Homeland Security Warning; Private Versus Government Pay; Obama the Warrior; Intimidation by Unions; Bailing out Teachers; and more

Perhaps Chris Matthews started worrying he was being out-shined in the tirade department by James Carville. Just ahead of President Obama’s press conference earlier today Matthews went on his own rant about how the Louisiana coast line is “part of our birthright, with the Grand Canyon, with Niagara Falls, with Yosemite.” And then he directed this zinger at Obama: The Gulf of Mexico is more important than a Presidency, and the president has not acted that way, he has not acted like this is more important than a fundraiser in California, or an interview about basketball with Marv Albert.  http://www.mediaite.com/tv/chris-matthews-the-gulf-of-mexico-is-more-important-than-a-presidency/
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The Department of Homeland Security is alerting Texas authorities to be on the lookout for a suspected member of the Somalia-based Al Shabaab terrorist group who might be attempting to travel to the U.S. through Mexico, a security expert who has seen the memo tells FOXNews.com.

The warning follows an indictment unsealed this month in Texas federal court that accuses a Somali man in Texas of running a “large-scale smuggling enterprise” responsible for bringing hundreds of Somalis from Brazil through South America and eventually across the Mexican border.  http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/26/terror-alert-mexican-border/
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Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds. At the same time, government-provided benefits — from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs — rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.
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[You don't think that Obama is a warrior in the common definition of being strong against America's enemies and celebrating our allies?  Well, according to American thinker]: he actually is a warrior -- not in any military context, but rather in the classic parlance of the progressive movement. He is an aggressive, motivated, and dedicated soldier in the battle to remake America into a collectivist social welfare state. He struggles mightily to undermine the Constitution, destroy free-market capitalism, subvert traditional culture, and weaken the sovereign nature of the American republic. In this struggle, he belittles his opponents, pursues his objectives relentlessly and engages in elaborate feints and misdirection to confuse and demoralize the opposition.  [Change we can believe in?]   http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/obama_the_warrior.html
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Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick reiterated the accusation made last month by Time columnist Joe Klein: disagreeing with the legislative agenda of the Obama Administration is dangerously close to "sedition." (Snip) Mass GOP chairwoman Jennifer Nassour responded: "Apparently our First Amendment rights are only guaranteed if we agree with the tax-and-spend policies of Deval Patrick and Barack Obama." One might add that Obama is not a king, and disagreements over policy are part of the process established by the Constitution.  http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/05/governor_patrick_plays_the_sed.html 
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Writing for Fortune.com, Nina Easton relays her first-hand account of the uncivil disobedience and “mob”tactics exhibited by SEIU and the National People’s Action (NPA), as they terrorized a teenage child in his own home.

Baer’s teenage son Jack — alone in the house — locked himself in the bathroom. “When are they going to leave?” Jack pleaded when I called to check on him.

SEIU and NPA also loudly stormed into bank buildings, occupying and shutting down their lobbies.  How much would you like being in one of those bank lobbies during an SEIU-NPA Progressive Democrat hijacking of the property? How is anyone supposed to know that the loud angry mob coming through the front door isn’t there to rob it, or worse yet, burn it down?
Just an aside -  isn’t it against Federal law to purposely shut down the normal operation of Federally insured banking institutions? Or is that sort of thing being encouraged now?
This is all a part of an ongoing campaign which SEIU and NPA have titled “Showdown In America
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/20/nina-easton-fortune-colum_n_583023.html
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Education Secretary Arne Duncan is asking lawmakers to put aside “politics and ideology” as they consider a request for $23 billion in “emergency” funding for public schools – a measure Republicans reject as a massive federal bailout for the teachers’ unions. 
The federal Digest of Education Statistics tells us that in the 2007-08 school year (the latest with available data), US public schools employed more than 6.2 million teachers and other staff. Losing 300,000 of those jobs would only be a 4.8 percent cut -- unfortunate, perhaps, but hardly catastrophic.
And 300,000 is the worst-case scenario. The AASA figure of 275,000 would be just a 4.4 percent cut. The low end of Duncan's prediction, 100,000 positions, would constitute only a 1.6 percent trim. That's less than one out of every 60 public-school jobs.
Moreover, the projected cuts would be but a tiny step back after decades of spending and staffing leaps.
But that's not all the context that taxpayers deserve before Congress and the Obama administration stick them for another $23 billion. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- the "stimulus" -- already included about $100 billion for education, most of which was intended solely to keep educators employed.
So there is indeed a looming education catastrophe -- but it's not funding or job cuts. It is the bailout now moving through Congress that ignores the reality of inefficient public schooling, and adds to the already crushing burden of our federal debt.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/no_we_don_need_teacher_bailout_z5pfSTNyUPbhqyUwpPqPxK#ixzz0p8ELGBwA

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On the surface the news looked pretty grim for Garden State residents on Tuesday – thanks to an unanticipated drop in tax revenues of $402 million this year and $365 million next year.
But a new budget hole of nearly $800 million is not going to give Gov. Christie a single new white hair. At least this time, the governor's message is "gotcha covered."

"We're very confident we've been able to close the additional budget gap in (fiscal year) 2010 and in (fiscal year) 2011 we're going to be able to solve that problem without any new taxes at all and without any real significant cuts," Christie said.

Skipping the "fiscalese," what happened was the budget freeze imposed by Gov. Christie when he took office generated more savings than expected, enough to cover much of the lost tax money.   http://wcbstv.com/politics/chris.christie.new.2.1714647.html
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All 7 Republicans on Senate Judiciary
Committee Ask AG Holder to Appoint Special
Prosecutor to Look Into Alleged Sestak Job Offer ABC News, by Jake Tapper    Original Article

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[Ever hear of Separation of Church and State?]  Fox News reports:  The president's council envisions the government and religion partnering to push the good news of global warming, climate change and green issues. Yes, the religion of environmental and social justice.
The council hopes the new EPA faith office will also help churches and other non-profits improve "access to financing," including "establishing revolving loan programs or working with utility companies to help finance greening building projects."
Obama is merging the EPA with churches to make it easier for churches to get loans to green up and push green initiatives on their parishioners. On the one hand, if you don't cooperate, your 501c3 status could be in jeopardy, but if you help with the administration's agenda, why the government could help you build a new chapel.
The administration's emphasis on faith goes beyond cap-and-trade. Nancy Pelosi is now asking churches to help her pass immigration reform:  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,593123,00.html?mep
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As mentioned in Big Journalism the other day:  Congressman Sestak, if you are telling the truth about the job offer and not being forthcoming, you are covering up a possible crime.  If you are not telling the truth, it is a different issue: you are lying to your constituents and to all Americans. Which is it Congressman, Pennsylvania voters need to know — are you lying, or are you covering up a crime?

Health Care Items; Obama Administration Bribe, and the Justice Dept.'s Rejection; Obama's Connecticut SSN; and Al Sharpton's Lie

Free Republic writes another article on how this is no longer to be a free republic:  Now that the U.S. government has achieved its monopoly over health care, new technologies are in the works that will allow the government to remotely monitor and track whether ordinary citizens are complying with taking medications prescribed by conventional doctors. One new technology described at the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging allows "pills to be electronically outfitted with transmitters" which would track the patient's compliance with medications and broadcast that information back to government health care enforcers who check for "compliance and efficacy."

This would allow government health operators, for example, to know whether you've taken all your prescribed psychiatric medications. If you veer from the course of pharmaceuticals prescribed by your doctor, health care enforcement agents could be dispatched to your door to make sure you start taking your pills.  Parents who currently attempt to protect their children from toxic medical therapies such as chemotherapy could be closely monitored by government medical enforcement agents. If you try to flush dangerous pharmaceuticals down the toilet instead of actually taking them, the lack of an electronic tracking signal will let your health care observers know you didn't really take the pills. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2501352/posts
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The Las Vegas Review Journal writes:  Speaking at a Washington event, Rep. Pelosi, D-Calif., gushed that the government will take care of anyone tired of grinding through this recession.  "We see it as an entrepreneurial bill, a bill that says to someone, if you want to be creative and be a musician or whatever, you can leave your work, focus on your talent, your skill, your passion, your aspirations because you will have health care," Rep. Pelosi said. "You don't have to be job-locked."  Which raises an important question: If everyone decides to quit their jobs and "focus on their passions," who'll pay for their health care then?  http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/washington-will-take-care-of-you-94564784.html
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During his Meet the Press appearance, Sestak was asked by moderator David Gregory in this fashion:

MR. GREGORY: Yes or no, straightforward question. Were you, were you offered a job, and what was the job?
REP. SESTAK: I was offered a job, and I answered that.
MR. GREGORY: You said no, you wouldn't take the job. Was it the secretary of the Navy?
REP. SESTAK: Right. And I also said, "Look, I'm getting into this...

The "Right" answer would be the first time that Sestak has personally confirmed what has been long suspected -- the bribe Issa mentions was indeed the job of Secretary of the Navy.
Not to be forgotten in all of this is Arlen Specter's reminder that for the recipient of a bribe offer not to report the offer itself to legal authorities makes the recipient of the offer -- Sestak and Romanoff -- vulnerable to charges of "misprision of a felony." http://spectator.org/archives/2010/05/24/bribe-charge-issa-jobsgate-vid
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Is the U.S. Selective Service System now blocking access to President Barack Obama's online registration records? World Net Daily writes: Members of the public searching the federal database for the commander in chief's registration are suddenly finding new difficulty, possibly due to the startling revelation of Obama's alleged use of a Connecticut-based Social Security Number.  The problems using the SSS search engine come in the wake of WND's disclosure that two private investigators working independently are wondering why Obama is using a Social Security Number set aside for applicants in Connecticut while there is no record he ever had a mailing address in the state.  The question is being raised amid speculation about the president's history fueled by an extraordinary lack of public documentation. Along with his original birth certificate, Obama also has not released educational records, scholarly articles, passport documents, medical records, papers from his service in the Illinois state Senate, Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records and adoption papers. http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=156573
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The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee warned Monday that he would seek to slow Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's path to confirmation unless senators get full access to her files as a Clinton administration aide.  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100524/ap_on_go_su_co/us_kagan_sessions
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The New York Post opines:  you know the old saying: "Everyone loves a charade." Well, it seems that the Census Bureau may be playing games. Last week, one of the millions of workers hired by Census 2010 to parade around the country counting Americans blew the whistle on some statistical tricks. The worker, Naomi Cohn, told The Post that she was hired and fired a number of times by Census. Each time she was hired back, it seems, Census was able to report the creation of a new job to the Labor Department.
Labor doesn't check the Census hiring figure or whether the jobs are actually new or recycled. It considers a new job to have been created if someone is hired to work at least one hour a month.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/two_more_census_workers_blow_the_OqY80N3DBTvL17VmxKKR0O#ixzz0owl3QSwb

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Politico reports:  The Justice Department has rejected a Republican request to appoint a special counsel to investigate allegations that the White House offered a job to Rep. Joe Sestak if he would drop out of the Pennsylvania Senate Democratic primary.

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[Al Sharpton is now just plain lying about the great Martin Luther King's dreams. On Sunday, Sharpton told a black congregation in Connecticut, “The dream was to make everything equal in everybody’s house.”  Say what?  I don't think so.  King praised the ideal of equal opportunity, not equal outcomes!  This is a terrific example of the distortion of history which is also prevalent in our re-education, er, school system.]
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American Spectator writes:  there is no excuse, none at all, for this administration to have sat so long on Gov. Bobby Jindal's request for permission, or waiver of permitting requirements, to build sand berms/sand islands to block the oil from Louisiana's coast. The lack of response borders on criminal negligence.  http://spectator.org/blog/2010/05/25/obamas-criminal-negligence-of
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FCC and the Internet; Darrell Issa; California Water Rights; CA Immigration Law ; and Islamic Law

American Thinker has this to say:  It used to be off-limits for the president and Congress to target private citizens. Not any longer. It’s now open season on anyone who dares to disagree.
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Chairman Genachowski will announce his intention to reclassify broadband Internet as an old-fashioned telephone system as a pretext for pervasive regulatory control."

According to RedState.org: "If the FCC is allowed to put the Internet in the US under those powers, then the Obama administration will have total power to tax Internet users, regulate content on Internet servers, and even institute price controls on Internet services."  

   Newsbuster.org also addressed what is going on behind the scenes: "The groundwork for government information totalitarianism - favored by people like Hugo Chavez- loving FCC 'Diversity Czar' Mark Lloyd and Marxist 'media reform'-outfit Free Press founder Robert McChesney - is being laid in the Plan being crafted by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski."

"Any serious effort to reform the media system would have to necessarily be part of a revolutionary program to overthrow the capitalist system itself."   "There is no real answer but to remove brick by brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles."   "We need to do whatever we can to limit capitalist propaganda, regulate it, minimalize it and perhaps even eliminate it."   “At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies. We are not at that point yet. But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control.”

http://us.mg1.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?.gx=1&.rand=1507870128&action=showLetter&umid=1_141101_AHpFv9EAAFX2S%2FYiEAQIiTq8OPE&box=Inbox
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The Washington Examiner has this to say regarding the claims of Rep. Darrell Issa of California that the Obama administration offered him a judgeship if he would halt his run for the senateseat of Arlen Specter:  Issa, the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said his panel is obligated to investigate the claims because they involve three felonies, including offering a bribe and interfering with an election.
"If Congressman Sestak will not tell us, then to be honest the only choice we have is to deal with this from a standpoint of congressional integrity," Issa told The Washington Examiner. "Under our ethics rules, either Congressman Sestak is lying, which would be an ethical violation, or he is covering up three felonies by members of the administration, which of course would be an ethical violation."

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/congress/Sestak-may-face-ethics-probe-over-claims-of-White-House-job-offer-94534059.html#ixzz0oZw274mN

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A federal judge has struck a blow for California's water-deprived Central Valley, ruling that draconian federal water cutbacks violate human rights because — surprise! — people also belong in the ecosystem.

District Judge Oliver Wanger declared to federal regulators that they must consider the impact of their "draconian" actions on human communities, something they've never done up until now.

He also ripped into the environmental regulators for their junk science "guesstimates," stating that their shut-off "lacked factual and scientific justification, while effectively ignoring the irreparable harm (their regulations) have inflicted on humans and the human environment," according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
It's a landmark ruling that makes a superb use of checks and balances on power, given that up until now, these bureaucrats have never been held accountable for their actions.http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/534728/201005201852/Water-Sanity-For-Central-California.aspx
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Below is the portion of "section 834b of the California Penal Code that deals with immigration law enforcement at the local level:"

(a) Every law enforcement agency in California shall fully cooperate with the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service regarding any person who is arrested if he or she is suspected of being present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws. (b) With respect to any such person who is arrested, and suspected of being present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws, every law enforcement agency shall do the following: (1) Attempt to verify the legal status of such person as a citizen of the United States, an alien lawfully admitted as a permanent resident, an alien lawfully admitted for a temporary period of time or as an alien who is present in the United States in violation of immigration laws. The verification process may include, but shall not be limited to, questioning the person regarding his or her date and place of birth, and entry into the United States, and demanding documentation to indicate his or her legal status.

[Now perhaps those in CA should halt their boycotts and condemnations of the Arizona law...]

Read more: http://www.gopusa.com/theloft/2010/05/hey-san-fran-how-about-boycotting-california-first.php#ixzz0ofR1lg3v
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President Obama on Saturday [while addressing the graduating class at West Point] pledged to shape a new "international order" as part of a national security strategy that emphasizes his belief in global institutions and America's role in promoting democratic values around the world.
The international order we seek is one that can resolve the challenges of our times,'" he said in prepared remarks. "Countering violent extremism and insurgency; stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and securing nuclear materials; combating a changing climate and sustaining global growth; helping countries feed themselves and care for their sick; preventing conflict and healing its wounds."
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[Do you remember Daniel Pearl?  Here is what our President said about him while signing the freedom of the press law:]  "And obviously the loss of Daniel Pearl was one of those moments that captured the world’s imagination because it reminded us of how valuable a free press is..." 
And here is what Mark Steyn wrote about it:  ... its clumsiness and insipidness is most revealing. First of all, note the passivity: "The loss of Daniel Pearl." He wasn't "lost." He was kidnapped and beheaded. He was murdered on a snuff video. He was specifically targeted, seized as a trophy, a high-value scalp. And the circumstances of his "loss" merit some vigor in the prose. Yet Obama can muster none.
But what did the "loss" of Daniel Pearl mean? Well, says the president, it was "one of those moments that captured the world's imagination." Really? Evidently it never captured Obama's imagination because, if it had, he could never have uttered anything so fatuous. He seems literally unable to imagine Pearl's fate, and so, cruising on autopilot, he reaches for the all-purpose bromides of therapeutic sedation: "one of those moments" – you know, like Princess Di's wedding, Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction, whatever – "that captured the world's imagination."
I daresay that if a Republican or conservative president had suggested that the "loss" of Dr. Martin Luther King had "captured the world's imagination," the AP and the Times would not have so deliberately avoided such a statement, and would instead have eagerly sought out others to criticize it.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2010/05/22/establishment-press-largely-covers-obamas-tracks-disgraceful-daniel-pear#ixzz0ogVTXCAI

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This past Sunday, in one of the most aggressive and offensive intimidation tactics to date, hundreds of members of the largest union – the SEIU – stormed the front yard of Bank of America deputy general counsel Greg Baer’s home. The angry mob had bullhorns, signs and even broke the law by trespassing to bully Baer’s teenage son, the only one home at the time, who locked himself in the bathroom out of fear. [The police were actually tasked with the job of escorting the large buses to the man's house!  It brings to mind the buses of union folks who terrorized the Chairman of Goldman Sachs last summer.  Vigilante justice seems alive and well.]
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/22/senators-obama-admin-keeps-congress-dark-intel/
The Obama administration has failed to keep congressional intelligence officials in the loop on the investigation into the botched Times Square bombing, as required by law, the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate intelligence committee charged in a letter this week.
"Having to fight over access to counterterrorism information is not productive and ultimately makes us less secure," wrote Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein and Vice Chairman Christopher S. "Kit" Bond in a letter to President Obama.  [The Justice Dept. disagrees with this assessment.] 

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Republican Wins Special Congressional Vote in Hawaii , Obama's Home State, for first time in 20 years.

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Nonie  Darwish, author of Cruel and Usual Punishment - The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law. ... stated: "Intentionally or unintentionally, in the name of tolerance, we are bringing up a generation of Americans who will tolerate Islamic Jihad, in the name of cultural relativism and compassion."  She also stated:  "Tolerating intolerance is not a sign of virtue, but gross negligence."  http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/05/war_of_wordcraft.html

The Lawlessness of Obama and his Administration

Charles Krauthammer: "I think it's a perfect example of the arrogance and the near lawlessness of this administration."

"[The Arizona law] is as legal a law as any other law in the land. [I'll add that it mirrors the Federal law on immigration.]  And for the executive to say we're going to ignore it, or we're going to unenforce immigration essentially in this state on account of this, is lawless."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/05/21/official-says-feds-process-illegals-referred-arizona/