In this report:
Does Obama want your DNA?
How far will the IRS go to extract the peoples blood?
What the heck is Chris Dodd thinking about the FED’s monetary power? Gary answers those questions and
welcomes SpyChips co-author and RFID expert Katherine Albrecht to the show to discuss the latest in
RFID and implantable human tracking technology.
Wow! 😯
So Saith Howard Fineman:
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, was 50 minutes late for his briefing, apparently a record for tardiness, but few reporters in the White House press room bothered to feign outrage; they didn’t seem all that eager to ask him questions anyway. When his boss flew to Missouri to give another of his “high octane” (The New York Times), “impassioned” (The Washington Post) health-care speeches, no cable channel covered the event. If you are president, the only thing worse than criticism is not being covered. And the truth is, we in the press are bored with Barack.
The “mainstream media” are losing patience with, and even interest in, their erstwhile hero. President Barack Obama never had a chance with the Ailes-Murdoch crowd, of course, and it didn’t take the president long to offend the fierce left wing of the blogosphere. But now, finally, the MSM, which views itself as ideologically neutral, has found ideologically neutral reasons to lose patience with him: that he may be ineffectual; that he doesn’t know how to play the game; that he can’t get anything done. Exhibit A: the health-care bill. The Times‘s Frank Rich, the astute dean of the commentariat, wrote recently that Obama has failed to “communicate a compelling narrative” in office and, as a result, “could be toast if he doesn’t make good on a year’s worth of false starts.”
Cue the music!
Only thing I can really say is, when you oversell a man, what do you expect? 🙄
There seems to be an uptick in this sort of a thing, as of late:
Last Easter, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, a 31-year-old mom with a $30,000-a-year job as a medical assistant, announced to her family that she had converted to Islam. A few months later, she began posting to Facebook forums whose headings included “STOP caLLing MUSLIMS TERRORISTS!”
On Sept. 11, she suddenly left Leadville, Colo., a small town in the Rocky Mountains, for Denver, then for New York, to meet and marry a Muslim man she connected with online, her family says. Ms. Paulin-Ramirez, who is 5-foot-11 and blonde, phoned her mother and stepfather in Leadville, providing them with an address in Waterford, Ireland, they say.
Toni Axelrod for The Wall Street Journal/Courtesy of the Holcomb Family
Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, a 31-year-old mom, is in the custody of the Irish police, along with six other individuals, arrested as part of an investigation into a conspiracy to commit murder.
Now, she is in the custody of the Irish police, along with six other individuals, arrested as part of an investigation into a conspiracy to commit murder, according to officials familiar with the case. The nature of the authorities suspicions about Ms. Paulin-Ramirez couldn’t be determined on Friday.
via A Colorado Mom Is Arrested in Terror Plot Case – WSJ.com.
There is a tiny bit of me, that seems to believe that this might be something more, than what meets the eye. I could be wrong and goodness knows, I hope I am. But it just makes me wonder. Obama’s FBI now scapegoating White Americans as crazed Muslim converts? I have no proof, but it does make me wonder. It just seems funny that suddenly this stuff starts happening, that’s all.
Others: The Jawa Report, Althouse, KUSA-TV, Atlas Shrugs, Jules Crittenden, The Other McCain, Jihad Watch, The Lonely Conservative and The Corner on National …
I could not believe this one… but hey, I give him props for standing up and speaking the truth:
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about what seemed to be a glaring (and quite typical) scam perpetrated by Congressional Democrats: all year long, they insisted that the White House and a majority of Democratic Senators vigorously supported a public option, but the only thing oh-so-unfortunately preventing its enactment was the filibuster: sadly, we have 50 but not 60 votes for it, they insisted. Democratic pundits used that claim to push for “filibuster reform,” arguing that if only majority rule were required in the Senate, then the noble Democrats would be able to deliver all sorts of wonderful progressive reforms that they were truly eager to enact but which the evil filibuster now prevents. In response, advocates of the public option kept arguing that the public option could be accomplished by reconciliation — where only 50 votes, not 60, would be required — but Obama loyalists scorned that reconciliation proposal, insisting (at least before the Senate passed a bill with 60 votes) that using reconciliation was Unserious, naive, procedurally impossible, and politically disastrous. — Via Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com
Head on over and read that. It is a very interesting read. If this is any indication what might just happen, if Obamacare passes. The poop stinky is about hit the turbine. (So to speak….)
Wow. 😮 😯
Well, Yes and No….
The Good News:
The Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that President Barack Obama must sign Congress’ original health care reform bill before the Senate can act on a companion reconciliation package, senior GOP sources said Thursday.
The Senate Parliamentarian’s Office was responding to questions posed by the Republican leadership. The answers were provided verbally, sources said.
House Democratic leaders have been searching for a way to ensure that any move they make to approve the Senate-passed $871 billion health care reform bill is followed by Senate action on a reconciliation package of adjustments to the original bill. One idea is to have the House and Senate act on reconciliation prior to House action on the Senate’s original health care bill.
Information Republicans say they have received from the Senate Parliamentarian’s Office eliminates that option. House Democratic leaders last week began looking at crafting a legislative rule that would allow the House to approve the Senate health care bill, but not forward it to Obama for his signature until the Senate clears the reconciliation package.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) moved Thursday to put Senate Republicans on the defensive over health care, sending a letter to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in which he dared the GOP to vote against reform.
Reid also defended the Democrats’ use of reconciliation to get a final health care reform bill to the president’s desk, noting that the bulk of health care reform was approved under regular order via the package that cleared the Senate on Christmas Eve. Reid also emphasized that Republicans have used the procedure several times over the years.
via RollCall.com.
The Bad News:
Rep. Paul Ryan says that Democrats are ready to ram a “shell” health care bill through the Budget Committee, on which he serves as ranking Republican member, to use as a vehicle to impose national health care.
In a phone interview with TAS Thursday afternoon, Ryan said that he expects Democrats to begin the complex process on Monday, under which they would have the Budget Committee approve a phantom bill by midnight, which they will then send over to the Rules Committee. At that point, the Rules Committee will strip out all of the language in the phantom bill, and insert the changes to the Senate bill that Democrats have negotiated.
“They don’t have the votes right now, but they’re creating the vehicle so that they can airdrop in whatever changes they want,” Ryan said.
He said that Republicans are outnumbered 2-to-1 on his committee and don’t have the votes to stop the bill there. Democrats will also be able to prevent Republicans from offering any amendments, but GOP members will be able to offer “motions to instruct” the Rules Committee, that Ryan said will be used highlight problems with the “unprecedented” step that Democrats are taking. – Source: AmSpec Blog
You see why I have not been writing about this? Because it is an exercise in abject stupidity. The way Fox News is hyping it, you would think that there was going to by a nuclear attack. But, it is much ado about nothing. They not going to try and vote until Monday and something tells me, that it will die there. I could be wrong, but, I believe that will happen.
I knew this was coming, long ago..:
Is President Obama losing his base?
Liberal and progressive organizations that helped propel him to the White House are turning on him now, little more than a year after he took office. Their collective discontent, on issues from health care to nuclear energy to the handling of terrorism suspects, could mean bad news for Democrats during this fall’s congressional elections.
Polls show that liberals and blacks still approve of the job Obama’s doing. That approval, however, doesn’t necessarily mean they will make the effort to vote, and many of the activists and groups that worked to get people to the polls in 2008 say they’re not inclined right now to help Democrats in the fall.
“The energized base which transformed the nation and elected our first black president (is) now disengaged,” Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile says. “If this was September, I would hit the panic button.”
There are a few thoughts that I have here about this situation:
First off; Obama was mostly elected, because Conservatives stayed home and did not vote, because they felt that John McCain was a lousy candidate — many of these same people disliked Sarah Palin as well. I happen to be one of those people. Also some of the more elitist Conservatives and libertarians voted for Obama, because of his charm and charisma. Many of those same Conservatives and libertarians are now kicking themselves for that. Because they have painfully figured out, that President Obama is nothing more than a slick talking Chicago politician and it has become painfully aware to these people that they voted for an outright socialist.
Second of all; Many upper middle class and wealthy class white liberals voted for Obama, because they saw this a change to atone for the sins of the of the past of the white race here in America. These same people were tricked into believing that Obama somehow or another would magically solve the problems that are plaguing America right now. This is because Obama was marketed as some sort of Messianic figure that would change the political landscape in America, all because of his black skin, because he was the one that America needed and so on and so forth. Which was nothing more than a slick marketing tactic, this has become painfully aware to the moderates and Independents that voted for him. The question is, did Obama actually do all that? Oh He did alright! Obama successfully managed to get elected and proceeded to turn moderates, Conservative Democrats, and Independents against him! All in six months time; now that my friends takes talent.
Third of all; the far left base has turned against President Obama for basically the same reason listed above. Because the far left liberals thought that Obama was going to beckon to their every whim and pet cause. The far left was under this strange impression that Obama would end the war in Iraq, the very day he was sworn into office and would quickly end the war in Afghanistan. Again, this can be attributed to good marketing or in Obama’s case; excessive marketing of an image. The problem is, that image was not grounded in reality, because for one; the Iraq war could not have been ended until the date set by the “Status of force agreement” with Iraq and the coalition forces and ending the Afghanistan war would be a threat to National security; Obama might be a socialist Democrat, but he is not a fool. Obama was not about to stop the Afghanistan war and open the floodgates of National Security threats on our Country. Even Obama is not that stupid.
Lastly; what this article does not take into account is the fact that Politics and the political winds do shift, ebb and flow. People get their impression of a man and it usually sticks. Sometimes this works to the advantage of the person in office —- and sometimes it does not. In Obama’s case, because of some of the early failures and because Obama did not kowtow to the far left in his Party, that impression has, so far, not been a good one.
Others: Shot in the Dark
I am, of course, referring to this little poor choice of words.
First off, Dan explains in his own way, that he is from the pre-internet generation. This is understandable. The man is just old. You have to remember, he was one of the reporters in the trenches in Vietnam. He did work under Walter Cronkite. So, he is old, as in almost my dad’s age. Even I can understand that.
He explains his rather “off the cuff” remark:
All this is the backdrop for what I said on the Matthews show. I was talking about Obama and health care and I used the analogy of selling watermelons by the side of the road. It’s an expression that stretches to my boyhood roots in Southeast Texas, when country highways were lined with stands manned by sellers of all races. Now of course watermelons have become a stereotype for African Americans and so my analogy entered a charged environment. I’m sorry people took offense. – Source Huffington Post
He goes on to say, and I believe this is important:
But anyone who knows me personally or knows my professional career would know that race was not on my mind. Reporting on the injustices of race was part of the reason I became a reporter. I grew up in segregated Texas on the same side of the tracks as the African American community. At the time, enlightened people called them Negros. Many people called them much worse. When I covered the Civil Rights movement, I saw sheer hatred in ways that still haunt and shock me. For doing my small part in reporting on the South in the 1960s, I was called a traitor to my roots and other names not fit for print. I was threatened with death by people who would have welcomed me to their church on Sunday on account of my white skin if they didn’t know what I was there to do. I do not take this issue lightly.
I am inclined to believe him here, as I do agree with his position on the subject. Also too, I believe it is important to understand the framing of the comment as well. He did just say, in his own southern style that President Obama is, in fact, a lousy salesman. Now he said something to the effect of, “That Obama isn’t nothing more than a stupid Watermelon eatin’ so and so…” it would be quite different. But it was not said in that matter. Yes, I know, Rush Limbaugh and we Conservative Bloggers did raise the “If a Conservative have said that” flag up; Which I believe is valid. There is a double standard in this country when it comes to race and political party affiliation, I know that. However, I believe this one here was just a tad bit blown out of proportion.
Finally, Dan Rather makes this very important point:
What saddens me is what this experience has made all too clear. Much of what we call news, isn’t. Much of what we Tweet, or post, or chat away at under the guise of news, are distractions.
[…]
The optimist in me believes that we are not as polarized as the partisans on the left and right would want us to believe. They make money on division. I have gotten dozens of letters from viewers for my HDNet show saying that they thought I was a left-wing partisan hack until they sat down and watched our reports. This is not meant to be self-aggrandizing. It is just evidence that if we stopped worrying about political point-scoring and sat and listened to the issues that matter, we would be less distracted and more focused on the problems that we all face and must solve together.
Sorry folks, I cannot argue with that. Thanks Dan for the clarification. I know I might take heat for highlighting the above, but you know what? I do not care. I think if both sides would simply work together and stop with the decisive nonsense; we might just be able to fix the Nation’s problems; like Healthcare, like Jobs and many of the other problems that are hurting Nation right now.
It is one of those Yes and No kind of questions:
I know you’re not supposed to, but I just love to say I told you so.
What I told you back on Sept. 28, 2008, was that within a year of the day he left office George W. Bush would come to be regarded with affection and a little nostalgia. The responses (over 300 before the comments were closed) to that prediction were overwhelmingly negative; even the very few who agreed with me attributed what they took to be a sad fact to the stupidity of the American people. The other 290 or so said things like “No way”; “Are you kidding?”; ”Are you mad?”;“What a ridiculous and insulting premise!”; “I’ll miss him like a rash”; “This must be a satire”; “Bush is a sociopath”; “George Bush has destroyed this country”; “History won’t forgive him”; and (a popular favorite) “I hate the man.”
Well it’s a bit more than a year now and signs of Bush’s rehabilitation are beginning to pop up. One is literally a sign, a billboard that appeared recently on I-35 in Minnesota. Occupying the right side (from the viewer’s viewpoint) is a picture of Bush smiling genially and waving his hand in a friendly gesture. Occupying the left side is a simple and direct question: “Miss me yet?” The image is all over the Internet, hundreds of millions of hits, and unscientific Web-based polls indicate that more do miss him than don’t.
Do I miss Bush? Well, Yes and No.
Yes, for the fact that Bush realized the war on terror was a real thing and was willing to sacrifice his Presidency for it. Yes, for the fact that he did not pull a “Ron Paul” and cower after the attacks on 9/11 and stood tall and brought America together….at least for a short time. Yes, for taking the fight to the place where Al-Qaeda was located at, in Afghanistan. (at the time…)
No, because of the fact that he listened to the advice of some very foolish people that thought it would be wise to invade Iraq. No, because of the fact that he put a mentally incompetent man, like Donald Rumsfield in charge of our Military; which caused over 4K+ deaths in Iraq. No, because of the fact that the man could not articulate his way out of a paper bag. No, Because of the fact that he threw his ‘Supposed’ Conservative principles into the wind and started an unconstitutional bailout of the banks. No, Because his Wilsonian Foreign Policy.
Simply put, George W. Bush was a mixed bag. No one thought he was perfect, but he was a bit better than this current idiot in the White House. Would I want him back. Honestly? No. At least this President is honest, he is a socialist Democrat; you know what you are getting with him. Unlike Bush, who played many for a fool during both of his campaigns. Of course, Obama did that too, but on a much bigger scale.
