Roger Ailes Arianna Huffington: Ailes Smacks Arianna on Beck and HuffPo (Video)

In this video, Roger Ailes, the President of FoxNews, answers Arianna Huffington's questions about what he plans to do with the wayward Glenn Beck. Ailes answers that question easily, and then points out the rude failings of HuffPo. Be sure you stay to the end. The second video is more of the same but includes host, Barbara Walters. Enjoy!

Roger Ailes Smacks Arianna Huffington (video)  Ailes and Barbara Walters (video)

Iran to Deliver Blow to Global Powers on February 11

This story will not open. The message "Server too Busy" keeps popping up. Run over to Atlas Shrugs to read the latest stunt by Achmadinejad. But come back and read about the beefing-up of Patriot missiles and warships in the Gulf and in Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE and Kuwait. It's happening now! Obama Iranian Diplomacy Fails: Missiles and Warships to Gulf.

Obama Iran Diplomacy Fails: Missiles and Warships to Persian Gulf: Patriot Missiles to Qatar UAE Bahrain Kuwait

Confirmed: Obama diplomacy with Iran failed. Time to do something. In an overt attempt to tamp down Israel, President Obama has ordered Patriot missiles to Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwit. Two warships will stay in the Persian Gulf capable of shooting down Iranian missiles - and the US is helping Saudi Arabia develop ways to protect their oil installations.

From The Guardian:

Washington has not formally announced the deployment of the Patriots and other anti-missile systems, but by leaking it to American newspapers the administration is evidently seeking to alert Tehran to a hardening of its position....

An unnamed senior administration official told the New York Times: "Our first goal is to deter the Iranians. A second is to reassure the Arab states, so they don't feel they have to go nuclear themselves. But there is certainly an element of calming the Israelis as well."

Petraeus said the US is keeping cruisers equipped with advanced anti-missile systems in the Gulf at all times to act as a buffer between Iran and the Gulf states.

The Democrat administration didn't do this by themselves:

Pro-Israel lobby groups in the US have joined Republican party leaders in trying to build public pressure on the administration to take a tougher line with Iran. One group, the Israel Project, has been running a TV campaign warning that Iran might supply nuclear weapons to terrorists.

Imagine Washington DC under missile attack from nearby Baltimore," it says. "A nuclear Iran is a threat to peace, emboldens extremists, and could give nuclear materials to terrorists with the ability to strike anywhere....

The move is a continuation of the military build-up begun under former president George W Bush. In the past two years, Abu Dhabi has bought $17bn (£11bn) worth of weapons from the US, including the Patriot anti-missile batteries and an advanced anti-missile system. UAE recently bought 80 US-made fighter jets. It is also buying fighters from France.

Petraeus said in a speech in Bahrain last year the UAE air force "could take out the entire Iranian air force, I believe".

 Read more about failed diplomacy:
Obama Repeats Mistakes in Afghanistan: Purposeless Engagement

Related and Background:
Iran to Deliver Blow to Global Powers on February 11th

Pelosi Kids Grandkids Travel Military with without the Speaker

Doug Ross, through Judicial Watch and documents retrieved through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has proof that Nancy Pelosi's children, grandchildren and husband, routinely fly on military transport - WITHOUT THE SPEAKER, AND WITHOUT ANY MEMBERS OF HE HOUSE ABOARD. See updates below.

The joke on you and me is, the military is supposedly reimbursed at commercial coach rates of $180.00 each. Use of the military aircraft cost $5,559.00 PER HOUR. And Doug Ross reveals that some flight cost as much as $18,000 per hour.

Out of some 2,000 pages of documents, some show that Pelosi's daughter, son-in-law and grandson fly by themselves - maybe a granddaughter as well. In at least one document, he found Paul Pelosi, Jr., flies all by himself - no one else on the flight, from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco - "for approximately 1 day." Not sure what that means: flies and returns in the same day, or the flight delivers the son to San Francisco, leaves him there and returns???

There appears to always be at least two unnamed Capitol Police aboard. She must need protection. Where do they sleep when she travels home?

California Representatives Zoe Lofgren, Anna Eschoo and Geoge Miller fly aboard the Speakers aircraft as though it were their own. There names show up time and time again.

Alcohol is abundant on these flights, top shelf brands, totaling at least over $101,000 for the year. That's almost $1,000.00 per week.

No telling what will be revealed by the time all the documents are sorted through.

Visit Doug for a good representation of the documentation. Visit GatewayPundit for more commentary.

The question is, what can we do about this? Changing the perks for the Speaker of the House will be much more difficult than taking back the Senate, the House or unseating Barack Obama.

Update 1: As I look through the thousands of pages, I find that we have paid for someone's Washington Post, Oprah Magazine, Wall Street Journal and USA Today - 3 each. No identification of received these publications. OPRAH!  Found on Page 20, dated February 13, 2009 in Lorton, Virginia and is attached to identifying documents CODEL Pelosi. Could be expenses for the flight crew.

More of the same for Time Magazine, Newsweek, People Magazine, The Economist and Financial Times - 3 each.

This is surely not for the flight crew: Dated 2/12/09 in Naples, Italy: Grey Goose Vodka- 2, Absolute Vodka, Bombay Saffphir gin, Tanqueran 10, Amaretto Saronno, Glenlivet Scotsh, Crown royal, Bacardi Lime and Rum, Gentleman Jack, Baileys Irish Cream - 2, Courvoisier VS: $400.00. There was $600+ in mixers and "spearmint gum. $100 in beer, and then the wine: Chateau St. Jean Cabernet and Chardonnay, Rodney Strong Cabernet, Gallow Sonoma Merlot, Beringer Napa Merlot, Beringer Chardonnay, Mirassou Pinot Grigio, Columbia Crest Grand Estate Cabernet.

$168 in popcorn, tortilla chips, salt and vinegar chips, salsa, mixed nuts and Valentine Kisses.

2/16 - 2/18/09 Room Service somewhere in Italy: $965.00 - Page 34

Many receipts are submitted, but not readable.

Lots of receipts for alcohol on a trip to Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan, Afhanistan and Germany. Every trip has expenses for "friendship lapel pins." Interesting since many of our leaders refused to wear the America flag on their lapel.

It's also interesting to note how expenses for 2009 are included in the same documentation for 2006. This seems to routine throughout all the documents.

Ohio Public High School Target for Obama Organizing for America Recruiting ?

Barack Obama's Organizing for America is being used as a tool for recruiting students to the alter of Saul Alinsky. Pam Geller at Atlas Shrugs received information from a reader about Perry Local High School in Massillon, Ohio, where her high school junior's Government class has allegedly distributed recruiting materials from Obama's Organizing for America (OFA). Nothing like rounding-up the high school kids - lots of energetic bodies - to campaign in the November elections.

The materials include a Recommended Reading List (Page 4), which includes Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky, and The New Organizers, Zack Exley.

OFA is a project of the Democratic National Committee. There is nothing obscure about this group. I've noticed that some think this "internship" is outdated, and no longer available, but NewsBusters found a January 13, 2010 application for a spring 2010 internship application.

The same article shows a posting at Environment Link, dated January 8th:

Organizing for America (OFA) has two priorities: (1) organize support for President Obama’s policy agenda, and (2) build and strengthen the grassroots organization we built during the 2008 campaign by training and empowering people to have an impact in their own communities.  The most important thing OFA does is build support for and educate citizens about President Obama’s policies for change.

The NB post says the internship requires a minimum of 12 hours per week, and would be based out of "our Seattle office."

 

Organizing for America Recruiting 

A snippet of Geller's commentary:

Obama is using our public school system to recruit for his alinsky-inspired private army. Organizing for America is (and I quote) recruiting schools to "build on the movement that elected President Obama by empowering students across the country to help us bring about our agenda"....of national socilaism.

This is incredible. And evil. Suffer the little children -- enlisted like SS youth. This is no accident. Obama is poisoning our public school system. He acts as if it's his own private breeding farm. Once again academic learning  and achievement is hopelessly abandoned, and supplanted by radical leftist activism from the leftwing Alinsky indoctrinators in the perverse public school system.

Ray at ChicagoRay left this comment:

Brought to us by the same people who forbid or wish to keep the Military from recruiting on high school or college campuses.

Read the entire article at Atlas Shrugs and seriously think about your tax dollars being used by the Democratic National Committee to re-elect Barack Obama, as well Obama using tax dollars to indoctrinate,and shape our youth to make Socialist-Marxist government a sure thing in America. Remember Obama's plan for a  Civilian National Security Force? Who but our youth would be a part of this? We must vigilently "speculate." He said it. Let us not forget it.

Richard Grenell Susan Rice Ineffective at UN: Damning Review of Susan Rice - Wildly Ineffective

Richard Grenell, the Ambassador to the UN during the Bush Administration wrote a damning review of Obama's Ambassador, Susan Rice. Writing in the Huffington Post, he said Rice had been "wildly ineffective" this past year. Grenell was extraordinarily frank. The "wildly ineffective" comment is just the beginning.

 

Susan Rice

Grenell charged that Rice has been a social butterfly [my interpretation] and ignored her duties on the UN Security Council. Mr. Grenell, as experienced as he is, misses the point. Rice and Obama have no intention of stirring up the Security Council. How uncomfortable would that be? The trouble-makers are all Islamic Countries, with the exception of North Korea, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) runs the place. The Council will not take action on Iran or North Korea so, why bother, unless showing up if you aren't sanctioning Iran?

Here's some snippets from The Hill:

Richard Grenell, who served eight years in the Bush administration as spokesman for four U.S. ambassadors at the U.N., wrote Monday on the Huffington Post that Rice has been more active "in the social scene of Washington and the White House" than at the U.N., as suggested by a Security Council Report study that notes a marked decrease in activity at the Security Council over the past year.

That study in the Report, which is affiliated with Columbia University, said Council decisions dropped by 26 percent in the Obama administration's first year to the lowest level since 1991.
"For an Administration that promised to utilize the UN and improve our reputation around the world, its dinner-party circuit strategy isn't making America more secure," Grenell wrote.

Grenell mentioned Rice's "larger than normal DC-based staff," plus her 200-person NY based staff, which he says she spends little time with. He spoke of her Annie Leibovitz "glamour spread in Vogue Magazine, shot in an empty Security Council Chamber. She didn't show for the Council's Haiti crisis meeting to expand the UN's peacekeeping mission, and failed to call an emergency meeting to put request more help for the devasted country

...it was UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that came to the Security Council to request more troops - the American Ambassador hadn't bothered."

Nevertheless, Rice said she has had a very productive year.

American Omar Hammami is Abu Mansour al-Amriki: Omar Hammami is Abu Mansoor al-Amriki

Omar Hammami is an America member of al-Qaeda with the adopted name of Abu Mansour (Mansoor) al-Amriki. The Daphne, Alabama native, with a southern belle mom and Syrian dad, is indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of providing material support for terrorists. Update 8-3-10. There is increased interest int his article today, including visitors from Saudi Arabia. Read a follow-up article which includes Samir Kahn.

Omar Hammami is Abu Mansour al-Amriki

Hammami-al-Amriki is believed to be in Somalia. Al-Amriki's father, Shafik Hammami, is a follower of Islam and has had his own dust-ups with the press. His mother Debra, and Shafik can be seen here in a photo with Omar's older sister, Dena. Shafik Hammami came to the US from Damascus, Syria in 1972 to pursue his civil engineering degree at the University of South Alabama. Mrs. Hammami is a school teacher. Daphne, Alabama is on the Mobile Bay.

An article in the New York Times today portrays Hammami as a popular, and cool, all-American boy: president of his sophomore class, dating the most popular blonde in the school, class clown, "gifted student,"..."remarkable charisma," but a FOXNews report from September 2009 when the indictment was handed down, tells another story. If the NYT article is true, Omar Hammami made a drastic turn toward extremist Islam within one year:

Cynthia McMeans, who taught Omar Hammami in an international studies class and a Model United Nations program, said the teenager affected a Middle Eastern accent almost overnight during his junior year at Daphne High School.

As a teenager, Hammami had turned from the Baptist beliefs of his mother to the Muslim religion his father practiced, McMeans said, and in the spring of 2001, he expressed sympathy toward hard-line Islamic regimes.

"He was just starting on that path, when he was in the 11th grade," McMeans said. "It wasn't the religion part of it that was scary, it was supporting Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and the Taliban and the Sharia law."...

 He had a lot of potential and was smart. He could've done anything," McMeans said. "It doesn't surprise me that Omar isn't just a regular terrorist -- he's infamous. It's sad but it's not surprising.

The NYT article printed one of Hammami's 7th grade poems:

My reality is a bore, I wish, I want, I need the wall to fall and the monster to let me pass, the leash to snap, the chains to break...I've got a taste of glory, the ticket, but where is my train?

Hammami was baptised in his mother's Baptist church. Friends recall him saying that he was a believer, but his third trip to Syria when just before beginning his sophomore year, found him in "profound spiritual struggle." His "girlfriend," Lauren Stevenson, said the "cohesiveness of [Islamic] brotherhood" drew him in.

For a while, Hammami seemed to be two people. He would smoke a cigarette and then feel guilty. He treasured his Friday-night routine -- the football game and the meal at Waffle House -- but started pulling away from his friends to go to the mosque. Soon he was praying at school. "It took a lot to become the 'weirdo guy who prays in the library,' " Hammami later wrote.

Mike Faulk, a journalist, had an intense run-in with Hammami in Ms. McMeans classroom:

Omar Hammami was raised in the Plantation Hills subdivision in Daphne, and McMeans said the teen had a Southern accent when he first started her class.

As the lessons progressed, he became more dedicated to Islam, praying daily at the school, McMeans said, and he revealed radical political views.

One day, Hammami attacked another student who teased him for speaking Arabic in class, according to McMeans and the classmate, Mike Faulk.

"His calm face turned sour and before I had even noticed it he was on his feet and running around desks toward me," Faulk wrote in a blog post. "I stayed in my seat just staring at him having no idea what he was about to do. Then he put his hands around my throat, clamped down as tight as he could so that no air was coming in or out and just stared me right in the eyes."

Faulk, who now works as a journalist, told the Press-Register on Saturday that he also noticed signs that Hammami was sympathetic to al-Qaida.

Hammami scored in the 93rd percentile on his A.C.T.'s. He skipped his senior year in high school and enrolled at the University of South Alabama, where he became president of the Muslim Student Association (MSA)

Remember when the 6th Century Bamyan Buddhas were destroyed by the Taliban in central Afghanistan? Hammami defended the Taliban in McMeans classroom.

McMeans said Hammami called her shortly after the attacks [9/11/01], concerned about the media attention he received.

"You do a big disservice to all the Muslims and all the Arabic people around here if you spout off some kind of crazy jihadist stuff," McMeans recalled telling him. "You should be very careful about what you say."

Sheik Abu Mansour (Mansoor) al-Amriki is known as "The American," and is considered a high-ranking official of al-Shabab.

He is currently in Somalia, training new recruits to al-Shabab - many of them American boys of Somali descent....

He is the star of al-Shabab's most recent recruitment video - a highly sophisticated video that employs hip-hop and looks more like an extreme version of "Survivor" - his face exposed for the first time. (He has appeared on al-Jazeera, but with his face obscured.) The boys are all obscured, but they, too, are clearly American, the Sheikh acknowledging their sudden lack of American comforts: "The only reason we are staying here, away from families, cities, ice, candy bars," he says, "is because we're waiting to meet the enemy."

See that recruiting video below: "...land by land, war by war, only gonna make our black flag soar"

See another video of Abu Mansour al-Amriki chiding Barack Obama for sending greetings to Muslims! For anyone believing the Koran does not advocate jihad, listen to Amriki's message.

See this article where it is reported Hammami found his Islamic mentors had been "hiding many parts of the religion that have a direct relationship to jihad and politics...." The same report says that Hammami aka al-Amriki married a Somali woman living in Toronto, Canada.

Within a matter of weeks, he persuaded her to socialize with only women and to wear the abaya, a cloaklike garment.

They married in March 2005. Hammami and his pregnant wife settled in Alexandria, Egypt along with converted friends in Toronto. In Alexandria, he became convinced that "jihad" was an obligation. He joined Shabaab in late 2006. Throughout, he kept in touch with his sister, Dena, by email. By 2008, he was a leader on the battlefield.

Debra Hammami, his mother, said she was "shocked" that this is the path her son has taken. She never spoke of al-Qaeda to her son, she said. Obviously, a completely delusional mother. Shafik Hammami is a civil engineer with the Alabama Department of Transportation and a former president of the Islamic Society of Mobile.

Omar Hammami - Abu Mansour (Mansoor) al-Amriki (video) 
If you watched the video, you heard an al-Qaeda expert say that some of the young American Somalis shown could possibly return to the US to recruit or attack. Six thousand Somali refugees are coming to the US under a humanitarian refugee program. We are assured that any links to terrorism are being investigated. Such assurances do little to make me feel more comfortable.

Hakimullah Mehsud Dead...Finally? Wali-Ur-Rehman Now Taliban Commander?

In August 2009 Hakimullah Mehsud shared a second-in-command position under Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud. Both were reported dead. Turns out, Hakimullah Mehsud was very much alive, but Baitullah was not. After a power struggle with Wali-ur-Rehman, who was also reported dead, but wasn't...Hakimullah became the new Taliban leader in South Waziristan. Today Pakistan television reports that Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a CIA-directed drone attack, perhaps on January 17th.

 

Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman

 Pakistan military is trying to confirm the report.

An elder in the Mamuzai area of Orakzai tribal agency said he attended Mehsud's funeral on Thursday, the Associated Press reported. Speaking anonymously for fear of retaliation, the elder said Mehsud died at his in-laws' home.

A Reuters report, quoting a Pakistani intelligence official, said the Taliban leader may have been fatally wounded following a 17 January drone attack on two vehicles in North Waziristan.

He was also speculated to be dead in a January 13th drone attack. That report was incorrect. Hakimullah Mehsud's territory has been targeted in retaliation of the suicide bomber attack in Afghanistan that killed seven CIA agents. The bomber, a Pakistani doctor, was recruited as a double agent, or so the CIA thought. After the attack, a video showed him sitting beside Hakimullah, issuing a statement of his coming death.

At this moment, 9:35 a.m. Sunday morning, FOXNews' Eric Shawn has announced that top "intel sources" confirm that he is dead. Assuming this is true, that leaves Wali-ur-Rehman  commander. These two men previously, "physically" fought for the commander position after Baitullah Mehsud's death.

Hakimullah Mehsud man has a history of having more than one life, and after reports of his demise, he has a habit of phoning a Western journalist for a few laughs. We'll see if that phone call comes.

Related and Background:
Baitullah Meshud Successor is Alive

Hakimullah Mehsud Dead: Wali-ur-Rehman Dead - Successors Kill Each Other?

Baitullah Mehsud is Alive: Baitullah Mehsud is Dead

Another IPCC Humiliation: IPCC Uses Student Dissertation and Magazine Article

This time, we go to data for mountain ice in the Andes, Alps and Africa, having already thoroughly discredited data on the Himalayans. Our source today is a geography student's dissertation for a Masters equivalent in Switzerland, and a mountain climbing magazine article written with anecdotal data from "mountaineers." The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) liked what it read, and decided to use them both as "authoratative assessment[s] of scientific evidence on climate change." Update see new GlacierGate video below.

The Sunday Telegraph claims credit for the discovery:

But neither the dissertation or the magazine article cited as sources for this information were ever subject to the rigorous scientific review process that research published in scientific journals must undergo....

Experts claim that loss of ice climbs are a poor indicator of a reduction in mountain ice as climbers can knock ice down and damage ice falls with their axes and crampons. 

Recently, it was revealed the IPCC used "unsubstantiated" data on the Himalayans, some coming from the casual comments of an Indian scientist, and some coming from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The WWF is an advocacy group and use of such data is forbidden for the supposedly, strictly regulated science data needed to prove that the earth is warming. Perhaps you've noticed the WWF ads on television recently on the declining numbers of polar bears (contrary to the opinion of many, many experts).

WWF data was also used to illustrate "reduced rainfall in the Amazon rainforest," and that data was borrowed from an article in the journal Nature.

Rajendra Pauchari, the Director of the IPCC, cannot be shamed. There are calls for his resignation, but he is resisting.

Take a minute for a few laughs and watch the video below: GlacierGate set to the popular Hitler videos making the rounds. Thanks to reader Mr. Xyz.






Hitler Distressed about GlacierGate

Find more complete information on the UN's IPCC agenda, their lack of efficiency and failure to rely on real science, and the details of the ClimateGate scandal here.

Related and Background:
Ocean Rise; Sea Levels Rise Never Began: Scientists Withdraw Claims of Sea Levels Rising

ClimateGate Phil Jones: No Global Warming Since 1995 Says Jones

ClimateGate 2008: Media Assisted Polar Bear Hysteria: Polar Bears Vanishing? Uh, no. And the Senate Knows it

Hottest Decade in History? Maybe Not - Earth-Based Climate Stations Manipulated

*****Phil Jones Hides Data from 42 Weather Stations

Inhofe Family Igloo Mocks Al Gore's Global Warming

Paul Dennis ClimateGate EMail Leaker? Were the Emails really hacked?

IPCC ClimateGate Grow: Counterfeit Claims about Netherlands 

ABC Questions Climate Forecasts: Can Climate Science be Trusted?
ClimateGate: Global Warming Bullies 

ClimateGate Scientist Phil Jones Not Prosecuted: UAE Asks for Jones Resignation  

Murari Lal Glacier Scientist: Unverified Data Used for Political Pressure

Copenhagen Junket Cost Millions - Millions for Failure: Inhofe on Copenhagen Caviar

Copenhagen Hopenhagen Nopenhagen? Rajendra Pachauri Apocalypse Now

EPA Endangerment Finding: Obama's Carbon Dioxide Pollutant: Obama TopDown Control

Andrew Watson Marc Morano: Andrew Watson Calls Marc Morano A-Hole

Chris Horner Sues NASA? NASA Hidden Data: ClimateGate NASA FOIA
Network Media Silent on ClimateGate: Day 14 and Counting

Hide the Decline Graph: ClimateGate Hide the Decline "Trick": Jones and Mann Hide the Decline

Rajendra Pachauri Dismisses Top Warming Scientists: Jim Inhofe ClimateGate Investigation

ClimateGate Phil Jones Steps Down

Philip Jones ClimateGate: Phil Jones Global Chief Liar and Cheat 

CRU Souce Code Decoded: Marc Sheppard Finds the Fudge Factor 

ClimateGate: Global Warming Bullies 

ClimateGate Phil Jones Steps Aside: CRU Climategate Chief Steps Down

Jim Inhofe ClimateGate Investigation: Rajendra Pachauri Dismisses Top Warming Scientists

Scientists may sue Gore over "Warming and Change" Fraud

Jaws Dropped as Solar Scientist, Archibald, Praised C02

EPA Silences, Suppresses Opposition: EPA Lies

The EU's Carbon Trade: A Scheme and a Failure

The Fight for Human-made Global Warming


Important Resources:

Climate Depot

Watts Up With That?

Climate Audit, stephen McIntyre

A list of prominent scientists who have reversed their opinions

Stephen Colbert Paul Begala: Obama to Clock John Boehner? Colbert Confirms a One Term Obama Presidency

The best of the video is before Begala arrives, but it essential to hear Colbert confirm that this will be a one-term presidency for Barack Obama. And then there's the comment from Begala about what Obama will do to House Minority Leader, John Boehner. When Colbert mentions Strom Thurmond, remember he was a Democrat back them.

Thanks to NetRightNation via NewsBusters
 

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Democrats Must Fight Back - Paul Begala
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

Colbert and Begala: Obama to Clock Boehner (video)

Mark Levine on Obama's Criticism of the Supreme Court (Video)

Thanks to Infidels are Cool for this video of Mark Levin explaining exactly what the recent Supreme Court ruling did, and did not do. You can count on Levin, a Constitutional attorney, to state the fallacy of Obama's position in the State of the Union address, and the fallacy of the media's criticisms, and he does it from his knowledge of Constitution. It is a matter of law.

Thanks to news junkie, reader, patriot and businesswoman, carolyne.

Mark Levin on Obama's Criticism of the Supreme Court

For more fact checking on the President's admonishment of the Supreme Court, read here.

Shar Krasniqi is Dorice Donegan DeeDee Moores boyfriend: Abraham Shakespeare Lottery Winner found Buried on Shar Krasniqi Property?

Abraham Shakespeare is the $31 million Florida lottery winner who went missing, and now has been found dead and buried at the property where Shar Krasniqi, the boyfriend of Dorice (Doris) Donegan "DeeDee" Moore is living. It appears that Moore may be Krasniqi's landlord...or maybe not. Reports vary on the owner of the property at this time. See videos below. Update 1-30-10: Maybe...just maybe, a breaking update tomorrow.

 

Abraham Shakespeare

Moore raised suspicions when she said Shakespeare gave her $1 million in cash before taking off for unknown destinations. She conveniently videoed Shakespeare, as she was asking him questions about where he wanted to relocate.

Shakespeare was found yesterday, allegedly buried in Krasniqi's, (26) backyard. The following is from Ericka Courtneys News Challenge:

43, won the big jackpot after buying a lottery ticket at a convenience store in a town called Frostproof, claiming later that he gave the last $3 in his pocket to a homeless man just before the winning numbers were announced.

Shakespeare — who had a criminal record that included arrests and prison time for burglary, battery and not paying child support — took a lump-sum payment of $16.9 million instead of annual installments.

DeeDee" Moore is a person of interest, but neither she or Krasniqi have been charged.

"He really didn't understand it at all," said Samuel Jones, who has known Shakespeare since both were 12." "It was moving so fast. It changed is life in a bad way."

Jones said Friday that Abraham told him March that he wanted to get out of Lakeland, where he had bought a millon-dollar home, clamoring for cash....

Among those new friends was Dorice Donegan "DeeDee" Moore. Shakespeare met her in 2007, shortly after bought his home. She told him she was interested in writing a book about his life.

But officials said whe was interested in his money.

Authorities said Moore was a "con artist." Information about the ownership of Krasniqi's home is unclear. Mr. Shakespeare's longtime friend, Robert Earl Brown said he last saw Abraham on Arpil 3rd, 2009 in a supermarket. This from the Orlando Sentinel:

That day, like many others, Shakespeare complained that friends and strangers were asking him for money, Brown said...I wish he'd never won it. He said 'Better off me being broke."

Mr. Shakespeare's remains were found yesterday:

The concrete slab that covered the spot where the remains had been found was in chunks in a pile. The pieces were heeped beneath a stand of oak trees behind a spacious, attractive, two-story brick home southwest of Plant City that Moore had bought several months ago, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

A neighbor said he never saw anyone there.

The house is on a busy stretch of highway — State Road 60 — near the Hillsborough-Polk County line, a road lined with strawberry fields and citrus groves.

Moore allegedly paid one of Shakespeare's relatives to deliver a birthday card with $5,000 to Shakespeare's mother, attempting to lead her to believe it was from her son. See a photo of Dorice DeeDee Moore in the first video below.


Abraham Shakespeare Lottery Winner Body Found (video)   Dorice (Doris) Donegan DeeDee Moore videos Abraham Shakespeare (video)

The Destruction of Tony Blair...or Maybe Not: Chilcot Inquiry Fails to Nail?

The Brit leadership was determined to bring former Prime Minister Tony Blair to his knees for his alliance with President G. W. Bush and the Iraq War. The Chilocot Inquiry failed to nail. See a video below.

I think you'll enjoy the following commentary from two British journalists. While you are reading, keep the Oil for Food scandal in the back of your mind, which would have strengthened the alliance against Iraq, gotten us out quicker and easier - had we had the help and willingness of world leaders involved in the scandal - especially France.

Remember the ignored, and worthless UN sanctions against Saddam Hussein.

As time passes, we forget the intense belief that Saddam has WMD. Remember the words of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Senators Harry Reid, John Kerry, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and others, as well as Bill Clinton - in full support of entering Iraq because of the threat of weapons of mass destruction. Remember John McCain saying "Every intelligence agency in the world believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction...." To this day, we do not know the truth about WMD.

From The Guardian's Jackie Ashley: 

The body language said it all. Tony Blair began his day at the Chilcot inquiry visibly strained, even shaking, according to one television channel, which focused on his hands. There was none of the easy charm that we remember from his days as prime minister and he meekly accepted the constant interruptions from the panel, who started off determined not let him drone on for too long.

But by the afternoon, the old Blair had resurfaced. His answers became longer, his head was held higher, and he appeared in control of the situation. The reason was simple: the inquiry members had failed to nail him on the central issue of their quest – why had he taken the country to war when the attorney general's advice had been lukewarm at least, on the legality of such action?

The key point came early in the afternoon. The former attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, had told the inquiry that he believed individual states, not just the United Nations, could declare Iraq to be in breach of Resolution 1441. So Lord Goldsmith has asked Tony Blair if he considered this were the case, and only after getting an answer in the affirmative did he change his legal advice. To an extent, Goldsmith was laying responsibility for the legal decision with Blair, while Blair claimed it lay with Goldsmith. Yet the inquiry failed to follow up this line of questioning.

By mid-afternoon the former prime minister knew he had escaped. The remaining questions about post-invasion planning were never going to trouble him. It was just like watching Blair at prime minister's questions, swatting away his inquisitors, absolutely certain he was right. He may have had some sleepless nights ahead of today's appearance but he didn't need to lose a wink.

From The Guardian's Simon Jenkins:

This was the big one. Yet as we sat down to the climax of the Chilcot inquiry, in walked a ghost. Its muscles were taut, its eyes bloodshot, its tan implausible, its mouth unsmiling. The hand visibly shook when pouring water. Tony Blair looked awful.

Outside they were chanting war criminal and liar. Blair had been smuggled in through the Queen Elizabeth II centre's "prisoner's entrance". The man who once "stopped the traffic" dared not try again. Sir John Chilcot might incant "this is not a trial," but you could have fooled us.

Then the extraordinary happened. Sir Roderic Lyne mumbled an interminable opening question about sanctions and containment. The face relaxed. The body did not squirm. The hands moved and the room was treated to the spectacle of Blair's ghost coming to life.
Slowly he established dominance and it was Chilcot and his colleagues who took on a hunted look. Within an hour they were listening mute to a seminar on neoconservatism for slow learners.

The former prime minister's case had already been stated by his two trusted aides, Alastair Campbell and Lord Goldsmith. This was that the pre-war evidence on Saddam and his weapons was compelling at the time. The dodgy dossiers were not sexed up. The case in international law would have been strengthened "politically" by a second UN resolution, but was legally robust....

Blair's self-assurance was extraordinary. He deployed sincerity and sweet reason. None of the bullet questions touched him. When asked to comment on the "beyond doubt" foreword to the dodgy September dossier, he confided with a smile: "I did believe it – frankly beyond doubt."...

Then came the sting in the tail. Chilcot repeated his opening question: why really did we invade Iraq and why in March 2003? The honest answer was that Bush was going and Blair wanted to come along too. But his egoism got the better of him. It was all his decision.

"I never regarded September 11 as an attack on America. I regarded it as an attack on us, and I had said we stand shoulder to shoulder with them [Americans]. We did in Afghanistan and I was determined to do that again."

Congress and Tony Blair Supports Invading Iraq (video)

IMF $100 Billion Green Fund: George Soros Directs the IMF $100 Billion Green Fund?

A disasterous no-climate-change scandal, the UN's IPCC disgraced, a distinguished (not any more) British scientist asked to resign his position at the University of East Anglia Climate Unit - and it's not enough. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is proposing a $100 billion green fund to "finance low carbon development in the world's poorer countries." And guess what? George Soros is likely behind the plan.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The idea seems to be this: The central banks of developed countries would inject capital into the fund using some of their SDR allocations. The fund would then issue bonds to investors, including sovereign wealth funds that would be backed by the green fund’s capital.

So, with no agreement in Copenhagen, the US will participate anyway?

The idea appears to be uncannily similar to that proposed by financier George Soros around the time of the Copenhagen meeting -– though the IMF boss didn’t give him a name check.

How many water systems would $100 billion build? How many DDT sprays would it buy to abolish malaria? How many schools would it build? How many tractors would it buy?

The Wall Street Journal asks: How will it be paid for?

According to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF managing director, who made the proposal public Saturday, the capital will come from Special Drawing Rights – the IMF’s own currency — held by world’s central banks.

What does "Special Drawing Rights" mean? From the IMF website:

The SDR is an international reserve asset, created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement its member countries' official reserves. Its value is based on a basket of four key international currencies, and SDRs can be exchanged for freely usable currencies. With a general SDR allocation that took effect on August 28 and a special allocation on September 9, 2009, the amount of SDRs increased from SDR 21.4 billion to SDR 204.1 billion (currently equivalent to about $324 billion).

In short, the IMF says they will use their "own currency." But where does the currency come from? The international community is the answer. In 1969:

...the international community decided to create a new international reserve asset under the auspices of the IMF.

Here is a more specific explanation of a Special Drawing Right (SDR):

The SDR is neither a currency, nor a claim on the IMF. Rather, it is a potential claim on the freely usable currencies of IMF members. Holders of SDRs can obtain these currencies in exchange for their SDRs in two ways: first, through the arrangement of voluntary exchanges between members; and second, by the IMF designating members with strong external positions to purchase SDRs from members with weak external positions.

Similar to a carbon credit, maybe? A wealthy person with a large carbon footprint, buys carbon credits to plant a tree in a third world country?

This from the Wall Street Journal article linked in the second paragraph:

SDRs were first created and issued to IMF members in 1969 in an era of a dollar shortage, where central banks couldn’t find enough dollars and gold for their reserves. Now, after a new issue last year, the amount held in central banks around the world exceeds $300 billion.

The fund would then use that money to make grants and low-cost loans to developing countries to finance low-carbon growth.

In the meantime, the people have no drinking water in their communities, no agriculture, no roads, no electricity, no way to combat malaria, but they will have a tiny carbon footprint.

GOP Blocks Federal Funds for 9/11 Prosecutions in Civilian Courts?

Republicans are attempting to block the use of federal funds for 9/11 terrorist trials in US civil courts. The broader idea is to move these trials to the proper venue - military courts, but there is more to it than that. It's one of those "not in my backyard" situations: GOP legislators do not want these trials in Washington, DC. While I'm tempted to say the administrations deserves the inconvenience and the cost, that leaves everyone else suffering and Republicans have been against Civilian Federal trials of terrorists from the beginning.

According to The Hill, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA-10th) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) will introduce the legislation this week.

Earlier this week, Rep. Peter King (R-NY-3rd) introduced a similar bill that would prohibit the use of federal funds to try within U.S. civilian courts any detainee being kept in the Guantanamo Bay prison....

While there has been no official announcement as to where the trials would be held if the White House decided against New York City, several Republican aides said that the administration was considering the Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia areas, an unpopulated island near Manhattan or nearby military installations.

Democrat New York Governor David Paterson finally decided he didn't like the idea of trials a mere few blocks from the former site of the World Trade Towers. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is calling for the government provide all security costs, and Senator Dianne Feinstein is opposed to New York City trials.

Wolf raised objections several weeks ago to reports that the White House was considering hosting the trial of Riduan Isamuddin – an alleged close ally of Osama bin Laden’s -- and two other defendants in the Washington, D.C., region.

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Wolf said that there had been enough recent intelligence pointing to possible terrorists threats related to Isamuddin to deny him a trial in civilian courts in the D.C. area, suggesting that to do so would put the region in jeopardy.

Most of us know the issue is simple. It's only Obama and Holder that do not get it:

...a bipartisan contingent of senators wrote Holder and asked him to consider military trials for the alleged terrorists, saying, “The attacks of 9/11 were acts of war, and those who planned and carried out those attacks are war criminals.”

The letter was signed by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Jim Webb (D-Va.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).

Read more of Republican action:
Orrin Hatch Declares War on Reconciliation: Permanent Damage to Parties

Rep. Marsha Blackburn Questions Obama at Baltimore Conference: Dems Impeding Republican Ideas?

Rep. Paul Ryan Questions Obama on Budget: Obama Runs for the Hills

Orrin Hatch Declares War on Reconciliation: Permanent Damage to Parties

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) says there will be an "all-out political war" if Democrats turn to reconciliation to pass their health care reform. That's not all. Hatch believes if reconciliation is employed, it will cause "permanent" harm to any hope of bipartisanship.

Senator Hatch is expecting that war; he expects Democrats to "go to reconciliation," and "promised a new high in partisan tensions," if they do.

The day after the President's State of the Union, with Obama admonishing Republicans for their tone, and asking for bipartisanship, Hatch said he didn't believe Democrats will participate in bipartisanship [my interpretation of his remarks]:

"They haven't acted in good faith on this, nor do I expect that they will," he said in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune . "I expect them to go to reconciliation."...

Hatch said Thursday that using reconciliation would be "one of the worst grabs for power in the history of the country" that would permanently impact relations between the two parties.

"It is going to be outright war and it should be, because it would be such an abuse of the reconciliation rules," Hatch said. "If they abuse those rules it is going to lead to even more heated animosities between not just the two parties, but even between individual senators." 

Reconciliation allows one party to bypass a filibuster and pass legislation with a simple majority - 51 votes, rather than 60 votes needed to avoid filibuster.

Hat Tip to Hot Air - read their commentary, and Senatus

More on Senator Hatch: Government in Control of Everything - Including College Football?

More on "Bipartisanship:"
Marsha Blackburn Questions Obama at Baltimore Conference

Paul Ryan Questions Obama on Budget: Obama Runs for the Hills

Obama Says Health Care Centrist: Angry, Delusional President (videos)

GOP American Action Network: Move Over Tea Parties, or ....

Six Republicans are establishing a new political organization, the American Action Network, to organize "grass-roots support" and raise funds for the November 2010 mid-term elections.

The organization will be a 501(c)4 with Rep. Eric Cantor's (R-VA) senior aide, Rob Collins, serving as the first executive director. Founding Republican leadership: former Florida Governor, Jeb Bush, former Minnesota Senator, Norm Coleman, Republican strategist Ed Gillespie, Republican donor Fred Malek, and former GW Bush adviser, the Architect, Karl Rove.

Establishment conservatives apparently...finally, get it...maybe: grass-roots patriots mean business, and part of that business is NEVER supporting limp-wristed pretty boys and girls for candidates?

Is this a "move over Tea Parties, the big boys have arrived?"

If the mindset is constitutional conservatism, American Action Network will succeed. If the mindset is "business as usual," they better start looking for other sources for election funding.

At least Newt Gingrich isn't a part of this bunch.

One World Bank Tax: Banks Favor Global Fee

"Tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars" could accumulate from a global fee to be paid by the world's biggest banks. Think of it as an "insurance scheme," to rescue future bank failures. Will it eventually fund Hamas? Just a thought. Financial Times has the story straight from the Davos World Economic Forum.

Government in Control of Everything - Including College Football

We've heard this before, but here it is again, courtesy of a Republican Orrin Hatch (R-UT) who was "steamed" that his team didn't get a chance at the BCS title last year.

This from DOJ Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich:

Several lawmakers and many critics want the BCS to switch to a playoff system, rather than the ratings system it uses to determine the teams that play in the championship game.

"The administration shares your belief that the current lack of a college football national championship playoff with respect to the highest division of college football ... raises important questions affecting millions of fans, colleges and universities, players and other interested parties," Weich wrote.

I understand that the BCS Championship may (or may not) need an overhaul, but do we need an act of Congress to do it?

Jon Stewart Chris Matthews Ron Burgundy: One Scotch Away From Ron Burgundy

This one had to hurt. After Chris Matthews said he forgot Obama was Black...for an hour! Stewart grinds it in: "I swear this guy is one scotch away from being Ron Burgundy." Ouch - that's harsh! Watch the video to the end, it moves to Jews and Asians, and big Irish Lesbian Gym Teachers.

Jon Stewart - Chris Matthews - Ron Burgundy

USA Takes 6000 Somali Refugees from Uganda

This is shocking. We've been through this Somali Humanitarian Refugee situation before, many times, and it did not turn out well for America. Nevertheless, we're doing it again.

I was browsing at Refugee Resettlement Watch, and found an article about this new batch of Somali's coming to America in September.

According to The New Vision, a Uganda website, we are taking 5,800 Somali refugees from Nakivale Refugee Camp. It appears the UN worked this bit of magic. A reason for bringing them to the US was provided by the United Nations:

Explaining the reason of resettling Somalis to the US, Katura said Somali refugees have failed to integrate with other refugee groups living in Nakivale and with the local communities because of their unique language and culture.

So, Somali's displaced to Uganda after warring in their own country, cannot communicate with other African nations, of which Somalia is one. They also do not like other cultures. They all speak a different language - but will get along much better in the US where it is already proven they do not assimilate and learn only rudimentary English, if that.

The United States resettles refugees largely according to country of origin as well as the urgency of the situation.

Even though the US remains the world’s largest country of resettlement, its refugee admissions have been steadily declining over the last decade, particularly since the September 11 terrorist attacks. The number of refugees admitted went down from 132,000 in 1992 to about 28,000 in 2003.

Resettlement patterns in American states are generally dominated by certain ethnic communities. Many Somali and Ethiopian refugees have been resettled in Minnesota.

 This commentary from Resettlement Watch:

Can you believe it?  We are in the worst recession since the Great Depression; refugee agencies are scrambling everywhere to take care of the refugees they have.  Just yesterday the Department of State released the news that they are doubling the per head payment (from taxpayers) for each refugee entering the US. 

You'll also find contact at the information to express your displeasure to Homeland Security and the Secretary of State at the above link.

Two more important posts on Somali's at Resettlement Watch.

Resettlement Agencies umping for joy at news of more taxpayer money coming their way

Diversity is strength alert! Manchester Somalis one big happy family (Not)!


Related and Background:
Somalis Bring Latent Tuberculosis to Tyson Foods in Emporia Kansas

The Somali's Only Documented Act of Assimilation

James O'Keefe Statement: Story Not What it Seems: Government Has Tapes to Prove It

James O'Keefe issued a statement today about his arrest after a visit to Senator Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office. He says the reports circulating that he and two others were trying to shut down or cut her phone lines are not true. He also says he taped the entire visit and authorities have that tape.

Here is his statement as printed at BigGovernment:

The government has now confirmed what has always been clear:  No one tried to wiretap or bug Senator Landrieu’s office.  Nor did we try to cut or shut down her phone lines.  Reports to this effect over the past 48 hours are inaccurate and false.

As an investigative journalist, my goal is to expose corruption and lack of concern for citizens by government and other institutions, as I did last year when our investigations revealed the massive corruption and fraud perpetrated by ACORN.  For decades, investigative journalists have used a variety of tactics to try to dig out and reveal the truth.

I learned from a number of sources that many of Senator Landrieu’s constituents were having trouble getting through to her office to tell her that they didn’t want her taking millions of federal dollars in exchange for her vote on the healthcare bill.  When asked about this, Senator Landrieu’s explanation was that, “Our lines have been jammed for weeks.”  I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for “weeks” because her phones were broken.  In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office – to ask the staff if their phones were working.


On reflection, I could have used a different approach to this investigation, particularly given the sensitivities that people understandably have about security in a federal building.  The sole intent of our investigation was to determine whether or not Senator Landrieu was purposely trying to avoid constituents who were calling to register their views to her as their Senator.  We video taped the entire visit, the government has those tapes, and I’m eager for them to be released because they refute the false claims being repeated by much of the mainstream media.

It has been amazing to witness the journalistic malpractice committed by many of the organizations covering this story.  MSNBC falsely claimed that I violated a non-existent “gag order.”  The Associated Press incorrectly reported that I “broke in” to an office which is open to the public.  The Washington Post has now had to print corrections in two stories on me.  And these are just a few examples of inaccurate and false reporting.  The public will judge whether reporters who can’t get their facts straight have the credibility to question my integrity as a journalist.

 I'm wishing James the very best outcome. He and Hannah Giles accomplished heroic acts by exposing the graft and corruption of various ACORN offices across the US. 

Background:
Andrew Breitbart - Pimp and Prostitute Expose ACORN

Marsha Blackburn Questions Obama at Baltimore Conference

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) questioned President Obama today at the GOP's Issues Conference in Balitmore.

Blackburn got right to it: Republican's have ideas. Here's how that conversation went:

Mr. President.
And thank you for acknowledging that we have ideas on health care. Because, indeed, we do have ideas. We have plans. We have over 50 bills. We have lots of amendments that would bring health care ideas to the forefront.

We would -- we've got plans to lower cost, to change purchasing models, address medical liability, insurance accountability, chronic and preexisting conditions, and access to affordable care for those with those conditions, insurance portability, expanded access, but not doing it with creating more government, more bureaucracy and more cost for the American taxpayer.

And we look forward to sharing those ideas with you. We want to work with you on health reform and making certain that we do it in an affordable, cost-effective way that is going to reduce bureaucracy, reduce government interference and reduce costs to individuals and to taxpayers.

And if those good ideas aren't making it to you, maybe it's the House Democrat leadership that is an impediment instead of a conduit.

OBAMA: Well, no . . .

(CROSSTALK)

BLACKBURN: But we're concerned also that there are lessons learned from public option health care plans that maybe are not being heeded. And certainly in my state of Tennessee, we were the test case for public option health care in 1994. And our Democrat government has even cautioned that maybe our experiences there would provide some lessons learned that should be heeded and would provide guidance for us to go forward.

And as you said, what we should be doing is tossing old ideas out, bad ideas out, and moving forward and refining good ideas. And certainly we would welcome that opportunity.

So my question to you is, when will we look forward to starting anew and sitting down with you to put all of these ideas on the table, to look at these lessons learned, to benefit from that experience, and to produce a product that is going to reduce government interference, reduce cost and be fair to the American taxpayer?

Obama says he has gotten "many" of the Republican ideas, looked at them, considered some of them. He said the idea of selling health insurance across state lines is complicated, and some minimum standards have to be instituted. As an example, he mentioned women must be able to get mammograms - that's after his panel of experts said they are NOT needed annually.

The man wants to control everything. He has no experience in the health care field, yet...I thought this amazing:

If you can show me and if I get confirmation from health care experts, people who know the system and how it works, including doctors and nurses, ways of reducing people's premiums, covering those who do not have insurance, making it more affordable for small businesses, having insurance reforms that ensure people have insurance even when they've got preexisting conditions, that their coverage is not dropped just because they're sick, that young people right out of college or as they're entering in the workforce can still get health insurance -- if those component parts are things that you care about and want to do, I'm game. 

He mentions that there are some "stray cats" in the health care bill that Democrats are working to eliminate - "scrubbing" it, he said. He fails to mention that he pushed for the finished bill on his desk by Christmas. Guess it wasn't necessary for those "stray cats" to be eliminated, if they just could have gotten the darned bill signed.

It was during Blackburn's question that Obama says:

You've given yourselves very little room to work in a bipartisan ashion because what you've been telling your constituents, "This guy's doing all kinds of crazy stuff that's going to destroy America."

And I -- I would just say that we have to think about tone.

See that video here.

More on Republican Action:
Orrin Hatch Declares War on Reconciliation: Permanent Damage to Parties

Rep. Paul Ryan Questions Obama on Budget: Obama Runs for the Hills

President Ignores Heroes of Ft. Hood: Fact Checking Obamas SOTU

President Obama spent 1 hours and 10 minutes on the State of the Union. I understand that is the longest State of the Union our Union has ever endured.

He failed to mention the fact that our US Marines finished their mission and left Iraq last week. A colossal and unforgivable omission.

He assured us that our Military will be completely out of Iraq by the end of August 2010, but will they? I guess we can fact check that next January.

He did not mention the November 5, 2009 Fort Hood murders. Astonishingly, he did not introduce the two brave heroes who confronted and took down Nidal Hasan, as he brought down 13 soldiers and one unborn child. At least, going back to President Reagan, the First Lady's guests were always introduced. So they invited Officers Mark Todd and Kimberly Munley there for what...the pleasure of being in the same room with The One, and being graced with a seat next to the First Lady?

After 70 minutes, another 10 could have been spent applauding these courageous Americans, honoring them  thanking them for the lives of those spared because of their bravery; thanking Munley, just a petite, pony-tailed Sergeant, for rushing into the site of an Islamic killer's weapon. What was this President thinking?

He did not mention the attempts of the Christmas Day bomber. He did not mention that security alerts in Britain have elevated. He did not mention that Canada's airports are on high alert, and American airlines will not allow passengers boarding flights from Canada to the US to have carry-on baggage. He did not talk about the topic of the day: terror trials in the middle of New York City, and specifically the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammad. These are the state of our union.

This man's character is flawlessly egotistical, narcissistic, and boastful.

The AP skipped Obama's denigration of the Supreme Court decision to eliminate some campaign finance laws. He specifically complained that their ruling opens the door to foreign contributions, but Associate Justice Kennedy said the barrier to foreign campaign spending is outside the scope of the opinion. This from Politifact:

...the legal experts we spoke to after Obama's radio address said that the president was overstating the immediate impact of the opinion. They said Obama was correct that the ruling could open the door to foreign companies spending on American campaigns, given the general direction of the majority's opinion. But because the majority justices didn't actually strike down the existing barriers on foreign companies -- in fact, they explicitly wrote that it fell beyond the boundaries of their decision -- our experts agreed that Obama erred by suggesting that the issue is settled law. Until test cases proceed and further rulings are handed down, Obama's claim about foreign campaign spending is a reasonable interpretation, and nothing more.

The Associated Press fact checked 8 statements from the speech. Here is what they, and others had to say:

(1) Obama's important spending freeze beginning in 2011 - One lousy percent, my friends

AP THE FACTS: The anticipated savings from this proposal would amount to less than 1 percent of the deficit — and that's if the president can persuade Congress to go along.

 Nevertheless, Charles Krauthammer says the spending freeze is a fraud:

[Paraphrased] What Obama doesn't tell you is that last year...they ratcheded up the spending for all departments astronomically, an average of about 20% - that's huge. Normal is usually 3% or 4%. Last year, the budget for the EPA was increased by 35%! See the video below, and thank you to The ConservativeXpress. 

 Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) says the true reduction is only "little more than one-half of 1 percent. PolitiFact's turth-o-meter says that is true.

If a "spending freeze" does come about, does mean the government will not be adding workers to their already bursting bureaucracy? What happens to "j-o-b-s."

(2) The Senate voted-down (56-43) a "debt commission" proposed by Obama to usurp the authority of Congress. The Commission would propose "unpopular remedies to reduce the debt." Once the Commission comes up with a proposal, Congress is mandated to vote on it. But, the Senate voted it down, so the President said he'll create an executive order to make it happen, but...apparently he can't make it happen. He tried to neuter Congress. This time he failed...but we still have the Czars.

AP THE FACTS: ... Any commission set up by Obama alone would lack authority to force its recommendations before Congress, and would stand almost no chance of success.

(3) The President wants to continue with health care. He just needs Republicans to support what he wants. It's that simple.

AP THE FACTS: But Obama can't guarantee people won't see higher rates or fewer benefits in their existing plans. Because of elements such as new taxes on insurance companies, insurers could change what they offer or how much it costs. Moreover, Democrats have proposed a series of changes to the Medicare program for people 65 and older that would certainly pinch benefits enjoyed by some seniors. The Congressional Budget Office has predicted cuts for those enrolled in private Medicare Advantage plans.

What? The AP acknowledges what everyone else knows? Dang about time!

(4) The President said again he will restrict lobbyists. I'll admit that I don't know much about how lobbyists garner favor, other than hanging out on Capitol Hill and making it worthwhile for Congress to spend some time with them. I can't imagine why a lobbyist would ever be admitted to the White House, except for a Sunday afternoon tour with the family.

Obama said he would not hire lobbyists to work out of the White House, but of course, he did just that. He said he wants lobbyists to disclose every contact made with his administration or Congress...and he boasted of the White House Visitors log posted online. But those logs are not complete, not up-to-date, not up-to-snuff. And who knows that every contact is disclosed? Here's how the game is played: more and more lobbyists are simply not registering as lobbyists...like Andy Stern.

AP THE FACTS: ...[to make this work] Congress would have to change the law, and that's unlikely to happen. And lobbyists already are subject to strict limits on political giving. Just like every other American, they're limited to giving $2,400 per election to federal candidates, with an overall ceiling of $115,500 every two years.

PolitiFact points out:

We found that the administration has granted waivers to several former lobbyists, allowing them to serve. The administration also allows recusals, where former lobbyists simply recuse themselves from discussions concerning whatever interest it is for which they used to lobby. The recusals have not been made public, and we don't know how many have been issued. (You can read more details on our ruling by scrolling down to our update of March 17, 2009.)

(5) Obama boasted of creating or saving 2 million jobs.

AP THE FACTS: The number was based on self-reporting by recipients and some of the calculations were shown to be in error...." [from the Congressional Budget Office) It is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package." 

(6) The President said he will continue to "do our work openly, and give our people the government they deserve."

AP THE FACTS: Obama skipped past a broken promise from his campaign — to have the negotiations for health care legislation broadcast on C-SPAN...Democrats in the White House and Congress have conducted the usual private negotiations, making multibillion-dollar deals with hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and other stakeholders behind closed doors.

Nor has Obama lived up consistently to his pledge to ensure that legislation is posted online for five days before it's acted upon.

We knew the above. It's frightening to think what we do not know, like what does Andy Stern do in all those White House meetings? Heads-up Mr. President, we know we do not have the government we deserve.

(7) The United States and Russia are near reaching the "farthest-reaching arms control treaty in nearly two decades."

AP THE FACTS: Despite insisting early last year that they would complete the negotiations in time to avoid expiration of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in early December, the U.S. and Russia failed to do so.

One important sticking point: disagreement over including missile defense issues in a new accord.

If completed, the new deal may arguably be the farthest-reaching arms control treaty since the original 1991 agreement. An interim deal reached in 2002 did not include its own rules on verifying nuclear reductions. 

Barack Obama supports the United Nations Millennium Goal, which includes de-arming, not just de-nuclearize, the world. He will give away the farm if we let him.

(8) Obama claims that more al-Qaeda has been killed in his first year as President - hundreds of them - and "far more than in 2008.

AP THE FACTS: It is an impossible claim to verify. Neither the Bush nor the Obama administration has published enemy body counts, particularly those targeted by armed drones in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. The pace of drone attacks has increased dramatically in the last 18 months, according to congressional officials briefed on the secret program.

Feel free to add your own thoughts in comments about the State of the Union and the President's "facts."



Krauthammer on the Spending Freeze: Fact Checking Obama (video)
Linked by Ruby Slippers - Thank you Mary Sue!