"The List" for Obama's 31st week in Office

Nachumlist ^ | 8/28/09 | Nachum

[Nachum]

 Obama's Thirty First Week in Office

Latest Additions to "The List"

"The list" for 8/28/2009

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis now says she won’t make union officials comply with revised union financial disclosure requirements President Obama inherited from his predecessor

The Obama administration said Friday that two Democratic senators falsely took credit for steering millions of dollars to projects in their home state, even as officials acknowledged that the Homeland Security secretary met with the lawmakers and discussed financing the projects.

The Obama administration unveiled $1.2 billion in federal grants for electronic health records systems on Thursday, the first wave of funding under a health-care reform plan to create vast records-sharing networks aimed at cutting costs and improving care in the coming decade

The Obama EPA to name carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant

Obama EPA video contest.  "To educate people on lead poisoning prevention and the danger of lead exposure"

The US Central Intelligence Agency will pay the legal fees of any officers involved in a government probe of alleged abusive interrogation techniques, the Washington Post said Friday.

The FEC goes after Palin.  The Federal Elections Commission has found that former Gov. Sarah Palin's political action committee gave excessive contributions to two well-known Republicans.

America Renege's on a missile defense for Europe.   Obama jilts the Czech Republic and Poland.  The United States is poised to dump a critical missile-defense agreement. . The Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported that the Obama administration is going to scrap the "third site" anti-missile system scheduled to be deployed in Poland and the Czech Republic. Missile interceptors in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic were scheduled to be deployed by 2013. Now the plan appears to have been shot down

Bill would give the White House emergency control over the internet.   Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

VIDEO: FCC "Diversity" Czar on Chavez's Venezuela: Incredible...Democratic Revolution

"The list" for 8/27/2009

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Thursday that politics did not influence the decision to spend millions of dollars in stimulus money on little-used border checkpoints while passing over higher-priority projects.

Washington may relocate the controversial missile defense system planned for Eastern Europe to the Balkans, Turkey or Israel.  The U.S. plan included 10 long-range interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic. That plan will almost certainly be scrapped, Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reports.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former high-ranking members of his administration won't be criminally charged in a yearlong federal investigation into pay-to-play allegations involving one of the Democratic governor's large political donors.  The decision not to pursue indictments was made by top Justice Department officials- "It's over. There's nothing. It was killed in Washington,"

U.S. State Department staff have recommended that the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya be declared a "military coup," a U.S. official said on, a step that could cut off as much as $150 million in U.S. funding to the impoverished Central American nation.

The US voiced disappointment Thursday at the failure of a seven-nation mission to persuade coup leaders in Honduras to accept a settlement and renewed its support for ousted president Manuel Zelaya.

Despite Obama’s promises, pet projects still coddled in stimulus package- Despite Obama’s promises that the stimulus plan would be transparent and free of politics, the government is handing out $720 million for border upgrades under a process that is both secretive and susceptible to political influence. This allowed low-priority projects such as the checkpoint in Whitetail, Mont., to skip ahead of more pressing concerns, according to documents revealed to the Associated Press

 The Treasury Dept. statement marking the beginning of Ramadan

Obama using schools to get your kids to make you take the US Census

Obama Administration Urged to Consider Expanded Interrogation Methods.  Questions are being raised about the effectiveness -- and toughness -- of the Army Field Manual's interrogation guidelines, the standard ordered across the board by the Obama administration in response to allegations of CIA abuse of detainees. 

Health Care Bill Divulges IRS Tax Data

U.S. drops demand for Israel building freeze in East Jerusalem  The Obama administration has agreed to Israel's request to remove East Jerusalem from negotiations on the impending settlement freeze.According to both Israeli officials and Western diplomats, U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell has recognized the fact that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot announce a settlement freeze in East Jerusalem. The officials said the U.S. will not endorse new construction there, but would not demand Jerusalem publicly announce a freeze.

Retail expert and all-around economy watcher Howard Davidowitz on Obama's spenind spree: Budget Numbers "Have All Gone Mad," Analyst Says

A doctors' group and an organization that advocates for the interest of the inner-city poor have joined forced to sue the Obama administration.   The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and the Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education said the White House had attempted to "unlawfully" collect information on protected political speech when it asked Obamacare supporters to report any negative comments about the proposal to a U.S. government email address

Big winners in "Cash for Clunkers:: Toyota, Honda, Nissan

As part of a massive public relations and research campaign, the CDC has been hosting as many as 10 swine flu forums in nine U.S. cities before Labor Day – and it is shelling out as much as $50,000 for a program that pays citizens $50 when they preregister and attend.

As part of a massive public relations and research campaign, the CDC has been hosting as many as 10 swine flu forums in nine U.S. cities before Labor Day – and it is shelling out as much as $50,000 for a program that pays citizens $50 when they preregister and attend.

"The list" for 8/26/2009  

Organizing for America, the national network of Obama supporters, is trying to rev up support for healthcare reform with a bus tour

The Medicare Advantage program is being targeted by the White House.  A White House fact sheet titled "Paying for Health Care Reform," notes the administration would cut $622 billion from Medicare and Medicaid, with a big chunk coming from Medicare Advantage, to pay for overhauling health care.   Obama heralded these cuts as "common sense" in his June 13 radio address.  Medicare Advantage was enacted in 2003 to allow seniors to use Medicare funds to buy private insurance plans that fit their needs and their budgets. They get better care and better value for their money.

The subprime lenders that helped send the financial system -- and broader economy -- into a tailspin are now getting billions of taxpayer dollars to help fix the housing crisis.  As much as 21 billion in fresh handouts-

Mark Lloyd, chief diversity officer of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), called for a “confrontational movement” to combat what he claimed was control of the media by international corporations and to re-establish the regulatory power of government through robust public broadcasting and a more powerful FCC.

The Justice Department's decision to investigate CIA interrogation practices increased tension between the agencies and prompted a sense of betrayal among some CIA officers, current and former officials said.  

The real US unemployment rate is 16 percent if persons who have dropped out of the labor pool and those working less than they would like are counted, a Federal Reserve official said

A day later- the CDC and White House reduce their estimates on Swine Flu, now it is less than 90,000

Obama plans to bring Israeli and Palestinian leaders together for a face-to-face meeting at the United Nations General Assembly next month in a bid to revive long-stalled peace talks.

Unions to be given 10 billion for their pensions from the health care plan

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) says that illegal aliens would be covered under Obama's health care plan

The United States said it would temporarily restrict the issuing of U.S. visas in Honduras, raising pressure on the government that took power after a June 28 coup to step down

"The list" for 8/25/2009  

GE banking corruption linked to Obama administration.  Lobbyist dollars connect to a direct benefit for two banks owned by GE set to make federally guaranteed loans under the Waxman-Markey bill.

Obama wants to appoint his own whistle blowers.   Democrats push bill to give president power over the federal reserve.  H.R. 855, known as the Improved Financial and Commodity Markets Oversight and Accountability Act, would make five inspectors general – those overseeing the Federal Reserve, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the National Credit Union Administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation – presidential appointees.

Obama's numbers in the polls have him slipping badly.  Now there is little support to close Gitmo

College students recruited for "Obama's Army" and offered college credit to do so.

VIDEO:  Exposing radical book "Reclaiming Revolution," which is related to President Obama's "Green Jobs Czar" Van Jones. The book is connected to a radical group Jones helped to found called "STORM."

Van Jones, the man appointed as "green jobs czar" to the White House, previously served on the board of an environmental activist group at which Jeff Jones, a founder of the Weather Underground terrorist organization is a top director

Sen. Mike Enzi wants the Obama administration to withdraw its nominee for Solicitor of the Department of Labor, Patricia Smith.   An aide said, signals that if Obama does not withdraw Smith, he will put a "hold" on her nomination which will prevent the Senate from taking an up or down vote on whether she should get the job

Former USS Cole Commander Assails Release of Terrorist Suspected of Trying to Murder U.S. Soldiers- They are taking a page right out of the Lyndon Johnson Vietnam playbook, where it’s ‘let’s run things right out of the White House on a day-to-day basis, because we trust no one else in the government to be competent enough, talented enough or dedicated enough to be able to run a major war time effort,” said former USS Cole Commander Kirk S. Lippold

Cash for clunker cash consumers gets taxed

Government and Union controlled GM is to remove "Mark of Excellence" logo from vehicles

AUDIO: 2007 KJFK radio inteview with Obama in 2007 in which he says that his Attorney General would investigate Bush executive orders

White House says: "Ultimately, determinations about whether someone broke the law are made independently by the attorney general"

The Obama administration is setting strict new standards for treatment of terror suspects, as the Justice Department launches a criminal probe of past interrogation tactics during President George W. Bush's war on terrorism.  "...greater safeguards to ensure such suspects are not tortured"

White House officials said the disclosure of Obama's decision on the new interrogation team on the same day as the release of the report and the prosecutor announcement to investigate the CIA was coincidental.

"The list" for 8/24/2009  

Latest Stimulus "cash for clunker"- refridgerators

Swine flu may infect half the U.S. population this year, hospitalize 1.8 million patients and lead to as many as 90,000 deaths, more than twice the number killed in a typical seasonal flu, White House advisers said

Former Gitmo detainee Mohammed Jawad is in Afghanistan and will be released into his family's custody today.  Jawad was arrested by Afghan police in December 2002 for allegedly throwing a grenade into a vehicle containing two U.S. troops and an Afghan interpreter

Obama does not intend to voice his preference for whether anyone is prosecuted from prisoner abuse cases, a White House spokesman said Monday, and will allow Attorney General Eric Holder to make the decision.

GM may sign an agreement for the sale of the Hummer sport-utility vehicle business to a Chinese machinery maker this week

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has decided to appoint John Durham, a career Justice Department prosecutor from Connecticut to examine nearly a dozen cases in which CIA interrogators and contractors may have violated anti-torture laws;  For nearly two years, Durham has been probing whether laws against obstruction or false statements were violated in connection with the 2005 destruction of CIA videotapes

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has decided to appoint a prosecutor to examine nearly a dozen cases in which CIA interrogators and contractors may have violated anti-torture laws and other statutes when they allegedly threatened terrorism suspects

The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration

The Obama administration sets up new interrogation unit.  Obama has approved the creation of a specialized interrogation unit that would focus on key terror suspects

Panetta's letter to CIA staff on release of interrogation report

The Obama White House has a "profanity-laced screaming match" with CIA Director Leon Panetta over the release of another damning internal investigation. Panetta threatens to quit.

The Justice Department’s ethics office has recommended reversing the Bush administration and reopening nearly a dozen prisoner-abuse cases, potentially exposing Central Intelligence Agency employees and contractors to prosecution for brutal treatment of terrorism suspects, according to a person officially briefed on the matter.

"The list" for 8/23/2009  

The Justice Department’s ethics office has recommended reversing the Bush administration and reopening nearly a dozen prisoner-abuse cases, potentially exposing Central Intelligence Agency employees and contractors to prosecution for brutal treatment of terrorism suspects, according to a person officially briefed on the matter.

Military commanders with the NATO mission in Afghanistan told Obama's chief envoy to the region this weekend that they did not have enough troops to do their job, pushed past their limit by Taliban rebels who operated across borders

The much-trumpeted "reset" of relations between Russia and the U.S. was dealt a slap in the face last week as Moscow went on the offensive against Ukraine and Georgia. After Russian President Dmitri Medvedev waded into Ukrainian politics with barbed criticism of his Ukrainian counterpart's "anti-Russian" policies, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin embarked on a provocative trip to reaffirm support for Abkhazia, the Moscow-backed territory that enjoys de facto independence from Georgia.

Seven months into his presidency, fewer than half of Obama's top appointees are in place advancing his agenda.   Of more than 500 senior policymaking positions requiring Senate confirmation, just 43 percent have been filled so far

VIDEO: Sen. Charles Grassley on Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer, and pointing out that it was Obama who first used the phrase "pull the plug on Grandma."

U.S. combat deaths have risen since Obama ordered a troop buildup in Afghanistan, with a record 44 U.S. troops killed in in July.  Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff says conflict is deteriorating

The Middle East peace plan that United States President Barack Obama will unveil soon involves the creation of a Palestinian Authority state by 2011 and the transfer of Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem [presumably including the Temple Mount – ed.] to Arab-Muslim sovereignty, Saudi newspaper Al-Ukaz has learned.

 

[Nachum]

The week is not quite over yet, but I am throwing this up for those who are keeping track of the Obamster.

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list. Full archives at the website (nachumlist.com)

[penelopesire]

Bookmark. Thanks for all you do! You are a GREAT AMERICAN!!

[Freedom2specul8]

Bump

[ladyvet]

Please put me on, thank you!

[Nachum]

You are on :)