obama

Bret Stephens: Does Obama Believe in Human Rights – WSJ.com

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It . . . takes a remarkable degree of cynicism—or perhaps cowardice—to treat human rights as something that “interferes” with America’s purposes in the world, rather than as the very thing that ought to define them. Yet that is exactly the record of Mr. Obama’s time thus far in office.

In Massachusetts not long ago, I found myself driving behind a car with “Free Tibet,” “Save Darfur,” and “Obama 08” bumper stickers. I wonder if it will ever dawn on the owner of that car that at least one of those stickers doesn’t belong.

read the rest here… Bret Stephens: Does Obama Believe in Human Rights – WSJ.com.

Dems and Obama Paying Off Doctors to Support Healthcare Bill Nightmare

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In the special interest war over health care, the White House and congressional Democrats have the nation’s drug makers and hospitals generally on their side; the insurance industry, not so much.

Now the bill’s supporters are making a play to lock in the American Medical Association, the organization that says it represents 250,000 doctors and medical students in every state and congressional district. The principal enticement, a $247 billion measure making its way to the Senate floor, aims to wipe out a scheduled 21 percent rate cut for doctors treating Medicare patients and replace it with a permanent, predictable system for future fee increases.

read the rest here… The Associated Press: Analysis: Courting doctors in health care battle.

Poll: Only 34 percent of Californians approve of Pelosi’s performance – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room

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Empty head speaker of the house, empty head president of Obamica. So proud of our first woman speaker and semi-black president. How could you not be?

A poll released over the weekend shows that only 34 percent of Californians approve of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) job performance, down 14 points from March.

read the rest here… Poll: Only 34 percent of Californians approve of Pelosi’s performance – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room.

Excuses wearing thin for Obama, media pals :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Steve Huntley

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Have you heard the news? President Obama inherited an economic mess from the Bush administration.

You say that’s hardly news? But it’s been the message sounded over and over by the White House. Top Obama adviser David Axelrod said on one of the Sunday news shows, “He walked in the door, we had the worst economy since the Great Depression.” In San Francisco, Obama talked of being “busy with our mop.” White House heavy hitter Rahm Emanuel used the worst-economy-since-the-Depression line on a public TV news show.

You’d think it’s October 2008, the final month in the Obama presidential candidacy, rather than October 2009, nine months into the Obama presidency. Yet the Obama White House is in full campaign mode — maybe because it needs to mask the shortcomings of the Obama presidency.

read the rest here… Excuses wearing thin for Obama, media pals :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Steve Huntley.

Nobel jury defends Obama decision – My Way News – AP Newsbreak

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The award drew heated derision from Obama’s political opponents in the Republican party, and was even questioned by some members of Obama’s own Democratic party, who wondered what the president had done to merit the $1.4 million honor.

Michael S. Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said naming Obama showed “how meaningless a once honorable and respected award has become.”

In a fundraising letter, Steele wrote that “the Democrats and their international leftist allies want America made subservient to the agenda of global redistribution and control. And truly patriotic Americans like you and our Republican Party are the only thing standing in their way.”

Columnist Thomas Friedman wrote in the New York Times that Obama “has not done anything yet on the scale that would normally merit such an award.”

Even in Europe, where Obama is hugely popular, many editorials and pundits questioned what he had done to deserve the award.

“Scrap the Nobel Peace Prize,” foreign affairs commentator Bronwen Maddox wrote in The Times of London. “It’s an embarrassment and even an impediment to peace. President Obama, in letting the committee award it to him, has made himself look vain, a fool and dangerously lost in his own mystique.”

read the rest here… My Way News – AP Newsbreak: Nobel jury defends Obama decision.

White House targets Fox as it goes after press critics

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The White House has gone on the offensive against its critics in the press, singling out Fox News and going so far as to accuse the News Corp.-owned network of waging a “war against Barack Obama.”

White House Communications Director Anita Dunn has led the charge, appearing on CNN television and conducting interviews with Time magazine and The New York Times in recent days to make her case.

The unusual White House campaign comes as President Obama faces mounting opposition to his health care reforms, growing concern over the situation in Afghanistan and a continuing general economic malaise.

The president also suffered a setback recently when his personal effort to win approval for Chicago to host the 2016 Olympics was rejected and his Nobel Peace Prize has met with more barbs than bouquets.

via White House targets Fox as it goes after press critics.

Jobless rate reaches 9.8 percent in September – Yahoo! Finance

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Persistent joblessness could pose political problems for President Barack Obama, who pushed through an ambitious $787 billion stimulus package in February intended to “save or create” 3.5 million jobs by the end of 2010.

“We still think the overall trend is moving in the right direction,” said Christina Romer, chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. “We’re going from much larger job losses earlier this year. They are moderating. We want them to moderate more.”

Republicans note that job losses have continued despite the stimulus. “Wasteful government spending is not the solution to what ails this economy,” said Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, chairman of the House Republican caucus.

via Jobless rate reaches 9.8 percent in September – Yahoo! Finance.

Obama ACORN Ties 20 Years Deep – WSJ.com

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John Fund writing on WSJ.com:Only one of the five television networks that interviewed President Obama for their Sunday shows bothered to ask him about Acorn, the left-wing community organizing group whose federal funding was cut off last week by an overwhelming vote in Congress.

“Frankly, it’s not something I’ve followed closely,” Mr. Obama claimed. . . .

Mr. Obama took great pains to act as if he barely knew about Acorn. In fact, his association goes back almost 20 years. In 1991, he took time off from his law firm to run a voter-registration drive for Project Vote, an Acorn partner that was soon fully absorbed under the Acorn umbrella. The drive registered 135,000 voters and was considered a major factor in the upset victory of Democrat Carol Moseley Braun over incumbent Democratic Senator Alan Dixon in the 1992 Democratic Senate primary.

Mr. Obama’s success made him a hot commodity on the community organizing circuit. He became a top trainer at Acorn’s Chicago conferences. In 1995, he became Acorn’s attorney, participating in a landmark case to force the state of Illinois to implement the federal Motor Voter Law. That law’s loose voter registration requirements would later be exploited by Acorn employees in an effort to flood voter rolls with fake names.

In 1996, Mr. Obama filled out a questionnaire listing key supporters for his campaign for the Illinois Senate. He put Acorn first it was not an alphabetical list.

via Notable & Quotable – WSJ.com.