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How's this for "Administration of the White House" ?
Thomas Jefferson had one messenger and one secretary at his disposal, both of whose salaries were paid by the President personally. It was not until 1857 that Congress appropriated money ($2,500) for the hiring of one clerk. By Ulysees S. Grant's presidency, the staff had grown to three.
By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
A California judge has dismissed a complaint challenging President Obama's eligibility to be president citing the "birth certificate from the state of Hawaii" that apparently refers to an Internet image of a "Certification of Live Birth" released during Obama's campaign.
The ruling came this morning from Judge David Carter who as WND reported last night apparently recently hired a law clerk out of the law firm that has been paid nearly $1.7 million to defend Obama from eligibility challenges.
A Wikipedia page has been cited by dozens of bloggers after it listed Siddarth Velamoor as one of the newest law clerks for Carter – who today released his ruling dismissing the complaint in the Barnett v. Obama case in the Central District, Southern Division Court in Santa Ana, Calif.
Velamoor is also listed... as an associate of international law firm Perkins Coie, the same law firm of Robert Bauer – top lawyer for Obama, Obama's presidential campaign, the Democratic National Committee and Obama's Organizing for America – and the same Washington, D.C., lawyer who defended President Obama in lawsuits challenging his eligibility to be president.
As WND has reported, Federal Election Commission records for "Obama for America" show that the lobby organization has paid Perkins Coie $1,666,397.01 since the 2008 election. . . .
My fellow conspiracy theorists (ONLY, please) will note that this same Robert Bauer is not only married to Anita Dunn (the radical White House interim communications director and "chief FOX-basher"), but according to today's Huffington Post (to which he is a regular contributor) Bauer's in the running for White House Counsel.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Eric Holder described the United States... as a nation of cowards on matters of race ...
In a speech to Justice Department employees marking Black History Month, Holder said the workplace is largely integrated but Americans still self-segregate on the weekends and in their private lives.
"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," said Holder, nation's first black attorney general.
Race issues continue to be a topic of political discussion, Holder said, but "we, as average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race."
He urged people of all races to use Black History Month as a chance for frank talk about racial matters.
"It is an issue we have never been at ease with and, given our nation's history, this is in some ways understandable," Holder said.
"If we are to make progress in this area, we must feel comfortable enough with one another and tolerant enough of each other to have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us."
Some months later now, it seems Attorney General Holder misunderestimated the American people (hyphenated-African or otherwise). Just take a look at the comfortable, frank conversation in this thread of comments over at THE HILL's Blog Briefing Room:
If you disagree with the president you ARE a racist! And I'm sick and tired of all the conservatives saying that we shouldn't have free healthcare; it's a fundamental right! You rich fat cats are obligated to take care of those less fortunate. I receive govm't assistance and it's not hurting you all, so just leave our democratic leaders alone! --BY
I'm black American. I teach a college cultural diversity course. Since Obama has taken office I shy away from teaching the course in favor of other courses because my black students have become so hostile, so intolerant, and so bold in throwing around the race card that it negatively affects my ability to teach the course to all of the students. It has become too frustrating to deal with the --BY
... there's been a steady increase in optimism about race relations since 1997. and that should continue as older people that clearly have different views on average die. --BY
Take away the politicians always talking about it, the entertainers always complaining about it, the hucksters living off it, and race would not be a problem at all! --BYThe "Acorn Boy" Obama has done more damage to race relations in the US that any single individual for ten years. He is a true racist /supremacist and is dergading the Office of the POTUS by his ill conceived actions and poor leadership. Look at the way he mishandled the Dr. Gates incident as an example. --BYI don't think race relations have changed. Whites have always been and continue to be racists. There was no calls of race when Black People voted 90% plus for white candidates. The calls of wanting your country back tell it all. And yes many successful Black People have moved to Africa. ( see Blacks Without Borders) A__holes like beck and jaba the rush play the race card everyday. In america its death , taxes and racist whites nothing has changed. --BY
... the Obama administration recently joined the Organization of the Islamic Conference in sponsoring a resolution that would require UN member nations to act to bar and penalize speech that offends Muslims or can be claimed to encourage discrimination, hatred or violence against them.
Worse yet, with yesterday's signature by President Obama of so-called "hate crime" legislation, a vehicle has been established for just such sanctions to be imposed in the United States, the First Amendment's guarantees to the contrary notwithstanding.
Readers will note that the Organization of the Islamic Conference has a membership of 57 states. When Candidate Obama alarmed some folks by claiming he had campaigned in 57 states, there was a hue and cry -- not about what he had said and what it might mean, but against those who had noticed.
Back in the dusty BtB archives, I once wondered aloud about the "other countries" in Obama's statement that "we can't ... expect that other countries are going to say OK." I wrote then that
I don't get it. What other countries? Does he mean we take our orders from the OIC?
I guess that's exactly what he meant.
If we in Omerica use less energy, eat less, and live with less heating and cooling, how does that benefit anyone? Sure, it will make us poor, miserable and ultimately unproductive if that's what he wants, but what good does it do these "other countries"?
If we don't mine our coal or drill for our own oil and natural gas, will more people in Afghanistan and Burkina Faso have air conditioning?
If we can't afford to eat as much in Omerica, does that make food cheaper and more plentiful in Sierra Leone, Somalia and Sudan?
If we don't drive our SUVS but ride our bikes instead, does that really mean less bikes and more cars for China?
Doesn't all this assume there is a limited pie and the less we take, the more is left for others?
I'm afraid I'm not going to make a very good Socialist, because I really don't get how we're going to spread wealth around if we don't have any.
Back in the Good Ol' Days, if we wanted more, we just made more. pie.
Look how quickly we've gone from a big healthy pie ... to no one can afford pie anymore ... to the First Amendment not withstanding.
Pardon my early morning pessimism, but it's already too late; without the First Amendment, we're screwed.
"British detectives will...train the Palestinian police and Preventive Security forces in how to question suspects without torturing them."
For the last four days, J Street has been holding an international conference in DC, from whence they seek to "drive CHANGE" and "secure PEACE." U.S. National Security Advisor and activist General, James L. Jones, was apparently dispatched by the Obama administration to give the keynote speech at Tuesday's Plenary Session: "Why Two States? Why Now?"
Hang in there, we'll get to the torture in a minute.
Nothing in J Street "Media Coverage" about the Jones speech as yet, but I imagine that whatever he said was typical of the entire proceedings, along the lines of the statement issued yesterday by the J Street U Student Board. The pivotal point goes like this:
To us being pro-Israel is intertwined with being pro-Palestine, and recognizing this is a vital step in the pursuit of a lasting peace.
In the serendipitous meantime, Naomi Ragen sends along a relevant commentary by Tom Gross, which just happens to untangle some of that intertwining. I thought I would post it since it's not likely to get mentioned on J-Street. Admirers of the poorpalestinians seldom, if ever, admit the barbaric brutalism of those they fetishize. The more light that is cast on the true nature of poorpalestinian Arab "society," the greater the revelation becomes that J-Street's flimsy notion of "peace" with such an enemy is at best ridiculously adolescent, and at worst, quite dangerous... no matter how many generals Obama trots out to say otherwise.
So here's Tom Gross; the emphases in bold are his own... but the incessantly repeated link is mine.
The Mail on Sunday (which is the Sunday sister paper of Britain’s Daily Mail) reports that:
The British government is sending police and intelligence officers to the West Bank to try to stop a wave of brutal torture by Palestinian security forces funded by UK taxpayers. Their mission is to set up and train a new “internal affairs” department with sweeping powers to investigate abuse and bring torturers to justice.
On Saturday a senior official from the Palestinian Authority, which runs the West Bank and its security agencies, admitted that torture, beatings and extra-judicial killings have been rife for the past two years, with hundreds of torture allegations and at least four murders in custody, the most recent in August.British detectives will also train the Palestinian police and Preventive Security forces in how to question suspects without torturing them. Britain spends £20 million a year funding the forces responsible for the abuse.
In the West Bank city of Nablus, Nasser al-Shaer, a former academic from Manchester University who was deputy prime minister in the short-lived Hamas Palestinian Authority government elected in 2006, said many of those released from detention in recent months were telling the same story – of torture, including beatings, being suspended from the ceiling, and electric shocks.Now none of this is new. In spite of what the paper says, it has been continuing not just for the past two years, but since Yasser Arafat was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and took over most of the West Bank in 1993.
What is new is that a major newspaper (The Mail On Sunday is one of Britain’s highest circulation respected newspapers) is reporting on it....
[Read it all at the NRO media blog.]
Now in keeping with my earlier point about the nature of poorpalestinian Arab society, let me remind you that just a couple of years ago, it was poorpalestinian Arabs who STOLE ARAFAT'S NOBEL PEACE PRIZE MEDAL ... and Sufa's shoes.
"They stole almost everything inside the house, including Arafat's Nobel Peace Prize medal," said Ramallah-based Fatah spokesman Ahmed Abdel Rahman. "Hamas militiamen and gangsters blew up the main entrance to the house before storming it. They stole many of Arafat's documents and files, gifts he had received from world leaders and even his military outfits."
Abdel Rahman said the attackers also raided the second floor of the house and stole the personal belongings of his widow, Suha, and daughter, Zahwa. "They stole all the widow's clothes and shoes," he added. "They also took Arafat's pictures with his daughter."
Eyewitnesses told The Jerusalem Post that dozens of Palestinians participated in the raid, which took place late Friday.
"Most of the looters were just ordinary citizens," they said. "They stole almost everything, including furniture, tiles, water pipes, closets and beds."
This Lefty blogger is all bent out of shape because a White House "adviser" said that "internet left fringe" bloggers "need to take off their pajamas, get dressed and realize that governing a closely divided country is complicated and difficult.”
Cue the violins.
What's fascinating to me, though, is the kind of ACCESS TO THE WHITE HOUSE enjoyed by the Left. From my perspective, way over here on the marginalized and demonized Right, it's absolutely mind-boggling. One can only hope that when Sarah Palin becomes president in three years, she'll be giving us the same kind of access:)
Just take a look at this email from Jesse Lee, Obama's appointed "online guru" - or more formally for the old folks, "Online Programs Director" for the Obama adminstration.
BTW, Jesse Lee is a baby, only 29 years old. (He's younger than Omri! but not as smart, not even close). And get this: he "launched his political career" with a "one-page anti-Iraq war leaflet distributed in cafeterias, coffee shops and libraries across the country." Wow, are you impressed or what?
His other qualifications include working for Nancy Pelosi as her "new media advisor," and Rahm Emanuel before that - online, but of course - at the DCCC.
So with all that in mind, here's what we must assume is typical output from the Propaganda Campaign based in the White House. Warning: If you are expecting any gravitas whatsoever, I'd suggest you quickly reorient yourself; things have CHANGED.
Hey, wanted to get something out on this tonight.
Obviously it’s the kind of thing where, as a blind quote, there’s an inclination to believe “that’s what they really think.” And obviously there have been other quotes along these lines over time, even if nothing so blatant. It goes without saying that this quote and others indeed reflect what *someone* actually thinks (who we haven’t been able to determine), but I want to say flatly that it is not what “the White House” or for that matter the President thinks.
Now most receiving this email know me, and I think have known me not to shovel shit that I knew was, well, shit. But at the same time I want to offer some evidence as to why I’m not shoveling shit now. The quote in question displays a disdain for bloggers, and while I’ll unequivocally give my word that I do not hear this sentiment from virtually anywhere inside the White House, this is difficult to disprove one way or another. But I think the quote also displays a belief that bloggers don’t matter, since nobody would give that quote to Harwood if they thought blogs did — and I think there is quite a bit of evidence that this is not what the White House at large believes, and therefore that the quote iws not representative.
Certainly a belief that “blogs matter” is part of why I was hired, but more importantly
we have hosted
I would estimate 15-20 calls
with top principals in their fields
(including the President himself)
exclusively for bloggers,
and
it is not at all unusual
that I am asked to
get help from bloggers
on this issue or that
from very high up the chain.
These conversations involve top ranking people from policy to political to communications — so again, nobody involved with such conversations would logically give a quote that so obviously displayed a disregard for blogs’ importance. And to be clear again, I also give my word that I do not hear this sort of disdain displayed there either, but I wanted to make clear that there is a case to be made that doesn’t rest of my word.
As another point that in many ways doesn’t matter, but in some important ways does, the quote Harwood gave did not sound to me like it was given as an actual response to the LGBT March or LGBT discontent, it sounded like something unrelated (perhaps from a conversation on health care) that Harwood found a way to work into that segment. And while I think the person who gave it was very wrong and silly I also honestly believe that nobody in the White House would give that comment directed at LGBT rights. Like I say, I’m not sure that makes it any smarter but it does seem a clarification worth making.
Alright, so that’s a long email, and I feel confident that few will feel enormously assuaged, but it still seemed worth sending.
Hope all’s well — Jesse
With such talented young inmates running the most powerful asylum on earth, is it any wonder that our country is facing utter self-destruction?
Speaking of which, you can learn more about the latest Monumental Government Boondoggle in this morning's No. 1 -- a/k/a the Wall Street Journal:
" a 40-year-old husband and wife
with two kids
would see their premiums jump by 122% "
This is disgusting. from the Washington Times:
During his first nine months in office, President Obama has quietly rewarded scores of top Democratic donors with VIP access to the White House, private briefings with administration advisers and invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings.
High-dollar fundraisers have been promised access to senior White House officials in exchange for pledges to donate $30,400 personally or to bundle $300,000 in contributions ahead of the 2010 midterm elections, according to internal Democratic National Committee documents obtained by The Washington Times.
Click here to view supporting documents...
One top donor described in an interview with The Times being given a birthday visit to the Oval Office. Another was allowed use of a White House-complex bowling alley for his family. Bundlers closest to the president were invited to watch a movie in the red-walled theater in the basement of the presidential mansion.
Mr. Obama invited his top New York bundler, UBS Americas CEO Robert Wolf, to golf with him during the president's Martha's Vineyard vacation in August. At least 39 donors and fundraisers also were treated to a lavish White House reception on St. Patrick's Day, where the fountains on the North and South Lawns were dyed green, photos and video reviewed by The Times and CBS News also show.
Presidential aides said there has been no systematic effort to use the White House complex to aid fundraising, though they acknowledge the DNC has paid for some events at the presidential mansion.
It takes one to know one, I guess.
See PRAVDA: America Moving from Kingdom of Cash to Socialism. I found this photo that accompanies the commentary very upsetting:
Truth be told, it's more likely to be something like this (as sold on eBay):
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/10/26/a-health-bill-for-the-record-book/
According to Dick Morris, hidden somewhere in those 1500+ unintelligible pages, there is a matching stealth tax on various valves and stents for your arteries and heart, prosthetic limbs, pacemakers, hearing aids, replacement hips and knees, defribullators, automated wheelchairs (may I suggest a golf cart instead?) ... oh, and surgical gurneys.
Eh, who needs this stuff? You didn't want to have surgery anyway, right? We boomer/clunkers can just skip it all and go right to the death panels, which is where we're going to end up anyway.
Just don't tell me you expected a different kind of Change from this (our first) "post-gracious president." You really should have gotten some kind of a clue when you saw his pastor/uncle/mentor beseeching G-d and the congregation to "damn America."
Or if not then, how 'bout when the Candidate himself promised that we wouldn't continue to eat as much as we want in America? "That's not going to happen," he said.
Not that George Bush was -or John McCain would have been- perfect, but at least they didn't mind our eating, wouldn't ever have taxed our wheelchairs, and would have died before letting something like "G.D. America" ever come from their lips.
