I’m still trying to figure out what’s up with the Obama Administration’s decision to bring some of the terrorists from Gitmo to New York City for trial in U.S. Courts – how does this help the country, or the President?
A controversial criminal defense lawyer from New York City, Scott L. Fenstermaker was thrust into the national spotlight on Monday after he announced that his client, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali — one of the five September 11th suspects being brought to trial in federal court in New York — would use his court case as a platform to express political views and religious beliefs.
In this video, Dick Cheney agrees with Fenstermaker that the terrorists who will be brought to New York have “no defense to speak of,” so the trials will serve no purpose other than giving them a public forum. Charles Krauthammer does commentary.
The New York City defense lawyer has long been a particularly zealous critic of the Bush administration — and now Obama White House’s — policies on suspected terrorist detention and trial. His protests have usually been in the form of legal activism. In 2005, Fenstermaker filed lawsuit in the Southern District of New York challenging the legality of the use of military commissions to try detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.
The first evidence of what is to come is Fenstermaker himself, who demonstrates the type of wacko leftist nutjobs who come out of the woodwork when there’s a hater of America around to defend.
“The real problem here is an issue of trust,” he said. “I can’t imagine that these guys are going to voluntarily take any American lawyer other than me because of what is going on at Gitmo. The behavior and conduct of the military and civilian attorneys representing the detainees has been atrocious.”
While planting a political timebomb that will offer multiple explosions as 2012 approaches may be good for the GOP, I can’t for the life of me discern why the radicals in the White House think they improve their reelection chances.
After Adam Lambert’s pornographic performance at the American Music Awards, this seems the least ABC can do.
First on TVNewser: American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert won’t be appearing on “Good Morning America” tomorrow.
TVNewser has learned ABC News canceled the concert after Lambert’s sexually charged performance at the American Music Awards Sunday night. Lambert led men on leashes, dragged a woman by her foot, and smashed a man’s head into his crotch, all while singing his new single “For Your Entertainment.”
They ended up cutting the simulated oral sex when the show aired on delay on the west coast, which makes one wonder why they allowed the performance to go on the air at all.
ABC, which aired the awards show, received about 1,500 phone calls from people complaining about the performance, a number ABC calls “moderate.”
Lambert had promoted the appearance promising that he’d be offering up a shocker, and don’t they do these things on a 10 second delay since the Wardrobe Malfunction at the Super Bowl a couple of years back?
An ABC News spokesperson tells TVNewser, “given his controversial live performance on the AMAs we were concerned about airing a similar concert so early in the morning.”
Lambert performed as part of GMA’s summer concert series in August, and it was in a “20/20″ interview that Lambert came out, telling Chris Connelly, “I am gay, and I’m very comfortable with it.”
Did you doubt for a minute that the Mammogram advisory would have a devastating impact on public support for health reform? It became clear to America that under ObamaCare an advisory like the one issued last week would no longer be an advisory – it would be a command.
Just 38% of voters now favor the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s the lowest level of support measured for the plan in nearly two dozen tracking polls conducted since June.
The drop in support is devastating – suddenly, everyone understands that Death Panels are real. But is it in time to scare Democrats enough to abandon their death march?
Prior to this, support for the plan had never fallen below 41%. Last week, support for the plan was at 47%. Two weeks ago, the effort was supported by 45% of voters.
The more America learns about the new era of socialism, the more they like things the way they are. How long will it be before voters will fall for the Dems again?
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 56% now oppose the plan.
Oh, but Democrats love to tell you how much citizens love the public option. What they fail to mention is that while the PO polls well, voters hate the legislation!
Half the survey was conducted before the Senate voted late Saturday to begin debate on its version of the legislation. Support for the plan was slightly lower in the half of the survey conducted after the Senate vote.
Why do we accept the broadcast of this sort of pornography on a program that we know is targeted at young people?
Well before Adam Lambert stole the AMAs and took homoeroticism to a new level, J. Lo had her own highly anticipated AMA performance.
He stole the show with homoeroticism? This is commendable?
Lopez performed her new single “Louboutins” on stage, complete with walking on the backs of her backup dancers. They had formed a stair-step formation, but something went wrong when Lopez leaped off the highest “step.”
Adam Lambert’s raunchy performance is no different then when Madonna, Christina Aguilera and Britney shared a same sex French kiss at the VMAs back in 2003. So why is this Adam Lambert AMA performance causing such a stir?
Is there a difference between Madonna’s slap in the face to civilized society or Adam Lambert’s? Maybe, but who cares. It’s time for civilized folks to fight back against the conscious desire of Hollywood, one of the partners of the Democratic Party, to dismantle the culture.
While both Lambert and Lopez had slips in their acts last night, one is left wishing they’d suffered concussion causing falls instead of simple glitches. They deserve the embarrassment.
Nevertheless, it is the corporate adults who sign off on this stuff who deserve the biggest humiliation. Nobody watching the next freak show Hollywood puts out would be a good start.
In the meantime, it is America that is demeaned, it is our country that is slip slidin’ away.
“If it’s gonna be edited (for West Coast rebroadcast – it was), then in a way that’s discrimination. I don’t mean to get political, but Madonna, Britney and Christina weren’t edited,” Lambert said. “It’s a shame. Female entertainers have been risqué for years. Honestly, there’s a huge double standard.”
I found myself pondering this question as I read an opinion piece in today’s Washington Post comparing the leadership of our President with that of Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives. Of the two, who is offering the world true leadership on Climate Change?
One, Nasheed, is leading the fight. The other, as we saw last weekend when he announced that there would be no new treaty anytime soon, is only half in the battle. They both may go to the U.N.-sponsored climate conference in Copenhagen next month, but Nasheed will be there to say: Seize the moment. And if Obama makes it, he will be there to spin, to say, no doubt elegantly: Chill.
The author of the op-ed, Bill McKibben, comes from my hometown of Lexington, Mass, so I view him fondly as a leader in the Warming Movement. His organization, 350.org, refers to lower levels of atmospheric gases that are now favored as a target by the Climate Crowd, as opposed to the 450 ppm that was previously the vogue. He writes that Nasheed has moved with great energy on putting his nation on the responsible track.
Contrast that with Obama. He too has acted; in fact, he’s done more than his three predecessors combined. He’s taken admirable steps on automobile fuel economy, put stimulus money into green job plans and surrounded himself with an excellent cast of scientific advisers. But doing more than George W. Bush on global warming is like doing more than George Wallace on racial healing. It gives you political cover, but the melting arctic ice is unimpressed.
Ouch. My hometownmate is comparing Barack to George Wallace. Is this fair? Obama is treating the death of the planet with the same calm he brings to all fights. Slow and steady on the critical things (socialized medicine), cave to political realities – while making nice statements – for everything else. Climate Change falls into the latter group. I guess Bill is right – if you don’t love life enough to put the planet first, that would make you a first class hater.
So it’s not good news that, internationally, Obama’s spokesmen have stuck to the 450 ppm/2 degree target, calling it consensus science when it no longer is. And it’s not good news domestically that Obama turned climate legislation over to Congress to produce, slotting it behind health care on his list of priorities.
Why would Obama be holding back on switching over to the tougher Save the Planet Threshold?
Obama’s excuse is that the Senate won’t sign tough climate legislation, so there’s no use pushing for it. But that’s conceding the game without taking a shot — he hasn’t done any of the things Nasheed has tried to rally his nation and other nations.
Making matters worse is that fact that Obama has depleted his resources on the Public Option – his cupboard of political capital is looking bare before he’s even started job one – saving the planet!
A mediocre health-care bill is one thing; you can probably come back in a generation and make it stronger. People may suffer in the meantime, but the problem won’t become logarithmically worse. The climate, on the other hand, is full of traps and tipping points — let it get warm enough to melt the permafrost that locks away vast supplies of methane, and no future president will be able to control the heating.
It’s not reasonable to suggest that the president is a skeptic, is it? Wouldn’t that would be like saying, two years ago, that Obama wasn’t serious when he promised he’d systematically remove all of our troops from Iraq, one to two brigades a month upon taking office, without regard for circumstances on the ground. On the other hand, the president also made promises about Climate Change.
“Once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations and help lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change. Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high.”
Delay is not an option, but Obama is blowing off Copenhagen. If he’s not a skeptic, then he must be… a hater.
It hasn’t been hard for the Democrats thusfar in their latest attempt to dismantle America, it’s just been slow. Now that they’ve decided to move ahead and consider the health reform legislation in the senate, the tough part begins.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln said she will vote in favor of starting debate on health reform legislation. But she warned that she does not support the government-run public option currently in the bill and threatened to withhold her vote in order to influence the coming debate.
What happens now is a race against public opinion. Support for the president is falling, support for reform is falling, and after January 1, we’re in an election year. Holding together the fragile coalitions of scared Democrats will be much harder in an election year.
“Although I don’t agree with everything in this bill, I have concluded that I believe it is more important that we begin this debate to improve our nation’s health care system for all Americans rather than just simply drop the issue and walk away. It is not what people sent us here to do,” Lincoln said. “I will not vote in favor of the proposal that has been introduced by Leader Reid as it is written.”
Not only that, but they’ll have to come up with one bill that satisfies the needs of the two branches of Congress rather than one bill for each chamber. That fight will further erode public confidence in the Democrats, and further reveal that Democrats are a fringe group. Consider David Broder’s analysis of the recent Quinnipiac Poll.
This poll may not be as famous as some others, but I know the care and professionalism of the people who run it, and one question was particularly interesting to me.
It read: “President Obama has pledged that health insurance reform will not add to our federal budget deficit over the next decade. Do you think that President Obama will be able to keep his promise or do you think that any health care plan that Congress passes and President Obama signs will add to the federal budget deficit?”
This question reveals the hazard for the liberals (ie Democrats). Victory will destroy the future of the party.
The answer: Less than one-fifth of the voters — 19 percent of the sample — think he will keep his word. Nine of 10 Republicans and eight of 10 independents said that whatever passes will add to the torrent of red ink. By a margin of four to three, even Democrats agreed this is likely.
80% of independents, the center of the country, know that Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid are lying to them. The center of the country now knows that it erred in turning power over to Democrats. Even Democrats don’t expect their party to be responsible in a time of fiscal crisis.
That fear contributed directly to the fact that, by a 16-point margin, the majority in this poll said they oppose the legislation moving through Congress.
Why are the Democrats pursuing a massive structural change that the country can’t afford at a time of fiscal crisis rather than meeting the demand to turn their sites on the economy?
While the CBO said that both the House-passed bill and the one Reid has drafted meet Obama’s test by being budget-neutral, every expert I have talked to says that the public has it right. These bills, as they stand, are budget-busters.
Here, for example, is what Robert Bixby, the executive director of the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan group of budget watchdogs, told me: “The Senate bill is better than the House version, but there’s not much reform in this bill. As of now, it’s basically a big entitlement expansion, plus tax increases.”
Because the Democratic Party has become a fringe party of radical lefties on the one hand, and on the other, it is making a play for a massive realignment of the country to assure themselves of political viability in the future.
Here’s another expert, Maya MacGuineas, the president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: “While this bill does a better job than the House version at reducing the deficit and controlling costs, it still doesn’t do enough. Given the political system’s aversion to tax increases and spending cuts, I worry about what the final bill will look like.”
Remember that White America doesn’t give the majority of it’s votes to Democrats in national elections. Not due to racial issues, but because White America is traditional America, and traditional Americans know that Democrats don’t believe in the premise of this nation.
If you read deep enough, you will find that under the Senate bill, “federal outlays for health care would increase during the 2010-2019 period” — not decline. The gross increase would be almost $1 trillion — $848 billion, to be exact, mainly to subsidize the uninsured. The net increase would be $160 billion.
To compensate for its lack of popularity with traditional America, the Dems look to expand their base. The base of the party is the dependent class whom they bribe with social programs or public employee unions, who they bribe with inappropriate salaries and benefits.
The health care bill works for Dems because it takes 17% of the economy and puts it in their control. Long range projection? Millions more public workers who the Dems can bribe with unaffordable pay and benefits.
The challenge to Congress — and to Obama — remains the same: Make the promised savings real, and don’t pass along unfunded programs to our children and grandchildren.
The problem for the Democrats with health care is three-fold: First, Americans are learning, finally, that this is not Jack Kennedy’s party – for the first time, voters are coming to understand that Democrat equals Liberal.
Publisher HarperCollins said Friday that Sarah Palin’s memoir sold 300,000 copies its first day, among the best openings ever for a nonfiction book. “Going Rogue” was released this week and its print run already has been increased from 1.5 million copies to 2.5 million.
Second, the health care plan may get passed, but it’s not going to be implemented for years. In the meantime, the new taxes go into effect, and an anxious America is wondering where’s the benefit of the massive health care reform.
Among self-identified Republicans in the survey, Palin gets the highest favorable ratings (70 percent) amid a group of other possible contenders for the GOP nomination, including Mike Huckabee (63 percent), Mitt Romney (60 percent) and Newt Gingrich (58 percent). Palin’s favorable score among all voters is 47 percent, up nine percentage points over last July’s reading of 38 percent.
Third – as long term rising unemployment bumps into the midterm elections, Americans will get more aggravated over the fact that the Obama Administration focused on health care rather than jobs.
President Obama recently stated that he “probably won’t” read Sarah Palin’s new book. But his possible opponent in the 2012 elections trails him in personal favorability by only seven points (54 percent to 47 percent). Among the critical segment of independent voters, they are virtually even (Obama at 50 percent; Palin at 49 percent).
Democrats will come to be loathed, their majorities will evaporate, and dangerous portions of the new socialism will hopefully be dismantled.
Despite being characterized by many as a divisive force in her party and the nation, former vice-presidential contender Sarah Palin gets a much higher positive rating than Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi — and most think Palin has been treated unfairly by the press.
Democrats are forcing through health reform because, based on the political damage suffered after Clinton failed in its attempts, they think passing it will be better for them than failure. In this, they are surely wrong.
Americans don’t agree with President Obama, which is why is popularity has dropped so precipitously. He started out last January with a 70% approval rating, and now Gallup joins two other pollsters in tracking him below 50%.
The latest Gallup Daily tracking results show 49% of Americans approving of the job Barack Obama is doing as president, putting him below the majority approval level for the first time in his presidency.
The health care fight is turning voters against the President, for the health care fight has the President working against America. Why does he seek to pass a health care bill that shows no respect for the U.S. Constitution?
Democrats want you to know that your McDonald’s Angus Burger meal has about 1,500 calories — before you buy and burp.
Buried deep in the House health care bill is a provision, likely to raise nanny-state hackles, requiring fast-food chains and vending machine owners to notify customers of calorie counts — by conspicuously posting nutritional information on menus or machines.
Aren’t Dems just responding to popular demand, you ask? Hasn’t there been outrage over the lack of burger control.
The provision — Section 2572 — requires retail food establishments “part of a chain with 20 or more locations” to list calorie counts “on the menu board including a drive-through board,” as is currently required in New York City and other localities.
And you know how upset folks have been about the lack of caloric detail on vending machines!
A “vending machine operator shall provide a sign in close proximity to each article of food or the selection button” that includes similar data.
Which might offer some insight into why the Senate is racing to get the health care bill passed against the plummeting support for the President and his proposals.
Substantially more Americans rate healthcare coverage in the country as excellent or good this year (38%) than did so a year ago (26%). Similarly, more Americans now say they are satisfied with the total cost of U.S. healthcare (26%) than said this a year ago (19%).
The more Dems push health care reform, the more folks think about it and realize that you don’t fix what ain’t broken. Regarding their own health care situation, Americans are pretty happy.
For example, 81% rate the quality of their own care as excellent or good, and 69% rate their coverage this positively.
It’s tough for the president to succeed while trying to be cute. Especially while visiting with the troops in South Korea, where he told them they made a good photo-op!
This as Obama’s approval ratings continue to drop, with a second poll in two days showing him below 50%.
….a Fox News poll released Thursday showed Obama’s approval rating at a new low. Forty-six percent of respondents disapprove of the president’s job performance while an equal percentage approved, the survey found. The poll, which surveyed 900 registered voters from Nov. 17 to Nov. 18, has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
On Wednesday, a Quinnipiac poll showed Obama with a 48% approval. Dropping popular support, below the 50% level, generally leads to an inability to hold congress in line.
The daughter of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) was arrested in Hollywood early this morning for alleged drunk driving.
Los Angeles police say Alexandra Kerry, 36, was stopped by police during a traffic stop at about 12:40 a.m.
We could not confirm rumors that Kerry has been consulting to state Senator Anthony Galluccio of Massachusetts.
Angry over Sen. Anthony Galluccio’s latest roadway ruckus, Senate President Therese Murray has advised the two-time drunken driving lawmaker to get himself a driver, the Herald has learned.
But Alexandra is a filmmaker by trade, who is said to be working on a movie about the burdens of being born Kerry.
Kerry is in pre-production as the co-writer/director of the film adaptation of Jessica Shattuck’s novel, “The Hazards of Good Breeding”, scheduled to shoot in 2008.
Will she claim to have been pretending to be drunk – part of her research on “Hazards?”
“Officers detected signs and symptoms of being under the influence of alcohol,” said Officer Bruce Borihanh of LAPD.
Kerry was booked at the Hollywood police station and held until 5:25 a.m. after she posted $5,000 bail. Borihanh said he did not know what Kerry’s blood-alcohol level was.
Alexandra Kerry is the eldest daughter of John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic Party presidential nominee.
The film, in which a part-fried fish is shown breathing and wriggling on a plate as it is being slowly eaten alive in a restaurant, has been posted on the video-sharing website YouTube.
Aren’t we supposed to defer our on cultural preferences, automatically, in favor of other cultural practices?
In order to keep the carp alive chefs cook its body but wrap its head in a wet cloth to keep it breathing, before covering it in sauce and serving in on a plate.
It strikes me as very… sophisticated. They can cook the fish while keeping it alive. No throat slashing, no electrocution – no concerns about the humane handling of the fish.
The YouTube video shows diners, who are laughing and joking, prodding the fish while it is still moving, before picking it apart with chopsticks.
Well, when in Beijing, right?
Peta, the animal rights group, called the video, which had more than 120,000 views on YouTube in a week, “disgusting”.
A spokesperson said: “Every decent person should be shocked when anyone mocks or abuses a helpless dying animal.”
Decent in one culture is not decent in all cultures.
It is not the first time that the Chinese have been criticised for their extreme eating habits.
Reports have claimed some restaurants offer monkey’s brains. Other dishes include rats, dogs, snakes, lizards and baby mice.
The Rasmussen poll, which surveys likely voters, has shown President Obama’s approval ratings in the upper forties for months. Now another poll, one that surveys registered voters – a less select group who are less informed and thus slower to reflect the decline – has dropped below 50%.
Obama’s approval rating fell to 48% in polling done by Quinnipiac University. The Quinnipiac University Poll surveyed 2,518 registered voters November 9-16 and has a margin of error of +/- 2%. The 48% approval rating is down from a 59% approval rating in February/March.
The timing couldn’t be worse for a White House still struggling to get its big first year initiative – a government takeover of the health care sector – through the U.S. Senate. Without popular support, why should congress walk off the cliff with him?
Further, the percentage of registered voters who approve of Obama’s handling of the economy also declined, to 43% in November from 47% in October. On the economy, the approval rating was split along party lines: 13% of Republicans approved, compared to 38% for Independents, and 77% for Democrats.
Notice that only Democrats support the President on his most important policy matter. Independents, who gave Obama the presidency, have lost all interest. The GOP is as against him as registered Democrats are in favor.
In general, to govern effectively, a president’s approval rating should remain above 50%, although a momentary dip below 50% is not serious. However, if the approval rating drops below 45%, presidential power, particularly the power to persuade Congress to implement his legislative agenda, deceases.
The power that a sharp turn of phrase can have in catalyzing public opinion is amazing – consider how Sarah Palin’s “Death Panels” characterization transformed the health care debate last summer.
There are two news stories right now that are doing similar damage to the White House.
First, there is the story of the White House jobs website, Recovery.gov, that remind us how political machinery loves phony numbers to add to the bragging power of politicians.
It comes as little surprise that the recipients of the stimulus money have been, to put it indelicately, cooking the books. Both ABC News and the Washington, DC Examiner have been monitoring the spending as posted on the government’s recovery.gov website and have found egregious errors, including money being spent in non-existent congressional districts and public entities claiming the stimulus money saved their entire workforce.
That’s a story that puts the credibility of the Hope & Change White House in doubt on the most important issue in the country.
Far more dangerous for the Obama Bolsheviks, though, is the new recommendation that women start receiving Mammograms at age 50 instead of 40, sending a shiver of Death Panel fear through the Democrats’ Soccer Mom base.
Two Republican Congresswomen argued at a press conference today that the advisory board’s recommendation is a glimpse into what health care would be like if Democrats can pass their reform plans.
Suddenly, the essential truth of Sarah Palin’s pithy encapsulation of the hazards of government controlled health care glimmer with clarity for those who had previously believed Democrats claims that the idea of Death Panels was just a nasty invention of haters on the right.
This is obvious even to the White House, which sent Kathleen Sebelius out to pooh pooh the new recommendations today.
“The U.S. Preventive Task Force is an outside independent panel of doctors and scientists who make recommendations. They do not set federal policy and they don’t determine what services are covered by the federal government,” said Sebelius in a written statement.
Of course, therein lies the crisis for ObamaReidPelosi. Because we don’t yet have Obama Care, these are only recommendations from an independent panel. The White House wants to turn these folks into a Death Panel, giving them the full power to transform their ideas into commands! All of the nation’s breast bearing creatures now understand.
“Our policies remain unchanged,” she said of the federal government. ” Indeed, I would be very surprised if any private insurance company changed its mammography coverage decisions as a result of this action.”
With the president on tour in Asia, further linking his brand to that of a weaker America, the undoing of the Obama Presidency is gaining speed.
