foretaste of what we're all going to see in heaven."

Other Christian leaders signing included Bishop Harry Jackson, senior pastor of Hope Christian Church, the Rev. Chad Hatfield, chancellor and CEO of St. Vladimir's Seminary, Robbie George, director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, and Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List.

Just four days after launching the Manhattan Declaration Web site, nearly 100,000 people had signed their support for the document, and that number continues to climb. Jim Daly, president and CEO of Focus on the Family, said it's the kind of communication that captures the spirit of the Christian faith. "Inviting and answering questions, engaging in civil discourse, acknowledging where we've fallen short and investing more energy in doing the right things for other to see," he said. "It's the language of cultural change."

Opponents have called the document a political tool to resurrect the "religious right." Colson said that couldn't be further from the truth. "This document is a clarion call to reach out to the poor and the suffering," he said. "It is, in fact, a form of catechism for the foundational truths of the faith. It underscores human rights, and calls on everyone to protect human dignity at every stage of life. The Manhattan Declaration was written for the common good and for justice."

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Tags: Christian, Christian Conscience, Christian Faith, Chuck Colson, CitizenLink To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Czar of Lies - Obama Science Czar John Holdren - Climategate

Robert Romano, LG Senior News Editor: As the Climategate scandal unfolds and the manipulation and suppression of data disproving “man-made” global warming becomes more widely known, the fallout also continues to unfold as the Copenhagen Climate Summit prepares to promulgate another global treaty curbing carbon, energy-based emissions in the industrialized world.

The scandal began after computer hackers broke into the servers of the University of East Anglia’s (UEA) Climatic Research Unit (CRU). There, they found and published emails showing that researchers deliberately manipulated climate “change” data to hide the actual decline of the Earth’s temperatures.

Now, it has been discovered, Barack Obama’s Science Czar, John Holdren, is in the middle of the growing scandal that could change the very course of human history. As reported by the Canada Free Press, Holdren was also in regular contact with the UEA via email. In one email, he singles out solar physicists Sallie Baliunas and Willie Soon who, according to Canadian climatologist Dr. Tim Ball “were authors of excellent work confirming the existence of the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) from a multitude of sources. Their work challenged attempts to get rid of the MWP because it contradicted the claim by the proponents of anthropogenic global warming (AGW). Several scientists challenged the claim that the latter part of the 20th century was the warmest ever.”

Dr. Ball continues, “They knew the claim was false, many warmer periods occurred in the past. Michael Mann ‘got rid’ of the MWP with his production of the hockey stick, but Soon and Baliunas were problematic. What better than have a powerful academic destroy their credibility for you? Sadly, there are always people who will do the dirty work.”

Enter John Holdren, who in one exchange wrote, “I’m forwarding for your entertainment an exchange that followed from my being quoted in the Harvard Crimson to the effect that you and your colleagues are right and my ‘Harvard’ colleagues Soon and Baliunas are wrong about what the evidence shows concerning surface temperatures over the past millennium.”

According to Dr. Ball, “Holdren provides lengthy responses on October 13, 14, and 16 but comments fail to answer [‘man-made’ climate change skeptic Nick] Schulz’s questions… He then demonstrates his lack of understanding of science and climate science by opting for Mann and his hockey stick over Soon and Baliunas. His entire defense and position devolves to a political position. His attempt to belittle Soon and Baliunas in front of colleagues is a measure of the man’s blindness and political opportunism that pervades everything he says or does.”

Fast forward to 2009, when Barack Obama has appointed Holdren, already a controversial figure, to be the nation’s so-called “Science” Czar. According to Americans for Limited Government research, since the 1960s Holdren has advocated draconian practices in order to control the world’s population and bring down the economy of the U.S.

In 1969 he wrote, “If…population control measures are not initiated immediately… technology… will not fend off the misery to come.” Holdren further states, “Some form of ecocatastrophe… seems almost certain… before the end of the century.” Holdren believes capitalism, the traditional family, and new achievements in energy production are propelling the world toward unmitigated disaster.  Because of this in 1973 he advocated a “de-development” of the United States to keep the nation “in line with the realities… of the world’s resource situation.”  He also has pushed for government mandated family sizes, government controlled energy distribution, and totalitarian government controls over every aspect lives—all in the interest of “equality”.

And of course, the redistribution of wealth from America and the West to the Third World. In 1971 Holdren called for a “massive de-development campaign of the United States” because of the “rapacious depletion of our fossil fuels.” He justifies this by saying, “Resources…must be diverted from frivolous…uses in overdeveloped countries to filling the genuine needs of underdeveloped countries.”

And, apparently, whatever it takes to achieve that agenda—including pushing flawed “man-made” climate change science and discrediting scientists who espouse contrary views—is fair game for Holdren and his buddies at the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

For years, the IPCC has utilized the CRU’s data as the primary source that the world now knows was manipulated to implement a radical political agenda. And now, that includes White House officials, including Holdren. How far does this scandal go?  In addition to discontinuing any involvement with treaties and abolishing any and all laws and government policies that have depended on CRU’s data, it is time for the House Oversight and the Senate Environment and Public Works committees to undertake a widespread investigation.

The role Holdren and any other government officials have played in bullying and discrediting legitimate scientists like Baliunas and Soon must be uncovered. This should also include looking into the Environmental Protection Agency that suppressed a report by Dr. Alan Carlin critical of the “man-made” global warming hypothesis. In short, heads must roll for the greatest fraud ever perpetrated in human history. Obama Science Czar John Holdren is a good start.

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Tags: Barack Obama, climate change, climategate, Czar, fraud, John Holdren, science To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

SEIU’s Message To America

by William Warren:

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Tags: Boy Scouts, labor unions, political cartoon, SIEU, thugs, William Warren To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Today in Washington D. C. - Nov 30, 2009 - Public Opposes Dem Health Bills; Dems Don't Seem to be Listening

News reports indicate that "President Obama will announce a surge of 34,000 US troops in Afghanistan at the US Military Academy at West Point> on Tuesday, December 1st. General Stanley McChrystal, America's top general in Afghanistan requested 40,000 additional troops to quell the Taliban insurgency and stabilize conditions on the ground. Senior Defense Department officials believe the US is losing the war, the Taliban is gaining and increased troops are needed to turn the tide in the NATO forces' favor."

The House will reconvene Tuesday at 6:30 PM. The Senate reconvene today at 2 PM and will resume consideration of the Reid substitute amendment to H.R. 3590, the vehicle for Democrats’ health care reform bill. The first vote of the week is expected tomorrow on the nomination of Jacqueline Nguyen to be district judge for the Central District of California. Anyone notice, how the Democrats dragged out approving judges under President George Bush but now with Democrat President Barack Obama, the Senate runs confirmations through the Senate without delay.

As the Senate returns to begin floor debate on the Democrats’ health care bill today, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Democrats in Congress and the White House are pushing a health care reform on Americans that they do not want. A new Gallup poll out today finds once again, “Despite the considerable efforts of Congress and the president to pass health insurance reform, the public remains reluctant to endorse that goal. Over the past month, Gallup has found more Americans opposed to than in favor of healthcare legislation . . . .” More Americans want their members of Congress to vote against “a healthcare bill” than for it: 49%-44%. A majority of independent voters continues to oppose passage of the Democrats’ health care bill, by 53%-37%. Support from all 3 political affiliations has dropped for the bill since October, “falling by 6 points among Democrats, 8 among independents, and 12 among Republicans,” according to Gallup.

Further, Gallup finds, a majority of Americans continues to disapprove of President Obama’s handling of health care, 53%. Only 40% approve. Gallup points out that this “represents his worst review to date on this issue.” And “Independents are nearly twice as likely to disapprove (58%) as to approve (33%).”

And how are Democrats reacting to this? Apparently, they aren’t. Instead, they’re looking to make deals among themselves to pass a bill that most Americans don’t want. Politico reports today, “The next phase in the Democrats’ health care push will be waged in the privacy of the Senate leadership office, where Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will attempt to do something that has eluded him all year: negotiate a compromise on the public insurance option that can garner 60 votes and win over a public still leery of reform.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell pointed out Democrats’ apparent determination to plow ahead, telling CNN’s John King last weekend, “[Americans] are literally screaming -- many of them -- telling us, ‘Please don't pass this. Don't pass this bill.’ If the majority is hell-bent on ignoring the wishes of the American people, they have 60 votes in the Senate. You would think that they might be able to do this, but I believe there are a number of Democratic senators who do care what the American people think and are not interested in this sort of arrogant approach that everybody -- sort of shut up and sit down, get out of the way, we know what's best for you.”

Hopefully, those Democrats who say they oppose Reid’s bill will be more interested in what the American public is telling them than whatever deals are offered behind closed doors in the majority leader’s office.

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Tags: Afghanistan, anti-military, government run, health care, US Congress, US House, US Senate, Washington D.C. To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Huckabee Pardoned Suspected Shooter of 4 Police Officers

Maurice Clemmons has been identified as the man wanted for questioning for the murder of four police officers killed in an ambush in Lakewood near McCord AFB, WA. Clemmons was previously convicted of five felonies in his home state Arkansas and has been charged with eight felonies in Washington state.

Telegraph UK reports:  In 1989, Clemmons, then aged 17, was convicted in Little Rock for aggravated robbery. He was paroled in 2000 after Mr Huckabee commuted Clemmons' 35-year prison sentence. Mr Huckabee, who took criticism during his run for the Republican presidential nomination for the number of pardons he issued, cited Clemmons' age at the time of the sentence. See also local story on police officers: Slain Lakewood Police Officers Were Four of City's Best

Video Background on Shooting:
CNN Reports: Clemmons, 37, of Pierce County has an "extensive violent criminal history from Arkansas, including aggravated robbery and theft," the sheriff's department said in a statement. . . . Clemmons was sentenced to 95 years in prison in 1989 for a host of charges, including robberies, burglaries, thefts and bringing a gun to school. . . .

Huckabee cited Clemmons' young age -- 17 at the time of his sentencing -- when he announced his decision to commute the sentence, according to newspaper articles. Clemmons was paroled in August 2000, after serving 11 years of his sentence. "It was not something I was pleased with at the time," said Larry Jegley, who prosecuted Clemmons for aggravated robbery and other charges in Pulaski County, Arkansas. "I would be most distressed if this is the same guy."

Huckabee's office said Clemmons' commutation was based on the recommendation of the parole board that determined that he met the conditions for early release. "He was arrested later for parole violation and taken back to prison to serve his full term, but prosecutors dropped the charges that would have held him," the statement said.

CNN could not immediately confirm the account. But the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper reported that a year after his release, Clemmons was arrested for aggravated robbery and theft. He was taken back to prison for parole violation. But, said the paper, he was not served with the arrest warrants for the robbery and theft charges until he left prison three years later, in 2004.

His attorney argued the charges should be dismissed because too much time had passed by then. Prosecutors dropped the charges. Clemmons is thought to have moved to Washington that year, and for a while ran a pressure-washing and landscaping business. The license for the business expired last month, according to the secretary of state's office, with which businesses have to register.

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Unfortunately, making decision whether or not to grant pardons and clemency is a difficult decision for Governors. Former Governor Mike Huckabee has been criticized before for pardons of individuals who went on to murder, rape or harm other people. Until now the most infamous situation involved Wayne Dumond. This situation was previously reported on in a Jan 12, 2008 story: Review of Mike Huckabee & Wayne Dumond Issue

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Tags: Arkansas, CNN, Mike Huckabee, pardon, police officer, shooting, Washington To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Amendment 28 Proposed by Citizens of America

Making the rounds these days is a recommended Constitutional Amendment. While many have reached the point of desiring Congressional Term Limits, the following is an amendment a majority of Americans should be able to quickly promote. Doubt if those rascals in Congress would agree.

Thomas Jefferson said, "When the people fear their government there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty" It is time for the government to start fearing to at least live like we do.

Proposed Amendment 28 for your Consideration and Comment:
Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators or Representatives, and Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.

As one reader said, "Let's get this passed around, folks - these clowns in Washington have brought this upon themselves!" Considered the phrase "Equal pay for equal work." Based on past non-quality performance and failure to follow the Constitution; most of the members of Congress owe the American Citizen's a huge refund of their pay. While we will never see such a refund, it is worthy to consider the above proposed amendment.

A few of our ancestors understood Congress very well and for some reason we have failed to heed their words of wisdom:

If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour? ~ Thomas Jefferson

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville

We have the right as individuals to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money. ~ Davy Crockett

Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself. ~ Mark Twain

There is no distinctly American criminal class - except Congress. ~ Mark Twain

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. ~ Abraham Lincoln

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer. ~ Will Rogers

The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets. ~ Will Rogers

You can lead a man to Congress, but you can't make him think. ~ Milton Berle

Being elected to Congress is regarded as being sent on a looting raid for one's friends. ~ George Will

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Tags: citizens, constitutional amendment, equal protection, quotes, term limits, US Congress, US Constitution
To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Immigration Tradition vs Immigration Today

America has a tradition of immigration. Author Roy Beck stops by Capitol Hill to get the reaction of people after they learn how America's great tradition compares with immigration today.

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Tags: facts, illegal immigration, legal immigration, NumbersUSA, Roy Beck, tradition, United States To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

DOJ Says Acorn Can Be Paid for Pre-Ban Contracts

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has concluded that the Obama administration can lawfully pay the community group Acorn for services provided under contracts signed before Congress banned the government from providing money to the group. . . . the group has become a prime target for conservative critics, and on Oct. 1, President Obama signed into law a spending bill that included a provision that said no taxpayer money — including money authorized by previous legislation — could be “provided to” the group or its affiliates.

A Housing and Urban Development Department lawyer asked the Justice Department whether the new law meant that pre-existing contracts with Acorn should be broken. And in a memorandum signed Oct. 23 and posted online this week, Mr. Barron said the government should continue to make payments to Acorn as required by such contracts. . . .

Criticism of Acorn escalated in September, when two conservative activists released videos they had recorded using secret cameras of Acorn workers in several cities. The activists had posed as a pimp and a prostitute seeking financial advice. Instead of raising objections, the Acorn employees counseled the couple on how to hide their illicit activities and avoid paying taxes.

Conservatives seized on the videos to criticize the group further, highlighting that the Obama campaign had paid an Acorn affiliate for get-out-the-vote efforts. Congress then enacted the ban on providing money to it. Acorn has fired several of the employees depicted in the videos. . . . more here

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Tags: ACORN, Barack Obama, Department of Justice, DOJ, Stop Acorn To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Remembering DHS Politically Correct Ft. Hood Terrorist

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Tags: DHS, domestic terrorists, Ft Hood, Janet Napolitano To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Obama to Make Afghanistan Decision - Maybe?

 

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Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Commander-in-Chief To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Congress Must Stop the Trial in New York City

by Phyllis Schlafly: The U.S. Constitution can rescue us from the Obama Administration's latest push toward "remaking America." Our Constitution is on the people's side to stop Obama from turning the judiciary into a platform for America's sworn enemies to spread their propaganda and even use our own laws against us. Our Constitution's framers foresaw the probability that power-hungry men would try to take over the judiciary. So, they gave us the tools to maintain a government based on the separation of powers.

Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder, has announced that he will move the trial of the confessed 9/11 terrorist mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, known as KSM, from a military court (where he ought to be tried) to a civilian court in New York City. Even worse, Holder plans to reward this terrorist with all the constitutional rights of any ordinary U.S. citizen defendant accused of an ordinary crime. KSM fits the statutory definition of a terrorist: an "unlawful enemy combatant" who engaged in premeditated, politically motivated violence against noncombatant targets. He's not a U.S. citizen, and he was arrested outside the United States.

The Constitution gives Congress the power to override this Obama-Holder outrage. Congress can and should prevent this travesty, and the sooner the better. We don't need any 2,000 page legislation; a single sentence will suffice. "Federal District Courts shall have no jurisdiction over any case involving unlawful enemy combatants, as that term is defined in the United States Code (title 10,  section 948a)."

Constitutional authority is clear. Article III, Section 1, states: "The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish." Nothing is new or irregular about Congress prescribing or limiting the kinds of cases that federal courts are permitted to hear. A long historical record conclusively proves that Congress has the power to regulate and limit court jurisdiction, that Congress has used this power repeatedly, and that the courts have accepted it.

The great Chief Justice John Marshall asserted in an 1807 Supreme Court case that "courts which are created by written law, and whose jurisdiction is defined by written law, cannot transcend that jurisdiction."

In 2002, for example, Congress passed a law (at Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's urging) to prohibit federal courts from hearing cases about brush clearing in his home state of South Dakota. Public Law 107-206, Section 706(j). Pending environmental lawsuits were immediately halted, and a court order that was already issued became null and void.  Biodiversity Associates v. Cables, 357 F.3d 1152 (10th Cir. 2004).

There are many bad consequences to staging the trial of KSM in New York City. If he is given all civilian constitutional rights, the government will be required to turn over to him vast amounts of U.S. intelligence and information that will imperil national security and put us in danger of future acts of terrorism. The chief issue in the trial could become waterboarding rather than the 9/11 terrorist act that killed some 3,000 people. The Obama Administration is infested with transnationalists, i.e., lawyers who want to integrate foreign law or so-called international law into U.S. domestic law and impose it on Americans.

We wonder if the real purpose of moving this trial to New York is to put the George W. Bush Administration on trial in a foreign court, as the far Left has been demanding. The dangerous publicity and classified information emanating from the trial could give the opportunity to anti-Bush lawyers to take some of this material to the International Criminal Court (to which the United States does not even belong) or some other foreign court (such as Spain, which illegally tried Pinochet of Chile) and urge a trial against George W. Bush for war crimes.

Before Eric Holder became Attorney General, he and other Justice Department lawyers were in law firms that represented detainees at Guantanamo. Those lawyers should all be disqualified; they shouldn't have ever been hired by the Justice Department.

The trial of KSM would be a media circus for many months, much like the O.J. Simpson trial, only ten times as compelling. Defense lawyers will be eager to display their histrionics modeled on Johnnie Cochran's famous argument, "If the glove don't fit, you must acquit!" What if KSM is acquitted? And released onto the streets of New York? Holder was pathetic in defending his New York decision at a congressional hearing, even assuring the Congressmen that KSM would not be acquitted. Is Holder planning a show trial where the verdict is planned in advance?

Congress should act promptly to stop this dangerous move of KSM's trial from a military court to a federal court in New York. The Democratic Congress is loath to overrule Obama, but the longer this outrage festers in the public consciousness, the more it will damage the Obama Administration.

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Tags: constitution, Eric Holder, Islamic terrorism, Phyllis Schlafly, KSM trial To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Presidential Decision on Afghanistan

by Ken Catalino

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Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Ken Catalino, political cartoon, Taliban To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

President Zero Doesn't Like America

Colonel BJ Brown, USAF - Retired, Contributing Author: I have a deepening lack of faith in the leadership of the present administration - for a number of reasons. Primary among those reasons is this: I don't think President Zero likes America. (Allow me to call him Zero because that is the sum total of what he is accomplishing for America)

I saw a photo of Zero, our supposedly commander-in-chief, standing at Arlington National Cemetery on November 11, 2009, with his hands clasped at his crotch as the National Anthem is being played. Dignitaries on the podium had their right hand over their heart while the military men stood at attention and saluted. He has absolutely no respect for our core American values.

President Zero did not grow up in the America we all grew up in. He has no background of "Mom, apple pie and baseball." His ancestry is not rooted in American values. He doesn't have a reference for the depression or a respect for our accomplishments in World War II (even though he cites his "grandfathers service" when necessary).

President Zero is neither smart nor articulate. Without a teleprompter he is prone to foolish talk and nonsense - much as is his Vice-President. A lot of President Zero's background is fabricated and fuzzy in content. There are no records for us to check so we rely on his narrative. I could make a human character out of cardboard that would be as close to real as his background.

President Zero is failing in his attempt to lead our country. He's failing in domestic and foreign policy, and he is not keeping in touch with the America people. He is just not one of us!

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Tags: Barack Obama, BJ Brown, President To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

“The Broken Door” – Lack of Enforcement of Immigration Law Threatens National Security

Jennifer Magyari, Assistant to the President at NumbersUSA: For many of us, the recent announcement that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - the alleged mastermind of the September 11th attacks - will be tried in Manhattan has brought back painful memories of the worst attack on United States soil in history. These memories are a reminder of how vulnerable our country can be to its enemies. What many failed to address in the wake of the 9/11 attacks was how closely tied immigration is to our national security.

An immigration policy that allows so many to enter the United States illegally, or fails to provide the means to track those who overstay visas, only encourages groups who desire to come to our country and harm us. This video, “The Broken Door,” addresses how groups like Al Qaeda are able to operate within our country under the radar of the United States government, often due to lack of enforcement of immigration laws.

Five of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers were in violation of our immigration laws. They were illegally present in our country, and could have been detained or removed. Four of those hijackers had been pulled over for traffic violations and were in contact with police who did not check their immigration status with the federal government.

Nawaf al Hazmi, one of the Flight 77 hijackers, was in the United States on a short-term business visa that he overstayed. As of 1/16/01 he was unlawfully present in the United States- yet he was able to obtain a driver’s license from the state of Florida and an ID card from the state of Virginia in June and August of that year.

Hani Hanjour, the pilot of Flight 77, entered the United States in December of 2000 on a student visa - though he never enrolled in school - making his entire presence in our country unlawful. He was still able to obtain ID cards from the state of Virginia and Maryland in August and September of 2001.

Our government needs to enforce its immigration laws. We need to know who is coming into our country and monitor where they are once present.

The Visa Waiver program provides another major terrorist loophole- for many years allowing anyone from a select number of countries to enter the United States without obtaining a visa. Once inside, many are able to continue to live in our country, knowing it is unlikely their immigration status will be checked.

The real question is, why does our government choose not to fully enforce such important laws? Why do we allow so many, whose backgrounds we do not know, to enter our country and reside in it illegally?

According to the Immigration and Nationality Act, “Failure of an alien intending to remain in the United States for thirty days or longer to apply for registration and fingerprinting during that thirty-day period is a deportable offense.” Why are we not following through on laws in place to protect our national security?

The question we need to ask is, what fear do those who come to our country with the intent to do us harm face? Fear that it’s likely they will be found to be illegally residing in the United States? Not likely. Fear that if caught to be in violation of our immigration laws, it will be reported to the federal government and they will face deportation? Probably not. Our government needs to wake up and realize that the safety of American citizens and legal immigrants should be our top priority, and an important part of ensuring that safety is enforcing our immigration laws.

Please watch this teaser videoabove , or the full version of the video for more information on how our National Security is at risk due to uncontrolled immigration.
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Blogs for Borders

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Tags: border control, illegal aliens, illegal immigrants, illegal immigration, Islamic terrorism, national security, NumbersUSA, terrorism, terrorist, videos To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Competitive Enterprise Institute Sues NASA in Wake of Climategate Scandal

Christine Hall, CEI: In the wake of the ClimateGate scandal that erupted last week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute took legal action against several government agencies to force disclosure of public documents. In a post to Pajamasmedia, CEI Senior Fellow Christopher Horner, author of Red Hot Lies, explains:

The Competitive Enterprise Institute filed three Notices of Intent to File Suit against NASA and its Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), for those bodies’ refusal — for nearly three years — to provide documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

The information sought is directly relevant to the exploding “Climategate” scandal revealing document destruction, coordinated efforts in the U.S. and UK to avoid complying with both countries’ freedom of information laws, and apparent and widespread intent to defraud at the highest levels of international climate science bodies. Numerous informed commenters had alleged such behavior for years, all of which appears to be affirmed by leaked emails, computer code, and other data from the Climatic Research Unit of the UK’s East Anglia University.

All of that material, and that sought for years by CEI, goes to the heart of the scientific claims and campaign underpinning the Kyoto Protocol, its planned successor treaty, “cap-and-trade” legislation, and the EPA’s threatened regulatory campaign to impose similar measures through the back door.


CEI sought the following documents, among others. NASA’s failure to provide them within thirty days will prompt CEI to file suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia:
- Internal discussions about NASA’s quiet correction of its false historical U.S. temperature records after two Canadian researchers discovered a key statistical error, specifically: discussion about whether and why to correct certain records, how to do so, the impact, or wisdom, or potential (or real) fallout there from or reaction to doing so (requested August 2007).
– Internal discussions relating to the email sent to James Hansen and/or Reto A. Ruedy from a Stephen (Steve) McIntyre calling their attention to the errors in NASA/GISS online temperature data (August 2007).
– Those relating to the content, importance, or propriety of workday-hour posts or entries by GISS/NASA employee Gavin A. Schmidt on the weblog or “blog” RealClimate, which is owned by the advocacy Environmental Media Services and was started as an effort to defend the debunked “Hockey Stick” that is so central to the CRU files. RealClimate.org is implicated in the leaked files and expressly offered as a tool to be used “in any way you think would be helpful” to a certain advocacy campaign, including an assertion of Schmidt’s active involvement in, e.g., delaying and/or screening out unhelpful input by “skeptics” attempting to comment on claims made on the website.

This, and the related political activism engaged in, are inappropriate behavior for a taxpayer-funded employee, particularly on taxpayer time. These documents were requested in January 2007 and NASA/GISS have refused to date to comply with their legal obligation to produce responsive documents.
Christopher Horner is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute CEI). CEI submitted a

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Tags: CEI, climate change, climategate, Competitive Enterprise Institute, global warming hoax, lawsuit, NASA To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Leftwing Lies - Global Warming Fraud - Climategate

Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families: In past reports, I’ve expressed skepticism about the so-called global warming consensus. Not only did the science seem suspect, often contradicting common sense, but it was clearly ideologically driven. Like the promise that more government programs would save money, the radical environmental movement has a terrible track record of making hysterical predictions that never materialize. And its solutions are always the same – bigger government and higher taxes.

In recent days, there have been shocking revelations that the science behind the global warming scare may well be a total scam. E-mails have been leaked from key scientists that appear to expose blatant data manipulation and efforts to suppress dissent. Science and academia are supposed to be all about free inquiry. But these scientists are acting more like petty liberal ideologues determined to pursue their left-wing agenda regardless of the facts.

I won’t go into all of the details about the emails in this report. You can read more here and here. But this is not just a scientific scandal. “Climategate” is a huge political scandal as well, encompassing leading leftwing luminaries like Al Gore, who have been working for years to impose various socialist schemes aimed at undermining our sovereignty, crippling our economy and redistributing our wealth, all under the guise of combating global warming.

I’m pleased to report that conservative stalwart Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma is demanding an investigation, and rightly so, because the stakes are tremendous. The entire premise of cap and trade – massive new energy taxes and vastly expanded government power – rests on this apparent scam. It’s worth reminding everyone that 82% of House Democrats voted for it, while 94% of House Republicans opposed it.

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Tags: climategate, email, Gary Bauer, Global Warming Fraud, redistribution of wealth To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Counting the Cost

by Kerby Anderson, Point of View: How much will health care reform cost the American people? You get very different answers depending upon who you ask. The establishment media has been eager to publish the numbers generated by the Democratic proponents of health care reform but less interested in publishing the dollar estimates from others. Now that the House has passed a health care reform bill, analysts have been taking stock of many of the last-minute amendments that were added to the bill. Stephen Moore concludes that "it may turn out to be one of the most expensive bills in the history of Congress."

According to a re-scoring that the Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee (based on Congressional Budget Office data), the ten-year price tag of the House bill would be nearly $3 trillion when the benefit provisions of the bill are phased in 2013-2014. This is almost twice the original estimates provided for this bill. Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire almost joined President Obama's cabinet. Nevertheless, he was quite critical of the health care bill and felt this new report "sheds light on the blue smoke and mirrors" the House Democrats have been playing. In his interview with Stephen Moore he said: "I am shocked at how fiscally irresponsible this bill is. I've never seen anything like it."

Over in the House of Representatives, a similar analysis has taken place. Paul Ryan of the House Budget Committee says the bill saves money in the short term "by frontloading the tax increases and backloading the new spending." He points out that the ten-year cost estimates are "only" $1.7 trillion, but that's because the spending doesn't start until 2013. And Representative Ryan reminds us that: "There has almost never been a new entitlement program that has come under cost." If these budget committee estimates are correct, then the American taxpayers should pay attention. At the time when our economy is in such bad shape, we cannot afford an additional $3 trillion. I'm Kerby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

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Tags: cost, government healthcare, Kerby Anderson, Point of View, US House To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Bo-Tax? Reid's New Nip/Tuck Tariff

President Obama campaigned on the promise that he wouldn't raise income tax on anyone earning more than $250,000 a year. Since his election, the President has even repeated his pledge. While some say he has already broken that promise by raising taxes on cigarettes by over 200 percent, anyone getting a nose job will feel like they are getting a snow job as well. Section 9017 of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) ill-named " Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" adds a tax on cosmetic surgery procedures: There is hereby imposed on any cosmetic surgery and medical procedure a tax equal to 5 percent of the amount paid for such procedure (determined without regard to this section), whether paid by insurance or otherwise. There's no income limit or floor that would exempt people from this tax. Not surprisingly, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Vice President Joe Biden have been silent on the new levy.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Harry Reid, tax increases, Bo-Tax, Nip/Tuck Tariff To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Weapons of Math Destruction

Tony Perkins, FRC Update: President Obama has introduced his latest initiative: Educate to Innovate. With the help of Big Bird and Elmo, the White House will be pushing math and science proficiency--something his own administration could desperately use. Last week, ABC News broke the story that the stimulus spending didn't add up, pointing to a serious breakdown in calculations by the Recovery Board. For starters, the website that monitors the stimulus dollars, www.recovery.gov, was bragging about job creation in places like Arizona's 15^th Congressional District. The only problem is the 15^th District doesn't exist! Nor does Puerto Rico's 99^th District, which is said to have received $47 million, and countless others. Apparently, the Recovery Board created to track the stimulus needs help keeping itself on track. 

Hundreds of millions of dollars are either missing or misidentified. In dozens of fake districts, the website claims millions of dollars were spent to create a handful of jobs. Take Oklahoma, for instance. Recovery.gov says it took the Sooners $19 million to create 15 jobs! Still, Ed Pound, a spokesman for the Recovery Board, announced yesterday that the agency has no intention of correcting its math. "Unless we find significant errors causing public confusion, we are not planning further corrections," said Pound. "Significant errors" like inflating the number of jobs created by 20,000? "Humans make mistakes," Pound told reporters. They sure do--like agreeing to bills like this one. 

If the administration is planning new lessons in science, sign the White House up for those too! Last week's Climategate showed how misguided the President's environmental policies--like cap-and-trade policies--have been. By cracking into the servers of the Climatic Research Units, hackers exposed the fraud of global warming in dozens of emails written by the world's environmental experts. According to the messages, scientists were manipulating the facts to hide their own inconvenient truth, which is that global temperatures have actually been on the decline. Of course, plenty of scientists had debunked those theories before the controversy, but President Obama insisted on moving forward with his agenda in direct contradiction to the facts.

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Tags: climate change, fraud, FRC, government, math, stimulus bill, Tony Perkins, Washington Update To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving 2009

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From Our Archives: The Meaning of Thanksgiving:
The documents below clearly show the meaning of Thanksgiving as intended by the nation's Founders. Today in most public schools God is not mentioned and Thanksgiving becomes a historical event rather than a Christian celebration of thanks to God. Please pass the document links on to others or print them out for distribution.

• The First Thanksgiving Proclamation
• Continental Congress 1782 Thanksgiving Proclamation
• George Washington's 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation
• Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation
• Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation for 2008

President Obama's 2009 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation
Observation: Although he historically recalls "President George Washington, who proclaimed our first national day of public thanksgiving to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God,” our new "politically correct" "post-American" President, unlike former Presidents, does not mention being that we should be grateful to God!

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Tags: 2009, ARRA News Service, Thanksgiving To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

USAF to Jettison 3,700 Military

Even the military is not safe from losing jobs and U.S. already faces unemployment exceeding 10%.
Stars and Stripes: The Air Force announced plans on Monday to cut 3,700 Airmen, saying the mix of a poor economy and good retention has swelled its ranks beyond manageability. The service will cut 2,074 officers and 1,633 enlisted Airmen through “voluntary and involuntary early separation and retirement programs,” an Air Force news release said. The reduction process to last into the next fiscal year . . .

A few years ago, the Air Force cut Airmen to draw down to 316,000 in order to free up money for more aircraft, such as the F-22. But Defense Secretary Robert Gates halted the personnel cuts after he fired the Air Force top civilian and military leadership in 2008.

The service then decided it needed to grow to 330,000 because it needed Airmen in areas such as the nuclear mission and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. As recently as January, the Air Force was seeking to bolster its officer corps by calling on retired or separated officers up to 60 years old.

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Tags: Air Force, American jobs, employment, USAF To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Say No to Cap and Trade

Americans for Prosperity is launching a new television ad campaign called "Say No to Cap and Trade"

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Tags: ad, AFP, video, cap-and-trade To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Obama's Horn of Plenty

by William Warren:

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Tags: America, Barack Obama, no jobs, political cartoon, William Warren To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Global Threat: Obama & Cabinet Secretaries Attending Climate Talks in Copenhagen

The Washington Post reports that President Obama will attend international climate talks next month in Copenhagen and commit the U.S. to a short-term emission reduction target "in the range of 17 percent" below 2005 levels, providing new momentum for negotiations that had been faltering. Obama will travel to the Danish capital Dec. 9, one day before he visits nearby Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.

In a further signal of the administration's commitment to the talks, the White House announced that it will dispatch an array of cabinet secretaries to Copenhagen. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson are all slated to attend, along with Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Holdren, and Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Carol Browner.
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From ALG News Press Release: This interesting quick response by the Obama administration comes on the heels of news about Climate Change being a hoax. Amid the growing "Climategate" scandal over data manipulation and suppression by the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU), Senator Jim Inhofe in calling for Congressional probes into the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) twhich "used CRU's data as the primary foundation for 'man-made' climate change science."

The scandal began after computer hackers broke into the servers of the University of East Anglia's (UEA) Climatic Research Unit. There, they found and published emails showing that researchers deliberately manipulated climate "change" data to hide the actual decline of the Earth's temperatures. According to the UK Telegraph, "Around 1,000 emails and 3,000 documents were stolen from UEA computers by hackers last week and uploaded on to a Russian server before circulating on websites run by climate change sceptics. Some of the correspondence indicates that the manipulation of data was widespread among global warming researchers."

One particular email from CRU director Phil Jones in 1999 stated, "I've just completed Mike's Nature [the science journal] trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie, from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline." [More information on Climategate]

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Tags: Barack Obama, climate change, Copenhagen, Global Warming Fraud, Obama administration To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Ken Blackwell Calls for Dismissal of Army Chief of Staff General George Casey

Bill Smith, ARRA Editor - Reflects on Ken Blackwell and General Casey: First, just think - the Republican National Committee could have had Ken Blackwell (a life long conservative activist, public servant and author - credentials below) as its Chairman. Ken walks boldly in the triad of conservatism as a social, economic, or national defense conservative. Ken Blackwell developed and made public a detailed plan to put the RNC on a solid foundation. The plan was endorsed by Morton Blackwell (a life long conservative activist and president of the Leadership Institute). Ken would have been an exceptionally strong conservative voice for the RNC addressing ACORN, Czars, the Obama Administration, and the deficit producing actions by the Democrat controlled Congress. Ken continues to be on the ARRA Editor's favorites list of conservative writers.

Second, as a retired career military officer, I believe General Casey should immediately retire! When Casey placed "political correctness" as his preferred foundation verses Duty, Honor, Country, and loyalty and the protection of the troops, their families, and civilians under his command, he fulfilled the "Peter principle" and is no longer fit to command.
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by Ken Blackwell, Contributing Author: We don't yet know how bad the Ft. Hood shooter's case was. We do not know -- and we must find out -- how it was possible for an Army medical officer to openly express treasonous statements and not be court-martialed. We do not know if the shooter or his family members were under surveillance by the FBI or other federal law enforcement agencies. We must soon find out.

But we do know this much: Gen. George Casey, the Army Chief of Staff, raced to the Sunday morning talk shows to express his deep concern. Gen. Casey's concern was not for American victory in the war on terror, nor for the safety of the American people, nor for the safety of U.S. military personnel. Gen. Casey's greatest concern was for diversity.

He said that if diversity were a "casualty," then it would be an even greater tragedy than the murders of fourteen innocent Americans. If we want to know how such an obvious terror threat was ignored, how such a mass killer was enabled, we need look no further than the command climate created by Gen. Casey and his politically correct subordinates.

If you are serving in a forward unit of the Army today, can you have confidence that your fellow soldier can be trusted to "have your back"? Can you sleep soundly in an Army barracks wondering whether your bunkmate might be a jihadist?  Unit cohesion is essential to any effective fighting force. Troops must trust one another when their lives are on the line. By winking at treason, Gen. Casey and his subordinates allowed Major Nidal Hasan's conduct to taint every Muslim currently serving in the U.S. military.

No one has a right to serve. Service is an honor and a privilege, but it is not a right. Colorblind people and people with heart murmurs are perfectly loyal Americans. It casts no aspersion on them or their families to be excluded from military service.  All military personnel in the U.S. Armed Forces must demonstrate their loyalty to the United States of America. When they raise their right hand and take that oath before God to protect the Constitution of the United States "from all enemies foreign and domestic," Americans have a right to expect that that oath will be enforced. No one gets a pass.

Gen. Casey has clearly failed to do this. No action could reassure our troops more in the wake of the worst case of domestic terrorism since 9/11 that national security and loyalty to the United States is the first requirement for military service than the dismissal of Gen. Casey.  Our all-volunteer military should know that even a four-star general is held to the same high standard that we expect of the lowest-ranking enlisted man or woman. From now on, it should be understood by all our serving men and women that you can report disloyal, insubordinate, and treasonous statements by anyone in the military and that that report will be acted upon promptly.

Only if this lesson is forcefully taught by the prompt, public dismissal for cause of Gen. Casey will the troops have renewed confidence that they can trust all their fellow soldiers. They must know that the United States will be loyal to them as they are loyal to the United States.  In this, as in so many things, George Washington said it best. In his historic letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport in 1790, he wrote:

[The] Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

Notice this strong pledge of respect for rights of religious minorities comes with a stern requirement: All good citizens must give their "effectual support." Can anyone say that Major Hasan -- after more than a decade of taxpayer-funded education and special treatment -- gave the United States his effectual support? Of course not.  There were warning signs aplenty. Many of the shooter's classmates and fellow officers raise concerns about this man's loyalty and reliability. The command climate created by Gen. Casey stifled those warning cries. The result is the death of innocents. Gen. Casey must be replaced as Army chief of staff.
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Mr. Ken Blackwell is a conservative family values advocate. He submitted this article to the ARRA News Service Editor which also appears in his American Thinker. 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.

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Tags: Bill Smith, Ft Hood, General George Casey, Ken Blackwell, political correctness, US Army To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

American Voters Tired of Obama False Hope & Destructive Changes

Bill Smith, Editor: The latest numbers show that Barack Obama's popularity is falling almost as fast as former Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa fell after being outfitted with cement shoes and tossed into  Lake Michigan. Oops, may now have to update the Jimmy Hoffa Wiki. I like what John Allison at "America, You Asked for It!" says about this change in Obama's popularity, "Hope and Change. That’s what President Obama promised on the campaign trail last year and voters lapped it up. Our President, who had less executive experience than most hot dog vendors at the time of his election, has pressed hard to fulfill the second half of his slogan but obviously missed the mark on the first part. Since January, he’s fed American citizens a steady diet of radical Change that’s left them feeling more Despair than Hope."

Let's look at today's Rasmussen Report numbers:

Nation's Voters View of Obama's Performance as President:
 27% trongly Approve
 42% Strongly Disapprove
 -15 Presidential Approval Index
 52% of Democrats Strongly Approve
 68% of Republicans Strongly Disapprove
 16% of Independents Strongly Approve
 51% of Independents Strongly Disapprove
 54% of ALL voters Now Disapprove
 53% of voters worry that the federal government will do too much when it comes to reacting to the nation’s financial problems. That’s up seven points since President Obama took office.
 38% (a new low) support for health care plan by the Democrats.
 60% of voters believe passage of the bill will lead to higher health care costs.

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Tags: American, American Indian Health, appropriations, Barack Obama, Rasmussen Reports, voters To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Blue Dogs - Including Berry, Lincoln & Pryor - Pee on Constituents

by Lisa Benson

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Boot Berry

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Tags: Blanche Lincoln, Blue Dog, Lisa Benson, Marion Berry, Mark Pryor, politcial cartoon, taxpayers To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

ACORN Puts Sensitive Documents in Dumpster

Fox News: A private investigator says he found tens of thousands of sensitive documents dumped outside a California ACORN office just days after the state attorney general announced an inquiry into the community organizing group.  Derrick Roach, a licensed investigator based in San Diego, told FoxNews.com he paid an impromptu visit to the city's ACORN branch on Oct. 9 and watched from his car as a man tossed bags of files into a Dumpster outside the building.

After ACORN staff left for the day, he says, he searched the trash bin and discovered more than 20,000 documents he believes point to illicit relationships between ACORN and a bank and a labor union — as well as confidential information that could put thousands at risk for identity theft. "We're talking people's driver's license numbers, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, tax returns, credit reports" — all tossed in public view in the Dumpster, he said.

In one document shared with FoxNews.com, an ACORN employee's name, address, date of birth, Social Security number and driver's license number were revealed, and photocopies of the employee's license and Social Security card were also included. Another document showed bank account information for a woman paying an ACORN membership fee by check.  "It was just a careless disregard for the people that ACORN claimed to be helping," Roach told FoxNews.com. "They put these people at risk."  Roach said that data breach laws bar dumping like the kind he uncovered at ACORN's office. Tossing the documents into a Dumpster, he said, constitutes a crime in California. "So if someone wanted to, they could bring legal action against ACORN for doing this," he said. 

A top ACORN official in California apologized for the lapse Monday, saying that some confidential information might have been thrown away during a massive clean-up of their offices last month. "In early October, when our San Diego staff were doing an office clean-up in preparation for a major 10-station phone bank program being set up in our offices, it appears that included in the piles of garbage being thrown out may have been some documents containing private information," said Amy Schur, state head organizer for California ACORN, in an e-mailed statement.

Schur implied that "this guy" Roach, a former Republican candidate for statewide office, may have had political motivations for unearthing the documents. She said ACORN would seek the return of the documents "so that we may give proper notice of the compromising of the information as required by law."

Roach told FoxNews.com he has been going over the trove of ACORN files and has found connections to the California Teachers Association and to Citibank. "ACORN was acting as an agent" for Citibank, Roach charged. "They had mortgage information for homeowners ... who were in foreclosure, who were in default."
Roach says that the documents suggest that ACORN staffers would go out on "assignments" to take pictures of some residences or even to "go out and actually make contact" with people living in homes financed by Citibank loans. He said he believes Citibank will have to report to its customers that their information may have been at risk when ACORN threw it away. "They took information and they just dumped it in the garbage," he said.

Citibank ran an outreach program through ACORN that utilized the group's local staff to encourage homeowners at risk of defaulting on their mortgages to contact the bank and work on avoiding defaults. That relationship has since been severed, a spokesman for Citigroup told FoxNews.com in an e-mail.

"Over time, Citi has worked with a variety of not-for-profit partners, including ACORN, to provide financial education, meet affordable lending needs, promote stable homeownership for low- to moderate- income consumers and help in foreclosure prevention," the spokesman said. "We are deeply concerned about the recent media reports regarding ACORN. We recently suspended our charitable financial support and program relationships with ACORN, and we are waiting for the results of the independent audit of ACORN's activities now underway."

Roach also charged that the California Teachers Association, the state's largest teachers' union, was "funneling information to ACORN for political activity" — a relationship that he said would not be illegal but would require ACORN and the CTA to disclose fully. "I've done some checking into the reports that have been filed for the CTA, for ACORN, and I'm not finding any of this information being disclosed," he said. He did not provide any documents illustrating the relationship to FoxNews.com.

CTA spokesman Mike Myslinksi said the union had no comment on documents it had not seen. "That's out of left field," he said.

Roach's accusation comes in the wake of a national scandal for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now Staffers were caught on tape this summer in six cities offering to help a pair of filmmakers posing as a pimp and prostitute to lie to the IRS and acquire illegal home loans. ACORN fired an employee in its San Diego office, Juan Carlos Vera, after video surfaced of him offering to help the "pimp" and "prostitute" smuggle in girls from Tijuana, Mexico, noting that he had many contacts in the city who could assist in smuggling them across the border.

The group is now under investigation by a number of city, state and federal agencies, and Congress has cut off funding for the group. On Oct. 1, California Attorney General Jerry Brown launched a state investigation of ACORN. It was just eight days later that Roach says he retrieved the sensitive files — timing he says he finds fishy. "I think if you look at the timeline [Sic] of events when the attorney general made the announcement, when the documents were dumped, I think that it's highly suspicious."

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StopAcorn.org

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Tags: ACORN, acorn scandal, California, Fox News, San Diego To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!