Well as Steve said,” you wanted change” well here’s your change….Obama is coming, that is your change! Hope you like it! As you read this bear in mind, this is a British newspaper:
Barack Obama: I Am The Change
Barack Obama is facing rising criticism from both the Left and the Right over his failure to signal change in his foreign policy.
On a range of issues, from Kosovo, China, Russia and Nato’s eastward expansion, and the Middle East, former White House officials and leading analysts are disappointed at how quickly the president-elect has moved to the centre ground since his election just a month ago.
“The tone, image and symbolism will be different, and he will have more interest in multi-lateral solutions [than George W. Bush],” said Doug Bandow, a former adviser to President Ronald Reagan. “But I don’t see evidence of dramatic change.”
Mr Obama has not shown much sign of appreciating that “we have entered an age where the US can’t dictate to the world any more” and that the US can no longer afford its global military role., Mr Bandow said.
Like others, he would like to see the new administration show signs that it will acknowledge that the US cannot be the world’s policeman, and that it will urge traditional allies such as Japan, South Korea and Europeans to stand up for themselves more.
“Pulling back is not popular among most of Washington’s elite, but in survey after survey it is popular among the public,” said Christopher Preble, head of foreign policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, who added: “Do we need so many troops in Germany two decades after the end of the Cold War?”
While Mr Obama campaigned on pulling troops out quickly from Iraq and promised to talk directly to America’s enemies, he is now retreating from both undertakings.
He has also “failed to appoint people who would offer a fresh perspective”, according to Mr Preble, who criticised the president-elect’s experienced but conservative national security team headed by Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state.
Mr Obama also appears to be falling into line with the Washington consensus that more troops need to be sent to Afghanistan. “A priority after he takes office must be to explain to the American people why they are needed and what the objectives are,” said Mr Preble.
Col Lawrence Wilkerson, an aide to Gen Colin Powell when he served as secretary of state in the Bush administration, said Mr Obama appeared to be reverting to “Clinton era foreign policy but with more sophistication”.
Criticism is also emerging from the Left.
Katrina vanden Heuvel, writing in the Nation, noted that in view of the fact Mr Obama had not only wanted to end the Iraq war, but “the mindset that got us into war”, it was “troubling” he had “assembled a national security team of such narrow bandwidth”.
Lionel Beenher, writing on the Huffington Post website, said: “Pardon the metaphor, but Obama is trying to put lipstick on the pig that is US foreign policy. His national security team looks no less hawkish than the team assembled during Bush’s second term.”
Here’s some great video’s you need to watch (Shush! They don’t want you to see these)
December 6, 2008
Some videos for your pleasure. These are well worth watching. First is a little scarcasm from former Presidential candidate Fred Thompson, who would have been better in the oval office had he not been so lazy. Second is a skit from Saturday night live, which got lost from internet postings…not before we saved it.
First, Fred Thompson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IrR3o7×1ps
Now, the SNL skit that was removed from the web…yep, how much power does it take to do that?
http://www.offmyfrontporch.com/Extra/SNLBailoutSkit.wmv
Now, something to make your eyes tear up, who should have really won the Peace Prize, Irena or Al?
http://www.offmyfrontporch.com/Extra/IrenaSendler-VS-AlGore_NEW.wmv
Please comment if you’d like, because I know that someone out there thinks WE make this stuff up!!!!
The Queen of England Suspends Canadian Parliment
December 6, 2008
Well here is a modern day example of why the founding fathers wanted to separate themselves from the rulers in England and why they gave us a checks and balance system of government. This is why they limited the government power from Congress, the Courts and the Executive branch, so as to prevent this very thing from happening here in the US, but we are fast giving the Executive branch way too much power. Here’s what happened in Canada: The Canadian Parliament is only ceremonial…the Queen runs Canada….The parliament was moving to remove Steven Harper the prime minister of Canada and the Queen stepped in because she likes what Harper has been doing and she froze parliament and if you read the legalese parliament has been dissolved. She may reconfigure the parliament later, but because she disagreed with what was happening to Harper, she stopped it. This is how imperial rule works. I might add, the Queen could do this in Australia and around 20 other countries.
Canadian PM wins suspension of Parliament
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper won a rare suspension of Parliament on Thursday, managing to avoid being ousted by opposition parties angry over the minority Conservative government’s economic plans and an attempt to cut off party financing.
Governor General Michaelle Jean — the representative of Queen Elizabeth, Canada’s head of state — agreed to Harper’s request to shut down Parliament until Jan 26. Parliament was reconvened just weeks ago after the October 14 election.
Harper’s request for suspension was unprecedented. No prime minister had asked for Parliament to be suspended to avoid a confidence vote in the House of Commons.(He knew he was about to be booted out, so he stopped it….a similar thing happen here in the US just weeks ago with Congress was going to vote against the Bailout bill, but in private many members were threatened with martial law if they didn’t pass it…..so they passed it. Here’s the audio from a radio interview with Senator James Inhofe)
Such a vote had been set for Monday and the Conservatives almost certainly would have lost it, and faced the possibility of being replaced by a coalition of opposition parties.
After a two-hour meeting with the governor general, Harper reaffirmed his promise to present a budget on Jan 27 and called on the opposition to work with the government over the next few weeks to tackle the effects of the global financial crisis.
“Today’s decision will give us an opportunity — and I’m talking about all the parties — to focus on the economy and to work together,” he told reporters.
The opposition Liberals, New Democrats and the separatist Bloc Quebecois — all to the left of the Conservatives — had signed a deal to defeat the Conservatives and put forward a Liberal-New Democrat coalition to form a new government.
The Bloc, which wants to take French-speaking Quebec out of Canada, pledged to back the coalition’s budgets and general policy direction.
The governor general’s role in government, as representative of the Crown, is largely ceremonial,(this time is wasn’t ceremonial…she showed her authority) though she has the final word on constitutional matters. Should the government be defeated in a confidence vote, she would decide whether to call a new election or allow the opposition to form a coalition government.
CONSTITUTIONAL BATTLE
Harper’s gambit was the latest development in a constitutional battle that erupted last week after he tried to eliminate direct subsidies of political parties, a move that would have hit the opposition particularly hard.
He backed down on that, but the opposition parties also say they are upset that the government has not dealt adequately with the economic crisis and said it had lost the confidence of the House of Commons.
Liberal leader Stephane Dion, who would have become prime minister under the opposition’s coalition plan, said nothing he heard from Harper on Thursday had changed his mind about trying to bring down the government.
However, he did appear to open the door a crack to not proceeding with such a plan.
“This is about replacing Stephen Harper unless he made a monumental change,” he told a news conference. “It means a recovery plan, a real recovery plan.”
Read the entire article @ Reuters.com
For Christmas…a simple Gift…
December 6, 2008
I suppose that we all worry about what to get family and friends for Christmas. This was sent to me by a friend in my email. I thought this was an excellent idea. Please include one or two, or all in your list for a card this year.
Steve
4TH PLT D. CO. 2/506th
FOB SALERNO
APO, AE. 09314
SPC JOE BURGESS
SFC STEVE CHANDLER
PFC MARK COTIA
SPC PETER COURCY
1LT GABRIEL STULTZ
SGT LEVI FRANK
SGT TIMOTHY EZELL
SSG CHRISTOPHER GOODALL
SGT BRUCE HUNTER
SPC TOU PO LO
SSG ERIC MCWILLIAMS
SGT CHRISTOPHER NELSON
PFC JAMES NOBLES
PFC ALEXANDER PADILLA
SPC WILLIAM PERKINS
SPC PHILIP SANDERS
PFC ADAM SCHREIB
SGT DANIEL SMITH
SPC JOHN WILLIAMS
SGT DAVID TOMLINSON
PFC DANIEL ABBATE
PFC ERIC BLANTON
SSG CARL BOX
Will The Constitution Matter to the Supreme Court?
December 6, 2008
Eligibility dispute story spreads
Now National Press Club event scheduled on challenge to Oval Office occupant
Posted: December 05, 2008
10:00 pm Eastern By Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
Barack ObamaQuestions raised over Barack Obama’s citizenship are reaching into the National Press Club now, with an event scheduled Monday at which an activist group will call for the release of documentation proving his eligibility to occupy the Oval Office.
Already, at least one legal advocacy group is promising to raise legal challenges to whatever Obama would do as president, until and unless his eligibility is established.
Now the group that has aired and published a number of ads challenging Obama based on charges that he was born in Kenya, not Hawaii, and doesn’t meet the U.S. Constitution’s requirement that all presidents be “natural-born” citizens has scheduled a news conference in Washington.
Among those scheduled to be present are attorneys handling a Pennsylvania case brought by Philip Berg, a New Jersey case brought by Leo Donofrio and a California case brought by Orly Taitz. The U.S. Supreme Court justices were scheduled to have a conference today on whether to accept arguments on the issue, but no immediate announcement was made.
WeThePeopleFoundation.org, which is scheduling the event, will talk about Obama’s response to the publication of an open letter last week in the Chicago Tribune.
The letter sought Obama’s authorization for access to his original birth certificate, which state officials in Hawaii report having seen.
“Under our Constitution, no one is eligible to assume the office of the president unless he or she is a ‘natural born citizen,’” Bob Schulz of WeThePeople said. “To date, Mr. Obama has refused all requests to release his original birth certificate or other documents that would definitively establish his citizenship status and thus his constitutional eligibility.”
More than a dozen legal challenges have been initiated over Obama’s citizenship, all citing Obama’s clouded history and the U.S. Constitution’s requirement that a president be a natural born citizen.
There have been allegations Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii as his campaign has reported, that he could be considered a British subject because of his father’s residency in what then was a British protectorate that later became Kenya, and that the “Certification of Live Birth” posted on his website simply shows his mother registered his birth in Hawaii after he was born, but does not document a location of birth.
There also have been questions raised about his travels as a youth, including the years he spent registered as a Muslim in an Indonesian school, and his later travels to Pakistan at a time when U.S. passports weren’t welcome in that nation.
WND senior reporter Jerome Corsi traveled to Kenya and Hawaii prior to the election to investigate issues surrounding Obama’s birth. But his research and discoveries only raised more questions.
The biggest question remains why Obama, if a Hawaii birth certificate exists, simply hasn’t ordered it made available to settle the rumors. The dispute has been covered mostly by online news sources, but in recent days, Washington and Philadelphia newspapers have begun following, CNN and Fox have commented and even the American Bar Association Journal has noted the dispute.
The governor’s office in Hawaii said there is a valid certificate but rejected requests for access and left ambiguous its origin. Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro, has named two different Hawaii hospitals where Obama could have been born, while a video posted on YouTube features Obama’s Kenyan grandmother Sarah claiming to have witnessed Obama’s birth in Kenya.
Schulz’ open letter asked that Obama have delivered to the National Press Club a certified copy of the original birth certificate, including any under the names Barack Husssein Obama, Barry Soetoro, Barry Obama, Barack Dunham and Barry Dunham, a certificate of his citizenship and admission forms for his attendance at Occidental College, Columbia and Harvard.
The dispute is facing an immediate deadline, because members of the U.S. Electoral College are scheduled to vote Dec. 15 formally to make Obama the next president.
“Should the state members of the Electoral College cast their votes for Mr. Obama in the face of such overwhelming evidence, and without verification of Mr. Obama’s eligibility, they would be committing treason to the Constitution,” Schultz said.
And in an analysis in the Philadelphia Bulletin, constitutional lawyer Edwin Vieira, suggested there would be major problems should Obama not be eligible, and assume the office anyway.
“Let’s assume he wasn’t born in the U.S.,” Vieira told the Bulletin. “What’s the consequence? He will not be eligible. That means he cannot be elected validly. The people and the Electoral College cannot overcome this and the House of Representatives can’t make him president. So what’s the next step? He takes the oath of office, and assuming he’s aware he’s not a citizen, then it’s a perjured oath.”
The result would be any appointments made an ineligible president, and all the appointees’ decisions, would be invalid, he said.
Vieira suggested Obama supporters should be the ones raising the questions, because of the discredit that would follow a revelation of ineligibility.
“Let’s say we go a year into this process, and it all turns out to be a flim-flam,” Vieira told the newspaper. “What’s the nation’s reaction to that? What’s going to be the reaction in the next U.S. election? God knows. It has almost revolutionary consequences, if you think about it.”
He also suggested Obama’s silence on the issue, itself, is a concern.
Vieira told the newspaper the question is significant because it involves the man who could have his finger next to a nuclear button. He also said the question would remain whether any laws he signs would be valid.
Even after Obama takes the oath of office, the questions will remain, he suggested.
Wes Pruden, editor emeritus of the Washington Times, said Obama’s refusal to authorize release of his birth certificate has fueled the dispute.
“This has led to furious speculation on the Internet that Mr. Obama’s parents returned to Hawaii with him shortly after his birth and simply registered his Kenyan birth certificate, certified by the doctor who delivered him and by the hospital where he was born, with the Hawaii Department of Health. Why, these skeptics ask, won’t the president-elect authorize release of the original Hawaii certificate and squelch speculation once and for all?” he said. “It’s a good question, though lack of his asking doesn’t prove anything.”
Steve Hilton
babybttrfly
Mike