Obama’s words crash to the floor as teleprompter commits suicide

Much heralded as an articulate speaker, President Barack Obama, has trouble maintaining that designation when he experiences a teleprompter snafu. 

While being used to defend Obama’s economic stimulus plan, the Prompter decided it had had enough and jumped to its death, shattering itself, rather than continue lying to the American people. 

Obama, who relies on the device for even the briefest of remarks, gasped as the glass plate displaying his speech hit the floor in the auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, a large building within the White House compound.

“Oh, goodness,” Obama said. “Sorry about that, guys.”

The audience mostly administration officials, mayors and urban policy planners — chuckled as Obama went back to his notes and the remaining teleprompter screen, while  finishing his remarks calling for another new policy for financing the nation’s cities and metropolitan areas.

And where exactly is that constitutional right to privacy, Judge?

Taking questions at her confirmation hearing today Supreme Court aspirant Sonia Sotomayor says she considers the question of abortion rights “settled law” and asserts there is a constitutional right to privacy.

She obviously reads the same version of the Constitution that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a former ACLU attorney, has tucked away in her chambers.

In responding to questions on Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling legalizing abortion, Sotomayor told the Senate Judiciary Committee “there is a right of privacy” –  that the court has found it in “various places in the Constitution.”  Specifically she says the right is stated in the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure and in the 14th Amendment guaranteeing equal protection of the law.

The often reversed appeals court judge Sotomayor said that “all precedents of the Supreme Court I consider settled law.”

During Ginsburg’s 1993 confirmation hearing, she provided a strong and unequivocal defense of a woman’s right to abortion, saying it was based on the Constitution’s explicit guarantee of equal protection — as well as an “unstated right of privacy.“

“It is essential to a woman’s equality with man that she be the decision maker, that her choice be controlling,” Judge Ginsburg told the Senate Judiciary Committee at that time.  “If you impose restraints, you are disadvantaging her because of her sex. The state controlling a woman would mean denying her full autonomy and full equality.”

No word from Ginsburg on the full equity of the pre-born human infant or its father.

The good news comes too late

The latest Rasmussen Reports survey finds that voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on eight out of 10 key electoral issues, including, for the second straight month, the top issue of the economy.

Republicans also narrowed the gap on the remaining two issues, the traditionally Democratic strong suits of health care and education

The percentage of voters trusting the GOP more on economic issues is 46% to 41%,. This is just the second time in over two years of polling the GOP has held the advantage on economic issues. The parties were close on the issue in May, with the Democrats holding a one-point lead.

Voters not affiliated with either party trust Republicans more to handle the economy by a wider 46% to 32% margin.

Last week’s report of 9.5 percent unemployment, the highest since 1983, raised doubts about the economy and the president’s handling of it. Consumer and investor confidence is now down to the lowest levels in three months. Just 39% now say President Obama is doing a good or an excellent job on the economy while 43% rate his performance as poor. Those are by far the weakest numbers yet for the president.

Phil Gordon: Travelin’ in style, taking ego along for the ride

From the United Arab Emirates port of Dubai to Toronto and points in between, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon is on the go.  He even works in a few trips to Washington D.C. to rail against those who oppose his Sanctuary City  policies.

As to his global jetsetting, Philly says:

“When developing new economic opportunities, you have to do things face to face. I believe to create jobs, to help our city, to keep people safe, the mayor of Phoenix should be leading, not following, and risking that Phoenix will be passed by others cities in the country.

And I’m good at it. I’ve got the energy, I’ve got the background, and I’m representing the state of Arizona when I’m doing this.”

A suggestion you might want to consider regarding keeping the people of the city of Phoenix safe, Mr. Mayor: How about discarding the policies that provide safe haven to lawbreakers and reward criminality?

The article in the daily can be read here.

Another on Hizzoner’s globetrotting includes this portion: Gordon may be all over the map, literally and figuratively, as his critics allege. A more focused approach might make more sense.

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

The payoff for supporting BHO is hardly chump change

Billions of dollars in federal aid — about $17 billion – in the first piece of the administration’s massive stimulus package, delivered directly to the local level to help revive the economy, have gone overwhelmingly to places that supported President Obama in last year’s presidential election.

What a surprise!

Counties that supported Obama last year have reaped twice as much money per person from the administration’s $787 billion economic stimulus package as those that voted for his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain, a USA TODAY analysis of government disclosure and accounting records shows. That money includes aid to repair military bases, improve public housing and help students pay for college.

The reports show the 872 counties that supported Obama received about $69 per person, on average. The 2,234 that supported McCain received about $34.

Read the article here.

Obama and Napolitano lay out welcome mat to greater influx of illegals

With Barack Obama ensconced in the White House — when the global traveler is actually in Washington DC –  and Janet Napolitano as Homeland INsecurity Secretary (DHS), new federal standards have been announced intended to tie the hands of local police in enforcement of  immigration laws.

Think of it this way: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has essentially had a federal program crafted specifically to restrain him.       

Former Arizona Gov. Napolitano says that targeting people who commit minor offenses is not the goal of the program. It is arresting and deporting illegal immigrants who commit violent crimes and major drug offenses, the daily reports.

In other words, come on in, the door is open and the welcome mat is out. The federal government of the United State has no intention of enforcing border security or protecting national sovereignty, less than eight years after September 11^th.

For his  part, Arpaio has vowed to continue conducting crime-suppression operations and says he will continue booking suspected illegal immigrants who commit minor crimes in jail, where immigration status has been automatically checked as part of the federal 287 (g) program.

According to the administration, the culprits to be curbed are not those illegally entering the U.S., but the law enforcement professionals who apprehend them.

A DHS spokesman made this odd statement:  “The focus is going to be on criminal aliens.”

Isn’t that anyone who breaks into our country in violation of the law? The fact is, illegals engage in continued criminal activity once the initial act of stealthy crossing into this country has occurred.  There is a booming market in forged, counterfeit and stolen identification, birth certificates, Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses, the necessary components to facilitate their lives in the U.S. after arriving.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has referred 30,000 suspected illegals to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the program, about 26,000 of whom were identified after being booked into jail for crimes ranging from felonies to misdemeanors.

Arpaio’s crime sweeps have been hailed by the voters who repeatedly reelect him and other advocates of stricter enforcement.

“DHS has already negotiated agreements with numerous state and local agencies – many just within the last few years. It is counterproductive to bully them now with this kind of ultimatum and undermine their successful programs,” said U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, (R-TX), a strong supporter of the 287 (g) program. “This is another example of the administration making it harder to find and deport illegal immigrants,” he said.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Channeling Margaret Sanger

CNSNews carries an excellent analysis of  this interview to be published in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine.  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is quoted as saying she thought the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on abortion was predicated on the Supreme Court majority’s desire to diminish “populations that we don’t want to have too many of.”

Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, called those she regarded as inferior, “human weeds,” and advocated for the cessation of charity — referring to “medical and nursing facilities for slum mothers as insidiously injurious,” and urged the sterilization of “genetically inferior races.”

Watch video here.

Michelle Obama does not carry a $6,000 handbag!

It’s only $875

Italian luxury goods manufacturer VBH was thrilled to report that First Lady Michelle Obama was toting their $5,950 alligator manila clutch-style handbag earlier this week while tooling around Russia.

But the White House vehemently denied the nearly $6000 version, saying that the First Lady was only carrying the cheap $875 VBH patent leather clutch. 

Whew!  That sure beats paying an exorbitant price for a small handbag.

The New York Daily News reports that after sticking to their initial claim, the high-end leather manufacturer is now backing off. “If that’s what the White House is saying, then it’s a patent bag,” tactfully evaded the VBH rep — despite being certain earlier in the morning about the bag being the multi-thousand dollar version. “It’s definitely ours [manila bag],” she said at the time — although she now says that she made an assumption and misidentified the bag.

Ooo-kay.

But don’t forget the fashion conscious Obama served up porridge to the homeless at a D.C. shelter wearing a pair of $540 Lanvin sneakers.  You know the ones.  Gray suede, with grosgrain ribbon laces and metallic pink toe caps.  You gals probably have a pair sitting right there in the closet at home.

BHO lectures Russians: “States must have the right to borders that are secure”

The UK’s Telegraph reports on President Barack Obama’s speech to students at the New Economic School in Russia. Oddly, he lays out for them what he and his Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, refuse to institute for the United States of America — the right to sovereign, enforceable, national borders.

“State sovereignty must be a cornerstone of international order,” said Obama. “Just as all states should have the right to choose their leaders, states must have the right to borders that are secure, and to their own foreign policies.”

Then came his obligatory apology for America and the requisite ethnic references.

“By no means is America perfect,” Obama informed the Russian students. “Independent media have exposed corruption at all levels of business and government. Competitive elections allow us to change course. If our democracy did not advance those rights, I as a person of African ancestry wouldn’t be able to address you as an American citizen, much less a president.”

“Little Shop of Horrors” brought McCain votes

Todd S. Purdum has written a particularly scathing article about Gov. Sarah Palin in the August issue of Vanity Fair magazine. In the lengthy piece, It Came from Wasilla, the author low-rides on anonymous sources from within the former McCain presidential campaign, who unload on the onetime Republican Vice Presidential running mate.

In view of the fact that many credit Sarah Palin with returning recalcitrant Republicans to the fold and bringing their much needed votes with them, Purdum’s absurd slam lacks resonance.  Living in Washington. D.C., he might have missed seeing the numerous bumper stickers on cars driving around McCain’s home state of Arizona that had pointedly cut the name ‘McCain’ off.

The Alaska governor, whom Purdum refers to as the “first indisputably fertile female to dare to dance with the big dogs,” came onboard at the request of Sen. John McCain, who was looking to expand his base and recoup the woman’s vote, which had been steadily slipping from his grasp.

It’s worth remembering that Purdum, the magazine’s national editor, is married to Vanity Fair contributing editor, Dee Dee Myers, a committed liberal who was Bill Clinton’s White House Press Secretary — clearly exposing this venture as an all-in-the-family, left-leaning gambit.