Independent’s Day: Obama doesn’t want to look back, but Attorney General Eric Holder may probe Bush-era torture anyway.

Attorney General Eric Holder

By Daniel Klaidman | NEWSWEEK

It’s the morning after Independence Day, and Eric Holder Jr. is feeling the weight of history. The night before, he’d stood on the roof of the White House alongside the president of the United States, leaning over a railing to watch fireworks burst over the Mall, the monuments to Lincoln and Washington aglow at either end. “I was so struck by the fact that for the first time in history an African-American was presiding over this celebration of what our nation is all about,” he says. Now, sitting at his kitchen table in jeans and a gray polo shirt, as his 11-year-old son, Buddy, dashes in and out of the room, Holder is reflecting on his own role. He doesn’t dwell on the fact that he’s the country’s first black attorney general. He is focused instead on the tension that the best of his predecessors have confronted: how does one faithfully serve both the law and the president?

Continue reading HERE.

Democrats engineering a smear on the CIA

SUNDAY, JULY 12, 2009

Source: LOUD CRICKETS

This is the latest disgusting engineered smear on the CIA from Democrats.

This started when Democrats, with an irrational hatred of Bush, started to make rumblings about prosecuting Bush officials for “torture”. “Torture” like waterboarding 3 terrorist masterminds who have killed thousands of Americans.

It came out in 2002 that Pelosi was indeed briefed on waterboarding, and again recently. This put a crimp on the full-steam kangaroo trial of Bush officials if Pelosi knew in 2002 about these programs and did nothing.

Continue reading HERE.

Sotomayor backers urge reporters to probe New Haven firefighter / They did it to Joe the Plumber and now they’re at it again…

More dirty politics. Remember when Obamas people went after Joe the Plumber after that now famous video clip in which Obama revealed his plan to redistribute the wealth? Hang on; it’s happening again. Now they’re going after the firefighters in the Ricci case:

~Pesky Emotional Republican

WASHINGTON — Supporters of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor are quietly targeting the Connecticut firefighter who’s at the center of Sotomayor’s most controversial ruling.

On the eve of Sotomayor’s Senate confirmation hearing, her advocates have been urging journalists to scrutinize what one called the “troubled and litigious work history” of firefighter Frank Ricci.

This is opposition research: a constant shadow on Capitol Hill.

“The whole business of getting Supreme Court nominees through the process has become bloodsport,” said Gary Rose, a government and politics professor at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn.

On Friday, citing in an e-mail “Frank Ricci’s troubled and litigious work history,” the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way drew reporters’ attention to Ricci’s past. Other advocates for Sotomayor have discreetly urged journalists to pursue similar story lines.

Specifically, the advocates have zeroed in on an earlier 1995 lawsuit Ricci filed claiming the city of New Haven discriminated against him because he’s dyslexic. The advocates cite other Hartford Courant stories from the same era recounting how Ricci was fired by a fire department in Middletown, Conn., allegedly, Ricci said at the time, because of safety concerns he raised.

The Middletown-area fire department was subsequently fined for safety violations, but the Connecticut Department of Labor dismissed Ricci’s retaliation complaint.

No People for the American Way officials could be reached Friday to speak on the record about the press campaign.

“To go after so sympathetic a plaintiff as Frank Ricci . . . is a new low in the politics of personal destruction,” said Roger Pilon, the director of the libertarian Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies. “If they were smart, they’d keep a low profile.”

Ricci, though, has his own advocates, including conservative commentators such as CNN’s Lou Dobbs and Fox’s Sean Hannity.

Nor is he the only Supreme Court confirmation witness to receive sharp elbows. In 1991, for instance, then-Senate Minority Leader Alan Simpson of Wyoming warned that witness Anita Hill would be “injured and destroyed and belittled and hounded and harassed” if she testified against nominee Clarence Thomas. Hill was preparing to testify that she’d been sexually harassed by Thomas.

Hill’s subsequent testimony threw into question Thomas’s confirmation, during a hearing he likened to a “high-tech lynching.” A closely divided Senate ultimately confirmed him.

The 35-year-old Ricci was the lead plaintiff in the case Ricci v. DeStefano, challenging New Haven’s refusal to promote white firefighters after African-American and all but one Hispanic firefighters failed to score high enough on a promotion exam.

Sotomayor and a majority of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the city’s claim that it was justifiably concerned about a potential civil rights suit being filed by the African-American firefighters.

“Sotomayor and her panel colleagues were bound by long-standing precedent and federal law,” People for the American Way executive vice president Marge Baker said in a June statement. “They applied the law without regard to their personal views.”

Last month, however, the Supreme Court overturned the 2nd Circuit by 5-4.

“Once . . . employers have made clear their selection criteria, they may not then invalidate the test results, thus upsetting an employee’s legitimate expectation not to be judged on the basis of race,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority.

With his awards for bravery, some 17 years of fire department service and history of overcoming dyslexia, Ricci has become a compelling human character in the Sotomayor confirmation drama. Senate Republicans have summoned him, along with Lt. Ben Vargas of the New Haven Fire Department, as two of their 14 witnesses next week.

Though even Republicans concede Sotomayor appears poised to win confirmation, the hearing — and Ricci’s part in them — could be exploited politically. The case is symbolic of race-based preferences, which conservatives have long rejected.

“Affirmative action remains a potentially useful issue for the GOP,” Rose noted, and “this case has the potential of perhaps mobilizing the Republican party again.”

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina added that many Americans can identify with Ricci, making him an especially attractive witness for the GOP and potentially dangerous for Democrats.

“He took on a second job and worked hard, but was denied due to the same legal concepts” that were designed to protect people’s rights, Graham said.

MORE FROM MCCLATCHY

Lawyers group gives Sotomayor its highest approval rating

Supreme Court rules for white firefighters in bias case

La Raza leader surprised to be drawn into Sotomayor debate

Poll: GOP risks loss of respect if it goes after Sotomayor

Latina pride presents challenge and opportunity for Sotomayor

Sotomayor’s greatest impact could come from who she is

Sotomayor likely to get gentle scrutiny from Congress

Affirmative action positions at center of Sotomayor reaction

Follow the latest legal affairs news at McClatchy’s Suits & Sentences

Follow the latest politics news at McClatchy’s Planet Washington

Obama’s first military order: Don’t shoot back at Taliban Terrorists!

Is our Commander-In-Chief of the American military really on our side?~~Pesky Emotional Republican

Dr. Paul L. Williams  / thelastcrusade.org /  Thursday, July 9, 2009

Taliban truck

Don’t shoot back!

Don’t pick the poppies!

And don’t bother the women and men in burqas!

These are the new rules of engagement for leathernecks in Afghanistan.

Sound incredible?

They’re true.

Welcome to the modern Marine Corps under Commander-in-Chief Barack Hussein Obama

On July 1, the U.S. military initiated Operation Khanjar or “Strike of the Sword,” an invasion of the Helmand Province by 4,000 Marines and 650 Afghan soldiers.

“Strike of the Sword” represents the first military operation to be ordered by President Obama.

The purpose of the campaign is to flush out Taliban operatives from southern Afghanistan in order to safeguard the re-election of Afghan President Hamid Karzai on August 20.

The military initiative is being conducted by the insistence of Kharzai, who fears that a strong Taliban presence will produce unfavorable results for him on election-day.

To accomplish this objective, President Obama remains determined to deploy 68,000 additional U.S. troops to southern Afghanistan within the next six weeks.

But the Marines, thanks to Mr. Obama, are conducting this mission with their hands tied.

The first order from America’s new commander is that the Marines must not return enemy fire for fear of killing an Afghan non-combatant.

ABC Correspondent Mike Boettcher, who is embedded with Golf Company, reports that the young Marines, when ambushed by Taliban forces with automatic weapons, were ordered to shoulder their rifles. Their command, Boettcher writes, warned them that “one civilian casualty could negate the No. 1 objective of this operation – – winning the trust and respect of the farmers of the Helmand River Valley.”

How are the Marines expected to win the trust and respect of the farmers?

By not disturbing the opium poppy fields which remain in full bloom.

The Marines of Bravo’s Company 1st Platoon sleep beside groves of poppies Troops of the 2nd Platoon walk through the fields on strict orders not to swat the heavy opium bulbs. The Afghan farmers and laborers, who are engaged in scraping the resin from the bulbs, smile and wave at the passing soldiers.

The Helmand province is the world’s largest cultivator of opium poppies – the crop used to make heroin.

Afghanistan grew 93 percent of the world’s poppy crop last year, with Helmand alone responsible for more than half of the opium production in the country, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Heroin, as it turns out, represents the only staple of the Afghan economy. The country manufactures no domestic products for exportation and the rocky terrain yields no cash crops – – except, of course, the poppies.

The poppies fuel the great jihad against the United States and the Western world. More than 3,500 tons of raw opium is gleaned from the poppy crops every year, producing annual revenues for the Taliban and al Qaeda that range from $5 billion to $16 billion.

Destroying the fields could very well put an end to terrorist activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

But the Obama Administration remains intent upon protecting the poppies so that the Afghan farmers and local drug lords can reap the benefits of what purports to be a bumper crop.

Many Marines in the field are scratching their heads over the situation.

Jason Striuszko a journalist embedded with the U.S. Marines in Garmser, reports that many of the leathernecks are scratching their heads at the apparent contradictions — calling in airstrikes and artillery on the elusive Taliban while assuring farmers and drug lords that they will protect the poppies.

“Of course,” Striuszko says, “those fields will be harvested and some money likely used to help fuel the Taliban, and the Marines are thinking, essentially, ‘huh?’”

“It’s kind of weird. We’re coming over here to fight the Taliban. We see this. We know it’s bad. But at the same time we know it’s the only way locals can make money,” said 1st Lt. Adam Lynch, 27, of Barnstable, Mass.

Richard Holbrooke, the Obama Administration’s top envoy in Afghanistan, says that poppy eradication – for years a cornerstone of U.S. and U.N. anti-drug efforts in the country – has only resulted in driving Afghan farmers into the hands of the Taliban.

The new approach, Holbrooke maintains, will try to wean the farmers of the lucrative cash crop by giving them help to grow other produce, like wheat, corn and pomegranates.

Fat chance.

Most of the 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan operate in the east, where the poppy problem is not as great. But the 2,400-strong 24th Marines, have taken the field in this southern growing region during harvest season.

An expert on Afghanistan’s drug trade, Barnett Rubin, complained that the Marines are being put in such a situation by a “one-dimensional” military policy that fails to integrate political and economic considerations into long-range planning.

“All we hear is, not enough troops, send more troops,” said Rubin, a professor at New York University. “Then you send in troops with no capacity for assistance, no capacity for development, no capacity for aid, no capacity for governance.”

Staff Sgt. Jeremy Stover, whose platoon is sleeping beside a poppy crop planted in the interior courtyard of a mud-walled compound, said the Marines’ mission is to get rid of the “bad guys,” and “the locals aren’t the bad guys.”

“Poppy fields in Afghanistan are the cornfields of Ohio,” said Stover, 28, of Marion, Ohio. “When we got here they were asking us if it’s OK to harvest poppy and we said, ‘Yeah, just don’t use an AK-47.’”

And the third order from Commander Obama, who has never spent a day in uniform (not even as a Boy Scout), is that no enlisted man must ever question or detain, let alone stop and search, any Afghani in a burqa.

Even glancing at a Muslim woman, the young Marines are told, is a grievous offense in the Islamic world.

This order has resulted in Taliban militants escaping from the clutches of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade on July 8.

Members of the Brigade had managed to trap the Taliban fighters in a mud compound within the village of Khan Neshin, about 60 miles north of the Pakistani border.

With the help of a translator and a village elder, the Marines, under orders from their commanders, persuaded the trapped insurgents to free the women and children in their custody.

Within minutes, according Afghan Army Commander Mahaiddin Ghorr, thirty to forty figures in full burqas emerged from the mud – – some holding the hands of children – – and sauntered off into the hills.

When the Marines entered the compound an hour or so later, the place was empty.

The latest military operation has resulted in the relocation of Taliban fighters to the western and northern provinces.

This has prompted complaints from German and Italian commanders who now must deal with hundreds of enemy combatants.

Our President

He’ll have to learn  not to do that in front of cameras.  ~Pesky Emotional Republican

U.S. President Barack Obama (C) and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (R) take their places with junior G8 delegates for a family photo at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, July 9, 2009. Leaders of the Group of Eight major industrial nations and the main developing economies are meeting in the central Italian city of L'Aquila until Friday to discuss issues ranging from global economic stimulus to climate change and oil prices. REUTERS/Jason Reed (ITALY POLITICS IMAGES OF THE DAY) EmailIM

Obama will repeal Medicare

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN; Published on DickMorris.com on July 9, 2009

Dick Morris worked as an advisor to President Bill Clinton.

Obama’s health care proposal is, in effect, the repeal of the Medicare program as we know it.  The elderly will go from being the group with the most access to free medical care to the one with the least access.    Indeed, the principal impact of the Obama health care program will be to reduce sharply the medical services the elderly can use.  No longer will their every medical need be met, their every medication prescribed, their every need to improve their quality of life answered.

It is so ironic that the elderly – who were so vigilant when Bush proposed to change Social Security – are so relaxed about the Obama health care proposals.  Bush’s Social Security plan, which did not cut their benefits at all, aroused the strongest opposition among the elderly.  But Obama’s plan, which will totally gut Medicare and replace it with government-managed care and rationing, has elicited little more than a yawn from most senior citizens.

It’s time for the elderly to wake up before it is too late!

In our new book, Catastrophe, we explain – in detail and in depth – the consequences the elderly of Canada are feeling from just this kind of program.  Limited colonoscopies have led to a 25% higher rate of colon cancer and a ban on the use of the two best chemotherapies are part of the reason why 42% of Canadians with colon cancer die while 31% of Americans, who have access to these two medications, survive the disease.

Overall, the death rate from cancer in Canada is 16% higher than in the United States and the heart disease mortality rate is 6% above ours’.

Under Obama’s program, there will be a government health insurance company that gets huge subsidies of tax money.  It will compete with private insurance plans.  But the subsidies will let it undercut the private plans and drive them out of business, leaving only the government plan – a single payer – in effect.

Today, 800,000 doctors struggle to treat adequately the 250 million Americans who have insurance.  Obama will add 50 million more to their caseload with no expansion in the number of doctors or nurses.  Indeed, his plan will likely reduce their number by lowering reimbursement rates and imposing bureaucrats above them who will force medical decisions down their throats.   Fewer doctors will have to treat more patients.  The inevitable result will be rationing.

And it is the elderly who rationing will most effect.  Who should get a knee replacement a 40 year old or a 70 year old?  Who should get a new hip, a young person or an old person?  Who should have priority in the operating room a seventy year old diabetic who needs bypass surgery or a younger person?  Obviously, it is the elderly who will get short shrift under his proposal.

But the interest groups that usually speak up for the elderly, particularly AARP, are in Obama’s pocket, hoping to profit from his program by becoming one of its vendors.  Just as they backed Bush’s prescription drug plan because they anticipating profiting from it, so they are now helping Obama gut the medical care of their constituents.

It is high time that the elderly of America realized what the stakes are in this vital fight to preserve Medicare as we know it and keep medical care open, accessible, and free to those over 65.  It is truly a battle for their very lives.

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

Thursday, July 09, 2009

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 30% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of –8. The President’s Approval Index rating has fallen six points since release of a disappointing jobs report last week (see trends).

Thirty-nine percent (39%) now give the President good or excellent marks for handling the economy while 43% say he is doing a poor job. Those are by far his lowest ratings yet on the economy Premium Members can see crosstabs, trends, and Scott Rasmussen’s Daily Briefing.

There is a gender gap when it comes to perceptions of Obama’s performance. By a 46% to 27% margin, men Strongly Disapprove. Women are more evenly divided—33% Strongly Approve and 30% Strongly Disapprove.

Thirty-four percent (34%) of voters nationwide say the U.S. is heading in the right direction, the lowest level of optimism since mid-March. The Rasmussen Index shows consumer and investor confidence are down again today reaching the lowest level in three months. The Discover U.S. Spending Monitor fell for the first time in three months. A Rasmussen video report notes that 46% want the government to stay out of the housing market.

The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve. It is updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update). Updates also available on Twitter.

Overall, 51% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance so far. Forty-eight percent (48%) now disapprove. For other barometers of the President’s performance, see Obama By the Numbers or review recent demographic highlights from the tracking polls.

A White House meeting recently gave a boost to immigration reform, but public opposition remains high. There is a huge gap between the views of most voters and the Political Class when it comes to immigration.

In New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie continues to lead incumbent Governor Jon Corzine.

An early look at the 2012 race for the Republican nomination shows Mitt Romney at 25%, Sarah Palin at 24%, and Mike Huckabee at 22%. Forty percent (40%) of GOP voters say that Palin hurt her chances of winning the nomination by resigning as Alaska’s Governor last week. Among all voters, Republicans now have a three-point edge on the Generic Congressional Ballot.

Just 27% of voters nationwide favor passage of a second economic stimulus package. Sixty percent (60%) are opposed.

When comparing Job Approval data from different firms, it’s important to keep in mind that polls of likely voters and polls of all adults will typically and consistently yield different results. In the case of President Obama, polls by all firms measuring all adults typically show significantly higher approval ratings than polls of likely voters. Polls of registered voters typically fall in the middle. Other factors are also important to consider when comparing Job Approval ratings from different polling firms.

If you’d like Scott Rasmussen to speak at your meeting, retreat, or conference, contactPremiere Speakers Bureau. You can also learn about Scott’s favorite place on earth or his time working with hockey legend Gordie Howe.

A Fordham University professor has rated the national pollsters on their record in Election 2008. We also have provided a summary of our results for your review.

Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. The margin of sampling error—for the full sample of 1,500 Likely Voters–is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Results are also compiled on a full-week basis and crosstabs for full-week results are available for Premium Members.

Like all polling firms, Rasmussen Reports weights its data to reflect the population at large (see methodology). Among other targets, Rasmussen Reports weights data by political party affiliation using a dynamic weighting process. While partisan affiliation is generally quite stable over time, there are a fair number of people who waver between allegiance to a particular party or independent status. Over the past four years, the number of Democrats in the country has increased while the number of Republicans has decreased.

Our baseline targets are established based upon separate survey interviews with a sample of adults nationwide completed during the preceding three months (a total of 45,000 interviews) and targets are updated monthly. Currently, the baseline targets for the adult population are 39.0% Democrats, 32.5% Republicans, and 28.5% unaffiliated. Likely voter samples typically show a slightly smaller advantage for the Democrats.

A review of last week’s key polls is posted each Saturday morning. Other stats on Obama are updated daily on the Rasmussen Reports Obama By the Numbers page. We also invite you to review other recent demographic highlights from the tracking polls.

Akron police investigate teen mob attack on family / Akron police say they aren’t ready to call it a hate crime or a gang initiation.

By Phil Trexler
Beacon Journal staff writer

POSTED: 07:44 p.m. EDT, Jul 07, 2009

Martin Marshall (right) recounts the attack by a group of teens on himself and his family while they were watching a Fourth of July fireworks display in Firestone Park. His daughter, Rachel Hopson, 15, (left) and wife, Yvonne Marshall, listen. (Michael Chritton/Akron Beacon Journal)

Akron police say they aren’t ready to call it a hate crime or a gang initiation.

But to Marty Marshall, his wife and two kids, it seems pretty clear.

It came after a family night of celebrating America and freedom with a fireworks show at Firestone Stadium. Marshall, his family and two friends were gathered outside a friend’s home in South Akron.

Out of nowhere, the six were attacked by dozens of teenage boys, who shouted ”This is our world” and ”This is a black world” as they confronted Marshall and his family.

The Marshalls, who are white, say the crowd of teens who attacked them and two friends June 27 on Girard Street numbered close to 50. The teens were all black.

”This was almost like being a terrorist act,” Marshall said. ”And we allow this to go on in our neighborhoods?”

They said it started when one teen, without any words or warning, blindsided and assaulted Marshall’s friend as he stood outside with the others.

When Marshall, 39, jumped in, he found himself being attacked by the growing group of teens.

His daughter, Rachel, 15, who weighs about 90 pounds, tried to come to his rescue. The teens pushed her to the ground.

His wife, Yvonne, pushed their son, Donald, 14, into bushes to keep him protected.

”My thing is,” Marshall said, ”I didn’t want this, but I was in fear for my wife, my kids and my friends. I felt I had to stay out there to protect them, because those guys were just jumping, swinging fists and everything.

”I’m lucky. They didn’t break my ribs or bruise my ribs. I thank God, they concentrated on my thick head because I do have one. They were trying to take my head off my spine, basically.”

After several minutes of punches and kicks, the attack ended and the group ran off. The Marshalls’ two adult male friends were not seriously hurt.

”I don’t think I thought at that moment when I tried to jump in,” Rachel Marshall said. ”But when I was laying on the ground, I was just scared.”

Marshall was the most seriously injured. He suffered a concussion and multiple bruises to his head and eye. He said he spent five nights in the critical care unit at Akron General Medical Center.

The construction worker said he now fears for his family’s safety, and the thousands of dollars in medical bills he faces without insurance.

”I knew I was going to get beat, but not as bad as I did,” Marshall said. ”But I did it to protect my family. I didn’t have a choice. There was no need for this. We should be all getting along. But to me, it seems to be racist.”

Akron police are investigating. Right now, the case is not being classified as a racial hate crime. There were no other reports of victims assaulted by the group that night.

The department’s gang unit is involved in the investigation, police said.

”We don’t know if it’s a known gang, or just a group of kids,” police Lt. Rick Edwards said.

The Marshalls say they fear retaliation at home or when they go outside. They are considering arming themselves, but they’re concerned about the possible problems that come with guns.

For now, they are hoping police can bring them suspects. They believe they can identify several of the attackers.

”This makes you think about your freedom,” Marshall said. ”In all reality, where is your freedom when you have this going on?”

Press that Reset Button, Mr. Gorbachev

Barack Obama has taken every opportunity to send verbal and non-verbal messages showing his disrespect and even hostility to those institutions, beliefs, heroes, and holidays that Americans hold dear. He did the same thing to the Brits by returning the bust of Churchill. He forced Notre Dame to cover up the references to Jesus in the area near the podium where he would be speaking. He did not initially wear the American flag pin on  his lapel. He did not raise his hand over his heart during the playing of the National Anthem. He did not attend the Prayer Luncheon in February ‘09 with religious leaders representing different faiths. Wasn’t he golfing on Memorial Day? And on July 4, our Independence Day, he scooted off to Moscow.

Is this an American president?  ~~Pesky Emotional Republican

By Judi McLeod for the Canada Free Press; July 7, 2009

Lost in a fawning USA mainstream media the fact that President Barack Obama celebrated 2009’s July 4th long weekend by flying off to Moscow.

A formal reception line awaited Czar Obama, his family and servants on the tarmac this morning.  The first official ceremony saw the American president walking slowly behind three high-stepping Russian soldiers before he bent over to straighten the ribbon of a wreath laid before the eternal flame at Russia’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Day One of the Moscow mission included a visit with Russian President Dimitry Medvedev at the Kremlin, where Obama pronounced: “The United States and Russia have more in common than they have differences.”

But the main event is Tuesday’s breakfast with Russia’s real president Vladimir Putin and the man who was only physically but never far away in spirit from the Politburo, former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, official “first tenant” of San Francisco’s Presidio.

In Russia, Gorbachev is the equal of Putin.  In America he’s the side kick of UN Poster boy, Canadian Maurice Strong, with whom he wrote the Earth Charter, which both boast replaces the Ten Commandments of Moses, and with George Soros, part of the trio thought to be behind the orchestrated U.S. economic meltdown.

Even in the face of American generosity, few have openly criticized the United States of American than Mikhail Gorbachev.

Happy Independence Day Weekend, America!

Tomorrow’s visit with Gorbachev and Putin flushes the Gorbachev-Obama real relationship out into the open.

It was only last March when the newly-elected president ran unexpectedly into the former Soviet leader–at the White House.

It was White House spokesman Robert Gibbs who played down the meeting as an impromptu run-in on Obama’s part.

“The president tends to roam around the larger (White) House and sometimes walks into meetings that weren’t previously on his schedule,” Gibbs told inquiring reporters.

So, according to Gibbs, the two power houses weren’t really attending a meeting because the president just happened to run into Gorbachev.

Gibbs said that Vice President Joe Biden and Gorbachev had been discussing ways of reducing their countries’ respective nuclear arsenals, an issue Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev were to talk about at the G20 summit on April 2 and again tomorrow.

The truth is that Gorbachev, whose soft landing in the U.S. after the collapse of the Soviet Union, has been talking about reducing America’s nuclear arsenal ever since arriving on American soil.

Nothing’s changed other than Russia ganged up last April with China trying to rid the world of the greenback. The Kremlin, which has persistently criticized the dollars status as the dominant global reserve, “has been calling for the creation of a supranational reserve currency to be issued by international institutions as part of a reform of the global financial system.” (The Moscow Times.com, March 17, 2009).

In Moscow today the Obama administration is looking for Russia’s cooperation on dealing with challenges, such as financial crisis, non-proliferation, climate change and terrorism.

“The Obama administration has vowed to “press the reset button” with Moscow through more bilateral strategic cooperation and conversation.” (news. xinhuanet.com).

When it comes to Russia, like Hillary Clinton, Obama could be “pressing the reset button” in all the wrong places.

It’s 21 years since President Ronald Reagan demanded, “Mr. Gorbachev, take down this wall!”

History will record that the “reset button” was pressed on the July 4th weekend, 2009.

Missile Defense: The Stakes Couldn’t be Higher

By David K. Rehbein
National Commander, The American Legion

http://ourvoice.legion.org/story/1893/missile-defense-the-stakes-could-not-be-higher

A young girl picking daisies opens one of the most infamous political ads ever devised. It is suggested her life is about to end violently and quickly as a nuclear mushroom cloud appears. President Lyndon Johnson intones, “These are the stakes! To make a world in which all of God’s children can live, or go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die.”

While no one in Washington has the power to mandate love, our leaders can protect us by adequately funding and deploying a national missile defense. Mocked by critics in the 1980’s as a Star Wars fantasy, nobody seems to be laughing as North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il has been test-firing missiles like a kid launching fireworks on the fourth of July. Defense Secretary Robert Gates takes the threat seriously enough to have positioned a military ground-based missile defense system to protect Hawaii from missile attack. While The American Legion applauds this decision, the nation’s largest veterans service organization is concerned that the United States is not doing enough to protect us from, well, nuclear annihilation.

In 2008 delegates at The American Legion National Convention in Phoenix unanimously passed Resolution 94. It urges the U.S. government to develop and continue to deploy a national missile defense system which is in the national interest of the United States and the American people and an essential ingredient of our homeland security.

In recent months, North Korea has repeatedly tested its nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missile capabilities. Moreover, the Iranian President Ahmadinejad has given no indication that he plans to retract his public promises to make his country a nuclear power. While some may naively believe that these leaders are of stable mind and would be deterred by America’s military might and nuclear capabilities, often overlooked is the history these rogue regimes have of proliferating weapons to terrorists.

Referring to the possibility of capturing Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, a top al Qaeda commander said, “God willing, the nuclear weapons will not fall into the hands of the Americans and the Mujahideen  would take them and use them against the Americans.”

But despite all of this, the Obama administration has called for a $1.62 billion reduction in missile defense for 2010, nearly a 15 percent decline from the 2009 appropriation. The 2010 Defense Authorization Bill includes a provision to reduce the number of Ground-Based Midcourse Defense Interceptors from 44 to 30. These cuts are hardly signs that Washington is committed to providing an impenetrable national missile defense.

The Heritage Foundation has produced a chilling documentary titled 33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age. A trailer of the film can be viewed at www.legion.org. It makes the sobering point that a ballistic missile fired at the United States could reach its target in 33 minutes or less. It is a moral imperative that our leaders in Washington protect America from this catastrophic possibility.

As Gates recently said about protecting Hawaii with a ground-based system, “We are in a good position, should it become necessary, to protect Americans and American territory.” But is “good” really good enough? As LBJ said of the poor daisy-picking girl, “These are the stakes!”

David K. Rehbein, of Ames, Iowa, is national commander of the 2.6 million-member American Legion, www.legion.org, the nation’s largest wartime veterans organization.