Obama's Fifty Ninth Week in Office

"The List" for 3/10/2010

"People have lost faith in government -- they had lost faith in government before I ran (for president), and it has been getting worse," Obama said at a rally in St. Louis.

The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the February deficit totaled $220.9 billion, 14 percent higher than the previous record set in February of last year

Missouri Democrats decided they'd rather be somewhere else when President Obama came to St. Louis to push his massive health care overhaul plan.

France has vowed to retaliate against the United States for allegedly shutting Europe's aviation giant EADS out of a $50bn defence contract, warning of potential damage to the Atlantic alliance.

The Obama administration’s six-month delay in approving new offshore drilling leases in federal waters will become a new three-year ban, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar quietly told reporters last Friday.

Two weeks after promising to check on the matter, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs still did not have an answer to the charge by former Navy admiral and Pennsylvania Senate candidate Rep. Joe Sestak that the Obama administration offered him a job in exchange for abandoning his primary challenge against Sen. Arlen Specter

The White House is hitting back against criticism from Cheief Justice Roberts, when he complained about the political scene surrounding the State of the Union speech when Obama criticized a Supreme Court decision on campaign financing.  The White House press secretary, Gibbs, fired back: “What is troubling is that this decision opened the floodgates for corporations and special interests to pour money into elections – drowning out the voices of average Americans. The president has long been committed to reducing the undue influence of special interests and their lobbyists over government. That is why he spoke out to condemn the decision and is working with Congress on a legislative response to close this loophole.”

Obama promised $2,500 health care savings.  CBO says plan is a $2,300 price increase

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius confronted insurance executives at their annual conference Wednesday — challenging them to divert millions in anti-reform advertising dollars toward cutting premiums and reciting a litany of insurance horror stories, to a decidedly chilly response. 

Biden: Palistinians deserve "viable" state

VIDEO: Obama and Dick Durbin contradict each other

VIDEO: David Letterman's top ten..."Top Ten Reasons Rahm Emanuel is Nuts"

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven Remington Shotguns

Obama wants to take credit for and take over Palin's Alaskan pipeline- Senate Majority Leader Johnny Ellis, D-Anchorage, said a top Obama administration official, former Alaskan Pete Rouse, told Alaska legislators in Washington that Obama would be more than just verbally supporting the Alaska natural gas pipeline. "Mr. Rouse said the president was planning to elevate the Alaska gas line coordinator's office effort into the executive office of the president once Mr. [Larry] Persily is in place [as federal pipeline coordinator] and is official

"The List" for 3/9/2010

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. told law students Tuesday that he found it "very troubling" to be surrounded by loudly cheering critics at President Obama's State of the Union address,

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to stop assigning deadlines to Congress for finishing the health care reform bill.

Obama said Tuesday he'll bring in high-tech bounty hunters to help root out health care fraud, grabbing a populist idea with bipartisan backing in his final push to overhaul the system.

U.S. regulators may dedicate spectrum to free wireless Internet service for some Americans to increase affordable broadband service nationwide, the Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday. The FCC provided few details about how it would carry out such a plan and who would qualify, but will make a recommendation under the National Broadband Plan set for release next week. The agency will determine details later.

Harrison Schmitt's credentials as a space policy analyst include several days of walking on the moon. The Apollo 17 astronaut, who is also a former U.S. senator, is aghast at what President Obama is doing to the space program. "It's bad for the country," Schmitt said. "This administration really does not believe in American exceptionalism."

Kevin Jennings, the Obama administration's openly gay safe-schools czar who previously ran an organization focused on normalizing homosexuality in public schools, declined Monday to directly say whether the U.S. Department of Education should promote teaching school children that homosexual behavior is morally good.

Turkey, angry at the US, pledges support for Iran

Don't confuse the House timeline with the White House timeline, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) warned reporters Tuesday. ''None of us has mentioned the 18th, other than Mr. Gibbs,'' Hoyer said in response to a question about whether Congress can pass a health care package by March 18, the date laid out last week by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. (Snip) In the meantime, Hoyer said an internal fight over abortion restrictions ''has to be resolved.'

The Obama administration will accept no more public input for a federal strategy that could prohibit U.S. citizens from fishing the nation's oceans, coastal areas, Great Lakes, and even inland waters.

A senior State Department official apologized Tuesday for a joking remark he made about Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi that prompted Libya to threaten diplomatic retaliation.

Obama is scrambling for political cover in the electoral battleground of Florida by staging a White House conference next month to explain and defend a scaled back vision for the nation's marquee manned space program that threatens thousands of jobs, political analysts say. Obama is banking that officially designating Mars the nation's next destination in space before a high-profile gathering of top administration officials, local elected officials and aerospace contractors will assuage an anxious, space-reliant work force and cement the allegiance of Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., a crucial political ally heading the Senate panel with jurisdiction over NASA and the highest ranking Democrat elected statewide in Florida.

Vice President Joe Biden is condemning Israel's approval of 1,600 new settlement homes in disputed East Jerusalem and says the timing undermines the peace process the United States is attempting to revive.

The US has said Israel's authorisation of new building in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank does not violate a recently announced
moratorium.

 White House to host eco-friendly Easter Egg roll...using wooden eggs

US Vice President Joe Biden is Israel to reignite the peace process, but the Interior Ministry seems unmoved by the political statements made and on Tuesday approved the addition of 1,600 housing units in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, which is located beyond the Green Line. The Ministry's District Committee for Planning and Construction approved the plan be submitted for public comment.

Obama "Science Czar" John Holdren, has a history with the communist influenced journal, The Bulleten of Atomic Scientists

Israel approves 112 new settler homes as Joe Biden arrives

Obama, in his first press conference after his election, called Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons "unacceptable." He repetitively offered Iran "engagement." He set a deadline of year-end 2009 for Iranian compliance, now unilaterally extended another three months.  Iran contemptuously and repetitively responded that it had no intention of abandoning its nuclear program. Obama's Iran policy is collapsing to the accompaniment of open mockery around the globe

VIDEO: Obama in 2005: "We need to rise above the ends justify the means mentality"

Mitchell told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that the understandings reached following the 2007Annapolis Conference are non-binding in the current round of negotiations

"The List" for 3/8/2010

VIDEO; 2008... Rahm Emanuel comes to inspect Eric Massa

Obama boasted Monday that Democrats' health care proposals would cut deficits by $1 trillion "over the next decade," a flub that inflated the actual estimate by $868 billion

ABC News: Neither [President Barack Obama or HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius] mentioned that the Senate health reform bill, which is the basis for Democrats' last best chance at comprehensive reform, would give the insurance companies millions of new customers required by law to buy health insurance. It would also require insurers to cover everyone, regardless of age, gender or pre-existing condition. To help pay for the new insurance requirements the government would give to people money to buy insurance - $336 billion over the next ten years. That money, ultimately, would have to go to... drum roll... insurance companies.

The US treasury department has eased sanctions on Iran, Cuba and Sudan to help further the use of web services and support opposition groups. US technology firms will now be allowed to export online services such as instant messaging and social networks. (Snip) The department has allowed the export of services to all three countries, and the export of communications software only to Iran and Sudan, as the export of software to Cuba is governed by the commerce department.

Obama goes to St. Louis to make health care speech, locks out the public

Stimulus funds went to pay for monkey research in North Carolina

 Obama, launching a last-ditch push to pass health care legislation in the next 10 days, left no doubt Monday that he was ready to roll over any opposition by taunting Republicans that they had 10 years to fix health care and didn't...

The March 18th House healthcare vote is the final vote for passage.

AUDIO: "Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil's spawn, Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) said. "He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive."

Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) suggested on a New York radio station Sunday that he could rescind his resignation — scheduled to take effect at 5 p.m. Monday — after asserting that an ethics investigation into allegations that he sexually harassed one of his aides may have been orchestrated by Democratic leaders to get him out of office before the health care vote.

Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) says the House ethics committee is investigating him for inappropriate comments he made to a male staffer on New Year's Eve — and that he's the victim of a power play by Democratic leaders who want him out of Congress because he's a "no" vote on health care reform. "Mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill," Massa, who on Friday announced his intention to resign, said during a long monologue on radio station WKPQ. "And this administration and this House leadership have said, quote-unquote, they will stop at nothing to pass this health care bill. And now they've gotten rid of me, and it will pass. You connect the dots."

This week, the Obama administration announced it will create a new poverty-measurement system that will eventually displace the current poverty measure .Under the new measure, a family will be judged “poor” if its income falls below a certain specified income threshold....unlike the current poverty standards, the new income thresholds will have a built-in escalator clause: They will rise automatically in direct proportion to any rise in the living standards of the average American.
The current poverty measure counts absolute purchasing power — how much steak and potatoes you can buy. The new measure will count comparative purchasing power — how much steak and potatoes you can buy relative to other people. As the nation becomes wealthier, the poverty standards will increase in proportion. In other words, Obama will employ a statistical trick to ensure that “the poor will always be with you,” no matter how much better off they get in absolute terms

2003 VIDEO: Obama shows support for partial birth abortions

With the fate of his signature legislative initiative far from certain, President Barack Obama is taking his last-ditch push for a health care overhaul on the road. In a speech Monday in Philadelphia, Obama will try to persuade the public to back his plan to remake the nation's health care system, while also urging uneasy lawmakers to cast a "final vote" for the massive legislation in an election year.

"The List" for 3/7/2010

Restrictions on oil and gas drilling will cost the U.S. economy $2.36 trillion through 2029, according to a study requested by state utility regulators and paid for in part by industry-sponsored groups.

Obama in August of 2008, Endorsing space exploration

TheOrlando Sentinel is reporting that President Obama's next issues summit will be about his new space policy.  It will take place on April 15^th, likely at the Kennedy Space Center. Other details, such as invitees, are yet to be determined. Obama, during the campaign, visited the Kennedy Space Center area where he promised to fully support the return to the Moon effort that he now proposes to cancel.

"The List" for 3/6/2010

Secret Report: White House cozying up to Palistinian demands.  The U.S. administration will not put a lot of effort into the upcoming indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, opting instead to focus on the November Congressional elections, according to an internal Foreign Ministry report that was distributed to Israeli diplomatic missions abroad. The classified report claims that in the preparatory discussions for the Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks the Obama administration adopted positions that are closer to Palestinian demands.

Despite campaign promises to support a resolution using the term " genocide" to define the World War I-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks, the Barack Obama administration has recently expressed its strong opposition to the approval of such a resolution

VIDEO: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the Obama administration will seek to block a controversial bill describing as genocide the World War I killing of Armenians by Turks.

Obama's $90bn bank levy will largely be paid for by customers and investors and not the institutions themselves, the US's leading spending watchdog has found.

36 states aim to preempt federal health care legislation.some states are already taking measures to keep federal hands off their citizens.        States are enacting law exempting its residents from any health insurance mandates.

Obama's proposed budget would add more than $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, congressional budget analysts said Friday.

The White House on Friday announced a "summit on entrepreneurship" to build economic ties with the Islamic world, part of President Obama's outreach to Muslims.

Five months after the US Congress approved the cancellation of the  Lockheed Martin F-22, the air force is still deciding whether to preserve or scrap the production tooling. The options under discussion include preserving at least the core of Lockheed's ability to build F-22 components and systems, although restarting production is not the USAF leadership's intent, says acquisition chief Lt Gen Mark Shackelford

The White House is considering an end to its effort to prosecute the Sept. 11 plotters in a civilian court and send them instead before military commissions in a major retreat from President Obama pledge to overhaul the Bush administration's detention policies.

Obama's decision to appoint his close political ally, union leader Andrew Stern, to the newly created National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has set off a firestorm of criticism from business and conservative groups who charge he is a political radical who should be investigated for failure to register as a lobbyist

Obama met privately with his staff this week to devise a measure that will grant United States citizenship to the country's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which is threatening to regulate carbon emissions if Congress won't, is facing legal heat from states that say new regulations will kill jobs at the worst possible time.  Texas, Alabama and Virginia, all led by Republican governors, have filed petitions since December, when the EPA ruled that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide endanger human health, clearing the path for the agency to issue mandatory regulations to reduce them.

Obama attacked the country's biggest health insurers on Saturday for failing to give him a "straight answer" on why they were "arbitrarily and massively" hiking their premiums. Obama's renewed criticism of insurers comes as he tries to rally support among Americans and lawmakers within his own Party for a final push to pass a bill reforming the troubled $2.5 trillion healthcare industry.

Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, outlined a new U.S. approach to war in a series of speeches this week that replaces overwhelming firepower with more restrained use of force to safeguard civilian lives.

"The List" for 3/5/2010

Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) said Thursday that he does not know if President Barack Obama is either a citizen or a Christian.

President Obama's budget will lead to deficits averaging nearly $1 trillion over the next decade, the CBO estimated Friday.

The federal deficit would hit $1.5 trillion in 2010 under President Barack Obama's proposals, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected Friday.

The Obama expansion of the home-buyer tax credit puts the taxpayer on the hook for $100 k per home sold

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are pressing banks to buy back huge swaths of home loans as a way for the mortgage finance giants to recoup some of their massive losses that the taxpayer has to cover.

President Obama speaks about clean energy jobs at OPOWER, ....says the loss of 36,000 jobs is "actually better than expected

Obama's advisers are nearing a recommendation that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, be prosecuted in a military tribunal, administration officials said, a step that would reverse Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s plan to try him in civilian court in New York City.

House Democrats walk away from the Obama March 18 deadline for Obamacare.  House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the Democrats would like to get a final vote by Congress’ Easter break, which begins March 29. But he also said “the world doesn’t fall apart” if that timeline isn’t met

Obama has signed a bill creating a program to promote the U.S. as a premier tourism destination for international travelers. Government and private industry would evenly split the program's costs, with Washington contributing up to $100 million a year. That money will come from a $10 fee paid by foreigners who do not pay for visas to enter the U.S.

 Obama's Fifty Eighth Week in Office

Latest Additions to "The List"

"The List" for 3/4/2010

Obama's friend Rev. Wright: ... “I have been affiliated with the Cuban Council of Churches since the 1980s,” boasted Rev. Jeremiah Wright in a sermon on July 16, 2006.  “Non-partisan,” Reverend Wright? Not according to Cuban intelligence defector Juan Vives, who from hands-on experience reports that the Cuba Council of Churches is in fact an arm of Cuba’s ICAP (Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos) itself an arm of Cuba’s DGI, Cuba’s secret police, founded and mentored by the KGB and East German STASI. The ICAP’s long-time chieftain was Rene Cruz Rodriguez, perhaps one of Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s “friends.

An active Homeland Security program codenamed “Einstein” will receive an upgrade from the help of the NSA. This “help” includes the implementation of technology to read through all of your email contents.

A U.S. congressional committee approved a resolution condemning the 1915 slaughter of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide, rejecting a last-minute Obama administration effort to derail it and putting a chill on relations with Turkey.

The Obama administration will announce its plans for coastal oil and gas drilling leases by the end of March, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday.  Salazar told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that he was preparing two plans to govern leases on the outer continental shelf — one with court-mandated changes that would apply through June 30, 2012, and another completely new blueprint for leasing from July 1, 2012, until 2017.The decision to go with sequential schedules means Salazar is scrapping a Bush-era proposal for 2010 through 2015 that would have allowed leases on Pacific and Atlantic waters where drilling has been off limits for decade

Groundbreaking study published by Dr. Gabriel Calzada, of Madrid’s King Juan Carlos University

Chicago Tribune article about the Energy Dept. FOIA requests documenting collusion

Last March, Spanish economics professor Gabriel Calzada published an academic analysis that showed for every green job created in Spain, 2.2 jobs were lost as an opportunity cost. This finding contradicted the Obama Administration’s claim that massive subsidies for wind and solar energy would create jobs.-... The Administration’s response? Huddle with big wind lobbyists and other special-interest groups to collaborate on a taxpayer-funded “rebuttal” to Calzada’s work  -Despite calls for increased transparency and openness, recent U.S. Energy Department documents obtained through FOIA requests and reported by The Chicago Tribune show significant collusion among Energy Department officials and the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), as well as other third party special-interest groups, including the left-of-center Center for American Progress....Assistant secretary of energy Cathy Zoi, who has held top positions at Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection, is charged with crafting renewable energy policy for the Obama Administration. According to FOIA-obtained emails, Zoi and her team worked hand-in-hand with big wind’s lobby – AWEA – and other special-interest groups to rebut and discredit a groundbreaking study published by Dr. Gabriel Calzada, of Madrid’s King Juan Carlos University, that examined Span’s experience with renewable energy mandates and so-called “green jobs.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius chastised top insurance executives Thursday over proposed double-digit rate hikes

The Obama administration is urging a House panel not to offend Turkey by declaring that the Ottoman-era killing of Armenians was genocide.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday the White House hopes to see the House approve the healthcare bill by March 18, the first day of the NCAA college basketball tournament and just before President Barack Obama leaves the country on an international trip.

Two senior administration officials said the White House is telling Democrats reconsidering their support for health care reform that they will pay the price for their original vote no matter what happens, so they should reap the political benefits of actually passing a law.

Picture: Obama wears a "purple" SEIU colored tie during health care speech

Senior Israeli diplomatic official: US Vice President Joe Biden is important, but no substitute for President Barack Obama, and a speech he is expected to give next week during his stay in Israel should not be considered compensation for Obama’s speech to the Arab world in Cairo last June

VIDEO: It appears that Factcheck, Politifact and Hawaii officials made misleading statements to convince the public that Obama's Certification of Birth was Genuine, but the State Registrar has refused to confirm that Hawaii provided the Obama campaign with the COLB which was dated June 6, 2007.

"The List" for 3/3/2010

US will supply sophisticated laser-guided-bomb kits, 12 American-made surveillance drones and 18 late-model F-16 fighters to boost Pakistani forces capability to strike in remote tribal areas, a development which could spark unease in New Delhi.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday vowed to work with Congress on conservation, denying accusations by western Republicans of a “secret” Interior plan to designate vast tracts of land as national monuments through executive branch power.

Sarah Herlihey in 2006, an associate attorney specializing in litigation at the Chicago law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Kirkland- Former Member of finance committees of U.S. Senator Barack Obama.” is Floating the idea of "repealing" (which cannot be done) the natural born citizenship requirement

The Obama administration waded into negotiations over Wall Street regulations Wednesday, calling for limits on the size of financial institutions

As President Obama prepares to travel to Indonesia, his administration is seeking to reverse a 12-year-old ban on training an elite unit of the Indonesian military whose members have been convicted of beatings, kidnappings and other abuses.

Obama suspected of selling judge appointment for Obamacare votes: Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House; he's obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes. One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a press release announcing that today President Obama nominated Matheson's brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

A day after a conservative group released a video condemning the Justice Department for refusing to identify seven lawyers who previously represented or advocated for terror suspects, Fox News has uncovered the identities of the seven lawyers.

The White House is bracing for an ugly unemployment report on Friday that is expected to be worse because of the three winter storms that hit the East Coast last month. Goldman Sachs predicted the economy will lose as many as 100,000 jobs in February due to blizzard-like conditions that kept employers and prospective hires from getting to the office. Economic officials on Monday were already spinning expectations for the report, saying it would be important to look past February’s figures to the ''underlying trends,''

To meet the Obama administration goals for CO2 cuts, gas would have to be $7 per gallon

Argentina was celebrating a diplomatic coup yesterday in its attempt to force Britain to accept talks on the future of the Falkland Islands, after a two-hour meeting in Buenos Aires between Hillary Clinton and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

A man who was freed from Guantanamo after he claimed he only wanted to go home and help his family is now a senior commander running Taliban resistance to the U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, two senior Afghan intelligence officials say

After two studies refuted President Barack Obama’s assertions regarding the success of Spain’s and Denmark’s wind energy programs, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request reveals the Department of Energy turned to George Soros and to wind industry lobbyists to attack the studies.

VIDEO and AUDIO: Obama, repeatedly, saying it takes 60 votes to pass health care

VIDEO: Obama's speech on using reconcilliation to pass health care- surrounded by doctors in white coats

Sen. Tom Harkin told POLITICO that Senate Democratic leaders have decided to go the reconciliation route for Obamacare

A group of Democratic senators urged the Obama administration to suspend an economic stimulus program aimed at financing renewable energy, complaining that money is going to projects that are creating jobs in foreign countries. On Tuesday, Schumer and three other senators wrote to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to request a moratorium on the Recovery Act program. They asked that the moratorium remain in place until they can pass legislation mandating stimulus aid flow only to projects which preserve and create U.S. jobs.

Obama says the time has come to pass legislation overhauling the health care system, asserting that "every argument has been made."

The United Kingdon's Sky News "birther story" reported on 2/27/10

The United Kingdon's Sky News reported on 2/27/10: "Authorities in Hawaii have provided an electronic record of Obama's birth because the paper copy was destroyed in a fire which wiped out much of the state's archives." - changing the story on the birth record

"The List" for 3/2/2010

3 more states, South Carolina, New Hampshire and Indiana have joined Arizona in proposing bills requiring proof of Article II Eligibility for the President of the United States

Obama's "Science Czar" John P. Holdren was once involved in a publication that included two accused Soviet informants among its founding sponsors.

US Arms control treaty treaty stalls over Russian demands. The Obama administration has rejected the Russian demands, fearing it could make it harder to win the Republican votes needed for Senate ratification of the new nuclear arms pact.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today released the guidelines and parameters of a Defense Department review of the so-called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law in preparation for its potential repeal.

White House officials tell ABC News that in his remarks tomorrow President Obama will indicate a willingness to work with Republicans on some issue to get a health care reform bill passed but will suggest that if it is necessary, Democrats will use the controversial "reconciliation" rules requiring only 51 Senate votes to pass the "fix" to the Senate bill, as opposed to the 60 votes to stop a filibuster and proceed to a vote on a bill.

Officials in the heart of recession-battered central California misspent about $1 million in federal stimulus funds that were supposed to help adults and teenagers find jobs, state auditors said Tuesday. California's Inspector General Laura Chick said the Tulare County Workforce Investment Board used nearly $1 million in Recovery Act funds to pay for their own rent and utility bills, when the bulk of the money should have gone to finding youth summer jobs.

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal urged troops to keep a clear-eyed focus on the mission – and to be cognizant that it’s not about conventional warfare. “This is not that. This is a war for the people,

The White House on Tuesday made public excerpts of a previously classified report on cybersecurity prepared by the Bush adminisration.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) says there is no truth to reports that President Barack Obama will press Congress to pass a significantly smaller healthcare reform bill ''I don't have reason to believe that that's accurate,'

Downing Street dismisses US offer to mediate Faulkland Islands dispute, "We don't think that's necessary"

The high-profile F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program will be delayed by two years and will be significantly over cost, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said on Tuesday.  “We think it is probable that there will be a Nunn-McCurdy breach,” Donley said at a breakfast with defense reporters.The so-called Nunn-McCurdy law requires the military services or the Pentagon leadership to tell Congress when the price tag of a program increases significantly. The Pentagon then must certify to Congress that the program is still worth pursuing

The U.S. will deliver this month to Pakistan 1,000 sophisticated laser-guided bomb kits that would enable the government there to strike insurgent targets with more precision.

Obama will incorporate Republican ideas on medical malpractice reform and trying to rid the health care system of waste and abuse in a revised proposal he hopes jump-starts his stalled overhaul drive

Washington White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Tuesday stepped up the war of words that the Obama administration has been directing at Sen. Jim Bunning (R) of Kentucky, saying at a morning meeting with reporters, “I don’t know how you negotiate with the irrational.”

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano recently estimated the DHS contractor workforce at 200,000, which exceeds the department’s civilian workforce

Obama's doctors have recommended he moderate his "alcohol intake."

U.S. Pressing Israel not to attack Iran

Walpin-gate update: New charges of political motive in IG firing; presecutor who aided Obama ally sought job from Obama

The British are irate over Hillary Clinton's comments over Faulklands

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday he would have to “check on it” before he could deny Rep. Joe Sestak’s (D.-Pa.) claim that the administration had offered him a high-ranking job in the administration in exchange for not mounting a primary challenge against incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter

Obama to pitch $6 Billion "Cash for Calkers" program on trip to Georgia

Consumers would collect on-the-spot rebates of $1,000 or more for buying insulation, water heaters or other equipment to make their homes burn energy more efficiently under a rebate program President Barack Obama is promoting.

"The List" for 3/1/2010

The United States is concerned over the approval of a plan to build 600 new housing units in East Jerusalem, the State Department said on Monday, adding that both Israel and the Palestinians should refrain from unilateral actions which could undermine trust between the two parties.

Obama this week will defend a controversial legislative maneuver to pass healthcare reform, the White House hinted Monday.

VIDEO:  Obama's new "Fiscal Responsibility" commissioner Andy Stern..."Shared Prosperity"

VIDEO: Obama advisor Larry Summers, "The blizzards that affected much of the country during the last month are likely to distort the statistics"

White House economic adviser Larry Summers said on Monday winter blizzards were likely to distort U.S. February jobless figures, which are due to be released on Friday.

According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the White House will release a new health-care bill on Wednesday that will be "much smaller" than either the House or Senate versions

Obama proposed $900 million in school grants today designed to improve low-performing schools, particularly those with high dropout rates

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton sent a message to Beirut that Washington cannot prevent an Israeli strike in Lebanon as long as arms smuggling to Hezbollah continues

Obama administration and its congressional allies are reversing the 1996 welfare reforms.  Obama's $862 billion stimulus package last February essentially abolished welfare reform by subsidizing the expansion of welfare rolls. The federal government now pays states 80 percent of the cost for each new family they add to their welfare rolls

Obama plans 'dramatic reductions' in US nuclear weapons stockpile.  ...as part of a sweeping policy review designed to prevent the spread of atomic weapons.

"The List" for 2/28/2010

The White House is considering a new policy that would give an advantage in bids for billions in government contracts to companies that pay workers "living wages" and offer generous benefits.Tthe "living wage" campaign has long been pushed by the radical Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, and was largely initiated on a local level in the 1990s with the help of a socialist party of which evidence suggests Obama was a member

To emphasize Obama's frustration with what Republicans were saying at the healthcare summit, CNN aired a montage of the faces the President was making as prominent members of the GOP spoke

VIDEO: White House health reform director Nancy-Ann DeParle- "We will have the votes to pass health care"

The White House called for a "simple up-or-down" vote on health care legislation Sunday as Speaker Nancy Pelosi appealed to House Democrats to get behind President Obama chief domestic priority even it if threatens their political careers. -White House health reform director Nancy-Ann DeParle signaled Obama's intention to push the Democratic-crafted bill under the so called "Nuclear Option" or "Budget Reconcilliation"

The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder

Obama signs the extension of the Patriot Act for one year only- ....on Saturday night

 Obama's health plan proposal would extend Medicare taxes to the investment income of higher-earning households. The health care proposal that the White House released last Monday would extend the existing 2.9% Medicare tax to unearned income — including interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rent — for taxpayers with income exceeding $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for couples. Currently, the Medicare tax is assessed only on wages or earned income.

"The List" for 2/27/2010

U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton is due to meet with Argentina's president amid accusations of a snub to Britain over America's refusal to support the UK in the Falklands oil drilling row.

Latest White House visitor logs from 2009

It appears the Obama's "Safe Schools Czar. " Keven Jennings, took his high school stundents with him to the April 1993 "gay rights march on Washington, D.C.

Audio: Rudy Giuliani, "Real issue having Justice Dept. officials having represented Gitmo detainee's"

Kirtland Air Force Base will lose 18 ANG F-16Cs from the 188th Fighter Squadron & hundreds of jobs as part of the federal government's plan to cut its fighter fleet. By the end of this autumn the USAF will have reduced its fighter fleet by 250 jets. The first jets begin to leave as of April 1st and the government hopes the last will be retired by the end of September.

The White House has chosen Julianna Smoot, a prominent Democratic Party fundraiser, to replace Desiree Rogers as social secretary. Rogers is stepping down next month in the wake of last year's White House gate-crashing scandal that she was blamed for. Smoot served as national finance director for Obama's presidential campaign, helping raise $32.5 million during one quarter in 2007. She has also served as finance director for then-Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle and John Edwards' successful Senate bid in 1998.

The US Government policy of leaving the internet alone is over, according to Obama's top official at the Dept. of Commerice. Instead, an "Internet Policy 3.0" approach will see policy discussions between government agencies, foreign governments, and key Internet constituencies, according to Assistant Secretary Larry Strickling, with those discussions covering issues such as privacy, child protection, cybersecurity, copyright protection, and Internet governance.

"The List" for 2/26/2010

Fannie Mae, the largest provider of residential mortgage funds, on Friday reported a loss of $16.3 billion for the fourth quarter of last year and said it requested $15.3 billion from the Treasury to keep its net worth in positive territory. The government-controlled company said it would need additional taxpayer funds in the future to continue operations.

An Arab political source said Friday that special U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell has requested to resign due to his frustration with the way the Obama administration has been handling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a Nazareth-based daily. Hadith a-Nass reported that Mitchell's request stemmed partly from to his own failure to advance the resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and also from his perception that certain elements within the State Department hold biased favor toward Israel.

The   economic forecast tied to President Obama's proposed NASA budget keeps growing bleaker.  Revised projections now show that about 23,000 workers at and around Kennedy Space Center will lose their jobs because of the shuttles' retirement and the new proposal to cancel the development of new rockets and spacecraft.

Obama puts SEIU president Andy Stern on the Debt Commission

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urges wealthy Pakistanis to pay a larger share of taxes to reduce their country's dependence on foreign aid

Obama's Fifty Seventh Week in Office

Latest Additions to "The List"

"The List" for 2/25/2010

Obama aides to meet with atheists on the White House grounds; several administration officials will sit down quietly for a morning meeting at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus with 10 groups, including the American Atheists and the Council for Secular Humanism. Tina Tchen, the director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, and representatives from the Justice and Health and Human Services departments will participate.

The Obama administration may expand efforts to ease the housing crisis by banning all forclosures on home loans unless they have been screened and rejected by the government’s Home Affordable Modification Program.

Obama pledged to "listen" at the outset of his much-ballyhooed bipartisan health care summit on Thursday. Turns out he meant he'd be listening to his own voice.  By the end of the televised event, Obama had spoken for 119 minutes - nine minutes more than the 110 minutes consumed by 17 Republicans. The 21 Democratic lawmakers used 114 minutes, giving the president and his supporters a whopping 233 minutes, according to a "talk clock" kept by GOP aides

The head of the US Marines said on Thursday he opposed ending the ban on gays serving openly in the military, the first top officer to break openly with President Barack Obama over the issue.

VIDEO: Joe Biden- "It's easy being Vice President, you don't have to do anything

The Democratic National Committee's Organizing for America has quietly launched an initiative aimed at making Obama supporters' voices heard on the largely conservative airwaves. "The fate of health reform has been a focus of debate in living rooms and offices, on TV and online -- and on talk radio. And since millions of folks turn to talk radio as a trusted source of news and opinions, we need to make sure OFA supporters are calling in with a pro-reform message," says the introduction to the online tool.The online tool presents users with a radio show discussing political topics, to which supporters can listen live, and the phone number for that station, for when health care comes up. It also offers tips for callers and talking points on the issue.

Congress has plans to force Obama to continue NASA programs.

VIDEO: Obama to John McCain: "Let me make this point, John, because we're not campaigning anymore, the election is over"

While the country and the Congress have their eyes on the Health Care Sumit, House Democrats last night stashed a new provision in the intelligence bill which is to be voted on at the same time.  It is an attack on the CIA:  the enactment of a criminal statute that would ban “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.  The act goes on to make it a crime to use tactics that have been shown to be effective in obtaining life saving information and that are far removed from torture.

Obama told Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell that time wasn't equally divided between GOP and Democratic talk at the health care summit because "I'm the president."

The Obama administration criticized Israel for designating two shrines on Palestinian territory as Israeli national heritage sites. ...US displeasure with the designations of the Cave of the Patriarchs in the flash point town of Hebron and the traditional tomb of the biblical matriarch Rachel in Bethlehem had been conveyed to senior Israeli officials by American diplomats.

VIDEO: Obama falls asleep at his own health care summit

VIDEO: Obama incorrectly argues that the Congressional Budget Office says health insurance premiums will down

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern said he was open to serving on President Barack Obama’s proposed deficit reduction commission, after it was reported that the White House was considering him for the post. He was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday advocating for additional deficit spending to stimulate job creation.

Watch the televised White House health care meeting

Obama is throwing billions of dollars at a federal education program with an unproven record of success. And for educational programs with a proven track record, such as Upward Bound, funded by the Department of Education’s TRIO program, he is cutting funding.

Despite major new report by the US’ Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) making it clear Taiwan’s Air Force is in poor shape, it is by no means certain that Washington will sell Taipei the 66 advanced F-16C/D fighters it wants, sources in Washington said.

Washington refused to endorse British claims to sovereignty over the Falkland Islands yesterday as the diplomatic row over oil drilling in the South Atlantic intensified in London, Buenos Aires and at the UN.

A new directive, confirmed Wednesday by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, aims to limit nighttime raids on Afghan civilians. It was prompted by a storm of complaints from Afghans who were enraged over foreign soldiers bursting into their homes. "We didn't understand what a cultural line it was," McChrystal said during a luncheon with a group of young Afghans involved in a leadership program.

"The List" for 2/24/2010

A radical Muslim group, the Islamic Society of North America, or ISNA.- that was an unindicted co-conspirator in a scheme to raise money for Hamas has an extensive relationship with the Obama has ties to Obama.  ISNA President Ingrid Mattson represented American Muslims at Obama's inauguration, where she offered a prayer during the televised event. Mattson also represented ISNA at Obama's Ramadan dinner at the White House. Last June, Obama's top aide, Valerie Jarrett, invited Mattson to work on the White House Council on Women and Girls, which Jarrett leads. In July, the Justice Dept. sponsored an information booth at an ISNA bazaar in Washington, D.C.

Commercial space pioneer Burt Rutan has sharply criticized Obama administration proposals to outsource key portions of NASA's manned space program to private firms.

In the Obama Administration’s latest effort to appease Muslims, the U.S. government will begin delivering special meals, prepared according to Islamic law, to home-bound seniors in a city known for its thriving Muslim population.

John O. Brennan, Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, who made those was connected with the tampering with Obama's passport.  Back in March 2008, the State Department launched an investigation of improper computer access to passport records of Barack Husssein Obama. The investigation was focusing on one employee - a contract worker with a company headed by an adviser to the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama. Another employee under the investigation worked for The Analysis Corporation (TAC), which is headed by John O. Brennan, a former CIA agent who is an adviser to Mr. Obama's presidential campaign on intelligence and foreign policy

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., and Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Me., Wednesday questioned the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security about the high ratio of contractors to civilian employees within the DHS workforce. The number of conractors exceed the number of civilian employees- “To me, this is just a shocking and unacceptable number,” Lieberman said at a Committee hearing called to discuss the Departments proposed FY2011 budget. “Our Committee has long been concerned about DHS’s heavy reliance on contractors because it raises the question of efficient use of taxpayer money but also the question of who is in control of the Department’s mission: Is it federal contractors or fulltime employees?”

The Health Insurance Industry Fair Compensation Act: HR 4626 IH

The House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to repeal the antitrust exemption currently granted to health insurance companies. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Tuesday that President Obama strongly supports the repeal

Attorney General Eric Holder didn't consult the Department of Homeland Security before he made plans to try alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York City, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has become the first Obama Administration official to publicly describe last year's deadly shootings at Ft. Hood, Tex., as a terrorist act, according to a search of news clips and transcripts.

Obama tells business leaders he's no socialist plotting a government takeover of the economy

Obama health care proposal includes a sneaky new tax on dividends and capital gains.  This new ObamaCare tax would for the first time apply the 2.9% Medicare payroll tax to "interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents," ... includes capital gains, though the latter wasn't explicitly mentioned in the proposal. This investment tax would apply to singles earning more than $200,000 and joint filers over $250,000 and comes on top of the Senate's 0.9-percentage-point increase in the payroll tax, which would bring the combined employee-employer share to 3.8%.

The White House version of the Missile Defense logo raises eyebrows, creates controversy.

U.S. energy secretary Steven Chu said Wednesday that the U.S. must decrease its energy use to allow developing nations the room to grow, while emphasizing that prosperity doesn't have to come with a large carbon footprint. "We believe we have to decrease our use of energy to allow headroom for the developing nations to grow their economies," Chu said in a speech in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates. "There is no law of physics that says prosperity is proportional to carbon emissions," Chu said.

A simple booklet explaining President Obama's health care and economic policies may help those in the tea party movement better understand White House initiatives, suggested Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama's closest advisers.

White House green jobs adviser Van Jones quit the post last year after he was dogged by past remarks and associations, but that isn't stopping the NAACP from awarding him one of its Image Awards.  White House green jobs adviser Van Jones quit the post last year after he was dogged by past remarks and associations, but that isn't stopping the NAACP from awarding him one of its Image Awards -- and even calling him an "American treasure."

The Treasury said it will borrow $200 billion and leave the cash proceeds on deposit with the Federal Reserve, reviving a program that will make it easier for the Fed to raise interest rates when the time comes.

The Pentagon on Monday notified Congress that women will be able to join submarine crews within 30 legislative working days, making good on the wishes of top Navy commanders announced last fall.

After his resignation from the White House under pressure, Van Jones to teach at Princeton

VIDEO: Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden in 2005 with the Democrats, arguing that it would be the death of Democracy if reconcilliation is ever to be used

America has a $1 billion new embassy planned for London... with a moat

The State Department has lifted a ban on exports of night-vision equipment that was imposed in 2007 on a U.S. company caught selling sensitive defense articles to China and other countries without a license. Meanwhile, two key U.S. senators on Tuesday wrote to Gen. James L. Jones, the White House national security adviser, warning that the Obama administration's plan to loosen controls on exports of sensitive goods and technology could undermine national security

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp announced today that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has again failed to administratively preclear the State of Georgia’s submission of its voter verification process. As a result, the State will exercise its right to seek preclearance of the voter verification process by bringing an action for a declaratory judgment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

"The List" for 2/23/2010

The U.S. Department of Energy is using funds from last year’s economic stimulus package to guarantee $1.37 billion in loans for a solar energy project in California’s Mojave Desert.

Obama rules of engagement pose risks to troops in Afghanistan

A new classified directive to coalition forces in Afghanistan puts restrictions on nighttime raids of Afghan homes and compounds

Obama urged Congress on Tuesday to strip health insurers of their decades-old exemption from federal antitrust laws

Documents obtained by The Daily Caller confirm the White House is seriously considering adopting a series of proposals that would favor unionized companies bidding on federal contracts. The documents acknowledge the proposals are likely to increase the cost of government contracting and the size of the bureaucracy.

Despite Justice Dept. stonewalling, two of Eric Holder's radical appointees to the Justice Dept. have been outed: Jennifer Daskal and Neal Katyal.  Daskal is connected to the extremist group Human Rights Watch. Daskal  represented Qaida terrorists held at Gitmo. She also has no prosecutorial or national security experience. Neal Katyal was instrumental in the release of Osama bin Laden's driver, who admitted to knowingly aiding the terrorist leader in the wake of 9/11.

Attorney General Eric Holder continues to stonewall congress on the terror lawyers who now work at the Justice Dept.

Obama's newly-named Special Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Rashad Hussain condemned the United States for prosecuting just about everyone who was under indictment on terror charges in 2004.

Thomas Karl, the scientist at the heart of "Climate-gate" email scandal is appointed by the White House to be their new Climate Change guru

At the secret White House conference committee last month to put the finishing touches on ObamaCare, just days before Scott Brown was elected, one of the proposals reportedly being considered was “boosting the Medicare payroll tax — either by increasing the rate or extending it to unearned income.” The ObamaCare proposal released yesterday by the White House does both....The proposal would increase the tax rate by 30 percent, from 2.9 percent to 3.8 percent, for “high-income households” (defined as those making $250,000 or more, or individuals making $200,000), and extend the tax to their investment income, while not taxing the investment income of others.)

Obama’s “new” health care proposal would still levy a new “abortion premium” fee

Letter from the Director of the Congressional Budget Office: Cannot score the president's health plan- not enough detail

Obama plan would pay for abortions

Obama presented a new health care plan on Monday that calls for raising the Medicare payroll tax on some households earning less than $250,000

The health care plan proposed by President Obama on Monday includes an individual mandate requiring every American to have health insurance despite concerns from Republican lawmakers and legal experts that the provision is not constitutional.

For the second time in five months, the Obama White House is being accused -- by Democrats -- of offering high ranking government jobs in return for political favors. What no one is reporting is that this is a violation of federal law that can lead to prison time, a fine or both, according to Title 18, Chapter 11, Section 211 of the United States Code. - The jobs in question: Secretary of the Navy and a position within the U.S. Agency for International Development. The favor requested in return: Withdrawal from Senate challenges to two sitting United States Senators, both Democrats supported by President Obama. The Senators are Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania and Michael Bennet in Colorado.

"The List" for 2/22/2010

Industry groups, conservative think tanks, lawmakers and three states filed 16 court challenges to U.S. EPA's "endangerment" finding for greenhouse gases before yesterday's deadline, setting the stage for a legal battle over federal climate policies.

The Obama Administration has proposed an FY 2011 defense budget that is inconsistent with U.S. security commitments and the Administration's own Quadrennial Defense Review.

Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Treasury's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), said in a letter to a senior Treasury official that he was "surprised" to learn last week that Treasury is proposing the new program operate outside his purview. The letter, dated Friday, was made public on Monday.

In an ironic twist, the White House is inviting the Tea Party movement to challenge it on government transparency.  White House Chief Technology Officer Andrew McLaughlin said Republicans and conservative Tea Party activists should strive to push the administration to make its policies more open.

Obama said he would put out a full bill ahead of Thursday's highly touted bipartisan health summit, but what he released on Monday is so bare-bones that the Congressional Budget Office said there's not even enough detail to start working on a cost estimate. The administration did not post any bill text on the White House Web site, instead offering a detailed outline of what the legislation would do.

AUDIO: Obama's newly-named Special Envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Rashad Hussain speaking in defense of Palistinian Islamic Jihad's leader in the US, Sami al-Arian

Evidence that Obama was supported in his Chicago career, by people with ties to Frank Marshall Davis.

The White House is mounting a last-ditch effort to piece together an energy and climate change bill that has enough incentives for nuclear power, natural gas and the coal industry to muster the votes needed to pass it this year.

Candidate Obama in 2008: Attacked John McCain for proposing a commission on the economic crisis-   2010 and now President, Obama now establishing a commission on fiscal responsibility and reform

October of 2009: President Barack Obama's adivsor on Muslim affairs, Dalia Mogahed, went on Islamic television with members of the radical Islamic group Hizb ut Tahrir and defended their blatant call for the overthrow of all "man-made law"—which includes the United States Constitution—and the adoption of Islamic Sharia law as "the source of legislation":

New Obama strategy: replace "change" with "reform"

Obama's Dept. of Transportation Spokesperson, Olivia Alair, suspected of orchestrating the White House anti-Toyota campaign

Obama seeking to break an impasse over health-care legislation, proposed a plan that includes the first Medicare tax on capital gains and higher fees on drug companies and health insurance companies to help cover millions of uninsured Americans.

Obama puts forward a nearly $1 trillion, 10-year health plan

Obama’s healthcare reform proposal released Monday eliminates controversial funds given to Nebraska as part of a deal to win the support of centrist Sen. Ben Nelson

Overview of the White House Proposal on health care

Obama makes it clear Monday morning that he intends to make a final push for a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's health care and insurance system, offering a new health care plan that largely embraces the approach already taken by the U.S. Senate- The plan, which went live on the White House Web site at 10 a.m., rejects repeated calls from Republicans to scrap Democratic efforts from last year and start over

"The List" for 2/21/2010

Obama will propose on Monday giving the federal government new power to block excessive rate increases by health insurance companies, as he rolls out comprehensive legislation to revamp the nation’s health care system, White House officials said.

Internal Toyota documents derided the Obama administration and Democratic Congress as “activist” and “not industry friendly," a revelation that comes days before the giant automaker's top executives testify on Capitol Hill amid a giant recall.

White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett' responing to Sarah Palin's dig at Obama...Palin mocked Obama by asking "how's that hope-y, change-y stuff working out for ya?"-Said Jarrett: "Making fun of the folks' real, sincere hopes for change that Americans across our country felt, I don't know that making fun of that is constructive. I prefer we would say, 'Come and think of constructive solutions that really improve our country.' I think people are tired of being made fun of."

"The List" for 2/20/2010

The U.S. government's majority stake in General Motors has no bearing on the response of regulators to safety problems at Toyota Motor Corp, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said on Friday

VIDEO: President Obama speaks glowing of Las Vegas. " I love Vegas"

Obama’s new Islamic envoy, Rashad Hussain, changed course Friday – admitting he made sharply critical statements about a U.S. terror prosecution against a Muslim professor after initially saying he had no recollection of making such comments. “I made statements on that panel that I now recognize were ill-conceived or not well-formulated,” Hussain said, referring to a 2004 conference where he discussed the case.

The backlash against ObamaCare is moving beyond the Tea Parties and has now arrived in state capitals. In more than 30 states, legislators are proceeding to pass statutes or ballot initiatives that would guarantee the right to choose medical services and insurance. These laws are generally called Health-Care Freedom Acts. If enacted, they will set off a Constitutional 10th Amendment fight over whether there are limitations on the powers of the federal government to regulate health care and override the protections in these state laws.

VIDEO: Obama to ACORN, "You know you have a friend in me"

The U.S. should encourage greater assimilation of the Hezbollah terrorist organization into the Lebanese government, argued President Obama's counter-terrorism advisor, John Brennan.

Obama to California: "Water is not a right, it is a privilage"

First Lady Michelle Obama took her childhood obesity initiative on the road today and visited a new grocery store in an impoverished area of Philadelphia to shine a spotlight on the need for affordable healthy food options across the nation. - The Obama Administration announced it will put $400 million toward its “Healthy Food Financing Initiative,” which aims to bring grocery stores and healthy food retailers to underserved urban and rural communities across the nation.

"The List" for 2/19/2010

The Environmental Protection Agency, responding complaints about its December findings about the threat of greenhouse gases, issued a statement Friday saying that the "science is settled" and "greenhouse gases pose a real threat to the American people."

The White House is considering changes to its mortgage modification plan that could include a freeze on home foreclosures  According to industry officials who have been briefed on the plan, the administration is considering changes that would require home-loan servicing companies to push delinquent borrowers into the Home Affordable Modification Program before they consider foreclosure. Lenders, investors and mortgage-service companies would be prevented from foreclosing on a homeowner while a home buyer is solicited, responds and eventually goes through a  trial period under HEMP.

General Motors Co. Chief Executive Ed Whitacre will receive a pay package valued at $9 million

According to a new study released today by the Commerce Department, which includes the Census Bureau the survey will add up to 635,000 temporary jobs by May to the nation's employment reports.

Attorney General Eric Holder says nine Obama appointees in the Justice Department have represented or advocated for terrorist detainees before joining the Justice Department.

The Justice Department finds no misconduct by lawyers who authorized harsh terror interrogations.

Obama: "I love Las Vegas"

Rep. Joe Sestak, who is causing heartburn for Democratic leaders by running against Arlen Specter for a Senate nomination in Pennsylvania, says the White House dangled a federal job in front of him in an attempt to entice him to drop out of the state's Democratic primary, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday.

Obama, continuing what some are calling the "Save the Senators" tour, opened his latest town hall meeting out West by praising Senate Majority Leader Reid, a top target of Republicans in the 2010 elections.

The National Security Council discouraged Jeff Trimble, executive director of the Broadcasting Board of Governors -- the independent agency that oversees the government's media operations, including Voice of America -- from allowing VOA to attach its name to a statement last week with Deutsche Welle and the BBC protesting Iranian signal-jamming.

The Obama administration will move ahead with Senate ratification of a treaty banning nuclear tests that was voted down by Republicans more than a decade ago, Vice President Biden said Thursday.

Obama loves Hip Hop music, plays it at the gym

Picture: Obama has the Dalai Lama go out the back door of the White House, past the garbage

Reversing yet another policy of former President George W. Bush, current U.S. President Barack Obama announced this week that he would nominate career diplomat Robert Ford to become Washington's first ambassador to Syria since 2005

The Obama administration hammers Toyota to coerce them to keep California plants open and force union labor on them

A senior administration official said Obama would announce he is designating $1.5 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to fund programs at local Housing Finance Agencies in California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, and Michigan.

The White House is willing to make a push for the public option if Senate Democrats decide to bring it up for a vote, Health and Human Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said

Obama is working on health care legislation intended to reconcile differences between House and Senate Democrats that could be attached to a budget bill and avoid a Republican filibuster, according to a published report.

Democrats in Washington are continuing to push for the controversial reconciliation strategy to railroad Obamacare through Congress. At the same time, Obama is reportedly writing a revised health care bill that can be attached to a budget bill and receive approval in the Senate on a majority vote. 

The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) has formally objected to a process being developed by the Obama Administration to potentially designate as many as 13 million acres of public and private land as National Monument

Obama move to designate land untouchable for oil or coal angering some.  Informationcomes from Department of Interior documents leaked to a Utah congressman and obtained by Fox News

 Obama's Fifty Sixth Week in Office

Latest Additions to "The List"

"The List" for 2/18/2010

Rashad Hussain, the president's appointee to serve as Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference was named a Fellow to the Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation:

The "New Dawn" memo -- a copy of which was sent to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen

ABC News has learned that the Obama administration has decided to give the war in Iraq -- currently known as Operation Iraqi Freedom -- a new name....The new name: "Operation New Dawn." In a February 17, 2010, memo to the Commander of Central Command, Gen. David Petraeus, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the "requested operation name change is approved to take effect 1 September 2010, coinciding with the change of mission for U.S. forces in Iraq."  If Gates was hoping that "Operation New Dawn" would convey a new period in the US-Iraq relationship, it's not clear that was the best choice of name......Operation New Dawn was the name for the bloody and grueling 2004 battle for Fallujah.

Obama will meet Tibet's exiled leader, but deference to China dictates that conditions have been attached to the invitation. The Dalai Lama meets the US President today not with the status of a head of state but as an "internationally respected religious leader and spokesman for Tibetan rights". The two Nobel Peace Prizewinners will meet not in the Oval Office but in the Map Room, once used by Franklin D. Roosevelt to track the war and now relegated to low-scale private meetings. There will be an official photograph, but the Dalai Lama will leave without a joint news conference.

Last month, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and her senior staff privately met in Washington, D.C., with a select group of Muslim, Arab, and Sikh organizations. Among the mix were three organizations directly associated with an outlawed terrorist entity — the Muslim Brotherhood.  Secretary Napolitano spent an hour and a half briefing them on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) counter-radicalization and anti-terrorist programs. The intensive briefings spanned two days (January 27 and 28) and were called by the DHS.

The Obama administration reached a deal with black farmers that could end a years-long stalemate over alleged rasial discrimination by the Agriculture Departmen  The agency is planning to announce a $1.25 billion fund Thursday to compensate African-Americans who say they were unfairly denied assistance from USDA

The White House and congressional leaders are preparing a detailed health care proposal designed to win passage without Republican support if GOP lawmakers fail to embrace bipartisan compromises at next week's summit.

Obama signed an order Thursday unilaterally creating a bipartisan commission to rein in unruly deficits after Congress rejected a similar body with considerably more enforcement power.

During his first year in office, President Obama (according to a White House count) gave 158 interviews to the press and delivered 411 speeches -- for an average of more than 1.5 a day.

More than a dozen pristine landscapes, wildlife habitats and scenic rivers in 11 Western states, some larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined, are under consideration by the Obama administration to become America's newest National Monuments -- a decision the administration can make unilaterally without local input or congressional approval. 

A $5 billion federal weatherization program intended to save energy and create jobs has done little of either, according to a new report obtained by ABC News on the one-year anniversary of President Obama's American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Only 9,100 homes had been weatherized nationwide as of Dec. 31, according to the new report by the Government Accountability Office, to be released Thursday.

"The List" for 2/17/2010

The US would maintain a minimum nuclear deterrent while working towards the goal of achieving a nuke-free world, a top Obama administration official on nuclear disarmament has said.  "This administration will work toward a world without nuclear weapons and we will continue to maintain a safe, secure, and effective deterrent as we proceed toward that goal," Ellen Tauscher, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, said.

Michelle Obama stocks the White House library with books on socialism

Obama and his administration have continued to ignore the loud outcry over the appointment of a radical gay activist, Kevin Jennings, to head up the nation’s “safe schools” office.....they plan to give Jennings significantly more money.  President Obama’s proposed 2011 budget would allocate $410 million for programs overseen by Jennings. That’s an increase of $45 million.

US secretary of state says her country focusing on trying to change Iranian behavior, not planning anything other than sanctions  US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her country has no plan for military action against Iran over its nuclear program, in a television interview broadcast on Wednesday.

Harry Knox, who serves on President Barack Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and who has said the Pope is “hurting people in the name of Jesus,” has a record of making anti-Catholic statements

Transparency requirements pushed for by the Obama administration have not changed the total spending on earmarks for 2010, according to a study by a group critical of the practice. The amount of money directed by lawmakers in 2010 to specific projects back in their districts adds up to $15.9 billion, according to the analysis by Taxpayers for Common Sense

George Maloof of the Sacramento Kings ownership family will host a million-dollar fundraiser attended by President Barack Obama on Thursday night at his Las Vegas home.

 An open-source assessment of Russia's Sukhoi PAK-FA, aka the Raptor Killer, Air Power Australia

In an open-source assessment of Russia's Sukhoi PAK-FA, aka the Raptor Killer, Air Power Australia  concludes, "once the PAK-FA is deployed within a theatre of operations, especially if it is supported robustly by counter-VLO capable ISR systems, the United States will no longer have the capability to rapidly impose air superiority, or possibly even achieve air superiority." " Moreover, the Obama administration's decision to kill the F-22 air superiority fighter in favor of the multi-role F-35 Joint Strike Fighter may prove disastrous,

Virginia joined a growing list of opponents to the Environmental Protection Agency's plan to regulate greenhouse gases. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II petitioned a federal court Tuesday to reconsider EPA's decision that greenhouse gases, which are linked to global warming, are a public health threat. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Texas filed similar suits.

Determined to have a deficit commission with or without Congress' backing, Obama plans to announce on Thursday that he is establishing a panel similar to—although weaker than_ the one lawmakers rejected.

Airport screeners for the first time will begin roving through airports taking chemical swabs from passengers and their bags to check for explosives, the Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday.

Obama said on Wednesday a $787 billion stimulus program helped the United States avoid dipping into an economic depression.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has refused an invitation to meet with President Obama when he arrives in town on Thursday. Mayor Goodman called President Obama a slow learner after he told Americans not to blow money on a weekend in Las Vegas if they were saving to put their kids through college. “I’ve got other things to do quite frankly for my constituents here in Las Vegas who rely on me to do the right thing as a mayor,”. …

Vice President Joe Biden asserted in an interview today that taxpayers have “gotten their money's worth” out of the $787 billion stimulus program that Congress passed during the depths of the recession

Vice President Joe Biden, "Washington is broken"

"The List" for 2/16/2010

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has asked him to “find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries” as the White House pushes the space agency to become a tool of international diplomacy.

Obama's $787 billion stimulus prevented another Great Depression while creating or preserving 2 million jobs, according to a White House report to be released on Wednesday.  The report, signed by Vice President Joe Biden who oversees how stimulus money is spent, stressed the depth of the crisis confronting Obama when he took office 13 months ago, as the President constantly reminds Americans in his speeches

$135 million in federal stimulus for on an "upgrade" for the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building in Portland, Oregon,

Obama will hold a town hall meeting at a high school, tout job creation in a speech at CityCenter and attend a $1 million Democratic fundraiser in a visit this week that comes after he twice singled out Las Vegas as a place not to spend money during economic hard times.

White House insists that the health care summit is not a trap.-  The purpose of the Obama administration's upcoming summit on healthcare is to find solutions to issues like soaring insurance premiums, not score political points against the Republicans, the White House insisted on Tuesday.

The White House hinted on Tuesday that President Obama might post his own bill on the Internet before the bipartisan health care summit he is planning for Blair House next week

Visitor logs reveal what pro-life advocates suspected would happen once Obama took over as president.  He and his administration have allowed the Planned Parenthood abortion business unfettered access to the White House and top staffers

Now it is up to three.  Three large corporations are quitting the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a broad group of businesses and environmental organizations that has been instrumental in building support in Washington for capping U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases. Oil giants BP PLC and ConocoPhillips along with Caterpillar Inc., the Peoria, Ill., heavy-equipment maker, have decided against renewing their membership in the organization, according to a statement released by the group Tuesday.

The State of Texas ratcheted up its attack on the Obama administration's environmental policies on Tuesday, filing suit against the EPA over a declaration that could broaden government enforcement of carbon dioxide emissions. Gov. Rick Perry, Attorney General Gregg Abbot and Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples announced the lawsuit at a joint news conference to declare that the two-month-old declaration is based on bogus conclusions and could cause billions of dollars of economic damage in Texas.

White House officials are retooling the administration's communications strategy to produce faster responses to political adversaries, a more disciplined focus on Obama's call for "change" in Washington and an increasingly selective use of the president's time.

Banking reforms proposed by US President Barack Obama cannot be "transposed" directly into a European context, the EU's financial services chief said on Tuesday. "You can't just copy or transpose the Obama reforms to Europe" said French internal market commissioner Michel Barnier

Promising "this is only the beginning," President Obama on Tuesday announced more than $8 billion in federal loan guarantees for the construction of the first nuclear power in the United States in nearly three decades.

VIDEO: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responds if she thinks Sarah Palin will be President and if she would move to Canada: "Well, the short answer is no. I will not be emigrating. I will be visiting as often as I can."

Michelle Obama to address the nation's governors about her obesity campaign

The White House is still urging Congress to adopt the excise tax as a way to help pay for President Obama’s health care proposals.

On Tuesday, President Obama will announce plans to break ground on two new nuclear reactors at a Southern Company plant in Burke, Georgia -- the  first new U.S. nuclear reactors since the incident at Three Mile Island in 1979.

Obama, defending his economic stimulus plan on its first anniversary, is dispatching his Cabinet across the country to try to calm an anxious public as Democrats head into potentially devastating midterm elections. A weeklong push to highlight the stimulus program's first year was starting with a Tuesday trip by Vice President Joe Biden to hard-hit Saginaw, Mich., to tour a small business, a jobs training program and a solar factory that all received Recovery Act dollars

ConocoPhillips [NYSE: COP] today announced that it will not be renewing its membership in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP).- "House climate legislation and Senate proposals to date have disadvantaged the transportation sector and its consumers, left domestic refineries unfairly penalized versus international competition, and ignored the critical role that natural gas can play in reducing GHG emissions,"...

"The List" for 2/15/2010

President Obama’s newly appointed envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Rashad Hussain, was quoted in 2004 as saying an American who aided a Palestinian terrorist group was the victim of “politically motivated persecutions” who was being used “to squash dissent.”

The White House is considering endorsing a law that would allow the indefinite detention of some alleged terrorists without trial as part of efforts to break a logjam with Congress over President Barack Obama’s plans to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Monday.

Obama lawyers delay "Walpin-gate" case

John Podesta, president of the Center for American Progress, can describe the state of Washington politics with a single word. Asked in an interview with the Financial Times to comment on "the health of American political system," Podesta responded: "Sucks.

A top Obama administration scientist- “It is important that people recognize that weather is not the same thing as climate,” said Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Drillgate: Obama administration found to withheld the publication of public support for offshore drilling.

American and Afghan troops say they're fighting the latest offensive in Afghanistan with a handicap -- strict rules that routinely force them to hold their fire.Although details of the new guidelines are classified to keep insurgents from reading them, U.S. troops say the Taliban are keenly aware of the restrictions.

VIDEO: Hillary Clinton- "Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship"

Restrictions on oil and gas drilling will cost the U.S. economy $2.36 trillion through 2029, according to a study requested by state utility regulators and paid for in part by industry-sponsored groups.

Obama counter-terror chief John Brennan chief is getting calls for his resignation after the following comments: "People sometimes use that figure, 20 percent, say 'Oh my goodness, one out of five detainees returned to some type of extremist activity,'" Brennan said. "You know, the American penal system, the recidivism rate is up to something about 50 percent or so, as far as return to crime. Twenty percent isn't that bad."

Vice President Biden stunned New York officials on Sunday by accusing Mayor Bloomberg of inflating the cost of 9/11 terror trials in Manhattan

Hillary Clinton today said Iran was becoming a military dictatorship.

"The List" for 2/14/2010

Biden: GOP use of filibuster, the worst he's ever seen

The woman that poses as Barack Obama on all his social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter is connected to the far-left organization MoveOn.org.

Rashad Hussein, White House official and President Obama’s newly appointed Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference, has a history of participation in events connected with the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood as well as support for Brotherhood causes, once having called prosecution of the U.S. leader of a Palestinian terrorist organization one of many “politically motivated persecutions.”

VIDEO: John Brennan's comments at the Islamic Center at New York University

Comments by John Brennan assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, at the Islamic Center at New York University on Saturday, are drawing fire and have prompted at least one call for his resignation by a Republican senator.  At one point, Brennan was asked about a recent assessment from the intelligence community that 20 percent of detainees transferred from Guantanamo are confirmed or suspected of recidivist activity, as Brennan confirmed in a letter to Congress earlier this month.

The Obama administration projected Thursday that the unemployment rate would fall this year by only a little, if at all, and would remain well over 6 percent until 2015.

Central Florida congressman, Bill Posey, has accused President Obama of breaking the law for trying to cancel  NASA contract bids

U.S. Army Chief Mullen: “The option to attack Iran is still on the table, but we’re not there yet.”

FASHBACK: Obama in 2008: "I'll do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Everything,"

The United States expressed readiness to provide Lebanon by 2013 with aircraft designed for light attack, the local daily As Safir reported Friday.

Vice President Joe Biden says the administration has not ruled out a military trial for the professed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks even if a civilian trial would be preferable

Vice President Joe Biden says the U.S. had made "significant progress" in addressing Iran's nuclear program.

VIDEO: Joe Biden- praises Obama for the way he has "managed Iraq" since taking office. ...the Iraq War was not "worth it"

Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday belittled Dick Cheney's criticism of the Obama administration's commitment to fighting terrorism as either ''misinformed or he is misinforming''

Vice President Joe Biden says the Iraq war -"mishandled", hasn't been worth its "horrible price."

VIDEO: Here is video of Dick Cheney on "This Week" responding to Joe Biden saying that Iraq "may ultimately prove to be one of the greatest achievements of the Obama administration."Cheney said, "I'm glad he now believes Iraq is a success" ....Cheney said, "If they're going to take credit for it, fair enough, but it ought to go with a healthy dose of thank you George Bush up front."

VIDEO: Dick Cheney: "I think, in fact, the situation with respect to Al Qaeda, to say, you know, that was big attack we had on 9/11 but it’s not likely again – I just think that’s just dead wrong."

Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Dick Cheney hurtled barbs across the airwaves Sunday in a split-screen debate over terrorism, charging each other with being dangerously “misinformed” or just “dead wrong.” 

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, issued a statement late Saturday in response to President Obama's Friday invite to a bipartisan Health Care Summit at the White House.  "It doesn't sound much like bipartisanship"

Vice President Joe Biden says the White House is ready and willing to listen to health care ideas from Republicans.

Joe Biden proposed in 2006 that Iraq be divided into three separate regions — Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni — with a central government in Baghdad.

Industry advocates are voicing concern with U.S. President Obama’s decision to cancel NASA’s Moon-bound Constellation program and the threat it poses to America’s aerospace work force

Obama said Saturday new budget rules that say spending cuts must accompany spending increases will force Congress to "pay for what it spends, just like everybody else."Obama signed a bill Friday reinstating budget rules known as "paygo" — short for "pay as you go."

"The List" for 2/13/2010

The Obama administration on Thursday said it does not believe that Iran can enrich uranium at the level it claims it can. White House officials say work is underway for stronger international sanctions against Iran.

The word is that Holder and Obama "never expected" the kind of pushback against holding a civilian trial for 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikk Mohammed. Never expected this kind of "push back".  Now they are frantically looking for a way out...

The White House did not invite House or Senate Budget Committee leaders to its healthcare reform summit later this month, including a Republican who recently offered to work with President Barack Obama to strike a bipartisan deal.

President Obama's counterterrorism chief acknowledged Saturday that the country is safer since the attacks of September 11, 2001, saying that government actions have made the nation "less hospitable" to terrorism. But he also called some of the precautions taken after the attacks "over the top".

Department of Homeland Security has disclosed that it will be monitoring the comments and posts on websites and social media like Twitter for information on possible terror threats

Obama, was quite in favor of the filibuster in 2005 when it was used to stop nine of Bush's appointments, including Miguel Estrada and Janice Rogers Brown

VIDEO: Obama reaches out to the Muslim world again by addressing the U.S. IslamicWorld Forum.  Obama lists all the things America is doing to try to win over the Muslim world, -...notice the Arabic greeting, the Arabic subtitles and ending his remarks with 'god's peace be upon you'

The 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review report gives unprecedented attention to the issue of climate change.  The report mentions "climate change" 19 times.

Obama's political operation, Organizing for America, is hiring a "social networks manager" whose primary responsibilities will be maintaining the group's Twitter, Facebook and MySpace accounts.

Iran's parliament speaker said that attempts by the Obama administration to quell its nuclear program will only encourage the Islamic Republic to speed up its uranium enrichment even more

The White House is reviewing a plan that would require the Justice Department and FBI to consult with the intelligence community before deciding whether to inform terrorism suspects arrested in the United States that they have the right to remain silent and to consult with an attorney, according to the Washington Post

"The List" for 2/12/2010

VIDEO: of West Virginia Democrat Sen. Jay Rockefeller saying about President Obama, "He's beginning to not be believable to me." Rockefeller was specifically referring to Obama's inconsistent statements about "clean coal," which are making Rockefeller feel unsure of where Obama really stands.

The White House on Friday defended Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's move to scuttle a bipartisan jobs bill and replace it with a Democratic-written measure, arguing that Mr. Reid's bill will end up drawing Republican support.

The White House has recently laid the groundwork for a federal takeover of the Great Lakes and its tributaries. The activities of a White House task force have raised questions about state sovereignty and federal control over natural resources.

By the end of this year, there will be no shuttle, no U.S. manned space program, no way for the U.S. to get into space.

Proposed White House changes to Marshall Space Flight Center-managed rocket program

A group of North Alabama leaders concerned over proposed White House changes to Marshall Space Flight Center-managed rocket programs have come together to form a task force in an effort to restore funding cuts.  The "Second to None Initiative" brings together 25 community leaders, led by former Huntsville U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer, to fight the Obama White House proposal that would shift NASA's focus from returning to the moon to technology development and seeding small, private space companies.

Obama has asked asked Congress to give Planned Paranthood a raise.  In the budget Obama submitted for 2011, he requests a $10 million increase in Title X funds, for a total of $327,356,000 that will go directly to Planned Parenthood

Two new documents laying out the Obama administration's defense and homeland security strategy over the next four years describe the nation's terrorist enemies in a number of ways but fail to mention the words Islam, Islamic or Islamist.

A federal commission has yet to enact a year-old executive order that President Obama thinks will avoid labor unrest but one that critics say discriminates against non-union companies and non-union workers in federal contracting.  The construction industry, one of the hardest hit industries from the economic downturn, is speaking out against enactment of the executive order.

Obama dropped his threat to bypass the Senate and install nominees to their positions through recess appointments after Republicans released their holds and allowed 29 nominees to receive votes.

 Obama's Fifty Fifth Week in Office

Latest Additions to "The List"

"The List" for 2/11/2010

The Obama administration’s latest Quadrennial Defense Review relies on flawed climate science. The 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review report gives unprecedented attention to the issue of climate change

The U.S. Treasury has officially lost its entire $2.33 billion TARP investment in CIT Group, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission after Monday's closing bell.

Well Point Insurance becomes target for Obama after company's rate increase

U.S. Department of Energy statistics show 79 percent of the $2.1 billion in stimulus money allocated for wind energy has been paid to foreign manufacturers.

Obama will now help select location for the Khalid Shiek Mohammad trial.  Obama is planning to insert himself into the debate about where to try the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, three administration officials said Thursday, signaling a recognition that the administration had mishandled the process and triggered a political backlash.

Billy Tauzin, the former Louisiana congressman, is resigning as president of the drug industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America amid internal disputes over its pact with the White House to trade political support for favorable terms in the proposed health care overhaul.

Obama's National Defense Review ignores Iran and Islam in favour of climate change

Sen. Kit Bond (R.-Mo.), the vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, told bloggers on a conference call on Wednesday, Feb. 3, that the Obama administration still had not provided his committee with all the information it had requested on the November terrorist attack at Fort Hood in Texas.
“They still haven’t come through with all the information that we need,” Sen. Bond said

VIDEO: In his latest gaffe Joe Biden says of Sarah Palin: "I like her... but so far out there"

The Obama administration on Wednesday announced that a verdict in a British court might cause U.S. intelligence to curtail information-sharing with its British counterparts.

Obama fabricates number of 300 other terrorists are currently sitting in federal prisons

VIDEO: White House spokesman Gibbs asked about Biden's "Iraq...great achievement" comments.Gibbs: "Putting what was broken back together and bringing our troops home"

VIDEO: Joe Biden: Iraq... one of Obama's "great achievements"

Obama insisted that he and his administration have pursued a "fundamentally business-friendly" agenda and are "fierce advocates" for the free market, rejecting corporate criticism of his policies.

Michele Obama was denied internship after Peer review at her law firm.  Described as "Arrogant" and Caustic" Involved politically with the Daley administration.  Was rarely at her desk and still drew a salary.

Obama, struggling to staff his administration after a year in office, is blaming Republican efforts to "delay and obstruct" his nominees in the Senate -- and threatening to counteract those tactics with recess appointments.

VIDEO: Vice-President Joe Biden telling Larry King that "the idea of there being a massive attack on the United States like 9-11 is unlikely in my view."

"The List" for 2/10/2010

It's a bipartisan jobs bill that would hand President Barack Obama a badly needed political victory and placate Republicans with tax cuts at the same time. But it has a problem: It won't create many jobs.Even the Obama administration acknowledges the legislation's centerpiece — a tax cut for businesses that hire unemployed workers — would work only on the margins.As for the bill's effectiveness, tax experts and business leaders said companies are unlikely to hire workers just to receive a tax break. Before businesses start hiring, they need increased demand for their products, more work for their employees and more revenue to pay those workers.

In September, President Obama told a joint session of Congress that his administration would look into tort reform as a means of lowering health care costs, but the administration’s Department of Health and Human Services stated in congressional staff report that medical malpractice reform is “not a priority.”

Obama says he is now "agnostic" about raising taxes on households making under $250,000 a year to help cut budget deficits, signaling a possible retreat from a campaign pledge.

Retired Chicago physician Quentin Young is the father of the US "single payer" healthcare movement. He is a long time political supporter of Obama, abortion rights supporter, and member of the Democratic Socialists of America

The White House press room was a jovial place to be in the early days of President Barack Obama's presidency. But times have changed.  Back in May, POLITICO analyzed the press briefings and found that the instances of laughter — as indicated by "(Laughter)" being noted in the official transcript — occurred more than 10 times per day during press secretary Robert Gibbs's briefings.  But the laughter has been reduced by half in recent months: In the first six months of the Obama administration, briefings produced an average of 179 laughs per month. Over the past six months, the average has dropped down to 89.

VIDEO: In March 2009, President Obama called the AIG bonuses an "outrage."

Obama interview on Tuesday with Bloomberg

In an interview with Bloomberg, Obama said he doesn't "begrudge" the $17 million bonus received by J.P. Morgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon or the $9 million pocketed by Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein.

Jordan is in advanced talks with the Obama administration to conclude a civilian nuclear-cooperation agreement with the U.S., according to Jordanian and U.S. officials.

The Obama administration announced Wednesday that it was freezing the assets of four subsidiary companies of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and a senior commander.

Government controlled mortgage finance company Freddie Mac said Wednesday it will buy back an unspecified amount of troubled loans contained in securities it has already sold to investors.

VIDEO: Michelle Obama- Does not have a read on Sarah Palin

The Pentagon's new four-year strategy review seeks to advance the Obama administration's effort to make climate change a key element of its domestic and international policies.

Clean Air Interstate Rule

Clean Air Mercury Rule

The EPA will roll out two strict air pollution rules in the coming months, encompassing factories as well as utilities. The first, a Clean Air Interstate Rule, will impose tighter caps on emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide. The latter, a Clean Air Mercury Rule will require plants to install cutting-edge pollution control technology. Both replace regulations set by President Bush’s EPA and subsequently overturned by court rulings.

"The List" for 2/9/2010

Columbus has spent about $1.9 million to buy 150 homes with federal money designed to shore up city neighborhoods ravaged by foreclosures and vacant housing.The city bought the houses in Linden, Franklinton and the Hilltop and on the South Side. Purchase prices averaged about $12,666

VIDEO: Obama- supporter..."She insisted she's gonna be buried in an Obama T-shirt"

VIDEO: Obama- Public has soured on the process of reforming health care, contaminates how they look at the bill

Obama;s nomination of leftist radical labor union associated Craig Becker has failed in the US senate.

VIDEO: Obama makes rare appearance in the White House briefing room.  Reads from prepared notes on podium. First press conference of any kind since June of '09

VIDEO: W.H. Spokesman Gibbs mocking Sarah Palin

The White House joins in mockery of Sarah Palin.  Spokesman Robert Gibbs shows written words on his hands at a White House press conference "Hope" and "Change"

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a division of the National Institutes of Health, is giving Dr. Lynn Fiellin, an assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine, $3.9 million over five years to develop a video game to teach “sex, drug and alcohol negotiation and refusal skills" to children 9-14 years of age.

President Obama said Tuesday that he's "bent over backwards" to engage Iran in "constructive" dialogue and the U.S. will push in the United Nations to sanction the country, which has begun enriching uranium to levels capable of making an atomic bomb.

In his fiscal 2011 budget, President Barack Obama makes further cuts in funding for the District of Columbia's Opportunity Scholarship Program for low-income, mostly minority students. 

The Obama administration has announced intentions to create a new federal office called the "Climate Service" to track global warming, with six regional offices

VIDEO: First lady Michelle Obama says President Barack Obama "has done a phenomenal job," but that people have a right to criticize him.

The Dept. of Homeland Security admitted today that it improperly conducted a threat assessment on pro-life and pro-abortion groups in Wisconsin.

John Brennan's oped in USA Today

In an oped in USA Today, John Brennan -- Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism -- responds to critics of the Obama administration's counterterrorism policies by saying "Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda."

"The List" for 2/8/2010

Drillgate: Obama Secretary of the Interior covers up administration's attempt to squash oil drilling in the US while telling the public they would do more.

Obama, Frank Marshall and Earl Durham communist origins

Census Bureau spends $2.5 million on advertisement

The Obama administration will ask Congress to improve childhood nutrition by ridding school vending machines of sugary snacks and drinks and giving school lunch and breakfast to more kids.

Obama bows to the leader of the Ukraine

Obama's recently submitted 2011 Budget includes a proposal to allow the United States Mint greater flexibility in the material composition of coins for the purpose of reducing production costs.

First Lady Michelle Obama is planning an elaborate unveiling on Tuesday of the anti-childhood obesity drive she is leading. Mrs. Obama's East Wing said she will be "joined by members of the president's cabinet, as well as media, sports, entertainment, and business leaders," plus mayors, member of the medical community and others at the White House event. On Tuesday evening, Mrs. Obama will sit down with CNN's Larry King for an interview about obesity and her first year as first lady. She will take questions from viewers.

VIDEO: Katie Couric asking President Obama in a Pre-Super Bowl Interview if Democrats are going to "get their clock cleaned" in this year's Mid-term Elections.

Obama hasn't held a full-scale news conference since July. Instead, he answered a dozen people's questions last week on YouTube. Journalists express frustration

"The List" for 2/7/2010

President Obama is planning to host a televised meeting with Republican and Democratic congressional leaders on health care reform. The Feb. 25 meeting is an attempt to reach across the aisle but not a signal that the president plans to start over, as Republicans have demanded, a White House official said.

Republicans immediately took umbrage at Brennan's comments, saying they were not told of any decision to read Miranda rights to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the attacker.

White House: Top GOP leaders did not object to reading accused Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab his rights

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said he is unhappy about the change in American policy toward settlement construction.
In an interview published Sunday by Der Spiegel, Abbas told the German magazine he would not change his position and would not agree to resuming negotiations unless Israel completely halts construction in West Bank settlements and recognizes the 1967 borders. PA president: Obama should use his power to pressure Israel on settlements.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says the U.S. government "will never" lose its sterling credit rating despite big budget deficits and a newly increased debt limit that now tops $14 trillion.

President Obamba's top counterterrorism adviser said Sunday that lawmakers and others are using national security to score political points and defended the handling of the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner.  Deputy national security adviser John Brennan complained that politicians, many of them Republicans, were unfairly criticizing the administration for partisan purposes and second-guessing the case with a "500-mile screwdriver" that reaches from Washington to the scene of the abortive attack in Detroit.

"The List" for 2/6/2010

Four time shuttle astronaut, Tom Jones, rips Obama plans for NASA in Popular Mechanics

The United States Treasury has taken all but one member of Hamas off the international list of terrorists, thus enabling funds from the European Union to enter Hamas-controlled Gaza. United States will to Donate $40 Million to UNRWA

Justice Samuel Alito shook his head and mouthed the words "not true" during President Barack Obama's State of the Union address because he objected to the president's saying the ruling reversed a century of law.

"The List" for 2/5/2010

The White House Superbowl party to feature approximately 40 Democrats.......with one Republican

Katie Couric, who's been in the news already today, will interview President Obama live during Sunday's Super Bowl pre-game show, according to the network.

Tennessee state Senate speaker and gubernatorial candidate Ron Ramsey has joined the growing ranks of officials and prominent commentators who say they are unsure of whether President Barack Obama is a U.S. citizen.

Attorney General Eric Holder's decision not to use a military commission to bring 9/11 suspects to justice has driven a wedge between him and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, whose opposition is grounded in politics, according to the New Yorker.

VIDEO: Obama reads "Corpsman" as "Corpse Man".... Twice

Obama acknowledges that Obamacare may die

The Obama administration issued a new order for the U.S. military requiring all military hospitials and health centers to stock the morning after pill

Michelle Obama draws criticism for using her daughters to discuss obesity to promote school food programs

 Obama's Fifty Fourth Week in Office

Latest Additions to "The List"

"The List" for 2/4/2010

Obama's pick for Labor post- New York State Labor Chief, Patricia Smith is confirmed to Federal post before Scott Brown can be seated.  Fears over her Union connections kept her from being confirmed for three months

The Obama administration's plan to outsource U.S. manned space programs ran into turbulence during its initial congressional hearing Wednesday, with lawmakers complaining that it seeks to kill current exploration plans without offering specific commercial substitutes.  During a House Science subcommittee hearing, both Democrats and Republicans blasted the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's proposed $19 billion spending blueprint on policy and safety grounds. Similar criticism has come from several senators.

The Pentagon for the first time will require military bases worldwide to offer emergency contraception or the so-called morning-after pill, a military spokeswoman said Thursday.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he did not “have the timeline” and therefore did not know at Thurday's press briefing whether President Barack Obama knew in advance on Christmas Day that Miranda rights were going to be read that day to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the terrorist who tried to detonate a bomb on Northwest Flight 253.

The ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., dismissed the White House’s call for him to apologize for alleging that the administration leaked information about Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab for political reasons.  "After telling me to keep my mouth shut, the White House discloses sensitive information in an effort to defend a dangerous and unpopular decision to Mirandize Abdulmutallab and I’m supposed to apologize?" Sen. Bond said in a paper statement today.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Thursday afternoon said that the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., owes people in the White House and in law enforcement an apology for alleging in a recent letter that the administration -- for political reasons -- leaked information it shouldn't have shared about Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab.

General Eric Holder's five-page letter to Senator Mitch McConnell.  Holder lays out in exhaustive detail exactly why these folks deserve Miranda rights and why his Justice Department will treat them like a shoplifter down the block

In an interview with 60 Minutes last spring, President Obama discussed the handling of captured terrorists and challenged those who claimed the "American system of justice was not up to the task of dealing with these terrorists

More information on Dawn Johnson

Obama dominates radical feminist and terrorist rights advocate Dawn Johnson to lead the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel

Obama: "Every economist" says I saved or created 2 million jobs

VIDEO: Obama jokes about questioning his faith or citizenship

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh on Wednesday reported that a senior Syrian official told him Damascus has renewed intelligence-sharing efforts with the United States and Britain after a special request was made by U.S. president Barack Obama.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel apologized again Wednesday for using the word "retarded" during a private meeting last summer, telling advocates for the disabled that he will join their campaign to help end the use of the word.

"The List" for 2/3/2010

Religious leaders worry that Obama's Faith Council is just for show.  Critics say that the faith-based office isn't enough of a priority at the White House and that faith leaders who were consulted regularly during the campaign are now simply copied on pro-forma e-mails.

Deep in the president's budget released Monday—in Table S-8 on page 161—appear a set of proposals headed "Reform U.S. International Tax System." If these proposals are enacted, U.S.-based multinational firms will face $122.2 billion in tax increases over the next decade.

SIEU Fat-Cats behind first lady Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign.  There are 400,000 workers who prepare and serve lunch to American schoolchildren. SEIU represents tens of thousands of those workers and is trying to unionize many more. "More robust expansion" of the federal school-lunch law means a mandate for higher wages, increased benefits and government-guaranteed health insurance coverage

Obama released his FY 2011 budget on Monday and it contains provisions that will force Americans to pay for abortions in the United States and promoting abortion abroad.

Obama told congressional leaders Wednesday that he would keep North Korea off of a list of state sponsors of terror

Obama on Wednesday blasted Senate Republicans for using "holds," a tactic that delays considering nominees -- even though as a senator he used the technique to block several of President George W. Bush's appointments

Obama is the worst Jobs president since Roosevet: More than 4.1 million people lost their jobs in 2009

Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday rebuffed criticism that intelligence was lost by giving a Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a U.S. airliner a lawyer and other legal rights.

Attorney General Eric Holder said that he made the decision to charge the Christmas Day terror suspect in the U.S. civilian system

VIDEO: Obama, "I'm a big believer in Net Nuetrality"

The Obama administration is delaying an upgrade project for Israel's military on the grounds that it could be deployed against Palestinian militants.  The sources said the delay of the Apache project stemmed from the White House's concern that Israel was rebuilding its military for another war. Sources said that Obama was dismayed by the widespread use of the Apache and other U.S. platforms during the January 2009 war with the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.

VIDEO: Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman lambasted Obama after Obama made a reference to his city in a speech demanding better fiscal discipline earlier in the day.

Harry Knox, who serves on Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, is standing by a statement he made last March that Pope Benedict XVI is "hurting people in the name of Jesus."

Two congressional members from Missouri said Tuesday that they plan to file legislation blocking the Environmental Protection Agency from developing its own greenhouse gas rules.  U.S. Reps. Ike Skelton, a Democrat, and Jo Ann Emerson, a Republican, sharply criticized federal environmental regulators and warned that because EPA officials are not elected, the agency is not accountable to the farmers, business owners and other Missouri residents who could be hurt.

Obama said for the first time Tuesday that legislation that would require industries to pay for emissions of greenhouse gases may need to be separated from a more popular "green jobs" bill in the Senate, a maneuver that could kill what once had been one of the administration's top policy priorities.

Just a few days ago the Obama administration claimed that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the al Qaeda soldier accused of trying to blow up a Northwest Airlines jet had given up everything he knows. Now, they claim he is giving them fresh, useful intelligence.  The administration's new position seems to be a direct response to bipartisan criticism of the handling of Abdulmutallab.

"The List" for 2/2/2010

Obama's decision to skip a United States-European Union summit meeting scheduled for Madrid in May has predictably upset European officials, who suggested Tuesday that the summit meeting itself would now be postponed, possibly to the autumn.

The second-ranking House Democrat signaled Tuesday that the White House is reconsidering a plan to move Guantanamo detainees to a prison in northwest Illinois. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said he agrees that the Obama administration should reassess the plan to move terrorist suspects from the Cuba military base to Thomson Correctional Facility in the state’s northwest corner.

Obama admitted today that his closed-door meetings on health care with Democratic congressional leaders should have been televised on C-SPAN and he said he would keep his campaign promise for more open negotations the next time around.

VIDEO: Obama- "This is the most transparent administration in the modern era"

VIDEO: Obama bashes Las Vegas again

Obama took another swipe at cash-strapped Las Vegas today at a speech in New Hampshire.  Obama said that people should now "blow a bunch of cash in Vegas" during a tough recession

The Obama administration wants to extend the life of several Recovery Act provisions by building them into the federal budget. Obama's 3.8 Trillion budget calls for giving states more money for Medicaid and infrastructure projects, as well as renewing tax breaks for workers, small businesses and municipalities issuing bonds. It also requests additional funding for Obama's educational reform initiative. -All these were key provisions in the $862 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Obama's back door middle class taxes story that was scrubbed from Yahoo...

Obama and Budget Director Peter Orszag have thrown transparency out the window and created a black box for taxes and spending on climate change  hidden inside the administration's 2011 budget.  The budget actually has, literally, a blank line for the cap-and-trade tax. A black box. A slush fund. A secret budget-within-the-budget.

Obama is making the current era distinctly different from the Great Depression: He is spending vastly more money than Roosevelt did. FDR never spent more than 12.0 percent of the GDP.  In 1938, FDR spent as little as 7.7 percent of GDP.  According to the budget tables released by the White House Monday, Obama will spend 25.4 percent, 25.1 percent and 23.2 percent in the three years remaining in his term.

The $8 billion in stimulus cash awarded to 13 high-speed rail corridors across the country may seem like a windfall, but there's a catch. The money isn't enough to finish any of the major projects.  State coffers are dry and federal spending is being cut back. So, it's unclear who will pay the rest of the multi-billion dollar bill.

White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel apologized to the head of the Special Olympics today after the Wall Street Journal reported the fiery Chicagoan privately called a group of liberal activists "f---ing retarded."

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is calling on the White House to fire Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for using the word "retarded" in a recent strategy session. In a posting on her Facebook page Monday, Palin blasted Emanuel for calling an idea from some of President Obama's supporters "f---ing retarded" during an August meeting with liberal groups and White House aides.

ACORN and other left-wing advocacy groups could be eligible for up to $3.99 billion in federal funding included in the $3.83 trillion fiscal 2011 budget blueprint that President Obama unveiled yesterday.

Bush administration lawyers whose secret memos justified waterboarding and other forms of torture will not be referred to authorities for possible sanctions, according to a forthcoming ethics report. The Obama Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) has concluded that John Yoo and Jay Bybee, who penned the infamous memos, used “poor judgment” but will not be subject to disciplinary action.

VIDEO: Original Obama pledge not to raise taxes on those who earn less than $250,000 a year

Obama breaks pledge not to raise taxes on income earners who earn less than $250,000 per year in a "sneaky way"

"The List" for 2/1/2010

Obama's budget seeks $2 Trillion more in spending and deficits than last year

The federal government announced on Monday that it would reimburse American hospitals who treat Haitian  earthquake victims with life-threatening injuries, making it possible for more hospitals in states outside Florida to consider taking those patients.

U.S. Attorney steps down from the O'keefe case.  James O'Keefe, accused of trying to tamper with the phones of Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, was "framed" by the media and the U.S. attorney's office, Andrew Breitbart, publisher of BigGovernment.com, told Fox News Monday. Jim Letten, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana, recused himself from the case. The Department of Justice announced the change in a news release Monday night, but did not say why Letten wanted off the case. "James O'Keefe sat in jail for 28 hours without access to an attorney, while the U.S. attorney leaked the information about his arrest, helping the media frame it as 'Watergate Junior,'" Breitbart said.

Ed Shultz on visiting the White House, "It's almost a shrine to Obama"

The Pentagon will withhold 614 million dollars in fees from Lockheed Martin over cost overruns and delays in the F-35 fighter jet program, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Monday.

Obama’s efforts to bolster the U.S. housing market, the trigger of the worst recession since the 1930s, may be undone by record unemployment and repossessions by lenders.  Foreclosures probably will reach 3 million this year, surpassing the record of 2.82 million in 2009, according to Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac Inc. That would more than offset an estimated 448,000-unit rise in home sales, based on the average forecast of the National Association of Realtors, the Mortgage Bankers Association and Fannie Mae.

The White House fiscal year 2011 budget plan seeks a 53 percent boost in Energy Department wind power R&D to support new efforts to tap massive offshore wind resources. The White House is requesting $123 million for DoE’s wind program, a $43 million increase over current spending. The funding includes $49 million for several activities to support coastal wind power

Virginia Senate passes measure to ban health insurance madates by the Federal Government

Wall Street Journal calls Obama deficit a "national security threat"

The Obama administration proposed to increase taxes on Americans earning more than $200,000 by close to $970 billion over the next decade and take in an additional $400 billion from businesses even as it retooled a proposed crackdown on international tax-avoidance techniques. The new budget released today would reinstate 10-year-old income tax rates of 36 percent and 39.6 percent for single Americans earning more than $200,000 and joint filers who make more than $250,000 as part of a broad $1.9 trillion tax increase proposal. It proposes to eliminate preferences for oil and gas companies, life-insurance products, executives of investment partnerships, and U.S.-based companies that operate overseas

The Justice Department is investigating whether security contractor Blackwater Worldwide tried to bribe Iraqi officials to allow the company to keep working there after a fatal shooting involving Blackwater guards, according to a person close to the investigation.

Federal prosecutors are reviewing a request for an investigation into whether Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), violated the Lobbying Disclosure Act for his frequent visits to the White House and with members of Congress in 2009.

Obama says his new $3.83 trillion budget is filled with "investments we must make" to boost employment and solidify the economy.

$54 million in federal stimulus money is going to the California Wine Train. Sixteen times a week, the Wine Train transports tourists from Napa to St. Helena aboard restored dining cars. A champagne dinner costs $129. About 125,000 people ride the train each year. According to a report issued by Suulutaag last year, the number of jobs they’ve created on the project so far: 12. That works out to $4.5 million stimulus fund tax dollars per job created.

VIDEO: Obama looks like he bows to the mayor of Tampa

Obama never set up his unit of "High Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG), proposed back in August of 2009.  No agency was ever set up to interrogate the Detroit airline underwear bomber

VIDEO: Fact check on the State of the Union Speech- 16 lies in 7 minutes

The additional tax cuts and public works spending that President Obama has proposed to spur job creation would add $100 billion to this year’s deficit, bringing it to nearly $1.6 trillion, according to an administration official.

The White House says that the Obama administration's economic stimulus program created nearly 600,000 jobs in the final three months of 2009.   This figure is in line with the administration's goals for job creation through the end of 2010, and was reported by the White House reported  on Saturday night. The new total was down from the totals reported for the previous quarter, partly because the administration decided in December to count only the jobs paid for with stimulus funding instead of estimating the number of jobs "created or saved" with the money.

"The List" for 1/31/2010

The Obama administration has quietly moved to cede control of the web from the United States to foreign powers. Just this past spring within months of Obama taking office, his administration, through the Department of Commerce, agreed to relinquish some control over IANA and their governance. The Obama Administration has agreed to give greater representation to foreign companies and countries on IANA.  The IANA is responsible for the global coordination of the DNS, IP addressing and other Internet protocol resources.

Anger, frustration and a hunger for revenge are running high among  US marines as casualties mount on the frontline of the battle against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan

Obama to field questions frm Youtube users

The Obama administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of President Bush’s signature education law, No Child Left Behind, and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination of the law’s 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency.  Under the administration’s new proposals, are a new accountability system that would divide schools into more categories, offering recognition to those that are succeeding and providing large new sums of money to help improve or close failing schools.

The White House will predict a record budget deficit in the current fiscal year and more big shortfalls for the next decade in its upcoming budget proposal, a congressional source told Reuters on Sunday

The Obama State Dept. admits No-Bid contract was a violation of an Obama campaign pledge.  The recent awarding of a lucrative federal contract to a company owned by a financial contributor to the Obama presidential campaign -- without competitive bidding -- "violates" President Obama's many campaign pledges to crack down on the practice, a top State Department official told Fox News.

Top White House adviser David Axelrod believes the U.S. government properly handled the Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, despite the fact that Abdulmutallab stopped talking to interrogators after having had Miranda rights read to him.  In an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, Axelrod was asked about the decision to read Abdulmutallab his rights after just 50 minutes of interrogation.  "We have not lost anything as a result of how this case has been handled," Axelrod said.  

VIDEO: Obama Senior Adviser David Axelrod saying on Meet the Press today that he believes it was "totally appropriate" for President Obama to criticize the Supreme Court during his State of the Union Address, with them sitting right in front of them

VIDEO: White House, "One vote away from making health care a reality'

Six months after Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S commander in Afghanistan, issued a tactical directive urging troops to walk away from a fight rather than risk killing civilians, the Air Force is engaging in a campaign of restraint. Instead of airstrikes, airmen increasingly are searching for places they can drop bombs that can be heard and felt, but where they're unlikely to damage buildings or hurt people.

Article from "The Hill" reporting that the Senate Health Committee reached deal- contradiciting Obama's words to the House Republicans at their retreat

The Hill is reporting that Senator Tom Harkin, chairman of the Senate Health Committee, stated that negotiators from the White House, Senate and House reached a final deal on healthcare reform days before Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts.  If Harkin is telling the truth, then that would mean President Obama is lying because at the GOP retreat, Obama stated that there were some “stray cats and dogs” in the legislation.
 

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday that the despite reports of mulling new locations to try 9/11 terrorism suspects, the administration still very much wants Khalid Sheikh Mohammed tried in New York City

Obama outreach organization, Organizing for America, is accused of radical indoctination in high schools. School reading list includes "Rules for Radicals" and other extremist literature.

The U.S. is concerned that the continued flow of arms to the Hezbollah militant organization could prompt a war between Israel and Lebanon, State Department official Jeff Feltman said in remarks published Sunday by the London-based Al-Hayat daily.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs declined several opportunities on Sunday to say whether Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be tried in a federal or military court.

Accused Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be tried and convicted and is likely to be executed, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Sunday.

The Obama freeze is projected to "save" $15 billion from expected spending next year. This is not a cut of $15 billion in existing spending, but only a decision not to raise spending (to match inflation) on certain accounts. Those accounts supposedly are to be frozen for the following two years as well, but they are being frozen only after a decade-long spending orgy that included an 8.2 percent increase in domestic discretionary spending this year. And they don't apply to any new purported jobs bill or to any other new item on the president's priority list.

VIDEO:  It only took 4 days, or 96 hours or so, for Obama to waffle on his budget promises from the State of the Union.  The White House on Monday will propose a 2011 budget…that is a 6$ increase over 2010

The U.S. taxpayer-funded rescue program set up to save banks from collapse during the financial crisis makes future reckless behavior more likely, the government's bailout watchdog said in a quarterly report. A quarterly report to Congress on the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, made available in draft form late on Saturday, said financial firms seen as too big to fail before 2008 have only grown larger as they feasted on subsidies from the bailout program.

The 700-billion-dollar US government effort to rescue the financial system has failed to meet key goals such as sparking lending and curbing risky activities by banks, a special auditor said Sunday.

The Obama administration is arming Gulf States to be able to defend against an Iranian attack while delaying a push for tough sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced his department's long-awaited commission to address nuclear waste.

"The List" for 1/30/2010

In a rare display of bipartisanship, a top House Democrat agreed to back a Republican lawmaker's quest for details of closed-door deals the White House made with industry insiders to produce a healthcare reform bill.

Obama will propose cutting or changing some 120 items in his budget for fiscal 2011 that will help save $20 billion this year, the White House said on Saturday.  

Obama will propose making a popular stimulus bond program permanent and expanding its use in the budget plan he presents on Monday, a U.S. Treasury Department official said on Saturday.

Obama will send a nearly $4 trillion budget to Congress for the coming fiscal year, according to The New York Times.

Obama is planning to increase spending on America's nuclear weapons stockpile just days after pledging to try to rid the world of them.  In his budget to be announced on Monday, Mr Obama has allocated £4.3billion to  maintain the U.S. arsenal - £370million more than George Bush spent on nuclear weapons in his final year

VIDEO:  Obama comments on college basketball- "Gregg Clark, the best colored man in college basketball"

With a headset on, Obama does commentary on a basketball game on TV

VIDEO: Obama admits that Obamacare would come between you and your doctor- ...we said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your -- if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you're not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge."

Obama tells House Republicans that the health care legislation would have violated the White House pledge to patients

Obama Justice Dept. goes after college football.  The Obama administration is considering several steps that would review the legality of the controversial Bowl Championship Series

The United States military has stopped evacuations of critically ill patients from Haiti to Florida until it is resolved who will pay for the treatment.  The New York Times reported Saturday the evacuations were suspended Wednesday after Florida Gov. Charlie Crist asked the federal government to help pay for care.

Obama is skipping an annual rite of passage for Washington's movers and shakers: the exclusive Alfalfa Club dinner on Saturday night.

The United States said on Friday it will restart aid to impoverished Honduras after toppled President Manuel Zelaya flew into exile and the country swore in a new leader, ending a long political crisis.

"The List" for 1/29/2010

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said today that Hurricane Katrina was “the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans” because it gave the city a chance to rebuild and improve its failing public schools.

The Obama administration has abandoned its plan to put Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, on trial in Lower Manhattan, according to administration officials.

The United States Commission on Civil Rights (CRC) announced that it will hold a public hearing on February 12, 2010, regarding the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case. Its purpose is to collect information within the jurisdiction of the Commission related particularly to the Department of Justice's actions in the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) and enforcement of Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act.

While Obama attacked the Supreme Court in his State of the Union speech, his own 2008 campaign had numerous donations from questionable sources

Obama is accusing Republicans of portraying health care overhaul legislation as a "Bolshevik plot."

VIDEO: Complete video of the Q & A session President Obama had with members of the House GOP Conference today meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.

VIDEO:."Obama: Health Care Bill "Might Have Violated Pledge" On Keeping Some Doctors And Insurers

Obama spars with Republicans at a Republican event for 90 minutes

VIDEO: Angry Obama to Republicans at a Republican even "I am not an Ideologue"

VIDEO: Obama draws laughs from the senate after saying: "Overwhelming evidence on climate chante"

VIDEO: Obama gaffe- "The middle east is an issue that has plagued the region for centuries"

Obama plans to eliminate the space program's manned moon missions.

Obama attacks lobbyists 7 times in his State of the Union speech, then invites them to private meetings the day after the speech

 The Obama administration wants to close a “loophole” in the 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) that allows individuals to avoid registering as lobbyists if they spend less than 20 percent of their time lobbying.

"The List" for 1/28/2010

VIDEO: Obama mistakes a quote from the Declaration of Independence for the Constitution-  "We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we are all created equal..."

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's coalition partners are preventing him from going as far as he would like to in peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, US President Barack Obama said Thursday.  Obama was speaking at a town hall meeting in Tampa, Florida. Answering a question on the subject, he explained to the audience that the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority are both being held back by more extremist elements in their nations.

The Pentagon will unveil steps next week that the military will take to lay the ground for a repeal of its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which permits gays to serve in uniform as long they hide their sexual orientation, officials said on Thursday.

White House officials have told the Justice Department to consider other venues for the 9/11 terror trial that was to be held in lower Manhattan

The White House opposes funding a health bill for the victims of 9/11

The Justice Department is withholding documents under terms of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In so doing, the department is asserting privileges that do not exist or do not apply. Ironic as it may sound, Justice seems to be breaking the law.  The Washington Times' FOIA request asked for documents pertaining to the department's controversial decision to dismiss a civil complaint accusing the New Black Panther Party of intimidating Philadelphia voters on Election Day 2008. In response, the department said it would withhold 69 documents totaling 135 pages, including interdepartmental e-mails, drafts of court filings and briefing materials. The department claimed that "deliberative process" and "attorney work-product" privileges exempted the material from disclosure.

10 "Whoppers' in Obama State of the Union Address pointed out by the Associated Press

The Obama FCC FCC opens a new front in their attack on broadcast television.  Stuart Benjamin, has been appointed as a key advisor on "spectrum policy and the First Amendment."  Much of Mr. Benjamin's academic research has been devoted to spectrum issues, but it appears that his spectrum knowledge is being used to further the FCC agenda to eliminate free broadcast television:  Benjamin recommends the FCC impose onerous "broadcast regulations that seem undesirable on their own terms but that may result in such harms to broadcasting that broadcasting leaves the [radio-TV] spectrum."

The Obama administration on Wednesday lost its most prominent backer of the plan to try the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks in Lower Manhattan when Mayor Bloomberg said the trial should not be held in New York City.

Obama Tobacco tax costs 500 jobs in Florida.  In a decision that Altadis USA directly attributed to the SCHIP tobacco tax hike, the Hav-A-Tampa factory, which began producing cigars in 1902, made its last cigar and closed its doors in July of last year. The move left around 500 employees without jobs.

Senator Barack Obama received a $101,332 bonus from American International Group in the form of political contributions according to Opensecrets.org

Top Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee publicly reprimanded Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano today for failing to show up at a hearing where the committee examined the attempted Christmas Day suicide bombing of Northwest Flight 253

The individual responsible for the naming convention of the presidential imagery of Obama on the official White House website has literally “given” hero status to the photo

Deputy White House press secretary Bill Burton told reporters on Air Force One that the Obama administration is not backing off its plans to try accused Sept. 11 conspirator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a New York City courtroom

About an hour after the end of his State of the Union address, in which he called for an end to the partisan conflict that has plagued his first year in office, President Obama sent out a political fundraising appeal through his permanent campaign organization, Organizing for America.

Obama's pick to help oversee U.S. export controls for the Commerce Department is a lawyer and political supporter who has been providing export advice to Fortune 500 companies such as arms manufacturer Raytheon and aerospace giant Boeing.   His recent legal work effectively appears to bar him from potential matters involving dozens of companies. Mr. Obama's ethics rules, described by the White House as "the toughest of any administration in history," prohibit political appointees such as Mr. Wolf from "particular matters" involving former employers or clients.

 Obama's Fifty Third Week in Office

"The List" for 1/27/2010

VIDEO: Rahm Emanuel, "Look, we were involved in the legislation all the way through."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is missing President Barack Obama's State of the Union address in order to attend a conference in London

VIDEO: David Axelrod says the President will seek repeal of "don't ask, don't tell.

The United States has set preliminary anti-dumping duties ranging from 90 to nearly 175 percent on about $30 million worth of electric blankets from China, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Wednesday.

House Democrats have headed off a wide-ranging request by Republicans for documents on private meetings  White House officials had last year with doctors and other medical providers as health care legislation was being prepared.

Michelle Obama invites 25 people to the State of the Union address

VIDEO: Obama makes speech in Ohio and mentions himself 132 times

Ecomomist Laffer: “Obama is a fine, very impressive person. He really is. Unfortunately, everything that he is doing in economics is exactly wrong.

Obama will give $8 billion in economic stimulus money to 13 U.S. rail corridors, mostly for high-speed passenger service

Bankers of the world unite against Obama and potential new world regulations in Davos

Ohio is spending $1 million of stimulus money on road signs to advertise the use of stimulus money for road projects.

NASA's plans to return astronauts to the moon are dead. So are the rockets being designed to take them there — that is, if President Barack Obama gets his way.  When the White House releases his budget proposal Monday, there will be no money for the Constellation program that was supposed to return humans to the moon by 2020.

Obama is to freeze salaries of senior White House officials and other top political appointees, a senior administration official said on Tuesday.

The total deficit for the first three months of the 2009 fiscal year to $485.2 billion. By comparison, the budget deficit for all of fiscal year 2008 was $455 billion

"The List" for 1/26/2010

White House lawyers are mulling the legality of proposed attempts to kill an American citizen, Anwar al Awlaki, who is believed to be part of the leadership of the al Qaeda group in Yemen behind a series of terror strikes, according to two people briefed by U.S. intelligence officials.  One of the people briefed said opportunities to "take out" Awlaki "may have been missed" because of the legal questions surrounding a lethal attack which would specifically target an American citizen.

VIDEO: Obama gave a "shout out" before his comments on the Fort Hood massacre

Michelle Obama's guests at the State of the Union Wednesday will include Fort Hood heroes Sgt. Kimberly Munley and Sgt. Mark Todd

Attorney General Holder's remarks directly contradict NYPD's Kelly on the NYC terror trials. Kelly said that the police were never consulted and Holder said they were under oath.  Video at site of Holder's testimony.

First lady Michelle Obama said Tuesday the president's 2011 budget will include a record $8.8 billion to support military families.

Obama donor gets sweetheart business deal as payback in Chicago

The $787 billion federal stimulus package passed by Congress last year is now expected to cost $862 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

VIDEO: President Obama uses two teleprompters to address the Middle Class Tax Force, which is made up of about two dozen people.

Obama uses teleprompter for a ten person meeting

VIDEO: 9/11 Commissioner: Obama doesn't have a firm grasp yet of the intelligence community

VIDEO: No less than four times during the presidential debates did President Obama actively campaign against an across the board spending freeze.

VIDEO: Mark Halperin on The Charlie Rose Show yesterday where he actually said that a "thin-skinned" President Barack Obama "increasingly says that "the Press is against me.""

For the fourth time in a row, the Treasury has sold off short-term billsbearing no yields at all.

The Senate rejected a plan backed by President Barack Obama to create a bipartisan task force to tackle the federal deficit this year despite glaring new figures showing the enormity of the red-ink threat.

Obama’s first two years in office will boast the two biggest annual federal budget deficits since World War II, when measured as a share of GDP, says the Congressional Budget Office.
 

White House Chief of Staff Rep. Rahm Emanuel dodges questions about a middle class tax cut.- While appearing on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” , Emanuel said that the president plans to push forward with his plans for middle class tax relief while remaining mum on Obama’s plans to raise taxes on upper-income Americans.

The special inspector general for the government's $ 700 billion Wall Street rescue plan is opening a pair of probes into the government's rescue of  American International Group Inc. (AIG), including efforts to slow public disclosure of all of the terms of the deal. Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky disclosed the existence of the investigations in testimony prepared for a Wednesday hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

VIDEO: Newsweeks's Evan Thomas: "The chance Obama missed -- he really had a chance -- a lot of people saying 'okay, you're gonna change government.' He was not fundamentally honest.

The latest congressional budget estimates due Tuesday predict a $1.35 trillion deficit for this year

"The List" for 1/25/2010

Obama supporters are flooding unsuspecting newspapers with pro-Obama letters purportedly from average citizens – with duplicate messages appearing in more than 70 publications across the nation.

Obama's ' freeze" would shave no more than $15 billion off next year's budget - barely denting a deficit projected to exceed $1 trillion for the third year in a row

Facing voter anger over mounting budget deficits, President Obama will ask Congress to freeze spending for some domestic programs for three years beginning in 2011, administration officials said Monday. Separately, Obama unveiled plans to help a middle class "under assault" pay its bills, save for retirement and care for kids and aging parents. The spending freeze would apply to a relatively small portion of the federal budget, affecting a $477 billion pot of money available for domestic agencies whose budgets are approved by Congress each year. Some of those agencies could get increases, others would have to face cuts; such programs got an almost 10 percent increase this year. The federal budget total was $3.5 trillion.

Tesla Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy on Thursday finalized a landmark $465 million loan agreement that will allow the electric car maker to build a power train manufacturing plant in Palo Alto.

White House press secretary Gibbs and talk show host, Ed Shultz, cuss at each other

Tim Geithner: "The economy is healing. It's growing. It's more broad based."

VIDEO: Obama " created about 2 million jobs so far.... 7 million jobs lost"

VIDEO: President Obama invokes the word "infectious" when talking about Magic Johnson.

Declaring America's middle class is "under assault," President Obama unveiled plans that won't create jobs.   Obama: they could "re-establish some of the security that's slipped away."

The Treasury Department has been scrambling to figure out what to say about the new proposals unveiled by Barack Obama last week limiting the size and scope of banks.  The Treasury Department has been fielding questions from bankers and journalists about the new regulations—but so far has not been able or willing to provide much information

Three detainees held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have been moved to Slovakia, the U.S. Justice Department said on Monday, the latest transfers as the Obama administration tries to close the facility.

How David Axelrod's recent astroturf campaign works

VIDEO: From a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, MI on October 2, 2008: "I will finally end the abuse of no-bid contracts once and for all. The days of sweetheart deals for Halliburton and the like will be over when I'm in the White House."

The Obama administration this month awarded a $25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan to a company owned by a prominent Democratic campaign contributor without entertaining competitive bids- The contract, awarded on Jan. 4 to Checchi & Company Consulting, Inc., a Washington-based firm owned by economist and Democratic donor Vincent V. Checchi, will pay the firm $24,673,427 to provide "rule of law stabilization services" in war-torn Afghanistan. 

 Obama is offering new initiatives meant to help people pay bills and save for retirement. Obama was ready to announce the new steps Monday in a partial preview of his State of the Union address. The proposals to be unveiled by Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the White House include a doubling of the child care tax credit for families earning under $85,000; a $1.6 billion increase in federal funding for child care programs and a program to cap student loan payments at 10 percent of income above "a basic living allowance." His initiatives also include expanding tax credits to match retirement savings and increasing aid for families taking care of elderly relatives. That program would also require all employers to provide the option of a workplace-based retirement savings plan.

PICTURE: Obama uses a teleprompter in a speech at an elementary school

"The List" for 1/24/2010

The White House is not disputing a report that FBI agents questioned accused Northwest Airlines bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab for just 50 minutes before deciding to grant him the right to remain silent and provide him with a court-appointed lawyer -- a decision that led Abdulmutallab to stop talking and provide no more information.

Obama formally endorsed legislation Saturday creating an independent commission with the power to force Congress to vote on major deficit reduction steps this year, but.....after the November elections

Photos:  Obama puts his feet up on the desk in the Oval office, tossing football inside the Oval Office, tossing football in the room outside the Oval Office, eating inside the Oval Office

White House advisers appearing on the Sunday talk shows gave three different estimates of how many jobs could be credited to President Obama’s Recovery Act. - Valerie Jarrett had the most conservative count, saying “the Recovery Act saved thousands and thousands of jobs,” while David Axelrod gave the bill the most credit, saying it has “created more than – or saved more than 2 million jobs.” Press Secretary Robert Gibbs came in between them, saying the plan had “saved or created 1.5 million jobs.”

VIDEO of Meet the Press moderator David Gregory today confronting Obama Adviser Valerie Jarrett about her claim that Obama has "turned the economy around."

Obama issues a special statement celebrating the 37th birthday of the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade abortion decision.

Rahm Emmanual made over 18 million in banking business in 1998

The White House rejected criticism Sunday that President Barack Obama has not delivered on his promise of "change" during his first year in office.   White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said the president has brought about "enormous change."

Following his early morning meeting with US envoy George Mitchell, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday that during their discussions, "new and interesting ideas" were raised for the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians.

Same day as meeting with US envoy Mitchell, Netanyahu speech: The settlements blocs of Ariel, Ma'aleh Adumim and Gush Etzion are an indisputable part of Israel

Chevron activists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Givir, who also serve as parliamentary aides to MK (Ichud HaLeumi) Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, have sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rom Emanuel suggesting he celebrate his son’s bar mitzvah elsewhere, not at the Kosel as reports indicate he plans to do.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs defends the decision to read the underwear bomber his rights- “The Department of Justice made the right decision, as did those FBI agents,”

"The List" for 1/23/2010

Obama gave 158 interviews and 411 speeches in his first year.

More than 900 car dealers nationwide have signed up to appeal decisions by General Motors Co. or Chrysler Group LLC to revoke their franchise agreements and shut them down

The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil's Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil's planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan. The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a "preliminary commitment" letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount. Ex-Im Bank says it has not decided whether the money will come in the form of a direct loan or loan guarantees.

The Justice Department has announced the release from Gitmo of a terrorist who conspired to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in the 2000 Millennium plot.  Hassan Zumiri, who was part of an al-Qaeda affiliated terror cell in Montreal, has been repatriated to his native Algeria — a country so rife with terrorists that it was recently placed on the list of 14 countries whose travelers warrant enhanced screening at airports.

Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday that the U.S. government would appeal a court decision that dismissed charges against five Blackwater employees stemming from a fatal shooting in Baghdad in 2007.

Obama launched an attack on the Supreme Court, saying a ruling on corporate donations to political campaigns this week "strikes at democracy itself."

Ellie Light sure gets around.  In recent weeks, Light has published virtually identical “Letters to the Editor” in support of President Barack Obama in more than a dozen newspapers.Every letter claimed a different residence for Light that happened to be in the newspaper’s circulation area.

Angry with the Obama administration's position on arch-rival India, Pakistan's Army has rejected a US request to launch a new offensive against the Taliban in the northern tribal belt.

"The List" for 1/22/2010

Obama called for new rules that he said would prevent a bank from becoming too big to fail, but Republicans said such legislation would only further harm the economy.  Obama’s proposal would prevent a financial institution – which would include banks and insurance companies – from owning, investing in, or sponsoring a hedge fund or a private equity fund that is not related to serving customers.

Obama,.Gates: the Taliban must participate in elections, not oppose education and not assassinate local officials.

All charges have been withdrawn in the military commissions against the five suspects in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks being held at Guantanamo Bay. The charges were dropped "without prejudice," according to the Defense Department -- a procedural move that allows federal officials to transfer the men to trial in a civilian court and also leaves the door open, if necessary, to bring charges again in military commissions.

Obama's plan to curb proprietary trading will cost Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse Group AG, UBS AG and Deutsche Bank AG about US$13 billion in revenue next year, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts.

Obama administration defends letting Muslim Brotherhood leader Tariq Ramadan, and terror supporter Adam Habib of South Africa into the U.S.-  Even though both remains on the U.S. Treasury Department’s list of organizations sanctioned for their links to terrorism. The Obama State Dept. cites "Muslim Outreach"

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released December's state-by-state unemployment data. It isn't pretty. Even though the national rate was unchanged last month, most states saw their unemployment rates worsen. 43 states and the District of Columbia saw their unemployment rates increase from November to December, many significantly. This is a major change-in-direction from November, when 36 states saw their unemployment rates decline.

VIDEO: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at NUSEUM Single Internet Cyber Freedom. "We stand for a single internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas.....this freedom is no longer defined by whether citizens can go into the town square and criticize their government without fear of retribution....blogs have created new targets for censorship....we must also work against those who use the internet as tools of disruption and fear."

The Obama administration attempt to overhaul the banking industry is the most far-reaching over-haul of Wall Street and the banking industry since 1930. The reforms could force the restructuring of some of the biggest names in US finance, including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

United States envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell arrived in the region this week in efforts to further press the Jewish state into relinquishing territory to the American-backed Palestinian Authority. According to PA sources quoted by the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Hayat, Mitchell is unveiling a five-point plan that will force local parties back to the negotiating table and press Israel to retreat back to the Armistice Line that existed between the Jewish state and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan between the years 1949 and 1967.

The nation's mayors delivered a clear message to President Obama: His economic stimulus program isn't creating enough jobs. "What we said ... was that the method they used for disbursing the first stimulus dollars was wrong," said new Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, one of more than 200 mayors who met with the president and other administration officials at the White House. "That approach just did not work."

NBC News has filed a formal complaint with the White House press office over the distribution of presidential interviews, specifically that several of the most recent broadcast TV interviews have gone to ABC News -- NBC is reportedly claiming that Greorge Stephanopoulos' friendship with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuelhas helped land the interviews.

"The List" for 1/21/2010

Under growing criticism from Capitol Hill, the Justice Department on Thursday defended its decision to interrogate and arrest the suspected Christmas Day bomber as a criminal rather than an enemy combatant, saying it got actionable intelligence from him and would continue to do so even as he faces a trial.

Obama administration officials were flabbergasted Wednesday when Director of National Intelligence Adm. Dennis Blair testified that an alleged Qaeda operative who tried to blow up a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day should have been questioned by a special interrogation unit that doesn't exist, rather than the FBI.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu today dismissed accusations of fraud in climate science generated by the release last year of hacked e-mails between researchers, saying e-mails showed "warts and bumps" in the scientific process.

All seven Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have signed a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder seeking to learn who made the decision to treat Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the accused Christmas Day terrorist bomber, as a criminal suspect rather than an enemy combatant.

The US Supreme Court Thursday lifted curbs on corporations spending millions of dollars to back election candidates.   President Barack Obama sharply condemned the 5-4 ruling as a huge victory for "big oil" Wall Street and health insurance firms which want to block his reform plans, but most Republicans praised it as a victory for free speech.

One year after President Obama took office, the administration’s top international religious freedom post remains empty- “President Obama has not yet named an ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom,” a State Department press officer confirmed by phone late Wednesday. She referred further queries to the White House, where attempts to get comment were unsuccessful.

VIDEO: Powerful and wealthy Mort Zuckerman attacks Obama: "He's done everything wrong"

Financial shares pulled the stock market lower Thursday as President Barack Obama proposed rules that would limit the types of trading banks can do with their money.

Obama's new bank regulations were leaked to insider traders on Wall Street before the announcement

The White House National Security Council recently directed U.S. spy agencies to lower the priority placed on intelligence collection for China, amid opposition to the policy change from senior intelligence leaders who feared it would hamper efforts to obtain secrets about Beijing's military and its cyber-attacks.

A surprising jump in first-time claims for unemployment benefits is a painful reminder that jobs remain scarce six months into the economic recovery.  The Labor Department said Thursday that initial claims for unemployment insurance rose last week by 36,000 to a seasonally adjusted 482,000. Wall Street economists expected a small drop,

Getting the Israelis and Palestinians to agree to negotiate, or even to agree to the framework in which negotiations will take place, "is just really hard," US President Barack Obama said in an interview with Time magazine published Thursday, as the president was completing his first year in office

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