the things you believe you're seeing...

For now anyway ...until The One steps in; Mortgage Bill Fails in Senate By JESSICA HOLZER WASHINGTON -- A measure to allow bankruptcy judges to rework the mortgages of strapped homeowners failed in the Senate on Thursday, clouding its chances of becoming law. The defeat is a setback for the administration of President Barack Obama , which had championed the measure as a central plank of its plan to repair the housing market. The measure, which was offered as an amendment to broader banking legislation, sank on a 51-to-45 vote due to opposition from Republicans and moderate Democrats. The measure would allow bankruptcy judges to reduce the principal amount of mortgage loans for struggling borrowers -- a process dubbed "cramdown." Currently, mortgages on vacation properties, but not primary residences, can be reworked by bankruptcy judges

No Republicans votes and 17 Democrats voted against it... The House of Representatives passed a $3.44 trillion budget resolution for fiscal year 2010 Wednesday, approving most of President Obama’s key spending priorities and setting the federal government in a new direction with major increases for energy, education and health care programs. The resolution, which was approved by a vote of 233 to 193, passed in a virtual party-line vote. All but 17 House Democrats supported it, and no House Republicans voted in favor… … “Today, for the first time in many, many years, we have a president’s budget … that is a statement of our national values ,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said during the final debate on the House floor. “What is important to us as a nation is reflected in this budget. It’s a very happy day for our country.” What values might that be? Bankrupt the country as quickly as possible?

Come on! Candy Crowley — a tough, well-informed and underrated interviewer — kicked it off by asking the Speaker about about a column by former CIA director and ex-House intel chairman Porter Goss accusing Democrats of collective “amnesia” for urging investigations of waterboarding after remaining relatively mute during those first classified briefings. PELOSI: Well, first of all, let me say that perhaps we do live in an alternate universe, Porter and I. Porter’s orientation is that he was a member of the CIA before he came to Congress and he speaks now as a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency. CROWLEY: Is he wrong? PELOSI: Perhaps he is seeing it from his perspective. If they say we have a legal opinion, it means we’re going to use it. That’s not how I heard it. They said they had a legal opinion. They said they weren’t going to use and when they did they would come back to Congress to report to us on that. But that’s how I heard that.

But they didn't care and threatened sanctions if anyone breathed a word of it...Chuckie Schumer is actually making sense for a change; "To say that it should not be made public knowing that it might scare people it's just confounding," Sen. Charles Schumer said. "It's what gives Washington and government a bad name. It's sheer stupidity."

The arrogance is stunning...

He should be furious since the order came out of the White House...imagine the outrage if Bush had ok'd this?

So Barney, your position on housing was what again?

Announcing that we plan to bug-out of Iraq looks to not have been such a smart thing to do... Two large suicide bombings Thursday renewed fears among Iraqis that Sunni insurgents are regaining strength and lethality as the U.S. military has started disassembling its massive wartime architecture... . The violent campaign coincides with plans for a U.S. pullback . The first deadline in a phased American withdrawal agreed upon by Iraq and the United States comes this summer, when combat troops are supposed to move out of urban areas. Top U.S. commanders have recently said the Iraqi government may ask them to keep American forces in cities in northern Iraq -- where the insurgency remains entrenched -- beyond the summer deadline. In Baghdad, the military has closed some inner-city bases and small outposts, but appears intent on keeping American soldiers at urban facilities shared with Iraqi troops well beyond the summer.

From TV Guide : White House officials have requested up to an hour of airtime for Wednesday, April 29, according to TV Week. The press conference, which falls on the 100th day of Obama’s presidency, will probably air in the 8 o’clock hour and address questions of the president’s performance. Broadcast networks have not yet announced their response, but a source said that they will most likely agree to the administration’s request . Ya think? Like they would dare refuse the Dear Leader's airtime request.

Congressman Pete Hoekstra in the WSJ today ; “It was not necessary to release details of the enhanced interrogation techniques, because members of Congress from both parties have been fully aware of them since the program began in 2002. We believed it was something that had to be done in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to keep our nation safe. After many long and contentious debates, Congress repeatedly approved and funded this program on a bipartisan basis in both Republican and Democratic Congresses. . . . I have asked Mr. Blair to provide me with a list of the dates, locations and names of all members of Congress who attended briefings on enhanced interrogation techniques.”

The Attack of the Free Thinkers at UNC Chapel Hill , for the second time in one week... Goode spoke to a Frank Porter Graham Student Union audience of about 150 people and took questions from audience members for about 90 minutes. Some audience members jeered and heckled when the speech started. One small group walked out shortly after it began. Some set off personal body alarms that had to be located and turned off by police. Two others unfurled a banner with a profane statement. Goode continued speaking throughout

During her interview with Obama, Katie Couric gushed: "You're so confident, Mr. President, and so focused. Is your confidence ever shaken? Do you ever wake up and say, Damn, this is hard. Damn, I'm not going to get the things done I want to get done and its just too politicized to really get accomplished the big things I want to accomplish? Damn I'm so good looking I can't take my eyes off of myself in the mirror?" Ok...well I made that last part up, but sadly the rest is accurate. See Newsbusters for more .

From the NY Times ; Democrats are tempted to use their political muscle to speed passage of health care legislation with minimal concessions to the Republican minority.

Well you know they are the smartest people on the planet; Can someone please tell us how U. S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano got her job? She appears to be about as knowledgeable about border issues as a late-night radio call-in yahoo. In an interview broadcast Monday on the CBC, Ms. Napolitano attempted to justify her call for stricter border security on the premise that "suspected or known terrorists" have entered the U. S. across the Canadian border, including the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack. All the 9/11 terrorists, of course, entered the United States directly from overseas.

According to Rasmussen's latest polling data ... Overall, 54% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance so far. Forty-six percent (46%) disapprove. For more Presidential barometers, see Obama By the Numbers. And the latest Congressional generic ballot , would you vote Democrat or Republican, the poll shows its all tied at 39%. That cannot comfort the Dems.

Yeah...that's right.  Pretty comical if I do say so... If Prejean’s views are “ugly,” than she’s not alone on the public stage:  During the last presidential campaign President Obama answered the same question by declaring: “I’m a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman.” Elton John has also weighed in, saying: “If gay people want to get married, or get together, they should have a civil partnership… The word ‘marriage,’ I think, puts a lot of people off. You get the same equal rights that we do when we have a civil partnership. Heterosexual people get married. We can have civil partnerships.”

But wait...I thought these procedures did not work? But, as first reported by the New York Times' Peter Baker Tuesday night , President Obama's own Director of National Intelligence, former Admiral Dennis Blair, wrote a memo to his staff last week in which he said the methods, some of which are said to be torture by legal and human rights groups, were effective. “High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country," Blair wrote. Added Blair: “I like to think I would not have approved those methods in the past, but I do not fault those who made the decisions at that time, and I will absolutely defend those who carried out the interrogations within the orders they were given.” Some interesting info left out of the NY Times article which was produced from a letter Blair sent to his colleagues; "From 2002 through 2006 when the use of these techniq...

No its not a joke ...

Former VP Dick Cheney: "I haven't talked about it, but I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw, that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country,” he said in an interview with Sean Hannity last night. "I've now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was." Of course it won't matter because they must be faked the left will say. How can we believe anything from the CIA, expect if it trashes the Bush Administration, then its solid!

Nancy Pelosi did say that right? I wasn't imaging that was I? House Democratic leaders, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), have ratcheted up the pressure on their rank-and-file members to oppose a resolution calling for an ethics committee investigation into the ties between key Democrats and a controversial defense-lobbying firm. Democratic leaders have told their members they should let the ethics panel do its work and stop supporting a measure sponsored by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) that calls for an ethics probe into political donations from the now-defunct PMA Group lobbying firm and earmarks its clients received. . . . The pressure appears to be working. Reps. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and Tim Walz (D-Minn.), two of more than two dozen Democrats who supported Flake’s measure in the latest vote, on April 1, are now wavering. . . . The week before the recess, Kind told The Hill that a cloud will be hanging over all House Democrats until their leaders address the PMA contr...

First he asks his obviously agenda driven question and did not get the answer he wanted, notice that after moment off unease from the pro-gay marriage audience members they were over-powered by approval of her answer from the rest of the audience... And then he digs himself in even deeper posting his profanity laced idiotic rant-response on his blog;

I guess when you're in the minority dissent is patriotic, that is until your in the majority and then its not...then it's racism or other such nonsense...and BTW, who is that blond from 2003?

oh wait... I would love to see Zo on Real Time with Bill Mahr, I think Mahr and Janeane Garofalo's heads would simultaneously explode...

You'd think the only people that came were the ones quoted in the news article ...This asswipe doesn't says only a few hundred protesters showed up. Well 12,000 in NYC and 20,000 in Atlanta to name just two is not a few hundred. By most calculations the total is over 500,000 came out all over the country... Tepid turnout in U.S. for 'tea party' tax protest By Chris Parry, Canwest News Service April 16, 2009 A Fox News-hyped U. S. anti-tax movement has failed to bring about the "popular uprising" its creators had hoped for. The day of "tea parties," pushed by Republican operatives and partisan advocacy groups such as FreedomWorks, which sought to protest U. S. President Barack Obama government's tax and stimulus policies by encouraging people to"wave tea bags," brought about only a few hundred "tea-baggers" in most parts of the U. S., despite relentless promotion by Fox News TV hosts. Participants had hoped to rally hundreds...

Another superstar in the Obama administration under investigation ... “Steven Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration’s auto task force, was one of the investment-firm executives involved with payments now under scrutiny in a state and federal investigation into an alleged kickback scheme at New York state’s pension fund, according to a person familiar with the matter.”

Unsubstantial... Mr Sarkozy is pouring cold water on President Obama’s efforts to recast American leadership on the world stage, depicting them as unoriginal, unsubstantial and overrated. Behind leaks and briefings from the Elysée Palace lies Mr Sarkozy’s irritation at the rock-star welcome that Europe gave Mr Obama on his Europan tour earlier this month. The American President’s call “to free the world of the menace of a nuclear nightmare” was hot air, Mr Sarkozy’s diplomatic staff told him in a report. “It was rhetoric – not a speech on American security policy but an export model aimed at improving the image of the United States,” they said. Most of Mr Obama’s proposals had already been made by the Bush administration and Washington was dragging its feet on disarmament and treaties against nuclear proliferation, the leaked report said.

...and they got a free screening of the new movie; The cast went out of their way to entertain us before and after the movie was shown. They were more than happy to interact with the soldiers (Eric Bana leaped out of his “reserved” seat and sat next to a female soldier who invited him next to her) and they took their time describing their experiences making the film and answering questions and requests (Quinto obliged a soldier who asked him to call his daughter back in the states and say hello to her). I was truly impressed and grateful in the fact that they went out of their way to thank us and to offer this film to us. I’ll admit that this review won’t be as objective as it could because of the way the cast lent themselves to us. My biggest thrill was walking up to J.J. Abrams after the film and having the opportunity to give him my general impressions of it. How many times does a geek like me get a chance to do that?

If true, good for President Obama!  Somebody's gotta show some stones! Obama Twice Approved Plan to Rescue U.S. Sea Captain A senior administration official told FOX News that Obama granted the authority on Friday and Saturday to use appropriate force to rescue Capt. Richard Phillips from a lifeboat off the Somali coast. FOXNews.com Sunday, April 12, 2009 President Obama twice authorized the military to rescue a U.S. captain held by Somali pirates and whose life appeared to be at risk. A senior administration official told FOX News that Obama granted the authority on Friday and Saturday to use appropriate force to rescue Capt. Richard Phillips from a lifeboat off the Somali coast. The Pentagon believed Phillips' life was at risk both times, officials said. A senior administration official said the president's order authorized force for a group of military assets that arrived at the scene late last week. When more resources arrived, Obama added them to a roster of military p...

Excellent news! And no thanks to President Prompter. Captain Phillips jumped overboard for a second time and this time the Navy Seals were ready! Never let an opportunity go to waste! FOXNews.com - Ship Captain Rescued From Somali Pirates Ship Captain Rescued From Somali Pirates Sunday, April 12, 2009 AP American sea Captain Richard Phillips was safely rescued Sunday from four Somali pirates, who had been holding him for days in a lifeboat off the coast of Africa, a U.S. intelligence official said. Three of the pirates were killed and one was in custody after what appeared to be a swift firefight off the Somali coast, the official said. Initial reports indicate Phillips jumped overboard for a second time and the military was able to take advantage of the situation. Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vt., was transported to the USS Bainbridge nearby.

Obama today in Turkey; An enduring commitment to the rule of law is the only way to achieve the security that comes from justice for all people. Robust minority rights let societies benefit from the full measure of contributions from all citizens. I say this as the President of a country that not too long ago made it hard for someone who looks like me to vote.

US gives 50,000 dlrs for quake-hit Italy The United States said Monday it would donate 50,000 dollars in emergency aid to Italy after a powerful earthquake killed at least 100 people. "We send our heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed in the earthquake. Our embassy in Rome will provide 50,000 (dollars) in emergency relief funding," State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters. Italian authorities told the United States they did not need rescue teams, Wood said. President Barack Obama earlier offered his condolences on a visit to Turkey and voiced hope that the United States could send rescuers. The earthquake killed at least 100 people and injured 1,500 more as it reduced medieval buildings to rubble in the central town of L'Aquila. Wood said there were no reports of US citizens among the dead or injured but that the US embassy in Rome was reaching out to Americans living in the region.

Oh wait.... At a news conference afterward, Obama said his debut on the international stage had convinced him that “political interaction in Europe is not that different from the United States Senate,” where he served before entering the White House. “There’s a lot of — I don’t know what the term is in Austrian — wheeling and dealing, and people are pursuing their interests, and everybody has their own particular issues and their own particular politics.. Can you imagine the media reaction if Bush had said that?

From Pew Research ; For all of his hopes about bipartisanship, Barack Obama has the most polarized early job approval ratings of any president in the past four decades. The 61-point partisan gap in opinions about Obama's job performance is the result of a combination of high Democratic ratings for the president -- 88% job approval among Democrats -- and relatively low approval ratings among Republicans (27%).

Obama held a campaign townhall event in France last week and as it turns out took a total of zero questions from any French people...nice! From the Washington Times; President Obama held a much ballyhooed town hall in Strasbourg, France, on Friday, touted by the White House as an outreach to Europeans on the second leg of the president's "listening" tour. But the first person he called on was an American -- and the third, too. By the end of the hourlong session, not a single French citizen got to ask the U.S. president a question.

What a dolt! We will immediately consult with our allies in the region, including Japan and the Republic of Korea, and members of the U.N. Security Council to bring this matter before the Council. I urge North Korea to abide fully by the resolutions of the U.N. Security Council and to refrain from further provocative actions.

...and Obama responds sort like this; We are so screwed!

Imagine that! Banks want to pay the money back they were forced to take and now the Messiah doesn't want to take it because he wants to control the banks. Is this the change Americans voted for ? I don't think so... Obama Wants to Control the Banks There's a reason he refuses to accept repayment of TARP money. By STUART VARNEY I must be naive. I really thought the administration would welcome the return of bank bailout money. Some $340 million in TARP cash flowed back this week from four small banks in Louisiana, New York, Indiana and California. This isn't much when we routinely talk in trillions, but clearly that money has not been wasted or otherwise sunk down Wall Street's black hole. So why no cheering as the cash comes back? My answer: The government wants to control the banks, just as it now controls GM and Chrysler, and will surely control the health industry in the not-too-distant future. Keeping them TARP-stuffed is the key to control. And for this int...

Obama bows to Saudi King Abdullah, truly astonishing...the MSM wants us to believe that he was picking something up off of the floor...Actually he was bending over to pick something up, his dignity but he figured it wasn't worth it...

Funny but this is exactly the kind of thing that President Bush was accused of doing but never actually did, imagine the screams from the left had this been Bush and company; Justice Department lawyers concluded in an unpublished opinion earlier this year that the historic D.C. voting rights bill pending in Congress is unconstitutional, according to sources briefed on the issue. But Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who supports the measure, ordered up a second opinion from other lawyers in his department and determined that the legislation would pass muster. ... In deciding that the measure is unconstitutional, lawyers in the department's Office of Legal Counsel matched a conclusion reached by their Bush administration counterparts nearly two years ago, when a lawyer there testified that a similar bill would not withstand legal attack. Holder rejected the advice and sought the opinion of the solicitor general's office, where lawyers told him that they could defend the legi...