U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) take their places with junior G8 delegates for a family photo at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, July 9, 2009. Leaders of the Group of Eight major industrial nations and the main developing economies are meeting in the central Italian city of L'Aquila until Friday to discuss issues ranging from global economic stimulus to climate change and oil prices.
#2
when you go home to Michelle's bootay, you'd be doing some comparative analysis too. Prolly nice to not need peripheral vision to see it all, for once
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/09/2009 19:08 Comments ||
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#3
oh, and via AOSHQ - she's sixteen. Nice job, Teh One
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/09/2009 19:25 Comments ||
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#4
HMMMMM, HMMMMM, dare the Bammer go KARDASHIAN on Michelle??? I doubt it, but its fun to think about.
#6
I've had a lot of fun with this at other sites, but, hey....I'd do it too. Diff is, is I'm not in the public 24/7 and not professing to be Teh One less than a man
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/09/2009 22:06 Comments ||
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#9
One is not ever obvious. I don't remember even President Clinton being obvious like that. Obvious is crass, not the characteristic of a world leader.
A Congressional resolution honoring Michael Jackson isn't necessary, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today.
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Tex.) introduced the legislation, H. Res. 600, shortly after Jackson's death. Jackson-Lee held up a copy of that resolution while speaking at Jackson's memorial service in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
"What I have said to my colleagues over the years, and certainly as leader and as speaker, is that there's an opportunity on the floor of the House to express their sympathy or their praise any time that they wish," Pelosi said at her press conference today. "I don't think it's necessary for us to have a resolution."...
Jackson's death has become a political football of sorts on Congress. In addition to Jackson-Lee's resolution, the Congressional Black Caucus held a moment of silence for the late King of Pop.
On the other hand, Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) blasted Jackson as a "pervert" and a "low-life," and Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) said he was "nauseated" by the attention Jackson's death was receiving in Congress.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/09/2009 15:41 ||
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In one email, Nye said I will be pleased to know the bill passed, praising it as "a comprehensive approach that charts a new course toward a clean energy economy" and "will create jobs, help end our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, and combat global warming" (without ever mentioning that he voted against it).
In the other email, Nye said I will be pleased to know that he voted against it "because we do not need another tax on American families during this time of economic hardship."
Oops! Nye can't have it both ways.
Look, whatever your position is, you can be reassured that Nye agrees with you.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/09/2009 12:31 ||
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#1
Let's see, if you combine "nay" and "aye" then you get "nye" which is another way of voting "present". If Virginians continue to swallow this bilge then they deserve him. Unfortunately, we all get a piece of him since he's in Congress and we can't throw him out. Wake up Virginia!
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/09/2009 13:03 Comments ||
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#2
Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Clause.
Cause if you're going to act like a child and not a responsible adult of a republic, you too can believe in fairy tales, and keep reelecting them. Oh and a pony too.
#3
There's a lot of that in Washington. "I was for it and then I was against it" syndrome. Do you supposeNye checked with his constituents to see what they actually wanted in the way of legislation--if any? Indeed, I'd say this is seedy as well as sleezy politics.
Andrue Malcolm, "Top uv teh Tikkit" blog @ Lost Angelis Timez
Somebodie -- hopefilly, not the prezdent hisselff -- doesn't no how to spell hiz furst name.
The White House this week released a copy of a new agreement between the United States and Russia on how to re-start the START arms reduction treaty talks to save the world from nuclear holocaust.
And according to the illustration provided by the sharp-eyed blogger Eric Zimmermann, in the Hill's must-read Blog Briefing Room, the official diplomatic document was signed on behalf of the United States of America by "Barak Obama."
Presumably closely related to the Barack Obama who moved into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. way back on Jan. 20. Seems longer than four months ago.
Teh expurts and pun dits told me thet if I votered for Sarah Palin it wud elevat an unedjumacated unprepeared persun uv no intellijence to nashinul orifice who wud mak dum mistaykez in diplomercy an make Amerrika look schtupd to the wurld. I votered for her any way. Look whut happend!!
Posted by: Mike ||
07/09/2009 11:22 ||
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#1
Will this cause Obama to be misunderestimated?
Is the agreement with Russia about nucular warheads? Inquiring minds want to know
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/09/2009 11:40 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she expects Democrats who have accused senior CIA officials of repeatedly misleading Congress to further pursue the allegations.
"I've seen the letters from the members and obviously they have concern," Pelosi said about the letters written by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee and revealed Wednesday.
In the letters, Democrats said that CIA Director Leon Panetta told Congress last month that senior CIA officials have concealed significant actions and misled lawmakers repeatedly since 2001.
Panetta said earlier this year that the CIA did not mislead Congress. Was he right then or is he right now?
"The Intelligence Committee has the oversight responsibility for intelligence in the House and its equivalent committee in the Senate," Pelosi said at her weekly news conference. "I'm sure they will be pursuing this in their regular committee process and that's the way it will go."
But Republicans say the allegations are just political maneuvering to protect Pelosi, who has been under constant fire since alleging that the CIA lied to her about enhanced interrogation techniques.
Exactly what actions Panetta disclosed to the House Intelligence Committee on June 24 is unclear, but committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said the CIA outright lied in one case.
"These notifications have led me to conclude that this committee has been misled, has not been provided full and complete notifications, and (in at least one case) was affirmatively lied to," Reyes wrote to Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the committee's senior Republican. A copy of his letter was obtained by The Associated Press. Reyes said in the letter that he is considering opening a full investigation.
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#2
The head of the CIA has powers to attack his enemies not available to us ordinary mortals and Leon knows how to use them. Up against him is another great Titan, The Speaker of the House. Let the games begin.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/09/2009 14:49 Comments ||
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When the president travels out of country, his secretary of state customarily follows.
Not so with Hillary Clinton.
More and more, President Obama is ditching his top diplomat when he travels abroad. By the time Obama returns from Ghana on Sunday, the last stop on his latest three-country tour, he will have visited nine countries without Clinton.
That's highly unusual for a new secretary of state. Though Clinton has accompanied Obama on several key international visits this year, including Egypt and Trinidad and Tobago, Obama has spent far more time than his predecessors without his foreign policy point person.
Some analysts say this could be a product of Obama's acute interest in diplomacy and international affairs, or perhaps his wariness to promote on the world stage a former rival whose star power could detract from his.
But they wonder whether Clinton, who as first lady traveled the world, is being used to her fullest potential at a time when crises are flaring all over the globe.
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#1
Anybody have an over/under on when she resigns? I can't see that humongous ego putting up with this for more then a coupla years.
And I don't think crushing his head between her massive thighs is an option any more...
#2
Ogabe is using the presidency as his chance to see the world. This is why the itinerary for most of his visits includes mainly private time, rather than meeting with foreign dignitaries. If Clinton traveled with him, he'd have to schedule a lot more meetings. It's not Ogabe's ego that's getting in the way - it's his latent laziness.
#2
Dupe because the link is the same. It's the flag we mods use to find dupe articles -- if you re-use the same link it's flagged.
Works most of the time because most news links are unique. But for the Rasmussen poll it will be flagged since the daily poll link is the same every day.
We mods will be aware of this if you post another one of these in the future.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/09/2009 15:47 Comments ||
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Billions of dollars in federal aid delivered directly to the local level to help revive the economy have gone overwhelmingly to places that supported President Obama in last year's presidential election.
That aid -- about $17 billion -- is the first piece of the administration's massive stimulus package that can be tracked locally. Much of it has followed a well-worn path to places that regularly collect a bigger share of federal grants and contracts, guided by formulas that have been in place for decades and leave little room for manipulation. "There's no politics at work when it comes to spending for the recovery," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says.
Counties that supported Obama last year have reaped twice as much money per person from the administration's $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, a USA TODAY analysis of government disclosure and accounting records shows. That money includes aid to repair military bases, improve public housing and help students pay for college.
The reports show the 872 counties that supported Obama received about $69 per person, on average. The 2,234 that supported McCain received about $34.
Investigators who track the stimulus are skeptical that political considerations could be at work. The imbalance is so pronounced -- and the aid so far from complete -- that it would be almost inconceivable for it to be the result of political tinkering, says Adam Hughes, the director of federal fiscal policy for the non-profit OMB Watch. "Even if they wanted to, I don't think the administration has enough people in place yet to actually do that," he says.
"Most of what they're doing at this point is just stamping the checks and sending them out," Hughes says.
The stimulus package Obama signed in February includes about $499 billion in new spending, and to date, the Obama administration has allocated about $158 billion to specific projects and programs. Most of that money has gone directly to state governments, which then disperse the money to prevent school layoffs, repair roads and fund social services. That contrasts with the $17 billion that Washington distributes directly to local communities.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2009 09:41 ||
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The last time the CIA and Nancy Pelosi were in the news together, the House Speaker was accusing the agency of lying about its briefings to Congress on the interrogation of al Qaeda detainees. This week, the Speaker's fellow Democrats are set to block public disclosure of what Ms. Pelosi was really told and when.
Democrats recently marked up the 2010 intelligence bill, and Republican Pete Hoekstra offered an amendment in committee to require the CIA to make public an unclassified version of its records on Congressional briefings. It also would have required the CIA to disclose the information gleaned from those interrogations.
Democrats have spent years demanding a "truth commission" into interrogations, so you'd think such public disclosure would be welcome. Ah, that was when a different guy was in the White House and before Mrs. Pelosi had made her own veracity an issue. Suddenly, she's all for secrecy. And sure enough, Intelligence Committee Democrats lined up to protect their leader and defeated the Hoekstra amendment on a party line vote. This follows Democratic rejection of a resolution by Utah Republican Rob Bishop to initiate a bipartisan investigation of Mrs. Pelosi's accusation.
CIA employees weren't so lucky. Chairman Silvestre Reyes's Intelligence Democrats passed a new requirement that the CIA videotape all detainee interrogations. This is a sop to the anti-antiterror left, which wants heads to roll because the CIA destroyed tapes of the interrogations of the likes of terrorist Abu Zubaydah. CIA clandestine chief Jose Rodriguez ordered those tapes destroyed precisely because he worried they might leak and compromise U.S. methods. Republicans offered an amendment to strip the videotape provision but lost on another partisan vote.
This fits the Pelosi policy that the wartime decisions of CIA agents can and will be second-guessed years later, but Congressional acquiescence in those decisions is off-limits. Philip Mudd, a respected career intelligence officer, was recently blackballed by Congress for a Homeland Security job because he knew about harsh interrogations. The message to CIA operatives is don't take any risks for national security, and better have a lawyer on speed dial. All of which belies President Obama's promise that there would be no political recriminations for CIA actions taken after 9/11. Meanwhile, CIA Director Leon Panetta has so far said nothing publicly about the House's videotape provision.
Democrats intend to bring the intelligence bill to the House floor this week, and Republicans are preparing a new set of amendments. At least on the videotapes, Mr. Obama ought to spend some political capital in the cause of protecting the spies we need to defend the country.
#1
Red on Red. All the backstabbing and leaks during the Bush II era are now starting to get their due, but not in the way the players thought. Those who knew who were doing it and said nothing or acted can equally inherit the consequences. For every perceived favor they'd gain by playing the other side in the game, they've alienated just as many to protect them later when the 'purges' begin. You really think that the players of power were going to allow such an unreliable and unfaithful group retain a position of influence after they took the reigns? [rhetorical question]. They can either take their lumps or they can play hardball back. Just remember Honduras - if you strike at the king, you must kill the king.
Seven days after the new fiscal year began, the state of California still appears to be far from a budget solution.
Disabled protesters, angry over cuts to vital services, were arrested outside the Capitol on Tuesday; inside, lawmakers bickered about fruits and juices.
A war of words developed between Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers over the fruit-related focus of three new bills. "The governor is not against condiments. The governor's not against fruits of any kind," said spokesman Aaron McLear. "But he believes we ought to be focused on solving our budget crisis first and foremost."
Assembly bill 606 creates a commission to serve the marketing interests of the blueberry industry. Another bill defines "honey" to mean the natural food product resulting from the harvest of nectar by honey bees, and a third bill adopts regulations establishing definitions and standards for 100-percent pomegranate juice. "Look, we're pro-condiment, we're pro-fruit, but the focus needs to be on the budget crisis," McLear said.
Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez (D-Fresno) called Governor Schwarzenegger's criticism childish and said he is fed up. "The governor's turned from an action hero into just another politician," Senator Florez said. "He should really, really take a course on fundamental government on how the legislature works. The fact that he doesn't understand these things worries me."
McLear shrugged off the criticism. "If others in the building want to level personal attacks, that's certainly their prerogative."
While the rhetoric escalated inside, at least a dozen protesters in wheelchairs were arrested for physically blocking the entrance to Governor Schwarzenegger's officer to protest his proposed cuts to healthcare. The protesters were cited and released at the scene.
Governor Schwarzenegger said he plans to invite Assembly Speaker Karen Bass back to the bargaining table, but the Speaker's office said no call had come by Tuesday night. Bass boycotted the meeting of the "big 5" lawmakers because she says the governor is demanding reforms instead of focusing on the budget deficit.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/09/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"Look, we're pro-condiment, we're pro-fruit,"
-of course you are, remember which state were talking about here.
Blueberries, honey, - yep all real important shit for the stat govt to get involved in right now. Send'em all an IOU says I.
#4
"He should really, really take a course on fundamental government" TRue I don't think Arnie understand how to spend billions beyond what he is making. My solution would be to have ANYONE getting and government assistance to provide proof of citizenship or they are cut off.
#5
Here's my rant: I'm sick and tired of the threats to cut "vital services". Let's be clear - the politicians deliberately choose those programs to cut first in order to get people worked up. There's no reason that those programs couldn't be saved, they're just a convenient excuse used to justify more taxes. There are billions of dollars of other cuts that could be made first, but don't have the constituency that evokes easy sympathy. So the politicos cry "drastic measures will be taken!" Don't buy it.
#6
Totally agree with Spot. Sebelius tried that line in Kansas - yes the HHS director - when there was going to be a shortfall in money for state employees. She was attempting a crises in order to bypass the Kansas constitution and move money from other budgetary allotments without first going to the state House and Senate for approval. IMHO she knew that if she did so she would lose certain funding for her projects. House and Senate cried foul so Sebelius threatened vital civil service shutdown, "The police will not get paid" and all. It proved so unpopular a statement that she backed down, took the cuts, then had the gall to blame the Republicans for cutting education. In reality if she had been doing her duty instead of jockying for Obama there would never had been an issue.
You see, a lot of people take the approach say what you mean and mean what you say. "No police, well I'm gonna go buy some ammo and canned goods." State employee payroll budget should be fairly predictable so where did the money go to cause the shortfall or was it poor budgeting? Ironically, these threats make people less dependent on the government.
If government cuts its vital services (fire, police, road, etc), then what is the use of the government for ordinary citizen?
By design or accident, proponants for big government turns government into a turtle stuck in a strawberry bucket. Do the really want to take everyone's money and reduce the singular family's prospect of security and feeding itself? Kinda corners a person in a bad way don't ya think?
I understand that this is California and the produce industry is very important, and its nice to know what honey is and the standards for organic cheese, but it just might have to happen that subsidies for people and plants may just have to take a back seat to water, police, fire, roads, schools, so forth.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg seems to have made a stunning admission in favor of cleansing America of unwanted populations by aborting them. In an interview with the New York Times, the judge said that Medicaid should cover abortions, and that she had originally expected that Roe v. Wade would facilitate such coverage in order to control the population of groups "that we don't want to have too many of."
The judge also praised the advent of earlier abortions with the wider distribution of the morning-after pill, saying "I think the side that wants to take the choice away from women and give it to the state, they're fighting a losing battle. Time is on the side of change."
When the Supreme Court upheld the partial-birth abortion ban in 2007, Ginsburg wrote a scathing dissent, saying the court's reasoning "reflects ancient notions about women's place in the family and under the Constitution - ideas that have long since been discredited."
#1
She admitted to what legal abortion is all about. It's Politically Correct Ethnic Cleansing.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/09/2009 14:53 Comments ||
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#2
And who, pray tell, makes the decisions about who gets the Hoover and who gets to be born? What is their authority, and where do they get it? And who is to prevent somebody from assuming authority and deciding who serves no more purpose and must be put to sleep, including SCOTUS justices?
We see who these advocates truly are.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/09/2009 15:20 Comments ||
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#3
The problem is that it was the middle class that opted for full application rather than the Margret Sanger target of immigrants and blacks.
#4
How can the reporter hear that and not ask a followup question?
Posted by: Matt ||
07/09/2009 15:30 Comments ||
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#5
Conservatives catch a lot of crap when they try to equate Darwin and modern progressive liberalism. But one part of that connection is most assuredly true: that of 'social Darwinism', which led to eugenics, which the progressives of the early 1900s (and their successors, the socialists and the fascists) enthusiastically embraced. There's a strong history of people like Sanger, those in and out of our government, on the European side, and elsewhere who embraced birth control and abortion as ways of removing 'unwanted' or 'inferior' (pick your term) people.
Progressives, socialists and fascists back then had the disturbing tendency to describe such unwanted and inferiors in terms of class and/or race and ethnicity. Those thoughts persist today. It's why all such intellectuals attack the Catholic Church which (correctly) rejects the notion of inferiority and class distinction and which makes clear that all humans are equal in the eyes of God.
The progressive movement in the U.S. favored abortion and contraception PRECISELY because it would remove those individuals who were judged to impede the progress towards a perfect society.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/09/2009 15:40 Comments ||
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#6
How can the reporter hear that and not ask a followup question?
You would think that would be quite a bombshell. Unless the reporter implicitly understood, and perhaps, agreed with the meaning.
#7
cleansing America of unwanted populations by aborting them
Little known fact:
2) 80% of the Asian babies aborted in California are female. Isn't Feminism grand?
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/09/2009 16:49 Comments ||
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#8
But, but, but, it's the logistics! No huge facilities or railways are needed and Rowe VS Wade is much cheaper than Zyclone B. "Choice" ist der Lebensborn! Get over it. [angry snark]
#9
I like the way she just cavalierly tosses that out there, without even thinking about the implications of what she said, like she won't even get called on it.
Of course, that's easy to when you know you won't...
#11
and a refresher on when Juice were "population of groups 'that we don't want to have too many of.'", but then she's comfortably ensconced in a nation without immediate danger of religious cleansing, protected by security. What does she care about others? Her high moral ground precludes us from speculating she's a tool
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/09/2009 20:00 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) take their places with junior G8 delegates for a family photo at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, July 9, 2009. Leaders of the Group of Eight major industrial nations and the main developing economies are meeting in the central Italian city of L'Aquila until Friday to discuss issues ranging from global economic stimulus to climate change and oil prices.
WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she expects Democrats who have accused senior CIA officials of repeatedly misleading Congress to further pursue the allegations. 
