13 Action News Las Vegas

February 18, 2010

Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) – 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,” explained Mayor Goodman.

Mayor Goodman has more important things like attend budget meetings during a major shortfall than meet with President Barack Obama when he visits Las Vegas Friday, even though he’s invited by the White House.

“Were you surprised to get that invitation in light of comments you’ve made before and your opinion on him and what he says,” asked Action News reporter Heather Klein.

“A little bit in the sense I would think they would know that I would say I’m not coming,” said Mayor Goodman.

They say time heals all wounds but not this time. Mayor Goodman not backing down after the president used Las Vegas the example of where not to go if you’re saving money.

This is strike two for the mayor.

“We are hurting, we have people in foreclosures, we have people having a hard time feeding their families and we can’t stand to have a flippant statement made,” said Mayor Goodman.

“I haven’t heard an apology, I haven’t heard a response, all I do is get invitations,” Goodman went on to say.

Invitations Mayor Oscar Goodman respectfully or depending on your point of view not so respectfully declines. The mayor says his presence isn’t necessary its more protocol than anything else. However, he says all it will take is a simple phone call and he will be there ready to move on.

Politico44

February 15, 2010

Carol E. Lee

Sen. Scott Brown thinks Vice President Joe Biden was “off base” when he suggested Sunday that the Massachusetts Republican get his facts straight on the legal procedures for military tribunals.

“It was insulting,” said Brown, who frequently jabbed the administration during his Senate campaign for giving suspected terrorists legal representation.

On CBS’s “Face the Nation” last weekend, Biden shot back that he doesn’t “know whether the new senator from Massachusetts understands: When you get tried in a military tribunal, you get a lawyer, too.”

“He’s trying to give me a lesson on military law, and I didn’t think it was appropriate,” Brown told POLITICO. “And I thought he was off base when it comes to explaining to the American people that somehow I need a lesson on whether people get attorneys — of course they get attorneys. There’s a difference as to what type of attorney they’re going to get and when they’re going to get that attorney, and how are they treated, and what rights do they, in fact, get.”

Brown said he is particularly incensed by Biden’s remarks because he’s served in the Massachusetts Army National Guard for more than 30 years and is currently the Guard’s top defense attorney in New England.

“I know the military rules and regulations and procedures from A to Z,” Brown said.

Brown said he was spending time with his younger daughter, Arianna, who was home from Syracuse University, Sunday when he learned that Biden had taken a swing at him.

“I was actually surprised,” said Brown. When Biden swore him into office they had a nice chat, Brown said, and the vice president told him he could visit the vice presidential residence.

“I would have thought that he would have reached out personally rather than go through the media,” Brown said. “I’m not quite sure what the message to me was, but I felt that it was important enough to respond.”

Biden’s comments came as part of the White House’s effort to defend its move to try alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a federal court, as well as the decision to read Miranda rights to the accused Christmas Day bomber.

Brown pushed back Monday on one of the White House’s talking points about the handling of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab: that the Bush administration handled Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, in the same way.

“I’ve always felt that suspected terrorists should be tried in military tribunals and not civilian court, and as a matter of fact so do the majority of Americans,” Brown said. “The big difference is are we going to pay $1,000 an hour for a private attorney and treat him as a civilian or ordinary criminal in a criminal court, or are we going give him a military attorney who’s going to be paid as a captain, major or lieutenant colonel, and obviously go through the military tribunal process?”

Times Online

February 14, 2010

Jonathan Leake

The United Nations climate panel faces a new challenge with scientists casting doubt on its claim that global temperatures are rising inexorably because of human pollution.

In its last assessment the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the evidence that the world was warming was “unequivocal”.

It warned that greenhouse gases had already heated the world by 0.7C and that there could be 5C-6C more warming by 2100, with devastating impacts on humanity and wildlife. However, new research, including work by British scientists, is casting doubt on such claims. Some even suggest the world may not be warming much at all.

“The temperature records cannot be relied on as indicators of global change,” said John Christy, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, a former lead author on the IPCC.

These stations, they believe, have been seriously compromised by factors such as urbanisation, changes in land use and, in many cases, being moved from site to site.

Christy has published research papers looking at these effects in three different regions: east Africa, and the American states of California and Alabama.

“The story is the same for each one,” he said. “The popular data sets show a lot of warming but the apparent temperature rise was actually caused by local factors affecting the weather stations, such as land development.”

The IPCC faces similar criticisms from Ross McKitrick, professor of economics at the University of Guelph, Canada, who was invited by the panel to review its last report.

The experience turned him into a strong critic and he has since published a research paper questioning its methods.

“We concluded, with overwhelming statistical significance, that the IPCC’s climate data are contaminated with surface effects from industrialisation and data quality problems. These add up to a large warming bias,” he said.

Such warnings are supported by a study of US weather stations co-written by Anthony Watts, an American meteorologist and climate change sceptic.

His study, which has not been peer reviewed, is illustrated with photographs of weather stations in locations where their readings are distorted by heat-generating equipment.

Some are next to air- conditioning units or are on waste treatment plants. One of the most infamous shows a weather station next to a waste incinerator.

Watts has also found examples overseas, such as the weather station at Rome airport, which catches the hot exhaust fumes emitted by taxiing jets.

In Britain, a weather station at Manchester airport was built when the surrounding land was mainly fields but is now surrounded by heat-generating buildings.

Terry Mills, professor of applied statistics and econometrics at Loughborough University, looked at the same data as the IPCC. He found that the warming trend it reported over the past 30 years or so was just as likely to be due to random fluctuations as to the impacts of greenhouse gases. Mills’s findings are to be published in Climatic Change, an environmental journal.

“The earth has gone through warming spells like these at least twice before in the last 1,000 years,” he said.

Kevin Trenberth, a lead author of the chapter of the IPCC report that deals with the observed temperature changes, said he accepted there were problems with the global thermometer record but these had been accounted for in the final report.

“It’s not just temperature rises that tell us the world is warming,” he said. “We also have physical changes like the fact that sea levels have risen around five inches since 1972, the Arctic icecap has declined by 40% and snow cover in the northern hemisphere has declined.”

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts has recently issued a new set of global temperature readings covering the past 30 years, with thermometer readings augmented by satellite data.

Dr Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at the Met Office, said: “This new set of data confirms the trend towards rising global temperatures and suggest that, if anything, the world is warming even more quickly than we had thought.”

FOXNews.com

February 15, 2010

Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh will not seek re-election this November, an unexpected decision that hands Republicans an opportunity for a pick-up in a year when Democrats are already defending several open Senate seats.

The two-term senator is known as a moderate Democrat. Former GOP Sen. Dan Coats had been planning to challenge Bayh in November — but a senior Democratic source told Fox News that recent polling showed Bayh way ahead of Coats, and that the retirement must have been a personal decision.

Bayh’s staff said the latest polling showed Bayh ahead of Coats by 20 points.

In prepared remarks published by The Indianapolis Star, Bayh said he was “confident” about his prospects for re-election, but discouraged in his work on Capitol Hill by excessive partisanship.

“After all these years, my passion for service to my fellow citizens is undiminished, but my desire to do so in Congress has waned,” he said, according to The Star.

Sources told Fox News that Indiana Reps. Baron Hill and Brad Ellsworth are possible Democratic contenders to vie for Bayh’s vacant seat.

The timing of the expected Bayh announcement creates a dilemma for Democrats, though, since the deadline for candidates’ petitions to be submitted is Tuesday. That means Bayh’s name could still be on the ballot in May’s Democratic primary — Democrats will have another opportunity to pick a candidate through a separate nominating process.

The retirement decision comes after Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., both announced their retirements in January. Democrats are trying to defend open seats in Delaware and Illinois as well.

Republican incumbents are abandoning seats in Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, New Hampshire and Ohio. More Senate Democratic incumbents are considered vulnerable, however.

Bayh is a former Indiana governor and secretary of state. An e-mail from the National Republican Congressional Committee suggested that resistance to the Democratic energy agenda, which includes a cap-and-trade policy for regulating greenhouse gas emissions, is contributing to Democratic problems in Indiana and elsewhere in the region.

Fox News’ Major Garrett, Trish Turner and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

Foxnews.com

February 12, 2010

The Obama administration once again is sparking speculation that the president may break a key campaign pledge, after he was quoted saying he is “agnostic” about raising taxes on those making less than $250,000.

Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported that President Obama made the comment in an interview discussing ways to rein in the soaring federal deficit.

The president’s apparent inclination to keep all options on the table, though, stands in stark contrast to the string of pledges he made during the campaign to shield households making less than $250,000 from any tax.

“Let me be clear — if you are a family making less than $250,000 a year … you will not see your taxes go up,” he said in July 2008 at a Springfield, Mo., town hall meeting — it was a statement he repeated across the country.

So is the president abandoning his promise? The White House insists the answer is no. Aides say Obama is merely giving a deficit reduction commission he will soon establish room to maneuver.

“The president doesn’t believe our economic growth … should be predicated on raising taxes on middle-class families. But that being said, the president’s just not going to get in the game of prejudging the outcome of a commission,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday when asked about the “agnostic” remark.

Even so, it sounds more and more like Obama is girding for some very tough budgetary choices ahead.

“The reality of our fiscal challenge is not subject to interpretation. Math is not partisan,” Obama told reporters Tuesday during a surprise press conference.

This isn’t the first the time the durability of Obama’s middle-class tax promise has come into question.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and top White House economist Larry Summers stirred fears of its demise last summer. At the time, Geithner said in a Sunday-show interview that the nation would have to “do what it takes,” while Summers said the country should not “rule things out no matter what.” Those comments were made in discussions about how the government could control the deficit and pay for health care reform.

The budget outlook may seem even more dire now. Obama on Friday signed a law raising the debt limit to $14.3 trillion, days after sending Congress a budget with a deficit of $1.3 trillion.

Budget experts say these numbers may crush the president’s middle-class pledge.

Maya McGuinness, with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said Obama can’t take any option “off the table” as he examines the immensity of the budget-balancing challenge and realizes that every part of the budget will have to be part of the solution.

But backing off his tax pledge is a big political risk. Former President George H.W. Bush infamously declared, “Read my lips — no new taxes,” during the 1988 presidential campaign, and then raised them three years later as part of a budget deal with Democrats.

Former President Bill Clinton beat him in 1992, promising “an America in which middle-class incomes, not middle-class taxes, are going up.”

One year later, Clinton raised gasoline taxes and Social Security taxes on the middle class and raised income taxes on couples earning more than $140,000.

The White House points out that Obama cut taxes for the middle class last year. The real flip-flopping, aides say, can be found with the seven Senate Republicans who co-sponsored a debt and deficit reduction commission only to recently vote against it — forcing Obama to unilaterally create one.

Fox News’ Major Garrett contributed to this report.

Foxnews.com

January 19, 2010

In a victory few thought possible just a month ago, Republican Scott Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley Tuesday in the race for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy — a win that could grind President Obama’s agenda to a halt and portend huge losses for Democrats in the November midterms.

In a victory few thought possible just a month ago, Republican Scott Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley Tuesday in the race for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy — a win that could grind President Obama’s agenda to a halt and portend huge losses for Democrats in the November midterms.

In his victory speech, Brown declared that he had “defied the odds and the pundits,” and said he would try to be a “worthy successor” to Kennedy.

“Tonight, the independent voice of Massachusetts has spoken,” Brown said. “This Senate seat belongs to no one person, no one political party. … This is the people’s seat.”

With 97 percent of precincts reporting, returns showed Brown leading Coakley 52-47 percent, by a margin of 120,000 votes. Independent candidate Joseph Kennedy was pulling 1 percent.

The victory marks a stunning upset in a race thought to be safe for Democrats until Brown’s campaign began to surge just weeks ago. It has powerful ramifications for Obama’s agenda.

The GOP state senator, once sworn in, will break the Democrats’ 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority in Washington. This creates problems for proposed legislation ranging from financial regulatory reform to cap-and-trade, but most immediately Brown’s win sends Democrats into a scramble to pass health care reform before he arrives in Washington. Democrats were already weighing options for how to fast-track the bill before polls closed Tuesday.

Brown blasted the health care bill in his Tuesday night speech. He was visibly giddy during the address, going off script and at one point offering up his daughters to the dating circuit — and later flubbing his campaign pitch line, “I’m Scott Brown. I’m from Wrentham. And I drive a truck.”

Coakley, in her concession speech, said she was “heartbroken” by the result but thanked the Kennedy family for their support in the race and said she respects the voters’ choice.

“There will be plenty of Wednesday-morning quarterbacking about what happened, what went right, what went wrong …. We will be honest about the assessment of this race and although I was very disappointed, I always respect the voters’ choice,” she said.

Brown’s margin of victory is significant, making it difficult for any potential challenges to slow down his certification as the winner. The state senator becomes the first Republican to be elected to the Senate from the Bay State since 1972.

Kennedy, who died in August, held the post for 47 years.

“This is a lot different than my victory,” former Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney told Fox News. “To have a Republican senator, that’s unheard of. … This is monumental. This is epic.”

He and other Republicans said the race sends a warning sign to Washington that voters are not happy with Obama’s policy decisions.

The White House said Obama has spoken with both candidates. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama told Brown he “looks forward to working with him on the urgent economic challenges facing Massachusetts families and struggling families across our nation.”

Considering how much was on the line, Brown’s late-in-the-game surge commanded the attention of the Democratic Party establishment, which dispatched top officials over the past week to try to keep the seat formerly held by Kennedy in Democratic hands. Voter interest in the race for U.S. Senate also seemed high throughout the day. Poll workers reported a steady stream of voters at the ballot box despite the snow.

Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin was predicting turnout could be as high as 50 percent.

Brown’s campaign marked an upset just by being as competitive as it was against Coakley’s.

Democrats outnumber Republicans 3-to-1 in the state — 37 percent of registered voters are Democrats, 12 percent are Republicans and 51 percent are unaffiliated. Obama won the state by 26 percentage points in the 2008 presidential election.

But Brown was pulling far more support across the state Tuesday than Republican presidential candidate John McCain did in 2008.

The campaigns had been inundated with help from outside the state in recent days. Obama and former President Bill Clinton both came to campaign rallies for Coakley, and Obama appeared in a television ad.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee in Washington also “emptied out the building” of staff to send nearly everyone to Massachusetts to help Brown get out the vote. The NRSC reportedly quietly shifted $500,000 to help Brown’s campaign in the last two weeks.

Brown’s swift rise in the reliably blue state has startled Democrats nationally who are already worried about a backlash in the midterms.

“When there’s trouble in Massachusetts, there’s trouble everywhere, and they know it,” Brown said Tuesday night.

Sen. Robert Menendez, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, acknowledged the rough road ahead for the party.

“I have no interest in sugar coating what happened in Massachusetts. There is a lot of anxiety in the country right now,” he said in a statement. “In the days ahead, we will sort through the lessons of Massachusetts: the need to redouble our efforts on the economy, the need to show that our commitment to real change is as powerful as it was in 2008, and the reality that we cannot take a single thing for granted and cannot afford even a second of complacency.”

Brown will have to run for re-election in November 2012.

Washingtonexaminer.com

January 15, 2010

Byron York

Here in Massachusetts, as well as in Washington, a growing sense of gloom is setting in among Democrats about the fortunes of Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley. “I have heard that in the last two days the bottom has fallen out of her poll numbers,” says one well-connected Democratic strategist. In her own polling, Coakley is said to be around five points behind Republican Scott Brown. “If she’s not six or eight ahead going into the election, all the intensity is on the other side in terms of turnout,” the Democrat says. “So right now, she is destined to lose.”
Intensifying the gloom, the Democrat says, is the fact that the same polls showing Coakley falling behind also show President Obama with a healthy approval rating in the state. “With Obama at 60 percent in Massachusetts, this shouldn’t be happening, but it is,” the Democrat says.
Given those numbers, some Democrats, eager to distance Obama from any electoral failure, are beginning to compare Coakley to Creigh Deeds, the losing Democratic candidate in the Virginia governor’s race last year. Deeds ran such a lackluster campaign, Democrats say, that his defeat could be solely attributed to his own shortcomings, and should not be seen as a referendum on President Obama’s policies or those of the national Democratic party.
The same sort of thinking is emerging in Massachusetts. “This is a Creigh Deeds situation,” the Democrat says. “I don’t think it says that the Obama agenda is a problem. I think it says, 1) that she’s a terrible candidate, 2) that she ran a terrible campaign, 3) that the climate is difficult but she should have been able to overcome it, and 4) that Democrats beware — you better run good campaigns, or you’re going to lose.”
With the election still four days away, Democrats are still hoping that “something could happen” to change the dynamics of the race. But until that thing happens, the situation as it exists today explains Barack Obama’s decision not to travel to Massachusetts to campaign for Coakley. “If the White House thinks she can win, Obama will be there,” the Democrat says. “If they don’t think she can win, he won’t be there.” For national Democrats, the task is now to insulate Obama against any suggestion that a Coakley defeat would be a judgment on the president’s agenda and performance in office.
The private talk among Democrats is also reflected in some public polling on the race. Late Thursday, we learned the results of a Suffolk University poll showing Brown in the lead by four points, 50 percent to 46 percent. That poll showed Obama with a 55 percent approval rating. Also on Thursday, two of Washington’s leading political analysts, Stuart Rothenberg and Charlie Cook, each changed their assessment of the Brown/Coakley race from a narrow advantage for Coakley to a toss-up.

So how much rocket science does it take to figure out that the Obameister’s policy of appeasement just isn’t working? And the better question is why didn’t more people see that he was ill prepared to be the Commander-in-Chief while we were at war with an enemy he is afraid to name:  Jihadist Islam?

AMERCAN THINKER

January 10, 2010

By Rabbi Aryeh Spero

January 6, 2010

January 6, 2010

By Chris Cillizza

Embattled Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) has scheduled a news conference for Wednesday at which he is expected to announce he will not seek reelection, sources familiar with his plans said Tuesday night.

Word of Dodd’s retirement plans comes after months of speculation about his political future, his faltering poll numbers and a growing sense among the Democratic establishment that he could not win a sixth term in the Senate. The news also came on the same day Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) announced he would not seek reelection.

Once among the safest of incumbents, Dodd’s political star fell over a two-year period, during which he moved his family to Iowa to pursue the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination and was linked to a VIP mortgage loan program overseen by a controversial Wall Street financier. He also drew harsh questions about his oversight of Wall Street, as chair of the Senate Banking Committee, in the years when the nation’s financial system was heading toward near collapse.

Dodd’s poll numbers plummeted last spring before rebounding somewhat over the summer. But another dive in the polls late last year led to widespread concern that Dodd needed to vacate the seat for Democrats to have a chance at retaining it in the 2010 elections.

Dodd’s troubles were politically ironic, coming at a time when his power on Capitol Hill had reached a height that most legislators only dream of. In addition to the banking committee, he also held pivotal posts on the health and foreign relations committees.

Over the past 18 months, he has been the primary author or co-author of legislation rewriting housing mortgage rules; the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street; key portions of the $787 billion stimulus package; a consumer protection bill overseeing the credit card industry; and the nearly $900 billion health-care legislation that has passed the Senate and is in final negotiations with the House now.

With each major piece of legislation Dodd ushered into law, the senator also endured criticism that he did not anticipate. The mortgage bill came in mid-2008, which some said was delayed because of Dodd’s presidential aspirations, and the financial bailout became one of the most unpopular pieces of legislation passed in recent memory. His work on the stimulus bill, approved last February, was an attempt to rein in executive compensation at firms that had been bailed out but instead led to sharp criticism when executives at AIG, the largest recipient of taxpayer dollars, still received seven-figure bonuses shortly thereafter.

Without Dodd on the ballot, Republicans’ chances of taking over a seat in solid-blue Connecticut are considerably diminished.

Richard Blumenthal (D), who has served as state attorney general since 1990, is widely expected to declare his candidacy for the seat. The most popular politician in the state, Blumenthal has long coveted a Senate seat, and he had already signaled that he would run for the Democratic nomination against Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I) in 2012.

Former Rep. Rob Simmons and businesswoman Linda McMahon are battling for the Republican nomination, but either would start as an underdog in a general-election match-up with Blumenthal.

Dodd, 65, was elected to the Senate in 1980, after three terms in the House, following the path blazed by his father, Thomas. By the early 1990s, Chris Dodd had set his sights on Senate leadership.

He ran for Democratic leader in the wake of the 1994 elections, but he lost in a close race to Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.). President Bill Clinton selected Dodd to chair the Democratic National Committee, overseeing Clinton’s reelection as president in 1996, but the DNC’s fundraising practices during the 1996 campaign landed him in some political hot water.

After Daschle was voted out of office in 2004, Dodd considered jumping into the race to succeed him, but he quickly stepped aside when he realized Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) had overwhelming support to claim the post.

Instead, Dodd began laying the groundwork for a presidential campaign in 2008. Always a long shot in a field filled with better-known and better-financed candidates, he moved his family to Iowa in fall 2007 in hopes of generating some excitement for his bid. But the move backfired in Connecticut, where voters bristled.

The next year, it was reported that Dodd had received special treatment in his acquisition of a mortgage loan from Countrywide Financial, through a program that labeled him and others as friends of Countrywide chief executive Angelo Mozilo. Dodd insisted he was unaware of his inclusion in the program, and he was cleared of any wrongdoing by the Senate Ethics Committee, but the political damage was done.

Staff writers Paul Kane and Dan Balz contributed to this report.

The Hill

January 5, 2010

By Eric Zimmermann and Michael O’Brien

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) defended Congress’ work on a healthcare bill Tuesday saying the process has displayed historic transparency, just as C-SPAN mounts an effort to open the negotiations.

C-SPAN wrote a letter to congressional leaders Tuesday asking that TV cameras be allowed to film negotiations to reconcile the House and Senate versions of healthcare reform legislation.

But Pelosi said Congress has already been transparent throughout the process.

“There has never been a more open process for any legislation,” Pelosi said at a press conference.

Pelosi also hinted that holding informal negotiations–likely without TV cameras–might be the most practical way to push the legislation through.

“We will do what is necessary to pass the bill,” Pelosi said.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), assistant to the Speaker, said the healthcare bill had been “subjected to unprecedented level of public scrutiny.”

Pressed on whether C-SPAN cameras would be allowed in negotiations, Van Hollen hedged.

“We don’t even know if there’s going to be a conference committee,” he said, alluding to the likelihood that Democrats will reconcile the two bills behind closed doors.

JournalStar.com

December 30, 2009

Don Walton

As a fresh poll measured the political cost of Sen. Ben Nelson’s health reform vote, he prepared Tuesday to take his case directly to Nebraskans during Wednesday night’s Holiday Bowl game.
Nelson will air a new TV ad in which he attempts to debunk opposition claims that the Senate legislation represents a government takeover, and he makes the case for health care reform.
“With all the distortions about health care reform, I want you to hear directly from me,” the Democratic senator says in the ad.
Nelson, dressed in an open-necked shirt and sweater, speaks directly into the camera during the 30-second ad.
The message will be launched during the Nebraska-Arizona football game and continue to air statewide for an undisclosed number of days.
The political damage Nelson may have incurred in providing the critical 60th vote that cleared the way for Senate passage of the health care reform bill showed up Tuesday in a poll released by Rasmussen Reports.
The telephone survey of 500 Nebraskans, conducted Monday, suggested Republican Gov. Dave Heineman would defeat Nelson in a potential 2012 Senate race by a 61-30 margin.
The poll showed Nelson with a 55 percent unfavorable rating and 64 percent disapproval for Democratic health care reform legislation.
“The good news for (Nelson) is that he doesn’t have to face Nebraska voters until 2012,” Rasmussen Reports stated in posting results of the survey on its Web site.
Nelson would be seeking a third term should he choose to be a candidate for re-election three years from now.
Heineman is seeking re-election as governor in 2010 and would be at mid-term if he chooses to enter the Senate race in 2012.
Julie Schmit-Albin, executive director of Nebraska Right to Life, said the Rasmussen results demonstrate that Nelson’s votes on health care are “clearly out of touch with the majority” of Nebraskans.
Earlier, Schmit-Albin said Nelson betrayed his pro-life supporters when he agreed to compromise language prohibiting federal funding of abortions.
She has argued that the language would allow federal funding to be used to subsidize abortions. Nelson maintains there would be no funding of abortions with federal money.
“One wonders if (Nelson) misjudged the level of opposition to this legislation from his constituents,” Schmit-Albin said.
“Or if he had already made a decision to never seek office again.”
In his TV message to Nebraskans, Nelson says: “I listened to you and took a common-sense approach to improve the bill.
“Now it lowers costs for families and small business, protects Medicare, finally guarantees coverage for pre-existing conditions and reduces the defici
“And it’s not run by the government.
“I’m convinced this is right for Nebraska,” Nelson says.

These Congresspeople ABSOLUTELY MUST be voted out of office.  In a vote of 412 to 12 last night, these morons had the audacity to vote against, vote a meaningless “present” or not vote on a very important piece of legislation that passed overwhelmingly:

The IRAN REFINED PETROLEUM SANCTIONS ACT OF 2009. More than 3/4 of the House co-sponsored this act and these idiots have revealed their true hate for America.  Let’s dump them ALL at the next bus stop, America!

Send this to everyone on your email list!!

—- NOES    12 —

—- ANSWERED “PRESENT”    4 —

—- NOT VOTING    6 —

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

December 10, 2009

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that this message Iran’s defense minister Ahmad Vahidi brought to Damascus where he is attending a session of the high Iranian-Syrian defense committee which went into its second day Thursday, Dec. 10. Syrian defense minister Ali Habib is in the chair.

The Iranian visitor indicated that Tehran expects an Israeli attack within a month. According to Iranian intelligence, Jerusalem will take its green light from President Barack Obama’s forced admission after Christmas that his policy of dialogue and stiffer sanctions have failed in the face of Tehran’s rejection of the international proposal to send its enriched uranium for overseas processing.

“The countdown for war is coming close to its end,” said Vahidi to the joint defense committee. “And we must get our strategic partnership in shape ahead of time.”

The leitmotif of the Iranian defense secretary’s talks in Damascus was the fate Iran and Syria share and their strategic partnership as the only safeguards against what he called “‘American-backed Zionist aggression.” Syria must commit itself to joint military action against Israel, because “stronger defense ties between Iran and Syria are elements of deterrence in confronting the Zionist regime’s threats to the countries of the region.”

For the first, time, Gen. Vahidi openly threatened to respond to a possible Israel attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities by striking Israel’s “chemical, microbiological and banned nuclear weapons” production sites.

His message brought forth a tepid Syrian response: The Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Syrian Secretary of Defense Ali Habib as commenting early Thursday, December 10, that an attack on Iran by any party would be deemed an attack on Syria and draw commensurate retaliation.

But DEBKAfile’s military sources point out that comment did not satisfy Tehran because it is short of clear language pledging specific military action. Iranian officials mean to stay in Damascus and keep up the pressure until they elicit a firm, binding Syrian commitment to strike Israel on its ally’s behalf if Iran comes under attack.

Gen. Vahidi arrived in Damascus Tuesday aboard a special Iranian military aircraft. It carried the largest Iranian military delegation ever seen in the Syrian capital, representing every branch of Iran’s armed forces, Revolutionary Guards Corps and intelligence.

Preparations for coordinated retaliation for a potential Israeli attack also brought a top Hizballah delegation incoming from Lebanon to Damascus Tuesday night, Dec. 8, headed by its secretary general Hassan Nasrallah.

When they met, Syrian and Iranian military officials proposed that Hizballah and the Palestinian terrorist organizations start heating up Israel’s borders in the coming days to draw the attention from the world’s focus on the Iranian and Syrian nuclear programs.

Sunday, December 6, DEBKAfile’s Washington sources reported that the Obama administration was about to launch a campaign against Syria’s covert military nuclear program based on the “smoking gun” of traces of highly processed plutonium found by UN inspectors at the bombed Syrian-North Korean facility at Dir a-Zur. The campaign will focus on this finding as evidence of Iran’s covert nuclear activities and proliferation activities

MSNBC.com

WASHINGTON – With its pomp and glitter, a White House state dinner is a symbol as much as a meal — social evidence of the central leadership role that America plays in world affairs.

 But as President Barack Obama prepares to host his first such dinner — for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — I have a nagging sense that all of that grandeur has become a little deceiving.

 I’m not sure the rest of the world sees the White House as “the place to be” any more. And that will have unsettling consequences for all of us.

 Obama’s role as the elegant, path-breaking, intercultural celebrity is not enough to reverse a steady erosion of our global dominance — especially not if he’s seen merely as a new hood ornament on an economic clunker.

 My concern is merely anecdotal. But I have been collecting anecdotal evidence for decades. It’s what I do for a living.

 I was in London and Paris last week while Obama was making his first trip to Asia. I kept paging through the local papers for stories about the trip. They were only few — almost none. He was all but invisible, except when bowing deeply to the emperor of Japan. There weren’t many stories about the United States, either.

 In the business world of London, the talk last week was all about the money pouring into China, India, and Brazil, and to a lesser extent, Russia.

 The cash under discussion wasn’t from American investors, but rather Saudi Arabia, the Persian Gulf and Europe — and even trickles from one BRIC to another.

 Every fund manager who was living in or passing through London bragged about just having been to — or about to leave for — China.

 I never thought the glitter of Regent Street could match Manhattan, but it does.

 In Paris, the headlines and the political talk I heard and read did not focus on our president or our prospects, but on the selection of a new — and no longer merely symbolic — leader for a United Europe. Europeans were talking to each other directly; Americans were not, as far as I could tell, very much a part of the conversation.

 Even in matters of science and technology, I saw cause for concern. Europe is now pressing ahead successfully with its CERN supercollider, the largest experiment in the history of physics. The open-source management of the project is itself something new — and, like the World Wide Web, a non-U.S. invention.

 Now, I know that one can never — should never — sell the U.S. short. Our economy, as inequitable and capricious as it is, remains the largest if not the strongest of them all. And our military, over-extended as it is, is the only one that can keep peace on the planet.

 I’m not a “declinist.” I have faith in our special destiny and re-generative powers. And the U.K. and Europe have their own fiscal problems — it still isn’t clear whether the BRICs can contain the explosion they’ve unleashed.

 Still, my trip made me ask two questions: why and so what?

 After rivers of cash poured into the U.S., a “flight to safety” induced — ironically, thanks to our own profligacy. Now the world’s trillions are being shipped elsewhere in search of better returns. And the hoard is no longer being counted solely in dollars.

 Much of that money is piled up in China and the Gulf — two places where business is increasingly being done without Wall Street as the middle man.

 For one thing, it’s more efficient. For another, there are fewer cultural and security concerns.

 When Osama Bin Laden attacked New York City, he meant to assault the central switching station for capital assets and direct them elsewhere.

 To some extent, it has worked. In London I met Arab and Muslim moneymen who left the U.S. after 9/11 — and have not been back. “The security is just too much of a hassle,” said one Dubai-based investor. “It’s not worth it.”

 And now New York — the erstwhile center of the financial action — is about to become paralyzed by the emotions of reliving Sept. 11 by the courtroom ravings of Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

 Washington may not prove to be an attractive a place for investors, either. We’re busy here trying to figure out how to deal with a national debt of $12 trillion — which could double in a decade.

 Other countries are just as heavily leveraged as we are — or even more so — including the UK and Japan. But they don’t have the world’s reserve currency, or our colossal global military commitments.

 Meanwhile, the growth rate in the BRICs for the most part re-mains strong. You can’t overstate smart money’s obsession with China even as our own global brand has been damaged.

 Right now, we seem to be known abroad primarily for war, debt and dirt in the air — and not as the beacon and example of humanity at its best. The wars and borrowing of the Bush administration are a good part of the reason why — and it’s a grim reality Obama confronts every day.

 And so what?

 The “so what” is about the American standard of living, but, more importantly, the standard of thinking. We are built on faith in the future. Our narrative has always been upward and outward.

 So now, we may have to turn inward for a while, and turn the microscope on ourselves. How do we renew and restore ourselves?

 Maybe the prime minister of India has some ideas.

So much to look forward to from the dude who brought you, “Change you can believe in.”   So how’s that “change” working for you now?

This is what happens when Americans pick Presidents like their “American Idol” winners!

AMERICAN THINKER

August 31, 2009

By Geoffrey P. Hunt

Associated Press

November 23, 2009

By KAREN MATTHEWS

NEW YORK — The five men facing trial in the Sept. 11 attacks will plead not guilty so that they can air their criticisms of U.S. foreign policy, the lawyer for one of the defendants said.
Scott Fenstermaker, the lawyer for accused terrorist Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, said Sunday the men would not deny their role in the 2001 attacks but “would explain what happened and why they did it.”
The U.S. Justice Department announced earlier this month that Ali and four other men accused of murdering nearly 3,000 people in the deadliest terrorist attack in the U.S. will face a civilian federal trial just blocks from the site of the destroyed World Trade Center.
Ali, also known as Ammar al-Baluchi, is a nephew of professed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Mohammed, Ali and the others will explain “their assessment of American foreign policy,” Fenstermaker said.
“Their assessment is negative,” he said.
Fenstermaker met with Ali last week at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He has not spoken with the others but said the men have discussed the trial among themselves.
Fenstermaker was first quoted in The New York Times in Sunday’s editions.
Critics of Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to try the men in a New York City civilian courthouse have warned that the trial would provide the defendants with a propaganda platform.
Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, said Sunday that while the men may attempt to use the trial to express their views, “we have full confidence in the ability of the courts and in particular the federal judge who may preside over the trial to ensure that the proceeding is conducted appropriately and with minimal disruption, as federal courts have done in the past.”
Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned Holder for hours about his decision to send the five 9/11 suspects to New York for trial.
Critics of Holder’s decision — mostly Republicans — argued the trial will give Mohammed and his co-defendants a world stage to spout hateful rhetoric. Holder said such concerns are misplaced, and any pronouncements by the suspects would only make them look worse.
“I have every confidence that the nation and the world will see him for the coward that he is,” Holder told the committee. “I’m not scared of what Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has to say at trial — and no one else needs to be, either.”
The attorney general said he does not believe holding the trial in New York — at a federal courthouse that has seen a number of high-profile terrorism trials in recent decades — will increase the risk of terror attacks there.

DEBKAfile Special Report

November 19, 2009

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the UN inspectors’ October visit to Iran turned up dual-track progress in support of its nuclear weapons program: Feverish activity was registered in the production of plutonium at Isfahan as an alternative to the Fordo enriched uranium plant near Qom which starts up in 2011.

The IAEA experts discovered 30 metric tons-IS of heavy water hidden in 600 tanks, each holding 13 gallons, according to the report they handed in last week to agency headquarters in Vienna.

From the shape of the tanks and other indications, the experts concluded that this stock had not come from the heavy water plant at Arak but was imported.

Metric tons-IS measure the amount of energy a given quantity can release. The force and types of nuclear bombs are gauged in kilotons or megatons. The American nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in World War II was equal to 20 kilotons of TNT. By this standard, the amount of heavy water discovered at Isfahan would be enough to make at least one plutonium bomb when the plutonium reactor under construction near the Arak heavy water facility is finished.

Other than its civilian uses, heavy water may be used to produce tritium, which intensifies the explosive force of nuclear warheads. The discovery of quantities of heavy water at Isfahan confirms the suspicions surrounding Iran’s nuclear program in three respects.

1. The long concealment of the Fordo site suggested to the UN inspectors that Iran has more hole-in the-corner nuclear facilities in the country. The discovery of a stock of heavy water further confirmed that Tehran is working hard to attain a nuclear weapon capacity on more than one track and at additional covert sites.

2. The IAEA wants to know who is selling Iran heavy water in violation of Security Council resolutions banning the sale or export of nuclear materials to Iran.

The very fact that some government or outside entity is willing to flout UN resolutions demonstrates that any further international sanctions would be ineffective for halting Iran’s nuclear drive, even assuming that President Barack Obama gained Russian and Chinese backing for such penalties. This backing has so far been withheld.

DEBKAfile’s sources report from Vienna that on November 10, IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei sent a request to the Iranian Nuclear Energy Committee asking it to confirm the presence of the heavy water and document its origin with a full explanation. Tehran has yet to reply.

3. The presence of the heavy water tanks at Isfahan is additional proof that the reactor at Arak is designed for military purposes, not a peaceful installation as Tehran claims.

Washington, D.C. (November 17, 2009) — Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Matthew Brooks commented today on a post-election poll done by McLaughlin & Associates in New Jersey on November 3 and 4, 2009:

“Recently released post-election poll results from New Jersey show that Republican Chris Christie won 38% of the Jewish vote this year in his run for governor. We are pleased by Christie’s strong showing in the Jewish community in a very close race. [Click here to download a memo of the poll results.]

“The Jewish community was a key battleground in this election, with both Republicans and the Democrats actively campaigning for Jewish support. In past elections, when a New Jersey gubernatorial race was close, the Jewish community made an important difference. This year, as in 1993 and 1997, it is clear that the strong Jewish turnout for Chris Christie helped put the Republican candidate over the top.

“We believe that the 2009 election in New Jersey was not just a referendum on the job Jon Corzine has done as governor, but also on the larger national question of whether voters approve of the policies of President Obama and the Democratic Congress. There is a definite sense of ‘buyers’ remorse,’ especially among independents, about the higher taxes, higher deficits, and higher spending that Obama and Corzine represent.

“New Jersey is a state in serious economic crisis. Given the choice for four more years of Corzine/Obama policies, a large segment of the Jewish community voted for Republican Chris Christie and real change.”
###

ACT! FOR AMERICA

Did you know that, from November 5^th to November 10^th, 85% of the news stories about the Ft. Hood attack produced by ABC, CBS and NBC did not mention the words “terror” or “terrorist”?

Did you know that investigators found personal business cards belonging to Nidal Hasan that had the initials “S.O.A” — “Soldier of Allah”?

Only now are more and more news reports and commentators acknowledging, some very grudgingly, that Hasan was a jihadist. There simply is too much evidence to ignore — even for the most stubborn politically correct apologists for radical Islam.

Brigitte Gabriel has, of course, been following the Ft. Hood terrorist attack very closely, conducting numerous interviews since it happened.

Today she gives her take on how this happened, why it could have been prevented, and what this means for the future.

Click here, or the image below, to watch this very important message from Brigitte Gabriel. Then forward this email to everyone you know so we can take Brigitte’s message viral!

And if you haven’t yet signed our petition calling for a government investigation of CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, click here to do so today. As of Friday morning, November 13^th, nearly 19,000 people have added their names to this petition. How about you?

New York Post

November 5, 2009

By GEORGE A. KING III

Baseball’s penthouse is again decorated with hand-painted silk Yankees pinstripe wallpaper.
Nine years after their last World Series title, the Yankees earned No. 27 last night when they spanked the defending champion Phillies 7-3 in Game 6 at Yankee Stadium before a record crowd of 50,315 that didn’t include George Steinbrenner.
Tomorrow morning the Yankees will celebrate with a ticker-tape parade up lower Broadway.
“Right where we belong,” Derek Jeter bellowed from a stage in the middle of the $1.5 billion Stadium.
And they looked very comfortable. Alex Rodriguez, who doesn’t have to answer any more questions about choking in the postseason, let loose with a river of victory tears and promised the parade will be a huge party.

Mariano Rivera held a copy of The Post’s front page with the No. 27 on the cover.
Hideki Matsui, who went 3-for-4 with a homer and six RBIs that tied the single-game Series record, was named the MVP and took the occasion to lobby for a return.

“I hope so,” when asked if he would be back. Matsui can become a free agent in 15 days. “I hope it works out. I love New York and I love the fans.”
From 1996 to 2000 the Yankees won four Series titles and three straight (1998-2000). They came within two outs of winning in 2001, were bounced from the 2003 Series in six games and didn’t make it back until this year when they spent almost a half-billion dollars of Steinbrenner’s fortune to import CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira to successfully plug gaping holes in the rotation and lineup.
When the subject of money surfaced, general manager Brian Cashman was ready with an answer.
“You can call us anything you want. You’re also going to have to call us world champions,” said Cashman, who didn’t join the Steinbrenner family on the stage to accept the World Series trophy.

November 3, 2009

TRENTON — Chris Christie, an aggressive former prosecutor who racked up a perfect conviction rate in public corruption cases and became the darling of New Jersey’s Republican Party establishment, has unseated the deep-pocketed but unpopular Gov. Jon Corzine.

Christie, 47, on Tuesday became the first member of his party in a dozen years to win a statewide contest in heavily Democratic New Jersey. President Barack Obama invested heavily in the race, campaigning with Corzine five times on three separate visits.

With 75 percent of precincts reporting, Christie had 50 percent of the vote compared to 44 percent for Corzine. Independent candidate Chris Daggett, who at one point had been feared as a potential spoiler, had about 5 percent.

Christie accepted public financing in the race against the wealthy incumbent and was outspent by more than $12 million. He did get financial help from the Republican Governors Association and other national Republican groups, which bought television time in the pricey New York and Philadelphia media markets.

Christie ran on a platform of smaller government and relentlessly criticized Corzine for what he called poor economic stewardship — unemployment was 9.8 percent in October and property taxes averaged $7,045 per household, the nation’s highest. But he was criticized during the campaign for remaining vague about how he would solve New Jersey’s chronic fiscal problems.

The physically robust Christie endured an onslaught of personal attacks from the Corzine campaign; his weight even became a central issue at one point.

Christie made a reputation for himself as a hard-charging U.S. attorney who locked up 130 officials without losing a single corruption case.

However, his image as an ethics champion was questioned when revelations emerged that he had lent a subordinate money but failed to report it, and that he’d been involved in a traffic accident but was not ticketed.

In the final days of the campaign, while Corzine was campaigning with Obama and former President Bill Clinton, Christie hit all 21 counties aboard a bus, campaigning with New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean.

Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, who was sharply criticized when he yelled, “You lie,” during Obama’s health care speech to a joint session of Congress, stumped for Christie in the campaign’s final weekend.

October 29, 2009

by Ed White

AP – Detroit Police enter the temporary home to the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque in Detroit Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009. …

• Slideshow: Radical Islamic leader killed in Detroit raid

DETROIT – A leader of a radical U.S. Sunni Islam group killed in a shootout with federal agents near Detroit repeatedly told followers that the government was the enemy and they must be willing to take on the FBI — even if it meant death, authorities said.

“You cannot have a nonviolent revolution,” Luqman Ameen Abdullah said, according to a 2008 conversation secretly recorded by a confidential FBI source.

Abdullah, 53, was killed Wednesday at a warehouse in Dearborn, where agents were attempting to arrest him on charges that included conspiracy to sell stolen goods and illegal possession and sale of firearms. He was one of 11 people named in a criminal complaint after a two-year investigation.

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said Abdullah refused to surrender, fired a weapon and was killed by gunfire from agents.

The 43-page complaint described Abdullah as an extremist who believed the FBI bombed New York’s World Trade Center in 1993 and the Oklahoma City federal building two years later. Abdullah beat children with sticks at his Detroit mosque, the complaint claimed, and was trained with his followers in the use of firearms, martial arts and swords.

Neither Abdullah nor his co-defendants were charged with terrorism. But he was “advocating and encouraging his followers to commit violent acts against the United States,” FBI agent Gary Leone wrote in an affidavit filed with the complaint.

The FBI said Abdullah, also known as Christopher Thomas, was an imam, or prayer leader, of a radical group named Ummah whose primary mission is to establish an Islamic state within the U.S.

Abdullah told followers that it was their “duty to oppose the FBI and the government and it does not matter if they die” and to “simply shoot a cop in the head” if they wanted the officer’s bulletproof vest, Leon wrote.

The affidavit also said bombs, guns and even the recipe for TNT were among Abdullah’s regular topics with his allies. Group members and former members said they were “willing to do anything Abdullah instructs and/or preaches, even including criminal conduct and acts of violence,” the FBI agent wrote.

But that description doesn’t match what Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Michigan chapter, said he knew of Abdullah.

“He would open up the mosque to homeless people. He used to run a soup kitchen and feed indigent people,” Walid said. “I knew nothing of him that was related to any nefarious or criminal behavior.”

Walid said Abdullah had a wife and children. A phone number for the family had been disconnected.

Ummah believes that a separate Islamic state in the U.S. would be controlled by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, who is serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Colorado for shooting two police officers in Georgia in 2000, Leone said.

Al-Amin, a veteran of the black power movement, started the group after he converted to Islam in prison.

“They’re not taking their cues from overseas,” said Jimmy Jones, a professor of world religions at Manhattanville College and a longtime Muslim prison chaplain. “This group is very much American born and bred.”

Abdullah’s mosque is in a brick duplex on a residential street in Detroit. A sign on the door in English and Arabic reads, in part, “There is no God but Allah.” The mosque was located elsewhere in the city until the property was lost in January because of unpaid taxes.

When the eviction took place, a search turned up empty shell casings and large holes in the concrete wall of a “shooting range,” Leone said.

Seven of the 10 people charged with Abdullah were in custody, including a state prison inmate, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Three were still at large. Another man not named in the complaint also was arrested.

The FBI built its case over two years with the help of confidential sources close to Abdullah who recorded conversations and participated in undercover operations involving the sale of furs, laptop computers, televisions, energy drinks and power tools.

Abdullah received at least 20 percent of any profit and claimed the “Prophet Muhammad said that it is okay to participate in theft; as long as that person prays, they are in a good state,” Leone wrote in the affidavit.

Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Dearborn, said the FBI briefed him about the arrests.

“We know that this is not something to be projected as something against Muslims,” Hamad said.

___

October 23, 2009

By Toby Harnden in Washington

Gallup recorded an average daily approval rating of 53 per cent for Mr Obama for the third quarter of the year, a sharp drop from the 62 per cent he recorded from April.

His current approval rating – hovering just above the level that would make re-election an uphill struggle – is close to the bottom for newly-elected president. Mr Obama entered the White House with a soaring 78 per cent approval rating.

The bad polling news came as Mr Obama returned to the campaign trail to prevent his Democratic party losing two governorships next month in states in which he defeated Senator John McCain in last November’s election.

Jeffrey Jones of Gallup explained: “The dominant political focus for Obama in the third quarter was the push for health care reform, including his nationally televised address to Congress in early September.

“Obama hoped that Congress would vote on health care legislation before its August recess, but that goal was missed, and some members of Congress faced angry constituents at town hall meetings to discuss health care reform. Meanwhile, unemployment continued to climb near 10 per cent.”

Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey is in severe danger of defeat while Democrats are fast losing hope that Creigh Deeds can beat his Republican opponent in Virginia. Twin Democratic losses would be a major blow to Mr Obama’s prestige.

Campaigning for Mr Corzine in Hackensack on Wednesday night, Mr Obama delivered a plea that almost seemed as much for himself as the local candidate: “I’m here today to urge you to cast aside the cynics and the skeptics, and prove to all Americans that leaders who do what’s right and who do what’s hard will be rewarded and not rejected.”

Mr Corzine, a former Goldman Sachs executive and multi-millionaire, is currently running even in New Jersey, which is normally comfortably Democratic, while Mr Deeds is trailing badly in Virginia, a swing state that was key to Mr Obama’s 2008 victory.

Mr Obama is also facing widespread criticism for his drawn-out decision-making process over what to do next in Afghanistan.

Republicans sense Mr Obama is in a vulnerable position and this week saw the return to the public stage of his perhaps most vehement opponent – Vice-President Dick Cheney.

In a blistering speech on Wednesday night, he accused Mr Obama of failing to give Americans troops on the ground a clear mission or defined goals and of being seemingly “afraid to make a decision” about Afghanistan “The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger,” Cheney said at the Center for Security Policy in Washington.

“Make no mistake, signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries.”

He hit out at Obama aides who suggested that the Bush administration had failed to weigh up conditions in Afghanistan properly before committing troops.

“Now they seem to be pulling back and blaming others for their failure to implement the strategy they embraced. It’s time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity.”

New York Post

October 19, 2009

PAUL THARP

The New York Times today said it was cutting 100 newsroom jobs, as the struggling newspaper continues to make cuts in the face of a declining advertising market.

The round of cuts marks the second time this year that the Times has slashed jobs. In March, the company eliminated 100 positions and imposed a 5 percent pay cut that lasts through the end of the year.

According to a memo distributed to employees by Executive Editor Bill Keller, the company hopes to make all the cuts through voluntary buyouts, though he didn’t rule out involuntary cuts if too few people step up.

The fresh round of cuts come amid signs the ad picture is starting to show some signs of improvement.

USA Today publisher Gannett reported a better than expected results, even though profit sank by more than 50 percent.

Shares in the Times jumped nearly 5 percent to $8.90 as of 3:30 p.m.

DEBKAfile Special Report

October 19, 2009

Iranian Revolutionary Guards chief Mohammed Ali Jafari

The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafary, Monday, Oct. 19, threatened “crushing” retaliation against the US, UK and Pakistan including the invasion of its eastern neighbor. Tehran links all three to the suicide bombing attack in Sistan-Baluchistan Sunday, Oct. 18, which killed 42 people including seven senior Guards officers. One was Gen. Nur Ali Shoustari, Jafari’s deputy, who was identified by DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources as commander of the al Qods clandestine terror bases in Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

Jafary said: “Behind this scene are the American and British intelligence apparatus and there will have to be retaliatory measures to punish them.”

DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources note that is the first time in Iran’s 30-year Islamic revolution that a military leader has gone to the extreme lengths of threatening to strike US and British military targets, a measure of the damage the regime and Guards suffered from the suicide attack, which has since been condemned and denied by Washington.

Jafari expanded on his charge by saying: “New evidence has been obtained proving the link between yesterday’s terror attack and the US, British and Pakistani intelligence services.” He spoke of evidence showing that all three supported the group. “A delegation would soon travel to Pakistan to present it,” he said.

A military official in Tehran then suggested Iran might launch a military thrust into Pakistan against the group blamed for the attack. Lawmaker Payman Forouzesh said: “There is even unanimity that these operations (could) take place in Pakistan territory.”

Tehran accuses the Sunni secessionist terrorist group Jundallah of Baluchistan, which is fighting for the predominantly Sunni province’s independence, of carrying out the suicide bombing in provincial town of Pisheen near the Pakistan and Afghanistan borders. In the past, Tehran has charged the Pakistani Inter-Service Intelligence agency and the CIA of supporting the group. It has carried out a string of terrorist attacks on regime and Shiite targets including in 2007 a failed assassination attempt on president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report that Tehran will have to make good on its threats without too much delay or lose face among the political and ethnic minority dissidents plaguing on the regime, especially those who rose up in protest against the tainted June 20 presidential election. Hesitation will be seen as weakness.

Past Iranian reprisals were usually carried against the US or Britain indirectly in the Persian Gulf or by local Islamic surrogates like Hizballah in Iraq. Jafari’s words point to a more direct showdown this time by the IRGC or its terrorist arm al Qods.

80% of Americans identify themselves not as Liberals or Conservatives, but as Moderates.   And these Moderates want fiscal conservatism- something the D’s and R’s can’t deliver on.  They want term limits on all elected officials.  And they want a progressive attitude w/r/t social issues.  It’s way past time for a NEW THIRD PARTY in this country- a fiscally conservative/socially progressive platform with the pledge of term limits FOR ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS NATIONWIDE!  Only then can the gridlock, corruption and malfunctions of government be addressed.  Only then can we begin to rebuild our great nation.  This happened before- in 1860, when a relatively unknown lawyer from Illinois ran for President with an upstart third party-  Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party!
IT’S TIME FOR A NEW THIRD PARTY.
You will see it, despite what conventional wisdom tells us- that the vested parties are too rich and powerful to let it happen.  Nope, here’s a place where “follow the money” will not ultimately work.  Follow the hearts and minds of Americans that were sick of the same old Republican Party of George Bush and took a chance and lost on a Democratic powerbroker with a hidden, now blatant, socialist agenda.  No, Americans do not want another Bush and they do not want Obama.  Both parties have failed miserably and have no ability to recover.
IT’S TIME FOR A NEW THIRD PARTY!
Trust me, it’s coming and it’s bigger than Tea Parties.
Spread the word, my friends!

TIMES ONLINE

October 9, 2009

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6867711.ece

PAJAMAS MEDIA

October 9th, 2009

THE ENGLISH DEFENSE LEAGUE  in the spirit of St. George presents,

THE DAY OF RECKONING

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=RKgK-0HwN30

MINISTRY OF TRUTH, OBAMA STYLE

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/ministry_of_truth_obamastyle.html

INTERNET SECURITY IN THE AGE OF OBAMA

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/10/internet_security_in_the_age_o.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3KDmEvNmJ0

Telegraph.co.uk

Octobwer 3, 2009

By Damien McElroy and Ahmad Vahdat

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vitriolic attacks on the Jewish world hide an astonishing secret, evidence uncovered by The Daily Telegraph shows.

Ahmadinejad showing papers during election.  It shows that his family’s previous name was Jewish

A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.

A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.

The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth.

The Sabourjians traditionally hail from Aradan, Mr Ahmadinejad’s birthplace, and the name derives from “weaver of the Sabour”, the name for the Jewish Tallit shawl in Persia .  The name is even on the list of reserved names for Iranian Jews compiled by Iran ’s Ministry of the Interior.

Experts last night suggested Mr Ahmadinejad’s track record for hate-filled attacks on Jews could be an overcompensation to hide his past.

Ali Nourizadeh, of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies, said: “This aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad’s background explains a lot about him.

“Every family that converts into a different religion takes a new identity by condemning their old faith.

“By making anti-Israeli statements he is trying to shed any suspicions about his Jewish connections.  He feels vulnerable in a radical Shia society.”

A London-based expert on Iranian Jewry said that “jian” ending to the name specifically showed the family had been practising Jews.

“He has changed his name for religious reasons, or at least his parents had,” said the Iranian-born Jew living in London .  ”Sabourjian is well known Jewish name in Iran .”

A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in London said it would not be drawn on Mr Ahmadinejad’s background.  ”It’s not something we’d talk about,” said Ron Gidor, a spokesman.

The Iranian leader has not denied his name was changed when his family moved to Tehran in the 1950s.  But he has never revealed what it was change from or directly addressed the reason for the switch.

Relatives have previously said a mixture of religious reasons and economic pressures forced his blacksmith father Ahmad to change when Mr Ahmadinejad was aged four.

The Iranian president grew up to be a qualified engineer with a doctorate in traffic management.  He served in the Revolutionary Guards militia before going on to make his name in hardline politics in the capital.

During this year’s presidential debate on television, he was goaded to admit that his name had changed but he ignored the jibe.

However, Mehdi Khazali, an internet blogger, who called for an investigation of Mr Ahmadinejad’s roots was arrested this summer.

Mr Ahmadinejad has regularly levelled bitter criticism at Israel , questioned its right to exist and denied the Holocaust.  British diplomats walked out of a UN meeting last month after the Iranian president denounced Israel ’s ‘genocide, barbarism and racism.’

Benjamin Netanyahu made an impassioned denunciation of the Iranian leader at the same UN summit.  ”Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium,” he said.  ”A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies the murder of six million Jews while promising to wipe out the State of Israel, the State of the Jews.  What a disgrace.  What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations.”

Mr Ahmadinejad has been consistently outspoken about the Nazi attempt to wipe out the Jewish race.  ”They have created a myth today that they call the massacre of Jews and they consider it a principle above God, religions and the prophets,” he declared at a conference on the holocaust staged in Tehran in 2006.

© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited  2009

Monti Says: You knew it was only a matter of minutes before some political hack like Burris; not elected I might add, would put the blame on President Bush. Enjoy your “cup of coffee” term in Washington DC Rowland because the people will be firing you in November 2012. You did make the Monti Hack List though.

October 2, 2009

Senator Rowland Burris of Illinois, the Senator who was appointed to fill President Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat, blames George Bush for Chicago not getting the Olympics in 2016. Burris stated in an interview, shortly after the announcement, that the image of the U. S. has been so tarnished in the last 8 years that, even Barack Obama making an unprecedented pitch for the games could not overcome the hatred the world has for us as a result of George Bush. Wow! When will the Democrats in Congress ever get off this “Blame Bush” syndrome. Burris even went on to say that this is just another way Bush is now hurting Chicago. Yes blame Bush, don’t mind all the crime and corruption that has come out of Illinois over the last year. This “Blame Bush” strategy is getting pretty old.

Author’s Note: While I do think it is commendable for the Obama’s to have made the effort to bring the Olympics to Chicago, I find comments like Burris made reprehensible. I applaud our President for trying. Sen. Burris is the one who should be criticized here and not the President. Agree or disagree with President Obama’s intentions, but he is NOT the one who made such an IDIOTIC statement of blame. All comments on this post should be related to Burris and the discussion of blaming Bush and please keep them civil. Thank you.  -PM

Reuters

October 2, 2009

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama’s politically risky Olympics gamble failed to bring home the gold on Friday, with the Olympics committee’s refusal to grant the 2016 Summer Games to his hometown Chicago.

The president, whose even-tempered personality has earned him the nickname “No Drama Obama,” broke from that mold to make an overnight dash from Washington to Copenhagen to personally lobby for Chicago.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, had taken their star power to the Danish capital to make Chicago’s case, ignoring the carping from Republican opponents who charged it was a bad time to go with foreign policy challenges in Iran and Afghanistan and the U.S. Congress bogged down in a domestic healthcare debate.

“I’m asking you to choose Chicago. I’m asking you to choose America,” Michelle Obama told committee members.

Her husband said, “If you do, if we walk this path together, then I promise you this: The city of Chicago and the United States of America will make the world proud.”

All that was for naught as Chicago was eliminated in the first round of voting, a decision that brought gasps from the Chicago contingent at the Copenhagen meeting.

The Republican National Committee chairman, Michael Steele, was unsparing in his criticism in a statement issued before the decision was announced and on a day when the U.S. jobless rate rose to 9.8 percent, a 26-year high.

“As President Obama travels to Copenhagen to bring the Summer Olympics to his hometown seven years from now, Americans back home are increasingly concerned they won’t have a job seven months from now as they see more and more of their neighbors and friends lose jobs today,” Steele said.

BAD NEWS

Obama had originally planned not to go but changed his mind when it was clear that other leaders wanting their countries to host the 2016 Games would be there.

The Democratic president got the bad news as Air Force One flew him back to Washington, where just about every move he makes goes under a partisan microscope.

While more Republican criticism was likely, it was unclear whether the failure would have a lasting impact on Obama’s political image. His job approval rating has stabilized at slightly above 50 percent after dropping about 10 points over the summer.

University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato said he believed the issue would not linger.

“It’s a classic political hullabaloo that will fade quickly,” he said. “I think it actually points up a problem the Republicans are having, which is focusing the unhappiness and disagreement they have with Obama. In politics you have to be able to complain about the right things.”

(Editing by Howard Goller)

September 30, 2009

Michelle Malkin

When government officials play the Olympic lottery, tax payers lose. That has been the disastrous experience of host cities around the world. So, why are President Obama and his White House entourage headed to Copenhagen, Denmark, this week to push a fiscally doomed Chicago 2016 bid? Political payback.

Bringing the games to the Windy City is Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s “vision.” The entrenched Democratic powerbroker — in office since 1989 — would like to cap off his tenure with a glorious $4 billion bread-and-circuses production. The influential Daley machine backed Barack Obama in the presidential primaries. Obama lavished praise on Daley’s stewardship of the city. Longtime Daley cronies helped pave Obama’s path to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Now, they’re returning the favor for their hometown boss.

Senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, a Daley loyalist, served as vice chair of Chicago’s 2016 Summer Olympics bid committee before moving to the White House, where she has helmed a new “White House Office on Olympic, Paralympic and Youth Sport” with an undisclosed budget and staff.

It’s not just Chicago taxpayers who should be worried about this field of schemes. Crain’s Chicago Business reports that Jarrett and Chicago 2016 committee member Lori Healey met this month with federal officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development “to discuss financing options” for the estimated $1 billion Olympic Village.

The door is open, and the administration is “willing to meet and listen” to any federal subsidy proposals, Jarrett said. Hey, what happened to Obama’s tough rules on interest-conflicted lobbying by his administration officials?

A majority of Chicagoans who live in pay-for-play-plagued Cook County oppose public funding for the Olympics. The city has more than a half-billion-dollar deficit — and just received word that its Olympic insurance policy will cover only about $1.1 billion of the $3.8 billion operating budget drawn up by Daley. Cost overruns, fraud and union-inflated contracts are inevitable.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs defended Obama’s all-out campaign for Chicago’s 2016 Olympics bid by claiming America will see a “tangible economic benefit.” But, as is always the case with corporate welfare disguised as “economic development,” an elite few will benefit far more than others.

Senior White House adviser David Axelrod has been a Daley loyalist since 1989, when he signed up as a political consultant for the mayor’s first run. Axelrod’s public relations firm, Chicago-based AKPD Message and Media, has pitched in work for the Chicago 2016 committee. It is unknown how much AKPD has received for its services — or how much it will make in future income if the bid is successful.

The head of the Chicago 2016 bid committee is Patrick Ryan, chairman of the Aon Corp. and a co-chair of Obama’s presidential inaugural committee. Also on both of those committees: Obama confidante Penny Pritzker, who, in addition, chairs the Olympic Village subcommittee and is president of Pritzker Realty Group — a mega-developer in Illinois that could reap untold millions in project work if the Daley machine/White House campaign succeeds. Former Pritzker executive and Obama campaign treasurer Martin Nesbitt is also on the bid committee — and serves as Daley’s chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority.

Another bid committee member, Michael Scott Jr., is “trying to develop a for-profit real-estate project that would sit within feet of the cycling venue if Chicago wins the 2016 Summer Games,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

It takes a crony-filled White House to raise a Chicago Olympic village. Daley and Obama will get the glory. America will get stuck with the bill.

JTA

September 11, 2009

By Eric Fingerhut

James Traficant has come out of prison spewing conspriacy theories about Israel. The former Ohio Democratic congressman — who was released last week after serving seven years for racketeering, bribery, obstruction of justice and tax evasion — told Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Susteren that Israel has a “powerful stranglehold on the American government.” From a transcript of the interview, where Traficant is charging that he’s being targeted (although it’s not clear by whom) for defending accused Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk:

TRAFICANT: … But I believe that Israel has a powerful stranglehold on the American government. They control both members of the House, the House and the Senate. They have us involved in wars in which we have little or no interest.

Our children are coming back in body bags. Our nation is bankrupt over these wars. And if you open your mouth, you get targeted. And if they don’t beat you at the poll, they’ll put you in prison.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, two quick things. One is the Israelis have released Demjanjuk back to the United States, right?

TRAFICANT: The Israeli supreme court. And I give them credit.

VAN SUSTEREN: Give them credit for that.

TRAFICANT: I give them credit, big-time.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right. The second thing is, is Israel is a democracy and is our ally, right?

TRAFICANT: Yes, they are.

VAN SUSTEREN: So, you have no…

TRAFICANT: And they should be our ally. They are our friends over in that troubled part of the world.

VAN SUSTEREN: OK. So, explain to me what you see as — you know, why you target or why you have a grudge against the Israelis.

TRAFICANT: The grudge is not necessarily a grudge. It’s an objective assessment that no one will have the courage to speak about.

They’re controlling much of our foreign policy. They’re influencing much of our domestic policy.

Wolfowitz as undersecretary of defense manipulated President Bush number two back into Iraq. They’ve pushed definitely, definitely to try to get Bush before he left to move into Iran.

We’re conducting the expansionist policy of Israel and everybody’s afraid to say it. They control much of the media, they control much of the commerce of the country, and they control powerfully both bodies of the Congress. They own the Congress.

VAN SUSTEREN: Are you an anti-Semite?

TRAFICANT: No, I’m not. And that’s exactly what they’re going to say. And I expect that.

What I am is an American. You see, I think America comes first. And we have a one-sided foreign policy in the Mideast, and we’ve alienated Arabs who have no way of fighting.

So, what they’ve done — and I predicted this on the House floor — is they would export violence to America. And they have. They have no other way to fight.

I think President Obama knows this. I think he sees this. I think he wants to do something. I think his hands are tied, and I think he’s dancing between the raindrops, trying to figure how I can politically machinate some scenario to mitigate these problems.

Greta, I’m saying this. America is in danger if America doesn’t take back their government without foreign influence, interference.

Traficant says a lot of people have been telling him to run for his old congressional seat –although he says he hasn’t decided yet.

CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY

September 28, 2009

By Frank Gaffney, Jr.

http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/p18189.xml

A Denver airport shuttle driver from Afghanistan who plotted to blow up subway trains in New York City. A Jordanian who tried to destroy one of Dallas’ tallest skyscrapers. An American who thought he was detonating a truck bomb aimed at a federal courthouse in Springfield, Illinois.

Maybe it will prove to be the case that the three men at the heart of these interrupted plots – Najibullah Zazi, Hosam Maher Husein Smadi and Michael Finton (also known as Talib Islam) – had no connection in a tactical or operational sense.

Still, it is absurd, and extremely dangerous, to insist that they are not connected in at least one way: What apparently animated all three of these suspects (and perhaps a number of others believed to have been involved in the New York plot who are still at large) is the seditious, supremacist theo-political-legal program authoritative Islam calls “Shariah.”

Shariah requires its adherents to engage in jihad – the struggle to bring about the triumph of Islam worldwide through whatever means are available. Shariah explicitly calls for the use of violent techniques designed to instill terror in those who stand in the way of a global Muslim theocracy.

Lethal truck-bombs, pellet-laced explosive vests and backpacks and bombs or hijackers aboard aircraft have already been used for this purpose. It is a matter of time before vastly more destructive weapons of mass destruction (chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear) become available to jihadists who believe that, pursuant to Shariah, they are fulfilling Allah’s will when they kill “infidels” or otherwise force them to submit to Islam.

Even more insidious, though, is what Robert Spencer calls “Stealth Jihad.” This practice involves using myriad non-violent measures to insinuate Shariah into non-Muslim societies. Adherents demand such concessions as special treatment for them and their faith in public spaces, private corporations, schools, communities and government at every level.

The prime-mover behind these demands is the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization that shares the violent jihadists’ commitment to advance Shariah’s end-state of a global caliphate, but seek (for the moment, at least) to do so non-violently. The successful prosecution last year of one Brotherhood front, the Holy Land Foundation, established that the organization’s mission is “to destroy Western civilization from within…by its own miserable hand.” (In the course of the trial, the government also identified virtually every prominent Muslim-American group as Brotherhood affiliates or “friendly” to its purposes.)

What happens as tolerant democratic societies try to accommodate themselves to the stealthy form of jihad, backed by the persistent threat of the violent form – if not its actual occurrence, can be seen in much of Western Europe. For example, France now has 751 zones urbaines sensibles – Muslim-only areas that amount to “no-go” zones for French authorities. In these zones, Shariah rules instead of the laws of the host government, at the expense most notably of women’s rights, due process and public order (especially for Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims).

To be sure, accommodations to date to Shariah have not metastasized in the United States to nearly this extent. There are, however, numerous worrisome examples of concessions that have been made here, too. To cite a few: taxpayer-financed footbaths for Muslims installed at state universities; corporations providing Muslim-only prayer rooms and time off for prayers; government-sanctioned discrimination by taxi drivers against passengers deemed “impure” (haram) because they have alcohol or dogs; unhygenic practices in food plants to accommodate the preferences of Muslim workers; government-offered Shariah-compliant mortgages; Islamic proselytizing in public school curricula; etc.

The failure by U.S. and other governments’ officials to recognize the connection between Shariah and jihad (of either the violent or stealthy kind) is like refusing to acknowledge that there is a common virus causing an outbreak of swine flu. How could the medical community hope to identify appropriate prophylactic measures (for instance: Keep kids in school or shut the schools down? Take antibiotics or not?) if it were not permitted to understand the nature of the virus. There would certainly be little chance of developing effective vaccines under those circumstances.

We face approximately the same problem if we require our law enforcement, intelligence, homeland security and military personnel to behave as though there is no toxic virus – think of it as the “anti-swine flu,” since pork is the ultimate in haram under Shariah – animating those seeking to destroy us, our government and our freedom-loving way of life. At best, we will be able to stop some of the attacks the jihadists are plotting against us. We certainly will not be able to defeat the disease and thereby protect Western civilization from its potential for truly pandemic virulence.

Our natural allies in taking such a stance against Shariah are the many millions of Muslims around the world whose practice of their faith does not involve adherence to this medieval, barbaric and totalitarian program. Indeed, most Muslim immigrants in America came here to get away from Shariah in their native lands. Only by differentiating such Muslims from the carriers of this lethal virus can we hope to inoculate them against the spread of the disease – and enlist their help in protecting the rest of us by keeping American Shariah-free.

Associated Press

September 28, 2009

PATERSON, N.J. — Police say a 1,400-pound bull that escaped from a northern New Jersey slaughterhouse dragged officers with a lasso down a street and ran 10 blocks before being captured and sedated.

Chief John DeCando, spokesman for Paterson Police’s animal control division, says the bull was being unloaded at ENA Meat Packing Inc. when it broke loose just before 8:30 a.m. Monday.

Police tried to corral the bull by lassoing a rope around the animal’s neck, but it dragged officers down the street instead.

DeCando says traffic was light during the bull run. He says the area where the officers were dragged was not residential or near a school.

Officers finally corralled the animal and DeCando was able to sedate it.

No injuries were reported. The bull was returned to the slaughterhouse.

AP

September 28, 2009

By ANDREW GREINER

President Obama will travel to Copenhagen to make a pitch for Chicago’s Olympic bid, White House officials have confirmed to NBC News.

Obama will leave for Denmark Thursday night, hours after his wife Michelle departs for the vote. The president made the final decision Saturday night after returning from the G20 summit in Pittsburgh.

“The President decided over the weekend that he wanted be a part of the final push as we enter the home stretch,” Jarrett told Politico.com

“He did not want to leave any stone unturned. He is very excited about joining the First Lady for both the final presentation and the question and answer session. The Olympic spirit is about giving it your very best down to finish line and not taking anything for granted. That’s what his presence in Copenhagen will demonstrate.”

The announcement ends months of speculation of whether the president would lend his considerable fame to the pitch. The president has dropped hints all monthlong that he may attend the event.

Last week he sent an advance team to Copenhagen just in case he could make it and a letter he wrote to select IOC members seemed to hint that he would be there.

His attendance could help catapult Chicago past Madrid, Tokyo and Rio to win the 2016 Summer Games. International Olympic Committee members will vote on which of those four cities should receive the games on October 2. NBCChicago.com will be streaming live coverage of the vote.

The president “hopes to make a strong case for Chicago and America’s bid for the Olympics in 2016,” Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told White House reporters during a briefing on Monday morning.

“Obviously, the Olympics showcases the country that those Olympics are in and there’s a tangible economic benefit to those games being here,” Gibbs said.

Obama will round out a team of heavy-hitting supporters including Oprah, Valerie Jarrett, Michelle Obama and Arne Duncan.

The president called Mayor Richard Daley, who left for Copenhagen Friday, at 6:55 a.m. Eastern time to say that he was indeed going to Denmark.

“President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama symbolize the hope, opportunity and inspiration that makes Chicago great, and we are honored to have two of our city’s most accomplished residents leading our delegation in Copenhagen,” Daley said in a statement.

“Who better to share with members of the International Olympic Committee the commitment and enthusiasm Chicago has for the Olympic and Paralympic Movement than the President and First Lady.”

Patrick Ryan, CEO of Chicago 2016 is equally enthused.

“There is no greater expression of the support our bid enjoys, from the highest levels of government and throughout our country, than to have President Obama join us in Copenhagen for the pinnacle moment in our bid,” Ryan said. “We are honored that President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be with us to extend a hand of friendship on behalf of our nation and the City of Chicago as we seek to welcome the world for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

STAR-TELEGRAM

September 24, 2009

by Mitch Mitchell

Hosam Maher Husein Smadi

DALLAS — Federal agents arrested a Jordanian Thursday suspected of trying to blow up the 60-story Fountain Place building in downtown Dallas.

Undercover agents with the FBI tricked Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, 19, into thinking that he was detonating a bomb placed in an SUV parked outside the 60-story skyscraper at 1445 Ross Ave., before they arrested him, according to court documents. The explosive device was inert and inactive, the Justice Department said in a news release.

“The identification and apprehension of this defendant, who was acting alone, is a sobering reminder that there are people among us who want to do us grave harm,” U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks said in the news release announcing the arrest.

Undercover agents posing as members of an al Qaeda sleeper cell met with Smadi several times while the terrorist suspect hatched his plot to commit jihad, or holy war, against the “Romans (Christians) and Jews,” an arrest warrant affidavit says.

The affidavit says Smadi made clear his intention to serve as a soldier for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, and to conduct violent jihad. But it says he was interested in “self-jihad” because it is “the best type of jihad.”

The investigation by the FBI and members of the North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force determined that Smadi was not associated with other terrorist organizations.

The FBI said Smadi was in the United States illegally and lived and worked in Italy, Texas, about 45 minutes south of Dallas.

Federal agents said they discovered Smadi within a group of online terrorists, and added that he stood out because of his willingness to conduct terrorist attacks inside the United States.

“This is not related to any other investigation,” said Mark White, an FBI spokesman. “This is a standalone terrorist. A lone individual who did whatever it is that he did.”

There is an ongoing investigation in New York and Colorado into a possible terrorist strike.

Smadi told undercover officials that he wanted to blow up a credit card center in the United States.

“Millions of people will incur losses,” the arrest warrant affidavit quotes Smadi saying. “Unemployment, poverty, hunger, and a strike to the head of the government. Don’t forget the psychological impacts on the loss of this beautiful building.”

Fountain Place, a 1.2 million-square-foot building, is home to a Wells Fargo Bank branch, Avanti Restaurant, the French bakery café Au Bon Pain, a newsstand, cleaners and other restaurants. A pedestrian tunnel connects the building to the Fairmont Hotel, and a YMCA is across the street.

Smadi is expected to make his first court appearance at 11 a.m. Friday in U.S. District Court in Dallas before U.S. Magistrate Judge Irma C. Ramirez.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iKuMVqht4U

September 22, 2009

By DEVLIN BARRETT and EILEEN SULLIVAN

DENVER  — Counterterrorism officials have issued security bulletins to police around the nation about terrorists’ desire to attack stadiums, entertainment complexes and hotels — the latest in a flurry of such internal warnings as investigators chase a possible bomb plot in Denver and New York.

In the two bulletins – sent to police departments Monday and obtained by The Associated Press – officials said they know of no specific plots against such sites, but urged law enforcement and private companies to be vigilant. These two bulletins followed on the heels of a similar warning about the vulnerabilities of mass transit systems.

The bulletin on stadiums notes that an al-Qaida training manual specifically lists “blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality, and sin… and attacking vital economic centers” as desired targets of the global terror network.

A joint statement from DHS and FBI said while the agencies “have no information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack, we believe it is prudent to raise the security awareness of our local law enforcement partners regarding the targets and tactics of previous terrorist activity.”

Kiichiro Sato, AP

A bulletin issued about possible terrorist plots notes that an al-Qaida manual calls for “blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality, and sin.” That, authorities said, would include stadiums, like Chicago’s Soldier Field, seen here on Sunday.

Officials noted the law enforcement bulletins are not intended for the public. Bulletins – particularly about hotels as possible targets – are common, and often don’t make news. However, a half-dozen alerts issued in the last week have received increased attention amid the ongoing investigations in New York and Denver. The first of these, about hydrogen peroxide-based explosives, specifically referred to the investigation in New York.

Separately, law enforcement officials said a Colorado man may have been planning with others to detonate backpack bombs on New York City trains in a terrorism plot similar to past attacks on London’s and Madrid’s mass-transit systems.

The investigation and the earlier warning about mass transit system have already prompted officials around the nation to step up patrols.

Two law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the investigation told The Associated Press late Monday that more than a half-dozen individuals were being scrutinized in the alleged plot.

In a statement, the FBI says that “several individuals in the United States, Pakistan and elsewhere” are being investigated.

Investigators say Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old Afghanistan-born immigrant who is a shuttle van driver at the Denver airport, played a direct role in the terror plot that unraveled after an overnight 1,600-mile trip from Denver to New York City around the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. He made his first court appearance Monday and remains behind bars.

Zazi and two other defendants have not been charged with any terrorism counts, only the relatively minor offense of lying to the government. But the case could grow to include more serious charges as the investigation proceeds.

Backpacks and cell phones were seized last week from apartments in Queens, where Zazi visited.

Zazi has publicly denied being involved in a terror plot, and defense lawyer Arthur Folsom dismissed as “rumor” any notion that his client played a crucial role.

Publicly, law enforcement officials have repeatedly said they are unaware of a specific time or target for any attacks. Privately, officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case said investigators have worried most about the possible use of backpack bombs on New York City trains, similar to attacks carried out in London in 2005 and Madrid in 2004.

Backpack bombs ripped apart four commuter trains and killed 191 people in Madrid on March 11, 2004. On July 7 the next year, bombing attacks in London killed 52 subway and bus commuters.

In a bulletin issued Friday, the FBI and Homeland Security Department warned that improvised explosive devices are the most common tactic to blow up railroads and other mass transit systems overseas. And they noted incidents in which bombs were made with peroxide.

In that bulletin, obtained by The AP, officials recommended that transit systems conduct random sweeps at terminals and stations and that law enforcement make random patrols and board some trains and buses.

Investigators feared Zazi may have been involved in a potential plot involving hydrogen peroxide-based explosives, according to two law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.

The FBI said they found notes on bomb-making instructions that appear to match Zazi’s handwriting, and discovered his fingerprints on materials – batteries and a scale – that could be used to make explosives. He also made a trip to Pakistan last year in which he received al-Qaida explosives and weapons training, the government said.

Zazi, a legal resident of the U.S. who immigrated in 1999, told the FBI that he must have unintentionally downloaded the notes on bomb-making as part of a religious book and that he deleted the book “after realizing that its contents discussed jihad.”

A strange sequence of events began to unfold nearly two weeks ago when Zazi – already under surveillance by federal agents – rented a car in Colorado and made the 1,600-mile trek across the heartland to New York. He told reporters that he went to New York to resolve an issue with a coffee cart he owned.

He went to his friend’s place in Queens. Once there, his car was towed and authorities confiscated his computer. He was told by an NYPD informant that detectives were asking about him, and decided to cut the trip short and fly back to Colorado, authorities said.

Their surveillance blown and their main suspect flying back to Colorado, officials speeded up the investigation and launched raids on several Queens apartments in a search for explosives, but found none.

Zazi and his 53-year-old father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, were arrested Saturday in Denver. Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, was arrested in New York, where he is an imam at a mosque in Queens. The three are accused of making false statements to the government. If convicted, they face eight years in prison.

Associated Press Writers Ivan Moreno, P. Solomon Banda, and Catherine Tsai in Denver, and Tom Hays in New York contributed to this report.

DEBKAfile

September 23, 2009,

Up above a big military parade in Tehran on Tuesday, Sept. 22, as Iranian president declared Iran’s armed forces would “chop off the hands” of any power daring to attack his country, two air force jets collided in mid-air. One was Iran’s only airborne warning and control system (AWACS) for coordinating long-distance aerial operations, DEBKAfile’s military and Iranian sources disclose.

The proud military parade, which included a march-past, a line of Shehab-3 missiles and an air force fly-past, was planned to give Ahmadinejad a dazzling send-off for New York and add steel to his UN Assembly speech Wednesday.

Dubbed “Simorgh” (a flying creature of Iranian fable which performs wonders in mid-flight), the AWACS’ appearance, escorted by fighter jets, was to have been the climax for the Iranian Air force’s fly-past over the parade. Instead, it collided with one of escorting planes, a US-made F-5E, and both crashed to the ground in flames. All seven crewmen were killed.

Eye witnesses reported that the flaming planes landed on the mausoleum burial site of the Islamic revolution’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini, a national shrine. According to Western observers, no distress signals came from either cockpit indicating that the collision and explosions were sudden and fast.

DEBKAfile’s military sources say the disaster was a serious blow to the Iranian Air Force not long after its first and only AWACS went into service in April 2008. It was a renovated version of the Russian Ilyushin 76, part of Saddam Hussein’s air force before it was transferred to Iran in 1991 during the first Gulf War.

Tehran hired Russian technicians to carry out renovations and install up-to-date radar. At the launching ceremony of the upgraded AWACS, Air Force commander Brig. Gen. Ahmad Miqani boasted its new radar systems were made in Iran and able to spot any airplane or missile at a distance of 1,000 kilometers from Iran’s borders.

The loss of this airborne control system has left Iran’s air force and air and missile defenses without “electronic eyes” for surveillance of the skies around its borders.