ObamaHood.org

CNN broadcasts video showing world leaders “ignoring” President Bush. In a 30 second story Rick Sanchez refers to the President as a “bully” and “the most unpopular kid in high school.. You know the one with the cooties.” What they don’t show us is the fact that President Bush met every single leader beforehand and there was no need to greet them again. CNN is despicable in its blatant disregard for the truth. This is what journalism has come to… “Cooties” and “Youtube Video Reports”.

Posted on StarTribune.com
By James Shiffer

The bubble beside Norm Coleman’s name appeared to have both an X and a squiggle in it, but the Al Franken campaign wants the state Canvassing Board to rule on whether it should count. That’s the only challenge in the special envelope in Plymouth so far, according to Sandy Engdahl, the city clerk and the official running the city recount.

The Canada geese milling on the grounds and parking lot of Plymouth City Hall were oblivious to the gaggle of election officials and observers inside. The drone of “Franken” and “Coleman” was accompanied by the swishing of paper in Medicine Lake Room A. Early on, Engdahl had to admonish some candidate representatives from trying to tell her counters how to count. Clearly, she said, the recount watchers are “very passionate,” but she has to remind them of everyone’s roles in this civic drama.

Eight of the 24 precincts had been counted by 1:45 p.m., and the only challenged ballot, in Engdahl’s view, was clearly a vote for Coleman. Nevertheless, the Franken campaign was allowed to seek a second opinion.

From Fox News:

The Pentagon has suffered from a cyber attack so alarming that it has taken the unprecedented step of banning the use of external hardware devices, such as flash drives and DVD’s, FOX News has learned.

The attack came in the form of a global virus or worm that is spreading rapidly throughout a number of military networks.

“We have detected a global virus for which there has been alerts, and we have seen some of this on our networks,” a Pentagon official told FOX News. “We are now taking steps to mitigate the virus.”

The official could not reveal the source of the attack because that information remains classified.

Military computers are often referred to as part of the Global Information Grid, or GIG, a system composed of 17 million computers, many of which house classified or sensitive information.

FOX News obtained a copy of one memo sent out last week to an Army division within the Pentagon warning of the cyber attack.

“Due to the presence of commercial malware, CDR USSTRATCOM has banned the use of removable media (thumb drives, CDRs/DVDRs, floppy disks) on all DoD networks and computers effective immediately.”

The Financial Times report that Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad said on broadcast television that the “US and its major allies wanted to deprive Iran of “honor and independence” by pressuring the country into halting its uranium enrichment work.”

“Now the great powers are disappointed, as they have not the least bit of hope to break the Iranian people down,” he said. “If great powers seek to take over Iran’s rights, Iranian people will slap them so hard that they won’t find their way back home.”

The latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency reveals that Iran is rapidly increasing its stockpile of enriched uranium, which could be rendered into weapons-grade material should Tehran decide to develop a nuclear device.

The agency says that, as of this month, Tehran had amassed 630kg of low enriched uranium hexafluoride, up from 480kg in late August. Analysts say Iran is enriching uranium at such a pace that, by early next year, it could reach break-out capacity – one step away from producing enough fissile material for a crude nuclear bomb.

Read full article here.

Joe Bel Bruno and Sara Lepro of the AP report that: Wall Street hit levels not seen since 2003 on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average plunging below the 8,000 mark amid a dour economic outlook from the Federal Reserve and worries over the fate of Detroit’s three automakers.

Investors were rattled on prospects that General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and Chrysler LLC might not get a $25 billion rescue package before Congress quits for the year. The heads of those companies told lawmakers that time is running out, and that if one of them collapsed it would have a disastrous impact on the already battered economy.

Congressional Democrats have proposed using part of the $700 billion financial bailout package to pump into the ailing auto industry, but Republicans oppose such an approach. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has already shot down such an idea.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada was hopeful of a deal in the “next day or two.” He still hoped Paulson would step in if Congress can’t usher through a deal.

Read full article here

This Editorial by Dick Morris. is sad but true. I have been a huge proponent of Bush’s tax cuts and economic policy. Yet, even before Barack Obama takes office, in the past few months we have moved further towards European socialism than ever before.

The results of the G-20 economic summit amount to nothing less than the seamless integration of the United States into the European economy. In one month of legislation and one diplomatic meeting, the United States has unilaterally abdicated all the gains for the concept of free markets won by the Reagan administration and surrendered, in toto, to the Western European model of socialism, stagnation and excessive government regulation. Sovereignty is out the window. Without a vote, we are suddenly members of the European Union. Given the dismal record of those nations at creating jobs and sustaining growth, merger with the Europeans is like a partnership with death.

At the G-20 meeting, Bush agreed to subject the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and our other regulatory agencies to the supervision of a global entity that would critique its regulatory standards and demand changes if it felt they were necessary. Bush agreed to create a College of Supervisors.

According to The Washington Post, it would “examine the books of major financial institutions that operate across national borders so regulators could begin to have a more complete picture of banks’ operations.”

Their scrutiny would extend to hedge funds and to various “exotic” financial instruments. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), a European-dominated operation, would conduct “regular vigorous reviews” of American financial institutions and practices. The European-dominated College of Supervisors would also weigh in on issues like executive compensation and investment practices.

There is nothing wrong with the substance of this regulation. Experience is showing it is needed. But it is very wrong to delegate these powers to unelected, international institutions with no political accountability.

We have a Securities and Exchange Commission appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, both of whom are elected by the American people. It is with the SEC, the Treasury and the Federal Reserve that financial accountability must take place.

The European Union achieved this massive subrogation of American sovereignty the way it usually does, by negotiation, gradual bureaucratic encroachment, and without asking the voters if they approve. What’s more, Bush appears to have gone down without a fight, saving his debating time for arguing against the protectionism that France’s Nicolas Sarkozy was pushing. By giving Bush a seeming victory on a moratorium against protectionism for one year, Sarkozy was able to slip over his massive scheme for taking over the supervision of the U.S. economy.

All kinds of political agendas are advancing under the cover of response to the global financial crisis. Where Franklin Roosevelt saved capitalism by regulating it, Bush, to say nothing of Obama, has given the government control over our major financial and insurance institutions. And it isn’t even our government! The power has now been transferred to the international community, led by the socialists in the European Union.

Will Obama govern from the left? He doesn’t have to. George W. Bush has done all the heavy lifting for him. It was under Bush that the government basically took over as the chief stockholder of our financial institutions and under Bush that we ceded our financial controls to the European Union. In doing so, he has done nothing to preserve what differentiates the vibrant American economy from those dying economies in Europe. Why have 80 percent of the jobs that have been created since 1980 in the industrialized world been created in the United States? How has America managed to retain its leading 24 percent share of global manufacturing even in the face of the Chinese surge? How has the U.S. GDP risen so high that it essentially equals that of the European Union, which has 50 percent more population? It has done so by an absence of stifling regulation, a liberation of capital to flow to innovative businesses, low taxes, and by a low level of unionization that has given business the flexibility to grow and prosper. Europe, stagnated by taxation and regulation, has grown by a pittance while we have roared ahead. But now Bush — not Obama — Bush has given that all up and caved in to European socialists.

The Bush legacy? European socialism. Who needs enemies with friends like Bush?

By KEN THOMAS
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Senate Democrats suggested Wednesday that a bill to rescue Detroit’s Big Three automakers was stalled and called on the Bush administration to take steps to help save the industry if congressional efforts falter.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada sought to lower expectations of reaching a deal on the $25 billion proposal before Congress quits for the year.

While he told the Senate he still hoped lawmakers could agree to an auto deal in the “next day or two” of the current lame-duck session, he added: “If we can’t do it here legislatively, I would hope that the secretary of Treasury would listen loud and clear because they could take this into their own hands and do what I think is appropriate from their perspective.”

Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., was even more downbeat, calling the possibility of reaching agreement “remote.”

“I don’t see how in the next few days this is going to move forward,” Dodd said. Still, he added, “That does not mean that there are not opportunities.” He suggested that the Federal Reserve could possibly step up to the job.

The difficulties of striking a deal on the package before a new president and a new Congress with expanded Democratic majorities take office appeared to be too great to overcome. The deadlock persisted even as the heads of General Motors, Ford and Chrysler returned for a second day to plead for relief and as their congressional backers urged colleagues not to punish them for past mistakes.

General Motors Corp. CEO Rick Wagoner told the House Financial Services Committee that collapse of the U.S. auto industry could lead to a loss of 3 million jobs within the first year and ripple throughout communities around the nation.

In sometimes contentious testimony, Wagoner was pressed on when GM would run out of money if the loans weren’t extended.

He said he couldn’t say precisely, but that the company now was burning through “$5 billion each month.”

Still, with the $25 billion emergency package, “We think we have a good shot to make it through this,” Wagoner said. He said he anticipated that, if the package is approved, GM would qualify for about $10 billion to $12 billion of the money.

President George W. Bush and Republicans in Congress have been reluctant to use the Treasury Department’s $700 billion financial bailout program to finance the loans. And White House press secretary Dana Perino has said Congress should draw the funds from an Energy Department program established by law last year to encourage production of fuel-efficient cars.

Read the rest of this AP piece here.

By MIKE ALLEN & GLENN THRUSH at Politico.com

Negotiations between the Clintons and President-elect Obama’s transition team are rapidly moving toward a formal offer of secretary of State for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), with both sides expecting a formal announcement in the next seven days, according to numerous officials who are involved.

As a key part of satisfying Obama’s vetting team, former President Bill Clinton is open to giving up foreign sources of income if she becomes secretary of State, according to a close friend.

The friend said the former president is willing to make “changes” in his lucrative post-White House career.

“There’ll be things that he did in the past that he won’t do now,” the friend said. “He’s open to looking at what the Obama people think make sense. The Obama people will say, ‘Here’s what we’re comfortable with you doing.’ And President Clinton will look at it and most likely, say, ‘OK, I can do that.’ Like her, he wants the best for this country. My read of the situation is that he’s open to working something out – that everybody’s happy. It doesn’t feel to me like that’s going to be terribly difficult.”

The officials believe the vetting can be wrapped up this week, with an announcement before Thanksgiving, which is a week from Thursday.

The Clintons will try to satisfy Obama lawyers about potential conflicts of interest without making all the information public, according to an official involved in the process.

“There’s a big difference between letting the vetters look at it and putting it online for the rest of the world.”

Clinton’s negotiating team is led by Cheryl Mills, a former Clinton administration and campaign official. The Clinton team also includes Bruce Lindsey, CEO of the William J. Clinton Foundation, and longtime Clinton aide Doug Band.

The Obama side is represented by John Podesta, a former Clinton White House chief of staff who heads the Obama transition, and his deputy Todd Stern. The teams, confirmed by Clinton intimates, were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Earlier this week, people close to Obama said they were frustrated with the pace of cooperation from the Clintons, but the collaboration has picked up speed.”

A key Clinton source said the job is likely to be offered and accepted.

“She does have a sense of history, and we are at a critical moment in our history,” the official said. “It’s all hands on deck as far as making the Obama administration a success. This isn’t done. There are some mechanical steps that have to be taken.”

Some insiders say the backup nominee would be Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass). Other possibilities include New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) or, less likely Richard Holbrooke, a former Clinton assistant secretary of State.

Joe Lockhart of the Glover Park Group, said on CBS’ “The Early Show” that the Clinton nomination would send “a strong message to the rest of the world that someone of Senator Clinton’s stature is going to engage in a way that we haven’t engaged in the last eight years.

“We have a big deficit to make up with the rest of the world,” he said. “This speaks well of both [Clinton and Obama]. I believe that she’s torn. What gets lost in a lot of the campaigning is how much she loves being a senator. What could she do that best serves the country at this time? They’re both critical jobs. At the end of the day, she’ll look at this and say, ‘How can I serve my country? What is the greatest need?’ These are two great options. I think she’ll be happy with either.”

The environmental groups are already beginning to put the reigns on an Obama Presidency. He gave us a sneak peak of his radical agenda to “bankrupt” the coal industry last January, but for “Friends of the Earth” that could never be enough.

By ERIKA LOVLEY at Politico.com

Breaking with other environmental groups, Friends of the Earth criticized the climate agenda unveiled by Barack Obama Tuesday, calling it “welcomed” but not aggressive enough. 

The majority of environmental groups, though, offered rousting praise for the president-elect’s plan, even though it offered an emission reduction goal significantly lower than what the groups demanded in a recent letter to his transition leaders. 

So far, Friends of the Earth is the only one of the nearly 30 signatories to the letter that’s taking on Obama. 

His plan calls for emissions to be reduced to 1990 levels by 2020. The greens’ letter wanted emissions a minimum cut of 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. 

“Obama is demonstrating leadership on global warming from the get-go,” said Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackwelder. “But the enormity of the task at hand requires him to be even more aggressive.” 

The World Wildlife Fund, which dispatched one of the praise-only statements, said there’ll be plenty of time to hammer out specific emission targets. 

“For years we haven’t had any climate change leadership at a federal level, and today marks a substantial shift,” said the fund’s spokesman, Joe Pouliot. “That alone is a huge improvement. Let’s embrace that.”

IF General Motors, Ford and Chryslerget the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

I love cars, American cars. I was born in Detroit, the son of an auto chief executive. In 1954, my dad, George Romney, was tapped to run American Motors when its president suddenly died. The company itself was on life support — banks were threatening to deal it a death blow. The stock collapsed. I watched Dad work to turn the company around — and years later at business school, they were still talking about it. From the lessons of that turnaround, and from my own experiences, I have several prescriptions for Detroit’s automakers.

First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers.

That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford, for example, needs to cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with Toyota’s Avalon. Of course the Avalon feels like a better product — it has $2,000 more put into it. Considering this disadvantage, Detroit has done a remarkable job of designing and engineering its cars. But if this cost penalty persists, any bailout will only delay the inevitable.

Second, management as is must go. New faces should be recruited from unrelated industries — from companies widely respected for excellence in marketing, innovation, creativity and labor relations.

The new management must work with labor leaders to see that the enmity between labor and management comes to an end. This division is a holdover from the early years of the last century, when unions brought workers job security and better wages and benefits. But as Walter Reuther, the former head of the United Automobile Workers, said to my father, “Getting more and more pay for less and less work is a dead-end street.”

You don’t have to look far for industries with unions that went down that road. Companies in the 21st century cannot perpetuate the destructive labor relations of the 20th. This will mean a new direction for the U.A.W., profit sharing or stock grants to all employees and a change in Big Three management culture.

The need for collaboration will mean accepting sanity in salaries and perks. At American Motors, my dad cut his pay and that of his executive team, he bought stock in the company, and he went out to factories to talk to workers directly. Get rid of the planes, the executive dining rooms — all the symbols that breed resentment among the hundreds of thousands who will also be sacrificing to keep the companies afloat.

Investments must be made for the future. No more focus on quarterly earnings or the kind of short-term stock appreciation that means quick riches for executives with options. Manage with an eye on cash flow, balance sheets and long-term appreciation. Invest in truly competitive products and innovative technologies — especially fuel-saving designs — that may not arrive for years. Starving research and development is like eating the seed corn.

Just as important to the future of American carmakers is the sales force. When sales are down, you don’t want to lose the only people who can get them to grow. So don’t fire the best dealers, and don’t crush them with new financial or performance demands they can’t meet.

It is not wrong to ask for government help, but the automakers should come up with a win-win proposition. I believe the federal government should invest substantially more in basic research — on new energy sources, fuel-economy technology, materials science and the like — that will ultimately benefit the automotive industry, along with many others. I believe Washington should raise energy research spending to $20 billion a year, from the $4 billion that is spent today. The research could be done at universities, at research labs and even through public-private collaboration. The federal government should also rectify the imbedded tax penalties that favor foreign carmakers.

But don’t ask Washington to give shareholders and bondholders a free pass — they bet on management and they lost.

The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.

In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.

From a news article last year:

Guerra also faces a four-count indictment of tampering with governmental records, perjury and abuse of official capacity.

The second-degree felony charges Guerra with false entry in a governmental record when he filed a petition for a temporary injunction against Connie & Fina Bail Bond Co. on April 17, 2006, falsely alleging the company was over its bonding limit, according to the indictment. Guerra filed the action “knowing the statement was false and intending to defraud and harm” Connie & Fina Bond Co., the indictment states.

An attempted theft charge stems from Guerra’s alleged demand of $10,000 from Connie & Fina Bail Bond Co., according to court documents.

The third-degree felony alleges Guerra threatened to shut down the company if it failed to give him $10,000 in cash.

The Associated Press is reporting that Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have been indicted on charges “related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County’s federal detention centers.

The indictment criticizes Cheney’s investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and “at least misdemeanor assaults” on detainees by working through the prison companies.

Gonzales is accused of using his position while in office to stop an investigation into abuses at the federal detention centers.”

In 2006, SurveyUSA interviewed 600 people from all 50 states asking who they would vote for if the 2008 Presidential Election was between John McCain and Barack Obama.  McCain won 510 to 28 electoral votes.

The only states Obama carried were his home states of Illinois and Hawaii, along with the District of Columbia.

How things have changed in two years.  Leave a comment saying what you think caused these changes since 2006.

Alan Keyes, an opponent of Obama in Illinois’ 2004 U.S. Senate Race, filed a lawsuit in California asking the state to withold their electoral votes until evidence is shown proving Obama’s citizenship.  Though a little out there, a candidate does need to be a natural-born citizen.  California had 55 electoral votes.  Obama won with 365 electoral votes.  Minus California he would still win with 310 votes.  In order to lose, another 40 votes would have to be taken away.  The next nearest state to that number is Texas with 34 votes.  To say it’s a longshot would be an understatement.  Though, if Obama is not a citizen then he technically can not be president.  I wouldn’t count on it though.

Read full story here.

The video was prepared by John Ziegler, who also commissioned a poll to see what the average voter learned during the 2008 campaign. The result:

57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)

81.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)

82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)

88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)

56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).

And yet…..

Only 13.7% failed to identify Sarah Palin as the person on which their party spent $150,000 in clothes

Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter

And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her “house,” even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!

Only 2.4% got at least 11 correct.

Only .5% got all of them correct. (And we “gave” one answer that was technically not Palin, but actually Tina Fey)