from RedState

Obama: The Will Of The People Be Damned - I’LL Decide Who Can Go Fishing

*Now* he means to ration recreational fishing and boating, folks

Posted by Dave Poff (haystack) (Profile)

It all started here this morning:

The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation’s oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.

I had to read that 3 times before it sank in…and then I did a little research. Guess what old Barack (I’ve never had a fishing rod in my hand a day in my life) Obama has been up to since last year? Plotting a Federal takeover of all our bodies of water (freshwater…saltwater…doesn’t matter), in an effort to set up MORE bureaucracies and circumvent the rights of the States to determine fair use and access rules amongst themselves based on the local interests of everyone involved.

If he was out to ban recreational fishing this piece would be easy enough to write; scream a little, stomp my feet, vow he’ll have to pry my fishing rod from my cold dead hands, etc…and be done with it. Problem is, this is much darker and more corrupt than that.

The White House plan would establish 9 regional planning bodies (bureaucracies) whose job would be to bring “Federal, State, and Tribal Partners together” to look for ways to “decrease user conflicts; improve planning and regulatory efficiencies and decrease their associated costs and delays; and preserve critical ecosystem function and services.”

It should come as no surprise that the Administration is no longer accepting comments or input from the public (though you should click through to see some of the doozies that WERE accepted), and it should come as no surprise that a member of Obama’s Administration (Jane Lubchenco, NOAA administrator) has some interesting ties with a couple private charities and goofy greenie groups whose interests will be very well served by a Federal takeover of our various bodies of water:

While she possesses impressive academic and professional credentials as a marine biologist, she also has close ties to those who produced the November document. For example, she was a trustee of the Environmental Defense Fund, and served on the Pew Oceans Commission.”

More below the “who needs jobs and successful multi-billion dollar industries anymore, anyway?” fold…

More info here, and a call for some Asian Carp-killing love here. Don’t miss the policy pdf here if you really want your head to explode. Read between the lines folks…this will lock down oil exploration faster and farther than the moratorium Congress JUST let expire ever did, and allows the greenies to set policy for fishing AND boating (at the expense of millions of jobs and billions of boating and fishing industry dollars).

ALWAYS worry when you read this from Obama’s people: “The planning process would be fully transparent and participatory.” and don’t forget to laugh out loud when you follow up with this timeless classic: “Places Science-Based Information at the Heart of Decision-Making. Scientific data, information and knowledge, as well as relevant traditional knowledge, will be the underpinning of the regionally developed plans.”

How’s that “settled” climate change science mumbo jumbo working out again?

also:

The Abortion Gambit: Stupak’s Folly

Posted by Erick Erickson

“The Democrats can give all the cover they want to Stupak, but the Senate GOP will show the cover to be the fig leaf it is.”

Credit where it is due: the Senate GOP has come up with a great strategy to combat talk of compromise on reconciliation. The Senate GOP will block any effort to strip abortion funding in reconciliation.

This may get a few pro-life groups upset and I want to be very clear here — you will be able to tell the real pro-life groups from the posers by their stand on this strategy. The real pro-life groups will support this and the posers will oppose it.

And Again:

The NRCC has a list of targets in the House of Representatives on the health care vote.

Go check the list, see if your congresscritter is on it, and pick up the phone. Tell ‘em to vote no on Obamacare.
(more…)

Sean Penn Suggests Prison Time for Journalists Who Call Hugo Chavez a Dictator

By Tim Graham

At the end of a discussion of Haiti on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, actor Sean Penn went on a rant in defense of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, suggesting prison time for American journalists: “every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it! And accept it. And this is mainstream media, who should – truly, there should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies.”

This is a little strange, since a study by our Business and Media Institute of Chavez coverage from 1998 to 2006 found Chavez’s much-criticized human rights record was mentioned in only ten percent of stories, and he was described as a leftist in only 12 percent of stories. Maher shifted to Chavez and the end of the Haiti interview, asking Penn to make a case for his man Chavez:

MAHER: His image in the media is just a buffoon. You have been there. You know him. You’ve talked to him. That’s all I really know about Hugo Chavez, is what I read in the media. A dictator, took over a lot of the branches of government, wants to be president for life. What do you know that I don’t know, that I should not have such a harsh feeling about this guy?

PENN: I think that if you’re more happy with 20 percent of a population having the access to dreams, access to the feeling they have an identity and a voice. If it’s okay with the 20 percent, versus the 80 percent he gave it to, then you can criticize Hugo Chavez. You know, there are a lot of complicated issues that comes simply out of perspective. We in the United States have a difficult time putting ourselves in the shoes of what has been the history of Venezuela, the history of Latin America, and many other places.We’re very monocultural. And then we are hypnotized by the media. For example, Hugo Chavez. Who do you know here who’s gone through fourteen of the most transparent elections on the globe, and has been elected democratically, as Hugo Chavez?

Stay with the transcript here, because Penn’s talk gets very fuzzy and inarticulate, but his primary point is that Venezuela and Cuba helped him provide assistance to Haiti, when he knew next to nothing about how to help, so he is frustrated that anyone would speak negatively about them:
(more…)

from Flopping Aces

Jihad Jane has been indicted:

A suburban Pennsylvania woman known by the alias “Jihad Jane” has been arrested and charged with trying to recruit Islamic fighters and for plotting to assassinate a Swedish cartoonist who made fun of the Prophet Mohammed, according to a federal indictment unsealed today.

Colleen R. LaRose, 46, of Montgomery, Pa., described by neighbors as an average “housewife,” is better known to federal authorities as “Fatima Rose” or “Jihad Jane.”

The indictment, obtained by ABC News, charges LaRose with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill in a foreign country.

She is also accused of making false statements to a government official and of attempted identity theft, a passport she allegedly stole with the intention of giving to an Islamic fighter. The court papers claim that LaRose reached out through the Internet to jihadist groups saying she was “desperate to do something to help” suffering Muslim people, and that she desired to become a martyr.

Check out the indictment below:

Indictment 1

also:


PDS On Display - Sarah Palin Used Canadian Health Care As A Child….And Paid For It

The latest Palin Derangement Syndrome is the fact that Sarah Palin admitted she would cross the border into Canada to partake in some of their health care. Sounds like a sure fire “gotcha” moment right?

Yahoo has it up highlighted: (click to enlarge)

Kos, Think Progress, TPM, Alan Colmes…..all went off the deep end.

HuffPo: (more…)

From Powerline

The Competitive Enterprise Institute has uncovered, via a Freedom of Information Act request, a fascinating instance of the symbiotic relationship among 1) left-wing advocacy groups, 2) left-wing Obama administration officials, and 3) lobbyists for moneyed interests who benefit from left-wing policies. It has to do with wind energy. The Obama administration has hailed Spain’s wind energy initiatives as a model for its own wind subsidies. Unfortunately, a devastating study (which we highlighted here) showed that Spain’s wind subsidies were a disaster: they eliminated more than two jobs for every one they created, only one in ten “green jobs” created by the subsidies was permanent, and each wind energy job cost more than $1.3 million.

Did this cause the Obama administration to realize that its wind energy policies were misguided? OK, that was a joke. Christopher Horner at Pajamas Media describes what did happen:

Emails obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that the Obama Department of Energy is using the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) — the lobbying arm of “Big Wind” in the U.S. — to coordinate political responses with two strongly ideological activist groups: the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and the George Soros funded Center for American Progress (CAP).
(more…)

By Regina Sztajer

If it wasn’t so stressful it would be a great Washington soap opera to watch in living color. We are down to the wire on Obama health reform and my nerves are rattled and so are every American’s who have common sense. President Barack Obama took an absolutely wonderful presidency handed to him and ruined it. He has associated himself with a bunch of radicals pushing his progressive agenda. We should have listened to Joe the plumber. Well I did! Just who is running the White House anyway? Rahm Emanuel the White House chief of staff, the White House chief strategist David Axelrod or Obama? It’s Obama that is responsible for the current state of his presidency not his two top aides.

The Democrats are running from him like the plague because he has failed to enact sweeping changes, including a historic healthcare reform and the country is in severe debt with unbelievable unemployment numbers. Emanuel is actually a foe of progressive policy moves that don’t have immediate results. After all he believes you can’t waste a good crisis. He has become the scapegoat for the liberals. Did Obama listen enough to Emanuel in the first year? Is that why health care is hanging on a limb?

Now the soap opera continues in Washington with Emanuel the pragmatist vs Axelrod the ideologue!! Both say there isn’t a problem between them. Is that why the backbitting continues? Who is missing from the picture? Obama! People make policy and Obama appears as a smart guy who is capable of making his own tough calls. They both share Obama’s presidential functions and can do it well or poorly. They may have failed in their jobs but the buck stops with the president who is responsible for shaping his own role in the drama. (more…)

from RedState

Posted by Leon H. Wolf

No, I don’t mean being pro-choice, I mean surrender:

Rep. Bart Stupak said he expects to resume talks with House leaders this week in a quest for wording that would impose no new limits on abortion rights but also would not allow use of federal money for the procedure.

“I’m more optimistic than I was a week ago,” Stupak said in an interview between meetings with constituents in his northern Michigan district. He was hosting a town hall meeting Monday night at a local high school.

“The president says he doesn’t want to expand or restrict current law (on abortion). Neither do I,” Stupak said. “That’s never been our position. So is there some language that we can agree on that hits both points — we don’t restrict, we don’t expand abortion rights? I think we can get there.”

I have long said that once you reach the United States Senate, there is no such thing as a pro-life Democrat. However, it used to be true, even within this decade, that honest-to-goodness pro-lifers existed among the Democrat caucus in the House. IN fact, I personally felt so strong about preserving their existence that I voted for Marion Berry (D-AR) in 2004, despite his incorrigible record on spending. However, if Stupak isn’t able to hold together enough people to defeat this bill on this issue - not just abortion, but public funding of abortion, then the myth of the pro-life Democrat is officially dead, and the Democratic party will have officially become the first monolithic party on this issue in America.

I suppose it’s possible that Stupak and the rest still believe in their hearts that they are in fact pro-life, and that their pro-life instincts have just been overridden by the much deeper Democrat instinct to surrender. However, in this political environment, with the current resident of the White House calling the shots, being a surrender monkey is going to effectively mean being pro-choice until there’s no one left who remembers the difference.

also:

Counting the Heads of House Democrats / Updated 3-9

By Jay Cost

Current Categories (As of 1:30 AM 3/9)
Democrats Who Voted Nay in November
Very Hard to Persuade: 25
Hard to Persuade: 6
Persuadable: 6
Democrats Who Voted Yea in November
Suggested Might Now Vote Nay (Including Confirmed Stupak Democrats): 16
Other Possible Stupak Democrats: 10
(more…)

By Warner Todd Huston

The left is constantly attempting to wave its hand dismissively at our claims that they are socialists and communists. They claim they are true blue Americans and we are lying about them. Unions are one of the biggest perpetrators of this misinformation.

Well, it appears that in Detroit, unions came out in support of a goof ball that claimed himself to be a socialist. They all stood in the Michigan cold saying their “yeas” as he spoke about getting a free university degree, and as he touted a socialist “right” to food and their own house.

(more…)

By Chuck Rogér

In America, we are beginning to sense a nasty reality that President Obama must acknowledge: Our worst economic problems lie ahead, and fixing those problems is going to hurt — plenty. Our federal government now runs a con game that promises people a level of financial security impossible to deliver. Honoring Medicare and Social Security obligations alone will require confiscatory taxation capable of killing off prosperity. And so it is time to cure our nanny-state insanity and get back to basics.

Current events in Greece illustrate the misery that comes from ignoring the basics. The Greek economy is collapsing. A rampant entitlement mentality and the resulting government expansion have ballooned publicly-held debt to 121 percent of the country’s 2010 economic output. (America could exceed the 100-percent debt-to-output threshold in 2011.) The European Community’s reaction to the Greek tragedy? Mixed. French Prime Minister Sarkozy says the euro block will help “if needed.” German Chancellor Merkel offers no aid. A senior member of Merkel’s party suggests that Greece sell some of its islands to raise money.

Greece’s Prime Minister Papandreou says that Greece has become “a laboratory animal in the battle between Europe and the markets.” Progressives view society as their laboratory. Just as President Obama preaches to Americans too dim to swallow his wisdom, Euro-progressives want to force foolishness on a people’s unreceptive leader.

Greece needs to address its own problems, the first of which is reality-blind union workers violently whining for government to hand over money the government doesn’t have. But the E.C., observes Manhattan Institute’s Nicole Gelinas, cannot bear to let Greece solve Greek problems. Too risky. Greece is too big to fail. Gelinas writes, “The empty purse is Papandreou’s best tool for keeping public resolve strong in the face of crippling strikes by public workers.” In other words, forcing bratty children to take the hit for bankrupting mom and dad is just the right medicine. In Greece, severe pain just might spark sane policies.

In America, we’d first have to purge Washington of most of that asylum’s patients; otherwise, sanity would remain a pipe dream. Buffoonery abounded in our 2008 economic crash — partly induced by over-borrowing induced by over-lending induced by everybody-must-own-a-house nonsense. Even now, Barney Frank and other starry-eyed congressional ideologues still deny that lending to moneyless borrowers assures disaster.
(more…)

from Flopping Aces

O.K. but what about fried chicken?

Can you imagine the howling if a Republican had said this?

By Jackson Diehl

I recently asked several senior administration officials, separately, to name a foreign leader with whom Barack Obama has forged a strong personal relationship during his first year in office. A lot of hemming and hawing ensued.

One official mentioned French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is scheduled to bring his glamorous wife to the White House residence this month for a couples dinner with Barack and Michelle Obama. But in France, Sarkozy’s bitterness toward Obama, the product of several perceived snubs, is an open secret, reported widely in the French press. In a speech at the U.N. General Assembly in September Sarkozy appeared to mock Obama’s signature disarmament initiative, saying “we are living in a real world, not a virtual world.”
(more…)

By Dick Morris

***SEE THE TABLE OF PHONE NUMBERS OF SWING VOTE CONGRESSMAN BELOW . PLEASE CALL THEM TO STOP OBAMACARE!!! THANK YOU***

All aspects of President Obama’s Chicago-style tactics are on display as he cajoles, bullies, and bribes the House to pass his health care proposals despite the overwhelming public rejection with which they have been met.

To some, he offers bribes. Congressman Jim Matheson, endangered species - a Utah Democrat - succeeded in getting his brother Scott appointed to a federal judgeship. Matheson voted against Obamacare when it first passed the House. With his new-found winnings in his pocket, he now professes to be undecided. He faces a clear conflict between his district and his conscience on the one hand and the bribe to his brother on the other. The conscience will probably lose.

Matheson supports his party 91% of the time according to the Washington Post even though McCain got 58% of the vote in his district in 2008. But Matheson got re-elected - by professing independence from the Democratic Party’s liberal line - with 63% of the vote, so he probably figures he can sneak in a vote for health care and still con his district into re-electing him. After all, he’s not heavy. He’s my brother.
(more…)

From Powerline

Apology Tours and Terrorists’ Rights: A Losing Combination

A poll conducted by two liberal groups finds that Americans believe we are less respected in the world under the Obama administration:

A majority of Americans say the United States is less respected in the world than it was two years ago and think President Obama and other Democrats fall short of Republicans on the issue of national security, a new poll finds.

The Democracy Corps-Third Way survey released Monday finds that by a 10-point margin — 51 percent to 41 percent — Americans think the standing of the U.S. dropped during the first 13 months of Mr. Obama’s presidency.

That’s a clear margin.

“This is surprising, given the global acclaim and Nobel peace prize that flowed to the new president after he took office,” said pollsters for the liberal-leaning organizations.

It’s not surprising if you understand that few Americans are liberals.

On the national security front, a massive gap has emerged, with 50 percent of likely voters saying Republicans would likely do a better job than Democrats, a 14-point swing since May. Thirty-three percent favored Democrats.

“The erosion since May is especially strong among women, and among independents, who now favor Republicans on this question by a 56 to 20 percent margin,” the pollsters said in their findings.

One more indication that the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats have lost the independent vote, decisively.

The Democrats’ gap on national security has widened on several other fronts:

• “Keeping America safe”: Democrats now trail by 13 points (34 percent to 47 percent.) The gap was just 5 points in July 2008.

• “Ensuring a strong military”: Democrats trail by 31 points (27 percent to 58 percent.)

• “Making America safer from nuclear threats”: Democrats trail by 11 points (34 percent to 45 percent,) “despite the president’s strong actions and speeches on steps to reduce nuclear dangers,” the pollsters said.

Obviously, most Americans have been unimpressed by Obama’s citizen-of-the-world, sorry-about-all-those-dumb-Americans pose.

also:

The soft bigotry of low expectations

The Obama administration’s Department of Education has announced that it will crack down on “civil-rights infractions” in public schools, including alleged disparities in the disciplining of white and black students. This means that the administration will identify and investigate situations in which a facially neutral discipline system — offense X brings punishment Y — results in blacks being discplined more often than whites. School systems will face the prospect of being punished unless they can explain the disparities, presumably based on a painstaking analysis of each disciplinary decision.

As Roger Clegg points out, the easy way out for schools — and what school bureaucrat won’t prefer the easy way out — is to make sure the numbers pass muster, i.e., to make discipline decisions based not solely on the merits, but also on the basis of race. And since administrators aren’t likely to mete out punishment just to balance the numbers, they will balance them by going easier on black students because they are black.

As a result, school discipline will be further eroded, making it increasinigly difficult for students of all races to learn.
(more…)

Posted by SusanAnne Hiller

Americans need to understand the devastating significance of the House vote on the Senate health care bill set for March 18th. The Democrats have–by design–created the perfect storm to take over the US healthcare system, while providing an ideal distraction–reconciliation.

First, let’s examine exactly how we got here. In late December, while Americans were arguing that no one had read the bill, Leiberman was posturing to vote against the bill with a public option, and the debate on abortion continued, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) took an existing HOUSE-passed bill, H.R.3950–the Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009–and here’s how it unfolded:

10/8/2009:
Received in the Senate. Read the first time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under Read the First Time.
10/13/2009: Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 175.
11/19/2009: Motion to proceed to consideration of measure made in Senate. (consideration: CR S11578)
11/19/2009: Cloture motion on the motion to proceed to the bill presented in Senate. (consideration: CR S11578; text: CR S11578)
11/20/2009: Motion to proceed to consideration of measure considered in Senate. (consideration: CR S11826-11879, S11888-11903)
11/21/2009: Motion to proceed to consideration of measure considered in Senate. (consideration: CR S11907-11967)
11/21/2009: Cloture on the motion to proceed to the bill invoked in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 60 - 39. Record Vote Number: 353. (consideration: CR S11967; text: CR S11967)
11/21/2009: Motion to proceed to consideration of measure agreed to in Senate by Unanimous Consent.
11/21/2009: Measure laid before Senate by motion. (consideration: CR S11967)
11/21/2009: S.AMDT.2786 Amendment SA 2786 proposed by Senator Reid. (consideration: CR S11967)
In the nature of a substitute. emphasis mine

The GOP must have known what was about to happen next because they were united in voting “Nay” against this bill on November 21, 2009. Additionally, the Senate Amendment offered by Reid was none other than the Senate version of the healthcare bill.

Reid HAD to do this. Why? Because all legislation that raises taxes MUST originate in the House of Representatives and H.R. 3590 satisfies that requirement.

I will repeat that, Harry Reid switched the language in H.R. 3590 and replaced it with the Senate’s version of the health care system takeover in order to satisfy the requirement for all legislation raising taxes to originate in the House. The bill summary outlines the evolution of this bill:

OFFICIAL TITLE AS INTRODUCED:
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to modify the first-time homebuyers credit in the case of members of the Armed Forces and certain other Federal employees, and for other purposes.

OFFICIAL TITLE AS AMENDED BY SENATE:
An act entitled The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

For the record, Republicans did challenge this amendment substitution, but were defeated. The simple fact that the Democrats voted on Reid’s “amendment” is appalling and demonstrates their condoning of the abuses we are seeing unfold. Democrat Senators are now willing accomplices to the destruction and socialization of the US health system.

The deceptive practices to pass a government takeover of healthcare can be summed up as the ultimate betrayal by the Democrats against the American people in order to ram through their progressive, socialistic, freedom-stripping policies.

Furthermore, the Democrats talk of “reconciliation” or the nuclear option is nothing more than a diversion from what the real goal is–to pass the Senate version through the House and then have Obama sign it into law.

And once signed into law, does anyone really think that Obama will keep his promises of the “fixes” through the reconciliation process after he got what he wanted via the Senate bill? Seriously, he will have the healthcare takeover he wants, so why make the House and Senate suffer more.

In addition, I don’t think that the House will hold the bill to work out differences between the two chambers as is being floated. While it may be an optional maneuver, the Democrats need the tax increases to take effect now so they can offset some of their rabid spending.

The House Democrats have a choice: either stand with the American people and kill the bill or endorse the deception, betrayal, and bribes of Harry Reid, Obama, Pelosi, and the Senate Democrats, in addition to the destruction of the US health system. Either way, the American people will never forget.

also:

from Real Clear Politics

Counting the Heads of House Democrats

Remember, check back in for updates (at the bottom) as I find them. If you have news that I haven’t covered, send it my way! Also, you can follow me on Twitter for updates.

Current Categories (As of 5 PM, 3/6/10)
Democrats Who Voted Nay in November
Very Hard to Persuade: 25
Hard to Persuade: 6
Persuadable: 6
Democrats Who Voted Yea in November
Suggested Might Now Vote Nay: 11
Other Possible Stupak Democrats: 12

***

There has been a lot of talk about the 38 House Democrats who voted against health care reform in November. There have been suggestions that some are about to flip, fueled in no small part by this piece from the AP:

In interviews with the AP, at least nine of the 39 Democrats — or their spokesmen — either declined to state their positions or said they were undecided about the revised legislation, making them likely targets for intense wooing by Pelosi and Obama.

I agree with Jane Hamsher: this is a non-story. For starters, we have to correct a basic factual error, one I have seen repeated again and again by authors who should know better: there are not 39 Democrats who voted against the bill in November. There are 38. There were 39, until Parker Griffith switched to the GOP. So, AP meant to say that 9 of 38 are either undecided or “declined to state” their position. Yet since this article was published, Frank Kratovil has since clarified his position; what’s more, Michael McMahon had previously indicated that he was against the bill. So, let’s call it 7/38, not 9/39. Update, 4 PM 3/5: With Massa’s resignation, call it 7/37.

Is this a big deal? I don’t think so. How many members should we expect to take a hard-and-fast stand on a bill that has not yet been finalized? If I were a Democratic legislator - I would say something like what (at least a few of) these members said: “I believe in quality, affordable health care for all. When there is a final package, I will read it and make a decision.” Otherwise, I would look awfully prejudiced. The more interesting story, in my judgment, is that several have said they were already decided against the bill.
(more…)

Or at best, he might as well as not be one. Why?

Obama Muslim Summit Hosts Islamic Entrepreneurship

President Obama, known for mounting summits for everything from putting a police officer in his place to teaching Republicans the American public doesn’t know jack about their own health care, will host a “presidential summit” with Muslims from more than 40 countries to teach them about entrepreneurship. Another sermon from the summit coming for all the capitalist-hating Muslims around the world.

First question, how much will this summit cost American taxpayers? Will taxpayers be funding Muslim entrepreneurial endeavors here in America before other non-Muslim entrepreneurial ventures?

War blogger, Holger Awakens suggests in a comment to this article, the summit might like look a bit like this:

I’m guessing this will be a bunch of booths set up on the South Lawn of the White House with Obama parading around showing the American people via video the likes of:

Abdul’s EasyOnEasy Off Suicide Belts,

Haji’s PrayerRugs with Kevlar,

the RageBoy Ringtone Emporium, and oh, don’t forget

the popular Achmed’s Home Kit for Effective Honor Killings (includes knives and stones).

From Breitbart:

The White House on Friday announced a “summit on entrepreneurship” to build economic ties with the Islamic world, part of President Barack Obama’s outreach to Muslims.

The White House said it has invited participants from more than 40 countries over five continents for the April 26-27 conference in Washington.

“The summit will highlight the role entrepreneurship can play in addressing common challenges while building partnerships that will lead to greater opportunity abroad and at home,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Remember his “jobs summit” for America in December? The U.S. Chamber of Commerce was not invited. The National Federation of Independent Business was not invited. The movers and shakers actually supporting entrepreuneurs were denied entry to the jobs summit!

Confirmed attendees include liberal economists credited with shaping the $787 billion stimulus package, union leaders, environmental advocates and executives from Google and other blue-chip firms.

“He’s going to get lots of recommendations to spend more money,” said Peter Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. “These are the very same people who gave us the stimulus package. My feeling is we’re not going to get what we need, and that’s a complete change in direction on economic policy.

So what, you might say. That does not make him a bad person. Do you think we are going overboard. Well, remember this?

Obama Cancels National Day of Prayer Service

by Mark Whittington

The National Day of Prayer, first designated by President Truman and made permanent by President Reagan, was celebrated by an ecumenical service in the White House by President George W. Bush every first Thursday in May.

This will no longer be the case. President Obama, apparently listening to complaints by atheists and others who hold that holding a religious service, no matter how inclusive, constitutes an official endorsement of religion, has canceled the National Day of Prayer service. This cancellation in turn has miffed evangelical Christians who see it as a slighting of religion.
(more…)

from Flopping Aces

from the AP

A Texas college campus is locked in a fierce debate after a group of students launched the “smut for smut” campaign, trading bibles and other religious texts for porn, MyFoxSanAntonio.com reported.

Atheist students at the University of Texas at San Antonio announced that any student over the age of 18 will receive pornographic materials if they trade in religious materials, according to MyFoxSanAntonio.com.

Leaders of this atheist campaign allege that porn is no worse than what’s written in religious texts.

A university spokesman says that this controversial cause is completely legal, though he admits a majority of the students on campus do not agree with it, according to MyFoxSanAntonio.com.

The group will continue its activities on campus through the middle of the week, according to the site. (more…)

from Flopping Aces

From Obama lover to this?

The New York Times today adds yet another installment in my series “what went wrong” with the Obama presidency by focusing the blame on chief strategist David Axelrod. Good old David, who just loves Obama a little too much is under fire for not doing a better job directing the President. Axelrod’s response was combative and so typical of the denial of reality which grips the Obama White House:

In an interview in his office, Mr. Axelrod was often defiant, saying he did not give a “flying” expletive “about what the peanut gallery thinks” and did not live for the approval “of the political community.”

Peggy went from praising Obama early on to this:

What a Disaster Looks Like
ObamaCare will have been a colossal waste of time—if we’re lucky.
The Wall Street Journal
March 4, 2010

It is now exactly a year since President Obama unveiled his health care push and his decision to devote his inaugural year to it—his branding year, his first, vivid year.

What a disaster it has been.
(more…)

By Redstate

Green jobs are a waste of space, a waste of money, a lie, a chimera. You know that. I know that. We’re familiar with the report by Dr Gabriel Calzada Alvarez of the Rey Juan Carlos University in Spain which shows that for every “green job” that is created another 2.2 jobs are LOST in the real economy.

We also know that alternative energy is a fraud – only viable through enormous government (ie taxpayer subsidy) and utterly incapable of answering anything more than a fraction of our energy needs. As Shannon Love puts it here:

Here’s a fact you won’t see mentioned in the public policy debate over “alternative” energy:

There exists no alternative energy source, no combination of alternative energy sources, and no system of combinations of alternative energy sources that can fully replace a single, coal fired electric plant built with 1930s era technology.

Nada.
Zero.
Zilch.

So why are our political leaders setting out quite deliberately to deceive us?

There have many disgustingly revealing stories this week about the dubious practices of the Climate Fear Promotion lobby, but for me the most damning of all was Chris Horner’s scoop at Pajamas Media concerning high level cover-ups by the Obama administration. Like his soul mate Dave Cameron on this side of the pond, Obama finds the narrative about global warming so compelling and moving that he doesn’t want it spoiled with any inconvenient truths regarding green jobs and green energy.
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From Powerline

Fresh off his party’s success in local elections, Geert Wilders spoke to the House of Lords in London on Friday. He also showed his controversial film “Fitna.”

His very appearance was a victory, inasmuch as the British government turned him away when he tried to enter for the same purpose last yer. Here is most of what Wilders said to the House of Lords:

Thank you. It is great to be back in London. And it is great that this time, I got to see more of this wonderful city than just the detention centre at Heathrow Airport.

Today I stand before you, in this extraordinary place. Indeed, this is a sacred place. This is, as Malcolm always says, the mother of all Parliaments, I am deeply humbled to have the opportunity to speak before you.

Thank you Lord Pearson and Lady Cox for your invitation and showing my film ‘Fitna’. Thank you my friends for inviting me.

I first have great news. Last Wednesday city council elections were held in the Netherlands. And for the first time my party, the Freedom Party, took part in these local elections. We participated in two cities. In Almere, one of the largest Dutch cities. And in The Hague, the third largest city; home of the government, the parliament and the queen. And, we did great! In one fell swoop my party became the largest party in Almere and the second largest party in The Hague. Great news for the Freedom Party and even better news for the people of these two beautiful cities.

And I have more good news. Two weeks ago the Dutch government collapsed. In June we will have parliamentary elections. And the future for the Freedom Party looks great. According to some polls we will become the largest party in the Netherlands. I want to be modest, but who knows, I might even be Prime Minister in a few months time!

Ladies and gentlemen, not far from here stands a statue of the greatest Prime Minister your country ever had. And I would like to quote him here today: “Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. No stronger retrograde force exists in the World. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step (…) the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.” These words are from none other than Winston Churchill wrote this in his book ‘The River War’ from 1899.

Churchill was right.
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By Redstate

I’m going to *miss* laughing at that notion, starting January 2011.

Forget ‘outraged’: if anyone is surprised then they haven’t been paying attention.

Lobbyists and corporate officials talked bluntly in e-mail exchanges about connections between making generous campaign donations and securing federal funds through members of an important House Appropriations subcommittee, according to not-yet-public documents reviewed by ethics investigators.

In summer 2007, for example, senior executives at [Innovative Concepts] tried to figure out which of them would buy a ticket to a wine-tasting fundraiser for Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), a member of the Appropriations subcommittee on defense. At the time, the company sought help from Moran’s office in securing contracts through special earmarks added to the defense bill.

The fundraiser was hosted by the PMA Group, a powerful lobbying firm whose unusual success in obtaining “earmarked” contracts from members of the military subcommittee was a key focus of a recent House ethics investigation.

Moran raked in $91,900 in campaign checks to his personal campaign and leadership PAC that day. He secured an $800,000 earmark for Innovative Concepts in the 2008 defense appropriations bill.

Or they don’t really want to. Which I can sort of understand; after all, the revelation that one has not only been lied too, but that one has enthusiastically participated in being lied to in order to get… nothing at all? Yes, that would strike someone squarely in the self-worth. I’d feel sorry for that, except that I have to live in the same corrupt political atmosphere.

At any rate, feel free to read the whole article, particularly the bits where the Democratic-run legislature let off the all-but-one Democratic appropriators, despite the fairly clear understanding that money was expected, and that money would be taken. Also, note that Jim Moran has at least two people on the GOP ready to replace him: Matthew Berry, who just picked up the uber-critical Volokh Conspiracy endorsement (via Instapundit); and Patrick Murray, who I just missed interviewing at CPAC. I would say that they’d both be superior to having Moran in that seat, and it’d be true: it’d also be implicitly insulting to either to suggest that they wouldn’t automatically clear that particular bar anyway.

also:

Associated Press Tries to Tie Jim DeMint to the Pentagon Shooter

No, really. Not only are members of the media trying to irresponsibly and erroneously tie Joseph Patrick Bedell, a registered Democrat, a Troofer and a total loon, to the “right-wing” in general, but they are now upping the defamation by attempting to libelously imply that the words of Jim DeMint “fed the rage.” Jim. DeMint. Full disclosure; I love DeMint. I was thrilled when moving from New Jersey to South Carolina because it meant I’d be trading Senator Frank Lautenberg for Senator Jim DeMint. Score!
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By Marc A. Thiessen

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) has warned that he and other pro-life Democrats are ready to kill health-care legislation unless the pro-abortion provisions enacted by the Senate are removed. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi must win their votes to pass her bill. To do so she will have to promise two things: first, to fix the provisions they oppose in a reconciliation bill; and second to get an iron-clad commitment from Senate Democrats they will vote to sustain whatever deal she makes.

The problem for Stupak and his allies is that such a guarantee is not enough to ensure their position prevails — because Senate Republicans are gearing up to use something called the “Byrd rule” to blow up any deal Pelosi cuts to pass health care in the House. And in the end, that would be just fine with Pelosi. She wins either way. Here is how:

In order to get a reconciliation bill with the fixes they demand to the Senate floor, Stupak and his pro-life colleagues must first vote to pass the original Senate health care bill — including the abortion language they oppose. Only after this bill is passed in the House can the chamber then take up a reconciliation bill and send it to the Senate for its approval.

That’s where the “Byrd rule” comes in. Designed to protect the rights of the minority, the Byrd rule allows any Senator to raise a point of order demanding that “extraneous” (non-budgetary) provisions be removed. According to former Senate parliamentarian Bob Dove, “If a ‘Byrd Rule’ point of order against a provision is sustained, the provision is stricken from the bill….Appealing the rule of the chair requires 3/5 vote of duly elected and sworn Senators (60 votes).” (This process is known colloquially in the Senate as a “Byrd bath” and the dropped provisions are known as “Byrd droppings.”)
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