http://blogs.abcnews.com/ge...

White House senior adviser David Axelrod said the president won't rule out a health care reform bill that includes a middle-class tax hike.

"The president had said in the past that he  doesn't believe taxing health care benefits at any level is necessarily the best way to go here.  He still believes that," Axelrod told me on This Week, "But there are a number of formulations and we'll wait and see.  The important thing at this point is to keep the process moving, to keep people at the table, to the keep the discussions going. We've gotten a long way down the road and we want to finish that journey."

I pressed Axelrod on whether Obama will draw a line in the sand and veto any bill that funds health care reform with tax hikes for people making under $250,000 a year -- despite a pledge Barack Obama made during the 2008 presidential campaign not to raise taxes on the poor and middle-class.

"One of the problems we've had in this town is that people draw lines in the sand and they stop talking
to each other.  And you don't get anything done.  That's not the way the president approaches us.  He is very cognizant of protecting people -- middle class people, hard-working people who are trying to get along in a very difficult economy.  And he will continue to represent them in these talks," Axelrod said.

From the NY Times:

During the presidential campaign, Barack Obamapromised that once a bill was passed by Congress, the White House would post it online for five days before he signed it.

“When there’s a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you the public will have five days to look online and find out what’s in it before I sign it, so that you know what your government’s doing,” Mr. Obama said as a candidate, telling voters he would make government more transparent and accountable.

When he took office in January, his team added that in posting nonemergency bills, it would “allow the public to review and comment” before Mr. Obama signed them.

Five months into his administration, Mr. Obama has signed two dozen bills, but he has almost never waited five days. On the recent credit card legislation, which included a controversial measure to allow guns in national parks, he waited just two.

Various watchdog groups have slapped Mr. Obama’s wrist for repeatedly failing to live up to the pledge. Politifact.com, the fact-checking arm of The St. Petersburg Times, has branded it a “promise broken.”At the same time, many have questioned the value of the promise, saying it was too late in the process for anything to change in a bill.

Now, before anyone latches onto that last sentence to give Hussein a pass, I'll give you this: 

One argument for modifying (abandoning) the "Sunlight before Signing" policy is that the public no longer has any meaningful opportunity to influence prospective laws once legislation has passed Congress. Yet this is only true if the White House does not intend to be responsive to public concerns. Further, the original pledge was about ensuring that the executive branch did its part to ensure transparency and accountability in government, and was never pitched as a substitute for actions Congressional leaders could take to increase legislative transparency.

I'm wondering, with a certain level of unease, of which have we seen more of this year, stupid gaffes from the Vice President or blatant lies from the President.

In yet another sign of political perfidy, the White House of President George W. Bush has drafted a presidential executive order that would allow that double-dealing Republican chief executive to hold suspected terrorist detainees indefinitely.

According to the president's intentions, such suspects could be detained for long periods of time, virtually indefinitely. Is this really what the nation voted for last November?

Oh, wait. No. According to an exclusive Washington Post/Pro Publica report this afternoon, it's the refreshing new Democratic administration of Barack Obama that's now preparing this new executive order to hold certain terrorist suspects indefinitely.

This is an obviously inspiring sign of the new style of leadership the Democrat promised and is finally bringing to the White House. And it shows the kind of powerful political pragmatism with which the ex-senator from Illinois approaches this job at such a crucial and globally turbulent time.

According to the Post report, the 44th president is now starting to think that closure of the internationally-reviled Guantanamo Bay detention facility, which Obama announced with so much fanfare on his first day in office last winter, may be impossible to actually accomplish before the one-year deadline he set for himself before actually planning where else to put these prisoners

In other words, fanfare aside, status quo ante. Democrat or Republican, same deal. Ex-Vice President Dick Cheney will be so pleased that the Obama-Biden folks finally accepted his advice to protect national security.

Another sign, finally, of real change after eight long years of the very same thing.

http://latimesblogs.latimes...

He more or less lied in his speech to the American Medical Association.  His credibility on his health care scheme is going, going, gone.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/po...

"No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people," President Obama told the American Medical Association on June 15. "If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what."

But today the president clarified that promise. It seems he wasn’t saying “no one” will take away any American’s health insurance – he was saying the government wouldn’t.

Which is not to say that the government wouldn’t create a situation where such a thing would happen.

ABC News asked how the president could make such a guarantee if the public run plan were cheaper, thus possibly enticing employers to enroll employees in that plan.

http://www.breitbart.com/ar...

I have a feeling we won't be seeing many more reports of ineptitude and mistakes in gov't run health care for a while.

http://nytimes.com/

My family is taking me to Hungry Hunter to buy them all steak dinners for Fathers day.

Anybody have plans, special events, or family traditions for the fathers in their families?

SAN FRANCISCO – Marijuana smoke has joined tobacco smoke and hundreds of other chemicals on a list of substances California regulators say cause cancer.

The ruling Friday by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment likely will force pot shops with 10 or more employees to post warnings. Final guidelines are expected by the time warning requirements take effect in a year.

The listing only applies to marijuana smoke, not the plant itself.

Spokesman Sam Delson says the state agency found marijuana smoke contains 33 of the same harmful chemicals as tobacco smoke.

Delson says the findings came from a review of more than 30 scientific papers.

California's Proposition 65 requires businesses to warn consumers of chemicals that cause cancer or reproductive harm.

How many does that make now?  It must be a prerequisite to work for this White House. 

Ah, to be one of the beautiful people. Avoid paying taxes for two years, offer up some mealy-mouthed excuses and presto, you get a cushy State Department job from Barack Obama.

John Edwards was right. There are two Americas. One for the regular schlubs out there who obey the law and another for Obama and his crew of tax cheats.

President Obama’s choice as chief of protocol for the State Department, a position that carries the status of an ambassadorship, did not file tax returns for 2005 and 2006, errors she corrected last November.

The nominee, Capricia Penavic Marshall, has placed blame for the problem on the Postal Service and on miscommunication between her husband and their accountant.

Lame. Why not just say the dog ate them?

Ms. Marshall, who was the social secretary in the Clinton White House, notified the Obama administration about the late filings before she was nominated on May 14. She has since provided written answers to questions about the matter from Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, which will hold a hearing on the appointment next Wednesday. The post requires Senate confirmation.

Tax issues have bedeviled several high-level Obama appointees and cost the administration at least two of its picks.

Ms. Marshall may fare better because, after ultimately filing the 2005 and 2006 federal and local paperwork, she was entitled to $37,259 in refunds, according to data she provided to Mr. Lugar.

Just imagine a Republican appointee trying to get away with this.

Well, not exactly, but this does seem to be a workplace hazard that OSHA should be monitoring.  I say Bill Clinton for OSHA Czar!  Sorry, no videos.

Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House two and a half years ago partly on a pledge to "drain the swamp" and "turn this Congress into the most honest and open Congress in history".  Yesterday, she and the rest of the Democrat caucus showed how willing they are to be open and honest about how the CIA "lied" to Pelosi.

http://www.politico.com/new...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/...

CROW AGENCY, Mont. – Ta'Shon Rain Little Light, a happy little girl who loved to dance and dress up in traditional American Indian clothes, had stopped eating and walking. She complained constantly to her mother that her stomach hurt.

When Stephanie Little Light took her daughter to the Indian Health Service clinic in this wind-swept and remote corner of Montana, they told her the 5-year-old was depressed.

Ta'Shon's pain rapidly worsened and she visited the clinic about 10 more times over several months before her lung collapsed and she was airlifted to a children's hospital in Denver. There she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, confirming the suspicions of family members.

A few weeks later, a charity sent the whole family to Disney World so Ta'Shon could see Cinderella's Castle, her biggest dream. She never got to see the castle, though. She died in her hotel bed soon after the family arrived in Florida.

On some reservations, the oft-quoted refrain is "don't get sick after June," when the federal dollars run out. It's a sick joke, and a sad one, because it's sometimes true, especially on the poorest reservations where residents cannot afford health insurance. Officials say they have about half of what they need to operate, and patients know they must be dying or about to lose a limb to get serious care.

Wealthier tribes can supplement the federal health service budget with their own money. But poorer tribes, often those on the most remote reservations, far away from city hospitals, are stuck with grossly substandard care. The agency itself describes a "rationed health care system."

VA faces tough questions over tainted colonoscopies. 

This ain't the way to take government run healthcare.

It looks like B. Hussein has his first major candidate for a Presidential pardon.  Detroit city councilwoman Monica Conyers may finally get to do the frog march she deserves.

http://theblogprof.blogspot...

Apparently caught red-handed, Conyers now contemplates her not very rosy future. From the Detroit News this afternoon: Monica Conyers reluctant to take plea deal, sources say.

Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers has yet to accept a plea deal offered by the federal government in connection with a corruption investigation at City Hall, increasing the odds that she could soon face federal indictment.

The federal authorities told Conyers they wanted an answer by the end of the day Tuesday, but there had been no movement by 5 p.m., a person familiar with the investigation said.

The bribery-related charge that Conyers could plead to carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, though she probably would receive less time.
 

Two sources who have spoken with Conyers said she is reluctant because she doesn't want to serve time in jail.

Conyers mostly ignored reporters when she left City Hall in an unmarked car after 3 p.m. en route to her weekly television show "Ask the Councilwoman With Monica Conyers." But when asked if she would accept a plea, she murmured that The Detroit News was "full of (it)."

Conyers seemed to briefly allude to the allegations during a live broadcast of her show on WHPR-TV (Channel 33). She acknowledged that she's been in the news but challenged detractors, saying, "If you aren't praying for me, then you are just adding to the problem."

"First and foremost, I am a child of God," Conyers said. "All these things going on right now, I believe in my heart, God will deliver me from."

You just can't make this stuff up.  The Obama Justice Department filed legal papers to dismiss the suit against the DOMA, effectively taking the correct stand against gay marriage.    So what does the gay community, that Obama pretty much lied to during the election, do?   Blame the Mormons!  

So, just what is it these gays are drinking?

Do I think that anybody who listens to this man is a dangerous anti-semite?  Well, not exactly but, I would be leery of someone who listened to this guy for 20 years.  Just sayin'...

Asked if he had spoken to the president, Wright said: "Them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter, that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office. ...

"They will not let him to talk to somebody who calls a spade what it is. ... I said from the beginning: He's a politician; I'm a pastor. He's got to do what politicians do."

Wright also said Obama should have sent a U.S. delegation to the World Conference on Racism held recently in Geneva, Switzerland, but that the president did not do so for fear of offending Jews and Israel.

Yeah, as though this is somehow surprising.

Maybe it's just the tempting ratings window of no longer going up against NBC's Juggernaut Jay and being the also-ran of late-night television.

But CBS' David Letterman told a real howler on nationwide TV on Monday night that drew some gasps from parents and now a scathing rebuttal from the nation's most famous pitbull hockey mom -- and dad.

Noting that Alaska's Republican Gov. Sarah Palin and her daughter attended a New York Yankees game over the weekend with famous Yankee fan Rudy Giuliani, Letterman said:

But that is not surprising.

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America' crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O'Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.

Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett

Yes, once again Joe Biden demonstrates just how brilliant B. Hussein is in choosing him as his Vice President.

Opps:

Biden backtracked yesterday from comments he made at a Democratic fund-raiser in Manhattan that were widely viewed as an endorsement of Gov. Paterson's re-election. "It was a statement of friendship and admiration for the governor, and was not intended as a political statement," Biden spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander said... Biden said, "Your once and future governor of the state of New York has been extremely generous to Barack and me and has been a major part of us trying to put this economy back together."... Polls show Cuomo would trounce Paterson if the election were held today.

And it's a good thing that Paterson is pitching in on the economy, because Biden's also been musing about how TARP money is going to waste:

Vice President Joe Biden acknowledged on Tuesday that some waste is inevitable in the spending of a $787 billion economic stimulus package, in a characteristically blunt assessment. "We know some of this money is going to be wasted," Biden said during a roundtable discussion in New York with business leaders aimed at promoting the two-year stimulus plan... President Barack Obama placed Biden in charge of supervising implementation of the stimulus to underscore his promise of strict oversight of the package, which is aimed at creating or saving 3 million to 4 million jobs.

I wonder how much of that money is getting wasted on the unions that Biden promised would benefit from "every policy, every decision" made by the administration. Probably not that much, since unions are notoriously above corruption.

And to think, I was uneasy about putting a moronic lifetime politician in charge of billions and billions of dollars. I guess that's the kind of Just Say No negativity that conservatives are so accurately dinged for. At least we've put a stop to those 400 jobs a day that Louisiana was losing.

What's bad news for B. Hussein Obama is good news for the country.

New poll results are devastating for Obama's Gitmo plan

By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
06/02/09 2:44 PM EDT

I've gotten a look inside the Gallup poll numbers showing that a majority of Americans oppose shutting down the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay.  The numbers are stunning.  They show a strong and virtually across-the-board rejection of President Obama's proposal to close the prison. 

Overall, 65 percent of those surveyed oppose shutting Gitmo, versus 32 percent who say it should be closed.  According to the poll's internal numbers, large majorities of men oppose closing the prison, large majorities of women oppose it, large majorities of white people oppose it, large majorities of non-white people oppose it, people with graduate degrees oppose it, and people who didn't finish high school oppose it.  Pretty much everybody.

For Obama, the key numbers are the ones that break down opinion by political party.  Ninety-one percent of Republicans oppose shutting Gitmo.  Sixty-eight percent of independents oppose it, too.  The only group that favors shutting down the prison is Democrats, and that is by a relatively narrow 53 percent to 42 percent margin.

When virtually the entire opposition party, plus 68 percent of independents, plus 42 percent of your own party oppose something you want to do, then you're in trouble.

Another part of the poll asked respondents, "What effect do you think the Guantanamo Bay prison has had on U.S. national security?  Overall, 40 percent say the prison has strengthened national security, while 37 percent say it has not had much effect at all.  Just 18 percent say the existence of Guantanamo has weakened national security.

Among Republicans, five percent say Gitmo has weakened national security.  Among independents, just 14 percent say the same, and among Democrats, just 33 percent say the prison has weakened national security.  That means that the overwhelming majority of Americans reject the key argument the Obama White House has put forward for closing Guantanamo -- that it has weakened American national security.

Finally, Gallup asked whether, if Guantanamo were closed, respondents would favor or oppose moving some of the inmates to prisons in their state.  No surprises here -- overall, 74 percent oppose having Gitmo detainees come to their state, while just 23 percent favor it.  Broken down by party, 94 percent of Republicans oppose it, 78 percent of independents oppose it, and 56 percent of Democrats oppose it.

That is overwhelming opposition, and these results are devastating for the president's plan to shut down Guantanamo.

http://www.washingtonexamin...

A Muslim convert "with political and religious motives" shot two uniformed soldiers outside an Arkansas military recruiting center Monday, killing one and wounding the other, authorities said.

Police arrested Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23, on a nearby interstate shortly after the bloodshed at the Army-Navy Career Center in a shopping center in west Little Rock. Three guns were found in his SUV, they said.

He will be charged with first-degree murder, plus 15 counts of committing a terroristic act, authorities said.

But they stressed there was no evidence of a broader plot, saying they believed "political and religious motives" were behind the attack.

The suspect appeared to have a "disagreement over the military operations" and opened fire "with the specific purpose of targeting military personnel," they said.

Lt. Terry Hastings told The Associated Press the shooter struck without warning.

"He saw them standing there and drove up and shot them," he said.

Muhammad, a Little Rock resident formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe, is a convert to Islam, but when that happened was unclear.

His father, Melvin, declined to comment.

An FBI spokesman said agents are investigating to see if "there is any federal jurisdiction to prosecute."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/...

 

Ohhh.  I see now.   The perp is Muslim, not Christian.  And the victim was an American soldier, not a heroic late term abortionist.  That explains the silence from the left and the teeny little blurb of a story in the paper.  My bad.