GOP (Newt) Hands White House To Obama In 2012 On A Silver Platter!

Keep It Moving Folks! Just More Racist, Fearful Rhetoric From Presidential Wanna Be Newt Gingrich.

Here Are 3 Main Reasons Why Pres. Barack Obama WILL Win A 2nd Term In 2012:

1) The GOP Lied To American Voters About Their REAL Reason For Regaining Control. It Wasn't About JOBS! Instead It Was About NOT Having A BLACK Man In Charge!

2) Most GOP Candidates Are STILL On That "Birther" Trip.

3) The Agenda Of Most GOP Politicians Is To Destroy Unions & ALL Federally-Funded Programs Which Help Black & Hispanic Citizens.




Newt Gingrich: President Obama won't confront radical Islam

Newt Gingrich on Friday blasted the Obama administration for what he labels a refusal to confront radical Islam.
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“Until you replace this president and until you have the Congress and the new president replace large parts of our bureaucracies, we’re going to continue to be dominated by a secular, anti-Christian and anti-Jewish elite, which is seeking to impose on us rules that make zero sense,” he told religious conservatives at the American Family Association’s pastors’ policy briefing in Iowa.

Gingrich, answering a question about challenging Sharia law on U.S. soil, said the country’s leadership was “so afraid to tell the truth” and “timid” that it didn’t swiftly prosecute the Pakistani immigrant who was sentenced to life in prison last year for planting a bomb in Times Square. And he pointed out that the federal government has sued a school district for denying a Muslim middle school teacher unpaid leave to make a pilgrimage to Mecca.

“I simply suggest that every church in the country announce there is a new principle that visiting Bethlehem every year for three weeks is an important part of your devotion,” he said to applause.

“The whole thing collapses,” he added. “It’s an absurdity. It’s part of this desperation of our secular elites to do everything they can to prove they are not anti-Muslim.”

Gingrich insisted that he’s not anti-Muslim himself, but that he is “deeply opposed” to the religion’s radical wing that represses women, homosexuals and Christians.

“I think it’s time to have the courage to stand up and say that we represent an insistence on modernity,” he said. “And we represent a decisive opposition to those who would kill us for the purpose of imposing our beliefs on the rest of us. And we are prepared to say an act of terrorism is an act of Jihadism.”


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Sources: Daily Beast, Fox News, Politico, Think Progress, Youtube, Google Maps

Democrats Reject GOP Mid-Term Referendum On Obama

Democrats Resist GOP Efforts To Frame Midterm Elections As Referendum On Obama



Democrats and Republicans are framing the elections in starkly different terms, with GOP strategists painting it as a national referendum on President Barack Obama and the party in power, and Democrats working feverishly to make all politics local.

The outcome will help determine whether Republicans take control of the House, the Senate or both. It also may profoundly affect Obama's agenda for the next two years.

Republicans have every reason to try to nationalize the Nov. 2 election, when voters will fill all 435 House seats, 36 Senate seats and 37 governorships. Democrats succeeded in the elections of 2006 and 2008 by focusing on President George W. Bush's tenure, Republicans' performance in Congress and the Iraq war; the GOP hopes to turn the tables now.

Polls show significant discontent with policies linked to Obama and congressional Democrats, including rising deficits and bank bailouts. The latest AP-GfK survey found that 60 percent of those questioned think the nation is heading in the wrong direction, and 73 percent disapprove of the Democratic-led Congress.

Polls also show significantly higher energy and enthusiasm among conservative voters than liberals.

GOP strategists believe they can sustain this wave and ride it to victory if they can focus voters' attention on overarching complaints against Obama and Democratic lawmakers: government overreach, big spending, Washington intrusion.

"It's going to be a national election," said Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, head of the Republican committee overseeing House races. He said Republicans will run on broad themes, such as arguing that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's agenda for health care, energy and labor unions is destroying jobs.

Even if Pelosi, D-Calif., isn't well-known to some voters, Sessions said, "I think they're aware that America is under one-party rule."

Democrats are pushing a very different narrative.

The election will be "a choice between two candidates in every congressional district," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the Democrats' counterpart to Sessions.

Van Hollen pointed to the May 18 special House election in Pennsylvania, where Democrat Mark Critz surprised pundits by easily defeating Republican Tim Burns. Republicans "made the election all about Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi," Van Hollen said, while Critz stuck to bread-and-butter issues such as job creation and his deep familiarity with the district.

Republicans, stung by the loss, note that Critz rejected Obama's health care and energy initiatives, which most congressional Democrats supported and must defend this fall.

Nonetheless, Democrats see the Critz victory as a blueprint for Election Day. They praise his campaign for reaching out to voters early to learn of their concerns, which shaped follow-up literature and calls.

Democratic officials say they are recruiting thousands of volunteers nationwide for an unusually early and aggressive voter-targeting effort. If local supporters talk to undecided voters about local candidates and concerns, these Democrats say, it can take the edge off Republicans' bid to nationalize the election and focus on Washington.

Of course, Democratic candidates can't avoid the national issues that agitate many voters, such as health care and deficit spending. But they have a better chance to make their case, Van Hollen said, if voters see the nominee as a local person with community ties.

"It's important to engage voters directly and personally, early on, and not just trying to call them up at the last minute," Van Hollen said.

That's what freshman Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., is trying to do in his tough re-election campaign. His votes for Obama's health care bill and cap-and-trade carbon-reduction bill make him a White House favorite, and a top GOP target.

Perriello's latest TV ad mirrors Van Hollen's philosophy: Make a personal, even folksy appeal to voters, and focus on job creation rather than sensitive issues such health care. Perriello mentions "jobs" six times in a humorous 30-second spot that shows him stepping in cow manure and spilling coffee on himself as he promotes new jobs on dairy farms, construction sites, police departments and elsewhere.

"No one will work harder to bring jobs to Virginia," he says.

His Republican challenger, Robert Hurt, is following his own party's advice to nationalize the election. His campaign Web site warns that "Pelosi & Co. and their wealthy liberal supporters around the country are pouring money into Perriello's campaign coffers."

Curiously, Democrats and Republicans alike seem to be treating Obama warily, at least for now.

Sessions, the House GOP campaign chief, focused his criticisms not on the president but on Pelosi, as have several other Republican candidates. Obama's personal approval ratings hover at about 50 percent, while his ratings for handling key issues tend to be lower.

Many Democrats seem inclined to hand Obama a rather narrow mission: wooing the millions of young and minority voters who rallied to his side in 2008 but who may skip the less-exciting 2010 midterm elections. Obama's political group, Organizing for America, "will focus on first-time Obama voters," Van Hollen said.

As president, Obama cannot sit out the election, and lately he has shown relish for the challenge.

At a recent Wisconsin event, Obama mocked senior Republican lawmakers for apologizing to BP after the Gulf oil spill and for minimizing the impact of the recession.

Republicans, Obama said, "think that our economy will do better if we just let the banks or the oil companies or the insurance industry make their own rules. They still believe that – even after the Wall Street crash, even after the BP oil well blew – that we should just keep a hands-off attitude."

Sessions is unimpressed. Voters are sick of the Democrats' big-government approach, he said, and neither presidential speeches nor early targeting efforts will make them less receptive to the GOP's call for change.

"We will have a very large bandwith of people who we are able to speak with," Sessions said.


Sources: Huffington Post

Grassley, GOP Leaders Ask Democrats, "Where Are The Jobs?"

MSNBC is so Partisan and Biased towards Republicans they even listed the speaker featured on this video message as Texas GOP Congressman Jeb Hensarling.

Correction: The GOP Congressman speaking in this video is Chuck Grassley (Iowa).

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Sources: MSNBC

Democrats Are Falling Apart; Obama Urges Commitment

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Obama Says He’s Not Giving Up On Health Reform


President Barack Obama on Saturday sought to assure despondent Democrats he would not abandon his commitment to overhauling health care and would work to counter GOP challenges to their congressional dominance.

At its winter meeting, a defiant Democratic Party worked to project a message of strength even as loyalists acknowledged the prospect of several defeats in November. The party that controls the White House typically loses seats during midterm elections at an average rate of 28 net seats. President Bill Clinton, the last Democratic commander in chief, lost control of Congress in his first term and Democrats privately are predicting it could happen again.

Obama, looking to write his own history, warned fellow Democrats that "we have to acknowledge that change can't come quickly enough." He said political leaders must plot their way forward to November with an understanding of the economic difficulties Americans face.

"I understand their frustration. You understand it as well," Obama said.

The Other Party

A government report on Friday said 9.7 percent of the country was unemployed. Distrust of Washington has grown and spurred an anti-Washington sentiment that sent scores of activists to a "tea party" convention in Nashville on the same day. As witness to the tone, Republican Sen. Scott Brown won a special election to take the seat of the late, liberal Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Democrats also lost gubernatorial contests in Virginia and New Jersey.

Obama sought to energize his base against what he called "the other party." He urged Democrats to work with their Republican counterparts.

"We can't solve all of our problems alone," Obama said, as the audience sat in silence.

While Republicans have stood in solid opposition to the president's proposed overhaul of health care, Obama insisted he wasn't willing to abandon his top domestic priority that consumed months of his agenda and has produced slim hints of victory.

"Let me be clear: I am not going to walk away from health reform," Obama said, bringing the audience in the hotel ballroom to their feet.

"We can't return to the dereliction of duty," Obama said. "America can't afford to wait, and we can't look backward."

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His party, for certain, would prefer not to revisit its ordeals of 2009, which produced some victories but hardly the narrative that would deliver them victories this year.

"I know we've gone through a tough year. But we've gone through tougher," Obama said.

DNC chairman Tim Kaine, the former Democratic governor of Virginia who saw a Republican follow him into office, said they should not be downtrodden.

"The ghost of Harry Truman would kill us if he heard us complaining about having only 59 Democratic senators," Kaine said.

"We've had our ups and downs since the inauguration," Kaine conceded.

He warned, though, that Republicans were unlikely to support Obama's health care agenda.

"We might get one or two," he said.




Al Franken Lays Into David Axelrod Over Health Care Bill


Sen. Al Franken ripped into White House senior adviser David Axelrod this week during a tense, closed-door session with Senate Democrats.

Five sources who were in the room tell POLITICO that Franken criticized Axelrod for the administration’s failure to provide clarity or direction on health care and the other big bills it wants Congress to enact.

The sources said Franken was the most outspoken senator in the meeting, which followed President Barack Obama’s question-and-answer session with Senate Democrats at the Newseum on Wednesday. But they also said the Minnesotan wasn’t the only angry Democrat in the room.

“There was a lot of frustration in there,” said a Democratic senator who declined to be identified.

“People were hot,” another Democratic senator said.

Democratic senators are frustrated that the White House hasn’t done more to win over the public on health care reform and other aspects of its ambitious agenda — and angry that, in the wake of Scott Brown’s win in the Massachusetts Senate race, the White House hasn’t done more to chart a course for getting a health care bill to the president’s desk.

In his public session with the senators Wednesday, Obama urged them to “finish the job” on health care but did not lay out a path for doing so. That uncertainty appeared to trigger Franken’s anger, and the sources in the room said he laid out his concerns much more directly than any senator did in the earlier public session.

The private session was set up in a panel format, with Axelrod joined at the front of the room by Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine and Democratic strategist Paul Begala.

A Democratic source said that Franken directed his criticism solely at Axelrod.

“It was all about leadership and health care and what the plan was going to be,” the source said.

Franken — a comedian turned liberal talk show host — vowed to keep a relatively low profile when he arrived in the Senate over the summer after a protracted legal battle with former GOP Sen. Norm Coleman. But he has developed a reputation among his colleagues as one of the more aggressive personalities on the Hill.

Last November, after Tennessee Republican Sens. Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander authored an op-ed in a local paper defending their opposition to a Franken amendment, Franken confronted both men on the floor — and grew particularly irritated with Corker.

He lashed out at Corker and a staff member in a follow-up meeting about the matter, several people said. Franken also clashed with South Dakota Sen. John Thune, No. 4 in GOP leadership, last month in a scathing speech during the health care debate, and staffers have reported other run-ins.

The White House, the Democratic National Committee and Franken’s office all declined to speak on the record about Wednesday’s session. Begala did not respond to a request for comment.

Sources: Politico, MSNBC, Politifact

Hensarling vs. Obama: GOP Skeptical About Obama's 2011 Budget

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Republicans Blast President Obama On His Budget


The bipartisan feelings between President Barack Obama and House Republicans barely survived the weekend.

Republicans are ripping into Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget today, criticizing the spending increases, record deficits and tax increases on the wealthy.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) hinted at hypocrisy in the White House’s budget, which was delivered to Capitol Hill this morning. He said that Obama spoke about “the importance of fiscal responsibility” at his conference’s retreat in Baltimore last weekend but delivered a budget that “spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much.”

Boehner said the budget is filled with “reckless spending and more unsustainable debt.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), like all other Republicans, blasted the budget.

“This budget provides a startling figure that should stop us all in our tracks,” McConnell said. “According to the administration’s budget, the interest on the federal debt is expected to be nearly 6 trillion dollars over the next decade. We’ve all heard about interest-only loans, but this is the equivalent of an average of $600 billion dollars in interest every year. That’s an astonishing number.”

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) had little praise of the president’s spending plan, saying in a statement that it “spends more than any other in history, creates the largest deficits in history, and imposes the largest tax increases in history — at a time when our country can least afford it.”

Democrats defended Obama’s budget and dismissed the Republican criticisms as predictable.

Taking the Senate floor Monday afternoon, Majority Leader Harry Reid defended the President's budget, saying Obama's plan prioritized putting Americans back to work and "smartly" invested in infrastructure, science and technology.

Reid continued by going after Republicans for their "no" votes on both the "Pay-as-you-go" and the Conrad-Gregg debt reduction commission amendments last week—calling their dissent "a real shame" and a "partisan game."

"The Republicans voted in unison against pay-as-you-go, a simple concept that we should only spend what we as a government have. Some Republicans [who] sponsored the legislation creating the deficit reduction commission voted against their own bill. Had they voted with us, the bill would have passed," Reid said. "Our economy and our future cannot afford partisan games like that."

Still, after Obama’s widely praised question and answer session with Republicans, the GOP leaders tried to find something nice to say.

Boehner said Obama’s funds for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq “ensures our troops…have the resources they need to succeed in their mission.”

Cantor, however, did add that Obama’s spending freeze, “is a step in the right direction, but one that is far too small considering the fiscal situation we face.”

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), who asked Obama on Friday if his budget would triple the nation’s debt, thinks he got the answer to his lingering question Monday.

“This budget sends a clear signal to American taxpayers who are tired of the spending, deficits and bailouts — and who recognize that they are not working — that the president is taking the policies they have rejected to a new high,” Hensarling said. “This is clear evidence that the president is ignoring the will of the American taxpayers who want Washington to go on a diet.”

Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, said the budget has “too many new taxes, too much new spending and too much debt, all of which will discourage hiring and further reduce Americans’ job security.”

“While I am glad to see the budget seeks to increase exports of American-made goods and services, those efforts are far outweighed by trillions of dollars in job-killing tax hikes,” Camp said in a statement.



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Sources: Politico, MSNBC, Fox News, Youtube, Google Maps

U.S. Deficit Out Of Control! $1.6 Trillion! Freeze Not Enough!

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Obama White House To Paint Grim Fiscal Picture


The White House will predict a $1.6 trillion U.S. budget deficit in the 2010 fiscal year, a fresh record and the biggest since World War Two as a share of the economy, a congressional source told Reuters on Sunday.

The grim forecast adds to the challenges facing President Barack Obama, who is emphasizing a message of fiscal discipline but is also seeking stimulus measures to boost the struggling economy in the near term.

Obama's budget proposal, which will be released at 10 a.m. EST on Monday, will predict a narrowing of the deficits to $700 billion by fiscal 2013 before they gradually rise back to $1 trillion by the end of the decade, the Capitol Hill source said.

He will submit his spending blueprint for the 2011 fiscal year that begins October 1 and runs through September 30 next year.

Obama is trying to strike a balance between long-term deficit reduction and easing the pain of double-digit unemployment through proposals such as tax credits to encourage business hiring and tax breaks for middle class families.

He is to deliver remarks on the U.S. fiscal situation at 10:45 a.m. EST.

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Criticized by Republicans as a big spender, Obama used his State of the Union address last week to tell Americans he would dig the country out of a "massive fiscal hole."

That hole is even deeper than previously believed, according to the estimate by the White House's Office of Management and Budget.

The estimate for the current 2010 fiscal year that ends September 30 is significantly higher than the $1.35 trillion figure forecast by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office last week.

Despite the difference, both estimates indicate that the deficit will continue to hover near 10 percent of gross domestic product, a level not seen since World War Two, when measured as a percentage of the economy.

Last year, the government posted a $1.4 trillion deficit, equivalent to 9.9 percent of GDP.

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THREE-YEAR FREEZE WON'T BE ENOUGH

In his budget, Obama will propose a three-year freeze on some domestic programs to save $20 billion next year and $250 billion over the coming decade.

But that will not be enough to get deficits down permanently to the 3 percent of GDP that most economists consider sustainable.

Deficits are projected to fall as the economy recovers, but they will still average roughly 4.5 percent of GDP over the coming decade, according to the estimate.

Deficits are expected to rise again toward the end of the decade due to the increasing cost of retirement and healthcare programs as the "baby boom" generation retires.

Obama has warned that the burgeoning U.S. debt could unnerve U.S. financial markets, driving up borrowing costs and putting future economic growth at risk.

China, the biggest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries, has urged the United States to get its fiscal house in order.

The bleak numbers could help build support for a bipartisan commission proposed by the White House that would recommend ways to address the budget problems.

Obama and his fellow Democrats face a growing voter backlash for the aggressive spending measures they have taken to stimulate the economy.

But Democrats point out that most of the fiscal mess has been inherited from the previous administration of Republican George W. Bush, who cut taxes and created an expensive prescription drug-benefit while pursuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The recession, which began in December 2007, also worsened the fiscal picture by depressing government revenues while forcing up spending on unemployment benefits and other safety-net programs.

The U.S. economy returned to growth last year after the worst downturn since the 1930s.


Sources: Reuters, NY Times, The Daily Beast, MSNBC, CNBC

Are Obama's "War On Terror" Strategies Failing? GOP Talking Points

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Republicans Revive "Soft On Terror" Charge


A series of recent controversies — capped by Friday’s decision to pull a key 9/11 trial out of Manhattan — is prompting Republicans to turn up the pressure on President Barack Obama, by resurrecting the kind of “soft on terrorism” charge that has dogged Democrats in the past.

Obama largely escaped any controversy over terrorism in the 2008 campaign, because voters were so focused on the economic crisis and because many were supportive of Obama’s plans to break from the Bush-era war on terror, by ending the Iraq war and shutting down Guantanamo Bay prison.

But a series of stumbles in recent weeks has given Republicans a chance to renew that line of attack against Obama, at a time when he’s already confronting public criticism of his handling of the economy and health care.

The GOP has leapt on Obama’s handling of the Christmas Day bombing plot, saying he was slow to speak to the public about the initial attack and criticizing the Justice Department’s decision to try the suspect in a civilian court, not a military one. Republicans also are criticizing the Justice Department for an FBI decision to end questioning of the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, after less than an hour and read him his Miranda rights.

That came on top of the congressional uproar over Obama’s plan to close Guantanamo Bay prison by moving the detainees to U.S. prisons. Obama missed a self-imposed one-year deadline to close the facility. Republicans also criticized the Justice Department’s decision to send five alleged 9/11 plotters to trial in Manhattan, just blocks from the World Trade Center site — a decision the administration abruptly abandoned Friday after powerful Democrats came out against the New York venue.

“It’s the death of a thousand self-inflicted cuts,” said Peter Feaver, a National Security Council official under presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. “Conservatives like Vice President Cheney have been making the critique from the beginning but it did not stick until the self-inflicted wounds reached a culmination point.. I think they did with the underwear bomber. Prior to that the self-inflicted wounds were separated. They didn’t congeal into a single story line, but now I think they have.”

Republicans howled after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said “the system worked” because passengers on the plane jumped on the Abdulmutallab. And the head of the National Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter, went on a ski vacation shortly after the attack.

“The terrain changed on them with the Christmas bombing. It provided, fairly or unfairly, Exhibit A for what the critics on the right ... were arguing: that by not taking terrorism seriously, you make America more vulnerable. Mirandizing [Abdulmutallab] plays right into that. ‘The system worked’ plays into that. Having someone take a vacation for a week plays right into it,” Feaver said.

GOP stalwarts like Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) have been pummeling Obama over these issues since last spring, when the White House badly misjudged congressional sentiment and lost a series of votes related to closing the Guantanamo Bay prison.

Republicans seem emboldened, too, after Sen.-elect Scott Brown aggressively used the terrorism issue to score points with voters in his stunning Massachusetts upset. He attacked Obama's decision to hold civilian trials for terror suspects

Now even mild-mannered Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), hardly a partisan bomb-thrower, is joining the parade of GOP lawmakers taking Obama and his team to task.

“Less than one hour. That’s right, less than one hour. In fact, just 50 minutes. That’s the amount of time that the FBI spent questioning Abdulmutallab, the foreign terrorist who tried to blow up a plane on Christmas Day,” Collins said dramatically in the Republicans’ weekly radio and Internet address Saturday morning. “How did the Obama administration decide to treat a foreign terrorist, who had tried to murder hundreds of people, as if he were a common criminal?”

The White House is pushing back on the GOP’s attacks against closing Gitmo, with spokesman Ben LaBolt saying it’s a “national security imperative” backed by Gen. David Petraeus and other military leaders who see it as a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda.

“The administration recognizes that it will take the cooperation of Congress and our allies to close the facility and to bring those detainees who have murdered Americans or conspired to do so to justice,” LaBolt said. “While the previous administration successfully prosecuted only three detainees in more than seven years, we will continue to pursue swift and certain justice and to advance a process that finally holds these detainees accountable for their acts.”

In his State of the Union address, Obama complained broadly about GOP fear-mongering, but he did not mention Guantanamo, the reasons for his preference for trying terrorists in civilian courts, or his plans to bring some prisoners to Illinois for military trials or indefinite detention.

“Let’s put aside the schoolyard taunts about who’s tough,” Obama said. “Let’s reject the false choice between protecting our people and upholding our values.” He said he was working to fill “unacceptable gaps” highlighted by the Christmas Day attack and boasted of aggressive campaigns against Al Qaeda across the globe. “In the last year, hundreds of Al Qaeda's fighters and affiliates, including many senior leaders, have been captured or killed — far more than in 2008,” the president said.

Some Democrats want Obama to be even more forceful, including on the importance of civilian trials for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other alleged 9/11 plotters. “Obama and the Department of Justice need to get out there and push back very clearly with the public. ... Frankly, I thought New Yorkers were made of sterner stuff than this — traffic is going to be disrupted?” said Ken Gude of the liberal Center for American Progress.

Behind the scenes, some administration officials are trying to rebut GOP claims. An account of Abdulmutallab’s questioning on Christmas Day, provided by unnamed officials to the Washington Post, said he was given Miranda warnings only after he asked for a lawyer.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he is going to try again next week to win approval of an amendment that would bar a civilian trial for alleged Sept. 11 attack plotters. The measure failed on a 54-45 Senate vote in November, after most Democrats opposed it. However, supporters hope that the attempted Christmas Day attack and Brown's aggressive use of the terrorism issue will persuade more Democrats to oppose civilian terror trials.

“It’s going to be necessary to speak clearly and strongly that having a lawyer for a terror suspect is not being weak on defense,” said Andy Johnson of Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank. However, he added, “This is going to be a tough lift politically.”

The White House takes some solace in polls showing the public generally satisfied with Obama’s handling of the terrorist threat, but the danger for the president lurks below those top-line results, since specifics of his policies are widely unpopular. In a CNN survey taken earlier this month, 65 percent of Americans had at least a moderate amount of confidence in the president’s approach to terrorism and 57 percent endorsed his handling of the Christmas Day attacks. However, 57 percent also said they favored sending Abdulmutallab to a military tribunal, while only 42 percent supported a civilian trial.

Obama’s plan to close Guantanamo also has pretty dismal poll numbers, especially when those surveyed are told of his proposal to bring some suspects to U.S. prisons. A Gallup survey last month found just 30 percent backing that plan, with more than twice as many people, 64 percent, opposed.

Some critics of closing Guantanamo doubt that the administration’s stumbling will do long-term political damage because, they believe, Obama is gradually turning away from his initial approach.

“This president came in a very populist moment taken advantage of by the Democrats who said anything George Bush did was bad. It didn’t matter what it was ... the Obama administration had to change it,” said Kirk Lippold, the commander of the U.S.S. Cole at the time it was bombed.

“Over time, as they have begun to govern vs. campaign, they have realized some of the difficult decisions and policies implemented by the Bush administration had long-term strategic value,” he said. “That’s called the maturing of a chief executive. His administration is just not quite on board yet.”







9/11 Trials To Be Moved From NYC


Pressured by a growing clamor from New York, the Obama administration has decided to move the trial of Sept. 11 terror suspects away from Manhattan, where it had been scheduled to take place just blocks from the site of the twin towers attack.

Multiple media outlets, including NBC News, The Washington Post and The New York Times, reported on Friday night that the administration has abandoned its plan to try alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the city.

"New York is out," one administration official told the Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been officially announced. "We're considering other options."

The Justice Department is drawing up plans for possible alternate locations to try Mohammed and four alleged accomplices, two administration officials told The Associated Press earlier Friday.

Though the officials wouldn’t discuss locations under consideration, others have suggested Governors Island, a former military base in New York Harbor that now welcomes summertime picnickers and bike riders; the U.S. Military Academy at West Point or Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh, N.Y.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters Friday that a backlash had made it “unlikely” the case would go forward in the city. He said plans to hold the trial there started to unravel after a speech he gave recently detailing the enormous costs and logistical challenges of ensuring security at the Federal Courthouse in lower Manhattan.

Criticism of the plan, which had been announced by Attorney General Eric Holder last year, reached a crescendo this week when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg reversed his earlier support. On his weekly radio show Friday, Bloomberg said he had spoken with “high level” people in the Obama administration about his concerns and they were “trying to do something.”

Setback for Obama?

New York Gov. David Paterson said he was “elated that our concerns are being considered by the president and the federal government.” He had said earlier this week that if the cases went forward in the city, “Every time there is a loud noise during the two years of those trials it’s going to frighten people, and I think New Yorkers have been through enough.”

Moving the trial would be a setback for President Barack Obama. His administration has spent weeks defending its handling of terror threats following the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner, a case that reignited the debate about whether such terror suspects should face civilian or military justice.

Obama has long supported trying some terrorists in federal, civilian court, while Republicans have argued that terrorists — including the five alleged 9/11 conspirators — should be tried in military tribunals where other Guantanamo Bay detainees will be judged.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said Thursday he has introduced a bill that would prohibit the use of Justice Department funds to try Guantanamo detainees in federal civilian courts. Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said he’ll introduce a similar bill in the Senate next week.

In a letter sent to the White House Friday, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California said the terrorist threat to the U.S. remains high and New York is a prime target. The trial of the most significant terrorist in custody would only add to the threat, she wrote.

When asked by reporters Thursday about the president’s commitment to holding civilian trials, White House spokesman Bill Burton said Obama believes Mohammed and his alleged accomplishes could be successfully and securely brought to justice in a federal court.

“Currently our federal jails hold hundreds of convicted terrorists, and the president’s opinion has not changed on that,” Burton said.

Patrick Rowan, once the top counterterrorism official in the Bush Justice Department, said he expects the administration to try to find a new location somewhere in the same federal court district, which extends into suburban counties north of New York City.

“It’s more likely to be a place like a military facility, where the security issues are essentially as tied down as one could expect them to be,” said Rowan.

Mayor Nicholas Valentine of the small upstate city of Newburgh has offered his community as a possible location. The city has a new state-of-the-art courthouse, he said, and is less than a 90-minute commute from Manhattan. The air base there has been used in the past to fly in terror suspects facing trial in the district.

Six senators on Tuesday wrote to Holder and urged him to abandon the idea of a New York City trial.

The letter read, in part, “You will be providing them one of the most visible platforms in the world to exalt their past acts and to rally others in support of further terrorism.”

It was signed by Graham, as well as Republicans John McCain of Arizona and Susan Collins of Maine, Democrats Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Jim Webb of Virginia, and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.


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Sources: AP, Politico, MSNBC, Google Maps

Virginia Foxx Needs To Step Down! Criticizes Obama But Gets Autograph

On the heels of Pres. Obama extending an Olive Branch to Republicans in hopes of building positive bi-partisan communication between GOP and Democrat Congressional members, as always Rep. Virginia Foxx finds a way to screw things up.

In fact U.S. Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC)never ceases to amaze me with her frequent foolish, snide, foot-in-mouth comments.

Why would she seek to sabotage yesterday's historic efforts for Unity by posting a negative Twitter Comment about Pres. Obama?

"Pres. Obama gave us another lecture. Our guys asked great questions. Need Independent Fact Checker for his comments. Got Autograph."

How Stupid are those statements??

What's even more bizarre is that she gets his autograph!

Now why would you want to obtain the autograph of someone whom you obviously don't respect?

Is it so you can sell it on Ebay??

Rep. Foxx's behavior consistently makes the Republican Party appear Illiterate and Stupid, thus scaring away anyone considering looking to Republicans for constructive Solutions.

This includes: Black Voters, Independent Voters, Gay Voters, etc.,

How can someone so narrow-minded represent her constituents well?

Although I'm not a Republican, I'd say its high time she stepped down.

Elected Incumbents like Rep. Foxx only help to divide Republicans and Democrats thus creating continued Capitol Hill Gridlock on issues important to the American people.

Politicians (especially Incumbents) need to frequently search within themselves and ask why they sought a role in Public Office.

If they aren't there for Voters or Constructive Progress, than GET OUT and make room for people who are!

We all understand Politicians are still Human Beings who possess their own perspectives on everyday life issues, however it wouldn't hurt to use a little tact or to hold one's tongue versus spewing out whatever comes to mind.

To Rep. Virginia Foxx I repeat "Its Time For You To Step Down" or....

Cease making foolish remarks which hurts your party, causes Southern Politicians to look Stupid and makes Congress appear even more dysfunctional.

North Carolina can do better. So much better.







Virginia Foxx Slams Obama, Gets Autograph


North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx criticized President Obama after his address to House Republicans but had no qualms about walking away with a souvenir.

"Pres gave us another lecture. Our guys asked great questions. Need independent fact checker for his comments. Got autograph," the Republican congresswoman tweeted Friday afternoon at the House Republican retreat.

A follow up tweet she sent shortly after read, "Am concerned that Pres thinks health care bill is centrist. He did not accept the scalpel and it is a great tool."

Her remarks followed a rare question-and-answer session with the president and the GOP caucus.

About 300 lawmakers, family members and aides attended the meeting, which was broadcast live. The event was for the most part civil, with a few moments of heated discussion.

Obama accused Republicans of frequently mischaracterizing his policy proposals, particularly in the health care debate. Republicans, in turn, complained that the White House and congressional Democrats had ignored their ideas, locked them out of the policy-making process, and unfairly labeled them as obstructionists.

"Both sides can take some blame for a sour climate on Capitol Hill," Obama said, adding that Democrats and Republicans "need to be careful" in choosing their rhetoric. "A tone of civility instead of slash and burn would be helpful."

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Virginia Foxx: Matthew Shepard's Murder Not a Hate Crime


Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) has done it again. Earlier this month she dropped the racially charged term "tar baby" on the House floor. Today, she said the murder of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard in 1998 was not a hate crime.

"It's really a hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing [hate crimes] bills," Foxx said on the House floor during debate on the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

Foxx opposes a bill being considered that would extend federal hate crimes protections to cover crimes committed because of a person's gender, sexual orientation or disability.

She called Shepard's murder a "very unfortunate incident" but said "we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay."

And guess who was in the House gallery to hear Foxx say this? Matthew Shepard's mother, Judy, according to Democratic sources.

To refresh your memory on what happened to her son> two men tied the University of Wyoming college freshman to a fence and savagely pistol whipped and beat him to death. Before doing it, one of the killers tauntingly said to Shepard, "It's Gay Awareness Week."

Ironically, Foxx is part of a GOP leadership team tasked with finding embarrassing, "You-Tube worthy moments" of vulnerable Democratic freshmen and sophomores.

Here's what gay liberal blogger John Arivosis has to say about Foxx's comments. Stay tuned: there will be plenty more outrage from the gay rights community.

UPDATE: The Human Rights Campaign, a leading Washington based gay-rights group, is furious with Congresswoman Foxx.

"Vile lies, like the one spread by Rep. Foxx today on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives about Matthew's brutal hate-fueled murder, continues to underscore how extreme anti-LGBT opponents have become," says Brad Luna, a spokesman for HRC. "It is no longer acceptable in this day and age to just come right out and say you don't like gay people. Instead, extremist opponents of equality must resort to these types of malicious and twisted lies. Rep. Foxx should be ashamed of herself."

HRC also notes the following groups have endorsed the hate-crimes bill opposed by Foxx: the National Sheriffs Association; International Association of Chiefs of Police; 26 state Attorneys General; the National District Attorneys Association; the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; the Anti-Defamation League; the NAACP; the National Council of La Raza; the Presbyterian Church; the Episcopal Church; and the National Disability Rights Network.



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Sources: CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post, Rachel Maddow Show, Google Maps

GOP Passes On "Purity Test"...Party Rejects It

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Republicans Reject "Purity Test"


Republicans averted an ideological showdown here Friday, passing a tepid party resolution in place of a candidate “purity test.”

Rejecting a plan that would have required GOP candidates to meet at least eight of 10 policy questions to receive national support and funding, the Republican National Committee unanimously approved a rule that only “urges” party leaders to support nominees who back the party’s platform.

The author of the original proposal, Indiana national Republican committeeman James Bopp, agreed to withdraw his resolution in the face of overwhelming opposition and backed the watered-down language.

Yet even after the compromise was reached, tempers flared between Republicans on opposing sides of the issue – vividly illustrating the lingering divide between the party’s conservative activist and pragmatic establishment wings.

Talking to reporters in a ballroom following the committee's general session here, where the RNC is holding its winter meeting, Bopp insisted the replacement resolution still amounted to a win for requiring candidates to toe the conservative line.

“You’ve got to determine that the candidate supports all the core principles of the Republican Party before you support them,” he said, explaining the alternate measure.

But when asked whether it was binding, Bopp was cut off by Oregon GOP Chairman Bob Tiernan, who was standing nearby the impromptu press briefing.

“That resolution passed is not binding, it’s a suggestion,” said Tiernan.

As Bopp began to again make his case for the compromise, Tiernan again interjected.

“There’s nothing mandatory or required in there,” the Oregonian noted.

“Can I answer the question, Mr. Chairman?” Bopp shot back.

Continuing, Bopp explained that he thought the RNC’s decision to, for the first time, make it party policy to urge candidates to pledge fealty to the GOP platform represented a significant step.

But Tiernan, standing just over Bopp’s shoulder, again rebutted his committee colleague.

“I’m not going to take that back and make my candidates sign it, that’s ridiculous,” Tiernan said, gesturing toward the compromise resolution in a reporter’s hand. “We don’t have a litmus test and we rejected the litmus test today.”

As Bopp continued, Tiernan again spoke up.

“There’s nothing binding in there,” said the state chair.

“Can I finish?” a plainly annoyed Bopp asked.

“Read the words,” replied Tiernan.

“Shut up,” Bopp finally said.

The Oregonian walked away moments later, but continued to express incredulity in an interview.

“I cannot believe he’s saying what he’s saying,” Tiernan said, noting that the state chairs unanimously voted on Wednesday to reject Bopp’s resolution, a symbolic move that indicated how little support there was for the binding proposal.

Calling Bopp’s original idea “nuts,” Tiernan said his committee colleague was “trying to save face” by claiming the compromise resolution was as strong as the initial idea to bar financial support from those candidates who didn’t meet 8 of 10 issue tests.

“He got flatly rejected,” Tiernan said, chalking up Bopp’s move to lingering bitterness over the year-old national committee chairman’s contest.

“There’s five or six people [on the committee] that didn’t get their candidate elected back in January and they’re still upset about it and they’re trying to micromanage the process and micromanage the chairman,” he complained.

Senior Republican officials contend that Bopp is in a distinct minority among committee members and that the vote of the state chairs made plain that there was no appetite for imposing a “purity test” on their candidates. RNC Chairman Michael Steele and many of the party’s senior-most elected officials and strategists had expressed their opposition to such a test when it was first proposed late last year. And, indeed, few in the party expected the initial resolution to even come to a vote, much less pass.

Mississippi Republican committeeman and national Resolutions Committee chair Henry Barbour expressed the sentiment of many in the party when he offered an “editorial comment” after he went through the resolutions Friday morning.

“I think we’d all prefer to see more focus on how we’re going to beat the Democrats in November then much of the noise that is coming from resolutions,” said Barbour, not explicitly singling out Bopp.

But even as GOP spirits have been lifted by victories in New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts, the results of a special congressional election last November in upstate New York have resurrected age-old conservative concerns about the party straying from its principles.

The GOP nominee in that New York contest, Dede Scozzafava, won national party support but was opposed by a conservative third-party candidate who drew backing from some out-of-state Republicans. Scozzafava dropped out of the race days before the election and threw her support to the Democratic nominee, Bill Owens, who then narrowly won a seat that had been previously held by Republicans since the Civil War.

The agreed-upon resolution, introduced by Texas national committeeman Bill Crocker, alludes to that race without mentioning names, stating that “many Republican leaders and Republican organizations were undermined and lost credibility as a result of the actions of such candidates."

On that point at least, Bopp and the committee seemed to agree.

“The impetus for all of these has been, from my standpoint, that Chairman Steele felt that he had to support all candidates regardless of ideology,” Bopp said of the resolutions. “And as a result we suffered almost a disgrace as a result of supporting Dede in New York-23.”


Sources: MSNBC, Politico, RNC

Obama's Health Care Takes A Back Seat To Jobs

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Health Care Moves To Back Burner


Democrats in Congress said all the right things Thursday to show they were dutifully heeding the president’s call to keep plugging away on a health reform bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada convened a strategy session with his top lieutenants. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California pledged to leap over any hurdle that got in her way.

But listen more closely, and it’s clear health care is already falling to the back of the legislative line, behind the Democrats’ feverish new focus on jobs and the economy.

Health care reform didn’t even make the cut when New York Sen. Chuck Schumer ticked off the party’s priorities Thursday.

“The president said jobs is the No. 1 issue before us in 2010,” Schumer said at a news conference. “In fact, the three top issues on our agenda this year are jobs, jobs and jobs.”

Health care activists who hoped to wake up Thursday to find President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address had rallied Democrats behind his plan instead found that the party seemed as confused and divided as it was before the speech – perhaps more, now that lawmakers know they may not be able to count on Obama to lead the way.

In fact, Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu downgraded the chances of passing a health care reform bill after the speech, saying Thursday morning that it was on “life support” without any clear direction from the president.

It was only a few weeks ago that Democrats were pushing hard – remember the Christmas Eve morning Senate vote? – to get a bill to Obama before Wednesday’s speech. The speech has come and go, and so has any sense of urgency among Senate Democrats to pass a bill any time soon.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana said Democrats would not abandon health care, but it could take until the spring or summer — a timeline he later said he shouldn’t have specified. And earlier in the day, Reid would provide only a nebulous target for passing a bill, committing to do it “this year.”

“This is not a one-year Congress; this is a two-year Congress, and we have had a number of extensive meetings of trying to come up with a path forward,” Reid said. “We are going to move forward on health care. We’re going to do health care reform this year. The question at this stage is, procedurally, how do we need to get where we need to go?”

Democrats spent more than a year setting deadlines on health reform because they knew they needed to do so. The mantra for months was that they had to pass a bill as soon as possible, certainly before 2010, because the political will would diminish as Election Day drew near.

Congressional aides say there is a legitimate process under way to find a way to finish the job on health care. In Reid’s meeting, senators reviewed several options, including the use of a procedural maneuver known as reconciliation to pass fixes to the Senate bill on a majority vote. Reconciliation is receiving the most scrutiny, aides said, but senators are still wading through complicated procedural and political questions to decide whether it makes the most sense.

But it’s been 10 days since the Republican win in the Massachusetts Senate race derailed the bill, and Democrats still appear to be taking their time on figuring a way forward — even though “time” was long described as the enemy of health care reform.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) predicted Democrats could settle on a strategy before their next weeklong break begins Feb. 15.

“I think some things may happen before we leave here in the next two weeks,” Harkin said. “That we’ll see some movement, that we’ll see some things start to jell on how we’re going forward.”

There were growing signs that relations between the House and Senate were fraying, as Pelosi acknowledged serious differences remain between the two chambers’ bills.

“We’re talking about the fact that our bills are about 75 percent the same, perhaps 80. The president optimistically says 90,” Pelosi said. “Maybe he knows something I don’t know about what’s going to happen in the Senate. ... But I would not call them minor tweaks, because that would imply that there’s something there that we could easily accept, except for some minor tweaks. No. It’s more serious than that.”

Pelosi announced that she would go in a slightly different direction than Reid to protect the interests of her members. She laid out a strategy to push small-ball health initiatives that won’t replace the push for comprehensive health care reform but would allow lawmakers to vote on elements of the legislation that they deem important, such as eliminating the antitrust exemption for insurers.

“Some of these sidebar issues are issues that are very important,” Pelosi said. “They can be done. They can move quickly. And that’s not about one thing over the other. That’s about time. Everything is about time.”

And in comparison to Reid’s sometime-this-year approach, Pelosi made a no-holds-barred pledge to getting it done. “We’ll go through the gate,” Pelosi said. “If the gate’s closed, we’ll go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we’ll pole-vault in. If that doesn’t work, we’ll parachute in. But we’re going to get health care reform passed for the American people.”

Wavering House Democrats have expressed their unease with party leaders for weeks. Some have even told their superiors to abandon the health care push altogether, House aides said. A Senate aide also said members were considering stepping back from health care for a few months, although it was not among the top options.

But the speaker and her team have been telling members not to jump ship — either in public or in private — so they have room to negotiate with the Senate and the White House.

“We’re not going to put it down,” Baucus said. “We’re moving expeditiously. And expeditiously means quickly, solidly, thoughtfully.”


Sources: Politico, MSNBC