Tag Archives: Barack Obama

Ed Schultz Wonders If Obama Is ‘Still Alive’

Perry Cobama? One of the great comedy bits from the classic SCTV show was a skit satirizing an ultra relaxed and disengaged Perry Como singing “Still Alive” in a most lackadaisical manner. And now we have MSNBC host Ed Schultz wondering aloud on his radio show if Barack Obama is “Still Alive.” Here is a transcript of Schultz commenting on Obama’s detachment to the extent that Big Ed isn’t even sure he wants to run for president again:

Keith Olbermann Cherry Picks Rush Limbaugh to Make Him Look Racist

The lengths Keith Olbermann will go to attack his adversaries knows no bounds. On Tuesday, he selectively edited and cherry picked from a Rush Limbaugh radio transcript in order to make the talk show personality look racist. Most disgracefully, the “Countdown” host completely avoided telling his few viewers that Limbaugh was referring to truly disgusting statements the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Cynthia Tucker made on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday. With total disregard for the truth or any sense of journalistic integrity, here’s what Olbermann said during his “Worst Person in the World” segment Tuesday (h/t Meredith Jessup ): KEITH OLBERMANN, HOST: Speaking of which, there‘s tonight’s hands down winner, Boss Limbaugh. These quotes speak for themselves and for a diseased and failing mind. “If Obama weren’t black, he’d be a tour guide in Honolulu or he‘d be teaching Saul Alinsky Constitutional law or lecturing on it in Chicago,” said the college dropout, Rush Limbaugh. “He wouldn’t have been voted president if he weren‘t black. Somebody asked me over the-oh, I need to remember. Somebody asked me over the weekend, why does somebody earn a lot of money, have a lot of money. I said it‘s because he’s black.” This the guy who once said the media was conspiring to make Donovan McNabb of the Eagles to be a better quarterback than he actually was because he was black. “It,” Limbaugh said, “was Oprah,” said the guy who doesn‘t have half Oprah Winfrey’s talent, or income. “No, it can’t be,” he continued. “Yes, it is. There’s a lot of guilt out there. To show we’re not racist, we‘ll make this person wealthy and big and famous and so forth.” Stop the tape. Actually, that’s NOT what Limbaugh said. Here’s the real version from RushLimbaugh.com: RUSH LIMBAUGH, HOST: Cynthia Tucker, ABC’s This Week, Sunday, roundtable, they discussed Michael Steele. And, by the way, this woman is the editorial director of the Atlanta Urinal and Constipation, and she has been for a long, long time. “Cynthia you once called Michael Steele an affirmative action hire gone bad.” By the way, she can say this because she’s African-American. Here’s what she said. CYNTHIA TUCKER, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Michael Steele is a self-aggrandizing gaffe-prone incompetent who would have been fired a long time ago were he not black. Of course the irony is that he never would have been voted in as chairman of the Republican Party were he not black. LIMBAUGH: Same with Obama. TUCKER: It is very ironic since the Republican — LIMBAUGH: Stop the tape a second. That’s exactly the same thing you could say about Obama. He wouldn’t have been voted president if he weren’t black. Somebody asked me over the weekend why does somebody earn a lot of money have a lot of money, because she’s black. It was Oprah. No, it can’t be. Yes, it is. There’s a lot of guilt out there, show we’re not racists, we’ll make this person wealthy and big and famous and so forth. The Chicago Sun-Times today has this story, it’s amazing, “How did we get conned, how did we get fooled? My God we’ve elected an empty suit. We elected somebody who had no experience, no idea what he was doing, the empty suit cost $5,000.” I thought my God, they finally woke up, they’re talking about Obama, but no, they’re talking about Blago. They’re asking themselves in Chicago how they got conned by Blagojevich! And you read this, and I will share it with you as the program unfolds, it could be written about Obama. So Cynthia Tucker says, yeah, he wouldn’t be hired by the GOP if he weren’t black. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Washington awaits my fatwa on Michael Steele. Washington is paralyzed today until I issue my findings on this. The first thing I have to say about this: Cynthia Tucker said Steele would only have the gig if he was black. If Obama weren’t black he’d be a tour guide in Honolulu or he’d be teaching Saul Alinsky constitutional law or lecturing on it in Chicago, and if somebody’s “entitled to a couple of gaffes,” why do we still have Senator Bite Me running around as Vice President Bite Me, who is a walking gaffe every time he opens his mouth and he’s not even black! So what’s the Democrats’ excuse for having Joe Bite Me around as vice president? As such, Limbaugh was commenting about what Tucker said on “This Week” two days earlier. For those that missed it, here it is:  JAKE TAPPER, HOST: Cynthia, you once called, let me underline “You” once called Michael Steele an affirmative action hire gone bad. What’s your take on this? CYNTHIA TUCKER, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: Well, Michael Steele is a self-aggrandizing, gaffe-prone incompetent who would have been fired a long time ago were he not black. Of course, the irony is that he never would have been voted in as Chairman of the Republican Party were he not black. Let’s remember how the Party wound up with Michael Steele. In November 2008, the Party was devastated that the Democrats had elected the nation’s first black president while the Republican Party was stuck with being seen as largely the party of aging white people, with good reason. A party that was hostile to people of color, especially blacks and Latinos. So the Party needed a new face, preferably a face of color, and they didn’t have very many officials to choose from. So, they came up with Michael Steele. And it is very ironic since the Republicans have been so critical of affirmative action, to watch them stuck with their affirmative action hire that they dare not get rid of because that would generate even more controversy.  Not surprisingly, Olbermann NEVER told his audience this:  OLBERMANN: There it is. See, the United States is tilted in favor of black people. That‘s the premise. We have made it so easy that human beings inferior to the great Rush Limbaugh, the fired by ESPN one month into his dream job, Rush Limbaugh-inferior creatures like Obama and Oprah Winfrey have been made wealthy and big and famous and so forth. They have not earned it. They aren‘t actually talented. They haven‘t actually done the job. Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama and presumably every other black person in this country has not succeed despite the fact that they‘re black, when this country is still filled with racists like this homunculus Limbaugh. They‘ve succeeded because they‘re black, and only because they‘re black. Well, you heard it. It‘s naked, ugly racism. It‘s the distillation of Rush Limbaugh‘s view of our country. The only other thing I can say is, Oprah, please, crush this schmuck, huh? Rush Limbaugh, overt racist, today‘s worst person in the world.   Also not surprisingly, the shills at Huffington Post on Wednesday reported Olbermann’s claim word for word without checking to see if he had accurately quoted the target of his disaffection. Maybe the fact-check-loving Arianna should get her staff to fact-check Olbermann’s screeds before they parrot them – or would that be too much journalism for Ms. Huffington?  As for Olbermann, the idea that MSNBC tolerates this kind of misreporting should be offensive to Americans on both sides of the aisle. Sadly, it seems unlikely to stop, doesn’t it? 

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Keith Olbermann Cherry Picks Rush Limbaugh to Make Him Look Racist

Thanks, Obama: Justice Kennedy’s Replacement to Loom Large in 2012 Presidential Election

I don’t recall another Supreme Court justice announcing that the timing of her or his retirement hinged on who was president, even though we all know this is the undercurrent, barring mitigating circumstances. But Justice Anthony Kennedy has said it out loud, telling his inner circle he doesn’t want President Barack Obama to be The One. Thanks surely in part to Obama’s big mouth, as explained below, Kennedy’s replacement will loom large as a rallying cry for both parties in the 2012 presidential election. It appears the next president will choose the next SC vote that could either overturn or continue to uphold Roe v. Wade . And not withstanding the 2008 election, it is the Republican Party that usually gathers more steam/$$ from such a prospect/threat. As an aside, Senate Republicans should take this development into consideration and show themselves worthy of voter support for what will be the mother of all SC nomination battles. It is not too late to pick themselves up off the floor, where they have been New York Daily News , July 6… … Kennedy, who turns 74 this month, has told relatives and friends he plans to stay on the high court for at least 3 more years – through the end of Obama’s 1st term, sources said…. That means Kennedy will be around to provide a 5th vote for the court’s conservative bloc through the 2012 presidential election. If Obama loses, Kennedy could retire and expect a Republican President to choose a conservative justice. Kennedy, appointed by President Ronald Reagan , has been on the court 22 years. He has become a bit of a political nemesis at the White House for his increasing tendency to side with the court’s 4 rock-ribbed conservative justices . Without naming Kennedy, Obama was unusually critical of his majority opinion in the Citizens United case, handed down last January. That 5-4 decision struck down limits on contributions to political campaigns as an abridgement of free speech. Obama… was so angry that he took the unusual step of blasting the decision in his Jan. 27 State of the Union address, with Kennedy and five other justices looking on…. With the retirement of fellow Stanford graduate Sandra Day O’Connor in 2006, Kennedy has inherited O’Connor’s mantle as the court’s swing vote. His voting pattern suggests he’s actually become a far more reliable vote for the conservatives.  In a piece entitled, “The fury of an idiot scorned,” Red State Insider at

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Thanks, Obama: Justice Kennedy’s Replacement to Loom Large in 2012 Presidential Election

Gulf Oil Disaster: Evidence that demands investigation and verdict

Dear Congressman/Senator, I am deeply concerned with the handling of the cleanup and containment effort of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. As such, it is now the time to lay aside partisan issues, and issue a criminal and ethical investigation into the Obama administration’s dealings with BP oil, evidence of prior knowledge for the spill, and the relationship of money exchanged in return for complete collusion and complicity in this whole situation. Clearly, after citing the circumstantial evidence below, you should see that a criminal investigation into the roles of the Federal Government under the Obama administration and BP Oil, in the events leading up to the creation of this disaster, to the lack of federal response is warranted and overdue. EVIDENCE THAT DEMANDS AN INVESTIGATION AND A VERDICT 1. Barack Obama received more money from BP Oil than ANY OTHER politician in the last 20 years – Republican or Democrat. (Reuters, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64420A20100505 ) 2. Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff to Barack Obama, lives in a luxury Washington D.C. apartment given to him by a high-level BP Oil Staffer (L.A. Times, http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/06/rahm-emanuel-bp-gul-oil-spill… ) 3. Goldman Sachs, a part owner of BP, was the second highest contributor to Barack Obama, giving him just a little over $1 million (CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/20/obama.goldman.donations/index.html ) 4. The current chairman of Goldman Sachs was also the chairman of BP oil. He stepped down from BP in 2009 ( Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sutherland ) 5. Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, BP gave more money to Obama (Washington Independent, http://washingtonindependent.com/226/does-exxon-mobil-support-obama ) 6. George Soros, Who Helped Bankroll Obama’s 2008 campaign, is an aggressive investor in oil, and he is instrumental and is influential in Brazilian Oil Company Petrobras. (The Guru Focus, http://www.gurufocus.com/news.php?id=33828 ) 7. Curiously, CEO of BP, Tony Hayward dumped 1/3 of his BP stock holdings($2.1 million dollars) weeks before the oil rig explosion (The UK Daily Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/7804922/BP-chie… ) 8. Coincidentally, Goldman Sachs dumped 44% – 4,680,822 shares – of its stock in BP Oil weeks before the spill – no other oil company, just BP. This also represented an unusual transaction, being two times the size of any normal stock trade for an institution its size. (Raw Story, http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0602/month-oil-spill-goldman-sachs-sold-250-million-… ) 9. Weeks before the oil spill, Haliburton acquired Boots & Coots, a Houston-based oil well intervention/oil safety/oil spill cleanup company, an investment criticized by many as an “unwise” investment at the time (Houston Chronicle, http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6952547.html ) 10. It has also now been learned that President Obama stands to make over $85 Million over the next 10 years due to this “accident.” It seems as though Vanguard, Pres. Obama’s asset holdings company, dumped all of his shares of BP oil stocks in the weeks before the “accident.” http://www.twawki.com/?p=6768 11. On March 31st, Obama lifted a 20 year moratorium on offshore drilling, opening the Gulf of Mexico to new exploration and new competition amongst oil companies (Bellona, http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2010/US_drilling_moratorium_lifted ) 12. As early as February 2010, BP engineer referred to this particular rig as a “nightmare rig.” (AOL News, http://www.aolnews.com/gulf-oil-spill/article/bp-engineer-brian-morel-called-dee… ) 13. Jimmy Harrell, chief operator for Transocean who owned the rig was well aware of problems and warned of such a disaster. Harrell is quoted is telling an unknown person on the phone, “”Are you f****g happy? Are you f****g happy? The rig’s on fire! I told you this was gonna happen.” ( Mother Jones http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/06/rigs-fire-i-told-you-was-gonna-happen ) 14. BP representatives knowingly and willfully gave the wrong orders on how to prevent an explosion on the rig. In order to control the pressure, cement(known as mud in the industry), is normally thrown down to seal of leaks. Instead, BP reps overruled the opinions of the workers and ordered sea water to be thrown down. This is clear evidence of criminal negligence, ineptitude, or criminal sabbotage. (NOLA.com, http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/hearings_bp_representa… ) 15. The United States Coast Guard, an arm of the US Military under the control of the commander-in-chief, President Obama, has become severely compromised. It has now been “rented out” to BP, who is using it as a private security detail/bully force in the region, using intimidation, cover-ups, lies, as weapons, and not allowing media to remotely come close to any BP workers in the region. The Coast Guard is also directly and indirectly involved in turning away foreign aid, as well as PRIVATE and STATE entities which are proven to help more effectively in preventing damage to their coastlines. http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0617/expert-bp-running-gulf-prison-warden/ 16. There has been LITTLE TO NO response on the part of environmental groups and agencies regarding the damage that is being done to the ecosystem and environment in the region. This can only be regarded as suspicious. One can only wonder why they have not only remained silent, but they have praised the Obama administration’s actions. 17. We know that there are three poisonous gasses being released from the oil rig area. These 3 gasses are: Methane, Benzene, Hydrogen Sulfide. This does not include the byproducts of the dispersants which are also being released in the air. It is feared by many scientists and experts that benzene has the capability of igniting itself when it chemically reacts with the right concentration of gasses already present in the region. 18. With the Obama administration’s prolonging, knuckle-dragging, and delays in turning away help and aid, their actions only cause the scenario mentioned above all the more frightening. In a worst case scenario, according to scientists and other experts, the ignition of benzene would result in something akin to napalm, burning everything in its path. The US Coast Guard is following unlawful orders from President Obama in enforcing the denial of the 10th amendment to the states affected by this disaster. The Federal Government has NO AUTHORITY to tell a state how it will clean up or prevent damage to its coastline. It is also imperative that the governors of all states affected convene an emergency, [cont] You might click on the link and send a letter to your reps, if you still believe your voice matters. added by: samantha420

MSM Wall Protecting Obama Gulf Oil Spill Response Cracks With Latest AP Report

Perhaps it is frustration, as expressed by Anderson Cooper , with the new White House rules inhibiting reports about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that is now causing a big crack in the Mainstream Media wall which until recently mostly avoided direct criticism of the Obama administration response. However that crack has now turned into a flood of surprising criticism coming from formerly friendly outlets such as the Associated Press. Read this amazing AP report and keep in mind that it is no longer just conservative sources that are harsh in their criticisms of the Obama Gulf oil containment efforts: NEW ORLEANS — BP and the Obama administration face mounting complaints that they are ignoring foreign offers of equipment and making little use of the fishing boats and volunteers available to help clean up what may now be the biggest spill ever in the Gulf of Mexico. The Coast Guard said there have been 107 offers of help from 44 nations, ranging from technical advice to skimmer boats and booms. But many of those offers are weeks old, and only a small number have been accepted. The vast majority are still under review, according to a list kept by the State Department. Ouch! But the criticism of the poor reponse of the Obama administration response to this crises becomes even more heated: A report prepared by investigators with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform for Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., detailed one case in which the Dutch government offered April 30 to provide four oil skimmers that collectively could process more than 6 million gallons of oily water a day. It took seven weeks for the U.S. to approve the offer. Even the credibility of the Coast Guard is being called into question: Billy Nungesser, president of Louisiana’s hard-hit Plaquemines Parish, said BP and the Coast Guard provided a map of the exact locations of 140 skimmers that were supposedly cleaning up the oil. But he said that after he repeatedly asked to be flown over the area so he could see them at work, officials told him only 31 skimmers were on the job. Something seems to have shifted dramatically in the past few days in MSM coverage of this crises.  And was this the reason for the “transparent” Obama administration attempting to inhibit coverage of the Gulf oil spill?

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MSM Wall Protecting Obama Gulf Oil Spill Response Cracks With Latest AP Report

White House Enacts Rules Inhibiting Media From Covering Oil Spill

The White House Thursday enacted stronger rules to prevent the media from showing what’s happening with the oil spill in the Gulf Coast. CNN’s Anderson Cooper reported that evening, “The Coast Guard today announced new rules keeping photographers and reporters and anyone else from coming within 65 feet of any response vessel or booms out on the water or on beaches — 65 feet.” He elaborated, “Now, in order to get closer, you have to get direct permission from the Coast Guard captain of the Port of New Orleans. You have to call up the guy. What this means is that oil-soaked birds on islands surrounded by boom, you can’t get close enough to take that picture.” As the segment continued, Cooper expressed disgust with this rule repeating several times, “We are not the enemy here” (video follows with transcript and commentary, h/t Cubachi via Hot Air ): ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: But we begin, as we do every night, “Keeping Them Honest”. This time, however, we’re not talking about BP. We’re talking about the government, a new a rule announced today backed by the force of law and the threat of fines and felony charges, a rule that will prevent reporters and photographers and anyone else from getting anywhere close to booms and oil-soaked wildlife and just about any place we need to be. By now, you’re probably familiar with cleanup crews stiff-arming the media, private security blocking cameras, ordinary workers clamming up, some not even saying who they’re working for because they’re afraid of losing their jobs. BP has said again and again that’s not their policy. Yet, again and again, it has happened. And we have seen it. But that’s BP. And now the government apparently is getting in on the act, despite what Admiral Thad Allen promised about transparency just nearly a month ago. Here is what he said back then. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN (RET.), NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: I have put out a written directive — and I can provide it for the record — that says the media will have uninhibited access anywhere we’re doing operations, except for two things, if it’s a security or a safety problem. That is my policy. (END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: Uninhibited access, unless it’s a security or safety problem. Well, the Coast Guard today announced new rules keeping photographers and reporters and anyone else from coming within 65 feet of any response vessel or booms out on the water or on beaches — 65 feet. Now, in order to get closer, you have to get direct permission from the Coast Guard captain of the Port of New Orleans. You have to call up the guy. What this means is that oil-soaked birds on islands surrounded by boom, you can’t get close enough to take that picture. Shots of oil on beaches with booms, stay 65 feet away. Pictures of oil-soaked booms uselessly laying in the water because they haven’t been collected like they should, you can’t get close enough to see that. And, believe me, that is out there. But you only know that if you get close to it, and now you can’t without permission. Violators could face a fine of $40,000 and Class D felony charges. What’s even more extraordinary is that the Coast Guard tried to make the exclusion zone 300 feet, before scaling it back to 65 feet. Here is how Admiral Allen defends it. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ALLEN: Well, it’s not unusual at all for the Coast Guard to establish either safety or security zones around any number of facilities or activities for public safety or for the safety of the equipment itself. We would do this for marine events, fireworks demonstrations, cruise ships going in and out of port. (END VIDEO CLIP) COOPER: So, this is the exact same logic that federal wildlife officials used to prevent CNN on two occasions from getting pictures of oiled birds that have been collected, pictures like — like the — well, that we’re about to show you which are obviously deeply disturbing, pictures of oiled gulls that we just happened to catch. Suddenly, we were told after — after that day we couldn’t catch it anymore. So, keeping prying eyes out of marshes, away from booms, off the beaches is now government policy. When asked why now, after all this time, Thad Allen said he had gotten some complaints from local officials worried people might get hurt. Now, we don’t know who these officials are. We would like to. But transparency is apparently not a high priority with Thad Allen either these days. Maybe he is accurate and some officials are concerned. And that’s their right. But we’ve heard far more from local officials about not being able to get a straight story from the government or BP. I have met countless local officials desperate for pictures to be taken and stories written about what is happening in their communities. We’re not the enemy here. Those of us down here trying to accurately show what’s happening, we are not the enemy. I have not heard about any journalist who has disrupted relief efforts. No journalist wants to be seen as having slowed down the cleanup or made things worse. If a Coast Guard official asked me to move, I would move. But to create a blanket rule that everyone has to stay 65 feet away boom and boats, that doesn’t sound like transparency. Frankly, it’s a lot like in Katrina when they tried to make it impossible to see recovery efforts of people who died in their homes. If we can’t show what is happening, warts and all, no one will see what’s happening. And that makes it very easy to hide failure and hide incompetence and makes it very hard to highlight the hard work of cleanup crews and the Coast Guard. We are not the enemy here. We found out today two public broadcasting journalists reporting on health issues say they have been blocked again and again from visiting a federal mobile medical unit in Venice, a trailer where cleanup workers are being treated. It’s known locally as the BP compound. And these two reporters say everyone they have talked to, from BP to the Coast Guard, to Health and Human Services in Washington has been giving them the runaround. We’re not talking about a CIA station here. We’re talking about a medical trailer that falls under the authority of, guess who, Thad Allen, the same Thad Allen who promised transparency all those weeks ago. We are not the enemy here. Actually, Anderson, to this administration, anyone trying to tell the truth to the American people is the enemy. Maybe if folks like you would have accurately reported the background of Barack Obama when he was running for president he wouldn’t have assumed you were going to continue to misrepresent and ignore facts for his benefit after if he got elected. To anyone with even a lukewarm intelligence quotient, this was an eminently foreseeable consequence of the media treating candidate Obama like a rock star. If they had acted like journalists back then instead of groupies, maybe they’d be treated with more respect today.  Now that some press members actually want to act like reporters again and aggressively try to cover what’s going on in the Gulf Coast, the White House must feel somewhat spurned by his previously complicit press thereby necessitating rules to keep them from getting close to the truth now that they mysteriously seem interested in reporting it. Of course, those on the other side of the aisle are not at all surprised, for like so many of the promises this man made during the campaign, we didn’t believe his most transparent administration in history pledge either. Maybe in the future media won’t allow their love for a candidate to make them so gullible and compliant, but I wouldn’t count on it.

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White House Enacts Rules Inhibiting Media From Covering Oil Spill

Obama Rated One of Best Presidents Ever – Better Than Reagan

A survey of 238 “presidential scholars” released Thursday ranked Barack Obama as one of the nations’s best presidents ever. According to the Siena College Research Institute, Obama ranks 15th three spots AHEAD of Ronald Reagan.  Imagine that: a man that has been in the White House for less than eighteen months and hasn’t accomplished anything is considered better than the president that reinvigorated America after the dreadful Jimmy Carter years while also ending the Cold War. Speaking of Carter, these geniuses actually ranked him higher than George W. Bush. The New York Daily News reported Thursday: George W. Bush was no FDR, but Barack Obama could be. That’s the verdict of 238 of the nation’s leading presidential scholars, who – for a fifth time – rated Franklin Delano Roosevelt the best president ever in the latest Siena College Research Institute poll. In office for barely two years, Obama entered the survey in the 15th position – two spots behind Bill Clinton and three spots ahead of Ronald Reagan. Yep. Clinton ranked higher than Reagan as well. Actually, the details of the full rankings are even funnier. For instance, although presiding over arguably the worst economic period in American history, FDR is ranked first in handling of the economy. First! But to REALLY give you an idea of how biased and absurd these so-called presidential scholars are, they rated Obama ahead of Reagan in handling of the economy. I kid you not. Obama was ranked 17th in this category, while Reagan, who started the nation’s longest peacetime expansion in history, was ranked 21st. Maybe even better, Obama was ranked 10th in ability to compromise. Wouldn’t you love to ask this geniuses to name some things Obama has compromised on since Inauguration Day?  For the record, Carter was ranked 32nd while George W. Bush came in close to the bottom at 39. It really makes you wonder what color the sky is in the world these folks live. 

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Obama Rated One of Best Presidents Ever – Better Than Reagan

More Washington Post Ethics Issues: Blogger’s Employment by White House Goes Unmentioned

You would think in the wake of the problems with   former Washington Post blogger Dave Weigel   in addition to   abandoned plans by the Post’s publisher Katharine Weymouth   to charge lobbyists and trade groups thousands of dollars for access “to top congressional and administration officials for $25,000 a plate” at a dinner party her home, the folks at the Post would be a little more careful with their ever-expanding empire of new media. But that’s not the case. According to   a July 2 article posted on RawStory.com by Ron Brynaer t, there is an undisclosed connection between the Obama White House and the Post. Brynaert notes   in the Post’s July 2 report from Ed O’Keefe , the whopping $38.7-million payroll of the Obama administration reveals there are three people that aren’t taking a salary, which O’Keefe fails to name. One of those is Patricia G. McGinnis, “Advisor to the Obama White House on leadership programs for Presidential Appointees.” But there is more to McGinnis, which Brynaert pointed out. ” McGinnis’ Georgetown biography notes   that she “is the former President and CEO of the Council for Excellence in Government, where she created and led a number of innovative programs to improve the performance of government, during her 14 year tenure” and also   ‘serves [as] a panelist and blogger for the Washington Post ‘On Leadership’ website.’ ” McGinnis was also listed as an unpaid adviser in 2009. Now this might have been nice to know because it violates the Post’s ethics policy, as Brynaert explained. “McGinnis was also listed as an unpaid adviser in the   White House payroll statistics released in 2009 ,” Brynaert wrote. “According to the Post’s   media ethics policy , ‘This newspaper is pledged to avoid conflict of interest or the appearance of conflict of interest, wherever and whenever possible. We have adopted stringent policies on these issues, conscious that they may be more restrictive than is customary in the world of private business.'” As for McGinnis’ content – there are indeed some glowing accounts of Obama,   which Brynaert has compiled , including one in January: “The first year of Obama’s presidency has produced an ambitious agenda for change, which congressional Republicans have resisted at every turn with chilling partisanship.”

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More Washington Post Ethics Issues: Blogger’s Employment by White House Goes Unmentioned

Scarborough: POTUS Entitled to ‘Happy Place’ But Boehner Has Bad Work Ethic

On day 72 of the continued Gulf of Mexico oil spill, “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough decided to open the show by continuing to bash Minority Leader John Boehner’s work ethic. This assault comes just ten days after his assertion that he wants his leader to have a “happy place to go to” and there is no problem with, “the president golfing every Sunday.” The former Republican congressman, who quit his job, ridiculed Boehner, saying “everybody on Capitol Hill knows about John Boehner, he’s not exactly the hardest worker in the world. He’s a guy that likes golf, and he’s a guy that likes, you know, socializing.” Scarborough made sure to address that even though he doesn’t know John Boehner personally, he was just “reporting” what he heard on the Hill. To Scarborough this analysis was imperative because, “If you’re going to bend history, if you’re going to pick up 40, 45 seats, it’s a 24/7 job.” So, let me get Scarborough’s math straight. Being the Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, a position of somewhat limited power, is a 24/7 job. But, the position of President of the United States, the “Leader of the Free Word,” is about a 6 day a week job and requires a “happy place to go to?”

The Trouble with Career Politicians

Politics was once an honored profession of high calling by men of strong principles and courage whose interest in being elected to these positions of public trust was to serve the country and make sure their generation left a better world to the next one. They were, for the most part, men of faith, men of integrity, commitment, practicality and common sense who viewed high political office as a term of service, not a lifetime vocation. They fought and won wars against far superior odds, battled economic downturns, abolished slavery and left us a rich endowment of federal papers documenting their vision of what the United States of America is and was meant to remain. It is a heartbreaking fact that nowadays politics has become not a calling but a game. Gaining public office is achieved by the most photogenic, the silver-tongued, the most attractive who look good on television and can raise the most money. We tend to pay more attention to the messenger than to the message, the one who can lie with the straightest face. Many times policy is achieved by backroom deals and downright sellouts. The leadership promising perks to make it look like Congressmen and Senators are bringing home the bacon to the folks back home to enhance their next election chances. They never stop to think about just whose bacon they’re sending and “by the people, for the people, of the people” has turned into, buy the people, fool the people and rob the people. And before any of you cherry pickers accuse me of taking sides, let me assure you that I’m talking about Democrats and Republicans. After all it was the Republicans who started this national debt spiral, the Democrats have just taken it to new and insane highs. Our founders did not design this system for career politicians, but rather citizen politicians who would serve a couple of terms and let someone fresh off the street serve, someone who is acquainted with what’s happening now, not twenty years ago when this bunch of hacks took office. Our political bodies were intended to be made up of common folk, doctors, druggists, farmers, carpenters, and some but not all lawyers. The corruption that plagues our political system is not just confined to the federal branch but rots our local and state governments as well. The one-sided attitude of the media I think dissuades a lot of honorable people from going into politics. If you’re not a member of the party the media supports they come after you with both barrels blazing, examining your whole life with a microscope trying to unearth some juicy little tidbit that will turn the public against you and undermine your campaign, and who wants to put their family through that. We need look no farther than the last presidential election to find proof of what I’m talking about. Look at the raging war that was waged against Sarah Palin. A media that actually turns a totally blind eye to childbirth out of wedlock acted as if Bristol Palin had committed a crime of immense and proportions. While Barack Obama, the all-time media darling, who sat under the preaching of a revolutionary racist for twenty years claimed he had never heard any of the inflammatory, anti-American rhetoric that regularly spewed from Jeremiah Wright’s mouth. He kept company with a sixties era terrorist who to this day wants to destroy the American way of life, and was never held accountable. Those who have sworn to serve you pass bills that they haven’t even read and the last thing they want is for we the people to find out what’s actually in them. There’s a dirty little club in Washington and the state capitols around this country, a club whose membership fees are to toe the line and be willing to sell out your own nation for a place at the big hog trough. And ladies and gentlemen, with the exception of a handful of good men and women who actually keep the faith in this pack of wolves, that’s what they are, pigs with and insatiable appetite for power.

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The Trouble with Career Politicians