Tuesday, June 9, 2009
American Legion Critical of Obama for Apologizing to Muslim World for U.S. Actions in Aftermath of 9/11
The nation’s largest veterans’ organization, the American Legion, criticized President Obama for apologizing for to the Muslim world for U.S. behavior in the in aftermath of the 9/11 attacks during his address from Cairo last week.
Rehbein indicated that the commander-in-chief should not be apologizing for ''anything'' related to Iraq, but instead should ask the Muslim world to admit “that elements within its community have been responsible for egregious acts of terrorism...''
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Obama's Broken Feedback Loop
How does a president learn and grow, if the press won't criticize him, and instead treats him as a god. Two articles published yesterday on Pajamas Media, taken together shed some light on the topic.
Victor Davis Hanson's The Reckoning is a story about the beliefs Hanson developed while pursing his advance education and how they affected him. He compares his return to run the family farm with Obama's entering the White HouseOnly someone who has not been in the real world, but only marketed rhetoric without consequences (e.g., if Obama had a bad day organizing, or legislating, was he fired?) could believe such things. In short, Obama reminds me a little of myself-at 26.
In Our Liberally Racist Media T.K. Farrow argues that a news media that desperately wants the nation's first African-American president to succeed has lowered the bar to the point where no honest criticism of any kind is being allowed. No liberal media member wants to be branded a dissident of Obama, much less be accused of dissenting for racial reasons. So even the liberal reporters who don't think Obama needs the help of the media have justifiable fear of being considered a hindrance to his agenda. And race, of course, is at the center of that fear.
The flip side of the lack of criticism is the hollow praise. Back in February, 2007 in response to a question about whether the media had been piling on George W. Bush, Newsweek's Evan Thomas responded "Our job is to bash the president". This week he called Obama "sort of god."
I worry that a president who receives excessive praise for his speeches while the results of his actions are all being laid at the feet of his predecessor is one who won't ever feel the need to make the transition from fine sounding words to padlocks.
I fear that someone being called a god is someone who may be well along the road to thinking that he is already wise and that he doesn't make mistakes.
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‘I Heard Nothing But Rave Reviews’ for Obama’s Apology Speech
Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift seemed flabbergasted on this weekend’s McLaughlin Group as fellow panelists Pat Buchanan, Monica Crowley and Mort Zuckerman all criticized President Obama’s speech to Muslims in Cairo. Perhaps reflecting the mindset of her Newsweek colleagues, Clift exclaimed:“Until I came on this set, I heard nothing but rave reviews for this speech. I feel like I’m in a total parallel reality.”
[Finally, she's on to something.]
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Obama Needs to Brush up on Middle East History
."No system of government can or should be imposed upon one nation by any other."
But that's what the United States did in Germany and Japan, and in Iraq, as well. As one of the Democratic senators who insisted that the Iraqis meet benchmarks, Obama was a micromanager in that process himself."We did not go by choice; we went because of necessity"
into Afghanistan. No, it was by choice; we could have stayed out and depended, as we did after the attacks of the 1990s, on homeland defenses. And as for his claim that "Islam has always been a part of America's story," that's a stretch, and one that requires airbrushing out the war against the Barbary pirates.
Most disturbingly, Obama seems to have gotten the history of the Israel-Palestine issue wrong. The plight of the Palestinians since 1948 or 1967 is not the moral equivalent of the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust, as Obama's "on the other hand" segue suggested. Nor are private statements by Arabs accepting the continued existence of Israel the moral equivalent of Israeli governments' public willingness to negotiate with Palestinians.
Obama seems not to have learned from previous presidents' attempts to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian agreement that no solution is possible without an interlocutor willing to let Israel live in peace. His attempt to muscle Israel into stopping even natural growth of settlements beyond the 1967 line applies pressure to the party already willing to make peace.
Obama needs to brush up on the Barbary pirates, but even more so on the last 40 years of Middle East history...
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If Islam is the Religion of Peace, Why Do They Have to Keep Reminding Us?
.
“Last week, four Southern Baptists were arrested for plotting to blow up St Patrick’s Cathedral. The men, who became born-again Christians in prison, wanted to kill and terrorize Catholics.”
If that was the opening paragraph in a newspaper story you were reading, your gut reaction would be – huh? Baptists don’t do things like that in the name of their faith. Neither do Catholics, Presbyterians, Seventh Day Adventists or Mormons.
But when we read the headline in a May 21st New York Times’ story – “4 Accused of Bombing Plot at Bronx Synagogues” – it was ho-hum stuff.
It wasn’t exactly a revelation when The Times informed us, in the 9th paragraph, “They are all Muslims, a law enforcement official said” – just in case you thought the conspiracy involved Episcopalians, Rotarians or the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
If you hear about a hijacking, suicide bombing, sniper attack or the beheading of a hostage anywhere in the world, your first reaction is: a Muslim did it. Why? Because 9 times out of 10, a Muslim did it...
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Terrorists Free to Kill Once Again as They Slip the Grasp of Gitmo's Kid Gloves
The Pentagon now confirms that at least 74 former Guantanamo detainees have resumed terror ist activities after claiming they weren't terrorists. Such recidivism points up an alarming intelligence failure.
These dangerous prisoners should never have been cleared for release.
In a word, politics. Gitmo interrogations have been emasculated to placate critics of waterboarding and other ''torture'...
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The Watergate of Waterboarding
Former CIA Director George Tenet has said,“I know that this program has saved lives. I know we’ve disrupted plots. I know this program alone is worth more than the FBI, Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency put together have been able to tell us.”
And reporting on the interrogation methods used at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba facility, the August 2004 Schlesinger Commission report said, “At Guantanamo, the interrogators used those additional techniques with only two detainees, gaining important and time-urgent information in the process.” (Emphasis added) [snip]
The only way this can be resolved is for Obama to release the documents Cheney asked for which, so far, Obama has refused to do. He said that the declassification and release of the “torture memos” was for compelling reasons which are not present with regard to the Cheney documents.
Obama is engaged in a coverup and partnering with Pelosi to damage our national security. If legal but harsh interrogations worked to save American lives, they must be reinstituted regardless of political gain or loss...
[Just like producing a birth certificate would completely close that issue - yet it's refused.]
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Synecdoche, Tel Aviv?
The not-so-bad guys won Lebanon's election over the weekend, leaving their truly evil opponents--the Iranian-backed terror group Hezbollah and its allies--with a parliamentary majority. The Associated Press is eager to credit a man who did not vote in Lebanon's elections.
President Bush was credited for Lebanon's "cedar revolution" four years ago.
Perhaps this is another case in which we should praise Obama for hewing to his predecessor's policies...
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Defeated Hezbollah accepts Lebanon election results
Following its election defeat which was officially announced by Lebanese authorities on Monday, Hezbollah insisted that it would not decommission its weapons."The majority must commit not to question our role as a resistance party, the legitimacy of our weapons arsenal and the fact that Israel is an enemy state,"
Hezbollah member of parliament, Mohamed Raad, told the French news agency AFP."The election results in Lebanon do not change the fact that Hezbollah remains a state within a state,"
[some 'acceptance']
Israel's Foreign Ministry said following release of preliminary results that it was"incumbent upon any government that is formed in Beirut to ensure that Lebanon will not be used as a base for violence against the State of Israel and against Israelis.... Israel considers the Lebanese government responsible for any military or otherwise hostile activity that emanates from its territory."
[here we go again - it's only a matter of time]
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'Pakistan has awakened': Locals fight back against Taliban
Lahore, Pakistan - As the Pakistani military cracks down on Taliban forces in the Swat Valley, hundreds of villagers in the country's troubled northwest region are themselves taking up arms against the insurgents.
They have formed a militia and are fighting back the Taliban to avenge the bombing at a mosque on Friday that killed at least 40 people...
[And where they'd get the idea such a thing could work? From their Iraqi neighbors.]
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Labour routed in European elections
Labour was trailing the UK Independence Party, while the Conservatives made a remarkable comeback in Wales, finishing on top. It was the first time that Labour had lost the popular vote there since 1918.
The Liberal Democrats were also having a bad night — in fourth place overall. The Green Party won a seat in London.
But in perhaps the biggest blow to the governing party, the BNP took the last of six seats in Yorkshire, with Andrew Brons securing 120,000 votes...
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Battered and bruised
It was a terrible night for European socialists, but also a worrying night for those who believe in a Europe of open borders. As elections for a new European
Parliament ended on Sunday June 7th, after four days of voting in 27 countries, it became clear that not only Britain’s Labour Party had received a pasting. In the words of the socialists’ leader in the Euro-parliament, the centre left suffered a “very bitter evening”...
[The politicos and media morons keep chanting left, left - but watch the people - they're moving right and have been doing so for a decade now...]
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FLASHBACKs >
Europe leans right as voters choose EU Parliament
Europe's continuing conservative swing
The Conservative Tide in Major Democracies
More...
What Europeanization Will Really Mean?
Mr. Obama made yet another trip to Europe this week along with his stopover in the Middle East. Since Mr. Obama and his friends would like us to be more like Europeans, my wife and I recently went on a great explore to find out what life is really like in Europe and what changes we should expect.
Get out your bike because you will soon be riding it everywhere.
That means you too, Grandma – no exceptions. The best way to cut down on that nasty CO2 is to chuck your cars and get on a two-wheeler. Of course, after a couple years with the government running two of our three major car companies, a bicycle may become an attractive alternative.
Wait until you see those retail prices.
Clerks at 7-11 stores in Copenhagen make $25 an hour. So can you image what a bottle of water costs? Don’t get the idea that an hourly wage of $25 is such a big deal. After you pay 50% income taxes, the Value-Added Tax (VAT) and property taxes on your flat, you may not have enough left to buy that shiny new Schwinn...
[Recommended for anyone who really thinks Europe is a viable model for anything > ]
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Spiked: Hugo Chavez Jokes With GM Nationalized, 'Comrade Obama' Makes Castro Look Conservative
If you haven't seen this item before, blame your national media (although Fox had it). Gateway Pundit reproduced this dispatch from Reuters:
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday that he and Cuban ally Fidel Castro risk being more conservative than U.S. President Barack Obama as Washington prepares to take control of General Motors Corp.
During one of Chavez's customary lectures on the "curse" of capitalism and the bonanzas of socialism, the Venezuelan leader made reference to GM's bankruptcy filing....
"Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his right,"
Chavez joked on a live television broadcast.
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Supreme Court Stalls Chrysler-Fiat Deal
The Supreme Court ruled moments ago that Chrysler cannot yet sell most of its assets to Fiat, a move that has been opposed by three Indiana state pension and construction funds.
The ruling grants a stay in the sale as the court gathers more data and schedules a hearing on the matter. It temporarily blocks the way for Chrysler to complete its merger with the Italian automaker and begin its new, post-bankruptcy life.
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Unemployment numbers may be worse than you think
Friday’s news that the official unemployment rate is now at a 26-year high of 9.4% is actually a rosy spin on what is really happening.
To get a more comprehensive snapshot of the labor picture you need to focus on the less well-known U-6 data set known as “alternative measures of labor utilization.” When you add up U-3 and all the underutilized workers the official U-6 rate for May 2009 is 16.4%.
So exactly how bad is that from a historical perspective? Pretty bad.
The BLS began reporting U-6 in 1994; in January 1994 the U-6 rate was 11.8% and then steadily declined before reaching an all-time low in October 2000 of 6.8%. During the ensuing recession/bear market U-6 peaked at 10.4% (Sept 2003) until the credit crisis took hold in 2008. The U-6 rate hit 10.9% in August 2008 and has been on a rapid climb ever since; over the past year it has shot from 9.8% to today’s 16.4%.
It sure makes it hard to buy into the green shoots theory just yet.
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AP: Know What All These Job Losses Mean? 'Brightest Hope,' of Course!
There is happy-talk and then there is delusion. The Associated Press has just approached the delusional stage with its recent assessment of what the unemployment numbers mean. Absurdly, the AP seems to imagine that the continued job losses under Obama means that job hunters are experiencing "raising hopes"! It's like sitting on the Titanic pleased that taking on water raises hopes that a nice, relaxing bath is will soon be at hand.
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Greenspan: Big bailouts biggest threat to U.S. economic future
Bailing out financial institutions viewed as "too big too fail" is the greatest threat to the free market and the economic future of the U.S., former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Wednesday.
Greenspan lamented the growth in size of banks and other financial institutions in a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) think-tank, suggesting the formation of new, less risky banks to replace the existing financial services infrastructure...
[Where the hell was Mr. Courageous when the decisions were being made?]
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Bernanke Warns Deficits Threaten Financial Stability
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said large U.S. budget deficits threaten financial stability and the government can’t continue indefinitely to borrow at the current rate to finance the shortfall.
Bernanke’s comments signal that the central bank sees risks of a relapse into financial turmoil even as credit markets show signs of stability. He said the Fed won’t finance government spending over the long term ...
[Unbelievable. Was he not among those who joined the chorus to create the problem he's now 'warning' of?
Who's lead is he following to think he can say one thing and do the exact op-- oh.
Never mind.]
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What Happened While Barack Was 'Saving and Creating'
About that: National unemployment rate the month that the stimulus was signed into law: 8.1 percent. National unemployment rate today: 9.4 percent. Nonetheless, the president was out this morning promising another 600,000 jobs "created or saved" this summer, and touting the 150K jobs he's already allegedly "created or saved.""Now we're in a position to really accelerate," Obama said.
"Dear God, no!" one could hear the unemployment rate squealing softly in the distance...
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The great carbon credit con: Why are we paying the Third World to poison its environment?
In the fields around this giant chemicals factory in Gujarat, the barren soil smells of paint stripper and the water from the well makes you gag. So why has it been given tens of millions of pounds of taxpayer-funded UN ‘green reward points’, which are traded hungrily on the financial markets at huge profit?
Farm worker Radha in the cotton fields beneath Gujarat Fluorochemicals. She is 40 but looks closer to 60. Since her husband died eight years ago, she's had to feed herself and six children
But this is much more than a tale of big business versus poor farmers in the Third World. GFL is part of a worldwide carbon-trading scheme, centred in London, which is supposed to be helping to save the planet from global warming. On paper the scheme, which was ratified under the Kyoto agreement and supervised by the UN, looks like an efficient way to cut global carbon emissions. However, a Live investigation has exposed a series of major failings and loopholes in the scheme.
"We can't irrigate our land with it - it's the water of death. It kills the crops we put it on..."
Meanwhile in the UK, one of our biggest industrial companies is able to claim it has off-set its own pollution by supporting GFL, yet it remains oblivious to and unconcerned about the serious accusations being made against the Indian factory. These hypocrisies aren’t isolated to GFL. The UN carbon off-setting scheme is filled with similar examples of companies with poor environmental and human rights records being financially rewarded.
The Gujarat Narmada Valley Bulldozers develop the river bank while the smoke stacks that litter the skyline pump black fumes into the air
THE GREAT CARBON CREDITS MERRY-GO-ROUND
As you dig below the surface it would appear that the UN programme – with backing and finance from Britain – is as polluted as the questionable companies it chooses so generously to reward...
[Highly Recommended > ]
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Climate bill to pay hundreds of dollars in rebates
WASHINGTON -- A new analysis predicts that low-income families will receive hundreds of dollars a year to help pay higher energy bills if Congress enacts the first-ever limits on the gases blamed for global warming.
A Congressional Budget Office analysis of global warming legislation estimates that low-income families could initially receive $161-$359 in the form of a credit or rebate, if the bill becomes law. The money would come from the government's auction of pollution permits.
Studies have estimated that the average household could pay as much as $1,600 more a year in energy costs because of the bill.
[I.e., the government makes a profit. How surprising. It's never been about the environment.]
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Conservatives call for offshore drilling
TALLAHASSEE — Claiming that offshore drilling is the answer to the nation's reliance on foreign oil, conservative are gearing up a constitutional drive to lift Florida's 20-year-old ban.
Sponsors of the drive, FloridaOil.org, are exploring a unique approach to getting around what has long been considered the third rail of Florida politics, one so charged that a last-minute attempt in the Legislature this spring quickly died...
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Health insurance ‘haves’ to pay for ‘have-nots’?
Senate considers curbing tax-free status of employer-provided benefits
As part of a health insurance reform package now before Congress, some of the 164 million Americans who are covered by employer-provided health plans could be asked to give up at least part of the longstanding tax exemption granted to such compensation.
The idea of limiting the tax break for employer-provided insurance gained momentum last week, when Obama told senators that he’d consider it as one ingredient of the health insurance reform bill he wants Congress to pass by early August, when the Senate starts a one-month recess.
Obama’s new receptivity to the tax springs from the massive sums of money needed to pay for expanding health coverage to the uninsured.
Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors last week cited a figure of about $125 billion a year to insure the uninsured. But the president aims to do more than that. He also wants to subsidize the cost of coverage for lower-income people, subsidize COBRA coverage for those who lost their jobs and make other changes. [Translation: spend, spend, spend]
Obama’s new openness to the idea stands in contrast to what he said six months ago as a presidential candidate, when he harshly criticized his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, for proposing that employer-provided benefits should be taxed:
“This is your plan, John. For the first time in history, you will be taxing people's health-care benefits.”
According to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, the Treasury 'misses out' on $226 billion a year because employer spending on health insurance isn’t counted as taxable income.
[I.e., they think it's their money.]
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Obama will destroy 'best health care system the world has ever known'
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday" that President Barack Obama's proposed health care plan is the "first step in destroying the best health care system the world has ever known."
"When the government is involved more and more in the details," ... "and you start the one-pay deal and you got the government competing with private enterprise...
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POLL re 77% of Georgia Voters Favor ID Checks Before Voting, Justice Department Disagrees
The Department of Justice on Tuesday said the state of Georgia's system cannot check driver’s license information and Social Security numbers to prove that prospective voters are U.S. citizens.
Georgia’s voters have an entirely different perspective. Rasmussen Reports polling conducted during Election 2008 found that 77% said prospective voters should first be required to show a legal photo ID.
While the Justice Department expressed concern that photo ID requirements might disenfranchise some voters, a plurality of voters nationwide have the opposite concern, believing it more common for people to vote illegally than it is for legal voters to be denied that right.
Views on the need for photo ID before voting have held constant for years. Polling in both 2007 and 2006, to found that Americans overwhelmingly requirements for photo identification.
The state of Georgia complains the latest Justice Department action will allow non-citizens to vote, but the Justice Department said the state’s system discriminated against minority voters.
The ACLU and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund have sued the state over the law.
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Thousands turn out for Palin in Auburn
AUBURN — Thousands of upstate New Yorkers turned out to see Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Saturday, from enthusiastic supporters to history buffs to the merely curious.
Palin also spoke of love of God and country, the right to bear arms and her displeasure for certain decisions made "inside the beltway" in Washington...
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Our Values
[History]
It has become fashionable to condemn President Bush not only for violating "our values", but also for spawning anti-US terrorists. These thoughts only make sense if you ignore all US history through 2007.
What were "our values" before Bush? I assume we could infer such values from the actions of Democrat Presidents. Let's look at some.
- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered the internment of over 110,000 Americans of Japanese descent during World War II, most of whom were US citizens, over half being women and children. These people lost their homes, property and liberty without due process - no trials, no tribunals.
- In 1942, six men who had lived in the US prior to the war were caught on US soil suspected of intending to bomb various US infrastructure sites. They had not done any actual bombing when they were caught. President Roosevelt ordered a special military tribunal consisting of seven generals (not a civilian trial). While none of the Germans was waterboarded, as far as we know, six of them were executed by electric chair.
- President Harry Truman decided to drop two nuclear bombs on Japanese cities - civilian population centers, not military complexes. The civilian death count at Hiroshima alone may have exceeded 200,000 . (The estimated Iraqi civilian death count is about 100,000 to date, none of which were targeted as civilians and almost all of which were due to the actions of other Iraqis or foreign jihadis.)
- In 1961, President John F. Kennedy authorized the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the Castro regime. The US had not declared war on Cuba, nor had Congress passed any authorization of the use of force.
- In 1962, JFK increased the number US military advisors in Vietnam from 700 to 12,000. At that time there was neither a declaration of war nor a congressional authorization of the use of force.
- JFK's successor, Lyndon Baines Johnson, asked for and received from Congress an authorization for the use of force in Vietnam. (The vote was unanimous in the House, and received only two No votes in the Senate, all under Democrat majorities.) By 1968 there were 540,000 US troops in Vietnam. (At the height of the "surge" in Iraq, there were 177,000 US troops in Iraq.)
- US fatalities peaked in 1968, with the cumulative total being 36,152 through 1968. In that year, America's anchorman, Walter Cronkite claimed, "It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate." Yes, boys and girls, Vietnam went from 700 US military advisors and 9 US fatalities to 540,000 US troops, 36,152 US fatalities, and a "stalemate", all under Democrat Presidents and Congresses, before Richard Nixon ever took a seat in the Oval Office. (Total US military deaths in Iraq to date number 4,300.)
I recall this history not to condemn it, or to condemn Democrats of the past, but to condemn those today who twist that history beyond recognition to pursue their own agendas.
The post-WWII period is now known as the time the US enjoyed the most international support and influence. Funny, isn't it, that that occurred just after the US dropped two atomic bombs on cities full of civilians?
[More; "and Terrorist Incentives", Recommended > ]
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Missing Michelle
OBAMA missed a big opportunity in the Middle East. No, not that Obama. The other one.(Snip)If Obama was serious about representing the true America to the Middle East--a region notorious for its ill-treatment of women--why did he leave his better half behind?
The White House had no official comment on Mrs. Obama's reasons for staying behind...
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Ford pulls its weight without bailout funds
Amid bankruptcies and forecasts of Detroit doom, one of the Big Three is hanging tough. Ford tough. Once defined by the revolutionary Model T, Ford is motoring on without federal bailouts, Treasury-led restructurings or bankruptcy judges.
Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. market share grew last month, and sales surpassed even mighty Toyota's. ..
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CNN Co-founder: High Fox News Ratings Caused by Anger
You just know it has to be killing the folks at CNN and MSNBC that Fox 
News has completely overwhelmed them in the ratings. In fact, the combined number of viewers of both of those networks still doesn't match that of Fox News. Could it be that the public is sick of the fawning coverage given to the Obama administration by most of the mainstream media and look to Fox News for providing more balanced stories?
That is something that the MSM people just can't confess. So what is their excuse for the ratings dominance by Fox News? CNN co-founder, Reese Schonfeld, provides a laughably lame excuse in the Huffington Post...
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[HT:DT]
The new GM (Government Motors) proudly introduces the 2010
This car runs on hot air and broken promises. It has three wheels that speed the vehicle through tight left turns.
It comes complete with two Teleprompters programmed to help the occupants talk their way out of any violations.
The transparent canopy reveals the plastic smiles still on the faces of all the "happy" owners.
Comes in S, M, L, XL and 2XL (shown)
It comes complete with two Teleprompters programmed to help the occupants talk their way out of any violations.
The transparent canopy reveals the plastic smiles still on the faces of all the "happy" owners.
Comes in S, M, L, XL and 2XL (shown)
.
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