Politics and Government in America

Okay, I’m sure that most of you remember last year when I told you about Joy Behar from “The View” calling Rush Limbaugh a terrorist. For those of you who don’t, please take the time to read the archives.  Well it has happened again, only this time it wasn’t Joy Behar, it was the speaker of the California state legislature. And it wasn’t Rush Limbaugh, it was any conservative that dares to speak out against Democrat plans.

In the Los Angeles Times on Saturday, Karen Bass was quoted as saying, “Well, the Republicans were essentially threatened and terrorized against voting for revenue. Now some are facing recalls. They operate under a terrorist threat. You vote for revenue and your career is over. I don’t know why we allow that kind of terrorism to exist. I guess it’s about free speech but it’s extremely unfair.” That’s right folks, according to Democrats, you are a terrorist if you let your elected representatives know where you stand on an issue.  And you are particularly dangerous if you disagree with liberals.

Now remember, these are the same people who refuse to label Osama ibn-Laden and his followers as terrorists. They want to give people who are trying to destroy our country the same protections as those who are citizens of it. More importantly, they claim to be the ones who are open minded and love tolerance and bipartisanship. Yet, clearly such tolerance does not extend to ideas. More importantly, it seems clear that to Democrats, the most dangerous foe our country has to face is it’s freedom loving citizens.

So to review, if you are a fanatic who wants to tear down the freedoms and ideas that our country is built on, then people must try and understand you and reach out to you. However, if you believe in freedom and small government; if you stand for lower taxes and the empowerment of the individual, then you are a terrorist and should be silenced and sent to prison.  Perhaps that is why Democrats don’t want Obama to close Club Gitmo. They are hoping to start shipping conservatives to it.

It turns out that Texas is not as patriotic as you might think. In two separate stories that have broke this week it appears that patriotism is being attacked in Texas. In Dallas, a disabled veteran has been threatened with having his car towed and fined by his local homeowners association for proudly displaying Marine Corp stickers on his car. The homeowners association has determined that his stickers constitute an advertisement, although his neighbors bumper stickers supporting Barack Obama do not.

Meanwhile in Mansfield Texas, a woman was forced to take down the flag which she had hung in her office when the hospital that she works at received complaints from one of her co-workers. The woman who complained had actually immigrated to the United States from Western Africa, but found the symbol of the country she chose to live in to be offensive. Hospital administrators argued that the flag being displayed outside the building should be satisfactory.

So what we have here is two separate incidents where patriotic Americans have been told that supporting their country and it’s military is not acceptable. Where is this coming from? It’s real simple, we have a president who is running around the world apologizing for America and telling the rest of the world what a rotten place he thinks America is. Meanwhile his followers are ready to elevate him even higher the president. Even Thomas of Newsweek told Chris Matthews “I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above – above the world, he’s sort of God…He’s the teacher. He is going to say, ‘now, children, stop fighting and quarreling with each other.’ And he has a kind of a moral authority that he – he can – he can do that.” So does it surprise anyone that when we have a bunch of people thinking that the president is the Messiah and he hates America, that his followers are going to feel empowered to attack those of us who were proud of our country before last year?

It’s time to wake up and get back to the things that made our country what it is. Smaller government, pride in what we have accomplished, individual achievement, an acceptance of all people, and an understanding of what principles made us what we are. Freedom takes work and it takes responsibility. We don’t need a nanny to take care of us. The American people can do a better job looking after ourselves the the government can. It just requires convincing America of that.

Three things have occurred to bring hope back to America this week. First of all conservative parties in Europe made sizable gains in their elections. Second, a new found that a majority of Americans believe that the stimulus is not working and the Republicans would do a better job of managing the economy. Finally, in a surprise turn around, the mainstream media has been becoming more critical of Barack Obama.

That means that there is hope that America is beginning to see just who and what President Obama is. It is time for the Republicans to start pushing true conservative solutions for America’s problems. Bigger government is not the answer, the answer is more freedom an more flexibility. It is time to put America back on track, and the country is beginning to wake up and see that Obama’s way is not the way.

Carrie Prejean, the Miss California who made news by announcing her support for traditional marriage, has been fired by the Miss Universe directors. According to the press release, she was fired for “failure to fulfill contract obligations.” Ms. Prejean supposedly refused to attend several events on behalf of Miss California USA, says the executive director Kieth Lewis.  So what events did Miss Prejean refuse to attend? According to sources in California they were Anti-Prop 8/pro-gay marriage rallies.

Meanwhile, despite claiming this is not about Ms. Prejean’s politics, Miss California USA welcomed back Shanna Moakler who quit after Ms. Prejean was allowed to keep her title last month.  Ms. Moakler has been making the rounds supporting gay marriage groups all over California. In fact, even when he was co-director of Miss California USA she was make appearances at these events, even as the group was threatening Ms. Prejan with loosing her crown for openly supporting traditional marriage activists.

So what it boils down to is that Miss California lost her crown for refusing to compromise her principles and appear to support a behavior that she is opposed to. They fired her for standing up for her principles and exercising her right to speak her mind. I don’t care what side of the debate on gay marriage that you are on, this should give you a chill. Imagine the outcry if sse had been fired after expressing a pro-gay marriage position. The mass media like CBS and NBC, the Sunday shows, the morning shows, and the cable news networks would all be filled with the outrage over this incident. However, if this is even covered at all, beyond a small blurb, it will be all about how enlightened they are in California for getting rid of a bigot and not allowing a homophobe to represent them. Never mind that the majority of California’s population agrees with her.

This has shown a new low for political correctness. It doesn’t matter whether you agree with Ms. Prejean or not, the fact that she is being fired for expressing an unpopular political viewpoint should outrage you. This is the entire reason the founders put Freedom of Speech in the Constitution. Popular speech needs no protection, usually the majority will see that it is heard. In this case, the liberals in the media and in Washington will see to it that we here their veiw point whether the majority agrees or not. Unpopular speech is what needs protecting. Unfortunately, in this case, it is the majority viewpoint that needs protecting.

Well, President Obama has announced his nominee for the Supreme Court and it’s pretty much what we expected from him. Sonia Sotomayor is an appellate court justice with a history of activism and fuzzy rulings. In fact, the Supreme Court has overturned her rulings 80% of the time. That means that only 20% of the time she has actually ruled on the side of the Constitution. Instead she has decided to use her position to promote an agenda, which has almost always been at odds with the rule of law in this country.

Consider for example, this statement made in 2001. “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” She is implying that a white man is incapable of properly enforcing the law, simply on the basis of their ethnicity and gender. Meanwhile Barack and Company are out accusing Republicans of being racist and sexist.

Or consider this statement, made in 2001. No quote could be more telling about the nominee’s view of the role of the courts. ” All of the legal defense funds out there, they’re looking for people with Court of Appeals experience because it is — Court of Appeals is where policy is made.” Justice Sotomayor  is, in her own words, a believer that the courts, unelected and unaccountable, are better able to make laws for this country then the representatives of the people.

Just as important is her statement when asked about impartiality in a judge. She said “I wonder whether by ignoring our differences as women or men of color we do a disservice both to the law and society.” By saying this, she is saying that the law should not be applied to everyone equally. This is the exact opposite of what the Founding Fathers established as the guiding American principle when they said “…All men are create equal…” Of course, some liberals are now out there trying to convince the American people that the Founders are just ” dead people who didn’t believe half their rhetoric are infallible and that their opinions about the rights of the populace being contradicted by their actions means that no action can possibly conflict with any rights claimed.”

Answering her critics, Justice Sotomayor said this about the Founders and the Constitution. “Those principles, are as meaningful and relevant in each generation as the generation before.” However, while she spouts words of working in the bounds of and respecting the Constitution, she has acted in an entirely different manner as a judge. While it is true that it is unlikely that Republicans can block her nomination, it is also true that conservatives can. There are many Democrats in Congress that claim to be conservative. It’s time for conservatives to force them to stand up and force them to act like it. If not, they can always be replaced by people who will uphold conservative ideals.

Remember how Carl Levin said that Guantanamo Bay “has compromised the moral authority and credibility of the United States?” He said that just six months ago, just a few weeks before President Obama signed the order that supposedly would shut Gitmo down. Remember when Dick Durbin said “if I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime–Pol Pot or others–that had no concern for human beings?”

Today, these men and others made their true feelings known by voting against giving the president money to close down Gitmo. That’s right, the prison at Guantanamo Bay which the Democrats have described as a stain on the American people and jeopardizing our standing with the rest of the world, will remain open. And the very same Democrats that have been using it as an issue are the ones to keep it that way.

Monday the CIA released a report that showed what conservatives have been saying for a long time, Democrats knew about enhanced interrogation techniques and did not raise any objections until it seemed to present a political benefit. This led Democrats in Congress to accuse the CIA of playing politics with the issue. However, what they are not saying is that there is anything inaccurate about the document.

Sen. Carl Levin, who according to the document was briefed five different times, told the Politico, “I think there is so much embarrassment in some quarters that people are going to try to shift some of the responsibility to others — that’s what I think.” Meanwhile Sen. Dick Durbin, who once compared our troops to Nazis and Stalinist thugs, reminded us that this document was released while, “some of the groups that have been responsible for these interrogation techniques were taking the most criticism.”

The problem for the Democrats is that this document was prepared by their own request as part of a move to begin investigations of the Bush administration over this exact issue. By having it known that the Democrats knew and did nothing on this issue makes it clear that their outrage is just a political ploy and that the investigation is just a way of grinding some political axes. I guess they don’t like transperancy as much as they thought.

Several weeks ago I had an interesting exchange with a left wing European. It was rather educational, because it represented the type of thinking that Barack Obama wants us to embrace. It went something like this.

Liberal: Barack Obama has made torture illegal which proves that he’s smarter than Bush.

Me: Actually, the CIA stopped using those techniques about four years ago.’

Liberal: So, Obama said that they would never be used again. He understands.

Me: So what exactly is torture?

Liberal: Waterboarding, for one. The people who did that should be punished.

Me:  I saw a video of some protesters waterboarding someone during a protest. Should they be tried under anti-torture laws?

Liberal: No because the person they waterboarded was a volunteer. The people at Gitmo weren’t.

Me: So your saying that waterboarding itself isn’t torture, just the way it was administered.

Liberal: No waterboarding is torture.  Anyone who does it should be punished.

Me: So then, the protestors should be prosocuted?

Liberal: No, because the person being waterboarded volunteered.

Realizing the merry go round I was on, I decided to get out while the getting was good. You can see the logic that liberals like to use. In this conversation 1+2=3, but 2+1 does not. To be honest, it was a simple question. It boils down to the question is waterboarding a crime? If the answer is yes, it doesn’t matter if the person getting waterboarded is a volunteer. However, if it is okay to waterboard someone who is a volunteer, then it is not a crime. Another way of looking at it is that is not okay to kill someone just because they volunteer, therefore human sacrifice is illegal in all circumstances.

This is a prime example of how many liberals think. There is no absolute right and wrong. Morality is circumstantial  and is determined by what political benefit it has for the person. I remember back several years ago, a liberal senator was charged with several ethics and criminal violations. His own journals were introduced as evidence and his response was that he had lied to his journal.

This is the type of future Barak Obama envisions for America, a future where everything is decided not by whether it is right or wrong, but by who it benefits. That is not a road that we need to go down. Amazingly, he wants to take us down this road while claiming that he is restoring our moral authority in the world. The world is looking to the United States for moral leadership, but following the crowd down a path of fuzzy morals and a subjective view of right and wrong is not the way to provide it. You have to laugh at the left, but don’t let them sucker punch you while you do it.

Justice Souter’s retirement last week has once again put the Supreme Court in the political spotlight. The hit and run media will spend a lot of time talking about who Obama should pick, in fact, that story has already begun. However, what few people will talk about is the most important story of all.

During the Bush years, the Democrats filibustered  the majority of judicial appointments made during that period. When the Republicans tried clarify the rules and establish that a simple majority was needed to nominate judge, the Democrats and a few maverick Republicans blocked the Constitutional option with the Gang of Fourteen. Now the issue has come up again.

I will be interested to see what happens over the next few months. If Republicans try and filibuster Obama’s nominee then they will open themselves up to charges of hypocrisy.  Conversely, if the Democrats complain about a Republican filibuster then they are the ones that could be called hypocrites. Either way, the upcoming nomination process is going to create an interesting political landscape.

The real question is going to be, where will the Gang of Fourteen land when this goes down?  They were the spoilers in the last few nominations and it will be interesting to see what they do to remain the center of attention. I believe that conservatives should filibuster the nominee if they are left of center.  I also believe that this is also the best shot that we have of enacting the Constitutional option. It’s time to end the stranglehold on the courts that the left has had, and in ironic fashion, the best way to do it is to force the left to give us the tools.

This piece originally ran in the New York Post. All the credit belongs to them.

1. “Obama criticized pork barrel spending in the form of ‘earmarks,’ urging changes in the way that Congress adopts the spending proposals. Then he signed a spending bill that contains nearly 9,000 of them, some that members of his own staff shoved in last year when they were still members of Congress. ‘Let there be no doubt, this piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business, and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability,’ Obama said.” – McClatchy, 3/11

2. “There is no doubt that we’ve been living beyond our means and we’re going to have to make some adjustments.” — Obama during the campaign.

3. This year’s budget deficit: $1.5 trillion.

4. Asks his Cabinet to cut costs in their departments by $100 million — a whopping .0027%!

5. “The White House says the president is unaware of the tea parties.” — ABC News, 4/15

6. “Mr. Obama is an accomplished orator but is becoming known in America as the ‘teleprompt president’ over his reliance on the machine when he gives a speech.” – Sky News, 3/18

7. In early February, the 2010 census was moved out of the Department of Commerce and into the White House, politicizing how federal aid is distributed and electoral districts are drawn.

8. Obama taps Nancy Killefer for a new administration job, First Chief Performance Officer — to police government spending. But it surfaces that Killefer had performance issues of her own — a tax lien was slapped on her DC home in 2005 for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help. She withdrew.

9. Turkey tried to block the appointment of Anders Fogh Rasmussen as new NATO secretary general because he didn’t properly punish the Danish cartoonist who caricatured Mohammed. France’s Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany’s Angela Merkel were outraged; Obama said he supported Turkey’s induction into the European Union.

10. . . . and he never mentioned the Armenian genocide.

11. The picture of Obama and Hugo Chavez shaking hands.

12. Hugo Chavez gave him the anti-American screed “The Open Veins of Latin America.” Obama didn’t remark upon it. At least it wasn’t DVDs.

13. Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega went on a 50-minute anti-American rant, calling Obama “president of an empire.” Obama didn’t leave the room. “I thought it was 50 minutes long. That’s what I thought,” he said.

14. Executives at AIG get $165 million in bonuses, despite receiving an $173 billion taxpayer bailout.

15. “For months, the Obama administration and members of Congress have known that insurance giant AIG was getting ready to pay huge bonuses while living off government bailouts. It wasn’t until the money was flowing and news was trickling out to the public that official Washington rose up in anger and vowed to yank the money back.” — Associated Press, 3/18

16. “After pushing Congress for weeks to hurry up and pass the massive $787 billion stimulus bill, President Obama promptly took off for a three-day holiday getaway.” — New York Post, 2/15

17. MEGHAN CLYNE ON: “I WON” AND THE DEATH OF BIPARTISANSHIP

“Obama soared to victory on the hopeful promise of a new era of bipartisanship. During his inaugural address he even promised an ‘end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.’

“Too bad it took all of three days for the promise to ring hollow.

“Start with Obama’s big meeting with top congressional leaders on his signature legislation — the stimulus — on the Friday after his inauguration. Listening to Republican concerns about overspending was a nice gesture — until he shut down any hopes of real dialogue by crassly telling Republican leaders: ‘I won.’ Even the White House’s leaking of the comment was a slap at the Republican leadership, who’d expected Obama to adhere to the custom of keeping private meetings with congressional leadership, well, private.

“It’s only gone downhill from there. The stimulus included zero Republican recommendations, and failed to get a single House Republican vote.

“It’s not just the tactic of using Republicans for bipartisan photo-ops, and then cutting them loose before partisan decisions, that irks Obama’s opponents. The new president wasted no time rushing forward with policies and legislation guaranteed to drive Republicans nuts. The first bill he signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act — a partisan hot-button that drew all of eight Republican supporters in the entire Congress. Then there was the swift reversal of Bush policies on abortion and embryonic-stem-cell research — issues dear to the Republican base.

“And when Obama and the Democrats in Congress took up SCHIP — the children’s health-insurance bill that Republicans say vastly expands government’s role in health care — they had an easy chance for real bipartisanship. After all, the bill had been hashed out in the previous Congress, and a bipartisan accord was reached before President Bush responded with a veto. Did the Obama team push for the compromise version in the 111th Congress? Nope. They went back to the drawing board, ramming through the Democrats’ dream version.

“Of course, the lack of bipartisanship isn’t limited to Capitol Hill. Obama has taken gratuitous swipes at the Republicans who recently decamped Washington, blaming President Bush for everything from the economy and the war to the lack of sufficient puppies and rainbows. And who could forget the Rush Limbaugh flap — in which Obama’s top advisers, including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, orchestrated a public relations campaign meant to undermine the Republican National Committee chairman, Michael Steele, by framing talk-radio personality Limbaugh as the real head of the Republican Party.

“For now, Obama’s back-pedal on the bipartisanship promise just makes him look insincere. But the real consequences of the mistake will be felt soon enough. As Presidents Bush and Clinton could tell him, congressional majorities do change — and at some point, Obama will need Republicans on his side. He’d be smart to spend his second 100 days making up for the serious snubs of his first.”

– Meghan Clyne is a DC-based writer.

18. “The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today.” — Department of Homeland Security intelligence report

19. Nixes a “buy American” provision in the stimulus bill.

20. “Yes, Canada is not Mexico, it doesn’t have a drug war going on. Nonetheless, to the extent that terrorists have come into our country or suspected or known terrorists have entered our country across a border, it’s been across the Canadian border. There are real issues there.” — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. The 9/11 hijackers did not come across the Canada border

21. “The Obama administration is signaling to Congress that the president could support taxing some employee health benefits, as several influential lawmakers and many economists favor, to help pay for overhauling the health care system. The proposal is politically problematic for President Obama, however, since it is similar to one he denounced in the presidential campaign as ‘the largest middle-class tax increase in history.’ ” — New York Times, 3/14

22. JOE SCARBOROUGH ON: PROMOTING FEAR

“During his historic inaugural speech, Barack Obama promised to usher in a transformational age where hope would replace fear, unity would overtake partisanship, and change would sweep aside the status quo. But early in President Obama’s first 100 days it is obvious that the only thing that is changing is the Candidate of Change, himself.

“The same politician who proclaimed during his inauguration that ‘on this day we have chosen hope over fear’ soon warned Americans that the US economy would be forever destroyed if the stimulus bill was voted down.

“Why was it that same man who promised to put Americans’ interests ahead of his own political ambitions chose instead to use the suffering of citizens to advance his agenda?

“Maybe he was following the guidance of Rahm Emanuel, who famously said, ‘You never want to waste a good crisis.’

“They didn’t.

“The White House’s warnings were so over-the-top that Bill Clinton felt compelled to warn the new president against making such grim pronouncements. Americans would quickly warn that the White House would not channel FDR’s eternal optimism but rather embrace the gloomy worldview of Edgar Allen Poe.

“The Candidate of Hope also quickly adopted the Nixonian worldview that Americans voted their fears rather than their hopes. Over Mr. Obama’s first 100 days, that cynical calculation paid off politically for a White House that seemed most interested in appeasing the most liberal members of his Democratic Party.

“I expected more from Barack Obama. For the sake of my country, I hope I get it from the new president over the next 100 days.”

– Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and author of “The Last Best Hope: Restoring Conservatism and America’s Promise” (Crown Forum), due out June 9.

23. Sanjay Gupta was in discussions to become Surgeon General, but the TV personality withdrew after he was criticized for his flimsy political record.

24. Rasmussen finds 58% of Americans believe the Obama administration’s release of CIA memos endangers the national security of the United States.

25. Only 28% think the Obama administration should do any further investigating of how the Bush administration treated terrorism suspects.

26. “Obama thanked CIA employees for their work and said they’re invaluable to national security. He explained his decision to release the memos, then told everyone not to feel bad because he was now acknowledging potential mistakes. Theirs, not his. ‘That’s how we learn,’ Obama said, as though soothing a room full of fourth-graders.” — The Oklahoman, 4/23

27. By releasing the torture memos, Obama opened American citizens up to international tribunals. A UN lawyer said the US is obliged to prosecute lawyers who drafted the memos or else violate the Geneva Conventions.

28. In their first meeting, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave Obama a carved ornamental penholder from the timbers of the anti-slavery ship HMS Gannet. Obama gave him 25 DVDs that don’t work in Europe.

29. TIM CARNEY ON: PICKING BILL RICHARDSON AS SECRETARY OF COMMERCE

“Richardson’s value in Obama’s Cabinet had everything to do with appearances. First, he was the Hispanic pick. Second, because Richardson had run against Obama for President, tapping him for the Cabinet helped the media write the Obama-Lincoln comparisons by burnishing the ‘Team of Rivals’ image.

“But Richardson withdrew before Obama was even inaugurated when news came out about a criminal investigation involving David Rubin, president of a firm named Chambers, Dunhill, Rubin & Co. (although there was no Chambers or Dunhill), who had donated at least $110,000 to Richardson’s campaign committees and had also profited from $1.5 million in contracts from the state government.

“This was an early warning sign about Obama’s vetting process (various tax problems and the Daschle problem would reveal this as a theme), but picking Richardson to run Commerce also highlighted that Obama and Richardson’s promise of ‘public-private partnerships’ — such as Detroit bailouts, Wall Street bailouts, and green energy–was an open door for corruption and was at odds with Obama’s promise to diminish the influence of lobbyists.

“The Richardson mistake was one of Obama’s first, and it was emblematic. Richardson embodied Obama’s attention to self-image and the problems inherent in his vision of an intimate business-government connection.”

– Tim Carney is a Washington Examiner columnist

30. Timothy Geithner nomination as Secretary of Treasury was almost torpedoed when it was discovered he had failed to pay $34,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes. He also employed an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper. He was confirmed anyway.

31. . . . Not so lucky, Annette Nazareth, who was nominated for Deputy Treasury Secretary. She withdrew her name for undisclosed “personal reasons” after a monthlong probe into her taxes . . .

32. . . . or Caroline Atkinson, who withdrew as nominee for Undersecretary of International Affairs in Treasury Department, with a source blaming the long vetting process. Geithner still has a skeleton crew at Treasury, with no one qualified — or willing — to take jobs there.

33. “Barack Obama has been embroiled in a cronyism row after reports that he intends to make Louis Susman, one of his biggest fundraisers, the new US ambassador in London. The selection of Mr. Susman, a lawyer and banker from the president’s hometown of Chicago, rather than an experienced diplomat, raises new questions about Mr Obama’s commitment to the special relationship with Britain.” — Telegraph, 2/22

34. Obama’s doom-and-gloom comments and budget bill push the Dow below 7,000, from which it’s only recently recovered.

35. “You’re sitting here. And you’re — you are laughing. You are laughing about some of these problems. Are people going to look at this and say, ‘I mean, he’s sitting there just making jokes about money–’ How do you deal with — I mean: Explain. Are you punch-drunk?” – Steve Kroft, “60 Minutes,” 3/22

36. “We have begun to modernize 75% of all federal building space, which has the potential to reduce long-term energy costs by billions of dollars on behalf of taxpayers. We are providing grants to states to help weatherize hundreds of thousands of homes, which will save the families that benefit about $350 each year. That’s like a $350 tax cut.” — Obama, describing something that doesn’t cut taxes.

37. “The Obama administration has directed defense officials to sign a pledge stating they will not share 2010 budget data with individuals outside the federal government.” — Defense News, 2/19

38. Backtracking on a campaign promise he made to black farmers, Obama significantly lowered the amount of money they could claim in a discrimination settlement against the Agricultural Department. “I can’t figure out for the life of me why the president wouldn’t want to implement a bill that he fought for as a US senator,” said John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association.

39. “I’ve been practicing bowling. I bowled a 129. It was like the Special Olympics or something.” — Obama on “The Tonight Show”

40. Obama lifts travel and remittance restrictions on Cuba.

41. Obama considers dropping the embargo on Cuba.

42. After warming signs from Raul Castro, Fidel Castro says Obama “misinterpreted” his brother’s words, and that Cuba would not be willing to negotiate about human rights.

43. Obama is considering dropping a key demand to Iran, allowing it to keep nuclear facilities open during negotiations.

44. In a letter to Dmitri Medvedev, Obama offered to drop plans for a missile shield in Europe in exchange for Russia’s help in resolving the nuclear weapons issue in Iran.

45. Medvedev said he would not “haggle” on Iran and the missile shield.

46. Obama asked Congress for an extra $83.4 billion to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a special funding measure of the kind he opposed while in the senate. As a candidate, Obama promised to cut the cost of military operations.

47. After trying to woo Europe as the “anti-Bush,” Obama made an impassioned plea for more troops in Afghanistan. “Europe should not simply expect the United States to shoulder that burden alone,” he said. “This is a joint problem it requires a joint effort.” Only the UK offered substantial help, most others refused.

48. “While the online question portion of the White House town hall was open to any member of the public with an Internet connection, the five fully identified questioners called on randomly by the president in the East Room were anything but a diverse lot. They included: a member of the pro-Obama Service Employees International Union, a member of the Democratic National Committee who campaigned for Obama among Hispanics during the primary; a former Democratic candidate for Virginia state delegate who endorsed Obama last fall in an op-ed in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star; and a Virginia businessman who was a donor to Obama’s campaign in 2008.” – Washington Post, 3/27

49. Obama bows to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a G-20 meeting in London.

50. “It wasn’t a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he’s taller than King Abdullah.” – An Obama aide

51. DANA PERINO ON: REMAINING IN CAMPAIGN MODE

“Has it really only been 100 days? In many ways it feels like a lot longer.

“That’s partly because the new administration remains in campaign mode most of the time. Now that’s not in itself a bad thing if you can do that and accomplish your agenda. But what’s happened is that a popular new president has laid out a very bold agenda in the midst of an economic crisis, and I don’t think Congress is going to get a lot of work done on those big ticket items this year. They’ll eke out a couple of small wins on issues like healthcare and maybe energy, but the Democrats will hail them as big victories. The Republicans have been working like a cohesive and loyal opposition party, and they need to continue to outline positive new ideas like the recent one to help grow American’s savings.

“The early stumbles on the administration’s high profile nominations — Daschle and Richardson for just to examples — acted like weights around their ankles. In addition, the partisan shots from the White House were unbecoming and I don’t think we’ll see more of that. Our allies and our enemies — heck, even we ourselves — are trying to understand the new foreign policy direction, which in some ways seems to be change just for the sake of change. The next moves by the leaders of other countries — like Iran, North Korea and Venezuela — probably will prove that really not much will change just because America has a new president.

“In many ways, it’s the next 100 days that will tell us more about our new president and what he’ll be able to accomplish than we can forecast based on the first 100 days.”

– Dana Perino was White House press secretary in the Bush Administration

52. “We can’t afford to make perfect the enemy of the absolutely necessary.” — Obama, describing the stimulus bill

53. Three candidates for ambassador to the Vatican — including Caroline Kennedy — were turned down by the Holy See because they supported abortion, according to reports.

54. After saying he wouldn’t have lobbyists in his administration, Obama made 17 exceptions in the first two weeks in office.

55. . . . including Tom Daschle, who worked as a top lobbyist yet was going to be appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services — until his failure to pay income taxes derailed his nomination.

56. For an April 14 speech at Georgetown, the administration asked the university to cover up all signs and symbols — including the letters “IHS” in gold, a symbol for Jesus.

57. Samantha Power, who resigned from the Obama campaign after calling Hillary Rodham Clinton a “monster,” was hired to a position on the National Security Council.

58. “Chicago has yet to recoup the $1.74 million cost of President Obama’s victory celebration in Grant Park — despite a burgeoning $50.5 million budget shortfall that threatens more layoffs and union concessions.” — Chicago Sun-Times, 2/20

59. Firing Rick Wagoner as president of GM.

60. Threatening to fire Vikram Pandit as CEO of Citigroup.

61. Threatening to fire anyone the administration doesn’t like from any company.

62. Not adopting a dog from a shelter.

63. “The GAO study asserts that officials from most of the states surveyed ‘expressed concerns regarding the lack of Recovery Act funding provided for accountability and oversight. Due to fiscal constraints, many states reported significant declines in the number of oversight staff — limiting their ability to ensure proper implementation and management of Recovery Act funds.’ ” – ABC News, 4/23

64. “The National Newspaper Publishers Association named Obama ‘Newsmaker of the Year.’ The president is to receive the award from the federation of black community newspapers in a White House ceremony this afternoon. The Obama White House has closed the press award ceremony to the press.” — Los Angeles Times, 3/20

65. “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.” – Attorney General Eric Holder

66. “I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances.” – Obama, on consulting with only “living” presidents

67. Obama quietly announced that he would not press for new labor and environmental regulations in the North American Free Trade Agreement, going back on a campaign promise.

68. NICOLE GELINAS ON: MISSPENT STIMULUS

“One of Obama’s most poignant missed opportunities was in not using the historic $787 million stimulus package to reorder state and local government’s spending priorities. As states and cities continue to spend ceaselessly and without results on education and healthcare, they’re crowding out investments in the physical infrastructure that the private sector needs to rebuild the economy.

“In the stimulus, of the more than $200 billion that went directly to states and cities, nearly 70% went to education and healthcare spending. Only 24% went to infrastructure spending.

“But the states and cities in the most trouble already spend way too much on education and healthcare, pushing taxes up and sending private industry away. They don’t spend nearly enough on infrastructure, which attracts the private sector and builds the real economy.

“As David Walker, former comptroller general of the US, said at the Regional Plan Association’s annual meeting a week ago, nationwide, we are the ‘highest in the world’ on education. We are ‘the highest in the world’ on healthcare. ‘Nobody comes even close.’ On infrastructure, by contrast, we are ‘below average’ in both critical new investments and in much-needed maintenance spending.

“And, as Democratic governor of Pennsylvania Ed Rendell said at the same conference, when President Dwight Eisenhower left office, infrastructure spending was about 12.5% of non-military domestic spending. Today, it’s about 2.5%.

“This shortfall is obvious to anyone who’s ridden on an “express train” to the outer boroughs or driven on the Cross Bronx Expressway recently. But in New York, as elsewhere, the stimulus money has just allowed the state to ramp up spending on its wasteful, inhumane Medicaid program and its nosebleed public-school spending.

“Meanwhile, the subways are about to crumble into oblivion — taking the economy with them. The same is true of decaying infrastructure in California and in aging states across the nation.

“The stimulus was a once-in-a-generation chance to change this. Instead, it made the situation worse.”

– Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor to City Journal

69. “The Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court to overrule Michigan v. Jackson, the 1986 Supreme Court decision that held that if police may not interrogate a defendant after the right to counsel has attached, if the defendant has a lawyer or has requested a lawyer. This isn’t the first time the Justice Department, under President Obama, has sought to limit defendants’ rights.” – TalkLeft blog

70. “By any measure, my administration has inherited a fiscal disaster.” — Obama

71. “Ahh, see. I came down here to visit. See this is what happens. I can’t end up visiting with you guys and shaking hands if I’m going to get grilled every time I come down here.” – Brushing off questions from the White House press corps

72. On Earth Day, Obama took two flights on Air Force One and four on Marine One to get to Iowa, burning more than 9,000 gallons of fuel.

73. “President Obama’s plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs for the treatment of troops injured in service has infuriated veterans groups who say the government is morally obligated to pay for service-related medical care.” – Fox News, 3/17

74. “And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it.” — Obama during his first State Of The Union address. A German invented the automobile

75. RALPH PETERS ON: FUMBLING IN AFGHANISTAN, FAKING IT IN PAKISTAN

“We’re squandering blood and treasure in Afghanistan. Instead of concentrating fiercely on the vital task of destroying al Qaeda and its friends, the Obama administration’s determined to erect a modern nation where no nation exists. Afghanistan isn’t a country. It’s a dysfunctional reservation inhabited by tribes that hate each other. There’s no ‘Afghan’ identity. And even if our blind-to-reality efforts succeeded perfectly, the result would be meaningless.

“Except as a target range where we can gun down terrorists, Afghanistan doesn’t matter. Next door, Pakistan matters immensely. But we don’t know what to do about it. With 170 million anti-American Muslims descending into chaos as Pashtuns, Baluchis, Punjabis, Sindhis and others claw each other over the country’s shabby remains, Pakistan’s corrupt president shrugs, its military cowers, its loathsome intelligence services collude with Islamist extremists, and the safety of its nuclear weapons grows doubtful.

“Pakistan may be this generation’s chamber of horrors.

“The Obama administration’s response? Drill more wells in the Afghan countryside. Dramatically reinforce our troops in Afghanistan, sticking them with an impossible mission of modernizing a pre-medieval landscape while exposing them at the end of an insecure 1,500-mile supply line through, of all places, Pakistan.

“As for Pakistan itself, the Obama administration wants to send billions of dollars to a thieving government that makes Nigeria’s look like a Quaker meeting and to hand Pakistan’s military more arms — weapons that might soon be used against us.

“Pakistan was a bad idea when it was created in 1947. It’s a worse one now. Afghanistan wasn’t even an idea, just an accident of where other borders ended. We can’t ’save’ either one — because neither wants to be saved on our terms.

“Obama said the right things — that Afghanistan isn’t Iraq and that our goal should be the destruction of al Qaeda. But his policies just regurgitate our Iraq strategy (one he opposed) in a profoundly different context, while ambitious generals echo Vietnam-era calls for more forces.

“Our troops will do whatever we ask, to the best of their magnificent abilities. But we should ask them to do things that make sense. We need creative strategic thought, but we’re succumbing to sheer inertia. And the presidet’s supporters who howled that we should abandon Iraq to concentrate on their candidate’s ‘good war’ don’t seem to be volunteering to do any fighting. Menwhle, our presient’s trpped himself inside his own campaign promiseing, Vietnam!”

– Ralph Peters is the author of “Looking for Trouble: Adventures in a BeW” 77. “President Obama failed to consult Congress, as promised, before carving out exceptions to the omnibus spending bill he signed into law — breaking his own signing-statement rules two days after issuing them — and raised questions among lawmakers and committees who say the president’s objections are unclear at best and a power grab at worst.” — Washington Times, 3/24

78. Adolfo Carrion was confirmed as Director of White House Office of Urban Affairs, but is serving under a cloud after allegations that he accepted thousands of dollars in cash from developers whose projects he approved.

79. KYLE SMITH ON: GOING AFTER RUSH LIMBAUGH

“Every so often an unfocused athlete forgets about the field of play and climbs into the stands. Ty Cobb did it. Ron Artest did it. Maybe no one did it with more sick flir than the greasy, furious Hanson Brothers who, in ‘Slap Shot,’ climbed into the stands to give a beatdown to a fan.

“In March, Barack Obama sent his own personal Hanson Brothers, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and spokesman Robert Gibbs, out to attack a non-politician — Rush Limbaugh — who was sitting innocently in the stands jeering the action. Limbaugh didn’t even throw a cup of beer.

“Senior White House staffers, who have already fallen into the classic trap of paying more attention to polls than fixing the country’s problems, had become obsessed with surveys showing that Limbaugh was an unpopular figure with swing voters. Pretty soon Emanuel and Gibbs developed Limbaugh Tourette’s. To paraphrase Joe Biden’s witty putdown of Rudy Giuliani, for a few days every sentence they uttered contained three things: a subject, a verb and Rush Limbaugh.

“El Rushbo, chuckling over his cigar as his ratings skyrocketed, could not have been more pleased if a picture had emerged of Obama wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt and burning the American flag on Harvard Square. Even that portion of the public that doesn’t like Rush squirmed at the embarrassing spectacle of the president’s men going all Mean Girls on an entertainer. George W. Bush’s spokesmen maintained a dignified silence about Michael Moore. Picture them fanning out over the Sunday talk shows to denounce, and drive up the box-office receipts of, ‘Fahrenheit 9/11.’ Wouldn’t you have loved that, Michael?”

– Kyle Smith is a Post columnist

80. Forced banks that didn’t want TARP money to take it, then added on stipulations about pay and government control after the fact. Secretly forced Bank of America to buy Merrill Lynch, then allowed the bank to be criticized for overpaying.

81. “More than 90% of the guns recovered in Mexico come from the United States,” Obama said in Mexico, yet factcheck.org says, “The figure represents only the percentage of crime guns that have been submitted by Mexican officials and traced by U.S. officials. We can find no hard data on the total number of guns actually ‘recovered in Mexico,’ but US and Mexican officials both say that Mexico recovers more guns that it submits for tracing. Therefore, the percentage of guns ‘recovered’ and traced to US sources necessarily is less than 90%.”

82. Obama: “[Jim Owens, the CEO of Caterpillar, Inc.], said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off.” Jim Owens: “I think realistically no. The truth is we’re going to have more layoffs before we start hiring again.”

83. “In America, there is a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.” — Obama in Strasbourg, France

84. Joe Biden: “If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, if we stand up there and we really make the tough decisions, there’s still a 30% chance we’re going to get it wrong.”

85. Joe Biden: “You all worked for change. You wanted to see change. Well, that wasn’t a hard thing to try to communicate to the American people. Obviously, obviously, we needed a change almost no matter who was running.”

86. Joe Biden: “You know, I’m embarrassed. Do you know the Web site number? I should have it in front of me and I don’t. I’m actually embarrassed.”

87. “There are more than 6.5 million trucks in the United States. The program Congress terminated allowed 97 Mexican trucks to roam among them. Ninety-seven! Shutting them out not only undermines NAFTA. It caused Mexico to retaliate with tariffs on 90 goods affecting $2.4 billion in U.S. trade coming out of 40 states.” – Charles Krauthammer, 3/20

88. DAVID M. DRUCKER ON: BOWING TO CONGRESS

“Although the president possesses enormous political capital — both because of high approval ratings and because his administration is still in its infancy — he has generally declined to exercise it with Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, including when it comes to crafting legislation key to moving his agenda forward.

“Rather he has allowed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) to craft legislation as they see fit — even though the very bills in question were proposed by the president and involve key planks in his agenda. Among them were Obama’s signature $787 billion economic stimulus bill, his first major piece of legislation that was signed into law in February; and now health care reform, currently being negotiated on Capitol Hill with minimal input from the White House.

“This soft-pedal style of leadership runs the risk of forcing Obama to embrace legislation constructed for narrow partisan interests rather than in a manner capable of garnering broad bipartisan support. Over time, the public might come to see Obama’s deference to Pelosi and Reid as a weakness of leadership not befitting a president in tough times.”

– David M. Drucker is a staff writer for Roll Call

89. “It has become apparent during this process that this will not work for me as I have found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the Census, there are irresolvable conflicts for me.” – Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who became the second failed Commerce Secretary nominee

90. In the third sentence of his first speech as president, Obama said, “44 Americans have now taken the presidential oath.” The correct number is 43, as Grover Cleveland served twice.

91. The $49 million inauguration — triple what taxpayers spent at Bush’s first inauguration.

92. Giving the Queen of England an iPod full of his own speeches.

93. Three prime-time briefings in his first 100 days, eating into television revenues and this Wednesday pre-empting “American Idol.”

94. “The United States government has no interest in running GM. Your [GM] warranty will be safe. In fact, it will be safer than it’s ever been, because starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warranty.” — Obama

95. GM is given $15.4 billion in loans from the government.

96. The Obama Administration is trying to scuttle a lawsuit filed in federal court against Iran by former US embassy hostages. The lawsuit alleges that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was one of the hostage-takers who interrogated the captives.

97. GLENN BECK ON: BAD ECONOMIC PREDICTIONS

“Ten days before his inauguration, the President’s chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Christina Rohmer, released a report describing what to expect economically during the first 100 days and beyond. It presented two starkly different scenarios: one good (if the stimulus were to be passed), and one terrifyingly bad (if we did nothing). Amazingly, the report estimated that if the stimulus package were to pass, the unemployment rate would not go above 8% at any time until at least 2014.

“It’s already at 8.5%.

“In fact, while there is an acknowledged level of uncertainty, the projections estimated that the unemployment rate would be lower today if we had done nothing at all. This suggests one of two things: either the administration misjudged the seriousness of our economic problems, or the stimulus plan is actually making things worse. I suspect it’s a little of both.

“Remember, when the President’s budget was released, he was roundly criticized for his never ending deficits, even under his own optimistic scenarios for growth. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected deficits that were even uglier. But, if the President and his economic planners were this far off, this soon, how much worse does the future look now?

“The election was supposed to bring ‘change,’ but I was hoping for more than the letter after the President’s name, the positivity of the media coverage, and the hypoallergenic qualities of the White House puppy. President Obama didn’t get us into this situation, but so far he’s doubling down on the same spending philosophy that did. Common sense tells us that new debt is not the cure for old debt. No matter what the slogans say, that won’t change in 100 days or 100 years.”

– Glenn Beck is the host of the “Glenn Beck” show, weekdays at 5 p.m. on Fox News.

98. “Education Secretary Arne Duncan has decided not to admit any new students to the D.C. voucher program, which allows low-income children to attend private schools … For all the talk about putting children first, it’s clear that the special interests that have long opposed vouchers are getting their way.” – Washington Post, 4/11

99. Obama enrolled his daughters in a DC private school.

100. “Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother.” – Obama to Rep. Peter DeFazio, after the Democratic congressman voted against the stimulus bill.