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President Bush on Thursday signed an executive order directing his staff to start preparing either John McCain or Barack Obama and their future staffs for the highest office in the land. Bush's executive order creates a Presidential Transition Coordinating Council, consisting of several high-ranking members of the president's staff and headed by White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten. White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters Wednesday morning that the council "will help to coordinate efforts already under way to ensure a seamless presidential transition." "This is especially important as our nation is fighting a war, dealing with a...

Qualifications United States citizenship and successful completion of an extensive background investigation are mandatory in order to obtain a Top Secret Security Clearance with Category III White House Access. Applicants holding dual citizenship will be required to renounce their foreign citizenship as a prerequisite to obtaining clearance. This clearance is a requirement for the assignment of the Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) 5511 - Member, U.S. Marine Band. ----snip Clearance Qualifications Disqualifying conditions may include but are not limited to: arrest and/or conviction of a felony;..........illegal drug use (to include any use of cocaine, heroin, LSD, and PCP); and the illegal...

Since early voting has already started in my home state of Georgia I decided to take a ride with my wife down to Town Hall and cast my ballot. My wife did the voting for me, she isn't a US citizen but she loves the electronic voting machines. Thanks to Sarah Palin the Republican candidate got my vote but when it came to that RINO pos Saxby Chambliss I instructed my wife to choose the WriteIn block and vote for NOBODY. I don't care if that turd wins or loses, he'll never get my support. Now that I've done my...

Former Reagan diplomat Alan Keyes commented Sept. 23 on the federal government's bailout of mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The former Assistant Secretary of State, currently running for president as an independent, said the bailout plan as proposed by the Bush administration would effectively transform our nation into "a socialist society." The following is the text of Keyes' statement: What I have to say about the bailout is that, with a concrete proposal on the table, it becomes much more obvious what is actually going on right now, and I think that we have to confront it. And...

You are young enough to be John McCain's daughter. Twenty-eight years separate you. Will you be able to walk into the Oval Office and say, "Mr. President, you are wrong about this and here is what you should do instead"? Mrs. Palin says she will focus on energy, government reform and helping families with special-needs children if she becomes vice president, but to what extent will she consult with Mr. McCain on other issues, and how much influence will she have on his decisions? Given that Mr. McCain has plucked her from relative obscurity, will she feel confident enough to...

Obama Admits He's Unqualified to be President http://www.stoptheaclu.com/archives/2008/09/06/flashback-2004-obama-

I swear the Republican POTUS conventions are always so much more uplifting than the Marxist leftist libs could ever dream of.

This is interesting. McCain’s latest ad, timed perfectly for Obama’s big speech, draws the bipartisan card...

My wife and I researched the Audacity of Obama and put together this list as to why NObody should vote for Obama. This is meant to be based upon facts as researched but it does have some opinion included. We are sending this to all our friends who think Obama is the Messiah! NObama - Ten reasons why Obama should not be President for the United States of America 1. Minimum overall experience - Obama only spent 143 days in the Senate before campaigning for President. He himself stated that he didn't have experience for being President (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5BnLozS-TnM). Even his...

John McCain was on Jay Leno last night, and he proves once again that he’s a down to earth guy. His self-deprecating humor and comfort help him come across as natural and not forced. Plus, he’s funny...

Just saw Kerri Walsh pause the interview after winning the gold to thank W for his inspiration, Class.

Minnesota Democrats are offering a big cash prize to anyone who snaps a picture of Norm Coleman and President Bush together at the upcoming Republican National Convention...... ...SNIP... Republicans aren't content to let Democrats corner the market on gimmicky contests. In response, they're dangling a $25 gift card for gas to anyone who can get Al Franken's accountant to explain errors in Franken's tax filings prior to 2003.....

I have never been an advocate of the popular notion that "everyone should vote." Some people look at me as if I am somehow un-American when I say that I am not in favor of encouraging people to vote who would otherwise never darken the door of a polling place. I really don't want someone on the streets of Hollywood, who just failed to identify the vice president of the United States on one of Jay Leno's "Jay-Walking" segments, helping to select the person who will lead my government for the next four years. So here is a basic, common-sense...

Barack Obama had a birthday party, and Dave Letterman managed to get the top ten things that were overheard...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama opposes offering reparations to the descendants of slaves, putting him at odds with some black groups and leaders. The man with a serious chance to become the nation's first black president argues that government should instead combat the legacy of slavery by improving schools, health care and the economy for all. "I have said in the past - and I'll repeat again - that the best reparations we can provide are good schools in the inner city and jobs for people who are unemployed," the Illinois Democrat said recently. Some two...

LEAVE BARACK OBAMA ALONE WITH MICHELLE COMMENTS LEAVE BARACK ALONE LEAVE BARACK ALONE VIDEO AGAIN!!!

You heard that right, folks. According to the anointed one, if we were all to just fill our tires properly, we wouldn’t have to do the environmentally disastrous thing and drill in pristine ANWR. Never mind that his math is inane and ANWR is a chunk of permafrost the size of a stamp on a football field that was set aside by Jimmy Carter for the purpose of drilling.

President Bush on Monday approved the execution of an Army private, administration officials said. It was the first time in over a half-century that a president has affirmed a death sentence for a member of the U.S. military.

Virginia has emerged as a battleground for the presidential race, prompting many to ask, "Can Barack Obama win the state?" Democrats are excited about his chances because he could win Virginia - following the model set by the party's recent statewide victories - by capturing a big margin in Northern Virginia. Earning enough votes there can deliver the entire state. That's one reason Thursday marked Mr. Obama's second trip to the region in less than 40 days, and his third visit to the state since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee. Mr. Obama has moved a historic level of cash and...

Barack Obama, whose campaign slogan has been all about change, has really been doing just that. In order to get the nomination Barack moved far to the left, especially in his touting that he's been against the war from the very beginning. Now, we are all watching in awe as he flip-flops his way back to the center while the MSM doesn't question a thing. The RNC, though, has put together this great ad to highlight what a gross flip-flop his Iraq war policy really has been...

The New York Post came up with three ways Barack Obama can prove he's really patriotic. Here's Fox and Friends reporting...

Recent landmark court decisions are reminders that elections are not just about putting candidates in office for a few years. The judges that elected officials put on the bench can remake the legal landscape, change fundamental social policies and even affect the way wars are fought, long after those who appointed them have served their terms and passed from the scene. The Supreme Court recently created a new "right" out of thin air for captured enemy soldiers and terrorists— the right to seek release in the federal courts, something that neither the Constitution nor the Geneva Convention provided. The High...

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.” —-C.S. Lewis If the government gets into the business of regulating and controlling carbon emissions it will be an unparallel concentration of power far exceeding the New Deal under Roosevelt....

Elisabeth Hasselbeck made an appearance on Hannity and Colmes tonight. Here it is, in three clips...

In case you missed it, John McCain came on Jimmy Kimmel Last night before the NBA finals. There was some pretty funny stuff, so here are some highlights, followed up by the whole segment...

Newt Gingrich was on Face the Nation yesterday, where he discussed the general election. Newt contends that McCain and the Republicans will not win if they run on an anti-Obama message. What I found more interesting, though, is when he spoke about the recent Supreme Court decision conferring Constitutional rights on detainees, saying it may "cost us a city..."

Dear Dubya… Surely Mr President, you are not leaving so soon? Must you run? Very well then, since you say so. Can it really be eight years since you ran against Vice-President Gore and criticised his schemes for "nationbuilding" and the export of democracy on the point of a US bayonet? When you were first elected, our Prime Minister Tony Blair came to Camp David and you found you used the same brand of toothpaste. There wasn't a great deal more overlap with our politics than that. Advertisement Click here to find out more! The general view was that you...

It’s pretty amazing how Sen. McCain has the ability to make me proud and drive me crazy, simultaneously. In this discussion with Matt Lauer, McCain talks about the necessity to explore and initiate the transition to alternative sources of energy. I wholeheartedly agree with the need to break free from the dependency on foreign oil, as many do, but still don’t buy the man made global warming thing. I’m beginning to get pretty uneasy about Sen. McCain’s rhetoric on the matter, in fact, but I’m still going to back him because handing our country over to Barack would be a...

There is a general sense — after Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana — that the white working class is somehow illiberal, and so now the Obamiacs discuss, ponder, and fret over the “race question” ahead. But the problem is not, and has never really been, race, at least any more than it was in having a black secretary of state or Supreme Court justice or chairman of the Joint Chiefs, but simply the question of grievance. When Obama bought stock in the Trinity race industry, he sent a message that grievance-blaming America, the country’s past, whites, and...

An axiom. When voters watch a presumptive presidential nominee considering this or that running mate, they think: What if the president dies? When the presumptive nominee considers this or that running mate, he thinks: What if I live? Which brings us to the dotty idea that Barack Obama should choose to have Hillary Clinton down the hall in the West Wing, nursing her disappointments, her grievances and her future presidential ambitions while her excitable husband wanders in the wings of America’s political theater with his increasingly Vesuvian temper, his proclivity for verbal fender benders and his interesting business associates. That...

Today is Sunday, June 1st and the Puerto Rico primary voting takes place from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. ET. Welcome to the only forum on the web in the mainland United States (that I know of!) monitoring LIVE all the details, voting, exit polling and results for today’s Puerto Rico Democratic primary! Many thanks to Jim Robinson and all of you at FreeRepublic.com for your support! Will Hillary’s popular vote tally move up substantially after today’s primary? After all, there are over 2 million Puerto Ricans eligible to vote, and there’s usually an 80-85% percent voting turnout on the...

WE WENT THROUGH similar times in the early 1990's. The Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union crumbled and we won the Cold War. Yet it was beyond the typical liberal's ability to acknowledge that Ronald Reagan had anything to do with these accomplishments. So you had the ludicrous spectacle of bespectacled college professors arguing that Jimmy Carter could have won the Cold War or the Soviet Union would have fallen apart regardless of what we did. In 1992 after Reagan addressed the Republican convention, Tom Brokaw speculated from his national TV perch that the government debt run up under Reagan's...

'Lay off my wife." So says Barack Obama about his controversial spouse, Michelle. The Democratic candidate for the presidential nomination has a grating tendency to dismiss any inconvenient fact as a "distraction" and to label every stinging criticism as "divisive." So even if he didn't have a husband's natural desire to defend his wife, he'd still probably denounce criticism of Michelle as beyond the pale. Obama's comments came in the wake of a Tennessee GOP ad this month calling new attention to Michelle Obama's remark in February that she'd never in her adult life been "really proud" of America until...

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden took to the airwaves this week to "help" the rookie Barack Obama out of a foreign-policy jam. Oh sure, admitted Mr. Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee had given the "wrong" answer when he said he'd meet unconditionally with leaders of rogue states. But on the upside, the guy "has learned a hell of a lot." Somewhere Mr. Obama was muttering an expletive. But give Mr. Biden marks for honesty. As Mr. Obama finishes a week of brutal questioning over his foreign-policy judgments, it's become clear he has learned a lot – and is...

Taking the high road is the high-minded approach to campaigning, but the high road can lead to disappointing places. That's why successful pols usually look for alternate routes, just in case. Successful candidates are careful to create the illusion of traveling the high road. Richard Nixon campaigned as the man who would "bring us together." Jimmy Carter would "never tell a lie." Bill Clinton only pretended to search for the high road, taking frequent detours to look for the red-light district. Here we go again. Barack Obama, fortified with 92 percent of the black vote, talks about transcending race to...

Rockefeller vs. Goldwater in 1964. McCarthy vs. LBJ in 1968. Muskie vs. McGovern in 1972. Reagan vs Ford in 1976. Kennedy vs Carter in 1980. Hart vs Mondale in 1984. As history buffs would know each of the above Presidential primary contests was in varying degree long, expensive, emotive, distracting and a delight to the opposing party which invariably triumphed in November usually by a landslide. Today Republicans watching the Clinton-Obama slugfest are weeping- tears of joy. In a year in which every indicator points to a Republican disaster of potentially monumental proportions, history offers hope to the GOP. If...

INDIANAPOLIS, May 6 (Reuters) - John McCain embraces it. Barack Obama wants to address its flaws. Hillary Clinton is cautious but not opposed. Nuclear power -- controversial in the United States and throughout much of the world -- is on the agenda of all three U.S. presidential candidates as they seek to diversify the country's energy mix and reduce dependence on foreign oil. Interviews with top policy advisers to the three White House hopefuls reveal a varied approach to the technology that some observers see as a necessary answer to fighting climate change and others view as expensive and dangerous....

Is John McCain Ronald Reagan or Bob Dole? Or, more to the point, will McCain be perceived as the vigorous, wood-chopping proclaimer of “Morning in America” or as a cranky senior senator prone to gaffes and the occasional stage tumble? The sensitive question of age — one of the trickiest and most unpredictable in the political playbook — has been touched upon only glancingly since McCain became the de facto GOP nominee. But it is certain to hover over a candidate who will be 72 by Election Day. For all the ink spilled on whether the country is ready for...

Will President Bush ever get the respect President Reagan once received? America knelt in sorrow on June 5, 2004, when Reagan passed away after a decade-long fight against Alzheimer’s disease. The 40th President—the man who revived America’s economy and exorcised the demonic spirit of Soviet communism—was praised throughout the country as a political genius who changed America for the better and a proud leader who rescued the country from cultural and psychological decline. America had a love affair with Reagan, and his passing brought that affair to a cruel end. It is difficult to envision Bush receiving similar praise when...

Is the bottom falling out for Barack Obama? It’s too early to say that, but there are some disturbing signs. On the positive side, superdelegates still are breaking his way. Rep. Baron Hill, whose southern Indiana district almost certainly will vote for Hillary Clinton, came out for Obama. So did fellow Hoosier Joe Andrew, who previously endorsed Clinton and who was named Democratic national chairman by Bill Clinton in the 1990s. (James Carville may have another name for him.) Obama is still well ahead among delegates chosen in primaries and caucuses, and he is not very far behind in superdelegates,...

The Bush administration warned it will start furloughing civilian Defense Department employees to save money unless Congress quickly passes a new round of funds for the Iraq war, escalating a clash that has risks for both parties. The threat sets the stage for a likely fight over Iraq funding starting as soon as next week, when House leaders are expected to introduce their own version of the bill. President Bush may risk appearing rigid with his insistence that the bill be kept free of nonsecurity spending. But Democratic lawmakers could seem insensitive to the military if they push too hard...

In this clip, President Bush helps clarify his stance on our progress in the War on Terror, that it's going to be a long and hard struggle, and he even throws in the forbidden word - Jihadists!

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour yesterday said that he is too conservative to be John McCain's running mate but that the Arizona senator's maverick reputation will help him in an election in which moderates and independents will be more important than in recent years. Mr. Barbour also urged Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, not to name his pick for vice president until after the Democrats' convention, when he can draw the sharpest distinction between the parties. Mr. McCain will depend on "persuasion" to snare independents and disgruntled Democrats on Nov. 4, unlike George W. Bush in the 2000 and...

Barack Obama’s supporters and the media (excuse the redundancy) have expected Obama’s ascension to presumed Democratic nominee — accompanied, no doubt, by blazing lights of Unity and trumpet calls of Change — in New Hampshire, Texas, and now Pennsylvania, and have experienced a “Great Disappointment” each time. They have hoped for a secular political Advent, and instead they have gotten Hillary Clinton — stolid and barely solvent, and yet with a persistent appeal to Democratic voters. Pennsylvania was the first post-Pastor Jeremiah Wright and post-“bitter” primary, and Clinton’s victory shouldn’t be underestimated. She won by nearly 10 points, after getting...

With that, Obama identified the new public enemy: the “distractions” foisted upon a pliable electorate by the malevolent forces of the status quo, i.e., those who might wish to see someone else become president next January. “It’s easy to get caught up in the distractions and the silliness and the tit for tat that consumes our politics” and “trivializes the profound issues” that face our country, he warned sternly. These must be resisted. Why? Because Obama understands that the real threat to his candidacy is less Hillary Clinton and John McCain than his own character and cultural attitudes. He came...

President, Laura Bush going back to Dallas By WacoTrib.com staff | Thursday, April 10, 2008, 03:11 PM Laura Bush announced today that she and her husband will move from their Crawford ranch back to the D/FW area after a 14-year absence, according to this Dallas Morning News story. In the “who-didn’t-see-that-coming-department,” the DMN’s political blog uses the opportunity to take a potshot at Waco. Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Headlines, Around Central Texas, Around the state, National news, Politics Comments By Whew April 10, 2008 3:35 PM | Link to this Does this mean we...

Despite the recent spate of major bestsellers touting the virtues of atheism, polls show consistent, stubborn reluctance on the part of the public to cast their votes for a presidential candidate who denies the existence of God...

...Which brings us back to the question of whether “neoconservatives” dragged the United States into war in 2003. As a purely practical matter, the suggestion has always presented a puzzle. How did they do it? Few people considered George W. Bush a neoconservative before 2003, or Dick Cheney, or Donald Rumsfeld, or Condoleezza Rice, who actually made a point in the 2000 campaign of saying that she was a “realpolitiker.” Then there was the matter of public opinion. The war was, as American wars go, immensely popular, both before and immediately following its launch—more popular than the wars in Kosovo...

Barack Obama emerged from his hotel in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in the gray rain early Monday morning and climbed onto his campaign bus for a long day of events. Swinging onto the highway, his motorcade passed a marquee across the street that read "Welcome, Senator Clinton." Six hours later Hillary Clinton would pull off that highway ramp and turn into the Capitol Diner for a roundtable discussion on the economy. ...... Obama's best shot at winning Pennsylvania, or at least closing the gap, is rallying Democrats in and around Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, the state's two largest cities. So why is he...

The Bush administration may be moving closer to embracing the most sweeping idea in Congress for putting a floor under housing. Under the plan, the government would take over distressed mortgages after the current holders agree to slash the value of the loans to reflect falling home prices. In effect, the government would swap cash for nonperforming loans, pumping liquidity into the financial system. Because the plan would lift borrowers with negative equity back above water, homeowners would have greater incentive to avoid foreclosure. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd have made...