Hacker breaks into 49 House Web sites, insults Obama

WASHINGTON -- A hacker broke into 49 House Web sites of both political parties overnight to post a crude attack on President Barack Obama.

Spokesman Jeff Ventura in the chief administrative office said the sites that were hit were managed by a third-party vendor. In contrast, most lawmakers' Web sites are managed by House technicians.

Ventura says the vendor was performing an update and for a brief moment let its guard down. That was long enough to allow the hacker to penetrate the sites.

The attacker used an obscenity in referring to the president, who gave his state of the union address from the House chamber Wednesday night.

Source:washingtonpost.com/

Obama State of the Union, McDonnell Response Contrasts on Abortion, Health Care

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- President Barack Obama and pro-life Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell presented a stark contrast Wednesday night. Obama's State of the Union address promoted the pro-abortion health care bill while McDonnell included a reference to promoting pro-life values in his response.

"I want everyone to take another look at the plan we've proposed," Obama said of the Senate bill that funds abortions and have other abortion problems.

"Here’s what I ask of Congress, though: Do not walk away from reform. Not now. Not when we are so close. Let us find a way to come together and finish the job for the American people," Obama said.

Obama appeared to ignore the polling data that consistently shows the American people not only oppose the health care bill but oppose government funding of abortions in it -- instead talking about how pushing the pro-abortion government-run health care bill affected his own political bottom line.

"I did not choose to tackle this issue to get some legislative victory under my belt. And by now it should be fairly obvious that I didn't take on health care because it was good politics," he said.

In his response, McDonnell presented a response from Americans opposed to Obama's health care plan.

"In recent months, the American people have made clear that they want government leaders to listen and act on the issues most important to them," he said. “We want results, not rhetoric. We want cooperation, not partisanship."

“All Americans agree, we need a health care system that is affordable, accessible, and high quality," he said. “But most Americans do not want to turn over the best medical care system in the world to the federal government."

He said Republicans offer different answers and "our solutions aren't thousand-page bills that no one has fully read, after being crafted behind closed doors with special interests."

On the issue of abortion itself, only McDonnell bothered to address it and he took a clear pro-life stance.

“America must always be a land where liberty and property are valued and respected, and innocent human life is protected," he said.

Obama on the other hand used language that appeared to support human worth but his record promoting abortion belies his words. In his State of the Union speech, he said, "America must always stand on the side of freedom and human dignity."

Former governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Americans should evaluate Obama on his actions, not his words.

"Unfortunately, this administration’s actions speak louder than this President’s words and with Nancy Pelosi as Speaker and Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader, the gang that can't shoot straight," he said in an email to LifeNews.com.

"What’s needed is a resounding victory for conservative principles," including "life," Huckabee said.

Catholic writer Deal Hudson doesn't think Obama's speech delivered.

"President Obama gave his first State of the Union speech last night. With his popularity in a steady decline for the past six months, Obama needed his speech to rekindle the enthusiasm for his leadership that elected him in the first place. Thus far, there is no evidence to suggest he was successful," he said.

"Simply renaming health care reform 'health insurance reform' will not solve Obama's political puzzle, nor the underlying problems of the legislation. But this is typical of the president's approach to political obstacles -- change the language, not the substance, and people will drop their objections," Hudson added.

And Family Research Council president Tony Perkins noticed the pro-life line in McDonnell's speech.

""We applaud Governor Bob McDonnell for calling for a land in which 'innocent human life is protected,'" he said.

"The governor's call to protect human life is clearly in line with the American people who overwhelmingly oppose the President's health care plan which would use our hard earned dollars to pay for abortion coverage. FRC will continue to work to ensure taxpayers are not forced to be part of the President's pro-abortion agenda," he told LifeNews.com.

Americans likely had a different response to the speech depending on their political persuasion.

Before the speech, Gallup noted that Obama is the most polarizing president in American history, according to a poll it released.

The average difference in Obama's approval ratings between Democrats and Republicans turned out to be 65 percent -- the highest first-year gap of any president so measured.

"The extraordinary level of polarization in Obama's first year in office is a combination of declining support from Republicans coupled with high and sustained approval from Democrats," Gallup's Jeffrey Jones said.

Obama's 88 percent approval rating from Democrats is the second highest level of party support for a first-year president, trailing only the 92 percent Republican support for George W. Bush in 2001.

On the other hand, Obama's 23 percent rating among Republicans is tied for lowest party rating of a rookie president, matching GOP "backing" of Bill Clinton back in 1993.


Source:.lifenews.com/

Obama’s small business proposals get mixed reviews

Small businesses played a prominent role in President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech, but some business groups doubt his proposals would lead many small firms to hire more workers. Obama said jobs “must be our No. 1 focus in 2010.”

“We should start where most new jobs do -- in small businesses, companies that begin when an entrepreneur takes a chance on a dream, or a worker decides it’s time to become her own boss,” the president said.

To help small businesses grow, the president proposed:

• Using $30 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program funds to provide cheap capital to community banks for use in making loans to small businesses;

• Eliminating capital gains taxes on investments in small businesses, an idea Obama proposed during the presidential campaign;

• Continuing tax incentives that allow small businesses to immediately write off much of the cost of investments in new equipment instead of having to depreciate it over time; and

• Creating a tax credit for small businesses that hire new workers or raise the wages of existing workers.

John Arensmeyer, CEO of Small Business Majority, said the proposals address a broad range of needs facing small firms.

“Collectively they start to attack different aspects of the problem,” he said.

Leaders of other small business organizations, however, question how effective the proposals would be.

Obama’s plan to use TARP funds to spur community banks to make loans to small businesses was first unveiled in October, for example. The Treasury Department has not been able to get the program off the ground, however, because community banks are leery of the strings and stigma attached to taking TARP funds.

A recent survey by the National Small Business Association found that one-third of small businesses can’t get adequate financing. To be effective, the president’s lending initiative “must start now,” said NSBA President Todd McCracken.

Other small business groups would rather see TARP ended than have the funds applied to another program, even one designed to help small businesses.

“Given the mood of the country on spending and the bailout money, I don’t see this program going anywhere,” said Karen Kerrigan, president and CEO of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council.

The president also supports legislation that would extend provisions in the economic stimulus bill that increased the government guarantee on the Small Business Administration’s flagship 7(a) loans and reduced or eliminated fees on 7(a) loans and 504 loans, which primarily are used for real estate. Most small business groups support this proposal, even though Bill Rys, tax counsel for the National Federation of Independent Business, points out that SBA loans represent only a small percentage of lending to small businesses.

Small businesses also support Obama’s proposal to extend incentives for business investment, such as bonus depreciation and higher Section 179 expensing limits. These incentives make buying new equipment easier because businesses can write off more of the cost now instead of later.

“They incentivize businesses to make their businesses more profitable,” said Giovanni Coratolo, vice president of small business policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

These investment breaks also “have a leveraging effect,” Coratolo said, because they also create customers for the businesses that make equipment.

“Businesses planning for an upturn in the economy would be encouraged to start making the investments in equipment that will be part of getting going again and hiring workers back,” said Clint Stretch, managing principal for tax policy at Deloitte Tax.

Rys said extending these breaks is a good idea, but it’s “not a game changer” because the weak economy has kept many small businesses from taking advantage of them. Capital expenditures by small businesses are at the lowest level they’ve been in the 35-year history of NFIB’s monthly survey of business owners, Rys said.

Source:washington.bizjournals.com/

Obama's big speech...Another Haitian survivor...North Korean artillery

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will say in his State of the Union address tonight that he won't walk away from Americans who need health care. But he'll also agree that Americans have "deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works." Obama's speech begins at 9 p.m. Eastern time.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Authorities in Haiti say a 17-year-old girl found alive in the rubble of a home today may have had access to water from a bathroom. Rescuers say she mumbled something about having a little Coca-Cola. It's rare for someone to survive more than three days without water.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — John Edwards says he still cares deeply about his wife as the public learns of the couple's separation. Elizabeth Edwards' sister tells the AP, "She's doing as well as you could expect." The disclosure came a week after Edwards confirmed that he fathered a child with his mistress.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Another Madoff is coming under scrutiny by investigators looking into one of Wall Street's biggest frauds. A lawyer for Bernard Madoff's brother, Peter, says his client has been told he's the "subject" of the criminal investigators' wide-ranging probe. Bernard Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in the multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea has reportedly fired more artillery shells toward its disputed western sea border with South Korea. A South Korean military official says the shells are believed to have landed in North Korean waters. It's the second day in a row that the North has opened fire in the area.

Source:9and10news.com/

Text of Obama State of the Union speech =8

Even as we prosecute two wars, we are also confronting perhaps the greatest danger to the American people the threat of nuclear weapons. I have embraced the vision of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan through a strategy that reverses the spread of these weapons, and seeks a world without them. To reduce our stockpiles and launchers, while ensuring our deterrent, the United States and Russia are completing negotiations on the farthest-reaching arms control treaty in nearly two decades. And at April's Nuclear Security Summit, we will bring forty-four nations together behind a clear goal: securing all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world in four years, so that they never fall into the hands of terrorists. These diplomatic efforts have also strengthened our hand in dealing with those nations that insist on violating international agreements in pursuit of these weapons. That is why North Korea now faces increased isolation, and stronger sanctions sanctions that are being vigorously enforced. That is why the international community is more united, and the Islamic Republic of Iran is more isolated. And as Iran's leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt: they, too, will face growing consequences.

That is the leadership that we are providing -- engagement that advances the common security and prosperity of all people. We are working through the G-20 to sustain a lasting global recovery. We are working with Muslim communities around the world to promote science, education and innovation. We have gone from a bystander to a leader in the fight against climate change. We are helping developing countries to feed themselves, and continuing the fight against HIV/AIDS. And we are launching a new initiative that will give us the capacity to respond faster and more effectively to bio-terrorism or an infectious disease a plan that will counter threats at home, and strengthen public health abroad.

As we have for over sixty years, America takes these actions because our destiny is connected to those beyond our shores. But we also do it because it is right. That is why, as we meet here tonight, over 10,000 Americans are working with many nations to help the people of Haiti recover and rebuild. That is why we stand with the girl who yearns to go to school in Afghanistan; we support the human rights of the women marching through the streets of Iran; and we advocate for the young man denied a job by corruption in Guinea

Source:forexyard.com/

Obama Comments On Recent Bin Laden Tape

(Washington, DC) -- President Obama says Osama bin Laden's recent claim of responsibility for an attempted plane bombing on Christmas shows al-Qaeda is hurting.

In an interview aired on ABC's "Good Morning America," Obama said bin Laden's attempt to take credit for the attack indicates how weakened he is because, quote, "this is not something necessarily directed by him." The Christmas bombing attempt is alleged to have been carried out by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is currently in custody.

A wing of al-Qaeda based in Yemen has said it was behind the plot to blow up the plane as it approached Detroit.

In the interview, Obama highlighted measures taken since the 9-11 attacks that he argued have made the nation much safer than before.

A member of the State Department recently said that bin Laden's claim of responsibility was a grab for "reflected glory."

Obama confident his proposed bank fee will become law

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- President Barack Obama said Saturday that he's determined his proposal to require banks repay taxpayers for financial-crisis aid through a special 10-year fee will become law.




"We're not going to let Wall Street take the money and run. We're going to pass this fee into law. And I'm going to continue to work with Congress on common-sense financial reforms to protect people and the economy from the kind of costly and painful crisis we've just been through," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.



The "Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee" proposed by Obama Thursday would total at least $90 billion over 10 years. The fee would be charged to financial institutions with more than $50 billion in assets. The assessment would remain in place for at least 10 years, or until all losses from the Troubled Asset Relief Program or TARP were repaid. Ten firms will pay 60% of the tax. Read more about the proposed fee.



"Those who oppose this fee say the banks can't afford to pay back the American people without passing on the costs to their shareholders and customers. But that's hard to believe when there are reports that Wall Street is going to hand out more money in bonuses and compensation just this year than the cost of this fee over the next ten years," Obama said.



"If the big financial firms can afford massive bonuses, they can afford to pay back the American people," he said. "After a very tough two years, after a crisis that has caused so much havoc, if there is one lesson that we can learn, it's this: we cannot return to business as usual."

Source:marketwatch.com/

Public Does Not Seem to be as Happy with President Obama, Poll Reveals

As President Barack Obama completes his first year in power, a Washington Post-ABC News poll has discovered that the once highly popular President now faces a "polarized nation" and rapidly souring public assessment of his efforts to bring a change to Washington.




About 50% of the nation's residents have stressed that the President has failed to deliver all promises he had made during the campaign, and there is a very slim majority that has some, or even no, confidence in that he would be making any right decisions for the country.



Over a third of the poll's participants say that Mr. Obama has fallen very short of expectations, which is about double the proportion that felt the same at his 100-day mark. Furthermore, 63% had then said that the new President had managed to achieve a "great deal" or a "good amount", but now the same has fallen to 47%.



In particular, the Republicans are highly critical of Mr. Obama, with only 20% saying that they approve of his overall job performance, in sharp contrast with the 87% Democrats who are very happy.



The poll was conducted last week, over telephone, among randomly picked 1,083 adults from across the US. The results have an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Source:topnews.us/

Obama, Democrats Put Politics Above Educating D.C.’s Disadvantaged Youth, Black Leaders Say

Black leaders say that President Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and Congress have put politics ahead of helping low-income children in the District of Columbia by refusing to support a program that allows 1,700 children to go to a private school, including the school Obama’s two daughters attend.

Congress did not reauthorize funding for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) in the 2010-11 federal budget, ending a program that has helped thousands of disadvantaged children attend some of the best schools in the nation’s capitol since its inception in 2004.

And while Obama backed Congress’ move to continue funding scholarships for children already in the program until they graduate from high school, no new children will receive the $7,500 annual tuition scholarship.

“The cancellation of the program, in my view, has been an unprecedented move by the federal government, because this is a historic moment, historic government spending in our nation’s history – a time when the U.S. Treasury is giving hundreds of billions of dollars to Wall Street bailouts,” Juan Williams, political commentator, said at a press conference held last week at the National Press Club in Washington.

“Congress chose, in the midst of all this spending, to end a very small, $13 million dollar program that, according to the Department of Education (DOE), has increased and improved the reading scores of low-income children here in the District of Columbia,” he said.

“The move is a matter of politics, in my opinion, plain and simple,” Williams said. “Powerful special interest groups like the National Education Association are clearly committed to destroying and denying these programs as they benefit low-income families and denying them the same opportunities that powerful Washington politicians and privileged people take for granted – the power to choose a safe and effective school for their children.”

Williams, a Democrat and regular commentator for National Public Radio, said his own personal story – growing up in poverty with a single mom devoted to seeing that her children got an education – makes helping disadvantaged children a moral imperative. He also said Obama, who attended a private school on scholarships while growing up in Hawaii, should share his passion for school choice.

“Despite the fact that support is evident, locally and nationally, for school choice programs, the cries of D.C. parents have rung hollow with the Congress and even more disappointing to me, with President Obama.”

Williams called access to quality education the most important civil rights issue facing low income, mostly minority families in the country today.




Virginia Walden Ford has been fighting for school choice in Washington, D.C., for a decade, including championing the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program that has helped thousands of disadvantaged children in the district attend the top schools in the nation's capitol -- for half the cost of educating pupils in its public schools. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)Virginia Walden Ford, president of D.C. Parents for School Choice and long-time champion for the OSP program, also expressed at the press conference her displeasure with Obama’s lack of support.

“It is so frustrating to me, particularly as an African American, that this president hasn’t jumped to help us,” Walden Ford said. “In his book, he has said if it had not been for the opportunity to attend a quality school, he may not have been where he is today.

“So why wouldn’t he understand the parents like Patricia and Carmen and the many parents who are fighting for their children?” Walden Ford said. “Why wouldn’t he understand that? It’s very, very confusing to me and very frustrating to me. I’m angry. I’m really, really angry that he wants us to have to fight for this program.”

Program successful

As reported CNSNews.com earlier, according to the Education Department’s own reports D.C. schools are the most expensive in the U.S., costing $18,339 per pupil per year for average daily attendance --- more than double the cost of an OSP tuition grant.

And the most recent Congress-mandated report on OSP three years after the program’s inception showed improved reading scores for the children enrolled in it and across-the board-support for the program by parents.

Math scores did not show significant improvement, but Dan Lips, an education policy expert with the Heritage Foundation, said reading was the most important indicator of the success of an academic program.

“It’s a shame that there hasn’t been a stronger effect in math, but from an education policy perspective, reading is really the focus of what we want to see first,” Lips said. “That’s the key that unlocks all the other doors to learning.”

A 30-minute documentary produced by the Heritage Foundation was also previewed at the press conference. “Let me Rise” is a moving account by parents and their children about how OSP has changed their lives.

The film also features footage from parents of the more than 200 children who were told they had been granted a scholarship for the 2009-2010 school year, only to be notified a short time later by DOE that OSP was not being reauthorized and no scholarships would be offered.

Presidential pledge

Ironically, when Obama spoke to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in March, he cited the importance of access to a quality education and said that his administration would only back programs the have been documented as successful by the DOE.

“What's at stake is nothing less than the American Dream,” Obama said. “It's what drew my father and so many of your fathers and mothers to our shores in pursuit of an education. It's what led Linda Brown and Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez to bear the standard of all who were attending separate and unequal schools.

“It's what has led generations of Americans to take on that extra job, to sacrifice the small pleasures, to scrimp and save wherever they can, in hopes of putting away enough, just enough, to give their child the education that they never had. It's that most American of ideas, that with the right education, a child of any race, any faith, any station, can overcome whatever barriers stand in their way and fulfill their God-given potential.”

Obama went on to cite the importance of only using federal funds to finance programs deemed successful by the DOE.

“Secretary Duncan will use only one test when deciding what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars: It's not whether an idea is liberal or conservative, but whether it works.”

As CNSNews.com reported, when asked why the Obama administration did not support the reauthorization of OSP, Duncan said in a statement that school vouchers would not fix D.C.’s failing schools.

“I appreciate the desire of every family to have the best possible education for their child,” Duncan said. “I also understand that our role is to support children, parents and educators. That is why this Administration is devoting more resources and supports more ambitious reform of our public school systems than any administration in history.”




Kevin Chavous, former member of the D.C. City Council, advised President Barack Obama on education policy when he was a candidate, but now Chavous said Obama and the Democrats are beholden to special interests, including the teachers unions, and are acting against school choice. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)Democrat opposition

When CNSNews.com asked if a direct appeal to resurrect the program has been made to Obama, former City Councilman Kevin P. Chavous said that although he was an education policy adviser to the president when he was a candidate, he hasn’t spoken directly to him about OSP.

“It’s clear to me that they just wish we would go away,” Chavous said. “I also think that there are powerful people who are supporting the president who have worked against us, and I put Sen. (Dick) Durbin (D-Ill.) in that category.”

He also included the long-time D.C. delegate as an outspoken opponent to school choice.

“Even though the mayor and the majority of the city council again support it, it’s clear that our delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, has been a strong opponent, and I think that’s had a real major impact on us getting support from the president,” Chavous said. “She has made it her mission to kill this program.”

At the press conference, however, both black leaders and parents in attendance vowed to continue their efforts to get OSP restored.

“We’ve been fighting this fight for a long time, and we will continue to fight,” Walden Ford said.

Soource:cnsnews.com/

Pelosi, Obama, other officials to travel to Detroit for auto show, learn more about industry

WASHINGTON — Months after the government took large ownership stakes in General Motors, Chrysler and auto lender GMAC Financial Services, top lawmakers and members of the Obama administration will be taking a close look at their investment.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and others will meet with company executives, state and local leaders and tour vehicle displays Monday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, one of the auto industry's annual showcases.

Pelosi said they would visit Detroit "to see firsthand the innovative technologies the industry is investing in to create the jobs of the future and to ensure our national competitiveness. We go to Detroit with our commitment to continue to preserve our manufacturing base, which is essential to our economic and national security."

Lawmakers frequently visit the auto show but organizers said they received more interest from Washington this year, only months after the government steered General Motors Co. and Chrysler LLC through bankruptcy helped by billions in federal aid. GMAC, a key lender to GM and Chrysler dealers and customers, recently received its third taxpayer-funded bailout.

"This year we were swamped with additional requests," said Doug Fox, the auto show's chairman. Fox said the auto show created a separate grey-coloured credential because of the large demand from lawmakers and administration officials, distinguishing them from credentials issued to journalists, auto dealers and car company employees and executives.

With steep declines in auto sales and massive job losses, the Obama administration has awarded billions in funding for car companies to retool their auto plants to build more fuel-efficient cars, provided grants to spur the development of advanced batteries and pushed retraining programs for laid-off auto workers.

Pelosi, who was invited to the show by Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., will meet with Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and is expected to be joined by members of her House leadership team and members of Michigan and Ohio's congressional delegation. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., who has visited the show in past years, will also visit the exhibits.

LaHood and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis will represent the administration, which will include officials with the Transportation Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The two agencies oversee regulations for the industry involving fuel efficiency, safety and tailpipe emissions.

The auto show will feature 60 vehicle debuts and attract more than 5,000 journalists from 50 countries. The exhibit at Detroit's Cobo Center will include a 37,000-square foot venue called "Electric Avenue," featuring electric vehicles and prototypes from a dozen manufacturers.

Source:AFP

DC group wants cause mentioned in Obama address

WASHINGTON — A group that advocates for voting representation in Congress for D.C. residents wants President Obama to mention their cause in his State of the Union address.

The group, D.C. Vote, is asking for suggestions — no more than three sentences — about what Obama should say to support D.C. voting rights during the speech. The district currently elects a representative to Congress, but Eleanor Holmes Norton cannot vote on the House floor.

A bill to give the city of some 600,000 people a vote is currently stalled after an amendment was added that would repeal the city's strict gun registration requirements.

D.C. Vote wants suggested language e-mailed or posted to their Facebook page by Jan. 11. The date of the State of the Union address has not yet been set.

Source:washingtonexaminer.com/

U.S. a house divided on terrorism

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- We're only a week into the New Year and, already, Yemen is this year's Afghanistan.

Yemen is a mess made more so by its al-Qaida problem but we knew that before the would-be Christmas Day underwear bomber turned up with a profile that included training in Yemen with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

The biggest news isn't that Yemen is a problem, that it was a Nigerian child of privilege who tried to blow up a plane or that so many red flags were missed before his pants were extinguished by a fellow passenger.

Since 9/11, everyone thinks about such a scenario every time they walk down the aisle of a jet, checking the seat assignment on their boarding pass against the numbers above the rows and the people in them. It's impossible for even a failed terrorist attack to remain impersonal and un-emotional.

The biggest shock this time, aside from the intelligence failures the president outlined yesterday, has been the level of politicization of the personal and emotional, with the former vice-president accusing the current president of pretending we're not at war and critics reviewing the administration's response based on theatrical criteria such as insufficient panic and inadequate levels of emoting.

If you try, just as a strategic exercise, to process this narrative through the lens of its perpetrators, it's hard to imagine a better gift for al-Qaida than Dick Cheney using the underwear bomber as yet another tactic to de-legitimize this president and hoard political points for more earthbound battles yet to come.

IT'S GETTING EASIER

The big picture message to al-Qaida in all the Christmas week finger-pointing is that causing havoc in the most powerful nation on Earth is easier than it used to be.

The questions the perpetrators don't want asked aren't about the polarization-fueling domestic game. They're about how al-Qaida has adapted its political mission to a shifted market, how the mysteries of radicalization play out on Jihadi web sites and what targeted nations can do about it.

The belated, oversized spotlight on Yemen underscores the reality that this isn't a conventional war and, more and more, it's not being fought as one. Behind all the noise there's a reminder of that lesson from Afghanistan and Pakistan already reflected in the new U.S. approach.

There's also a caution that engaging al-Qaida as though you're fighting a life-size game of "Risk" on a big map of the world against a single, mobile villain could inspire under-governed, lawless countries to see an al-Qaida franchise as the key to a new kind of fear-based security development.

'THE BASE' IS A MINDSET

Al-Qaida means "the base" in Arabic but the base's base is not in Yemen or in Afghanistan or in Somalia and that's not because it keeps moving. It's a mindset sold by people who know how to manipulate by dangling the false promises of validation and power.

It's not about religion. It's about exploiting religion to package those false promises by twisting evil into good and wrong into right in a way that transcends geography.

Source:torontosun.com/

Nancy Pelosi takes swipe at President Obama's campaign promises

Nancy Pelosi has represented California's Eighth District in the House of Representatives since 1987. The Eighth District includes most of the City of San Francisco including Golden Gate Park, Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown. In 2002, Namcy Pelosi was elected Democratic Leader of the House of Representatives. She was the first woman in American history to lead a major political party in the US. On January 4, 2007, Pelosi was elected Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
Source: forbestadvice.com







House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, piqued with White House pressure to accept the Senate health reform bill, threw a rare rhetorical elbow at President Barack Obama Tuesday, questioning his commitment to his 2008 campaign promises.


A leadership aide said it was no accident.


Pelosi emerged from a meeting with her leadership team and committee chairs in the Capitol to face an aggressive throng of reporters who immediately hit her with C-SPAN’s request that she permit closed-door final talks on the bill to be televised.


A reporter reminded the San Francisco Democrat that in 2008, then-candidate Obama opined that all such negotiations be open to C-SPAN cameras.


“There are a number of things he was for on the campaign trail,” quipped Pelosi, who has no intention of making the deliberations public.


People familiar with Pelosi's thinking wasted little time in explaining precisely what she meant by a “number of things” – saying it reflected weeks of simmering tension on health care between two Democratic power players who have functioned largely in lock-step during Obama’s first year in office.


Senior House Democratic leadership aides say Pelosi was pointedly referring to Obama’s ’08 pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class, which she interprets to include a tax on so-called “Cadillac” health care plans that offer lavish benefit packages to many union members.


The House aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Pelosi has been miffed with Obama’s tilt toward the Senate plan and his expectation the House will simply go along with the Senate bill out of political necessity.


“She’s setting up for the conference,” said a leadership staffer. “It’s strategic. She’s staking out her territory.”


It wasn't the first time she's done so.


Pelosi has repeatedly expressed her frustrations about the inclusion of the Cadillac tax in the Senate bill and has sparred with Obama about the issue during face-to-face meetings. Her hope now, House aides say, is to get the administration to accept a tax that starts on family plans worth $28,000 — $7,000 more than threshold favored by Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).


The White House has shown a clear preference for the Senate product in the months-long, bifurcated health care debate. And Reid holds the two best trump cards in the form of Sens. Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman, two wavering moderates who have already threatened to vote against a final compromise if it deviates significantly from legislation the Senate passed late last year.


That means the speaker needs to play her cards wisely – even if it means directing some well-timed fire at the president.

All year, liberal Democrats have been clamoring for Obama to get more involved in the health care negotiations, hoping he would weigh in to push their top priority - the public option. The president is now promising to take a much more active role in these final negotiations - his staff will convene a meeting with House and Senate aides as early as Wednesday to start laying the groundwork for the talks. But that might not be a good thing for the speaker or her liberal colleagues because of the White House preference for the Senate bill.


During a White House meeting Tuesday, Obama told the speaker and other congressional leaders that he would like to see them approve a final bill by his State of the Union address, set for late January or early February. Earlier in the day, House Democrats weren't convinced they could meet that deadline - and seemed ambivalent about whether they even wanted to try.

Source:politico.com/

Trans woman nominated by Obama 'not a token'

Amanda Simpson, the trans woman appointed by President Barack Obama, has said she does not want to be seen as a "token".

She was appointed to the role of senior technical advisor to the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security and has worked in the aerospace and defence industry for 30 years.

In an interview with ABCNews.com, she said she would rather not be the first trans presidential appointee, but added she intended to do a "far superior" job than anyone else.

She said: "Being the first sucks. I'd rather not be the first but someone has to be first, or among the first.

"I think I'm experienced and very well qualified to deal with anything that might show up because I've broken barriers at lots of other places and I always win people over with who I am and what I can do."

Simpson added: "[There will be] questions like: Is this a token? Are you here to do a job or just to fill a quota or appease other people? In that regard it makes it a bit more difficult," she said.

"I'm sure I will have to do and intend to do a far superior job than any other person. But I'm sure I will always be second guessed."

Obama has come under fire from LGBT campaigners for being slow to act on election promises on issues such as the Defence of Marriage Act and the military gay ban.

Some conservative groups attacked the appointment as a token gesture to the "far-left".

Christian group Focus on the Family said in a statement: "Simpson's nomination was forwarded through to President Obama by a gay activist group, making it appear that this appointment of a male-to-female 'transgender' activist to a high level Commerce Department position to be payback to his far-left base for their political support."

Simpson is on the board of directors of the National Centre for Transgender Equality. She holds degrees in physics, engineering and business administration along with an extensive flight background.

Source:pinknews.co.uk/

Bomb plot thrusts Obama into political storm

President Barack Obama is weathering a political storm over last month’s suspected al Qaeda plot to bomb a Detroit-bound plane, particularly from Republicans who say he dropped the ball on security while pursuing healthcare and climate reforms. But how much substance there is behind the allegations may depend on who’s talking.

Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina told NBC’s Today show that he believes Obama just woke up to the gravity of the al Qaeda threat.

“A lot of us have been concerned over the last year that the president did seem to downplay the threat of terror. He doesn’t use the word anymore. He hesitates to say that there is a war on terror,” DeMint said.

“But in the last few days, he seems to have come around to the idea that there are people in Yemen and other places who are intent on hurting Americans,” the lawmaker added.

A completely different picture comes from Bob Woodward, the Pulitzer-winning journalist who chronicled Republican George W. Bush’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks.

“The new administration is taking a very aggressive stance on these matters and perhaps even more than the Bush administration, doing more about the al Qaeda sanctuaries in places like Yemen,” Woodward told ABC’s Good Morning America. That view comes from reporting Woodward says he is doing for a new book on the Obama White House.

Meanwhile, DeMint says he wants to eliminate politics from the security debate. That means not blaming Obama or members of the president’s team for security lapses, at least not for now. It also means retaining his hold on the Senate confirmation of Erroll Southers, Obama’s nominee for the Transportation Security Administration. DeMint blocked that nomination out of concern that Southers would unionize the TSA.

“What I’ve asked for is just some debate and a recorded vote,” he told NBC. “This is all about politics and not security. What I want is a few hours of debate on Mr. Southers to help focus the nation back on security and get this politics, particularly union politics, out of our security apparatus.”

TSA’s job is to protect all modes of transportation, not just air travel. That breadth of responsibility could be important now that the Detroit bomb plot has put all the focus on airport security.

“Al Qaeda has capabilities to do other things. How about trains? How about buses?” Woodward said. “You can’t fight the last terrorist attack.”

Photo Credit: Reuters/Hugh Gentry (Obama)

Source:blogs.reuters.com

Opinion: Barack Obama: leader without a cause

Last month, no American soldiers were killed in Iraq. Last month, the unemployment rate dipped a bit, the stock market ended the year up, the financial system did not crater, Detroit's Big Three began to get a pulse — and yet a consensus started to form that Barack Obama, who is either responsible for or merely presided over all this good stuff, is a failure.

What's more, the consensus came supported by numbers. The polls, according to Rasmussen Reports, showed the president's approval rating dropping two points in December while his disapproval rating gained a point. Obama began 2009 with 43 percent of Americans strongly approving of his performance and ended it with 26 percent feeling that way. Any way you measure the polls, Obama did not have a good year.

On the left, the president is being pummeled for health care legislation that does not include a public option and has not dispatched insurance executives to Guantanamo. On the right, he is being pummeled for socializing the economy, establishing death panels and allowing maniacal Nigerians to load their Calvins with boom-boom and fly into peaceful Detroit. It's a cartoon.

In foreign policy, Obama has sorely disappointed his fans on the left for escalating the war in Afghanistan and on the right for not escalating it enough. Guantanamo, which he vowed to close, is still open. He supports gay rights, but don't ask and don't tell about "don't ask, don't tell." He zigs, he zags.


Change! Hope! But not much of the former and little of the latter.

To some, he's weak on the environment. To others, he's too strong on the environment. He is camouflaged in the incomprehensible, leaving no (carbon) footprint and quixotically tilting at energy-producing windmills. He confers too much with our allies, bows when he should shake and has not brought peace to the Middle East — as, you will remember, George W. Bush did.

Much of this critique is asinine. If the Republican Party had its way — and God sees to it that it doesn't — the country would now have reverted to the barter system and the unemployment rate would be around 25 percent.

The GOP economic program simply does not exist, and even Bush knew this. When push came to shove, he tossed his ideology overboard and used government money to bail out financial institutions.

Still, the reason the GOP criticisms have started to stick is that Obama can be made into anything his critics want.

He is a lean man of ideological clay who has let others mold his image. His bottom line is forever on the move. It's not that he's not good or smart, it's rather that in a political universe ruled by ideological yellers, he lacks both an ideology and the pipes.

Obama could be a great president. He has already achieved much — possibly saving the country from financial ruin, salvaging the auto industry, getting some sort of health care reform. Possibly, possibly.

Yet his numbers sink as his achievements rise. He is the Johnny Appleseed of cognitive dissonance, so utterly detached that when he wins it seems to be only for himself. Pollsters measure him but poets have described him.

William Butler Yeats got it down years ago: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."

Source:mercurynews.com/

Our Views: Obama’s first year in office

When he occupied the Oval Office, President George W. Bush was fond of saying that political capital was useless if a leader didn’t spend it on something.

Bush’s father, George Herbert Walker Bush, had tried to safeguard his political popularity when he was president, but eventually was turned out by voters who regarded him as too cautious. That cautionary lesson apparently wasn’t lost on the younger Bush.

President Barack Obama, so unlike George W. Bush in so many ways, does seem to share his immediate predecessor’s view that political capital must be spent to advance a presidency.

Regardless of how one views Obama, no one can reasonably accuse the sitting president of chronic caution. Obama has spent his first year pushing a controversial overhaul of the nation’s health-care system, and he’s rolling the dice on an ambitious new strategy in the war in Afghanistan.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Obama’s poll numbers have declined as his policies have come under fire. That will mean an interesting new year for a president who, in his first year of office, has shown himself to be something of a gambler.

Source:2theadvocate.com/