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While Pres. Barack Obama has, in one sense, tipped his hand by saying that he wants judges with “empathy” for certain groups, he has in a more fundamental sense concealed the real goal — getting judges who will ratify an ever-expanding scope of federal-government power and an ever-declining restraint by the Constitution of the United States. This is consistent with everything else that Obama has done in office and is consistent with his decades-long track record of alliances with people who reject the fundamentals of American society. Judicial expansion of federal power is not really new, even if the audacity...

In a fit of hypocrisy sure to outrage, just as Attorney General Eric Holder makes ready to attend a ceremony to honor fallen police officers, the Obama administration is proposing to cut almost in half a program that provides benefits to the future families left behind. So much for the more loving, more caring president “we’ve been waiting for.” So, wouldn’t you think the Old Media would be braying at the hypocrisy here? Wouldn’t you rather think that the Old Media would be up in arms about this one? Isn’t this typically the type of story that would get them...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama, who has pledged to rebuild U.S. relations with the Muslim world, will give a key speech on the issue in Egypt on June 4, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Friday.

President Barack Obama has asked Congress to end federal payments to states and communities for jailing illegal immigrants as he continues along a path toward legalization of undocumented aliens. The budget plan Obama released on Thursday would end the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP), under which states received $400 million in the current fiscal year to cover the cost of incarcerating convicts and pre-trial detainees who are illegally in the U.S. Specifically, the SCAAP reimburses states and counties for jailer's salaries for holding illegal immigrants who are apprehended and found to have at least one felony and two misdemeanor...

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ABC runs a report showing the names and faces of two CIA contractors who may have had a role in the waterboarding of KSM and Abu Zubaydah. The network apparently outsourced this report to a freelancer named Matthew Cole, whose record in Nexis includes just three bylines -- two stories for Salon (one of which about "how Bush administration aid to Pakistan helps fund insurgents who kill U.S. troops"), and one for the San Jose Mercury News just two days after 9/11 reporting "anxiety about a backlash" among Muslims, who assure the reporter that the attack "has nothing to do...

About a week ago, I wrote a column that included a long laundry list of what Big Brother Obama is affecting to destroy the USA’s Republic and why he and the Left must do so. Note: The underlying reason was and is to seize and retain—at all costs to humans living within the USA—power over We-the-People. It seems almost impossible to keep up with the presidential usurper Obama’s actions but, I’ll continue to attempt to do so for as long as is possible. Note: On Thursday’s Rush Limbaugh show, Rush said referencing Obama’s many unconstitutional actions “He can’t do that.”...

President Barack Obama greets FBI Director Robert Mueller after Mueller introduced him to speak to FBI employees at FBI headquarters in Washington, Tuesday, April 28, 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama smiles as he puts on a cap given to him by FBI director Robert Mueller during his visit to FBI headquarters in Washington April 28, 2009. U.S. President Barack Obama receives teddy bears as a gift for his daughters from FBI director Robert Mueller during his visit to FBI headquarters in Washington April 28, 2009. President Barack Obama delivers remarks to FBI employees at FBI headquarters in Washington, Tuesday, April...

As Congress prepares to vote on a budget that would include a procedural tool allowing Democrats to effectively shutout Republicans and pass sweeping health-care reform, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today extended an olive branch across the aisle. "Make no mistake -- we are determined to reform health care this year." Reid said in a letter to Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. "Our strong preference is to do so by working alongside you and your caucus." Congress on Wednesday is expected to pass its budget, which will include a procedure measure known as "reconciliation" allowing Democrats to pass health-care legislation with...

Social Studies curriculum group had tossed out traditional American history to make room for left-leaning agenda The Texas State Board of Education on Wednesday came down with a reprimand on its social studies curriculum working group after a draft proposal of the group’s new curriculum came to light showing a series of far-left changes that education bureaucrats wanted to install in place of the traditional Texas social studies curriculum.

President Barack Obama is to release up to 2,000 photographs of alleged abuse at American prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan in a move which will reignite the scandal surrounding Abu Ghraib prison in 2004. The decision to make public the images sought in a legal action by the American Civil Liberties Union comes amid a political firestorm over alleged torture of detainees under President George W. Bush. Some of the photographs, which will be released before May 28, are said to show American service personnel humiliating prisoners, according to officials. The images relate to more than 400 separate cases involving...

The Obama administration agreed late Thursday to release dozens of photographs depicting alleged abuse by U.S. personnel during the Bush administration of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. At least 44 pictures will be released by May 28 -- making public for the first time images of what the military investigated as abuse that took place at facilities other than the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Defense Department officials would not say exactly what is contained in the photos, but said they are concerned that the release could incite a backlash in the Middle East.

In his Monday speech to CIA employees, President Obama aimed to assure an agency where some are suspicious of him. His decision to release details of interrogation techniques used on terrorists risked making operatives fearful of political second-guessing and raised fears our enemies would get an advantage. Against that backdrop, the President expressed one of the more remarkable passages of his young tenure, one worth repeating in full: "What makes the United States special, and what makes you special, is precisely the fact that we are willing to uphold our values and our ideals even when it's hard, not just...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Obama administration official says the United States has begun cooperating with the Afghan military on even the most sensitive operations in an effort to reduce civilian casualties. Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy says the U.S. military is working hard to bring Afghans into military planning and operations.

Yesterday, Roger Hedgecock and the Liberty Papers posted an unclassified DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis report titled:Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.The “report” was one of the most embarrassingly shoddy pieces of propaganda I’d ever read out of DHS. I couldn’t believe it was real.I spent the day chasing down DHS spokespeople, who have been tied up preparing for a very important homeland security event later today: The First Lady is coming to visit their Washington office. Priorities, you know.Well, the press office got back to me and verified that the document...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The president's new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth's air.

This is America’s Enemy Within - Castro’s Communist Cuba and Our Congressional Black Caucus By JB Williams Wednesday, April 8, 2009 While the leftist American press kept public attention focused upon Obama’s International Apology Hajj, working around the clock to put a positive spin on Obama’s failed Throw America Under the Bus Tour abroad, another important and equally dastardly trip was taking place below the average American’s radar… Six members of the US Congress traveled to Castro’s Communist Cuba over the weekend to open talks aimed at establishing a cooperative relationship between the United States and Communist Cuba. The six...

A recent directive from the New York State Department of Health is one of the latest examples of the deterioration of America's culture. Sent to the offices of the 900-plus cities and towns in the Empire State, it contained a newly created "Certificate of Live Birth" along with a single-page explanation of why it had been sent. The official document noted that a New York State court had ruled that same-sex "marriages" performed in "other jurisdictions" (such as in neighboring Massachusetts) "must be recognized." Therefore, stated the directive, "any married woman that gives birth in your district will have her...

Just yesterday we read that American Muslim Organizations were threatening to end all outreach programs with the FBI. Today we see UK Islamic hate preacher Anjem Choudary telling his followers to be extra careful while plotting Islamic terrorist attacks.

Spectacular Hispandering (as Kaus calls it) from Madam Speaker, coinciding with The One’s decision to toss yet another hot-button issue that he doesn’t have to deal with right now onto his already crowded plate. Describing positions she disagrees with as un-American or unpatriotic is an endearing little habit of Pelosi’s and comes this time with a twist: Not only are immigration raids unpatriotic, apparently, but illegal aliens are among the greatest patriots of all. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently told a group of both legal and illegal immigrants and their families that enforcement of existing immigration laws, as currently practiced,...

In retrospect, we may discover that 1883 was a most significant year. We're familiar with 1848 giving us The Communist Manifesto and 1859 giving us The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, but 1883 gave us three portentous happenings. These seemingly unrelated happenings turned history toward socialism. 1. Karl Marx died on March 14, 1883, and was buried in Highgate Cemetery in London, England. The assumption that Communism died with him was logical since only six people attended his funeral. But the truth is that it had...

US President Barack Obama called his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday to express Washington’s willingness to involve Jakarta in tackling global issues, including the environment and the financial crisis. Obama also told Yudhoyono in the 10-minute phone conversation that he wanted to build “a comprehensive partnership” between the two countries, said Indonesian presidential spokesman Dino Patti Djalal. The US president also thanked Indonesia for the “warm” and “friendly” welcome it had extended to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she visited the country last month, Dino said. “President Obama said he wanted to work together with Indonesia...

US President Barack Obama mustered his powerful campaign army on Monday, calling on his millions of supporters to lobby on behalf of his budget and economic plan. The appeal to back the president was made in an email and video sent out by "Organizing for America," the organization which morphed out of Obama's campaign machinery to push his agenda when he entered the White House. In the video, Mitch Stewart, the director of Organizing for America, urged the president's supporters to take part in the "Organizing for America Pledge Project."

JERUSALEM (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised Tuesday to work with the incoming Israeli government, but delivered a clear message that could put her at odds with the country's next leader: Movement toward the establishment of a Palestinian state is "inescapable." Clinton also said the U.S. would soon send two envoys to Syria. It was the most significant sign yet that the Obama administration is ready to mend relations with the Damascus regime. The U.S. withdrew its ambassador in 2005, accusing Syria of supporting terrorism.

By Michael A. Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, March 3, 2009; Page A02 President Obama has sent a letter to his Russian counterpart that raises the prospect of the United States halting development of its missile defense program in Eastern Europe if Russia helps resolve the threat posed by Iran's nuclear program, senior administration officials said last night. Obama's letter, delivered to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in mid-February, "covered a number of topics" of mutual interest to the two countries, "including the issue of missile defense and how it relates to the Iranian threat," a senior administration official said. The...

MOSCOW, March 2 (RIA Novosti) - Washington has told Moscow that Russian help in resolving Iran's nuclear program would make its missile shield plans for Europe unnecessary, a Russian daily said on Monday, citing White House sources. U.S. President Barack Obama made the proposal on Iran in a letter to his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, Kommersant said, referring to unidentified U.S. officials. Iran's controversial nuclear program was cited by the U.S. as one of the reasons behind its plans to deploy a missile base in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic. The missile shield has been strongly opposed by...

For all of his lavish new spending plans, President Obama is making one major exception: defense.

Unlike some of the other black holes into which Washington pours money these days, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve's value is grasped easily. If needed, it could replace about 44% of daily U.S. oil imports for more than five months. In 30 years plus, there have been only two emergency releases, connected with war and hurricanes. President Barack Obama, however, has said he would consider tapping the SPR simply to cool surging oil prices, a position repeated recently by the Department of Energy. That would be a mistake. Markets are subject to psychology: Prices rise if future shortages are feared, even...

CAIRO - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered $900 million for Gazans, and made a commitment to move toward a Palestinian state at a meeting of donor nations Monday in Egypt. "By providing humanitarian aid to Gaza we also aim to foster conditions in which a Palestinian state can be fully realized, a state that is a responsible partner, is at peace with Israel and its Arab neighbors and is accountable to its people," said Mrs. Clinton at the one-day summit in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt. The meeting was to raise money for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, which...

President Barack Obama will propose raising new revenue through a greenhouse gas cap and emissions trading scheme when he unveils his first budget on Thursday, US media reported. The budget he will present assumes an emissions trading system will generate revenue by 2012, the Washington Post reported. Fifteen billion dollars of the money generated would be directed to clean-energy projects, the Post said, citing sources familiar with the document. Another 60 billion would go to tax credits for lower- and middle-income working families, and the rest to help families, small businesses and communities deal with higher energy costs, the paper...

"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day, America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened." This was premier American socialist leader and thinker Norman Thomas’ prediction. Those words have proven very prescient. They didn’t resonate in the 1940s when Franklin Roosevelt exceeded all Constitutional authority in the name of ending the Depression and instituted numerous federal assistance programs. Nor did they in the 1960s when Lyndon Johnson dramatically expanded the welfare state in his so-called War on...

Speak for yourself, Mr. President . . . Addressing the troops at Camp Lejeune today to announce his plans to withdraw all but about 50,000 troops from Iraq, Pres. Obama praised the success that has been achieved there. Among other things, he said: “The men and women of the United States military have served with honor, and succeeded beyond any expectation.” Any expectation? You, Mr. President, opposed this war from the beginning, claiming it could not succeed. Back in 2006 you called for surrender and withdrawal. You opposed the surge, and even after it succeeded said you still were right...

In the few short weeks since inauguration day, President Obama has gone a long way to making the United States a more dangerous place. His first act as President was tying the hands of the people interrogating terrorists, and closing Gitmo Prison. He followed that with a "suck up" interview on Arab TV network that made the US seem weak. When he tried to implement his promised policy of making nice and "engaging" terrorists, Iran smacked his hand away. President Obama's next move in weakening the defense of the United States may be reversing a move by President Ronald Reagan,...

(IsraelNN.com) Islamists reached new heights of audacity in a face-off with pro-Israel demonstrators in Malmö, Sweden on Sunday, firing rockets and throwing pipe bombs at the pro-Israel group in broad daylight and under police's noses. No one was hurt. The incident was videotaped by Swedish blogger Ted Ekeroth, whose blog contains videos showing the attack. Between 400 and 500 people gathered in Stortorget Square for a peaceful pro-Israeli protest. The police sealed off the entire square and only allowed in the protesters, as well as a smaller group of Islamists, and separated the two groups from each other. Blogger Ekeroth...

<p>Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) just said in a radio interview that only two “Republican” Senators are still actively attempting to provide the Democrats “bipartisan” cover for their nearly $1,000,000,000,000.00 borrow-and-spend bill.</p> <p>Based on what I’ve been hearing from around the Hill, and Roll Call’s report that Sen. Collins (R-ME) was having misgivings about betraying her party and constituents, those two are (definitely) Arlen Specter (PA) and (most likely) Olympia Snowe (ME).</p>

The hits just keep on coming on the jobs front... The Labor Department this morning reported that the nation lost another 598,000 payroll jobs in January. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, jumped to 7.6 percent from 7.2 percent in December. That's the highest unemployment rate since late 1992. The December job loss number was worse than consensus expectations. And revisions to previous months darkened the picture even more.

President Barack Obama is at odds with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others in the military over America’s need for a new generation of nuclear warheads. While serving as President George W. Bush’s defense secretary, Gates repeatedly spoke in favor of the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program because the country’s weapons, mostly produced in the 1970s and 1980s, are aging and their effectiveness may be in the question, Time magazine reports. “Even though the days of hair-trigger superpower confrontation are over, as long as other nations possess the bomb and the means to deliver it, the United States must maintain...

Rove subpoenaed by Conyers By: John Bresnahan and Andy Barr January 26, 2009 06:31 PM EST House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) has subpoenaed Karl Rove, the former top political advisor to President George W. Bush, to question what Rove knows about “politicization” of the Justice Department. The Senate Judiciary Committee had subpoenaed Rove during the last Congress, but relying on an executive privilege claim by Bush, Rove refused to appear. Conyers had previously subpoenaed former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten, Bush former White House chief of staff, seeking any information they had. Conyers is also...

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has proposed extending to 10 years the statute of limitations on war crimes, torture, and domestic surveillance in the event an investigation into the Bush administration’s controversial policies turns up prosecutable evidence against former officials after statute of limitations laws currently on the books expire. Congress should immediately consider “extending the statute of limitations for potential violations of the torture statute, war crimes statute, laws prohibiting warrantless domestic surveillance, or for crimes committed against persons in United States military custody or CIA custody to ten years.” The recommendation by the Michigan Democrat was one...

The Failure Factory: How Unelected Bureaucrats, Liberal Democrats, and Big Government Republicans Are Undermining America's Security and Leading Us to War  by Bill Gertz A Review:Unfortunately, Bill Gertz is not the household name he deserves to be. In the media it seems, only the propensity to lie and hew to a left-wing line brings widespread fame and fortune. Think Dan Rather, for example. Instead, a conservative interested in the truth like Bill Gertz has to be content with a much smaller measure of fame - but he is entitled to a full measure of our respect for telling the...

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is not yet commander in chief of the armed forces, but he appears to be warming up to the role as he prepares to take office on Jan. 20 and begin withdrawing troops from Iraq and sending more to Afghanistan. First, he used his Christmas message to pay tribute to the "selfless sacrifice" of the men and women in uniform, and then on Christmas Day, in his only public outing, he visited a Marine Corps base in Hawaii, where he is holidaying, to thank the Marines and sailors stationed there for their service. He spent 75...

Remember Gerry Connolly, Democrat rep for the Jihad is on the take for CAIR's. Remember it was Connolly who offered strong defense of the Islamic school in Fairfax Va, that teaches jihad, Islamic Jew hatred and aids and abets child sexual molestation) See Here. Connolly, was just elected congressman from Virginia's 11th District -- offered a strong defense of the school and accused the school's critics of slander during the meeting in which the lease was approved. At that time it was discovered that during the democratic primary Connolly was took donations from “Nehad Hammad”the Executive Director of the Council...

We are losing the war on terror and that war will be lost without even firing a gun or exploding a bomb - although there may be more of both even in the U.S. For proof of that, I urge you to read Robert Spencer's new book, The Silent Jihad: How Radical Islam is Subverting America without Guns or Bombs. I rarely devote more than one column to one book. But Mr. Spencer's book is such urgent reading that I have already done two columns on his book (Tuesday and Wednesday of this week now on The Bulletin's Web site...

"And the KGB, I think, was an honorable place to work. And it, it gave people in the former Soviet Union, a communist country, an opportunity to do something important and worthwhile."

If you thought the New Left was dead in America, think again. Walk through just about any of the nation’s inner cities, and you’re likely to find an office of ACORN, bustling with young people working 12-hour days to “organize the poor” and bring about “social change.” The largest radical group in the country, ACORN has 120,000 dues-paying members, chapters in 700 poor neighborhoods in 50 cities, and 30 years’ experience. It boasts two radio stations, a housing corporation, a law office, and affiliate relationships with a host of trade-union locals. Not only big, it is effective, with some remarkable...

Barack Obama's proclamation last July to being a "citizen of the world" was affirmed Monday as a new poll -- taken before the August conventions -- showed that in 16 out of 17 countries surveyed he was the overwhelming choice to be the next president of the United States. The lone country to prefer a John McCain presidency: the United States of America. The Reader's Digest magazine poll, released Monday, asked 17,000 people in 17 countries, including the U.S., whom they would like to see elected president. The poll also found that, counter to Obama's claims that America's reputation abroad...

The regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad is reaching out to US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and is pegging its future on the latter winning the upcoming American election. That according to a recent Forbes article by the editor of a Syrian news website. In the article, Ayman Abdel Nour of the All4Syria website writes that Assad is banking on Obama becoming president and lifting US sanctions against Syria.

A 24-year-old convert to Islam has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for plotting to blow off hand grenades in a crowded shopping mall during the Christmas season. Federal Judge David Coar said Tuesday he didn't believe Shareef was evil. But he said people could have been severely hurt if federal agents hadn't broken up the plot.

Managing the restive Turkic people is developing into one of China's biggest challenges. Like the Tibetans, the Uighurs have been unwilling to buy into the government's plan: greater economic prosperity instead of greater religious freedom or autonomy. Several local governments have posted lists of warnings on their Web sites, including a detailed one by the township of Yingmaili in Xayar county, near Kuqa. Government employees, teachers and students can't fast during Ramadan. Mosques can't host out-of-town visitors or play video and sound recordings. Proselytizing in public is prohibited. Surveillance of mosques must be increased. Restaurants must stay open during the...