Our new commercial will be running this morning on Fox News between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m EST time.

Move America Forward has unveiled a TV commercial demanding that the Berkeley City Council rescind the free parking spaces and sound permits it gave to Code Pink and councilmembers apologize for calling our Marines "unwanted intruders."

Until the council reverses course and corrects its anti-military resolutions, we will fight them. We will NOT stand down.

We are proud of the commercial and proud of our troops.

Move America Forward is proud to unveil our brand-new TV ad that fights back against the Berkeley City Council's campaign against our military.

Watch the ad, share it with others - please time is of the essence, and we must get this passed around the Internet ASAP!

We begin airing the ad on the television airwaves next week. So we have between now and then to raise as much money as possible to purchase airtime for the ads - they'll run nationwide (but we need financial support to get them seen enough times!)

Contribute Online here:

Or use this link to donate: http://www.moveamericaforward.org/index.php/MAF/Contribute

Patriots such as Michelle Malkin are reporting this story in depth:

A companion bill in the House is now being prepared.

Berkeley, CA City Council Roster and Contact Information: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/general/councilroster.html 

Is he a liar, a cheater and a beater? Or a wronged lover spurned by his married girlfriend?

The "other man" who is at the center of a sex scandal involving Democrat Nadia Lockyer - an Alameda County Supervisor - and her husband Bill Lockyer, who is the California State Treasurer - is speaking out.

Stephen Chikhani is darkly hinting that there is more than just a "sex tape" that his ex-girlfriend has to worry about

This scandal has "legs" and we aren't talking about knobby knees here.

An 80-year old Billionaire (despised by most of the world) who dated a woman young enough to be his granddaughter backed out of a promised love nest. And now she's suing. Big surprise.

Updated: Wed., Feb. 29, 2012, 10:09 AM

Fox News Reporter Douglas Kennedy arrested over baby tussle. Weird story of the week.

Maternity nurse Cari Luciano says she was stunned to be in scrap with Douglas Kennedy

Husband claims his petite wife was just trying to do her job at Northern Westchester Hospital

0 StumbleUpon

Tumblr

0 Digg

Reddit

Email

Print

Douglas Kennedy and his wife Molly with their son Boru.

When losers lie

Dr. Peter Gleick is a rock star amongst the climate change crowd.  He has penned lengthy articles about global warming, received a MacArthur “genius award,” and has even testified before Congress.  Gleick also runs the nonprofit Pacific Institute in Oakland—an organization dedicated to teaching global warming as absolute fact in America’s public schools.

But now the Berkeley resident finds himself at the center of a national scandal of his own making: using a phony name to obtain confidential documents from the Heartland Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank known for its skeptical stand on global warming.  Ironically, Gleick chairs the Scientific Ethics panel for the American Geophysical Union—or at least he did.  Gleick resigned yesterday as a result of his pathetic failings.

Monday, Gleick stunned the scientific community, via his blog at the Huffington Post, admitting he was guilty of fraudulently obtaining the Heartland documents.

According to Heartland officials, Gleick actually posed as a member of their board in order to receive the proprietary information, which he then distributed on the Internet.

Meantime, Dr. Glieck may be up for criminal charges.  The documents he admits to stealing contained personal information about Heartland staff members and donors, which could violate their privacy and endanger their personal safety.

READ THE REST: http://www.briansussman.com/news/when-losers-lie/

Dogs of Mardi Gras and Carnival

Friday February 17, 2012 - Bay Area Tea Party Movement Finger Wags "Nobama"

On February 16, 2012, the Bay Area Tea Party Movement protested outside the San Francisco Masonic Center as President Obama held a major fundraiser. Principal Tea Party organizer Sally Zelikovsky, of Bay Area Patriots, estimated 200 men and women in the group's designated protest area -- at full capacity with spillover.

In the adjacent protest area was a much smaller group, a mix of Occupy Wall Street activists from around the Bay Area and marijuana legalization advocates (smoking up a storm). OWS held a number of signs supporting Obama's national contraception/abortifacient insurance mandate. Legalization advocates held placards that said "Let States Regulate!" (marijuana). The groups protested together, oblivious to the contradiction of "Let States Regulate!" and a national healthcare insurance mandate which prohibits states from setting their own insurance standards.

According to sfgate.com, "Obama's San Francisco day was light on policy and heavy on fundraising: The president starred at a pair of $38,500-per-person fundraisers, including one with high-tech business leaders that reporters were not allowed to attend. More than 2,500 people were also at the Masonic event, where tickets started at $100. That was Obama's fourth fundraiser of the day. He began with a breakfast in Orange County. Proceeds from the events go to the Obama Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee authorized by his presidential campaign, Obama for America, and the Democratic National Committee."

READ THE REST: http://fund47.blogspot.com/

More from CitySquared :

Tea Party Protests Obama in San Francisco

San Francisco's Nob Hill was home to many of the famous 19th century "robber barons," the crony capitalists of their day. So it is natural that Pres. Obama would hold fundraisers there. Thursday (yesterday) afternoon, he was at the Marc Hopkins Hotel, a luxury hotel named after a railroad robber baron. In the evening he moved to Nob Hill Masonic Center. The San Francisco Police allowed protesters to assemble along the opposite side of California Street with one section for the Tea Party and one for left-wingers. Hundreds arrived for the Tea Party, seen here standing in front of Grace Cathedral:Here is another view of the Tea Partiers:
The nun, shown above checking text messages on her cell phone, was among those outraged by Obama's decision to require churches to provide abortifacients to their employees.

Good liberals were, of course, incensed that Gov. Brewer would have the audacity to wag her finger at Obama last month. At the San Francisco Weekly, one local reporter, Erin Sherbert, responded with a piece headlined:

Obama Coming to San Francisco, Where Nobody Will Wag Their Fingers in His Face

Naturally, the SF Bay Area Patriots responded by making the theme for this rally to be "wag your finger" at Obama. The red plastic fingers seen below were labeled "Nobama":
The crowd on the Tea Party side, as seen above, was packed shoulder-to-shoulder. The left/liberal/occupy side of the gates was less well attended:
There was a brief flurry of activity on the left side when the pro-marijuana protesters arrived:
By the smell of it, they had been partying before hand. They left not long after they arrived. One can only speculate that, suffering from a case of the munchies, they had to go in search of food.

The occupy group was represented, for example, by this man:
Lastly, this woman, from the Tea Party side, tells Obama to "keep your (lack of) morality off my church":
This protest was organized by the San Francisco Bay Area Patriots and supported by the North Bay Patriots (Marin County) and MyLiberty (San Mateo County).

For many more photos of this event, see Fund47.

Labels: California, Obama, Occupy, Tea Party

I'm going cruising next September through some of the most FABULOUS travel destinations you can imagine on the Regent Seven Seas ship through Sterling travel. You can come too. (Details at www.ksfo.com )

We will be stopping in Barcelona, Cannes, Provence, and many other spiffy spots.

I thought that I would do some early packing for the trip.

San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi is facing charges of domestic abuse of his wife in front of his two year old son, Theo.

The top cop says that his problems are a "private, family matter."

Domestic Violence is NEVER a private, family matter.

Toss Ross petitions available at Facebook. Contribute to a fund to post a giant billboard here.

Ross Mirkarimi talks to reporters after a Family Court hearing in San Francisco, February 8, 2012. (CBS)

KSFO Morning Show Team Melanie Morgan, Mark Williams and Katie Green practicing "Brady-ing" after mastering "Tebowing" earlier this year.

Thursday February 9, 2012 - Firefighter's Helmet Camera Captures Dramatic Rescue

ALAMEDA COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- Three children were saved from a fire in the East Bay and one had to be dropped from the second floor to escape the flames. The dramatic rescue was captured on a helmet camera worn by a firefighter. A mother lifted her child over a second-story railing and into the hands of a waiting firefighter.

The emergency call came just after 7 a.m. and because of new technology, the public gets a chance to see what it's like to be a first responder.

Frightened and panicked neighbors could be heard screaming, calling out for firefighters to save the children trapped inside a burning apartment in the Ashland area, just outside San Leandro.

As we slow down the video, you can see a woman handing a child off to firefighters waiting below, while flames and smoke nip at her heels.

"We had heavy fire showing from the first floor window, we had a confirmed rescue on the second floor," said Tom Pappas with the Alameda County Fire Department.

In the video, you can see a firefighter work his way through a thick curtain of smoke. It's Pappas -- a man with more than two decades of service under his belt and the only one on the team with a new tool being tested by the Alameda County Fire Department, a helmet cam.

"A lot of the family members weren't able to get out and we had neighbors and parents saying that there younger children were still trapped on the second floor," said Pappas.

In the video, you can see the firefighter go up the stairs of the apartment and enter the building. He first faces a thick, black plume of smoke. You can hear Pappas calling out to the children he later found scared and hiding in a closet. He and his team are using the camera, attached to his helmet, to review their procedures and provide the public with a first-person view of the dangers they face and how every second counts when it comes to saving lives.

"It was a very chaotic scene when we first arrived," said Pappas.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=8535042

First published March 19, 2009

39 years after one of San Francisco's finest was murdered in a bomb blast, his case is as cold as the frozen tundra of  ANWAR. But finding Sgt. Brian V. McDonnell's killer is easier than you might think. All you have to do is try looking in Chicago's tony Hyde Park neighborhood...just a block or two away from President Obama's handsome brick tudor.

That's where you'll find Bill Ayers, and his bat-crazy wife Bernadine Dohrn, who once again find themselves in the cross-hairs of truth tellers  for their alleged part in the murder of a San Francisco police officer February 16, 1970.

Sgt. Brian V. McDonnell was working the Parkside station when a bomb went off, shredding his body with shrapnel. He died an excruciatingly painful death hours later.

His emotionally wounded family has never recieved justice. And under this administration, I doubt they ever will.

That's because Dohrn and Ayers are friends, neighbors, colleagues, and fellow board members with President Barack Obama. And oh yes - they threw the very first fund-raiser for Obama's nascent political career.

The former members of the violent group Weather Underground were responsible for over a dozen bombings during their heyday in the sixties. But they have never served a day in jail, because of technical errors by police investigators.

Today in Washington, D.C. the man who infiltrated the Weather Underground for the FBI is holding a news conference to renew pressure on the Department of Justice to re-open the investigation, with the assistance of Accuracy in Media, which has spent years writing and researching this story.

Larry Grathwohl, whom my organization Move America Forward flew to San Francisco two months ago as part of a demonstration at St. Mary's College against Ayers appearance, will be speaking today for Officer McDonnell's family and the rule of law.  Joining him will be (ret.) Sgt. James Pera, who has continued his three decade long campaign for justice in the murder of his Sargent.

In this morning's San Francisco Chronicle, a reporter by the name of Damien Bulwa wrote an outrageously biased piece, attempting to link Grathwohl to a political ideology instead of a fearless effort to find the truth, and prosecute the evil ones. The  San Francisco police union is taking up the cause, and flat-out charged Ayers with being responsible for a fellow officer's murder.

Larry Grathwohl, former FBI informant

According to Bulwa's reporting  "the union's accusation surprised some authorities. According to a source familiar with the probe, who spoke on condition of anonymity, investigators have found no evidence that links the Weather Underground to the bombing."

This statement is journalistic malpractice. Many people involved in this investigation (including the FBI) have said that there is plenty of evidence to warrant new scrutiny and in fact, is re-opening the case, according to Grathwohl.

The 'net has another take from YidtheLid about the situation.

I applaud Gary Delagnes and the SF police union for speaking out loudly today about the injustice and the need to go forward with a full criminal investigation by the FBI.

There will be many more stories about this situation, but will anything happen for the McDonnell family, who lost their father, son, brother, and hero?

As a person who has worked on a cold case for more than 30 years, I understand how damned hard it is to bring this kind of case to a conclusion. But we can only pray, and work hard to help Larry Grathwohl, and James Pera, who saw his boss blown to pieces 39 years ago, to tell what they know about criminal masterminds turned mild mannered college professors William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn.

Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine that someone could be so low (nor stupid) as to threaten Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, of 19 kids and Counting Fame ...but the story is true. Sad, but true.

TLC/Beth Hall(DES
MOINES, Iowa) -- An Iowa photographer has been charged with extortion for
allegedly threatening to sell racy photos of a 19 Kids and Counting
cast member if TLC did not cancel the show.

According to the Des
Moines Register, the FBI claims Teresa Sullivan Hunt sent a letter to TLC’s
parent company, Discovery Communications, in early January, demanding it either
pull the plug on 19 Kids and Counting or pay her $10,000. According to
an FBI affidavit, she allegedly said if Discovery did not comply with her
demands, she would sell photos of a cast member, “in apparently intimate
situations with a musician” who performs in Missouri.

Long awaited ruling on Prop 8 handed down this morning and the gay community has broken out in sparkles everywhere!

Justin Sullivan/Getty
Images(SAN FRANCISCO) -- A federal appeals court in California on
Tuesday struck down Proposition 8, the controversial ballot measure passed in
2008 with 52 percent of the vote that defines marriage as between a man and a
woman.

About 18,ooo same sex couples had obtained marriage licenses in
the state before the ballot initiative was passed.

Prop 8 “amounts to a
distinct constitutional violation because the Equal Protection Clause protects
minority groups from being targeted for the deprivation of an existing right
without legitimate reason,” the court said.

“By using their initiative
power to target a minority group and withdraw a right that it possessed, without
a legitimate reason for doing so, the People of California violated the Equal
Protection Clause.”

Judge Steven Reinhardt, writing for the majority,
said the court had decided the issue on the “narrowest grounds.”

“We do
not doubt the importance of the more general questions presented to us
concerning the rights of same-sex couples to marry, nor do we doubt that these
questions will likely be resolved in other states, and for the nation as a
whole, by other courts,” he wrote. “For now, it suffices to conclude that the
People of California may not, consistent with the Federal Constitution, add to
their state Constitution a provision that has no more practical effect than to
strip gays and lesbians of their right to use the official designation that the
State and society give to committed relationships, thereby adversely affecting
the status and dignity of the members of a disfavored class.”

The narrow
ruling, specific to California, means the case is less likely to reach the
Supreme Court.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

...why is the President of the United States igniting a religious war right before a re-election campaign?

What does he have to win by alienating Catholics over birth control and abortion? Does he have access to some mystery polling showing that Catholics don't care about these issues because if he does, he certainly very very wrong.

This one, folks, is a head scratcher.

Fox News thinks so....I think it was a) most annoying and b) pathetic. Actors should never be show hosts unless your name is Billy Crystal or Bob Hope. Ann Hathaway was just ridiculous. Her main function on the show was to wear sparkly dresses and 'do's plus holler a lot.

Damned irritating.

• • - +
• February 27, 2011 | 11:42 PM ET

  Oscar Flash Poll: Was this the most boring Oscars ever?

  

  (AP)

  The 83rd Annual Academy Awards started out strong enough. Anne Hathaway and James Franco were funny, the stars seemed excited to be there, and Celine Dion had not sung us to sleep yet.

  And then, something happened: it became painfully boring.

  Sure, Melissa Leo dropped an F-bomb, James Franco dressed in drag....

  But then there were about 5 million tributes.

  And then, before we knew it (that's a lie, we counted every second), it was two-and-a-half hours into the show and nearly none of the major awards had been presented.

  Overall, even our very own Dr. Oscar was bored. And that's not a good sign.

  But hey, maybe we're just jaded. Maybe it was the most exciting moment of television any of you can remember.

  Ha, we doubt it.

  But cast your vote below.

  Was this the worst Oscars ever?

  Yes, absolutely
  No, I loved it
  It was definitely bad, but not the worst

  VoteView Results
  Share ThisPolldaddy.com

  

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0211/Anonymous_takes_down_Americans_for_Prosperity_website.html

The online activist group "anonymous," which has used coordinated denial of service attacks -- a crude but effective Internet weapon -- to temporary disable sites belonging to foes ranging from Scientology to WikiLeaks foes -- has turned its firepower on the Koch-backed conservative group Americans for Prosperity, making the group's site intermittently unavailable tonight.

From the typically immodest press release, which begins, "Dear Citizens of the United States of America":

It has come to our attention that the brothers, David and Charles Koch--the billionaire owners of Koch Industries--have long attempted to usurp American Democracy. Their actions to undermine the legitimate political process in Wisconsin are the final straw. Starting today we fight back.

...Anonymous cannot ignore the plight of the citizen-workers of Wisconsin, or the opportunity to fight for the people in America's broken political system. For these reasons, we feel that the Koch brothers threaten the United States democratic system and, by extension, all freedom-loving individuals everywhere. As such, we have no choice but to spread the word of the Koch brothers' political manipulation, their single-minded intent and the insidious truth of their actions in Wisconsin, for all to witness.

...Anonymous hears the voice of the downtrodden American people, whose rights and liberties are being systematically removed one by one, even when their own government refuses to listen or worse - is complicit in these attacks. We are actively seeking vulnerabilities, but in the mean time we are calling for all supporters of true Democracy, and Freedom of The People, to boycott all Koch Industries' paper products. We welcome unions across the globe to join us in this boycott to show that you will not allow big business to dictate your freedom.

The DNS attack appears to have made Americans for Prosperity's website intermittently unavailable, but it will likely also help establish AfP among conservatives as the key group at Governor Scott Walker's side.

www.fox40.com/news/headlines/ktxl-sac-nonprofit-sends-superbowl-cheer-to-troops-20110224,0,4066412.story

Sac Non-Profit Sends Superbowl Cheer to Troops

The national non-profit Move America Forward is used to filling boxes for troops at its Sacramento headquarters.

Your typical care package has everything from hygiene items like deoderant and chapstick, to treats like jelly bellies and beef jerky-- but now a group from Madison, Wisconsin will get a little extra flavor from home.

Like Super Bowl towels and penants.

"We had a little competition to see how much money the Steelers fans could raise vs the Packers fans," said Danny Gonzalez with Move America Forward.

Donations from the Packer fans doubled donations from Steeler fans-- so to celebrtae both wins...."What we're doing now is sending these care packages to troops in Afghanistan from Madison, Wisconsin," said Gonzalez.

The 400 boxes will ship out Friday-- since the group started in 2006 -- nearly 190 tons of packages have reached troops.

"This mixes it up, reminds people of something they enjoy, watching the super bowl," said Gonzalez.

For more information: www.moveamericaforward.org

Copyright © 2011, KTXL-TV

Mirror, Mirror on the wall ...who loves Barack Obama most of all? And the polling shows .....Hawaii and D.C.!

PRINCETON, NJ -- Residents of Hawaii gave native son President Barack Obama the highest average 2010 job approval rating (66%) of any of the 50 states, surpassed only by the 84% Obama received in the District of Columbia. Obama's lowest average state approval rating in 2010 was 28% in Wyoming.

Tea Party Leaders in letter to Wisconsin Gov. Walker: Stand Strong!

**

Is Obama preparing for martial law?  For insurrection?  For a “crisis”? Would a Canadian soldier hesitate to fire on an American citizen if ordered to do so?  Are they getting ready?

**

Don’t you love it?  A child has to present his city of birth and last four digits of his Social Security number in order to submit a doodle drawing to a Google-sponsored contest.

But if your name is Barack Hussein Obama, and you want to president?  No birth certificate or city of birth or Social Security number (of which it is said he has several) needed. - Google.  Doing no evil.  Sorta.

**

You know those firefighters unions and police unions marching with the Wisconsin teachers?  How long until there’s some sign you need to have in your yard supporting unions, and if you don’t have that sign, the fire department lets your house burn down? Solidarity.

**

And now, time for some humor.

**

From Jack Cashill, author.

Friends, I need your help. 

One week ago my book "Deconstructing Obama" hit the bookstores.   We had an excellent first week—hovering in Amazon's Top 100—but we can continue this progress only if you urge your friends to read the book and to pressure the media to review it. 

Right now, the respectable conservative media are afraid to look, and the mainstream media are hoping they stay afraid.  The following article (below) explains the dynamics.  Anything you can do to help will be greatly appreciated! 

Thanks,

Jack

First lady Michelle Obama said, “Let’s Move!” Who knew Democratic politicians in Wisconsin and Indiana would take her literally?

Faced with stifling debt, bloated pensions and intractable government unions, liberal Midwestern legislators have fled those states — paralyzing Republican fiscal reform efforts. Like Monty Python’s Brave Sir Robin and his band of quivering knights, these elected officials have only one plan when confronted with political hardship or economic peril: Run away, run away, run away.

Scores of Fleebagger Democrats are now in hiding in neighboring Illinois, the nation’s sanctuary for political crooks and corruptocrats. Soon, area hotels will be announcing a special discount rate for card-carrying FleePAC winter convention registrants. Question: Will the White House count the economic stimulus from the mass Democratic exodus to Illinois as jobs “saved” or “created”? More important question: How much are taxpayers being charged for these obstructionist vacations?

Voters have spoken: In Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and across the heartland, they put Republican adults in charge of cleaning up profligate Democrat-engineered messes. Instead of defending their same old tax-hiking, union-protecting, spending-addicted ways, Democrats are crossing their state borders into big government sanctuary zones — screaming “la, la, la, we can’t hear you” all the way.

Read more here.

OIL SPIKE: Libya teeters on edge of civil war...
'1,000 People' Killed in Protests...
$4 Gasoline? Yes in California... $5?
Highest Prices in February Since 1990...
Hundreds back FACEBOOK call for Saudi protest...
Uprising Could Mean $140-Plus...
King boosts economic benefits to citizens...

$98?

FrontPage Magazine, February 22, 2011

The world has marveled at how Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution caused a domino effect bringing down Egyptian President Mubarak and sparking uprisings throughout the region and beyond, as far away as Venezuela, Albania and Belarus. Now, the unrest has spread to China and almost every single country in the Middle East and it shows no sign of stopping any time soon.

The Chinese authorities reacted quickly on Sunday after word got out about planned protests in Beijing, Shanghai and 11 other cities. Over 100 activists were arrested nationwide or put under house arrest and large amounts of security personnel were deployed to the meeting places. Internet sites were censored and the word “jasmine” was blocked from being searched on Twitter and other social networking sites. Hundreds were still able to assemble in Beijing and Shanghai and now the Communist Party is discussing more ways to censor the Internet and control the flow of information.

The Jasmine Revolution has also come to Venezuela. Less than 10 activists began a hunger strike on January 31 to demand that the Organization of American States investigate human rights abuses by Chavez. Now up to 65 people are participating and Chavez has been force to acknowledge them, accusing them of being stooges of the United States. The Justice and Interior Minister met with them and says the government will consider their demands...

Click here <http://www.uc4i.org/news/?p=6379>  for the complete article, or copy and paste this link into your web browser:

http://www.uc4i.org/news/?p=6379

________________________________

Big Journalism reports on the latest corrupt conflict of interest involving the FCC: 

So much for objectivity. One of the FCC stipulations of the Comcast – NBCU merger was the incorporation of non-profit journalism centers into NBC newsrooms. They are charged with maintaining and increasing local news coverage, the regulation based on the relationship between KNSD-TV and VoiceofSanDiego.org.

KNSD airs the segments, but really can’t take all the credit for them. They are largely the work ofVoiceOfSanDiego.org, a local nonprofit journalism center that has been sharing news tips, co-producing and supplying content to the station for several years.

Under the terms of the FCC order approving Comcast’s takeover of NBCU, at least half of NBC’s 10 O&Os have to find a nonprofit news center with which to work within the next year. The order cites the KNSD-VoiceOfSanDiego.org alliance as the model for what it would like to see in other NBC markets.

Proponents of the growing nonprofit news movement are hoping that NBC’s FCC-mandated efforts will bear fruit and encourage other commercial TV stations to seek out nonprofit partners.

There’s just one problem with this: Voice of San Diego is a member of INN (Investigative News Network) which is funded by the Open Society Institute, the URL of which is “www.soros.org.” Yes, these “non-profit” journalism centers are funded by George Soros.

You don’t think that may cause just the slightest conflict of interest? The man whose goal is to omit conservative voices from the airwaves, who pays people to do nothing but follow Fox News all day long and write froshy diatribes on it. The man whose idea of “open and tolerant” is to use the words against anyone who would disagree with his self-classified brand of “openness and tolerance” by promoting free dissent as closed and intolerant. 

Since its founding less than two years ago, the Investigative News Network, a nonprofit news umbrella organization, says its membership has grown from 20 to 53.

At this point, says INN CEO Kevin Davis, most of the centers are funded through grants from foundations like Knight and McCormick. Others get support from universities and private donations, he says.

People who have an economic interest in the fall of the American economic system, who rail against the freedoms our Constitution affords, and who actively targets private citizens through their mass of James Bond-esque front groups (King Street Patriots comes to mind) are completely free to invest in newsrooms but they are not free to cut a deal with the FCC to have the inclusion of their group be a mandate for a merger.

American media is so desperate to save their skins that they’ve sold their souls. They’re free to do so, but please don’t speak anymore of the freedom of the press. There is no “non-profit” about any of this. “Profit” isn’t always greenbacks and returns on investments aren’t always bankable. No, the “profit” is something far greater: exerted influence over our newsrooms under the guise of providing local news. In instances such as these, the freedom of the press has been replaced by the shareholder’s prerogative, and as a major donor, don’t think for a second that newsrooms won’t toe the line in order to keep the dollars coming. No, there’s no freedom of the press.

The business model is insane and it’s another example of old media refusing the recognize the advantage of partnering with new media. As most major stories are breaking on the Internet, it would have been a perfect opportunity for news media to reach out to their local blogging community and establish a deal in which bloggers could aid with content, AV nerds could aid in production, a true people’s initiative  that doesn’t rely on an entity with competing interests for sustainability.

The idea of journalism has been bastardized and citizens have allowed it. There’s journalism and then there’s gossip, there’s editorialism, which is what you see when you turn on most network news; there’s also voyeurism and activism. Pushing one entity’s interest in contradiction to the Constitution and at the detriment of American interests isn’t journalism. It’s aiding the enemy.

The Net Neutrality Coup: campaign to regulate the Internet funded by who’s who of liberal foundations, Socialists

Soros Gives Media Matters $1 Million to Fight Fox News

George Soros pays for 100 more NPR reporters

The Soros Web and the Spiders Within

CBS News has committed the ultimate journalistic sin ....it covered up a story.

Not just any story.

It is the story of a heinous crime against one of their one, and a narrative that refused to fit the facts in Tahrir Square, Egypt.

It has been left to a Boston talk show host to point out the hypocrisy and dangerous precedent in doing so. Michael Graham (full disclosure: Graham is my friend and fellow journalist who traveled to Iraq to cover the war in 2007) has an excellent read on this shocking story.

Photo by AP/CBS

Dateline — Egypt:

“[60 Minutes] correspondent Lara Logan was repeatedly sexually assaulted by thugs yelling, ‘Jew! Jew!’ as she covered the chaotic fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo’s main square Friday.”

Powerful reporting on an important story. Two problems: It didn’t run until yesterday, and CBS didn’t run it. The quote is from the New York Post. And it was The Wall Street Journal that reported “the separation and assault lasted roughly 20 to 30 minutes.”

But CBS? They sat on their own story. For five days, as reporters reveled amid giddy celebrations in Tahrir Square, and as President Obama praised President Obama’s handling of the Egyptian crisis, CBS reported nothing.

Only when other media had the story did CBS break the news that its own chief foreign correspondent was the victim of “a brutal and sustained sexual assault.”

Five days of silence — not even “60 Minutes” coverage of the Egypt story. No mention of the “mob of more than 200 people whipped into frenzy” who attacked their own reporter.

How is that not news?

Some women journalists, like WGBH’s Callie Crossley, complain that CBS should never have reported the story, that Logan should be treated like a rape victim in the United States. But I’m with liberal columnist Richard Cohen of The Washington Post:

“The sexual assault of a woman in the middle of a public square is a story  . . .  particularly because the crowd in Tahrir Square was almost invariably characterized as friendly and out for nothing but democracy,” Cohen wrote.

Watching the same complicit media we all saw, Cohen notes most journalists covered the mobs “as if they were reporting from Times Square on New Year’s Eve, stopping only at putting on a party hat.”

Even CBS’s own statement said Logan was “covering the jubilation” and was attacked “amidst the celebration.”

Having 200 “good guys” gang assault a female reporter while screaming “Jew! Jew!” doesn’t fit the narrative. Is that why CBS sat on the story?

Or is it the cultural issue? A rape in a bar is a sex crime. But a pack of political protesters who rape a “Jew” in public is a story about culture.

Rapes happen everywhere, it’s true. And political protests are a global phenomenon, too. But as Slate.com’s Rachel Larimore says, “there’s a huge difference between flipping over a truck and spraying friends with beer and prying a woman away from her security detail and sexually assaulting her.”

Larimore wonders if “Logan’s attack [is] an anomaly, or is it to be expected from men raised in a culture that treats women as lesser citizens?”

I would point her to the 2008 broadcast on the Al-Aribiya network of a female (!) lawyer arguing that it’s OK for Muslim men to sexually assault Israeli women, because the Jews have “raped the land.” Or this week’s story of Hena, the 14-year-old Bangladeshi girl raped by a family member, then sentenced to 100 lashes by Muslim authorities for having sex out of wedlock. After 80 lashes, Hena died.

There are stories like this — and Logan’s — every week, all with the same cultural denominator.

For the record, Logan isn’t Jewish. And because she’s not Muslim, there’s no possibility she’ll face the lash.

But Lara Logan is a story. Why did CBS work so hard not to tell it?

~*~

Last month I invited everyone to submit their sentiments to former First Lady Nancy Reagan on the occasion of President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday. So many of you responded, we printed 45 pages which were placed in a presentation folder.  I sent it to Burt Boyar, longtime friend and biographer of the late Sammy Davis Jr. and close friend of Mrs. Reagan’s, who delivered the package to America’s favorite First Lady this afternoon.

The package contained heartfelt messages, essays, and photographs from Americans all over the country.

When Burt brought them to Mrs. Reagan, she exclaimed,  ”My goodness, there are so many of them!”

Burt assured her, “There are a lot of people out there that love you.”  He said judging by the tone of her voice, she was deeply moved by all of you “lovely” people.  I’m sure we’ll hear more from her after she’s had time to read them all.

So let me take this moment to thank all who participated in this gesture of affection for Nancy Reagan, definitely one of the classiest and most elegant First Ladies to have ever graced the people’s White House.

Here’s Burt when he was palling around with Sammy. Seen in the photo is his late wife Jane Boyar.  At the time the photo was taken, Burt was goofing around to cheer Sammy who was in the dumps  – and holding the camera. To learn more about Burt and his friendship with Sammy Davis Jr., read my profile piece at Big Hollywood.

. . . . .

--

THE ANDREA SHEA KING SHOW

 Afghan (dirtbag) president's (dirtbag) brother under investigation by U.S feds. Refresh my memory:

Our troops are taking bullets for these dirtbags WHY? again?

http://www.uncoverage.net/reveille-headlines/

Suez Oil is cut off, Iranian warships on the move, who stands with Israel? and Btw, why are the national media covering this?

http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/02/suez-oil-cut-off-iran-warships-on-the-move-in-suez-canal-who-stands-with-israel/

Steve Jobs seen leaving Palo Alto cancer clinic.....we wish the Apple Chief well.
http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/02/steve-jobs-seen-leaving-palo-alto-cancer-clinic/

Wind power betrayals: Not American, Not Green, and Not Working

http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/02/wind-power-betrayals-not-american-not-green-not-working/ 

Issa Committee issues first subpoenas to the "usual suspects" 

http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/02/darrell-issa-committee-issues-first-subpoenas-to-usual-suspects/

Welcome to new contributing writer, Eileen Hart!  Here are two of her articles:

Jews for Obama--WHY?

http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/02/jews-for-obama-why/

Saeb Erekat: Shilling for the Muslim Brotherhood next?

http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/02/saeb-erekat-shilling-for-the-muslim-brotherhood-next/

CBS reporter Lara Logan raped, beaten by Egyptian mob yelling Jew Jew

The way the national media are covering Egypt and this case ......shameful.

http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/02/cbs-reporter-lara-logan-raped-beaten-by-egyptian-mob-yelling-jewjew/

Top ten reasons why businesses leave California...wow it sucks even more than I thought!

http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/02/top-ten-reasons-why-companies-leave-california/

The Crazy Language of Hate Speech trials...there can only be FREE speech.  Look

at how ridiculous it gets when the government tries to be politically correct.

http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/02/the-crazy-language-of-hate-speech-trials/

Jane Jamison

UNCOVERAGE.net--The Right Idea

 Contributing writers: Dell Hill and Abraxas  

When the biggest spender in America’s history says it’s time for government to live within its means, it is reasonable to ask: Who does President Obama think he’s kidding? http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/15/obamas-budget-blarney/

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio led a field of potential Republican Senate candidates in Arizona with 21 percent in a poll of likely GOP primary voters last week.

Rep. Jeff Flake, who announced his candidacy for the seat of retiring Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) on Monday, finished second with 16.8 percent in the Summit Consulting Group survey. Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth took third, with 16.6 percent. He was unsuccessful in his primary challenge to Sen. John McCain last year.

The auto-dial poll of 1,881 likely GOP primary voters was conducted Thursday. It had a margin of error of 3 percentage points, which would put the top three finishers in a statistical tie.

Coming in fourth was former Rep. John Shadegg at 12 percent, followed by freshman Rep. Ben Quayle at 6 percent. A significant percentage of respondents, 27.5 percent, were undecided.

Arpaio has made national headlines over the years for his tough stance on crime and illegal immigration. It was unclear how much interest he has in running for Senate versus running for re-election as sheriff, but he is being urged by his supporters to pursue the Congressional seat, according to a GOP strategist in Arizona.

Summit disclosed in its polling memo that it is running Arpaio’s re-election campaign for sheriff, that it has previously worked for Flake and that a principal of the firm once advised Hayworth.

Summit conducted a second auto-dial poll Thursday of 1,469 likely Republican primary voters that did not test Arpaio or Quayle. Flake led with 22 percent, followed by Hayworth at 20 percent and Shadegg at 17 percent. It also had a margin of error of 3 points.

A whopping 41 percent were undecided in the second poll, which Summit said was not surprising, given that the survey was conducted so soon after Kyl announced Thursday that he would not seek re-election in 2012.

Both surveys were compiled with data from voters who said they had participated in the past two GOP primary elections, according to the memo.

President Obama released his budget this morning.  Rather than focusing on Washington’s over-spending problem, the budget calls for higher taxes on families and small businesses to pay for even more government spending.  Under the Obama budget, tax revenues will grow from 14.4% of GDP in 2011 to 20% of GDP in 2021.  By comparison, the historical average is only 18% of GDP.

Tax hike lowlights include:

·         Raising the top marginal income tax rate (at which a majority of small business profits face taxation) from 35% to 39.6%.  This is a $709 billion/10 year tax hike

·         Raising the capital gains and dividends rate from 15% to 20%

·         Raising the death tax rate from 35% to 45% and lowering the death tax exemption amount from $5 million ($10 million for couples) to $3.5 million.  This is a $98 billion/ten year tax hike

·         Capping the value of itemized deductions at the 28% bracket rate.  This will effectively cut tax deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions, property taxes, state and local income or sales taxes, out-of-pocket medical expenses, and unreimbursed employee business expenses.  A new means-tested phaseout of itemized deductions limits them even more.  This is a $321 billion/ten year tax hike

·         New bank taxes totaling $33 billion over ten years

·         New international corporate tax hikes totaling $129 billion over ten years

·         New life insurance company taxes totaling $14 billion over ten years

·         Massive new taxes on energy, including LIFO repeal, Superfund, domestic energy manufacturing, and many others totaling $120 billion over ten years

·         Increasing unemployment payroll taxes by $15 billion over ten years

·         Taxing management capital gains in an investment partnership (“carried interest”) as ordinary income.  This is a tax hike of $15 billion over ten years

·         A giveaway to the trial lawyers—not letting companies deduct the cost of punitive damages from a lawsuit settlement.  This is a tax hike of $300 million over ten years

·         Increasing tax penalties, information reporting, and IRS information sharing.  This is a ten-year tax hike of $20 billion.

Add it all together, and this budget is a ten-year, $1.5 trillion tax hike over present law.  That’s $1.5 trillion taken out of the economy and spent on government instead of being used to create jobs.

The “tax relief” in the budget is mostly just an extension of present law, and also some refundable credit outlay spending in the tax code.  There is virtually no new tax relief relative to present law in the President’s budget.

More blogs and posts are added to my CPAC 2011 archives...be sure to see the speeches of Donald Trump,

Lt. Col. Allen West and the Friday seminar on China and North Korea which featured Phyllis Schlafly and

Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (R-Calif.) discussing free/fair trade with China, China's military threat.  This is

information you will NOT get from the mainstream media.   I will have more reports from some of the

very important panel discussions in a few days.

http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/02/uncoverage-net-at-cpac-2011-blog-archives-and-speeches/

More fall-out from the "Muslim influence" at CPAC this year.

http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/02/why-are-conservatives-afraid-of-grover-norquist/
 

CPAC Director David Keene stepped down in the midst of embezzlement allegations and concerns

over his Muslim consulting contracts.

http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/02/cpac-controversy-over-keene-and-khan-far-from-over/

Mubarak transferred billions to safe haven before resigning.....is rumored to be in a coma.

http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/02/mubarak-transferred-billions-to-safe-haven-rumored-to-be-in-coma/

Ashton Kutcher calls President Bush a "poop face???"

http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/02/ashton-kutcher-calls-president-bush-a-poop-face/

Jamison

UNCOVERAGE.net--The Right Idea

 Contributing writers: Dell Hill and Abraxas  

I've been fascinated by George Soros since he single-handedly began the "Bush-Hitler" meme, and used his 200+ worldwide media publications to slander not only our president, but also our country.  I've read everything Soros has ever written (the task ought to get me a citizens medal of something) and have immersed myself in his biography for the past 4 years.  Soros is 80 years old now, but he is still using his every breath to (in his words) "burst the bubble of American supremacy."  He is a naturalized American citizen, but dreams of a one-world oligarchy with "wise" people like himself in charge.  Currently, he is working mightily to have the dollar replaced as the world's default currency and is backing "velvet revolutions" in the Middle East and here at home.

Soros is a megalomaniac with a $7 billion wallet, whose stated goal in life was first to destroy George W. Bush and is now, in his words, "to become the conscience of the world."  Soros' conscience is guided by the delusion that there is no such thing as objective truth (and therefore no such thing as a lie), that he never has to "accept the rules imposed by others," and that American hegemony, both economic and political is a hindrance to world peace and prosperity.  He favors a new twist on old world colonialism, which colonizes rich countries (through global taxation and foreign aid programs) to benefit the third world (the former victims of European colonialism). Soros sees himself as the maker of a brand new world without the hindrance of state sovereignty and nation-state borders, someone who will right all the wrongs of past generations.  He is the living, breathing definition of megalomaniac and only those without a speck of wisdom themselves would ever trust a word this man says.

At any rate, Soros continues to be a most interesting player in world economics and politics.  As long as his influence is so gladly accepted by America's own Democratic Party, all good citizens should know everything they can about the man who pulls the strings behind the curtain.  I consider Soros' slander of Bush as a Nazi to be one of the great, true ironies of the century.  Soros actually is a self-admitted Nazi collaborator.  As even the village idiot knows that Bush was not even born when the real George Soros was actually collaborating.  Yet Soros labeled Bush the Nazi.

Very, very interesting.

SOROS AND HIS NAZI PROBLEM:


http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/george-soros-nazi-obsessive/?singlepage=true

Berkeley, Calif. - The nation’s largest grassroots pro-troop organization, Move America Forward, opposes the Berkeley City Council’s latest consideration: bringing former Guantanamo Detainees to live and work in Berkeley. The pro-troop group said that if the City was so eager to meet and live with GITMO detainees, they would be better off doing so in GITMO and has offered to pay for their moving expenses.

“If the Berkeley City Council wants to hang out with GITMO detainees, why do they have to do it at taxpayer expense and the public safety risk to the community?” asked Shawn Callahan, Executive Director of Move America Forward. “We can do them one better, if the Council wants to go live in GITMO where they can hang out with hundreds of terrorists, let them do that instead, we’ll even pay for their flights.”

“It would be absolutely irresponsible for the Berkeley City Council to approve the Peace and Justice Commission’s recommendation.” said Danny Gonzalez, Communications Director of the MAF. “The people of the City of Berkeley should not be saddled with the burden of having to pay for the housing, feeding and training of two former terrorists. If you bring them here, you also have a responsibility to maintain safety. That means keeping Berkeley safe from the former detainee, and keeping the detainee safe from others who may want to hurt him. The average citizen of Berkeley just wants to go about their lives and pay to feed their families, they don’t need this extra burden.”

The Peace and Justice Commission in Berkeley is up to no good again.

Those idiots think it would be just swell to release some maniacs from Guantamo Bay to the citizens of Berkeley. While it is a refreshing idea, the security of sane thinking human beings is at stake.

Round Two can be read here.

I can practically assure you that their actions will NOT go unanswered.

What does Wall Street think of the Huffington Puffington sale to AOL?

Not much.

Apparently, the MSM doesn't like it much either.

"..Did Arianna Huffington just sell out her fellow progressives?

Oh the Irony! Code Pink Leader Medea Benjamin Rescued From Cairo Chaos By America-Loving Egyptian Army Officer 

Last week Big Peace reported on two Code Pink women who were rescued from the chaos in Egypt by Shell Oil.

This week we can report the humiliating irony of virulently anti-U.S. military activist Code Pink co-founder Susan "Medea" Benjamin who was rescued by a U.S. Army trained Egyptian Army officer. Benjamin writes at OpEdNews that she was kidnapped in Cairo by "pro-Mubarak thugs."

According to Benjamin, a taxi in which she was riding was stopped and commandeered by men who confiscated her and her two comrades' passports and ordered the taxi to take them to a government headquarters.

Benjamin said the taxi was stopped at a checkpoint manned by ten soldiers. The officer in charge smiled when he learned Benjamin and her comrades were American and told her, "I love America," as he ordered them freed.

...Three of us, all Americans, were in a taxi driving to the flower market when this fellow stopped our car at gunpoint. His hand on the trigger, he forced us to pull over. Soon we were surrounded by a dozen pro-Mubarak thugs who started yelling in Arabic and broken English that foreigners like us were causing all the trouble in Egypt.

They said they were policemen but none was wearing a uniform. They seized our passports and then four of these characters squeezed into our taxi to "take us to government headquarters." Frantic, we started calling everyone we knew--local lawyers and activists, friends back home, the U.S. Embassy.

Soon the car stopped at an intersection manned by about ten soldiers. The officer in charge peered into the car and asked us where we were from. "Americans," he smiled with approval. "I love America." He started chatting about his training in Ft. Eustis, Virginia, while we sat terrified. To our amazement, he ordered our kidnappers to get out of our taxi, return our passports and let us go. We sped off, not looking back. Our poor taxi driver was shaking. "No flowers," he said. "Hotel." (bold added)

Benjamin has made a career of working to get American soldiers killed by our enemies overseas, while working domestically to destroy the morale of soldiers and their families.

Benjamin and Code Pink have organized protests at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Armed Forces recruiting centers, the Marine Corps officer recruitment center in Berkeley, Ca., and even a White House Halloween party for children of service members where Code Pink has called our soldiers "murderers," "the terrorists," "baby killers," "assassins," and more.

In the wake of the Ft. Hood terrorist attack, Code Pink posted a fundraising appeal and justified the terrorist attack as dissent within the officer corps:

The recent shootings at Ft. Hood and the resignation of top Foreign Service officer Matthew Hoh demonstrate how even our military officers are opposed to US strategy in Afghanistan.

Benjamin has protested many times at the U.S. Army training center for foreign military at Fort Benning. She recently said that next year she'll be protesting again at Fort Benning.

While Benjamin is in Egypt allegedly protesting for democracy, her history shows her to be an activist for communist and Islamic state sponsors of terrorism including Cuba, Iran and Saddam Hussein's Iraq as well as terrorist groups like Hamas.

We will have more on Code Pink's 'flower power' adventures in Egypt in our next article. 

Conservative and liberal intellectual titans took turns this weekend savaging radio and TV talk show host Glenn Beck for his reporting this past week on the alliance between the communist left and radical Islamists. Beck has credited our reporting atBig Government and Big Peace.

Code Pink banner ad as it appeared on the website of The Muslim Brotherhood, January 2010.

In attacking Beck, the trio of D.C./N.Y. elitists displayed a disturbing ignorance of our Nation’s enemies and their tactics to undermine the West and its allies as well as infiltrate Western political establishments–including the presidency of Barack Obama.

Writing at the Weekly Standard, editor Bill Kristol accused Beck of “hysteria” and “inventing” the links between the left and the Islamists. For good measure Kristol plays the “Bircher” card against Beck like Jesse Jackson plays the race card against conservatives:

But hysteria is not a sign of health. When Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society. He’s marginalizing himself, just as his predecessors did back in the early 1960s.

Kristol’s smug assault on Beck was seconded by National Review editor Rich Lowry, who republished Kristol’s attack, saying it was “well-deserved”:

Bill Kristol has an editorial on conservatives and Egypt. He takes a well-deserved shot at Glenn Beck’s latest wild theorizing:

Time Magazine’s Joe Klein gleefully picked up Kristol’s savaging of Beck and jumped in with his own vengeance, calling Beck a “free-range lunatic” for reporting about “his hilarious commie-muslim caliphate delusions” Klein piles on by promoting an alleged whispering campaign by Republicans to get Beck kicked off Fox for hurting “their brand.”

Today, (hat tip/Ben Smith), we have Bill Kristol sticking with the demonstrators and calling out free-range lunatic Glenn Beck, for his hilarious commie-muslim caliphate delusions. This is not unimportant. Kristol lies very close to the throbbing heart of the Fox News sensibility. And I’ve heard, from more than a couple of conservative sources, that prominent Republicans have approached Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes about the potential embarrassment that the paranoid-messianic rodeo clown may bring upon their brand. The speculation is that Beck is on thin ice. His ratings are dropping, too–which, in the end, is a good part of what this is all about. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a mirror-Olbermann situation soon.

Up until Saturday, it was liberals at MSNBC, the Daily Beast and Media Matters who were mocking, but not refuting Beck over his factual reporting of the alliance between the left, radical Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorist groups like Hamas in Egypt.

Kristol’s attack has opened the gates for conservative elites to join liberals in forcing themselves on Beck and venting their welled-up frustration at a him for the crime of spoiling their exclusive elitist worldview.

Bryan Preston at Pajamas Media’s Tatler has been one of the few to defend Beck. In doing so, Preston links to our Big Peace article about Code Pink funding the attempted overthrow of the Egyptian government and the Council on Foreign Relations for Hamas’ ties to the Muslim Brotherhood:

Note to Rich Lowry. Whatever one thinks of Beck, he’s not inventing connections between the American left and the “caliphate promoters.” Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood according to those noted Birchers the Council on Foreign Relations, is among the caliphate promoters, and Code Pink has long been in league with them. What impact that alliance has is certainly debatable, and I doubt that Code Pink is any more effective in Egypt than it has been in the US, but the alliance itself is not an invention of Beck’s.

As a side note, what Preston fails to appreciate is that Code Pink operating in Egypt and Gaza for the past two years has had the ears of President Obama, Hamas, the wife of Hosni Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood and other organizers of the anti-Mubarak protests. One would be hard-pressed to find another group, even our CIA, which is that wired in to Egypt right now.

But at least Preston acknowledges the basic fact of the alliance.

Kristol, Lowry and Klein savage Beck for informing his audience about what has been reported (unrefuted, we might add) at Big Peace and Big Governmentdocumenting the ties between President Obama, Code Pink, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Even Code Pink doesn’t bother to deny what Beck has reported. A statement posted at the Code Pink Web site denies credit for instigating the protests in Egypt, but ignores the group’s ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood as well Code Pink’s ties to former Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn:

Glenn Beck’s dangerous rhetoric – blaming CODEPINK for Egypt Unrest:
Middle East unrest according to Glenn Beck and friends,The Guardian, February 3, 2011

CODEPINK Response:
Of all the things Codepink HAS accomplished this past year we just can’t take credit for the popular uprising in Egypt. Despite allegations that the pro-democracy demonstrators are led by militants and extremists, in fact the millions in Tahrir Square are predominately young people sick and tired of being unemployed in a repressive police state. All many have ever known in the despotic rule of Pres. Mubarak, propped up by $1 billion in aid every year from the U.S. taxpayers.

Crowds in Cairo and other cities also include pharmacists, grandmothers, army officers, former employees of the state controlled t.v. station — and yes, CODEPINK activists whose large pink banner “Solidarity with the Egyptian People! Codepink.org” was photographed in Tahrir and seen around the world.

We are proud of those who call for democracy no matter where in the world they are! And we call on Pres. Mubarak to step down now and allow for an orderly transition to a government of the people, by the people, and for the people!

Code Pink fails to mention the Muslim Brotherhood’s ‘day of rage’ protest a week ago Friday that saw mass riots and images of Cairo burning transmitted around the world.

Also, while demurring on taking credit for the protests, Code Pink has elsewhere claimed to inspire by example the protests.

Here are some facts for Kristol, Lowry, and Klein:

Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans is a Democratic party activist who was tapped as an early fundraiser by Barack Obama. Evans has visited the Obama White House, met with the President and his staff.

Since Obama’s election, Jodie Evans and Code Pink have acted as go betweens from terrorists to Obama.

In recent years, Code Pink has met and worked with Islamic terrorists and state sponsors of terrorism including Iran, Syria, Cuba, Hamas, the Taliban and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Code Pink recently ran banner ads on the English language Web site of the Muslim Brotherhood beseeching the brotherhood and their jihadist readers to “Join us in cleansing our country.”

Code Pink provoked a violent response from the Egyptian government while agitating in Cairo with Ayers, Dohrn and over a thousand global leftists to break the embargo of Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Domestically, Code Pink works with communist groups including the Revolutionary Communist Party, the Workers World Party and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Code Pink co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans are also in the leadership of the Progressive Democrats of America alongside several Democrat members of Congress.

Since the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, the radical left has made common cause with radical Islamists. Beck showed a video compilation documenting that alliance featuring leftist and Islamist speakers at so-called antiwar rallies that were broadcast on C-SPAN.

If he is to be criticized for anything, Beck should be criticized for being so late to recognize the global conspiracy between the left and Islamists to bring down America, Israel and the West. It is true that Islamists want to establish a global caliphate and Marxists want to establish a global communist government. How will the two partners reconcile their different end-goals should they succeed in taking down America? We hope we don’t have to find out.

Code Pink and the left don’t care about democracy in Egypt. Their goal is to take out an American ally and partner with Israel for peace. If you doubt this, read ourBig Peace article detailing Code Pink’s history of subverting American allies like Egypt while propping up our enemies like Iran.

Beck also reported on the rally in California a week ago co-led by Code Pink that called for the lynching of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, and the “quarantine” of conservative financiers the Koch brothers.

Words mean something. When those opposed to America and her allies like Code Pink call for “cleansing” “lynchings” and “quarantines” of their enemies we should be alarmed. Especially so when those calling for such actions work with groups and governments like Hamas, Iran and Cuba who really do “cleanse,” “lynch” and “quarantine” their political enemies.

Kristol, Lowry and Klein should take a stroll outside their elite comfort zones and attend an anti-war rally or so-called pro democracy-for-Egypt rally in New York or D.C. If they did, they would see for themselves examples of the alliance between the left and Islamists in action.

Arianna Huffington aka "Gimme the spotlight NOW" got out of a hot mess with some bucks, though not so much as many media watchers think, and she's got complete editorial control of the Huffington Post in this 315 million dollar sale to America Online (sweetie, I know thatyou have never heard of AOL, but it's an obscure portal that used to be very important when dinosaurs roamed the earth.)

As many posters have blogged - this a good thing.

It outs AOL as the liberal site it has always been.

But it's a rotten deal financially for AOL and I'm not the only one who thinks so.

"..Listen to Nick Denton, who runs Gawker, which now becomes the biggest independent Web-based news outlet. “I’m disappointed in the Huffington Post. I thought Arianna Huffington and Kenny Lerer were reinventing news, rather than simply flipping to a flailing conglomerate,” he told me.

Denton insists he has no intention of ever selling Gawker, and he seems not-so-secretly pleased to see his opponents cashing out: “AOL has gathered so many of our rivals— Huffington Post, Engadget, Techcrunch—in one place. Nick Denton asked the question: Is this a fearsome Internet conglomerate or simply a roach motel for once lively websites?”

Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Sarah Palin, the former Alaskan governor weighing a bid for the presidency in 2012, is keeping her attacks loud and her intentions quiet.

Palin, who claimed that the policies of the Obama administration have put the country on a “road to ruin” in a weekend address celebrating the centennial of former President Ronald Reagan’s birth, will bypass an assembly of the Conservative Political Action Committee this week in Washington. The event has become a proving ground for the Republican Party’s potential candidates for president.

Palin’s moves in the face of will-she or won’t-she questions about the 2012 campaign have captivated Washington, keeping fellow Republicans guessing.

While other possible candidates raise money, hire aides and woo supporters, Palin has made few visits to early primary states. Instead, she focuses on paid speeches, her role as a Fox News contributor, interviews in friendly media forums and Facebook and Twitter postings attacking the Obama administration.

Palin’s strategy has political observers questioning whether the 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee is pioneering a new way to conduct a campaign in a political era dominated by social media.

“She understands it’s a new media and political environment, and she’s taken advantage of her greatest asset, which is the ability to command media attention and to raise money,” says Darrell West, an expert in politics and technology at the Brookings Institution. “If you decide to run for president that’s a powerful combination.”

Celebrity Status

Still, West notes, Palin’s celebrity status has made it tougher for her to “cross that threshold of substance that voters are going to require in any presidential candidate.”

Palin, 46, slammed President Barack Obama’s handling of the uprising in Egypt in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network released yesterday. She likened it to “the 3 a.m. phone call” that Obama’s one-time challenger and now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used in a campaign TV ad to question Obama’s readiness for an international crisis.

“It seems that call went right to the answering machine,” Palin said. “We need to know what it is that America stands for so we know who it is that America will stand with. And we do not have that information yet.”

Palin left the door open to a 2012 presidential bid, saying in the interview that if she ran she would “continue on the same course of not really caring what other people say about me or worrying about the things that they make up, but having that thick skin and a still spine.”

Reagan Celebration

She spoke exclusively to the network in a brief interview following her remarks kicking off the weekend-long celebration of Reagan’s birth in Santa Barbara, California.

Palin focused on a speech Reagan gave in 1964 on behalf of Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, in which he discussed the dangers of high taxes and government regulations.

“We face the same choices now as we did then, only now we are in even worse shape,” she said. “We must see where these unsound policies will ultimately end and that’s in decline and defeat.”

SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS 2011 !!!

Put your cheaters on - today's eyeballs should be perusing Kyle-Anne Shiver's two newest pieces.

On Big Journalism: Is Disillusionment with Media-Created Obama Causing People to Snap?


On Big Government: Hidden Healthcare Reform Agenda: Feds Want to Know You by Your Number

Bay Area Tea Party activists are planning a big pow-wow in Mill Valley, Ca. on March 7th and that has a former Associated Press reporter and Mill Valley resident Deborah Phelan sucking lemons.

It seems that Ms. Phelan wants to SILENCE the Tea Party activists and other Marin County conservatives by shutting them out of the Mill Valley Community Center.

That's right. Phelan wants to deny this group of individuals our constitutionally protected rights to free speech and assembly.

Typical. Liberal. Dopes.

From the Mill Valley Times:

"..Tea Party activists and conservative fellow travelers will converge on the Mill Valley Community Center on March 7 for what¹s being billed as the largest gathering of conservatives in the Bay Area.²

While liberal-leaning Mill Valley may be for an unlikely spot for a regional Tea Party get-together, the political group known as the Bay Area Patriots is nonetheless sounding the rallying cry for Tea Party groups, 9-12 groups, any grassroots organization with conservative principles, taxpayer associations and conservative think tanks, according to its website.

The ticket-only four-hour afternoon session will focus on issues like political networking and strategizing, and give conservative candidates for the House of Representatives and the state Assembly a chance to meet potential supporters.

The Bay Area Patriots describe the Mill Valley session as a chance to expose Bay Area conservatives to the diverse organizations in the region, offering them a glimpse into each groups mission, and to bring groups and individuals under one roof to enhance your organization¹s recruitment and outreach efforts and allow individuals to shop around for a good fit.

Attendees are encouraged to prepare a 10- to 15-second statement to be videotapes and posted on YouTube as part of what the group is calling its ³March Missive to Congress.²

Bay Area Patriots founder Sally Zelikovsky said more than 25 conservative organizations and candidates have purchased tables for the event, and she¹s expecting more than 150 people to attend.

Zelikovsky said the meeting was open to conservative groups of all persuasions. There are lots of different folks on the spectrum getting tables,² she said.

The Bay Area Patriots¹ core principles, according to Zelikovsky:

Limited government, individual rights, free markets and lower taxes.

Asked why her group chose a liberal bastion like Mill Valley for a conservative pow-wow, Zelikovsky, a San Rafael resident, provided entirely practical reasons. With attendees coming from across the Bay Area, she said the group needed a place that was centrally located and could accommodate the size of the crowd at a reasonable rate.

The Mill Valley Community Center is clean, it¹s nice, it¹s well run, Zelikovsky said. Of course, with anyplace in Marin there is irony.

It¹s an irony that doesn¹t sit well with local resident Deborah Phelan, a former AP reporter who now works in public relations.

Infuriated by the images and rhetoric employed by Tea Party groups across the nation, Phelan said city property should not play host to a right-wing get-together.

"We have young kids going there to swim, to go to classes, Phelan said. Do you want your kid to walk by a picture of the president of the U.S. with the horrible things they say about him?"

Phelan has appealed to city officials to cancel the event, but that appears unlikely. Parks and Recreation Director Christine Sansom said the Community Center can¹t discriminate against groups who want to rent the center based on politics. "We can¹t say,We don¹t like what you¹re organization does,¹" Sansom said. "We don¹t evaluate who¹s going to use our facilities."

Zelikovsky said fears like those voiced by Phelan are based on misconceptions. ³This is a very tame crowd of people,² she said.

³These are people who are your neighbors and fellow church-goers ‹ they go to school with your kids. I haven¹t had one incidence of violence at one of our protests, nor property damage afterward.²

Nor will radical, inflammatory images be condoned, Zelikovsky said, adding that only once in all the gatherings she has organized did somebody show up with a sign connecting fascist images to the current administration. ³We asked that person to leave,² she said. ³In our group I haven¹t met anybody who shares those kinds of views.²

Phelan nonetheless says she¹ll keep seeking ways to stop the gathering from taking place in Mill Valley. ³I feel our local government has to make a stand against this movement, which I view as seditious,² she said.

Ann Coulter comes out shootin' ...smokin' hot column today at her website www.anncoulter.com

Keep Annie's words in mind while you see endless crap on TV from Washington on this hokey pokey stupid health care forum.

"...Inasmuch as Obamacare has a snowball's chance in hell of passing (but did you see how much snow they got in hell last week?), everyone is wondering what President Obama is up to by calling Republicans to a televised Reykjavik summit this week to discuss socializing health care.

At least they served beer at the last White House summit this stupid and pointless.

If the president is serious about passing nationalized health care, he ought to be meeting with the Democrats, not the Republicans.

Republicans can't stop the Democrats from socializing health care: They are a tiny minority party in both the House and the Senate. (Note to America: You might want to keep this in mind next time you go to the polls.)

As the Democratic base has been hysterically pointing out, both the House and the Senate have already passed national health care bills. Either body could vote for the other's bill, and -- presto! -- Obama would have a national health care bill, replete with death panels, abortion coverage and lots and lots of new government commissions!

Sadly, as the president's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has noted, the Democratic base is "@#$%^ retarded."

The reason massive Democratic majorities in Congress aren't enough to pass socialist health care is AMERICANS DON'T WANT SOCIALIZED MEDICINE!

In fact, you might say that the nation is in a boiling cauldron of rage against it. Consequently, a lot of Democrats are suddenly having second thoughts about vast new government commissions regulating every aspect of Americans' medical care.

Obama isn't stupid -- he's not seriously trying to get a health care bill passed. The whole purpose of this public "summit" with the minority party is to muddy up the Republicans before the November elections. You know, the elections Democrats are going to lose because of this whole health care thing.

Right now, Americans are hopping mad, swinging a stick and hoping to hit anyone who so much as thinks about nationalizing health care.

If they could, Americans would cut the power to the Capitol, throw everyone out and try to deport them. (Whereas I say: Anyone in Washington, D.C., who can produce an original copy of a valid U.S. birth certificate should be allowed to stay.)

But the Democrats think it's a good strategy to call the Republicans "The Party of No." When it comes to Obamacare, Americans don't want a party of "No," they want a party of "Hell, No!" or, as Rahm Emanuel might say, "*&^%$#@ No!"

It's as if the patient has a minor fever and the Democrats (as doctor in this example) want to cut off his arms and legs. The Republicans want to give the patient two aspirin. "Compromise" means the Republicans agree to amputate only one arm and one leg.

Complaining that Republicans are "obstructionists" is not a damaging charge when most Americans are dying to obstruct the Democrats with a 2-by-4. While you're at it, Democrats, why not call the GOP the "Party of Brave Patriots"?

So Obama's sole objective at the "summit" is to hoodwink Republicans into agreeing with some of his wildly unpopular ideas on national TV. If this were a reality show on NBC, it would be called, "Dateline: To Catch a R.I.N.O."

This shouldn't be hard, inasmuch as he will be talking to elected Republicans. About a third of them were enthusiastically engaging in "bipartisanship" on Obamacare last year -- Chuck Grassley, you know who you are! (That's better than Lindsey Graham, who still wants to compromise.)

And then the American people spoke up.

In town halls and tea parties across the nation, Obama lost the argument with Americans. So now he wants a debating partner who will be less challenging: elected Republicans.

If Republicans were smart, they'd shock the world by sending in one of their most appealing members of Congress, who can speak clearly on health care -- Sen. Jon Kyl, Rep. Steve King or Rep. Ron Paul.
Actually, if the Republicans were really smart, they'd send in 14-year-old Jonathan Krohn, who understands the free market better than most people in Washington. Of course, so does my houseplant.

There are other important points Republicans cannot raise often enough -- such as putting scuzzy medical malpractice lawyers like John Edwards out of business. OK, that wasn't fair: Even trial lawyers are almost never as scuzzy as John Edwards. We want to put them all out of business.

But there's really only one idea the Republicans must cling to -- like they're clinging to their guns and religion! -- in order to resist agreeing to something moronic and losing their advantage as Americans' only allies in Washington.

Please, Republicans, remember the free market -- the same free market that gave us cheap cell phones, computers, flat-screen TVs, and stylish, affordable eyeglasses in about an hour.

Congress needs to outlaw state and federal mandates on insurance companies and allow interstate competition in health insurance.

The end.

Love, the American People. "
COPYRIGHT 2010 ANN COULTER

I'm very pleasantly stunned at the volume of correspondence from longtime listeners, and I want to thank you by being truthful about my abrupt departure. It was forced upon me, with no notice.

While KSFO & KGO were and are profitable, Citadel Broadcasting, the parent company that owns ABC Radio is in bankruptcy.

The top management of Citadel, led by a CEO named Farid Suleiman--widely regarded as the most incompetent executive in broadcasting--decided that I was making too much money after 25 years with ABC and fifteen as morning host on KSFO, taking no note of the fact that I've generated large sums of money for the company.

I was seriously considering retirement at the end of my contract in early July, and I certainly wouldn't have left without saying goodbye. Instead, within one minute of the conclusion of last Thursday's show, I got the word that it HAD been my last one; cut with no notice, in violation of my contract.

This is typical Citadel tactics; they've carried out massacres at many of our sister stations. At the Chicago station, WLS, a highly respected newscaster was pulled from the studio in mid-show, during a commercial break, and fired! There's a certain justice in that outcome: the two management people who carried it out were themselves fired a week later.

Understand, please, that this course was not chosen by the local management of KSFO. Mickey Luckoff and Jack Swanson have been helpful throughout my long run in San Francisco.

I WILL tell you, in all candor, that thanks to Mr. Suleiman's Citadel management, I could no longer proudly say that the company had never told me what to say or what not to say. There was an obvious cave-in to some ultra-left and pro-Muslim groups, making it unlikely that I would have ever renewed my contract with the company, anyway.

While it surprised many people to learn that the program came from Arizona, where I've lived for the past seven years (in the mountains near Tucson), it had been in the papers several times. Since I had exactly the same news sources as in SF, and my colleagues and I could see each other via video link, I never dwelled upon Arizona events which I felt would be of no interest to a largely
California audience. I was hardly "disconnected" from the Bay Area.

Some e-mailers apparently were under the impression that messages sent to me at this address would carry their complaints to management. Not so--if it was sent to this address, it came to me.

I want to convey my lasting respect and affection for Officer Vic, Big Buck and the best producer in radio, Sheri Yee. Our friendship is permanent. I also thank my old friend Melanie for the kind words she posted on her website. We had a lot of laughs together for a lot of years, and I'm hugely relieved that, while serious, her medical problem is treatable.

Susan and I are leaving next week for a cruise, planned long ago. Meantime, I'm adjusting to life with more than four hours sleep per night!

It's not likely that I'll be returning to the airwaves, but nothing is impossible. There are discussions already, but after fifty-plus years in radio/TV, it would take something extraordinary to bring me back.

Since you have demonstrated your good feeling for me, let me share with you my new e-mail address, in the event I'm removed from this site:
[email protected]

Thank you--many times over.

"And now...if you'll excuse me..."

Lee

Another radio legend is tossed out by down-sizing.

This time it happens to be my friend and talk radio mentor and it just makes me sick.

Lee Rodgers, whom I call Desert Rat, or D Rat for short, conducted his last radio show for KSFO radio this morning, although he didn't know it at the time.

Jack Swanson, Vice-President of Operations for KGO and KSFO radio (and my husband) had this to say about the radio legend.

"Some of us have enjoyed long careers here. Lee Rodgers has enjoyed two. First with KGO during the 1980’s and 90’s. And then with KSFO during the 90’s, 00’s and 10’s.When we talk about absolute “pros” in the radio business, Lee defines the term. You will never meet a person in our industry who works harder every day at his craft than Lee.

As many of you know, Lee and his wife Susan moved to Arizona several years ago. Then Lee asked if we could accommodate his need for a reduced 4 day a week program, which we were able to grant with the help of Brian Sussman, who in addition to his own nightly program, also became KSFO’s morning host on Monday mornings.

But for years to come when people talk about mornings on KSFO in San Francisco, they will talk about the great Lee Rodgers.Thank you Lee !"

Myself, I can't say enough good things about Lee - he taught me everything I need to know about politics ("never fall in love with a politican cuz they'll always break your heart") and plenty of cool things about life (Kyoto in the Springtime must be on your bucket list) and has kept me and the San Francisco Bay Area entertained and informed with his radio presence for over 25 years. He took a Seattle sabbatical in the 90's, but that doesn't count.

He tells the worst jokes, and still, I laugh.

He's that funny.

Lee is wicked smart, self-educated, prickly at times, generous to a fault, and extremely opinionated. As if you didn't already know that.

Did I mention he's funny? Yeah, he's really funny.

Rodgers has been married to the same woman for nearly 30 years, and Susan is a saint. Honestly. She loves her man, and he loves her. They are a great couple and a ton of fun to be around.

I got an email from Da Rat about his future plans, life after radio.

"We're going on a retirement cruise next month...ten days in the suth'n Caribbean (St. Maarten, Barbados, etc.) and another to the Med in September. Just have to readjust the body clock."

Lee, me, Miss Yee and OV (Officer Vic) were a team for 14 years.

We sure had a wild ride, recalling a governor, enacting legislation banning cancer-causing chemicals forced on us by environmental whackos, excoriating the dopes in politics, and adopting a lot of puppies (with your help.) Lee also is VERY proud of the fact that he has pissed off Media Matters and other left-wing liberals. There were never enough hours in the day to bitch-slap those people, politcally speaking, of course.

I like to think we had a pretty good show. I like to think we might still make some chin wag together again. Who knows?

But I wish Brian Sussman and Officer Vic a lot of luck, and much success as KSFO radio continues into the future.

Before I get teary eyed (and I hate to cry!) I want to tip my cloche hat to Mr. Rodgers ...I'll miss him in my neighborhood.

I was clicking through at Instapundit.com and stumbled on this interesting bit:

"...Big Government has learned that Clintonistas are plotting a “push/pull” strategy. They plan to identify 7-8 national figures active in the tea party movement and engage in deep opposition research on them. If possible, they will identify one or two they can perhaps ‘turn’, either with money or threats, to create a mole in the movement. The others will be subjected to a full-on smear campaign. (Has MSNBC already been notified?)

Big Government has also learned that James Carville will head up the effort."

Andrew Breitbart's Big Government has a BIG story here. It's a re-visiting of the Clinton Opposition Research years in which anyone with a critical word about Hill and Bill were subjected to deep background research to smear them, as the crocodile tears flowed during the endless whine about "stopping the politics of personal destruction."

No. We can't let this happen.

James Carville, Mandy Gruenwald, Doug Schoen and the rest of the Clintonistas were the ones hiring the Oppo Research guys, hidden away in a basement dungeon with computers and private eye reports, all of which completely thrilled Hillary as she cackled about their disgusting work.

I smell cordite. And the political backfire will leave the Democrats smudged with their own dirt.

Watch and see.

"Open a vein before you vote for McCain."

Melanie Morgan, August 2007, KSFO Morning Show

Did you ever wonder if your number was up? I usually don't dwell on that question or anything even remotely like it. It's just not in my DNA to be anything other than optimistic and revel in a perpetual sense of denial about my own mortality.

Consequently, these past four months have been some of the most humbling, trippy, awesome and mind-blowing of my life, and that's before the drugs and alcohol. (Just kidding.)

For those of you who are paying attention ( and goodness knows why you are interested, but I'm grateful) I resigned my dream job in Washington, D.C. and jetted out of Dulles January 15th on a cross-country flight home to San Francisco. I rented out my house in Northern Virginia, and took my home off the market in Marin County.

When I got back to town, I marched my ass over to UCSF Hospital in San Francisco and proceeded with the poking and prodding and pricking that comes with a slew of medical test that you are scared to skip, and even more frightened to get answers to.

I had an initial diagnosis (back in D.C.) of thyroid cancer. Some of my Doctors were afraid it was malignant. Others, not so sure.

But on Friday, I got the word that sent a wave of relief higher than the water in Half Moon Bay last week.

I am not going to die. At least, not yet.

So while I will be having some surgery for the six nodules (or tumors) on my neck in the future, I won't be worried about spreading cancer cells throughout my body.

I don't pretend to be a deep person with any special insight on the world around me, or even about myself. But I do know that the hand of God has caressed me and the prayers of thousands of people, my friends and family, but most of whom are strangers, assuredly had a great deal to do with my good fortune.

My deepest gratitude to all of you who have written to me and taken time out of your life to assure me when things got a bit on the shaky side.

God Bless all of you.

Mel

p.s. I was about to take a gratituous shot at the liberals who wrote me with colorful death wishes - but screw it. I'm in a good mood and I don't want to wreck it :-)

p.p.s.

Yippee Ki Yay! I got some livin' to do! Maybe I'll get me one of those choppers like I saw on TV.

Or maybe I'll just eat an extra slice of chocolate cake. What will you do with your lease on life?

My sources say that Larry Kudlow is toying with the idea of making a run against Chuck Schumer in New York.

That's a tough play but after reading Kudlow's newest OpEd piece, I'll move to New York to vote for him! (But I would have to scamper back because nothin' beats California, any day, anytime.)

"...The disconnect between Washington and the rest of the country has never been greater. Why can't the political class in the District of Columbia produce a fiscal product that voters, taxpayers and investors are willing to consume?

According to The Washington Post, voters want smaller government and fewer government services by a large 58 percent to 38 percent margin. Pollster Scott Rasmussen reveals that 61 percent of voters believe tax cuts help the economy, that 59 percent think tax cuts are a better job-creation tool than increased government spending and that another 59 percent believe higher deficits hurt the economy.

Rasmussen also reports that a full 83 percent of Americans blame the deficit on the unwillingness of politicians to cut government spending. And get this: In a whopper of a poll result, The New York Times reports that 75 percent of Americans dislike Congress.

This is why there's a political revolt out there. Washington just doesn't get it.

Inside the Beltway, Democrats are sending a profoundly pessimistic message that only government knows best. But out there in the heartland there is an optimistic message that We the People know best. And that heartland optimism will not be stopped.

The future of the U.S. economy -- including jobs, growth and the stock market -- hangs in the balance. Government-controlled health care, with Senate vote-purchasing and union special-interest loopholes, is not the answer. Nor is a $2 trillion tax hike on banks, multinational corporations, capital gains, inheritance and successful upper-income earners. Nor is a doubling of the publicly held federal debt to $19 trillion, or nearly 80 percent of gross domestic product. Nor is a federal spending ratio of 25 percent of the economy. Nor is a budget deficit at a 10 percent share of GDP for as far as the eye can see.

Again, Washington doesn't get it. Politicians are delivering a fiscal product that no one in America wants. It's no wonder small businesses aren't hiring. Yes, there is a cyclical recovery going on, but it is incomplete without the jobs.

The so-called $85 billion jobs program is not a jobs program at all. It is a spending bill. Temporary tax credits to hire new workers have virtually no permanent job-creating effect. In budget terms, these kinds of temporary tax credits are scored as tax expenditures -- i.e., spending. Only a permanent reduction in the marginal business tax rate has the incentive effect for long-run job creation. Reducing the business tax rate makes firms more profitable after-tax. And it gives them more cash flow. Those incentives will work to expand investment and jobs.

And taxing capital is the worst idea of all. That's why the capital-gains tax must not be increased. Plus, raising the top two income tax brackets from 33 percent to 35 percent, and then from 35 percent to 40 percent, thereby penalizing those who own about half of the small-business income, is a job-destroyer.

Why Republicans are flirting with this terrible temporary small-business tax credit is beyond me. This is a moment for the GOP to send a message that it is the party of growth through across-the-board reductions in marginal tax rates -- for everyone. That includes large and small businesses, along with all individuals and families. All producers and investors should get lower tax rates. At a bare minimum, Republicans should be fighting hard to extend the George W. Bush tax cuts on the way to a longer-term goal of low-rate, flat-tax reform.

So no wonder we're witnessing a growing tea-party revolt. I call it tea-party, free-market populism. But one-party partisan stubbornness in Washington just won't listen to it. Democrats refuse to heed the message of the polls, or the election results in Virginia, New Jersey and -- of course -- Massachusetts. They simply will not acknowledge the meaning of Scott Brown's miracle win.

The stock market peak occurred about a month ago, with announcements of a bank tax hike, a corporate tax hike on foreign earnings and a massive spending-and-borrowing federal budget. That's not a coincidence, folks.

While voters may not love the Republicans, they do want political balance back in Washington. They don't want any of this manufactured, left-wing, class-warfare populism. That's why the anti-incumbency mood is so prevalent today and why there is going to be major change in Washington.

What do I think voters want? Traditional, commonsense, center-right free enterprise, which basically says to the government, "Please, let me keep more of what I earn and, please, just leave me alone."

The time has come for our government to get out of the way, allow the American people to prosper, create wealth, build businesses and advance technology, and let the United States be the No. 1 country in the world from now until forever.

It's called optimism."

And may I say how pitifully exuberant I am about this? Yippee! These people are finally gone from the halls of power.

Freakin' awesome.

"...Rhode Island Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy will retire after eight terms in office, bringing an end to his House career just months after his father, legendary Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy, passed away.

"My father instilled in me a deep commitment to public service," Kennedy said in a video announcing his retirement. "Now having spent two decades in politics, my life has taken a new direction and I will not be a candidate for re-election this year."

Kennedy has easily held Rhode Island's 1st district since 1994 despite the occasional attempt by Republicans to knock him off.

Kennedy's time in Congress was decidedly uneven. He was rumored to be planning a Senate bid in 2000 but decided against running. He was tasked with chairing the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in that same cycle with expectations within the party that they would seize back control of the House. It didn't happen.

After his stint at the DCCC, Kennedy took on a far less high-profile role in Congress -- emerging only infrequently and not always in the best light. In the spring of 2006 Kennedy crashed his car into a police barricade near Capitol Hill; he entered rehab for addiction and depression days later. Over the summer, Kennedy admitted himself to a rehabilitation facility again.

Patrick Kennedy's retirement means that for the first time in nearly five decades there will not be a member of the Kennedy family in Congress. His father, who served Massachusetts in the Senate for more than four decades, died on August 25.

Kennedy's seat, which includes the northeastern reaches of the state, is strongly Democratic. President Barack Obama won the seat by 32 points in 2008 while Sen. John Kerry (Mass.) carried it by 26 points in 2004.

Among the Democrats mentioned as possible Kennedy replacements include: Providence Mayor David Cicilline, Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts and state party chairman Bill Lynch.

State Rep. John Loughlin was already in the race on the Republican side.

Kennedy is the 14th Democrat to announce his retirement plans this cycle. Eighteen Republicans are retiring while Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart is giving up his 25th district seat to run in for the 21st district being vacated by his brother -- retiring Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart."

Earmarks...A Phony Issue?

Yes. If they define an earmark as an appropriation without authorization.

In my 22 years in Congress, this is the first time I can recall disagreeing with the Heritage Foundation on a major issue. In a recent report by the Heritage Foundation on earmarks, Dr. Ronald Utt states that earmark reform will restore budget discipline. However, his own WebMemo states, “If earmarks were eliminated in next year's budget and total spending were adjusted accordingly, the one-year savings would be greater than that expected from the President's proposed freeze, which is estimated to save only $15 billion in the first year” (emphasis added). That is a big “and”.

Recent reports by The Hill (Lobbyists hitting up federal agencies as earmark rate drops on 02/04/2010) and National Journal (Earmarks Are A Model, Not A Menace on 03/14/2009) have shown this not to be the case. As The Hill article states, “Some lobbyists are spending less time stalking members of Congress and more time reaching out to government bureaucrats as federal agencies regain some lost authority over spending.”

As with Heritage, other conservative organizations who oppose earmarks and Congressional action, argue that the expertise on directed federal funding lies exclusively in the Executive Branch. Expertise is also contained at the Congressional levels with both Members and Committee staff. As the National Journal article points out, “Some earmark spending is silly, but then so is some non-earmark spending, and there is a lot more of the latter…. Indeed, executive agencies could stand to emulate some of the online disclosure rules that apply to [Congressional] earmarks.” The National Journal article further points out that the Executive Branch spending is not apolitical or simply merit-based.

Eight years ago when I declared that the concept that global warming was caused by anthropogenic gasses was "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," I was all alone. And I was alone for the next 6 years.

Of course, the biggest fan of cap and trade of the Republicans was John McCain. Even Newt Gingrich joined Nancy Pelosi in opposing me on the issue. But you, Human Events, supported me all the way through. And, by the way, we won.

I only mention this so that your readers will hear me out in what I am about to say about perhaps the most misunderstood issue in conservative thought, "earmarks." And keep in mind this is coming from one who has been honored by being Human Events Man of the Year and ranked #1 by ACU.

Our Constitution makes it clear that we have 3 co equal branches of government and Article 1 defines the legislative branch. Section 9 gives the legislative branch the power and obligation to authorize and appropriate funds.

The idea of our founders was that the elected representatives from the respective states know more about the state's needs than the central government. There are many things that are authorized and appropriated that should be defeated, and we can vote against them. But we defeat them based on the substance, not simply because they are "earmarks."

Here's the catch. When a member successfully opposes another member's earmark request it does not save a dime. It merely kills the request and sends the money to the Executive Branch, in this case President Obama. So when the Senate Republicans came out with the one year moratorium on earmarks Obama rejoiced.

In addition, the "earmark" issue gives cover to big spenders in Congress. Democrats AND Republicans who vote for the $100 billion bills rail against "earmarks" on the floor to sound fiscally conservative.

Lastly, this the first time in my career that republicans are solidly behind the four big issues that the vast majority of Americans agree with: reduce deficits, stop cap and trade, kill government run health care and keep GTMO open.

With that arsenal, who needs the phony issue of "earmarks”?

The solution is to define an "earmark" as "an appropriation that has not been authorized." The fight between authorizers and appropriators has been going on for 200 years.

One of my committees, the Senate Armed Services Committee is an authorizer. It evaluates all the platforms to defend America. It is staffed with experts in missile defense, strike vehicles and all the technical areas. Based on that expertise, it authorizes defense funds, which means our committee sets spending priorities. However, for the funds to actually be spent, they must go through the second phase of being appropriated.

The abuses take place when appropriators swap out deals on the floor that have not been authorized.

So forget about the disingenuous "earmark" issue and stick with the 4 real issues above. Those issues will give us a Republican majority in November.

Because the Tea Party Express III is about to leave the station. All Aboard!!!!

{youtube}H1yUk6PXrH4{/youtube}

My girlfriend Kyle-Ann Shiver, dropped me a note to remind everyone she's got fresh material to read.

....I have two new columns, posted simultaneously at Breitbart.

On Big Journalism, I've told the Republican half of the story on healthcare reform, the half conspicuously absent from MSM reports:

http://bigjournalism.com/kashiver/2010/02/10/willful-blindness-msm-ignores-republican-half-of-the-story-on-healthcare-reform-efforts/

On Big Government, I've written about liberal government programs, especially welfare and food stamps, at the heart of the obesity epidemic in America, Michelle Obama's new pet project:

http://biggovernment.com/kashiver/2010/02/10/michelle-obama-liberal-government-and-obesity/

Hope you'll give them a read, and as always, I await your comments.

• The Obama Administration is vindicating Bush antiterror policy.

Dick Cheney is not the most popular of politicians, but when he offered a harsh assessment of the Obama Administration's approach to terrorism last May, his criticism stung—so much that the President gave a speech the same day that was widely seen as a direct response. Though neither man would admit it, eight months later political and security realities are forcing Mr. Obama's antiterror policies ever-closer to the former Vice President's.

In fact, the President's changes in antiterror policy have never been as dramatic as he or his critics have advertised. His supporters on the left have repeatedly howled when the Justice Department quietly went to court and offered the same legal arguments the Bush Administration made, among them that the President has the power to detain enemy combatants indefinitely without charge. He has also ramped up drone strikes against al Qaeda and Taliban operatives in Pakistan.

However, the Administration has tried to break from its predecessors on several big antiterror issues, and it is on those that it is suffering the humiliation of having to walk back from its own righteous declarations. This is Dick Cheney's revenge.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney

Begin with Mr. Obama's executive order, two days after his inauguration, to shut the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay within one year. The President issued this command before undertaking a study to determine how or even whether his goal was feasible. In his May speech, Mr. Obama declared, "The record is clear: Rather than keep us safer, the prison at Guantanamo has weakened American national security."

Mr. Obama's deadline has come and gone, and Guantanamo remains open. In part this is the result of political opposition from Americans—including many Congressional Democrats—who understandably do not want terrorists in their backyards. Another problem is that European allies, while pressing for Guantanamo's closure, have been reluctant to accept more than a handful of detainees who are deemed suitable for release. The upshot is that Congress may never appropriate the money to close Gitmo, and Mr. Obama never mentioned the prison in his State of the Union address.

The Administration similarly has been backing away from its intention, announced in November, to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other enemy combatants in civilian court a few blocks from Ground Zero. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who at first endorsed the trials, has since reversed himself and urged the Administration to "do the right thing" and move the trials somewhere else, preferably to a military base.

The same day, New York's Senator Chuck Schumer asked officials to find another venue. Within hours, Mr. Obama ordered the Justice Department to do just that, and Mr. Schumer has since said any trial shouldn't be held anywhere in New York state. Meanwhile, bipartisan support is growing in Congress to block money from being spent on any civilian trial for KSM, anywhere.

The Administration seems to have thought no more deeply about the potential legal pitfalls of civilian trials than about the security and logistical problems. Mr. Obama himself responded to criticism by suggesting that what he had in mind was a series of show trials, in which the verdict and punishment were foreordained.

When NBC's Chuck Todd asked him in November to respond to those who took offense at granting KSM the full constitutional protections due a civilian defendant, the President replied: "I don't think it will be offensive at all when he's convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him." Mr. Obama later claimed he meant "if," not "when," but he undercut his own pretense of showcasing the fairness of American justice.

There is a real possibility, too, that convictions would be overturned on technicalities. KSM and other prospective defendants were subjected to interrogation techniques that, while justifiable in irregular war, would be forbidden in an ordinary criminal investigation. When Senator Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat, asked Attorney General Eric Holder what the Administration would do if a conviction were thrown out, Mr. Holder said: "Failure is not an option." A judge may not feel the same way, and the Administration is derelict if it is as unprepared for the contingency as Mr. Holder indicated.

In the event of an acquittal or an overturned conviction, it would be entirely legitimate under the laws of war to continue holding KSM and the others as enemy combatants. But this would defeat the moral rationale of a trial and require the Administration to explain why it was continuing to detain men whose guilt it had failed to establish in court.

A third policy under increasing criticism is the Administration's approach to interrogation. In August, Mr. Holder announced that he had appointed a special prosecutor to investigate—or rather re-investigate—allegations of abuse by CIA interrogators. At the same time, Mr. Obama declared that responsibility for interrogating detainees would shift from the CIA to a new, FBI-led High Value Detainee Interrogation Group, which would employ only tactics that are "noncoercive" or approved by the Army Field manual.

Then came the attempted Christmas bombing and the revelation that the new interrogation group is not fully operational and won't be for months. Not that it would have had a chance to question Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. On Mr. Holder's order, investigators immediately classified him as a criminal defendant. After interrogating him for just 50 minutes, they advised him of his right to remain silent, which he promptly exercised.

Fifty minutes was plenty of time, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs assured "Fox News Sunday" viewers last month: "Abdulmutallab was interrogated, and valuable intelligence was gotten as a result of that interrogation." Mr. Holder told Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a letter last week that Abdulmutallab "more recently . . . has provided additional intelligence to the FBI"—which is encouraging if true, but makes Mr. Gibbs's earlier assurance look empty.

Meanwhile, one of Scott Brown's most potent campaign themes in Massachusetts was his line that "Some people believe our Constitution exists to grant rights to terrorists who want to harm us. I disagree." Mr. Brown even endorsed waterboarding.

***

As long as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were responsible for keeping Americans safe, Democrats could pander to the U.S. and European left's anti-antiterror views at little political cost. But now that they are responsible, American voters are able to see what the left really has in mind, and they are saying loud and clear that they prefer the Cheney method.

Mr. Holder has nonetheless begun a campaign to defend his decisions on Abdulmutallab and KSM, telling the New Yorker last week that "I don't apologize for what I've done" and that trying KSM in a civilian court will be "the defining event of my time as Attorney General."

Given that he still can't find a venue and that even Democrats are having second thoughts about the spectacle, Mr. Holder may well be right that the trial will define his tenure. Before this debate is over, he may have to explain why he's decided that the best place to try KSM really is a military tribunal—in Guantanamo.

Californians are like no other ...we are weird cats, that's for sure. Here's an item from the Chuck DeVore (R) campaign to beat Senator Barbara Boxer. I hope that George Will is right about this one, but Carly Fiorina is looking pretty strong (right now)

George Will: Chuck DeVore will be the Republican Nominee

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- DeVore for California today reacted to the comment of distinguished political eminence George Will, on ABC's "This Week," that Chuck DeVore will be the Republican nominee to face Barbara Boxer.

Chuck DeVore said, "It's gratifying and humbling that a distinguished observer of American politics like George Will would predict the success of our campaign. Naturally I agree! But let me be clear: this is a victory we must fight hard for and earn in full. With the swelling support of the conservative grassroots across California and America, we will."

Leisa Brug Kline, DeVore for California campaign manager, said, "George Will is seeing what many sharp-eyed observers of California and national politics are seeing. The Republican Senate primary in this state is resolving into a contest between a longtime liberal, a moneyed dilettante, and a fighting conservative. In 2010, don't bet against the conservative -- Chuck DeVore."

You can watch the clip here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRkQ9uVV904

I wonder why this is happening to CNN? It couldn’t be because they have become so ridiculously biased. I can see why they are stumped on what to do next. Maybe adding someone like Harry Belafonte would help or trying to get Keith Olbermann. Hmmm Wish I could come up with a good idea for them.

(From Sal, who desperately wishes no harm to CNN - NOT!)

Fox News Has Best January Ever

Fox News had all 13 of the top cable news shows in total viewers for the fifth month in a row in January, and had the best January in its history.

Fox was up 22 percent in total viewers in January compared to January 2009, and up an extraordinary 51 percent in the key 25-to-54 demographic.

CNN was down 34 percent in total viewers in January compared to the previous year, and MSNBC was down 26 percent.

Fox dominated its rivals in covering the major political event of the month, Republican Scott Brown’s victory in the Massachusetts special election for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, mediaite.com reported.

Fox was also helped by Sarah Palin, who joined the network as an analyst and drew 3.95 million viewers for her first appearance on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Jan. 12.

For the month, Fox averaged 2.94 million prime-time viewers, compared to 946,000 for CNN and 838,000 for MSNBC, according to Nielsen.

CNN topped MSNBC in weekday prime-time viewers during January for the first time in six months, helped by its comprehensive coverage of earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

And MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann slipped to third in his time slot behind Bill O’Reilly on Fox and HLN’s Nancy Grace.

This is Old Town Alexandria, Virginia around noon Saturday. The street is completely unrecognizable. We’ve GOT to do something about this global warming, immediately.

Sheesh.

30 INCHES OF SNOW PREDICTED FOR WASHINGTON, D.C. METRO AREA ...COULD BE HIGHEST ON RECORD!

(Hope my tree branches in Alexandria don't come falling down and folks aren't stranded for days....that last one in December was a bear!)

...bitterly rages at White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod.

Al Franken is pissed.

My advice to Arnold: Don't let the door hit your ass on the way out.

Thank-you, Melanie Morgan

Arnold Considered Party Switch by Joe Mathews

How bad did things get between Der Governator and his fellow Republicans? Schwarzenegger’s biographer, Joe Mathews, reports that he recently considered dropping out of the party altogether. It’s the latest blast in a long-running war.

A few months ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger and a few close associates discussed whether he should leave the Republican Party, according to two people familiar with the conversation. His friend Mike Bloomberg, the New York mayor, had become an independent. Maybe Schwarzenegger should, too. But the governor and his people quickly concluded that Californians already saw him as independent of the Republican Party. So what would be the point of a switch? (A spokesman for the governor declined comment.)

To people outside the state, Schwarzenegger’s recent battles with Republican legislators over a budget and his criticism of GOP governors and congressmen for their opposition to President Obama’s stimulus package might sound jarring. Schwarzenegger once was “Conan the Republican” (the first President Bush’s nickname for him), a politician who declared in his 2004 convention speech, “I'm proud to belong to the party of Abraham Lincoln, the party of Teddy Roosevelt, the party of Ronald Reagan and the party of George W. Bush.” Now he is on ABC News saying that “it doesn’t really mater if you’re a Republican or a Democrat.”

The most consequential political divide in America’s largest state is not between Democrats and Republicans but between the centrist GOP governor and his own party.

But for Californians and others who have closely watched his political career, Schwarzenegger’s differences with Republicans are a very old story. In fact, those differences are the story. The most consequential political divide in America’s largest state is not between Democrats and Republicans but between the centrist GOP governor and his own party.

If GOP legislators were willing to support their own governor’s agenda, Schwarzenegger now would boast a record of accomplishment that would put him in the first rank of California governors, right up there with Earl Warren and Pat Brown. Instead, commentators here routinely dismiss Schwarzenegger as a Gulliver tied down by legislative Lilliputians—“an amateur governor,” as the Sacramento Bee’s Dan Walters recently put it, who couldn’t turn political opportunities into substantive change.

How did the marriage between Schwarzenegger and his party go bad? The truth is that it was never much of a marriage. Schwarzenegger’s criticism of Republicans pre-dates his entry into political life. At first, however, many Republicans loved the actor’s image so much that they didn’t pay attention to his words. “Arnold is a very seductive individual,” said Stephen Moore, then president of the conservative Club for Growth, in 2004.

As an actor, Schwarzenegger developed warm personal relationships with the first President Bush and Milton Friedman. But in his work as Bush’s fitness czar, he was privately critical of the party and the administration’s education policy, according to letters on file at the Bush presidential library in College Station, Texas. In 1998, Schwarzenegger publicly condemned the national party for leading the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. (Clinton sent a thank-you note, which the actor framed and put up in his home). The following year, when California Republican operatives first approached him about entering politics, Schwarzenegger showed no interest and instead delivered a diatribe about all that was wrong with the party.

Schwarzenegger says he decided to run in part to change politics. But his party was in power nationally, and not receptive to change. Karl Rove was dismissive of Schwarzenegger during a White House meeting in the spring of 2003, just months before the actor entered the recall election to replace Gray Davis. In that nonpartisan contest, Schwarzenegger initially was the second choice for Republican voters. They preferred a true red-state senator named Tom McClintock. Schwarzenegger won over McClintock voters only at the end of the race, when the Los Angeles Times published its now famous story about the actor’s history of “groping” women. Anyone who drew that kind of attack from the liberal media, conservatives figured, must not be so bad.

Behind the scenes, Schwarzenegger was an unenthusiastic endorser of Bush in 2004. His convention speech came off only after debate within the governor’s own camp over whether to give the address. And Schwarzenegger would make only a single appearance with Bush during the campaign—a stop in Columbus, Ohio, where Schwarzenegger has close friends and longstanding business interests. In 2008, Schwarzenegger skipped the Republican convention, though he had a good excuse: He was stuck in California, where Republicans were holding up the budget.

Throughout Schwarzenegger’s five years in office, California Republicans, despite being a minority in the legislature, have used the state’s requirement of a two-thirds vote on fiscal matters to thwart his agenda. A majority of GOP legislators routinely oppose his budgets. Republican opposition helped doom the governor’s top second-term priority: legislation to establish universal health coverage in the state by requiring the insurance industry to cover everyone and requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance. GOP lawmakers stood in the way of major Schwarzenegger initiatives on water, prisons, and the environment. Republican objections also contributed to the downsizing of the governor’s proposal of $200 billion in infrastructure investment. (The eventual package passed by the legislature and approved by voters was $40 billion.)

Schwarzenegger himself is responsible for many of his problems. The governor did not devote much time to building deep personal relationships with Republican lawmakers. At a rare meeting last year with the governor, some of these lawmakers wore nametags. After a marriage to a Kennedy and a long career in Hollywood, Schwarzenegger seems more personally comfortable with Democratic leaders. Worse still, Schwarzenegger in private could talk insultingly about Republican lawmakers. They were “foreheads,” “the wild bunch,” or “out there.” Such comments spread quickly in the gossipy Capitol.

Without close personal ties, Schwarzenegger’s political differences with Republicans loomed larger. The governor has appointed Democrats and Republicans in roughly equal numbers to state jobs. His chief of staff is a Democrat. On policy, he tangled with the Bush administration on a variety of environmental matters. His declaration, in his second inaugural address, that he would govern as a “post-partisan” was considered a betrayal by some partisan Republicans who had held their noses and worked for his re-election.

All this is why Schwarzenegger’s recent apostasies—supporting Obama’s stimulus and pushing for a budget with tax increases—have drawn mostly silence from national Republican leaders. Schwarzenegger’s dissing the party? That’s just Arnold being Arnold. Republicans could hit back at him. But what would be the point?

A fourth-generation Southern Californian, Joe Mathews is a journalist, an Irvine senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and a contributing writer at the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of The People’s Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy.

Obama’s Change in Tactics May Hurt Afghanistan

by Catherine Moy

Move America Forward Executive Director

President Obama’s swift moves to close down American involvment in Iraq comes as leaders from Afghanistan worry about his changing positions in Afghanistan. Obama’s changed war strategy could hurt Kabul’s government, according to a story by the LA Times:

Reporting from Washington—Afghanistan’s defense minister warned Thursday that the Obama administration’s proposed changes in U.S. war strategy risk undermining Kabul’s civilian government because they appear to scale back U.S. goals in the country.

Abdul Rahim Wardak said he was troubled by recent comments from senior U.S. officials that they were “lowering expectations” in Afghanistan in order to set more “obtainable goals,” saying such language recalls memories of the U.S. desertion of Afghanistan after the Soviet Union pulled out in 1989.

“Changing course, adopting a new strategy of containment or dropping the idea of a strong central government will be falling into the trap the enemy has laid, helping them to achieve their evil objectives,” Wardak said in a speech at a Washington think tank before meetings with U.S. diplomatic and military officials.

Obama must slow down and ensure his changing policies don’t endanger American troops or civilians. Change just for the sake of change can be dangerous. For example, it appears that commanders are now worried that the president’s plans to withdraw from Iraq may be too hasty. Obama’s left-wing base and anti-troop contingents have tremendous sway over him. But Obama has to put the safety of our nation ahead of politics.

Michelle Malkin sent me an distressing e-mail today. Our mutual friend Phyllis Schlafly is in the hospital. Michelle and I met each other for the first time at the Sonoma County Eagle Forum where Phyllis was being honored, as well as myself and Michelle.

"Everyone - Grand dame of grass-roots conservatism Phyllis Schlafly broke her hip after a UC Berkeley lecture on Tuesday and had surgery Wednesday. This amazing woman is 85 years old and still as active as ever on the speaking circuit. Just a few days before, she was in Texas rallying grass-roots GOP for a Lincoln Day Dinner event. She will miss CPAC on Saturday, where she was scheduled to receive lifetime achievement award from Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute.

Keep her and her family in your prayers!"

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/27/prayers-for-phyllis-schlafly/

From my WorldNetDaily.com column today.

I have just returned from a Hawaiian vacation where I had a fabulous time, except for the part where I was robbed by an ice-pick wielding surfer dude who swiped my husband's size-11 tennis shoes and my purse. I was quite disappointed because I needed my credit card to charge a family trip on Obamatours.com, which visits all the concrete block homes in which Obama grew up, since I felt especially connected to my president on the island of Oahu. I wanted to see for myself where young Barry formed his opinions on how socialism worked. Instead, I found myself on the beach, dawdling over the tiresome paperwork required to get a stolen identity back. I realize I feel victimized at several levels, let me tell you. Not just because of the cash and credit I lost, but because of the future stick-ups by the Obama administration.

Some news outlets are reporting that Obama's budget has $1 trillion in new taxes. The real number is something north of $1.6 trillion, and the counting isn't complete. Grassfire.org has the breakdown. Obama is robbing Americans of the Bush tax cuts by increasing income tax rates from 36 percent to 39.6 percent for over $200,000 (single) $250,000 (married.) In addition, Barry Hussein Obama is planning on phasing out personal exemptions, limiting itemized deductions such as charitable giving and imposing a 20 percent capital gains tax. That doesn't begin to include the Global Hoaxing tax as well as any number of hocus pocus programs that Al Gore acolytes in the new government are scheming up. These numbers are taken straight from the budget summary.

This Haole is howling over the crime spree taking place in this country. Erik Erikson, editor of RedState.com, picked up on the innocuous-looking report, pointing out that "the tax increases would raise an estimated $318 billion over 10 years by reducing the value of such longstanding deductions as mortgage interest and charitable contributions for people in the highest tax brackets. Households paying income taxes at the 33 percent and 35 percent rates can currently claim deductions at those rates. Under the Obama proposal, they could deduct only 28 percent of the value of those payments."

(Column continues below)

RedState looks at how this heist is going to disproportionately affect conservatives:

"Arthur Brooks, now the president of AEI, wrote a book called "Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism." In the book, Brooks notes that conservatives give more to charity than liberals. George Will, in a column last year about Brooks' book, wrote:

• Although liberal families' incomes average 6 percent higher than those of conservative families, conservative-headed households give, on average, 30 percent more to charity than the average liberal-headed household ($1,600 per year vs. $1,227).
  
  
• Conservatives also donate more time and give more blood.
  
  
• Residents of the states that voted for John Kerry in 2004 gave smaller percentages of their incomes to charity than did residents of states that voted for George Bush.
  
  
• Bush carried 24 of the 25 states where charitable giving was above average.
  
  
• In the 10 reddest states, in which Bush got more than 60 percent majorities, the average percentage of personal income donated to charity was 3.5. Residents of the bluest states, which gave Bush less than 40 percent, donated just 1.9 percent.
  
  
• People who reject the idea that "government has a responsibility to reduce income inequality" give an average of four times more than people who accept that proposition.

So, am I saying that liberals and the socialists in Obama's administration are cheap when it comes to their personal income? You're darn tootin' I am. And am I saying that these same socialists are giddy as piranha in a pond of pork with taxpayers' money? You betcha.

Vice President Joe Biden is a perfect example of a socialist gone wild. His tax records show that he and his wife gave an average of $369 a year to charity. Last year, they went all out and gave a whopping $995 in donations from their $319,853 income. That's 0.3 percent.

President Bush last year gave almost 18 percent of his income to charity.

Biden thinks paying higher taxes is patriotic. Bush thinks people should keep their hard-earned dollars. Next, the Obama-Biden cabal will tell us that they are generous to us workers for returning to us the money they should never have taken in the first place.

I have recovered from the bandits in Hawaii, and now I'm hoping that Americans stop the bandit from Hawaii before he bankrupts our country and sends her the way of the Titanic.

The Red Flag warning goes up whenever dangerous sea creatures lurk around the swimming beaches surrounding America.

Folks, the inky political waters are roiling, fraught with Red flag warnings around tax increases.

Erick Erickson, editor of RedState.com just shot me this e-mail.

The Wall Street Journal reports on Obama’s tax increase rather innocuously.

The tax increases would raise an estimated $318 billion over 10 years byreducing the value of such longstanding deductions as mortgage interest and charitable contributions for people in the highest tax brackets. Households paying income taxes at the 33% and 35% rates can currently claim deductions at those rates. Under the Obama proposal, they could deduct only 28% of the value of those payments.

The implications, however, are far reaching.

Arthur Brooks, now the President of AEI, wrote a book called Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism. In the book, Brooks notes that conservatives give more to charity than liberals. George Will, in a column last year about Brooks’ book, wrote

· Although liberal families’ incomes average 6 percent higher than those of conservative families, conservative-headed households give, on average, 30 percent more to charity than the average liberal-headed household ($1,600 per year vs. $1,227).

· Conservatives also donate more time and give more blood.

· Residents of the states that voted for John Kerry in 2004 gave smaller percentages of their incomes to charity than did residents of states that voted for George Bush.

· Bush carried 24 of the 25 states where charitable giving was above average.

· In the 10 reddest states, in which Bush got more than 60 percent majorities, the average percentage of personal income donated to charity was 3.5. Residents of the bluest states, which gave Bush less than 40 percent, donated just 1.9 percent.

· People who reject the idea that “government has a responsibility to reduce income inequality” give an average of four times more than people who accept that proposition.

Liberal activists groups by and large depend on unions. Unions get wages forcibly taken from most workers and do not depend on charitable contributions. On the other hand, churches, faith based out reach groups, and think tanks — the bulk of all three tend to be conservative — depend on charitable giving.

Historically, as taxes have increased, charitable giving has decreased. By raising taxes on the $250,000.00 and over crowd, a segment of the population between $250K and $1 million that is filled with small business owners innovating us out of recession, Obama will significantly impact conservative organizations in a way that won’t affect most liberal advocacy groups.

Today, at 2pm, the Senate will vote on two amendments with respect to the Fairness Doctrine.

- The DeMint amendment (Broadcaster Freedom Act) would ban the Fairness Doctrine.

- The amendment by Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) would achieve the same goals of the Fairness Doctrine through backdoor FCC regulations. His legislation forces the FCC to "take actions to encourage and promote diversity in communication media ownership," an attempt to dismantle successful syndicated radio programs. The Durbin amendment would hurt small, local radio stations who depend on popular syndicated programming for listeners and revenue.

Here's an article that seems to get at what Durbin's amendment is about: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/179818-Free_Press_Consolidation_Not_Fairness_Doctrine_Bred_Conservative_Talk.php

Senator DeMint will encourage all senators to OPPOSE the Durbin Amendment.

Two completely different portraits of one of ACORN's foreclosure "victims," courtesy of The Washington Post and Michelle Malkin. You can probably guess which one is the most honest.

Time for some .dot.connecting. in. the. war. on .waste .in our nation's Capital. And we have an excellent resource in Dick Morris, our fiscally conservative friend and strategerist.

Morris has connected up the Freddie Mac scandal, taken aim at those responsible, and guess what! It comes right back to President Obama's closest confidants.

"..News broke last week that Rahm Emanuel, now White House chief of staff, lived rent-free for years in the home of Rep. Rosa De Lauro, D-Conn. — and failed to disclose the gift, as congressional ethics rules mandate. But this is only the tip of Emanuel's previously undisclosed ethics problems.

One issue is the work Emanuel tossed the way of De Lauro's husband. But the bigger one goes back to Emanuel's days on the board of now-bankrupt mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

Emanuel is a multimillionaire, but lived for the last five years for free in the tony Capitol Hill townhouse owned by De Lauro and her husband, Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg.

During that time, he also served as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — which gave Greenberg huge polling contracts. It paid Greenberg's firm $239,996 in 2006 and $317,775 in 2008. (Emanuel's own campaign committee has also paid Greenberg more than $50,000 since 2004.)

Consider: Emanuel served on the Freddie Mac board of directors during the time that the government-backed lender lied about its earnings, a leading contributor to the current economic meltdown.

The Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight Agency later singled out the Freddie Mac board as contributing to the fraud in 2000 and 2001 for "failing in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention." In other words, board members ignored the red flags waving in their faces.

The SEC later fined Freddie $50 million for its deliberate fraud in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

Meanwhile, Emanuel was paid more than $260,000 for his Freddie "service." Plus, after he resigned from the board to run for Congress in 2002, the troubled agency's PAC gave his campaign $25,000 — its largest single gift to a House candidate.

That's what friends are for, isn't it?

Now Rahm Emanuel is in the White House helping President Obama dig out of the mess that Freddie Mac helped start.

The president's chief of staff isn't subject to Senate confirmation, but his ethics still matter. Is this the change that we can depend on? "

While U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is pronouncing Gitmo safe, humane and free of torture - yet vowing to close it down anyway- one of the detainees released from custody is back in the UK.

Think of it. An Al Quada operative running around the United Kingdom, free to do what he wants.

Move America Forward's Danny Gonzalez has been watching developments for us.

"...As over 2,000 news reports stated yesterday, the Obama administration has released former Gitmo detainee Binyam Mohammed to the the British government, who after about an hour or so of questions, made him a free man in the UK.

Binyam Mohammed yesterday became the first freed terrorist of the Obama administration. He was released to British authorities who promptly, as expected, released him back into the general population. Shame on our British friends! Where is Margaret Thatcher when we need her?

Mohamed is now free as a bird in London. While British officials made assurances that Binyam would be ‘monitored,’ we have seen in the past that 61 terrorists released from Gitmo have returned to terrorism – even through some went through the so-called “rehab” program in Saudi Arabia.

Are we expected to believe that after other Gitmo detainees have been released and then show up in Al Qaeda propaganda videos weeks later that Binyam Mohamed is going to live a quiet law abiding life and stay in good olde England?

Just take a look at his record of accomplishment so far.

• He is Ethiopian born but lived in the US for 2 years and the UK for at least 6 until he traveled to Pakistan in 2001.

• In Pakistan he linked up with Al Qaeda operatives who sent him to al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan. This camp is infamous for training 9/11 hijackers.

• There, he received military training as well as training in document forgery and phone number encryption from high ranking al Qaeda operatives

• There are indications that Osama Bin Laden personally visited this camp several times while Mohamed was training there and lectured the students about the importance of attacking America.

• He trained in urban warfare and explosives techniques in Kabul, and fought alongside the Taliban against the Northern Alliance.

• Took part in Al Qaeda planning sessions where he proposed attacking subway stations and possibly planned detonating a “dirty bomb” with fellow Gitmo inmate Jose Padilla but was instead told to plan on bringing down high-rise apartment buildings by blowing out the lower floors.

Of course none of these facts have been reported by the media.

Everyone is too busy congratulating Obama for his dedication to justice - or whatever his interpretation of it is - rather than looking at the fact that this guy has ties to Al Qaeda, he trained with them, he fought alongside the Taliban, and he’s likely to do it again.

Obama is taking his liberal policies in the war on terror too far. Bowing to foreign pressure to close Gitmo should not come at the price of risking the loss of more American lives, and more attacks on our homeland and our allies. "

Just about everything concerning last night's state of the speech or whatever the hell it was called with President Obama seriously annoyed me.

The President needed to strike a tone of confidence and certitude, which he handily accomplished. However. Listening to his speech from a conservative point of view sounded like blah blah blah blah and more blah.

It is NOT the spoken word that needs plaudits, it is the action taken by cramming a couple trillion dollars down the gullets of the gullible in this country, and making them think everything will be all better now. Except it won't. It's going to get a lot worse.

Even the dopes in the Mainstream Media have figured out that Obama is using conservative words to sell us a very liberal agenda.

And while I'm cranking around my blog posting, how about the crew at Fox News? Damn, the snarky comments from Britt Hume, Nina Easton, Charles Krauthammer et all about the performance of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jinhdal was irritating.

I expect the arrows from the half-wits at MSNBC, but how about waiting 15 minutes before condemning Jindahl to political obscurity, Nina?

I thought that Governor Jindahl did a very competent job explaining the Republican responses and introducing himself to the American people. It wasn't pitch perfect as he is a newcomer to the national scene. But he is young (37) and has a few years (2-3) to get better. It is his actions and political story that are very attractive to conservative Republicans.

No doubt about it, all eyes were on Bobby last night.

But for sheer entertainment value, don't forget to keep track of Gaff-tastic Joe Biden. He's always good for a laugh.

We have some new polling. And it has to worry the Axelrod's of Obamanation.

One month down, 47 to go.

And Barack Obama's poll numbers have slid almost 10% already. According to the latest Gallup Poll, the new president's approval rating of 68% in January has slipped now to 63%, about average for recent new presidents one month in.

What isn't average, however, is Obama's new disapproval rating -- 24%, or 50% higher than the 16% average for a month-old new presidency.

And it's twice the 12% disapproval rate that Obama had last month.

While liberal and independent support has held fairly steady, the rookie chief executive's approval among Republicans has plunged from 41% to 30%, presumably tied at least somewhat to growing awareness of the spending program. The drop has been especially steep among conservatives, from 36% at inauguration to 22% now.

Additionally, Obama's support has weakened among middle-class Americans, those touted during the campaign as benefiting from his promised tax cuts. Among that working crowd, Obama's approval fell from 69% to 58%.

Tonight's speech before a joint session of Congress and a nationwide television audience will give the new 47-year-old president an opportunity to make his case, not just for his already-signed but still controversial economic stimulus package but for his own evolving style of executive leadership.

And to possibly put the crumpled Cabinet nominations of recent weeks behind him.

Historically, 63-62% approval after a month is about average; Ronald Reagan had the worst at 55%, and Jimmy Carter had the best at 71%. Look how they turned out.

In fact, after 30 days, the Gallup Poll shows Obama has about the same approval rating as did George H.W. Bush and his son, George W. Bush, the man whose eight years in office the Illinois senator so often denounced as destructive during the recent campaign.

What's surprising, as the astute Don Surber points out this morning, is that the gap between approval and disapproval is worse now for Obama than it was for the newly departed Texan after his first month. Bush's differential gap was 41 points between approval and disapproval. Obama's is 39 points, still above Bill Clinton, who had the worst differential of 30 points. Carter again had the best after one month of 62. Richard Nixon had 54.

The new Gallup survey involved 1,614 adult Americans between Feb. 19-21 with a margin of error of +/-3%.

-- Andrew Malcolm

The resolute defender of truth, Miss Pertinacious, has a look at Locke.

Gary Locke.

If you don't know by now, he is the Chosen One's newest choice to become Commerce Secretary, after his last nominee found himself in a spot of hot water over taxes not paid in a timely fashion, and #2 choice decided that he couldn't live with the Porkulus bill and other differences with the administration.

Michelle Malkin reports that the guy next up in the spotlight has a few problems of his own with funny money.

Remember Chinagate?

"..In response to my columns pressing Locke on his close ties to campaign finance crook John Huang, the governor’s office first stonewalled. His standard Democrat smokescreen? Play the race card and play the victim.

From June 1999:

When I asked what the governor had to say about Huang’s guilty plea, Locke’s spokesman, Keith Love, responded tersely: “He has no comment and no interest.”

This is a most peculiar stonewall of silence.

Though Huang and his wife gave token personal donations to Locke totaling a mere $1,000, Huang is no casual acquaintance of Locke or his out-of-state fund-raising staff. As reported here previously, Huang helped organize May 1996 galas involving Locke at the Mayflower Hotel and Sheraton Carlton in Washington, D.C.; three fund-raisers at restaurants in Los Angeles, and an extravaganza at the Universal City, Calif., Hilton in October 1996 that raised upwards of $30,000.

In the Washington Post, Boston Globe and Dallas Morning News, Locke steadfastly defended his Huang-linked funds. He persistently invoked the race card to deflect criticism and castigated the national media for aggressively investigating those who benefited from the fund-raising of the then-presumed-innocent-now-self-confessed-felon Huang.

At a gathering of Asian-American journalists, Locke recently lamented: “The fund-raising scandal will have repercussions for several years. It will make our efforts doubly hard to get Asian Americans appointed to top-level positions across the United States. If they have any connection to John Huang, those individuals will face greater scrutiny and their lives will be completely opened up and examined - perhaps more than usual.”

Real Life. Real Drama. That is what you’ll find on A&E; TV. And this Monday at 9:00 pm EST you’ll be able to watch my real life. And the real drama that nearly ripped us apart.

Coming this February 23^rd on A&E; a full hour on what compulsive gambling is, how it dangerous it has become, particularly for women, what it did to my entire family, and how you can successfully recover from it.

NBC TV spent three days interviewing me, my husband and son, and they’ll bring you our story. If you have a problem, or know someone who does, please tune into this show.

Generic Congressional Ballot: Democrats By Two

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

After an intense partisan debate over the newly passed $787 billion economic stimulus bill, Republicans and Democrats remain almost even in this week’s edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot.

Rasmussen Reports national telephone surveys found that 41% of voters said they would vote for their district’s Democratic candidate while 39% said they would choose the Republican.

Voters are also evenly divided as to whether they are more likely to vote for a candidate who supported the stimulus plan. Support for the Democrats increased by one point this week, while support for the GOP remained unchanged.

Last week’s results showed the closest match-up between the parties since 2005. Over the past year, Democratic support has ranged from a low of 40% to a high of 50%. In that same time period, Republicans have been preferred by 34% to 41% of voters nationwide.

Other survey data shows a decided lack of confidence in Congress. Most voters say that the legislators are doing a poor job. By a two-to-one margin, voters say that no matter how bad things are, Congress can make them worse.

On the generic ballot, men are more evenly divided this week, favoring the GOP by a 41% to 39% margin while women favor the Democratic Party 44% to 37%. White voters still favor the GOP, 45% to 36%, while black voters heavily favor Barack Obama’s party by a 73% to 14% margin.

Among investors, 44% say they would chose their GOP candidate, while 36% would vote Democratic. Non-investors prefer Democrats by a 50% to 30% margin.

About 38,000 feet, if I am not mistaken (which rarely happens, the last time was 1976 - it was raining outside.)

Folks, I am going to be light-blogging for the next week, because I am heading for Hawaii in order to stimulate the economy, and de-stimulate me. You see, I have been saving up all my unemployment checks that the government has provided for me, and spending them all in one place - on the beach.

A final Aloha to my readers and a bit of advice - Be careful. Be active. Don't let the bastards get you down. See you in a week or eight.

 From The Drudge Report......

New Hampshire liberal Senator Judd Gregg has withdrawn his appointment as Commerce Secretary, prematurely ejecting himself because he was apparently unable to stomach President Obama's gut-wrenching porkulus bill.

 Senator Gregg, we conservatives are happy to welcome you back - now if you could just give Senators Specter, Collins, and Snowe a tutorial, perhaps after you tell Princess Pelosi to stop mousing around with our money.

Details here.

"...it has become apparent during this process that this will not work for me as I have found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the Census there are irresolvable conflicts for me. Prior to accepting this post, we had discussed these and other potential differences, but unfortunately we did not adequately focus on these concerns. We are functioning from a different set of views on many critical items of policy."

...that President Obama is misguided, ill-informed, and dangerously naive about terrorism, particularly as it relates to the closure of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Washington Times reported today in a column by James Robbins what we (Move America Forward) publicized during our press conference in Washington on Tuesday - that the President doesn't have a clear understanding of the law. Also inside the paper was an editorial  following up on the diasterous consequences to mis-representing the situation to the American people (exactly what Bush was accused of doing) and the international community.

Read on.

President Obama clearly didn't do his homework before ordering the suspension of military tribunals to try terrorist suspects. We have learned that even his own legal counsel admitted that Mr. Obama erred in discussing details about terrorism with families of victims last week, and that the administration was ignorant of a key point that terrorists exploit to their advantage. In his rush to fulfill a campaign promise to his more fervid anti-war supporters, the president's legal oversights risk the disclosure of some highly classified information to terrorists.

Debra Burlingame, sister of Charles Burlingame III, the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 that was flown into the Pentagon on 9/11, was present at last Friday's White House meeting of families of terrorism victims. Her impression was that President Obama was saying the right words in general, but when it came to specifics he was uncertain, uninformed, and sometimes just plain mistaken. Ms. Burlingame is an attorney who has followed closely the legal aspects of the terrorism cases, and her detailed, probing questions were met with stammers, stares, and statements that betrayed an understanding of the law that was, she said, "flat out wrong."

 UPDATE - Senator Specter's office now says he is "unavailable" until tomorrow.

 Folks, yesterday I wrote an editorial for the Washington Times that blasted Senator Arlen Specter over his vote on the porkulus bill.  Earlier, conservative activists, including myself, stormed his office demanding an explanation.

Please email me any specific questions YOU want answered and I will do my best to wedge it in after my rant! Hurry, as time is of the essence. 

p.s. I will forward to Senator Specter ALL emails.

Yes, folks, I have finally busted into Wednesday's editorial page of the revered Washington Times with my very odd, but brilliant take on the world according to Beltway insiders.

MORGAN: Why I stormed Sen. Specter's office

And what you don't know about the “Stimulus Bill”

Melanie Morgan
Wednesday, February 11, 2009

OP-ED:

I went to visit Sen. Arlen Specter to save him from an embarrassing pro-stimulus vote that will damage America's economy and send the nation back to 1970s-style stagflation.

Jim Robinson, founder of FreeRepublic.com, and I arrived at Sen. Specter's office with a group of folks who oppose the $1.5 trillion stimulus package, on this past Monday morning. We asked to see Sen. Specter. The office secretary didn't seem to be happy to see us. I could not blame her. We were there to embarrass her boss. Jim, wearing his Navy cap, asked about the senator's whereabouts, but the secretary wasn't helping. It was distressing to see a wheelchair-bound Navy veteran being treated with such disrespect by a senator's staff.

It is clear that Specter's front-office staff needs to do an internship at Wal-Mart to pick up tips on how to properly work as a greeter. While the staffer told us she didn't know where Specter was, the senator was on Laura Ingraham's national radio program, defending the stimulus bill and snidely calling her "young lady" when she challenged him.

The desk staffer warned me that I couldn't go into the backrooms. It went through my mind that I certainly should be able to walk through the doors because I helped pay for them with my tax money. But diplomacy kicked in, so I yelled some more.

Eventually, Specter's chief of staff emerged and took notes as our group told him how disgusted we were that his boss was favoring a stimulus bill that is overwhelmingly apposed by his constituents.

Liz Colby Harp brought her five homeschooled children so Specter could see whom he is saddling with trillions of dollars of future debts. She was gracious, intelligent and dead on with her remarks.

Here are just a few of the items tucked into the pork bill, as written into the House or Senate versions. (Keep in mind, the Obama administration contends that this bill is to create jobs):

- $300 million for new cars for government bureaucrats;

- $4.8 million for a polar bear exhibit in Rhode Island;

- $3 million in tax benefits for golf carts, motorcycles and ATVS;

- $150 million for honeybee insurance;

- $1.5 million for a water park ride in Miami, Florida;

- $400 million to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said the "American people don't care about pork." Well, as a woman, I recognize ugly fat when I see it. This bill is stuffed with it.

While leaving Specter's office on Monday, I walked past a long line of people wearing ACORN t-shirts. This is the same group that helped get Obama elected. They came to get what the rest of us will be paying for.

Melanie Morgan is chairman of Move America Forward.

We were thrilled to have my favorite politican U.S. Senator James Inhofe join our news conference at the National Press Club yesterday to push for his legislation banning the transfer of detainees from Gitmo to American prisons.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Jim Inhofe on Tuesday helped a nonpartisan group launch a media ad opposing President Barack Obama’s order to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Inhofe, R-Tulsa, praised the group, Move America Forward, and said he is pushing legislation that would prevent any of the prisoners from being moved to prisons in the United States.

Inhofe, who recently returned from a visit to the prison in Cuba, said the detainees are treated well and that the prison is serving a valuable purpose.

Asked whether the prisoners should remain at the prison indefinitely, Inhofe said, "I wish there were more choices. There really aren’t. I guess we could execute them. Do you want to do that?”

Melanie Morgan, Move America Forward chairman, said Obama’s "misguided” decision to close the prison would "impact the safety of every American.”

Attending the news conference were relatives of people killed in the 9/11 attacks and in the war in Iraq. The group’s television ad asks people to sign a petition opposing Obama’s order.

The president met last week with victims’ relatives of the 9/11 and USS Cole attacks and said he thinks closing the prison would keep the nation safe and ensure "swift and certain justice” for the detainees, according to the White House

On his syndicated radio talk show Monday, G. Gordon Liddy was joined by Melanie Morgan from Move America Forward, (that's Mel in the picture) who talked about the organic protest that sprung up at the offices of Senator Arlen Specter. Specter is a spineless Republican political creature who, with his vote,  enabled left-wing democrats to spend endlessly on getting themselves elected for generations and with indebting our children for decades to come.

{youtube}tDSpHRimWs0{/youtube}

Note: The fun begins at 3:09 into the video.

Sen. Arlen Specter must feel like one lucky man today. He wasn’t in his Capitol Hill offices when MAF Chairman Melanie Morgan, Gold Star Mom Debbie Lee, Freepers and Free Republic founder Jim Robinson, and other patriotic citizens stormed his office to demand he reverse his position supporting the porkulus bill, aka the Barack-Blowing-Through- Dollars-Scheme.

MAF, as you know, is a protroops organization, and it is our opinion that this legislation will hurt veterans’ healthcare - not to mention every other American.

We’re really in town for our big press conference on Tuesday, when we release our commercial opposing President Obama’s decision to close Gitmo.

But we kept ourselves busy today. Melanie was at her finest, when we arrived at Specter’s office. For those of you who don’t know Specter, he’s a flip-flopping, spineless bureacrat who calls himself a Republican. He’s also one of the traitors who supports Obama’s spendulus bill. This is why he was a target for Monday’s action, spurred by Kirstinn Taylor of Free Republic.

Melanie and Jim Robinson asked to see the Senator. Specter’s front-office staff need to go back to kindergarten to get their manners tuned up. either that or they should go to work at Wal-Mart to pick up some tips from their greeters. A secretary, who wasn’t happy to see American patriots, refused to answer where the Senator was hiding. Jim, wearing his Navy cap, asked over and over about the Senator’s whereabouts, but the secretary wasn’t helping. It was distressing to see a Navy veteran being treated with such disrespect by a Senator’s staff.

Well, the cold-shoulder was too much for Melanie, who decided to take matters into her own hands. She stepped to the closed door leading to Specter’s office and the offices of his staffers, and flung it open. I didn’t take notes on what she said, but it went something like this:

“Come out! We want to talk to somebody right now!!”

The secretary didn’t like this. “You can’t go in there,” she warned Melanie, who promptly ignored her.

“Sombody come out here right now!!! We want to talk to you. Now!!!”

Specter’s chief of staff had finally had enough and came out to face the American citizens who wanted to redress their government official.

Melanie stepped toward him and unleashed a wave of complaints that hit him like a typhoon.

Again, I didn’t take notes, but it went something like this:

“Tell Specter to stop acting like a liberal. We are watching him and we’re not going to let him get away with this!”

Others had a few things to add to that. Debbie Lee introduced herself and handed the chief of staff a card with her son, Marc’s, picture on it. He was the first Navy SEAL to give his life in Iraq, she explained.

Liz Colby Harp brought her five homeschooled children so Specter could see whom he is saddling with trillions of dollars of debts. She was gracious, intelligent and dead on with her remarks.

Specter’s chief of staff kept notes, though I’m not sure he got everything down. He would have to know shorthand to get in everything. But Melanie reiiterated something he wouldn’t forget.

“Tell him WE ARE PISSED!”

He took down the notes with a shaky hand and gave a smile that you might only see on a condemned man as he is walking to the gas chamber.

Future victims of the Obama porkulous spending bill protest at Senator Specters office today in our nations Capitol. Liz Kolby Harp drove in from Alexandria with her five homeschooled children, determined to do everything she can to stop this shameful bill.

Wanna hear some great radio? Check your local listings for the G.Gordan Liddy show where I will be his guest for the entire last hour live from our nations capital.

So much to say about the horrible decision to close Gitmo and the diasterous stimulous bill - you don't want to miss it!

MAF Produces TV Ad; Attacks Obama’s Decision to Close Gitmo

Taking the next step in the fight to save the JTF Detention Camps at Guantanamo Bay, Move America Forward has produced a TV Ad for play across the country.

A Press Conference is scheduled in Washington DC to reveal the ad for the press. We will hear from 9/11 families, Gold star families and others who are united by President Obama's order to have Gitmo closed in one year.

It is dangerous and irresponsible to bring terrorists to American soil, place them in a justice system that they frankly do not deserve the advantages of, and put American lives at risk.

MAF is taking donations to help pay for the costs of running this ad on major networks like FOX and CNN. Please make a contribution so we can bring this message to more people across the country.

I am leaving for D.C. Sunday, February 5 and will try to blog occasionally from the road, especially after our news conference at the National Press Club on Tuesday.

Keep a sharp eye out for our efforts, and help us buy time to run this ad extensively! Donate at www.moveamericaforward.com

Ciao,

Melanie

President Obama, sparked up and wearing his velvet glove, is moving Republican votes to his side on the Porkululs bill now heading for the Senate/House conference committee.

But it looks like the American people think that it is a stinker - and should be scrapped, according to the newest Rasmussen poll.

But that won't stop Obamaniacs in Congress, and the falling poll numbers just serve to inspire tougher rhetoric by the President.

"...Support for the economic recovery plan working its way through Congress has fallen again this week. For the first time, a plurality of voters nationwide oppose the $800-billion-plus plan.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 37% favor the legislation, 43% are opposed, and 20% are not sure.

Two weeks ago, 45% supported the plan. Last week, 42% supported it.

Opposition has grown from 34% two weeks ago to 39% last week and 43% today.

Sixty-four percent (64%) of Democrats still support the plan. That figure is down from 74% a week ago. Just 13% of Republicans and 27% of those not affiliated with either major party agree.

Seventy-two percent (72%) of Republicans oppose the plan along with 50% of unaffiliated voters and 16% of Democrats.

Related survey data shows that half the nation’s voters say the plan that finally emerges from Congress may end up doing more harm than good. "

The compulsive liar and domestic terrorist thinks it is a giant waste of time for Illinois lawmakers to dismiss him from his cushy Professorship at the University of Illinois, at Chicago.

Really? Personally, I think it is an excellent way for lawmakers to spend their time, chasing down a gutter crawling rat.

"...Calling a state senator's push to get him axed from his public university job "frivolous," William Ayers on Thursday said lawmakers have more important things to do than to go after him.

Ayers, a former member of the radical Weather Underground and a topic of heated discussion during the 2008 presidential and primary campaigns, was responding to a Downstate Republican's proposal to forbid a public university from employing someone who has "committed a violent act" against the United States or Illinois.

"This is absurd," Ayers, 64, said in a speech at Riverside-Brookfield High School. "It's a waste of time."

Think again Mr. Ayers. Your fresh hell is just beginning. But more on that later.

Photos courtesy of sfgate.com)

(politico.com)

The commanding officer of the U.S.S. Cole during the 2000 attack slammed President Barack Obama Friday for his decision to seek the withdrawal of charges against the suspected ship bomber and the president’s order to close the Guantanamo Bay prison.

“Personally, I am very disappointed he has gone forward with this,” said retired Cmdr. Kirk S. Lippold on MSNBC’s Morning Joe show. “But more important is the impact that has on the families who have waited for eight years for justice to have to wait another 120 days.”

Lippold’s comments were a glimpse of what Obama will hear at a Friday meeting with families of victims of the Cole bombing and 9/11 attacks. Lippold said he will be in attendance.

The judge overseeing military trials at Guantanamo ordered charges Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, reversing an earlier decision that the case must go forward despite a request by the president to delay the proceeding.

“We had a legal process in place,” Lippold said. “Now justice delayed, is justice denied.”

OK, OK. I get it. We Americans, a majority of whom were duped into voting for President Barack "The One" Obama, have to believe that his administration will bring "change we can believe in" and operate with the highest of ethics. We have to believe because the mainstream media say so, and, hey, he's the country's first biracial president.

But wait a minute. Some of the shine on Obama's halo is rusting. This week we see that his favorable rating in polls has dropped dramatically, from 88 percent on his coronation day to 62 percent. If he keeps it up, his favorables will be in the toilet before first lady Michelle can complete her remodel of the White House.

Sure, Obama nominated a few tax cheats for his Cabinet, a terrorist-defender, and a CIA director who knows nothing about intelligence – but Leon Panetta sure knows how to collect speakers' fees.

"Panetta has earned more than $700,000 in speaking and consulting fees since the beginning of 2008, with some of the payments coming from troubled financial firms and from a firm that invests in contractors for federal national security agencies, according to financial disclosures released Wednesday," states to the Wall Street Journal.

So, what's the problem? At least he took money from a firm involved with national security agencies and not Hamas or the government of Iran, a terrorist-supporting state. Speaking of terrorists, we have a real expert in Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder.

(Column continues below)

 BREAKING NEWS!

Move America Forward is going to Washington, D.C. to hold a press conference denouncing Obama's justification for ending the military tribunal trials of terrorists and closing down Gitmo.

Michelle Malkin is following the developments here.

 Lori Byrd at Wizbang.com reports on the reaction to this Gitmo gall.

President Obama has a meeting scheduled today with families of those killed in the terrorist attack on the Cole and the families of 9/11 victims most likely to discuss with them dropping charges on one of the Cole bombers.

Andy McCarthy has been following this story closely.

...it is noteworthy that, before the appointing authority acted this evening, Obama had scheduled a meeting for tomorrow afternoon with victims and families of victims not only of the Cole bombing but of of the 9/11 attacks. At a minimum, he appeared poised to announce he was dropping the Cole charges against Nashiri. All evening, however, it has been floated from several knowledgeable sources that the president was prepared to announce the dismissal of all the commission cases -- i.e., not only against Nashiri but against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other 9/11 plotters. That suggestion is supported by the fact that the 9/11 families were invited to the White House meeting: there would have been no need to invite them to discuss an announcement that impacted only the Cole case.

Dismissals, if they happened, would surely be couched as "without prejudice." That is, Obama would be able to tell the families -- whether he meant it or not -- that he could always re-file military commission charges if he ultimately decided that commissions, rather than civilian trials, were the best way to go.

The Anchoress is following as well.

President Obama is going to talk to the families of 9/11 victims and those killed on the U.S.S.Cole. From what we have seen of the president these past few weeks, his talking to them will be very nice, and their concerns will have no affect on his position, whatsoever. Rather like "inviting" the opposition in for a talk and telling them, "I won."

Related: Move America Forward has a new ad out about the closing of Gitmo.

{youtube}-Lhls4KJSAc{/youtube}

Text of the ad follows:

Continue reading "Obama Meeting with Families of Cole and 9/11 Victims" »

Geez criminy! Is there anybody in the Obama administration who has actually paid their taxes?

Apparently not.

If you put all the monies owed by Democrats who have "made mistakes" in filing with the IRS, we might just be able tofund the emergency bail-out measure. Pretty close, I'm sure.

A paintball is worth a thousand words.

My right-blogger pal Josh say this is like The. Greatest. Link. Ever.

But it could be a guy thing. I'm not entirely sure.

And let us all pray that the good people of Illinois are successful in the effort to fire an unapologetic terrorist from his cushy University professorship.

(link here to the Chicago Tribune.)

Move America Forward, the country's largest grassroots pro-troop organization, is launching a series of TV and radio spots next week to etition President Obama to keep Gitmo open.

Listen here {audio}images/stories/audio/MAF7470.mp3{/audio}

Will you help by signing, and sending this link to everyone you can think of before it is too late?

Sign the petition at Move America Forward

Say NO to federal prisons for Al Quada! Say NO to American style justice for jihadists!

No - not her!

Miss 38KKK pictured inside this link.

(yes, yes, I know this isn't important to the grand scheme of things. But it makes me laugh!)

....and he just might have borrowed your bar-b-cue tongs, or picked up the newspapers while you are on vacation.

But make no mistake. He is evil.

Jamie Glazov at Frontpagemag.com has a fascinating interview with Ryan Mauro, a worldwide terrorism expert, who helped produce the film called "Homegrown Jihad" ...which everyone MUST see.

“Homegrown Jihad” documents the networks of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, a terrorist group run by a radical Muslim leader in Lahore, Pakistan named Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, an individual who, as I said in my last interview, does us the favor of not hiding his true colors. While he casts himself as a peace-loving Muslim, his actions and the actions of his network are anything but. In the documentary, we show a secret videotape, one which Gilani strictly instructs his followers to keep hidden, where he personally engages in terrorist training, from killing guards to hijacking vehicles to setting off explosives. On this tape, he says that those seeking to “join one of the most advanced training courses in Islamic military warfare” can contact any of his “Muslims of America” compounds in the United States, almost all of which still operate today."

Well, this is a lot easier than I originally anticipated. The Obamanation is getting restless with the missteps of the Chosen One.

AP, the Fake But Accurate News Service has this tasty tidbit today:

".. Barack Obama promised a "clean break from business as usual" in Washington. It hasn't quite worked out that way.

From the start, he made exceptions to his no-lobbyist rule. And now, embarrassing details about Cabinet-nominee Tom Daschle's tax problems and big paychecks from special interest groups are raising new questions about the reach and sweep of the new president's promised reforms.

Maybe he shouldn't have promised so much, some open-government advocates say."

Ya think?!

Here's more from the International Miami Tribune.

WASHINGTON: During almost two years on the campaign trail, Barack Obama vowed to slay the demons of Washington, bar lobbyists from his administration and usher in what he would later call in his Inaugural Address a "new era of responsibility." What he did not talk much about were the asterisks.

The exceptions that went unmentioned now include a pair of cabinet nominees who did not pay all of their taxes. Then there is the lobbyist for a military contractor who is now slated to become the No. 2 official in the Pentagon. And there are the others brought into government from the influence industry even if not formally registered as lobbyists.

President Barack Obama said Monday that he was "absolutely" standing behind former Senator Tom Daschle, his nominee for health and human services secretary, and Daschle, who met late in the day with leading senators in an effort to keep his confirmation on track, said he had "no excuse" and wanted to "deeply apologize" for his failure to pay $128,000 in U.S. taxes.

But the episode has already shown how, when faced with the perennial clash between campaign rhetoric and Washington reality, Obama has proved willing to compromise.

Headlines aggregated at The Drudge Report:

Obama backs down on 'Buy American' after EU trade war threat...
Tax problems torpedo two big nominations...
Departures tarnish ethics drive...
'Now we must move forward'...
AP: 'The new president, seen by some as arrogant'...

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Move Over, MoveOn. There is a new culture of corruption in town.

Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle has been dumped - President Obama picked up a few clues today that the nomination for Health and Human Services Secretary was in trouble when his personal PR flacks at the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle editorialized against having two tax cheats in the cabinet at the same time.

I heard the news listening to Fox News on satellite radio during my morning drive in my big honkin' SUV, belching ozone emitting gases that will end the world as we know it. I listened with bemusement as Tommy Thompson, former H&H Services Secretary explained why this is a terrible decision - because Daschle is an "honorable man, a man with integrity, a fine choice."

Hello Dope!

 The American people get a little testy with TAX CHEATERS telling us what to do and how to live our lives. It's kind of a 'thing' with us.

"..{First,  Geithner and now}, Democrat ex-Sen. Tom Daschle, who's simply the perfect guy to reform healthcare and essential to taking the country forward. Daschle issued a heartfelt apology today for failing to pay $128,000 in his taxes, plus nearly $15G's in interest and penalties, over several recent years.

He used what's come to be known as the GID tactic, the Geithner Inadvertency Defense. It was all an accident. "No excuse," he says. But inadvertent. Which makes it OK. Let's all try that on April 15."

Michelle Malkin wonders "Does anyone in the Obama administration know how to pay taxes?"

Question: Where are the biggest tax cheats?

Answer:

These days you'll find many of my former colleagues in Talk Radio behind concrete stanchions, armed with rhetorical fire, and ducking from incoming from the Left.

Brian Maloney, who has specialized in covering the attacks on talkers for the better part of a decade, says the propaganda stream is super-heated, and the spray is aimed at the AM dial.

Click here for a scary report.

Establishing a new front in the left's war on free speech in America, a group of fringe separatists associated with the University of California, Los Angeles have issued what they claim is a "groundbreaking" research report on "hate" in conservative talk radio.

Armed with their "case" against the medium, groups including the (partially taxpayer-funded) UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center and National Hispanic Media Coalition have begun a campaign to push Obama's FCC into holding sham hearings on conservative talk's future. So far, they've utilized lefty websites and newspapers for their campaign.

The battle coincides with other efforts by the Obamists, largely behind-the-scenes, to remove their Dear Leader's key media opposition without resorting to a controversial, high-profile Fairness Doctrine reinstatement (though some Democratic Party senators do favor that approach).

Funded in part by liberal donors including the Ford Foundation, the "Hate Speech on Commercial Talk Radio" study includes only conservative, populist and right-wing programs, which it improperly lumps into a single "conservative" category.

In what was chosen for monitoring, they've been strangely selective: major conservative talkers such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin are not included. Instead, "researchers" opted to cover top-rated KFI / Los Angeles afternoon drive mainstays John & Ken (above left image), plus syndicated hosts Michael Savage and Lou Dobbs.

Left out entirely, of course, are left-wing shows featured on Air America Radio and elsewhere (even those easily heard in UCLA's listening area). Interestingly, UCLA's own press office made no effort to mask the partisan nature of this phony study. More on this in a moment.

Hillary couldn't quite pull it off with Bill - you know, the "two for the price of one" package but Mich O looks like she is taking charge of the Education Department while Barack is busy ruining, er, saving the economy with a trillion dollar bail-out.

Monday, she donned another very expensive designer outfit and sashayed over to the Red Door FedEd building near the Smithsonian to address the auditorium of middle level bureacrats who are suck-ups to the teachers union and keep black children from getting quality educations by denying them school vouchers.

Oh - she also accidentally crystalized while so many Republicans hold Democrats in contempt - failing public schools for our kids, private schools for HER kids.

In thanking the workers, she told them: "I am a product of your work."

"I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the public schools that nurtured me and helped me along," said Mrs. Obama, a Chicago native who attended its public schools as a child. Her two daughters attend private school in Washington, as they did in Chicago.

Mon Feb 2, 3:58 PM ET

Tolerance is a funny thing, sometimes. The Doctor of Democracy has a YouTube video up that makes this point pretty clearly.

Sen. McConnell proposes more Big Government to fix Big Government debacle

Where is my Mitch McConnell head-banging graphic? Why did he make me have to dig it up again first thing Monday morning? I can't take it. I really can't:

Over the weekend, you see, Sen. McConnell gave the GOP radio address. The subject was the "stimulus." Generational Theft Act, Crap Sandwich Supreme, Porkulus, Spendulus, Debt Stimulus Plan. Pick your name. It's all B.S. And Americans know it. Senate debate begins today at 2pm Eastern. On the heels of the House Republicans' unanimous rejection of the Obama/Democrats' Big Government package and shifting public opinion against the plan, you might think the Senate GOP minority leader would get a clue:

Big Government = Bad Idea.

But nooooo. Sen. McConnell knows how to extinguish any fledgling flame of enthusiasm among grass-roots activists who were starting to think the Republican Party was returning to its fiscal conservative principles.

Fuhgeddaboudit, people. Sen. McConnell's grand idea to "fix" the stimulus is to create new, government-backed mortgages.

Is he freaking kidding, you ask? No, no he is not:

Under the mortgage plan, any "credit-worthy borrower" could get a government-backed loan at 4 percent. Details were not available, but Republicans have talked about having the government guarantee the 30-year loans for a year or two. Thirty-year fixed rates recently have been around 5 percent.

No cost estimates were available for the McConnell plan. Democrats, who will be crucial to its success since they control 58 Senate seats, have not ruled out backing such a plan, but wanted to see more details. The Senate version of the stimulus bill is now costing $889 billion, about $70 billion more than the one passed this week by the House. The increase is largely due to changes in tax breaks.

McConnell estimated Saturday that under his mortgage plan, the average family would see its monthly mortgage payment drop by $466 a month, or $5,600 a year. Over the life of a 30-year loan, that's a savings of $167,760.

McConnell isn't just missing a pair. He has misplaced his cerebrum. GOP Sen. John Ensign was also pimping the plan over the weekend.

Question: Why should government be guaranteeing mortgages? Isn't that what got us into trouble in the first place?

Question: Why should government be setting mortgage rates? Aren't those supposed to be set by the market?

Question: How can Republicans on the one hand argue that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mae, and other interventions in the housing and mortgage markets were bad and then at the same time propose a doomed policy along similar lines?

Question: Have Republicans learned nothing from the housing meltdown? "Credit-worthy" borrower = anyone with a pulse. Who will pay when these borrowers default on their loans? Taxpayers will.

Question: Who will sell these mortgages? Probably the banks. What incentive do they have to ensure the credit-worthiness of borrowers, since they will bear no risk if the borrowers default? Sounds like a formula for another mega-subsidy to the banks…to go along with all the others.

Question: Why do Republicans continue to believe, as Democrats do, that the number one goal of economic policy should be to prop up housing prices? (Recall McCain's moronic $300 billion mortgage plan.) Why not let the market determine the correct level of housing prices? Clearly, in many parts of the country, housing prices are still too high.

The proper response by government is to let the market allow prices to decline.

The problem is too much borrowing, too much artificial inflation of home prices.

On what planet should the Republican/conservative alternative be to encourage more borrowing and to prop up prices so they don't fall "too much?"

This is more of the same old, same old: Kicking the can down the road. Real change — fiscally repsonsible change — means sucking it up, allowing housing prices to fall, and getting the government out of the home-lending business.

What a disaster and — coming from Sen. McConnell — how sadly, utterly predictable.

More than a year ago, I called for the GOP to distinguish itself from the Big Government Democrats running for president and demagoguing this issue. Remember?

MakeStickers.com

The bipartisan meddlers in Washington are going to make the housing "crisis" drag on for a decade when, if they had adopted the suck it up plan in the first place, it would have been over by now.

Wow! I am not even a huge football fan, but I sparked up over the fabulous finish between Arizona and Pittsburgh.

The wires are saying this was the best super bowl ever. Almost. The 49ers win over the Bengals in '82 was like, the best ever, and Kansas City over the Vikings in '70 was damn close.

But I digress.

Congratulations Pittsburgh - you guys were great!

P.S.

The Superbowl commercials sucked this year. The NBC promos were funnier than most any of the spots the sponsors ran.

Would you bank it, and then continue to serve your country in Iraq?

I double-dare you to be indifferent to this report from ABCNews.com

Sergeant Wayne Leyde, 26, from the Washington National Guard bought a lucky scratch-and-win lottery ticket.  (ABC News)

Berkeley College Republicans take fire every time they stand up for their beliefs.

Support these guys/gals.

They deserve it.

Watch this YouTube video (posted today)of the attack by CodePinklets during our protest in Berkeley, and then pass it around.

Show Your Resolve: March to Washington

Berkeley Backlash

http://www.foxnews.com/oreilly/

The Three Most Radioactive words in American politics today:

BARRACK HUSSEIN OBAMA.

I'm devastated.

I sit at my keyboard quietly weeping over new polling information that the New York Times has suffered a decline in public opinion. 

Bill Keller, one of my all-time favorite newspaper editors, may be re-thinking his decision to publish The Times hit piece on Senator McCain. 

 Or not.

Newsbusters.org has the scoop.

The New York Times's attempt to insinuate a romantic relationship between John McCain and a lobbyist has apparently backfired. In a poll released today by Rasmussen Reports, the American public holds a strongly negative view of the story and of the paper that released it:

Just 24% of American voters have a favorable opinion of the New York Times. Forty-four percent (44%) have an unfavorable opinion and 31% are not sure. The paper’s ratings are much like a candidate’s and divide sharply along partisan and ideological lines.

By a 50% to 18% margin, liberal voters have a favorable opinion of the paper. By a 69% to 9%, conservative voters offer an unfavorable view. The newspaper earns favorable reviews from 44% of Democrats, 9% of Republicans, and 17% of those not affiliated with either major political story.

Eamon Kelley, the young Marine who is featured in Move America Forward's TV commercial that ran on Fox News earlier this week, spent his day today in Berkeley, Calif. in front of the Marine recruiting offices.

Another national/local ad blitz begins on Monday.

Meanwhile, CodePink has set up a virtual blockade at the recruiting center, expanding it's efforts to harass our troops and turn back young Americans looking to enlist. (The Berkeley City Council stubbornly refuses to apologize and continues subsidizing free parking for CodePink efforts to drive our soldiers out of town.)

Eamon, who is recovering from back surgery, gutted it out under blazing skies in the boycotted town.

He sent me this e-mail after spending four hours there.

Titter Meter: HIGH.

"While we were at the protest in Berkeley from 12 to 4 PM a white volvo drove by and a man spat upon code pink. They chased him down the street and got into a verbal altercation. The police were NO WHERE in sight. That's not the best part, ready for this? Medea Benjamin yelled and I quote "Marines!" she actually yelled for our help because this man had stepped out of his car. Lol. I even asked her if she was yelling Police and she told me "I said Marines" then put her arm around my friend Allen (the Marine vet) Ironic? Ok back to the emails!! "

Speaking of e-mails, Eamon has recieved hundreds and hundreds of letters of support from Americans all across the country after he was featured in my WorldNetDaily.com a couple of weeks ago, and the blogging from so many people, including Michelle Malkin, Pat Dollard, Spree at WakeUpAmerica, EaglesUp, Gathering of Eagles, Canada Free Press and dozens more.

 The e-mails are continuing to pour in, and Eamon has promised himself that he is going to respond to all of you people who have written to him.

P.S.

I am scheduled to appear on The Fox News Network with Bill O'Reilly at 6:00 p.m. EST tomorrow 2/28/08 to discuss the latest developments, including the attacks on other recruiting centers around America, plus a grassroots efforts to boycott Berkeley that is blooming across the country. 

Please, if you can help, don't forget to make an on-line contribution to www.moveamericaforward.com to keep this message running all across America!

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

via MichelleMalkin.com

The late Ann Richards, former Governor of Texas.

Move America Forward has unveiled a TV commercial demanding that the Berkeley City Council rescind the free parking spaces and sound permits it gave to Code Pink and councilmembers apologize for calling our Marines "unwanted intruders."

Until the council reverses course and corrects its anti-military resolutions, we will fight them. We will NOT stand down.

We are proud of the commercial and proud of our troops.

Move America Forward is proud to unveil our brand-new TV ad that fights back against the Berkeley City Council's campaign against our military.

Watch the ad, share it with others - please time is of the essence, and we must get this passed around the Internet ASAP!

We begin airing the ad on the television airwaves next week. So we have between now and then to raise as much money as possible to purchase airtime for the ads - they'll run nationwide (but we need financial support to get them seen enough times!)

Contribute Online here:

Or use this link to donate: http://www.moveamericaforward.org/index.php/MAF/Contribute

Patriots to Berkeley: No Apology, No Peace:

Assemblyman Guy Houston Introduces Legislation To  Suspend Transportation Funds to Berkeley for Anti-U.S. Marine Corps Actions

AB 2615 will suspend $3.3 million in Prop. 1B funds to Berkeley

(Sacramento) – Assemblyman Guy Houston (R-San Ramon) has introduced legislation to suspend $3.3 million in transportation funding to the city of Berkeley. Assembly Bill 2615 is a response to the actions taken by the Berkeley City Council on January 29^th which denounced the presence of the U.S. Marine Corps recruiting office in the city of Berkeley, and grants public resources to protesters.

“Berkeley’s City Council has granted anti-military activists a public resource to assist in barricading the Marine recruitment office,” said Houston.  “The public right of way has been violated and our state must not stand idly by.”

Due to public outcry from its initial January vote, the Berkeley City Council voted on February 13^th to rescind its action to send a letter to the U.S. Marine Corps saying they are “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” but did not address other resolutions. 

The city of Berkeley is scheduled to receive approximately $3.3 million in transportation funding over the next two years from Proposition 1B.  The legislation will call for that funding to be suspended until Berkeley rescinds its January 29, 2008 resolutions.

“Under my proposal, until the Berkeley City Council rescinds its action to grant Marine protesters a public parking spot to serve a private agenda,” said Houston

Assemblyman Guy Houston represents the 15^th Assembly District, which includes portions of Alameda, Contra Costa, Sacramento, and San Joaquin counties. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scXXs4_2Ako – Code Pink barricading U.S. Marine Crops recruitment office.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrT4mKW4CVI – Assemblyman Houston speaks out about why AB 2615 is necessary.

Well, we warned you Berkeley. The City Council must make a formal apology and rescind its other anti-military resolutions encouraging cretins to attack Marines, or face a growing backlash.

Stay tuned: More news about measures to cripple Berkeley are on the horizon.

News alert: Commercials from Move America Forward hit the national airwaves Tuesday.

Hello to all my blog readers!

She's baaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Yup, I am home now from my sunny vacation in the Caribbean, where I had a wonderful time feeding iguanas, jet-skiing, taking a catamaran around the British Virgin islands, and sipping fruity drinks with tiny umbrellas. Yummy!

Thank-you Catherine Moy for keeping everyone up-to-date with your jam-crammed posts (and kick-ass blogs about the moonbats who drive us all slightly crazy!)

It wasn't easy getting home, in fact it  was quite aggravating in returning back to the mainland because of the nasty weather on the Eastern Seaboard that caused flight delays, which resulted in my family missing our connection in Miami.

Being a Type A personality, (Reese Witherspoon and I have SO much in common) so I had to bite my lip and lean into the situation.

As a result, I was not able to attend the California GOP convention in San Francisco where I was scheduled to speak on a panel about the future of Talk Radio.

My apologies to everyone who expected to see me there.

Meanwhile, my good friend Megan Ortagus of Freedoms Watch www.freedomswatch.org sling-shot her way out of the Beltway of insider nay-sayers to put her eyeballs on the ground in Iraq and has filed a report that I want to share with you.

(Actually, this is a photo of Megan's identical twin sister Morgan, who works for the State Department. Close enough!)

http://www.freedomswatch.org/Edit/Blog/tabid/83/Default.aspx

Reporting from a U.S. military base in Kuwait

Private Ryan is a name most Americans associate with Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning picture about a fictional paratrooper from the 101st Airborne Division; his three brothers are tragically killed in WW II and General George C. Marshall orders a grieving mother’s last son to be returned home from France.

I had the privilege of meeting an actual Private Ryan today in Kuwait. Private Tim Ryan and I met over a distinctly American meal – McDonalds – while prepping for transport into the red zone of Iraq. Private Ryan will deploy to a kinetic area of operation where he will lead convoys through the rugged terrain, dealing with deadly I.E.D.s on the way, and working with the Iraqi Security Forces to protect the local population.

As we snacked on chocolate milkshakes and fries, the clarity of his conviction struck me. “I’m living my dream,” he gushed, “this is what I was born to do.”

I can confirm that life in Kuwait might not typically be described as a “dream” by most American standards.  But Private Ryan explained that his dream, not unlike many of the other soldiers I spoke with today, stemmed from a deep desire held since boyhood to serve his country in a combat zone – and make his grandfather proud.

Private Ryan told me of his family life in Southern California, proudly sharing memories of his highly decorated grandfather (two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart) who served as an Army medic in World War II.  And he explained how his friends seemed to no longer understand him.

His most telling anecdote concerned his leave time in Orange County, California. While en route home - in uniform - he stopped in Maine and Dallas, where he was met with applause and hugs from grateful strangers who thanked him for his service.  But the reception in his affluent California neighborhood was quite different. Instead of warm, welcoming greetings, he was met with ambivalence and cautious stares.

I asked Private Ryan why the country seemed so harshly divided over the war. “Well, I think the American people are misinformed when they say they support the troops but not our war.” I asked him to define the U.S. mission in Iraq. “For me, it’s providing peace; if we leave, these gangster terrorists will destroy these people.”

I’d say Private Ryan has a better grasp of what is at stake in Iraq than all the politicians and pundits in Washington.  While policymakers talk of political reconciliation, timelines, mission changes, and war funding, Private Ryan gets to real issue and defines in stark terms the dire consequences of a precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.  Early withdrawal would lead to utter chaos and a military/strategic defeat for the United States.

Private Ryan urged me to share one final thought: he asks for us all to have faith in our military leadership and in the mission. He reminded me that he volunteered for this duty and fighting for American and Iraqis freedom was his life’s highest honor.

“Megan, we’re not just kicking up a bunch of sand over here.”

Well said, Private Ryan.

Megan Ortagus is the Freedom's Watch Iraq Project Director, and will be posting periodically from Iraq throughout the week.  Please check back often for further updates from her trip.

 America-haters in Berkeley

If George Soros wants to continue pouring  his money down a liberal outhouse, he has that right.

A majority of folks are more concerned that the U.S. Government spends 60 percent of our taxpayers’ dollars on entitlements instead of for our country’s protection. Spending on our troops, veterans, weapons, etc., only accounts for 20 percent of our budget, thanks to Bill Clinton who decimated the military and allowed the Muslim jihadists to kill 3,000 innocents on Sept. 11.

Sen. McCain is a real war hero. He knows a whole lot more about war and peace-keeping than a bunch of society’s losers who wear pink skirts and don’t even know how to take a bath.

Well, that goes without saying. If it walks like a traitor and talks like a traitor . . .

I suppose Ms. Mack would like the U.S. to secure the world by sending our troops to Darfur. If these lefties are so worried about security, they should zip their yaps and get jobs so they can pay taxes like the rest of us.

Well, that didn’t take long. The N.Y. Times has written a shoddy and scandalous smear of Sen. John McCain even before the GOP could officially choose him as its presidential nominee.

The Times dredged up some 8-year-old rumors of a relationship between McCain and a female lobbyist. If you’ve taken your anti-acids, you can read the article at N.Y. Slimes.

We know that the N.Y. Times just ain’t what she used to be. And we know it’s a left-wing attack rag. As a MSM journalist of almost 20 years, I am disgusted by the Times. Where are the sources? Why aren’t them named?

If one of my reporters brought this tripe to me when I was an editor, I would have tuned him up. If it happened again, I would have fired him.

The Times should have just come right out and said it: We’re infected with Obama-manic Delirium Disorder (ODD) . Instead of the entire staff fainting like silly girls at an Obomination Rally, they use the Old Gray Lady’s pages to smear his likely opponent.

We should expect no less of the once great newspaper. As Melanie Morgan has pointed out numerous times, the Newspaper has given away national intelligence to our enemies in a time of war. Shameful and shameless.

Perhaps the Times’ latest outrage will inspire others as it has me. As a conservative, I am ready to vote for McCain now that the Slimes and its sad stable of so-called journalists have let loose their slime machine on McCain.

Does this man make you faint?

Barack Hussein Obama fans are dropping like nuts from a tree at campaign stops around the country. (http://www.breitbart.tv/html/48404.html)

I have another theory. I grew up around animals and raised horses, goats, chickens, dogs, cats, geese and other critters. I’ve seen this fainting thing before – in goats.

See for yourself:  http://youtube.com/watch?v=we9_CdNPuJg

Looks a bit like an Obama rally, eh??

If it’s good for the goat, it’s good for the pander.

P.S. I don’t want to burst anybody’s Barack Bubble, but folks are fainting for Mrs. Clinton, too. Read about it here http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/thebigblog/archives/132054.asp

A day after a huge counter-protest to the Berkeley City Council’s attack on the U.S. Marines, anti-American forces on Wednesday were again harassing the Marines at the Shattuck Avenue officers’ recruiting office.

"We came here on Monday and it was closed, it was closed on Tuesday, they closed early on Thursday and guess what, they're closed today," said Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin, the individual who sent more than $600,000 to terrorists’ families in Iraq.

 “If this is all it takes to shut down the Marine recruiting center, we've succeeded," said Oakland resident Sabrina Martin of World Can't Wait, the Communist group that organized the protest.

Free Republic reported Friday’s events. The entire thread can be viewed here http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1971274/posts

Before I go away for a week or so to soak up the sun in a faraway location, I want to introduce you to my guest Blogger Catherine Moy.

She's my heart and soul --a pinky-swear Sister. We call each other Sissy, because we love each other so much.

While I take my first vacation from the front-lines in battling the moonbats in nearly two years, let me tell you that Cat Moy is smarter, tougher, meaner, and more effective in battling the Lefty's than I am.

Plus, she can swear like a sailor and stab the crazies with her words far better than I can ever dream of. 

Cat and I co-authored a book together called "American Mourning" which became an Amazon.com best-seller. We met each other during the Cindy Sheehan halycon days when she and her anti-war, CodePink, George Soros days dominated the news cycle.

I'll be back in California to appear before the state GOP convention for a panel on the future of 'Talk Radio and What It Means for Politics' at the Hyatt Embarcadero on Feb. 23rd. After that, I hope to have anther week of vacation to just unplug.

In the meantime, our message of support for our troops who are risking their damn lives while the arm-chair Generals like Nancy Pelosi, Jack Murtha and Harry Reid intone in stentorian tones that 'the war is lost' has prevailed. History will prove us right. Even the MSM is now forced to admit the surge is working, and our fine young men and women in Iraq are doing the work that even coalition forces won't do now.

Be dazzled by Cat's words.

I always am.

Thank-you readers for clicking onto my website and please continue do so while I take a brief break from the endless ugliness we see from our elected liberal leaders and their enablers.

Back soon,

 Melanie

p.s.

Before I go, please check out this link to how Patriotic Americans are learning from our lesson in Berkeley that we have to FIGHT BACK against Code Pinko.

Being the lovely Southern lady that she is, Kyle-Ann Shiver at AmericanThinker.com has a warning for the Berkeley City Council.

Y'all BETTER THINK TWICE!

Do.Not.Read.This.Post.

Unless you have a tissue by your side.

At the Berkeley demonstration to support our troops, a Marine Mom by the name of Elizabeth Kelly stopped me in the middle of my tornado tracks fighting against the crazies who attacked us.

She introduced me to her son Marine Sgt. Eamon Kelley, who was honorably discharged for his injuries, walking on a crutch.

Mrs. Kelly explained that Eamon had recently had back surgery as a result of his service in Iraq, and was told that he could only walk around for 10 minutes of every hour and then had to rest. But because she was coming to support the Marines under attack by the crazy anti-war nuts at the Berkeley City Council, Eamon decided he had to come to protect her. 

Sgt. Kelly stayed 12 hours. He tried to testify to the City Council, but ultimately, because of the pain, could not stand up to do so. He wanted to stand proudly for the Marines and tell the Berkeley City Council how much their words had wounded him.

Despite the help and support of fellow veterans, Move America Forward's Catherine Moy, and many others-- Sgt. Kelly chose to stand down.

He told Catherine that if he could not stand tall, on his own power, and speak his outrage on behalf of his fellow Marines, he chose not to speak.

I have a column about this story coming out tomorrow at WorldNetDaily.com and another article written by Catherine Moy at Human Events.com ...but I just had to share this e-mail from Marine Mom Elizabeth Kelly with you.

... For the past three years since my son was injured he has been suffering from depression.  While at the protest he received an incredible amount of support support and kind words from some wonderful patriotic people. After so many negatives from the younger generation here in California his spirits have truly been lifted.  He is smiling more, and his demeanor has changed for the better.
 
At one time I took Eamon to buy him a T-shirt with the Marine Corps on the front and a Marine picture on the back.  A couple of Patriot Guards were also standing at the table.  When I took out my wallet to pay for the shirts one of them said, "Put that away.  I'm paying for this!".  Eamon said, "I can't let you do that Sir", but the gentleman insisted.  Eamon has been wearing the shirt ever since.
 
The Patriot Guard has been and inspiration to Eamon and one of them invited Eamon to join them as soon as he is better.  One of the Guardsman who was operating a radio with a loudspeaker and playing inspirational patriotic music.  At on time Eamon said a person from the other side came by riding a bicycle and stopped in front of the guardsman.  She took out a flag and attempted to burn it.  The guardsman jumped up and grabbed the flag.  He said, You do not do that in front of me."  The person on the bicycle ended up on the ground, and the guardsman folded the flag and put it in his inner pocket close to his heart.  In the mean time other guardsmen closed in around him so that he could be identified. 
 
We are still talking about that wonderful day, and so many stories keep cropping up.  God Bless you all for the work you are doing.
 
Warm regards from Elizabeth Kelly 

Sgt. Kelley speaks now for himself.

When I came home to the Bay Area after being discharged from the Marine Corps it felt like the only warm welcome I received was from family and a few friends. I was disgusted to see signs and bumper stickers from the left wing liberals. I strongly believe that every man and woman is entitled to their own opinion, but the left wingers abuse the rights that we fight to preserve. I had to struggle with depression when I came home because I felt unwanted and unappreciated. I was made to feel that I had wasted four years of my life because of these people. What I saw take place at the protest in front of the recruitment office in October gave me hope because of people like yourself.
   
    A few days after I had back surgery and left the hospital I woke up the morning of Feb 12th to see an appalling sight on the news. Code Pink protestors and other Bezerkeleyites had gathered in front of the Berkeley city council to attempt to force Marines out of Berkeley, telling them that they had no right to be there. I felt I had to be there to stand up against them. My mother had already intended to go to the protest, but she insisted that I stay home.   I could not let her go alone. I was in awe to see just how many patriots had shown up in support of our troops. The combination of Code Pink slime on one side, and being surrounded by people just like myself on the other boosted my spirits. My adrenaline started to surge, and I became part of a new fight to speak out for those who couldn't. Later that night when I had to leave I felt I had let everyone down because I never made it inside to speak out against this evil.  
 
  The e-mails my mother received put a smile on my face and made me feel like I had actually made a statement just by attending the protest. I wanted to thank you for your kind words and assisting those who took care of me when I was in need.
 
With gratitude and respect from Eamon Kelly 

Assemblyman Guy Houston Will Continue To   

Hold Berkeley Accountable for Anti-Marine Actions

Houston disappointed that public resources still set aside for protesters

(Sacramento) – On Tuesday evening, the Berkeley City Council revisited its controversial actions taken against the U.S. Marine Corps.  The Council made no apologies for its anti-Marine Corp resolutions and will continue its policy to give public resources to Code Pink for obstructing Marine recruitment.  Therefore, Assemblyman Guy Houston (R-San Ramon) will move forward with his proposal to suspend $3.3 million in transportation funding to the City of Berkeley.

“The Council did not make any meaningful changes last night.  They are continuing to limit free speech while depriving people of the public right of way,” said Assemblyman Houston.  “Their publicly funded streets should not be given away to Code Pink to further its own agenda.  Therefore, I will be moving forward with my legislation to suspend Berkeley’s transportation funding.”

The Berkeley City Council voted to rescind an item calling for the city manager to send a letter to the U.S. Marine Corps calling the Corps “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” in the city but did not address other resolutions.

“Berkeley’s City Council has granted anti-military activists a public resource to assist in barricading the Marine recruitment office,” said Houston.  “The Council let stand its violation of the public trust by setting aside a public parking spot for Code Pink.”

The City of Berkeley is scheduled to receive approximately $3.3 million in transportation funding over the next two years from Proposition 1B.  The legislation will call for that funding to be suspended until Berkeley rescinds its January 29, 2008 resolution.

Assemblyman Guy Houston represents the 15^th Assembly District, which includes portions of Alameda, Contra Costa, Sacramento, and San Joaquin counties.

Conservative Talk Radio under Attack ..and it's supporters fight back.

These children were taken by their teachers to Berkeley City Council pro-Marine demonstration, and chaos erupted.

Nice use of public education funds, eh?

Watch the video here...

Yesterday afternoon during the protest in Berkeley, a KTVU reporter asked me what I thought would happen during the Council meeting that extended until 2:00 in the morning.

I said NOTHING would change. They would vote to moderate their language, but they would not address the preferential treatment using taxpayer funds for CodePinkos to harrass the Marine Recruiting Center.

Nor did they vote to apologize.

This reporter disagreed. He said they would back down.

I bet him a Coca-Cola he would be wrong.

On the rocks, please.

MICHELLE MALKIN AGREES.

From HotAir.com

Catherine Moy, Move America Forward Executive Director, reports that during the City Council meeting last night, a deeply moving incident took place.

From Digital Journal.com

(Melanie Morgan and members of Move America Forward at a rally held in Berkeley Ca., February 12, 2008-- Photo courtesy of Move America Forward)

Students faced off against police outside the Maudelle Shirek Building in Berkeley. Chronicle photo by Brant Ward

Lead Story

 sfgate.com

More...

WaPo  here.

Mercury News here.

NBC11 here.

CNN here.

Contra Costa Times Blog Report here

Pipeline News here

Just got back from Bezerkley tonight --before the City Council's action.

I sent this update e-mail to Michelle Malkin, who has fired up the country with her blogging.

If I were a headline writer I would describe the situation as CHAOS AND ANARCHY IN BERKELEY today.

Not by our side –by the Marine haters and American traitors.

The cops were openly hostile toward the people who showed up at 5:00 a.m., RARELY stepping in to protect the patriots from the assaults that took place against elderly folks, Gold Star parents, Blue Star families and Joe and Jane Citizen who were waving the flags and showing their pride in the Marines. The police allowed hundreds of Berkeley High School kids (accompanied by their teachers) to gather with CodePink, receive their mandatory face masks and F---k Bush t-shirts, and allowed them to mill around our PA where they tried to cut the power cords to the system.

Berkeley police repeatedly allowed CodePink to violate our permits, and never lifted a finger to stop their crowd from interfering with our activities until the very end, after we screamed blue bloody hell.

When Catherine Moy, the Executive Director of MAF called the police to tell them a riot was erupting in the early hours –THEY HUNG UP ON HER.

Cat called the Highway Patrol, who referred her back to the Berkeley police –WHO HUNG UP ON HER.

It was positively shameful.

In the middle of the madness, I appeared on Fox News - PatDollard.com provides the video.

Move America Forward’s attorney Jim Sweeney took depositions from ten people who were assaulted by CodePink, International A.N.S.W.E.R. and socialists who showed up en masse.

The City Council has been notified by fax that we are filing a federal lawsuit for deprivation of our civil rights. We didn’t start this fight, but we are damn sure gonna finish it.

The pro-troops demonstration is still going strong at 7:30 p.m. PST, with all streets around the Berkeley City Council closed off as the CodePinkos continue to receive preferential treatment by the Berkeley PD.

Move America Forward’s sound permit was turned off at 5:00 in the afternoon, while the Pinkos were allowed to use their system to sing Kumbaya and other 60’s peace chants.

Berkeley, the birthplace of free speech, is now officially the center of intolerant hatred for anyone who sticks up for the men and women who are fighting and dying to protect THEIR rights.

Before our sound system was nearly sabotaged, a young man posing as a pro-troop supporter asked to speak to the crowd. I allowed him to talk (about his family’s ‘service’)when he started spewing obscenities about the ‘illegal, immoral, unjust war’ . I grabbed the microphone back, and he tried to clobber me with it.

Gold Star Dad Mark Crowley knocked him to the ground, where he found a faceful of dirt to keep him company.

Our side sang God Bless America, America the beautiful and other stirring songs that seemed to enrage the elderly commies.

25,000 petitions were collected by Move America Forward with the help of other pro-troops groups like Gathering of Eagles, EaglesUp, Vets for Freedom and others.

There were Eagles EVERYWHERE today.

And Patriot Guard Riders.

And American Legion vets.

And members of the Military Order of the Purple Heart.

5,000 petition signatures were also collected by an organization in Washington headed by Nicholas Provenzano, who flew out to Berkeley on the red-eye to deliver to the City Council.

Red, White and Blue Americans rushed to our side from Atlanta, Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania, Colorado, San Diego, and other parts of the United States.

Our crowds numbered into the thousands throughout the day.

So gratifying. So humbling.

People of all ages, races, and political backgrounds (yes even some incensed liberals) honored our active duty service members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in other parts around the world.

We spoke of the sacrifice and the nobility of the military families who support their sons and daughters, husbands and wives.

And we gave a HOOO-AWW especially to our Marines, who find themselves prevented from speaking while under assault, not from a evil enemy abroad, but from the insurgents here at home.

Your readers should be proud and exhilarated by our efforts today.

I don’t know what will happen with the Berkeley City Council, but I would be you that dollars to donuts, they’ll issue some mealy-mouthed WE SUPPORT THE TROOPS, JUST NOT THEIR MISSION crap, and then keep in place all the restrictions that make recruiting on Shattuck avenue all but impossible.

I have no idea how the media will portray this historic event –I can only tell you that 3 TV helicopters were overhead almost all day long, every major media outlet in the Bay Area, as well as national TV and print reporters–but OUR people spoke eloquently, passionately, and with conviction about the hateful attitude that the City of Berkeley has displayed toward the USMC.

A pause in the action after scrapping with Bezerk Berkeley-ites this morning.

MichelleMalkin.com doing the posting on what we are up to!

Lead Story

Showdown in Berkeley and the Harry Reid chicken-out; Update: Morning mayhem in Berkeley

Update 11:14am. Just received word from Cat Moy with Move America Forward of a physical confrontation by the Code Pinkos against pro-troops supporters. Cat writes:

Berkeley Police Watch “Peace” Freaks attack Patriots

Berkeley erupted in violence Tuesday morning when the Communist, terrorist-supporting anti-war group crossed into Martin Luther King Park and assaulted pro-troop individuals. Riot police stood by, but did not stop the assaults. Police agencies did not respond to calls for help.

Move America Forward, the nation’s largest pro-troop organization, received permits from the City of Berkeley to hold a daylong demonstration in MLK park against the City Council who passed three outrageous resolutions calling U.S. Marines “unwanted intruders.”

“It is mayhem on here,” MAF communications director Danny Gonzalez said from the park early Tuesday morning.

Code Pink was permitted for across the street. The two sides were to stay separated, according to rules laid down by the city. But the city has a history of giving Code Pink special preference. The City Council gave free parking permits and a free noise permit to the radical group, which has helped fund terrorist families in Iraq with a $600,000 gift. MAF Exeutive Director Catherine Moy attempted to get help from the Berkeley police as the mayhem unfolded, but an officer hung up on Moy. Moy asked the California Highway Patrol to help in the emergency, but the CHP refused. “I have never in my life experienced such inaction in the face of an emergency, “Moy said. “I will ask the Federal Government to investigate, as well as the State Attorney General. It is one thing to give free parking places to the City Council’s special interest anti-war groups, it is another to take sides and endanger the lives of others.”

Move America Forward and other pro-troop organizations will stand in support of the Marines all day Tuesday until they can enter the City Council chambers to address the City Council.

On Tuesday night, the nine members of the Berkeley City Council are expected to do something they, or the Marines, for that matter, very rarely do: retreat in the face of fierce opposition. “ The staff are supposed to be there to protect us from our stupidity,” said Councilwoman Betty Olds, who is 87, as feisty as a cornered rattlesnake and a leader of the retrenchment. “And they didn’t do any better than we did. ” For weeks, the Council has been at the heart of a mess related to its proclamation that the Marines — them that stormed the beaches of Iwo Jima — were not welcome to run their three-person recruiting office downtown.

Catherine Moy, our Executive Director for Move America Forward, met with City officials today, including representatives of the Berkeley police department about our rally and protest of Berkeley's outrageous resolution condemning our Marines at the Recruiting Center as 'unwanted and uninvited intruders.'

Um, it did not go well.

In fact, some were outwardly HOSTILE towards our patriots. (Surprise!)

Cat Moy suggested that Berkeley just start waterboarding us right now. The police liason was NOT amused.

 Among the demands from the bureaucrats is that we provide:

-sign language intrepreters for hearing impaired (how Berzekeley!)

-porta-potties for the disabled.

-shut down our sound system at 5:00 when our rally is scheduled to begin!

-and many other ridiculous demands.

CodePink has preferred parking, free sound permits, and two City Council Members plotting over the weekend to deny us our right to speak at the Council meeting at 7:00 tomorrow night. Oops, did I say 7:00? Now it appears the Council is meeting secretly at 5:00 in the afternoon.

Fascism by Regulation.

It's what Berkeley does best.

May I remind our not-so-esteemed members of the Berkely City Council what our Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guardsmen do for us without thought about any political affiliation? 

1. Toys for Tots program

I will be there, and I hope you will join me as we stand strong and proud with our military men and women, and especially the USMC.

Hoo-Ahh!

February 11th, 2008 10:40 AM Eastern

Berkeley Military Bashers Meet Marine Supporters

From Drudge Report.com

 C'mon Nancy, tell us everything you know. It'll only take ten seconds.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3346386.ece

Al-Qaeda leaders admit: 'We are in crisis. There is panic and fear'

A Berkeley City Councilman who was drummed out of the Marine Corps.

Folks, this is what we are up against on Tuesday.

His name is Max Anderson.

Remember it.

Answer

We are giving the Dem's  heartburn.

From the CalMajority Report (a Democrat strategist newsletter.)

Oh, Berkeley. Republican Assemblyman Guy Houston has announced plans to withhold $3.3 million in state road funding from the city of Berkeley over its decision to send the US Marines a letter effectively banning them from recruiting within city limits, reports the San Jose Mercury News. This is aside from the $2.3 million in federal funding being challenged by Republican congressmen who were also offended. The city will be host to an anti-anti-war protest on Tuesday by the pro-Marine organization Move America Forward. Sigh.

Talkin' politics here.

I fell out of my chair laughing at Naomi Wolfe who was vigorously chastised by Sheppard Smith at Fox News for her (always) outrageous statements everytime she goes on TV.

 Ms. 'She Who Runs With Wolves' have a history of antagonism. With Me.

via IanSchwartz.com

Video: Shep Doesn’t Let Naomi Wolf’s Fox Attack Go Without Answer

Spree at WakeUpAmericans is doing an excellent job blogging about all the insanity in Berkeley, and the NEWEST INSULT to our troops in Toledo.

From her Blog

NOTE TO MOVE AMERICA FORWARD: After Berkeley, perhaps a little nudge the Toledo Mayor would be in order for kicking the Marines out of Toledo.

Toledo police said they knew about the training and had approved the unit’s use of the Madison Building and the Promenade Park area. The training was scheduled to start Friday afternoon and last until Sunday. Police said the unit’s presence would have a minimal impact on the city. Police issued a press release earlier in the week saying the Marines would be wearing green camouflage uniforms, operate military vehicles, carry rifles, perform foot patrols, and fire blank ammunition during the exercise.

Schwartz said there was a breakdown in communication between police and the Finkbeiner administration that led to the mayor’s action.

“The Marines drilled here three times during the Ford administration and once under the Finkbeiner administration. After the last visit, the mayor told then police Chief Jack Smith, that he did not want the marines back. Smith failed to inform the current police administration of the mayor’s feelings,” Schwartz said.

NBC24 spoke to Jack Smith who recalled that after the Marines last visit, he and the mayor had a heated exchange about the training.

“He told me he did not want them, as he put it, 'playing war in Toledo,'" Smith recalled. "I told him, as a former Marine, that if one young Marine’s life is saved because of training he or she received in Toledo, Ohio, then it was worth the inconvenience.”

DULY NOTED!

I have done, oh, a bajillion interviews about the Berkeley situation and included this awful, awful situation in Toledo.

We'll keep pressing the main point --THE LEFT HATES OUR TROOPS!

Make Sure You're Taking Your Blood Pressure Medication Before Reading This   [Andy McCarthy]

The Democrat Mayor of Toledo, Ohio, Carty Finkbeiner, has told the United States Marines to get out of his town.  At his blog, Roger's Rules, our friend Roger Kimball has the details in a post aptly entitled, "Toledo to Marines:  Drop Dead."

E-mail the Mayor here:

2/8/2008

uh-oh Berkeley is just beginning to heat up.

Senators Introduce Semper Fi Act of 2008
Bill Stops Berkeley Earmarks and Transfers Funds to Marine Corps

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia), Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-Oklahoma), John Cornyn (R-Texas), and David Vitter (R-Louisiana) introduced the Semper Fi Act of 2008. The bill would rescind over $2 million in hidden earmarks for Berkeley, California in the 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill, and transfer the funds to the Marine Corps. U.S. Congressman John Campbell (R-California) is introducing a companion bill in the House of Representatives.

Last week, the City Council of Berkeley voted to oust Marine Corps recruiters from their downtown office, saying the Marines were "uninvited and unwelcome intruders." Berkeley officials also voted to give the radical protest group Code Pink space outside the recruitment office and urged them to "impede, passively or actively" the work of Marine Corps recruiters.

One earmark provides $243,000 in taxpayer dollars for the organization Chez Panisse to create gourmet organic school lunches in the Berkeley School District. Chez Panisse is dedicated to "environmental harmony" and their menu features "Comté cheese soufflé with mâche salad," "Meyer lemon éclairs with huckleberry coulis," and "Chicory salad with creamy anchovy vinaigrette and olive toast."

Another earmark would spend $975,000 in taxpayer dollars for the University of California in Berkeley Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service, to create a new endowment and cataloging the papers of Congressman Robert Matsui. U.C. Berkeley currently already has a $3.5 billion endowment.

Senator Inhofe: "Unfortunately, those on the Berkeley city council do not seem to understand the sacrifice of the brave men and women of the United States Marine Corps. By interfering with military recruiting, the city of Berkeley is hampering our ability to protect this nation. While the city of Berkeley and the protestors are free to say whatever they like, free speech is not a protection from consequence."

Senator DeMint: "Berkeley needs to learn that their actions have consequences. Patriotic American taxpayers won't sit quietly while Berkeley insults our brave Marines and tries to run them out of town. Berkeley City Council members have shown complete ingratitude to our military and their families, and the city doesn't deserve a single dime of special pet project handouts."

Senator Cornyn: "The Berkeley City Council insulted our troops and offended people across the country. If the U.S. Marines are not good enough for Berkeley, neither are taxpayer dollars Congress would have sent there this year. That city closed its doors on the same individuals taking bullets on the front lines while fighting for the safety and freedom of families in Berkeley and throughout America."

Senator Vitter: "The actions of the City Council of Berkeley are in stark contrast to beliefs of the vast majority of Americans who recognize and honor the service and sacrifice of our U.S. Marines. This is simply unacceptable and those funds could be better utilized by the Marine Corps."

Dr. Coburn: "The actions by the city of Berkeley are deplorable and insulting to those who are serving and those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect the very freedoms that are being exercised to insult them. I know I stand with the majority of Americans in thanking our service men and women for their selfless service to our nation."

Senator Chambliss: "We need to send a strong message that our military personnel deserve our strongest support. Georgia is a proud military state, and my constituents will be out outraged to know that during a time of war, their taxpayers dollars have been used to reward folks who have insulted and disparaged those who defend this nation every day."

Friday, February 08, 2008

Posted by: Patrick Ruffini  at 10:16 AM

Dateline Washington - Word comes today that the last conservative choice left in the 2008 presidential race has withdrawn.

Mitt Romney has ended his campaign, leaving the base with John McCain or Mike Huckabee. 

I'm reaching for the Prilosec now. 

From DrudgeReport.com

ROMNEY OUT...
Suspends campaign...
...for our party and for our country
Eyes 2012...
Huckabee vows to press on... 
 

The Internet, talk radio, and the mainstream media are dyspeptic, too. 

Conservatives are venting, re-grouping and analyzing the situation.

My take?

It is time for us to help politicans from both the right and the left to focus on OUR values which embody love for duty, honor, and country.

Our conservative voices will be heard loudly and proudly in support of the issues that concern us the most, in the debate most vital to our country --National Security.

Michelle Malkin, as usual, sums it up best when she writes today

"Some on the Right advise their readers and listeners to vote Democrat or sit home. My advice is exactly the opposite: Get off the couch and walk the walk for conservative candidates and officeholders who need all the help they can get defending free markets, free minds, and secure borders—no matter who takes the White House in November....

...If you can’t stomach John McCain, channel your support and energies to Republicans who do represent your values and who have treated the conservative base as allies instead of enemies. There are a new generation of combat veterans running for office who haven’t made a career of trashing the base. Check out staunch economic, social, and national security conservative congressional candidates like Iraq/Afghanistan veteran Eric Egland in California’s fourth district. Check out the Vets for Freedom (vetsforfreedom.org) group for their endorsements."

Excellent advice for many of us.

Personally, I am re-doubling my energy to engage Berkeley at Ground Zero this Tuesday.

We will have plenty of time to sort the politics out later when we are less angry at the Republican leaders who have let us down. 

DIGITAL MEDIA BLOGFIRE BURNING NOW! 

e-mail Susan Duclos Digital Report to everyone you know!

..and from the San Francisco Chronicle

Berkeley Disrespects Marines

By Debra Saunders

"I guess they've never heard of free speech," Berkeley City Councilwoman Dona Spring told The Chronicle as she defended the council's 6-3 vote to tell Marine recruiters that they are not welcome in Berkeley -- and that if the Marines stay, they will "do so as uninvited and unwelcome intruders."

The council also voted 8-1 to give the anti-war Code Pink organization a designated parking space directly in front of the U.S. Marine Corps' 64 Shattuck Ave. recruiting office and encouraged Code Pink to "impede" Marine recruitment. It's pretty clear that Spring has heard of free speech, but she has no idea what it is.

It's one thing for Berkeley to pronounce U.S. troops, who put their lives on the line every day to defend America, as unwelcome. That's protected speech -- that signals Berkeley residents' disdain for U.S. troops. It's also the sort of rude, we're-better-than-the-rest-of-America action that invites outsiders to wonder if a city that tries to divorce itself from military recruitment deserves the benefits that the federal government bestows.

 UPDATE!

Assemblyman Guy Houston of Livermore is sponsoring a bill in the state legislature to strip Berkeley of STATE transportation funding in light of it's outrageous stand against the Marines.

Houston's office says the measure will deny Berkeley $3.3 million dollars of transportation bond money due to the fact the Council voted to give taxpayers dollars for a parking right-of-way to Code Pink.

Houston will join us at 7:35 a.m. Friday morning on Hottalk 560 KSFO to discuss this new measure.

Developing...

California has become ground-zero in the battle over  the virulent hatred shown to our troops during a time of war.

Here are some of the mainstream media pick-ups today from the Berkeley push-back that we are planning for this Tuesday, February 12th at the Berkeley City Council meeting where we will present our petition from thousands of angry Americans sick of this leftist language that directly undermines the efforts to recruit people to the Marines, stifling their free speech rights, and violating countless local and federal laws by CodePink and their supporters in the process.

Also same story at Contra Costa Times:

John Stephens is with a very loose-knit anti-war group in Napa that calls itself UNCOIL. That stands for United Napans Concerned Over the Iraq Lunacy. He says they were inspired the controversial hillside crosses displayed last year in Lafayette. The crosses are made of 1x4 lumber and cost about $4.00 to make. UNCOIL members take up donations to pay for them and have work parties to build them. They are given away for free to people who want one for their front yard.

Catherine Moy and Move America Forward say the best way to support the troops is to write supportive letters and send care packages. On February 12, Move America Forward plans to spend the entire day demonstrating in Berkeley, protesting what it sees at that city’s anti-American, anti-troop activity.

Support us by directing people to our on-line petition at Move America Forward. www.moveamericaforward.com

I am heading down to Pebble Beach in a few minutes as the invited guest of Neil Cavuto, who is doing his show live from the Pro-Am. 

Watch me on the Fox News Network at 1:00(ish) PST.

UPDATE:

First reaction comes, predictably, from the far-left, Republican Bashing, Conservative haters at Newshounds.com

No video available yet ...will post when I find it.

Meanwhile, sign our petition against the Berkeley City Council at www.moveamericaforward.com

From Super-Blogger Michelle Malkin - the latest on our outrage!

IT'S FEBRUARY, NOT NOVEMBER. ACT ACCORDINGLY.

Update: McCain sums up the state of the race after tonight. (MichelleMalkin.com)

ONCE JOHN WINS, HE'LL MAKE A LEFT

From The DrudgeReport.com

ELECTION SHOCK: OBAMA CLAIMS DELEGATE LEAD

OBAMA TAKES MOST DELEGATES IN SMALLER STATES: HILLARY TAKES BIG STATES

CodePinko's are using the image of a young murdered Marine to promote it's evil politics.

 Shame. Shame. Shame.

And ...two Berkeley City Council members are having 'regrets' about their support for the ugly words to our Marines.

Read here.

Despite today's news reports from DrudgeReport and Michelle Malkin that the Berkeley City Council is beginning to soften it's hateful rhetoric against our troops --WE WILL NOT STAND DOWN.

Fight Back Against Berkeley City Council!

PRO-TROOP SUPPORTERS TO

SAN FRANCISCO – The nation’s largest pro-troop organization, Move America Forward (website: www.MoveAmericaForward.org ) will organize a protest against the Berkeley City Council this Tuesday, February 12^th.

The protest is in response to the Berkeley City Council resolutions against the U.S. Marine Recruiting Center and the decree that our troops are “unwelcome intruders.”

The protests will last all day – with picketing to begin at 5:00 AM outside the Berkeley City Council chambers at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way.

The main event will take place beginning at 5:00 PM when pro-troop supporters will gather en masse for a “Support Our Troops” rally ahead of the 7:00 PM City Council Meeting.

Move America Forward is collecting signatures from thousands of Americans who are furious with the recent actions by the Berkeley City Council against the men and women of the United States military.

In October, Move America Forward organized a giant pro-troop rally at the Marine Recruiting Center in Berkeley to show solidarity with the U.S. Marine Corps.

Supporters from throughout the nation will be coming to Berkeley for the February 12^th protests.

Complete details, including travel information is available at the Move America Forward website:  www.MoveAmericaForward.org

Many of you know that I live in Marin County, Calif. which is one of the most liberal counties in America.

We prize our stunning views of Mount Tamalpais where we run, walk, amble, and work very hard to keep as a pristine natural resource.

We also enjoy the Corte Madera creek that feeds into the San Francisco Bay (which regularly floods because the politicans can't pass a flood control measure although they can ban smoking within 40 feet of a public building) and lead a laid-back lifestyle.

Life is pretty easy here.

IF you are a liberal.

And an elderly exhibitionist.

It's pretty tough, though, if you are a conservative and especially so if you are a conservative kid.

An 18-year old senior student e-mailed me about his free speech rights that have been trampled at his high school (which shall remain nameless for obvious reasons.)

What's the problem? He doesn't support Hillary Clinton. 

Read this.

 I listen to your show whenever possible, which unfortunately, isn't often.

I am writing to you to report an example of how "liberal tolerance" is often contradiction in terms.

Last week, I proudly hung a Stop Senator Hillary Clinton poster, courtesy of my grandmother, on my locker.  It was very popular among my friends and many other students, including Barack-supporting Democrats.  The day after I hung it, however, it was violently torn down, judging by the leftover tape fragments.

If Michelle Malkin didn't exist, conservatives would have to create her.

 She's a crusading machine for our beliefs--where DOES she get the energy?

The latest on the siege at Berkeley

 BERKELEY – Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, convicted of stealing 1,000 free newspapers from the Daily Californian newsstands in 2002, is at it again.

The Mayor is attempting to steal the free speech rights of the United States Marine Corps by harassing the recruiting center into abandoning its lease.  

Move America Forward has launched a petition drive denouncing the Mayor and the Council, while demanding an apology to the USMC at its website www.moveamericaforward.com

The response was so overwhelming it crashed the site within minutes after launching, fueled by intense coverage from bloggers, talk radio, Internet, television reports and pro-troops organizations like the American Legion, Vets for Freedom, Gathering of Eagles and EaglesUP. 

Patriots such as Michelle Malkin are reporting this story in depth: 

 “We are looking at all options to stop Berkeley from issuing gifts of public funds, such as free parking spaces, and violating the Constitution,” said Catherine Moy, Executive Director of Move America Forward. “We have contacted all branches of our government to redress these issues, and will explore all legal, legislative and executive avenues to stop the injustice perpetrated by the Berkeley City Council.”  

Bates has taken a further steps to shutter the doors of the Marine’s recruiting station.

Bates told the Contra Costa Times that he would broker a deal to release the Marine’s from their building lease. But the Marines said they will stay. 

 “Mayor Bates, in his arrogance, has crossed the line by trying to steal the Marine’s First Amendment Rights, and we will not stand for this treasonous behavior. His stunning offer to "broker a deal" to release the Marine's from its building lease shows the depth of his contempt for our military men and women,” said Melanie Morgan, chairman of Move America Forward. “Our group will stand with the Marines until their attackers stop.”

The Berkeley council on Tuesday passed two resolutions condemning the Marines as part of a campaign by anti-war activists to shut down the recruiting center.

The council also gave Code Pink, a leftist group that daily harasses the Marines with hate speech, a free parking place and noise permit.

Move America Forward (Move America Forward), initiated a campaign for people to call and email the rogue City Council. Thousands of e-mails, calls and letters of denunciation have poured into the offices of Bates and other council members who support the efforts to drive the USMC out of town.

A companion bill in the House is now being prepared.

Berkeley, CA City Council Roster and Contact Information: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/general/councilroster.html 

UPDATE: Zombietime.com wandered over to the Marine Recruiting Center today and has posted his photos and commentary.

UPDATE: Pat Dollard.com weighs in ... so many blogs are reporting on this story that I could be here all night linking.  Our message has gone viral. I can't cross post to everyone who is reporting because a) I'm not computer proficient enough, and b) I'm trying to live my life with my family. So many, many thanks to everyone who is helping to spread the message. I am grateful to all of you. 

I am AFRAID ...truly frightened of this report that Hillary Clinton is 'weighing' the idea of penalizing people who don't support her socialized medicine plan.

STOP. HILLARY. NOW.