Where Are Our Priorities?

http://ncfreedom.us/2010/09/09/where-are-our-priorities/

On August 6, David C. Dolby passed away suddenly in Spirit Lake, Idaho at the age of 64.  Childless, Mr. Dolby had lived in virtual seclusion in the town of Barto, PA since the passing of his wife in 1997.  Barto is so small and insignificant the Rand McNally Atlas doesn’t even list it in its appendix.  Mr. Dolby’s passing went so unnoticed that even his hometown paper didn’t acknowledge it.  His passing was announced by an organization to which he belonged.  Evidently most felt Mr. Dolby’s death didn’t merit any notice at all and almost nobody gave it a thought.  He apparently hadn’t done anything in his life to merit any special attention.

Three days later, on Monday, August 9, Steven Slater, a childish, immature loser who up until that day had pretty much gone as unnoticed as David Dolby, threw a temper tantrum on a Jet Blue airplane at John F. Kennedy airport because his personal pet peeve is luggage that shifts during flight (or maybe it was tray tables not being in their upright and locked position).  Since acting like a spoiled 16 year old, he has been featured on every major news network in the country, his face is on the front page of numerous national publications, Facebook pages have been established to “honor” him, and Mr. Slater has been called a “hero” by people we are supposed to believe know what that term means.  Only in today’s America, Mr. Slater will, in all likelihood, stretch his 15 minutes of infamy into 30 and end up making an obscene amount of money from, and revered by, some folks in our great nation who believe that Mr. Slater’s parents actually DIDN”T pollute the gene pool.  He will be interviewed by Today, the Early Show, Good Morning America.  He’ll appear on Leno, Conan, Letterman.  He’ll become what we in America these days view as “somebody”.  He’ll be given praise he doesn’t deserve and labels he never earned.  He apparently has done something that merits special attention.

In the meantime, later this week a funeral service will be held at Arlington National Cemetery.  There won’t be any press there and likely only a handful of mourners who had the privilege to know David Dolby.  And there will probably be a few guys there that are fellow members of the organization that announced his passing:  the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.

David Charles Dolby
May 14, 1946(1946-05-14) – August 6, 2010 (aged 64)
Most recent photo of David Dolby
Nickname	Mad Dog
Place of birth	Norristown, Pennsylvania
Place of death	Spirit Lake, Idaho
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army
Rank	Sergeant
Unit	8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division
Battles/wars	Vietnam War
Awards	Medal of Honor

David Charles Dolby (May 14, 1946 – August 6, 2010) was a United States Army soldier who received the U.S. military’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions in the Vietnam War.

Dolby was born on May 14, 1946, in Norristown, Pennsylvania.^[1] His father, Charles L. Dolby, was a personnel manager for B.F. Goodrich Company in Oaks, Pennsylvania. He had a younger brother, Daniel.^[2]

Dolby joined the Army from Philadelphia and by May 21, 1966, was serving in the Republic of Vietnam as a specialist four with Company B, 1st Battalion (Airborne), 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). On that day, his platoon came under heavy fire which killed six soldiers and wounded a number of others, including the platoon leader. Throughout the ensuing four-hour battle, Dolby led his platoon in its defense, organized the extraction of the wounded, and directed artillery fire despite close-range attacks from enemy snipers and automatic weapons. He single-handedly attacked the hostile positions and silenced three machine guns, allowing a friendly force to execute a flank attack.^[1]

Dolby was subsequently promoted to sergeant and awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the battle.^[1] The medal was formally presented to him by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 28, 1967.^[3]

In addition to the 1965–66 tour in which he earned the Medal of Honor, Dolby was deployed four more times to Vietnam. In 1967 he served there with the 101st Airborne Division, in 1969 with the 75th Ranger Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade, in 1970 as an advisor to the Vietnamese Rangers, and in 1971 as an advisor to the Royal Cambodian Army.^[4]

Dolby married but had no children. After his wife Xuan’s death around 1987, he lived quietly in southeastern Pennsylvania. Over the last 20 years, Dolby attended many veterans events around the U.S. and once opened the New York Stock Exchange on Veterans Day. He most recently worked to bring attention to the neglected Medal of Honor Grove at the Freedoms Foundation in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

Dolby died at age 64 on the morning of August 6, 2010, while visiting Spirit Lake, Idaho, for a veterans’ gathering. The cause of death has not been announced, and funeral arrangements at Arlington National Cemetery are pending.^[5]

       Medal of Honor citation

          Dolby’s official citation reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty, when his platoon, while advancing tactically, suddenly came under intense fire from the enemy located on a ridge immediately to the front. Six members of the platoon were killed instantly and a number were wounded, including the platoon leader. Sgt. Dolby’s every move brought fire from the enemy. However, aware that the platoon leader was critically wounded, and that the platoon was in a precarious situation, Sgt. Dolby moved the wounded men to safety and deployed the remainder of the platoon to engage the enemy. Subsequently, his dying platoon leader ordered Sgt. Dolby to withdraw the forward elements to rejoin the platoon. Despite the continuing intense enemy fire and with utter disregard for his own safety, Sgt. Dolby positioned able-bodied men to cover the withdrawal of the forward elements, assisted the wounded to the new position, and he, alone, attacked enemy positions until his ammunition was expended. Replenishing his ammunition, he returned to the area of most intense action, single-handedly killed 3 enemy machine gunners and neutralized the enemy fire, thus enabling friendly elements on the flank to advance on the enemy redoubt. He defied the enemy fire to personally carry a seriously wounded soldier to safety where he could be treated and, returning to the forward area, he crawled through withering fire to within 50 meters of the enemy bunkers and threw smoke grenades to mark them for air strikes. Although repeatedly under fire at close range from enemy snipers and automatic weapons, Sgt. Dolby directed artillery fire on the enemy and succeeded in silencing several enemy weapons. He remained in his exposed location until his comrades had displaced to more secure positions. His actions of unsurpassed valor during 4 hours of intense combat were a source of inspiration to his entire company, contributed significantly to the success of the overall assault on the enemy position, and were directly responsible for saving the lives of a number of his fellow soldiers. Sgt. Dolby’s heroism was in the highest tradition of the U.S. Army

ACTION ALERT…Celebrate 912 in Raleigh!!!

 Sunday September 12th, 2010
State Capitol Lawn, Raleigh from 4:00pm – 7:00pm
Bring your sign, wear your t-shirts and be heard!

We have invited Democrat and Republican candidates and elected officials from Wake County, Raleigh, Durham, Apex, Morrisville and beyond to answer questions in a Town Hall type format. These are the people who have stepped into the arena of ideas hoping to be bestowed the honor of serving the people of their district, county or state. Find out how they will represent you and your family. This will not be speeches, but instead this rally will feature dialogue with constituents. Candidates and Elected Officials will be invited to man tables on the grounds where even more dialogue with the people they represent (or hope to represent) can ask questions and get answers.

Please RSVP at www.triangleconservativesunite.com

Brought to you by the Triangle Conservatives Unite Group
★ www.triangleconservativesunite.com ★

GET FAMOUS!
We will have a video message station where you can record your short message about North Carolina politics. These will be edited into short videos to be
shared on YouTube.

General news announcements.

NC ALERT FROM RANDY’S RIGHT…Another Violation of Our Privacy in NC, this is big!!!

Are you one of the 30% in our state whose medical privacy will be available to the sheriffs? Why stop at the sheriffs? Let’s give all police departments and legal services the same privileges (soon to become a right). When you read the following article from the News and Observer, notice that Ambien is a controlled substance. How are we supposed to sleep at night after watching FoxNews? Contact your county sheriff and have them denounce this policy or explain their support.

Sheriffs in North Carolina want access to state computer records identifying anyone with prescriptions for powerful painkillers and other controlled substances.

The state sheriff’s association pushed the idea Tuesday, saying the move would help them make drug arrests and curb a growing problem of prescription drug abuse. But patient advocates say opening up people’s medicine cabinets to law enforcement would deal a devastating blow to privacy rights.

Allowing sheriffs’ offices and other law enforcement officials to use the state’s computerized list would vastly widen the circle of people with access to information on prescriptions written for millions of people. As it stands now, doctors and pharmacists are the main users.

Nearly 30 percent of state residents received at least one prescription for a controlled substance, anything from Ambien to OxyContin, in the first six months of this year, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services. Nearly 2.5 million people filled prescriptions in that time for more than 375 million doses. The database has about 53.5 million prescriptions in it.

Sheriffs made their pitch Tuesday to a legislative health care committee looking for ways to confront prescription drug abuse. Local sheriffs said that more people in their counties die of accidental overdoses than from homicides.

For years, sheriffs have been trying to convince legislators that the state’s prescription records should be open to them.

“We can better go after those who are abusing the system,” said Lee County Sheriff Tracy L. Carter.

Others say opening up patients’ medicine cabinets to law enforcement is a terrible idea.

“I am very concerned about the potential privacy issues for people with pain,” said Candy Pitcher of Cary, who volunteers for the nonprofit American Pain Foundation. “I don’t feel that I should have to sign away my privacy rights just because I take an opioid under doctor’s care.” Pitcher is receiving treatment for a broken back.

The ACLU opposed a bill in 2007 that would have opened the list to law enforcement officials, said ACLU lobbyist Sarah Preston. The organization would likely object to the new proposal.

“What really did concern us is the privacy aspect,” she said. Opening the record to more users could deter someone from getting necessary medicine because of the fear that others would find out, she said, “particularly in small towns where everybody knows everybody.”

The state started collecting the information in 2007 to help doctors identify patients who go from doctor to doctor looking for prescription drugs they may not need, and to keep pharmacists from supplying patients with too many pills. But only about 20 percent of the state’s doctors have registered to use the information, and only 10 percent of the pharmacies are registered.

Many chain pharmacies aren’t connected to the Internet, said Andy Ellen, a lobbyist for the N.C. Retail Merchants Association. Pharmacy computers work on closed systems so they won’t be vulnerable to viruses that could slow or crash their networks. Pharmacies are trying to figure out a way around that obstacle to the controlled-substance prescriptions list, he said.

Bettie Blanchard, a woman from Dare County whose adult son is recovering from addiction to prescription drugs, said doctors should be required to consult the list when prescribing controlled substances.

She also wants doctors to get more education on prescribing narcotics. Doctors should be required to tell patients that the medicine they are being prescribed can be addictive, she said.

William Bronson, who works in a drug control unit at DHHS, presented what could be a compromise to the sheriffs’ request – allowing local drug investigators to request information related to ongoing investigations, but not let them go in to the computer records themselves.

Eddie Caldwell, lobbyist for the N.C. Sheriff’s Association, said the level of access to the data is up for discussion.

“There’s a middle ground where the sheriffs and their personnel working on these drug abuse cases get the information they need in a way that protects the privacy of that information,” he said. “No one wants every officer in the state to be able to log on and look it up.”

David DeGerolamo 

NC Freedom

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/09/08/669723/lists-of-pain-pillpatients-sought.html#ixzz0z2vjur4G

REAL WORLD FACTS…Health care costs to rise under Obamacare and Obama Down Right Lied to the American People

What happened to all the savings and cost reductions Obamacare was going to generate.  Now that they passed the stupid thing they have the nerve to start preparing us for what we all knew all along was going to be the result!

Randy’s Right

 

Chart shows projected health care spending comparisons between new law and previous law

Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press Writer, On Thursday September 9, 2010, 11:42 am EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s health care tab will go up — not down — as a result of President Barack Obama’s sweeping overhaul. That’s the conclusion of a government forecast Thursday, which also predicts the increase will be modest.

The average annual growth in health care spending will be just two-tenths of 1 percentage point higher through 2019 with Obama’s remake, said the analysis from Medicare’s Office of the Actuary. And that’s with more than 32 million uninsured gaining coverage because of the new law.

“The impact is moderate,” said Andrea Sisko, an economist with the nonpartisan unit that prepared the report.

Factoring in the law, Americans will spend an average of $13,652 per person a year on health care in 2019, according to the actuary’s office. Without the law, the corresponding number would be $13,387.

That works out to $265 more with the overhaul.

The big picture numbers are $4.6 trillion with the overhaul in 2019, and $4.5 trillion without it. The nation will spend $2.6 trillion on health care this year.

The new bottom line is guaranteed to provide ammunition for both sides of a health care debate that refuses to move offstage. Republicans are vowing repeal if they win control of Congress this fall, although they are unlikely to have enough votes to override an Obama veto.

For critics, the numbers show that the law didn’t solve the cost problem, although Obama repeatedly said he wanted to bend the spending curve down.

The analysis found that health care spending will grow to nearly 20 percent of the economy in 2019. That siphons off resources that could be invested in education, research, transportation or other areas. Medical costs now account for about 17 percent of the economy, and some experts think that’s already too much.

“We really haven’t trimmed health care spending,” said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, which advocates for reducing the federal deficit. “Even if we found a way to provide more people with coverage, we still have the same fiscal problem we always did. Frankly, it’s a little bit more difficult to solve now because we have made a major new commitment.”

Bixby’s group raised concerns about the cost of the health care legislation, but did not oppose it.

For advocates of the law, the numbers show that expanding coverage to 93 percent of eligible Americans comes at a relative bargain price. Moreover, if Congress sticks to cost controls in the legislation, there’s potential beyond 2020 to rein in the growth of health care spending. The new projections show a slowdown starting around 2018.

“By the end of the projection period, we estimate (costs) will grow more slowly,” said John Poisal, who worked on the forecast.

It’s a long way off, but under the health care law, the big coverage push doesn’t start until 2014.

That’s when the government will offer tax credits to help middle-class people buy private coverage through new insurance markets in their states. At the same time, Medicaid will be opened up to millions more low-income people. Insurers will have to accept all applicants, regardless of health problems. And most Americans will be required to carry coverage or face a fine from the IRS.

The study also showed:

–Government is becoming the dominant player in health care even without Obama’s law. Federal, state and local government spending will overtake private sources in 2011, three years before the main provisions of the overhaul take effect. The biggest programs are Medicare and Medicaid.

–Even after the health care overhaul is fully phased in, three out of five people under age 65 will still have private coverage, with most continuing to get benefits through their employers.

–Two federal-state programs, Medicaid and children’s health insurance, will grow dramatically under the overhaul. Enrollment will jump 34 percent between 2013 and 2014, to more than 85 million people. States will be bigger players in health care — and face new pressures over the long run.

The White House released its own analysis of the report, calculating that total health care spending per insured person would be more than $1,000 lower under the law.

A White House blog post from health reform director Nancy-Ann DeParle said that by 2019 overall health care spending per insured person would average $14,720 under the law, compared with $16,120 if Congress and the president had not acted, or $1,400 less.

That statistic was not part of the Medicare analysts’ projections, and there was no official response from the actuary’s office to the White House estimate.

DeParle acknowledged that spending would rise in the short run as uninsured people gain coverage, but noted the rate of growth would slow in the second half of the decade. “A close look at this report’s data suggest that for average Americans, the Affordable Care Act will live up to its promise,” she said.

The Medicare analysts’ report is available online from the journal Health Affairs.

Online:

http://www.healthaffairs.org

VIDEO ACTION ALERT!!! Critical That Renee Ellmers Takes Out Rep Bob Etherdige 2010

Photo of a Union Thug

http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2010/09/message-from-renee-ellmers-to-legal.html

This is a critical race.  As those of you who read this blog know, I view taking the House as the single most important goal this election.  In order to do that, we need to win not just the “easy” races, but also some of the “tougher” ones.

This race is tough because Etheridge is a long-term incumbent — but the race is winnable.

Etheridge is a liberal in a conservative district, who has tons of campaign money in the bank.  Etheridge was a big supporter of Obamacare, but in typical politician style, spoke out of both sides of his mouth on the public option, neither committing to it nor rejecting it:

Etheridge has used taxpayer money to send out a “mailer” which smacks of campaign literature in disguise:

The mailer states:

“The issues that matter most to North Carolinians are Bob Etheridge’s priorities. Good jobs that stay in N.C. Reducing the deficit. Main Street over Wall Street. Congressman Bob Etheridge. Putting North Carolina’s working families first.”

Etheridge also has been dodging debates with a Harry Reid-like arrogance: 

“Etheridge campaign spokesman said the incumbent isn’t dodging anything. The candidates in the race have received multiple invitations for debates, and the question isn’t “if,” but “when,” said Mike Davis, the campaign spokesman.

“The congressman has always done multiple events with opponents and would anticipate and plan on doing it this time,” Davis said.

Etheridge voted for the Iraq war, but as his speech on the floor of the House reflects, came out strongly against the surge in Iraq, which he called “more of the same.” Etheridge used the standard Democratic Party dodge to excuse his Iraq war vote on the false claim that ”I took the president of the Unted States at his word, we learned to our great regret what that was worth” (at 2:40). (As I have documented before, this standard line is false, as a classified Iraq report listing all of the caveats was made available to all members of Congress.)

There are many important races this November.  Getting Renee Ellmers elected is one of my highest priorities.

I hope you can help her out.

If you are on the fence about helping, just keep watching this video over and over:  Etheridge is nothing more than a real life “unoin thug”

F/U City Council May Pull Plug on Muslim Prayer Idea

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local-beat/City-Council-May-Pull-Plug-on-Muslim-Prayers-102465289.html

The Hartford City Council is reconsidering its proposal to have local imams perform Islamic invocations at the beginning of council meetings in September.

Council President rJo Winch called a news conference Wednesday to address the uproar over the proposal she supported Tuesday.

In an email sent out by the City Council on Tuesday called the plan “an act of solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters.”

But since a story was posted on NBCConnecticut.com, Winch and other council members said they have received numerous complaints and even some hate emails over the decision to begin the meetings with Muslim prayers.

“Where is the separation between church and state?,” wrote one anonymous reader. “Why not an act of solidarity with your New York City American brothers and sisters who were attacked on 9/11?,” wrote another.

The email from the City Council referenced the ongoing battle over a proposed mosque in New York. “One of the goals of the Council is to give a voice to the many diverse peoples of the City, which is especially important given the recent anti-Islam events throughout the country,” the email read.

Although the council does say a prayer before every meeting, Winch says she’s reconsidering the idea of the Muslim prayers so close to the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. She instead said she would consider an interfaith prayer before next Monday’s meeting.

“There might be 20 different faiths there on that day because, I understand his position, we have to understand we live in a multicultural city and there are 125,000 residents here so we don’t want to have anyone be offended,” Winch said.

That idea, however didn’t sit well with Council Minority Leader Luis Cotto, the council member who originally made the proposal to ask the imams to perform the invocations. Cotto said he had no problem with the timing of the proposal. “I thought that doing this in September or at the next meeting, which happens to be September, makes sense, and I still do,” Cotto said.

Local Islamic leaders were also not happy about Winch’s apparent backtracking. “We feel as though it would be a step backwards because it would be labeling me as part of the problem that took place on 9/11 and we had nothing to do with that,” Imam Kashif Abdul-Karim said. Abdul-Karim was scheduled to perform the invocation at the Sept. 13 City Council meeting.

He said he plans to be at City Hall Monday to say the prayer

Obama’s Next Chief of Staff Tied to Radical Muslim Group

Posted on September 8, 2010 by Ben Johnson

The woman who may be Barack Obama’s next chief of staff has ties to radical Muslims, radical leftists, and potentially illegal government propaganda.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s decision not seek re-election all but ensures that Rahm Emanuel will throw his hat in the ring. Emanuel currently serves as chief of staff to President Obama, the man who controls who gets access to the president. Politico.com reports that Rahm has told sources his likely successor is Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s long-term friend and Chicago confidant.

Anyone familiar with Jarrett’s record should be concerned.

To pick but one underreported example, Valerie Jarrett gave the keynote address at the 46th annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) last July. ISNA was an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation’s financing of terrorist organizations, particularly Hamas. ISNA is a byproduct of the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization that formed the worldview of Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden.

Although Jarrett was the highest-ranking government official at the meeting, she was hardly the only VIP. Cat Stevens, now Yusuf Islam, addressed the same gathering. Stevens is the “Peace Train” folk singer who defended the Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa against Salman Rushdie after the latter dared criticize Islam.

Another of the speakers, Imam Warith Deen Umar, has a long history of Islamic extremism. He reportedly hailed the 9/11 hijackers as martyrs, a remark that got him banned from the New York State Department of Corrections, where he served as a chaplain. In another instance, Umar urged Muslims to:

Rise up and fight. And fight them until turmoil is no more and strike terror into their hearts…[T]he kuffar [unbeliever] was not afraid of the Muslims up until a few days ago now they frightened to death. Green alert, red alert, orange alert. The Muslims are praying. They getting on our planes, they may shoot us down. They scared to death. Alhamdulilah. [Thanks be to God.]

Jarrett has kept tight company with ISNA literally since day one of the administration. She invited its president, Ingrid Mattson, to offer a Muslim prayer at Obama’s inauguration and attend a Ramadan dinner. Aaron Klein of WND.com reported, “In June 2009, Obama senior aide Valerie Jarrett invited Mattson to work on the White House Council on Women and Girls, which Jarrett leads. One month later, the Justice Department sponsored an information booth at an ISNA bazaar in Washington, D.C.”

The relationship has continued apace since then. ISNA published the book by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the leader behind the Ground Zero Mosque. It was originally entitled A Call to Prayer from the World Trade Center Rubble: Islamic Dawa [conversion] in the Heart of America Post-9/11.

Jarrett’s participation in a conference so filled with radicals shows more than her poor choice of venue. Her keynote speech made clear she was there to recruit ISNA for the administration’s government-sponsored propaganda. According to ISNA’s account of the confab:

She commended ISNA for addressing many critical issues in the convention: “increasing civic engagement and interfaith cooperation, protecting the rights of the disabled and elderly, addressing domestic violence, improving education and health care, expanding renewable energy, and protecting the environment.”

Then she tried to get them involved with the government’s Serve.gov website. The White House website states:

After acknowledging the diligent work and great contribution of Muslim Americans to American society, Jarrett encouraged Muslim Americans to respond to President Obama’s call to service. She asked that they participate in United We Serve this summer, and utilize www.serve.gov to post service projects and find other opportunities.

This is the same project officials in Jarrett’s Office of Public Engagement would attempt to foist on grant recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), asking dozens of “artists” on a conference call to create art that promoted the president’s agenda.

OPE officials, including Jarrett herself, would host a “cultural policy summit” in D.C. last spring, featuring several of Van Jones’ associates, a host of radicals who accuse the CIA of selling crack in black neighborhoods, and the “former International Spokeswoman for the Universal Zulu Nation” (a woman who goes by the name “Rha Goddess”), among a cast of dozens. Sally Kohn, a leftist radical who was present at this and numerous subsequent meetings, confirmed the administration uses far-Left groups to covertly advocate for its agenda.

The ISNA speech appears to be another example of Jarrett reaching out to enlist radical, anti-American extremists in the White House’s cause. Indeed, Jarrett has been the primary source of radicals into the administration.

It was Valerie Jarrett who interviewed former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones. Jarrett gushed to the Netroots Nation conference:

We were so delighted to be able to recruit him into the White House. We were watching him…for as long as he’s been active out in Oakland. And all the creative ideas he has. And so now, we have captured that, and we have all that energy in the White House.

Jarrett lobbied Obama to create the office of Chief Diversity Officer within the FCC, a position filled by Mark Lloyd, a radical Alinskyite and former senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

On the campaign trail, she made sure white staffers listened to the views of Al Sharpton’s racial grievance lobby. She — and both Obamas — are also close friends with Marilyn Katz, an SDS radical who oversaw “security” during the Days of Rage. Two years ago, Katz told the media, “I would probably reject violence as a useful form of revolution.” Probably?

Jarrett is already the de facto chief of staff, if not the de facto president. Last year, Obama told New York Times reporter Robert Draper, “I trust her completely…She is family.” Obama empowers Jarrett “to speak for me, particularly when we’re dealing with delicate issues.” When asked, he admitted he runs every decision by her. Jarrett perhaps described her relationship with Barack Obama best: “We have kind of a mind meld.”

To be safe, the administration is floating other names. Former OMB head Peter Orszag was rumored to be on the list, but after he publicly rebuked the president’s tax policy, he would seem an unusual pick. Politico claims Tom Daschle is allegedly being considered, but that hardly seems likely after Obama admitted he “screwed up” after nominating Daschle as secretary of Health and Human Services. Another potential nominee is John Podesta, the head of the Soros-funded Center for American Progress, which currently employs Van Jones. Podesta, writes the Politico’s Ben Smith, “would represent a change of course.” The more things change….

No matter who holds the position, Jarrett holds the reins of power. Her radicalism is no mistake. It is a perfect reflection of the president’s deepest-held opinions and beliefs.

And that should frighten everyone who believes in freedom.

 

CASTRO: Cuban model doesn’t work!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100908/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_cuba_fidel_castro_5

HAVANA – Fidel Castro told a visiting American journalist that Cuba’s communist economic model doesn’t work, a rare comment on domestic affairs from a man who has conspicuously steered clear of local issues since stepping down four years ago.

The fact that things are not working efficiently on this cash-strapped Caribbean island is hardly news. Fidel’s brother Raul, the country’s president, has said the same thing repeatedly. But the blunt assessment by the father of Cuba’s 1959 revolution is sure to raise eyebrows.

Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, asked if Cuba’s economic system was still worth exporting to other countries, and Castro replied: “The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore” Goldberg wrote Wednesday in a post on his Atlantic blog.

He said Castro made the comment casually over lunch following a long talk about the Middle East, and did not elaborate. The Cuban government had no immediate comment on Goldberg’s account.

Since stepping down from power in 2006, the ex-president has focused almost entirely on international affairs and said very little about Cuba and its politics, perhaps to limit the perception he is stepping on his brother’s toes.

Goldberg, who traveled to Cuba at Castro’s invitation last week to discuss a recent Atlantic article he wrote about Iran’s nuclear program, also reported on Tuesday that Castro questioned his own actions during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, including his recommendation to Soviet leaders that they use nuclear weapons against the United States.

Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba has clung to its communist system.

The state controls well over 90 percent of the economy, paying workers salaries of about $20 a month in return for free health care and education, and nearly free transportation and housing. At least a portion of every citizen’s food needs are sold to them through ration books at heavily subsidized prices.

President Raul Castro and others have instituted a series of limited economic reforms, and have warned Cubans that they need to start working harder and expecting less from the government. But the president has also made it clear he has no desire to depart from Cuba’s socialist system or embrace capitalism.

Fidel Castro stepped down temporarily in July 2006 due to a serious illness that nearly killed him.

He resigned permanently two years later, but remains head of the Communist Party. After staying almost entirely out of the spotlight for four years, he re-emerged in July and now speaks frequently about international affairs. He has been warning for weeks of the threat of a nuclear war over Iran.

Castro’s interview with Goldberg is the only one he has given to an American journalist since he left office

Obama Has Added More to National Debt Than Washington Thru Reagan — COMBINED

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/72404

In the first 19 months of the Obama administration, the federal debt held by the public increased by $2.5260 trillion, which is more than the cumulative total of the national debt held by the public that was amassed by all U.S. presidents from George Washington through Ronald Reagan.
 
The U.S. Treasury Department divides the federal debt into two categories. One is “debt held by the public,” which includes U.S. government securities owned by individuals, corporations, state or local governments, foreign governments and other entities outside the federal government itself. The other is “intragovernmental” debt, which includes I.O.U.s the federal government gives to itself when, for example, the Treasury borrows money out of the Social Security “trust fund” to pay for expenses other than Social Security.

At the end of fiscal year 1989, which ended eight months after President Reagan left office, the total federal debt held by the public was $2.1907 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That means all U.S. presidents from George Washington through Ronald Reagan had accumulated only that much publicly held debt on behalf of American taxpayers. That is $335.3  billion less than the $2.5260 trillion that was added to the federal debt held by the public just between Jan. 20, 2009, when President Obama was inaugurated, and Aug. 20, 2010, the 19-month anniversary of Obama’s inauguration.
 
By contrast, President Reagan was sworn into office on Jan. 20, 1981 and left office eight years later on Jan. 20, 1989. At the end of fiscal 1980, four months before Reagan was inaugurated, the federal debt held by the public was $711.9 billion, according to CBO. At the end of fiscal 1989, eight months after Reagan left office, the federal debt held by the public was $2.1907 trillion. That means that in the nine-fiscal-year period of 1980-89–which included all of Reagan’s eight years in office–the federal debt held by the public increased $1.4788 trillion. That is in excess of a trillion dollars less than the $2.5260 increase in the debt held by the public during Obama’s first 19 months.
 
When President Barack Obama took the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2009, the total federal debt held by the public stood at 6.3073 trillion, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt, a division of the U.S. Treasury Department. As of Aug. 20, 2010, after the first nineteen months of President Obama’s 48-month term, the total federal debt held by the public had grown to a total of $8.8333 trillion, an increase of $2.5260 trillion.
 
In just the last four months (May through August), according to the CBO, the Obama administration has run cumulative deficits of $464 billion, more than the $458 billion deficit the Bush administration ran through the entirety of fiscal 2008.

The CBO predicted this week that the annual budget deficit for fiscal 2010, which ends on the last day of this month, will exceed $1.3 trillion.

The first two fiscal years in which Obama has served will see the two biggest federal deficits as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product since the end of World War II.
 
“CBO currently estimates that the deficit for 2010 will be about $70 billion below last year’s total but will still exceed $1.3 trillion,” said the CBO’s monthly budget review for September, which was released yesterday. “Relative to the size of the economy, this year’s deficit is expected to be the second-largest shortfall in the past 65 years: At 9.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), that deficit will be exceeded only by last year’s deficit of 9.9 percent of GDP

WTH!!! Obama names an ‘Asian carp czar’

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/09/us-names-asian-carp-czar.html

The White House has tapped a former leader of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the Indiana Wildlife Federation as the Asian carp czar to oversee the federal response to keeping the invasive species out of the Great Lakes.

On a conference call today with Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and other congressional leaders, President Obama’s Council on Environmental Quality announced the selection of John Goss to lead the near $80 million, multi-pronged federal attack against Asian carp.

“This is a serious challenge, a serious threat,” Durbin said. “When it comes to the Asian carp threat, we are not in denial. We are not in a go-slow mode. We are in a full attack, full-speed ahead mode. We want to stop this carp from advancing.”

Asian carp, which have steadily moved toward Chicago since the 1990s, present a challenge for scientists and fish biologists. The fish are aggressive eaters, consuming as much as 40 percent of their body weight a day in plankton, and frequently beat out native fish for food, threatening those populations.

They are also prolific breeders with no natural predators in the U.S. The fish were imported in the 1970s to help wastewater treatment facilities in the South keep their retention ponds clean. Mississippi River flooding allowed the fish to escape and then move into the Missouri and Illinois rivers. Some species can grow to more than 100 pounds.

The challenge for Goss, who was director of the Indiana DNR under two governors and served for four years as the executive director of the Indiana National Wildlife Federation, will be to make sure millions in federal money is spent efficiently, to oversee  several on-going studies — including one looking into the possibility of permanently shutting down the Chicago waterway system linking Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River–and to bring together Great Lakes states currently locked in a courtroom battle over the response to the Asian carp threat.

“Certainly there are some legal questions that are in process, but there has been a history already of good cooperation among the states,” Goss said. “I believe that will be one of my strengths, talking at the level of the department of natural resources in each of the states so that we can very carefully coordinate our efforts.”

Today also marks the second day of what is expected to be a three-day hearing in federal court in Chicago to deal with Asian carp. Michigan and four other Great Lakes states are suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago to try and force closure of two shipping locks in the Chicago waterway system that could serve as a barrier to keep Asian carp from entering Lake Michigan.

Testimony on Tuesday focused on the reliability of the environmental DNA research that has been used to track the movement of Asian carp through the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal as they have inched closer to Lake Michigan. The architect of the research, University of Notre Dame scientist David Lodge, said the method is sound and that Asian carp pose a “a very imminent risk of invasion.” He added that such “invasions are often irreversible.”

Attorneys for the defense countered that the DNA research has never been used in this manner and was unreliable. They argued that even scientists disagree about the likelihood that Asian carp are capable of sustaining a large and destructive population if allowed to enter the Great Lakes.

–Joel Hood