Obama Health Plan to Cover 12 Million Illegals

By: David A. Patten
Newsmax
On Friday, Democrats moved one step closer to giving free health insurance to the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal aliens when they successfully defeated a Republican-backed amendment, offered by Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., that would have prevented illegal aliens from receiving government-subsidized health care under the proposed plan backed by House Democrats and President Barack Obama.
The House Ways and Means Committee nixed the Heller amendment by a 26-to-15 vote along straight party lines, and followed this action by passing the 1,018-page bill early Friday morning by a 23-to-18 margin, with three Democrats voting against the plan.
The Democratic plan will embrace Obama’s vision of bringing free government medical care to more than 45 million uninsured people in America – a significant portion of whom are illegal aliens.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, costs under the Obama plan being proposed by the House will saddle citizens with $1.04 trillion in new federal outlays over the next decade.
Congressional Democrats and Obama have argued that their health plan is necessary to contain rising health care costs.
But, last Thursday, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf testified before the Senate Budget Committee and warned lawmakers that the proposed “legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs."
A key factor increasing costs is that Democratic plan provides for blanket coverage to as much as 15 percent of the U.S. population not currently insured, including illegals.
Democrats had insisted throughout the health-care reform debate that illegals would be ineligible for the so-called public option plan that is to be subsidized by taxpayers.
"We're not going to cover undocumented aliens, undocumented workers," Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told reporters in May. "That's too politically explosive."
Republicans, however, point out that the Democrats, by refusing to accept the Heller amendment, would deny health agencies from conducting simple database checks to verify citizenship. Many states give illegals driver licenses, which will be sufficient to get free health care under the plan.
Critics also contend that millions of illegals who already have counterfeit Social Security cards or other fraudulent documents. There is no enforcement mechanism in the legislation, experts say, to prevent illegals who use fake IDs to obtain jobs from also obtaining taxpayer-subsidized health insurance.
GOP representatives introduced the amendment to provide a way to weed out non-citizens from the program.
A description of the amendment on Heller's Web site state it would "better screen applicants for subsidized health care to ensure they are actually citizens or otherwise entitled to it."
The Web post added, "The underlying bill is insufficient for the purpose of preventing illegal aliens from accessing the bill’s proposed benefits, as it does not provide mechanisms allowing those administering the program to ensure illegal aliens cannot access taxpayer-funded subsidies and benefits."
The Heller amendment would have required that individuals applying for the public health care option would be subject to two systems used to verify immigration status already in use by the government: The Income and Eligibility Verification System (IEVS) and the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program.
The two systems cross-reference Social Security numbers and employment information to establish whether an individual is a U.S. citizen.
Critics: Free Health Care Means More Illegals
A recent Rasmussen Reports poll found that an overwhelming 80 percent of Americans oppose covering illegals in any public health care bill.
Anti-immigration activists say the availability of low-cost benefits, including health insurance and in-state tuition, will only lure more immigrants to come to the United States.
Political analyst Dick Morris, in his recently released best-selling book “Catastrophe”, warns that giving illegal free health care will lead to a flood of new illegals who can take advantage of such a benefit not offered in their home countries.
William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration, agrees with that sentiment, writing, "Each state and federal elected official must know that illegal aliens should not be given licenses, in-state tuition, mortgages, bank accounts, welfare, or any other benefit short of emergency medical care and law enforcement accommodations before they are deported."
But a small fraction of illegals end up deported, as many make widespread use of fake IDs to easily gain access to government benefits programs.
"Experts suggest that approximately 75 percent of working-age illegal aliens use fraudulent Social Security cards to obtain employment," wrote Ronald W. Mortensen in a recent Center for Immigration Studies research paper. Mortensen says one of the big misconceptions about illegals is that they are undocumented.
James R. Edwards Jr., co-author of The Congressional Politics of Immigration Reform, recently wrote on National Review Online that "it's hard to envision how health reform can avoid tripping the immigration booby trap."
Edwards says none of the legislation under consideration actually requires any state, federal, or local agency to check the immigration status of those who apply for the program.
The assumption is that companies have vetted their employees to ensure they are eligibility for legal employment – a difficult task for employers given the active market in fraudulent documents. Thus Edwards maintains "some of the money distributed … inevitably would go to illegal aliens."
The estimates of illegal aliens in the United States without health insurance vary. The most commonly cited statistic, attributed to the Center for Immigration Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau, holds that 15 percent to 22 percent of the nation's 46 million uninsured are illegal aliens. That would be between 6.9 million and 10.1 million people. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama claimed the nation United States has 12 million or more undocumented aliens.
John Sheils of the Lewin Group, a health care consulting firm owned by UnitedHealth Group, recently told National Public Radio that about 6.1 million illegals – about half of all illegals in the United States – lack documentation and therefore would not be legally eligible for benefits under the current health care reforms.
Sheils says the other half of the nation's illegals – 5 million to 6 million – use false documents to obtain on-the-books employment. Many of them are already insured under their employers' plans, he added.
"A lot of those people are getting employer health benefits as part of their compensation," Sheils told NPR.
Certainly, some contend that undocumented workers who are gainfully employed and receiving benefits such as health insurance are contributing to society. But the fact remains that, once equipped with a fake ID, a person in the United States illegally can obtain both a job and the benefits that go with it.
Estimates of the cost of providing illegals with medical care vary. Most uninsured illegals who need medical attention obtain it from hospital emergency rooms. And several states are already straining under the huge burden of paying for the health costs of illegal aliens.
According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), in 2004 California's estimated cost of unreimbursed medical care was $1.4 billion. Texas estimated its cost at $850 million annually, and Arizona at $400 million.
Non-border states shoulder heavy burdens as well. Virginia's annual cost of providing health care for undocumented workers is approximately $100 million per year, FAIR reports, while Florida's health care cost is about $300 million annually.
One of the ironies of the proposed legislation is that it would fine American citizens who opt not to purchase insurance coverage, but would exempt illegals from such fines. This is presumably due to the fact that they are not supposed to participate in the program anyway.
Even if no illegals were likely to benefit from health care reform, Democrats have made it clear that amnesty is the next item on their ambitious legislative agenda.
"I've got to do health care, I've got to do energy, and then I'm looking very closely at doing immigration," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., declared in June.
Reid explained the urgent need for amnesty in terms very similar to those that Democrats have used to press for health care reform. "We have an immigration system that's broken and needs repair," Reid said.
Immigration expert Edwards, for one, says health-care reform may itself need serious medical attention before it is healthy enough pass through Congress.
"The American people may soon realize how much health reform will benefit immigrants and cost the native-born," he writes. "When that happens, the volatile politics of immigration could derail universal health care."

Barack Obama's books 'too dangerous for prisoners to read'

Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, an American al-Qaeda member, is serving a 30-year sentence for conspiring to commit various terrorist acts, including the murder of George W Bush, who was then president of the United State.
Last year, before Mr Obama's victory in the presidential election, Abu Ali requested his biographical Dreams from My Father and the more policy-oriented The Audacity of Hope.

Citing guidance from the FBI, the authorities at the "Supermax" prison in Florence, Colorado, decided that both books contained information that could jeopardise national security.
Officials mentioned specific pages – but not passages - that were objectionable, singling out a page in Dreams from My Father and 22 in The Audacity of Hope. Half of them were in a chapter devoted to foreign affairs.
Abu Ali later went on hunger strike in protest at his treatment and prison officials said on Thursday that the books were subsequently deemed appropriate following a review of their contents.
However, evidence of their original ban has been included in court papers relating to Abu Ali's resentencing hearing next month.
Joshua Dratel, his lawyer, said the rejection was an example of the harsh conditions imposed on inmates at the supermax prison.
"Imagine an existence controlled by characters created by Louis (sic) Carroll, and that would approach that which Mr Abu Ali faces each day for the duration of his sentence," Mr Dratel wrote.
In a short, handwritten note on a prison complaint form, Abu Ali argued that the two rejections "violate my 1st amend. rights".
The rejections, as well as other restrictions on family visits, prompted a hunger strike by Abu Ali that has since ended, according to Mr Dratel.
Inmates at the supposedly impregnable prison are usually kept in their cells in solitary confinement for 22 or 23 hours a day.

Barack Obama meets Jewish leaders over 'tough line' on Israel

By Alex Spillius in Washington
President Barack Obama has called a meeting with leaders of American Jewish groups who are concerned at his new tough line on Israel and perceived softness on Iran.

Iran's nuclear threat and the president's demand for a freeze on Israeli settlement expansion in the Palestinian West Bank were expected to dominate the meeting at White House.
Officials had originally tried to keep the meeting secret after it was arranged late last week, but hastily added it to the official schedule after the news leaked out.

Though it is not unusual for a US president to meet Jewish groups, the timing of the event reflected rising anxiety among a constituency that overwhelmingly supported Mr Obama in last year's election that he would not be the most dependable of allies.
"American Jews more or less agree with the president on settlements, but it's the focus on criticising Israel that's disconcerting," said an organisation leader ahead of the meeting.
Mr Obama, though reiterating America's commitment to Israel, has been tougher than any of his predecessors on the settlement issue, while he has favoured a gentler tone towards Iran, whose president has threatened to annihilate the Jewish state.
A June 4 speech in Cairo the president made to the Muslim world particularly alarmed some Jewish groups.
Malcolm Hoenlein, vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations which asked for the meeting, said in a recent interview: "There's a lot of questioning going on about what he really believes and what does he really stand for."
He told Newmax.com: "Even people close to him have said to us that there were parts of the speech that bothered them."
He said the most troubling aspect of the speech was the president's equating of the Holocaust, which killed six million Jews, with the suffering and "dislocation" suffered by the Palestinians since the creation of Israel.
"There's no comparison between the Holocaust, even if it was an indirect one, and what happened to Palestinians," Mr Hoenlein declared.
The guest list, drawn up by the White House, included three liberal Jewish groups invited to the White House for the first time.

Is Obama checking out a 16 year old ???? you decide

Click on Video link above

Obama's honeymoon is fading fast

Although the national media isn't talking about the Presidents approval rating I will. With spending at an all time high with this administration during the first six months of this year. Were seeing that once 70% approval rating slowly drop to the mid 50's (Gallop at 57%) to a low 61% with some polls, but what's really interesting is the percentages of unhappy Americans with the directions of this country. Gallop shows the state of the nation poll reflecting 30% satisfied and 67% dissatisfied with the direction of the economy. Even President Carter had a 62% approval rating during July of his first term. But what is most interesting is While 42% of Americans say that their views on political issues have not changed in recent years, 39% say their views are now more conservative and 18% say they are more liberal. With Voters now trusting Republicans more than Democrats on eight out of 10 key electoral issues, including, for the second straight month, the top issue of the economy. They've also narrowed the gap on the remaining two issues, the traditionally Democratic strong suits of health care and education. (Rasmussen report)

President Obama Job Approval with different poll watchers

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/polls/

Public growing unhappy with tax and spend President Obama

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, taken since the climate change bill was passed on Friday, Fifty-six percent (56%) of Americans say they are not willing to pay more in taxes and utility costs to generate cleaner energy and fight global warming. Fifty-two percent (52%) of all adults say it is more important to keep the cost of energy as low as possible then it is to develop clean, environmentally friendly sources of energy. Sixty-three percent (63%) state creating jobs is more important than taking steps to stop global warming. For 22%, stopping global warming is more important. So why is the President so hard pressed to only listen to the small left wing of his party. When campaigning he stated he would listen to the people, and not be like President Bush when it comes to pushing his own agenda without a care in the world for what you think. This bill is supposed to be intended to reduce heat-trapping gases that some scientists say cause global warming. Even its supporters on the left say the measure, which includes a so-called “cap and trade” plan,” will have a major impact on the economy by raising taxes on middle class.
President Obama over the past 6 months has pressed upon the American people the need for every bill he has asked for from the congress pushing the government spending to trillions and trillions of dollars; even with the stimulus spending bill President Obama warned the American people if congress didn't pass the bill then we would be facing 8.5% unemployment, here we sit today just under 10%.

The president when campaigning promised he would not raise taxes on those making less then $250,000 thousand, but even then senator Obama changed that figure to suite the crowed he was campaigning to at that time. If the senate passes this bill all Americans will see their rates raised by a President only worried about his own agenda and not the promise made to Americans; While campaigning that he would not raise taxes on folks making less then $250,000, "Shame on you President Obama"

"Radio Canada" assassination of President Barack Obama

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's public broadcaster was wrong to show a skit that joked about the possible assassination of President Barack Obama and suggested he could be a thief, an industry panel ruled on Monday.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor Résumé

WASHINGTON — Federal judges are rarely famous or widely celebrated. Yet during a brief period in 1995, Judge Sonia Sotomayor became revered, at least in those cities with major league baseball teams.

Europeans up in arms over U.S spending habits

As we enter the eve of the G-20 meeting, the couple of months of Obama's presidency have raised the anxiety levels in parts of Europe. There is talk among many Europeans country leaders that President Obamas policies on his record spending could weaken the economy of all countries in the long run. With Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, who holds the rotating EU Presidency, described U.S. fiscal spending as a "road to hell." Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed skepticism about using heavy borrowing to solve a global crisis she has no intention of injecting more money. Even Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker of France said "Recent U.S. calls on Europe for an additional budgetary effort do not suit us.'' , and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said he is "a little bit worried" about his country's big investment in U.S. debt.

From a Interview with the Financial Times newspaper
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said ‘we cannot borrow forever’ throwing too much money into reviving global economic growth would make the recovery unsustainable, She added: “We must look at the causes of this crisis. It happened because we were living beyond our means ... governments encouraged risk-taking in order to boost growth.

“We were spending too much to create growth that was not sustainable. It isn’t just that the banks took over too many risks. Governments allowed them to do so by neglecting to set the necessary [financial market] rules.
I for one never thought in my lifetime I would ever hear the amount of complaining by Socialist Europeans about the way the United States is going about spending there way out of a crisis. The calls from all countries to President Obama to halt the spending are going on deaf ears; President Obama is determined to listen only to the extreme left wing of his party regarding the restructuring of the United States giving the government control over private institutions within this administration. But President Obama who stated his administration would listen to the cries of American people doesn't seem to care about what others think unless you are on board with the way the administration wants to spend our tax dollars.

Americans free fall from Grace

All I have heard from the Obama administration over the last few days has been about the reversal of freedoms of all classes of people by the destruction of the so-called privileged classes of our country by saying greed is bad, that if you have the will to build or create a successful profit for your business that you are taking from those who are the have nots of our society. The United States was built on the idea that every American has the same opportunity to earn a good wage, and that good competition would increase wealth for all people living in America.

The Obama Administration has also changed the way foreign policy is handled by embracing the worst of the worst dictators and allowing them to control the agenda. Now China is controlling the waterways of the Oceans, Russia is in talks with Cuba and other South American countries in our hemisphere about opening up bases to patrol our boarders and to spy on the United States. North Korea will continue to build nuclear missiles until they can reach the west coast of the United States, and Iran will continue to build there own nuclear missiles in its quest to rid the middle east of Israel. The Administration has chosen to not call those few people who killed 3,000 Americans on 911 terrorists because they don't want to offend so these terms like "terrorism" and "September 11" Global War on Terror are out and these new terms are "overseas contingency operations", “man-caused disasters” and yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Mexico's Leaders that it is the fault of the United States with regards to the violence that has taken over that countries' cities and is now crossing over into the communities of the United States by there own drug lords. This is just the beginning of America losing its identity by letting other countries control the agenda on foreign policy.

The United States, if left up to the Obama Admintration the word "change" that Americans were looking for will change how Americans visualize moral values, and the social ideals with the socializing of our country by taxing those who work hard. By socializing our government, Banks, and corporations allowing unions to have more power to control more businesses who then can funnel those union dues to the Democratic Party so that they can maintain the government influence over the United States.

When Does the Campaign Stop and the Governance Begin?

By Red County Contributor Tearesa Trujillo
The president will visit Orange County, California today. One of the most conservative bastions in the nation is in the spotlight as the forty-fourth President of the United States tries to sell his economic stimulus package to the nation.
He is visiting a county where six out of the seven congress members voted against the stimulus. Only Democrat Loretta Sanchez supported additional government bailout and unprecedented spending as a band-aid for the bad economic outlook.
The Orange County Register was reporting on the rock concert vibe of people waiting in line for the coveted town hall tickets at the Orange County Fairgrounds.
This feels more like a campaign swing through California than a serious trip by a president eager to govern. Obama is proud of the fact he is a great campaigner but hasn't really shone as a president.
And that leads me to an important question.
When does the campaign stop and the governance begin?
The president has been in office less than two months. He inherited a much more sober nation than the one he campaigned in. The economic turmoil has only increased as the president, his Treasury Secretary, and his economic advisors have made doom and gloom predictions that have collectively caused the American public to recoil at the notion of spending one dime more than is absolutely necessary in their personal lives.
All of this is going on while the government is on the biggest spending spree in government history. International leaders have decried American spending on both governmental and individual levels. Yet, Obama continues to press ahead with a massive government spending plan to cure the nation's woes.
"There is no disagreement that we need action by our government, a recovery plan that will help to jumpstart the economy," the president reported on January 9, 2009. This was twelve days before he took office. Last week, 200 prominent economists responded to this statement in a signed public letter denouncing the president's stimulus package. The complete list of economist can be found here: http://www.cato.org/special/stimulus09/cato_stimulus.pdf
The Cato Institute advertisement states:
"With all due respect Mr. President, that is not true.
Notwithstanding reports that all economists are now Keynesians and that we all support a big increase in the burden of government, we do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan's "lost decade" in the 1990s. As such, it is a triumph of hope over experience to believe that more government spending will help the U.S. today. To improve the economy, policy makers should focus on reforms that remove impediments to work, saving, investment and production. Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth."
The list includes a Nobel laureate and prominent economists from major universities. The signers of the letter actually call the president out on his statement that, "There is no disagreement that we need action by our government, a recovery plan that will help to jumpstart the economy."
In the religion of Obama there is no disagreeing with the messiah's proclamations. But, in an open and free society we can disagree. There seems to be plenty of economists willing to stand up to the rising tide of Obamaisms.
The candidate that promised change is using the economic crisis to remake America with back door deals, massive earmark spending, money laundering to foreign banks and investors through the now government controlled AIG, and other tactics that looks too much like the business as usual Washington D.C.
The promised transparency has been thrown to the wind as Obama has now signed at least five major bills without the promised web posting and five day waiting period. The nearly 1100 page stimulus bill, and major change in how and when employees can file a suit over sexual harassment and/or discrimination, and the largest appropriations bill in history, were all signed without the transparency promised.
We have all had an opportunity to see what change means to Barack Obama. Change means much, much more of business as usual in Washington D.C. Change means saddling the taxpayers with massive debt for generations of Americans. Change means that we all lose when our take home pay buys less and our tax bill goes up.
We need a president who governs, not a president who looks good campaigning long after the election is over.
Get to work Mr. President.

Weekly Jobless Claims Drop; Continuing Claims Hit Record

The nation’s economic situation proved to still be slumping after a government report showed the number of workers collecting state unemployment benefits surged to a record high.
The Labor Department reported that weekly jobless claims fell by 12,000 to 646,000 for the week ending March 14. Analysts were expecting 652,000 new claims.
The number of people staying on state benefits jumped by 185,000 to hit a record 5.47 million for the week ending March 7.
The four-week average for new claims jumped to 654,750 -- a 26-year high -- while the four-week average of continuing claims rose to 5.25 million. Continuing claims have increased 10 times in the last 12 weeks and are up 19% since last year.
The slight dip in initial claims doesn’t leave much to celebrate, according to Mark Lieberman, senior economist for FOX Business “Despite the week-week dip, the four-week moving average increased again, and is 58% higher than the weekly average during the 2001 recession and 51% higher than the weekly average during the 1990-91 recession.”
The government also revises last week’s report up to 658,000 from 654,000.

The buffoon President with his sorry Administration

President Obama over the past few days along with the stupid press Secretary Gibbs has been telling the media pool how outraged they have been over these AIG bonuses, while all the time knowing that the Stimulus Bill President Obama had too ............................The buffoon President with his sorry Administration

Obama Defends Health Care, Education Budget Plans

Obama's Poll Numbers Are Falling to Earth

Another President Nomination Withdraws

Chas Freeman, the former ambassador appointed to be the military's top intelligence analyst, has withdrawn his name following complaints from Democratic and Republican lawmakers who said he was too entangled in foreign affairs to handle the job.

National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair, who originally appointed Freeman to the post of National Intelligence Council chairman, announced the move in a statement Tuesday, saying he accepts the decision "with regret." The announcement came just hours after Blair defended Freeman before a Senate committee.

But Freeman released a lengthy statement of his own, accusing his critics of trying to destroy his credibility with libelous attacks.

"I have concluded that the barrage of libelous distortions of my record would not cease upon my entry into office," he said. "The effort to smear me and to destroy my credibility would instead continue." He said the attacks would prevent the National Intelligence Council from functioning effectively with him at the helm.

Freeman had become a political lightning rod since he was tapped two weeks ago for the post.

Lawmakers had objected to several controversial statements Freeman has made about Israel and Iraq. And they said the former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia was too close to that country, as well as to China.

Freeman said he never accepted payment from any foreign government, including Saudi Arabia and China. He suggested he had fallen victim to what he called the "Israel Lobby."

"The libels on me and their easily traceable e-mail trails show conclusively that there is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East," he said. "The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth."

Freeman has in the past compared Israelis to "colonists" and accused the United States of bringing the "Palestinian experience" of humiliation to Iraq.

In his resignation statement, Freeman said: "There is a special irony in having been accused of improper regard for the opinions of foreign governments and societies by a group so clearly intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government -- in this case, the government of Israel."

Lawmakers had questioned Freeman's fitness for the intelligence post over the past two weeks, leading the inspector general for the director of national intelligence to agree to examine Freeman's foreign ties. At the time, Blair said the inquiry would put to rest any questions about Freeman.

But a number of top lawmakers, most of them Republicans, suggested Freeman's conflicts could be disqualifying.

Among their concerns were:

-- Freeman's role as president of the Middle East Policy Council, a think tank they say received funding from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Fuad A. Rihani, a consultant for the bin Ladin family's Saudi BinLadin Group, also sits on the group's board of directors -- another trouble spot for Freeman's critics. And they complained the council did not disclose its donors.

-- Freeman's role on a board for the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation, owned by China, and that company's reportedly $16 billion agreement with Iran to develop a gas field in the Middle Eastern country.

The controversy surrounding Freeman heated up last week when Michigan Rep. Pete Hoekstra, ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said he wanted Freeman to withdraw his name. That was after he wrote to Blair on Monday expressing his doubt that Freeman could restore credibility to the national intelligence estimates, or NIEs, the intelligence reports Freeman would be involved in producing.

"I am ... deeply concerned that an individual who reportedly holds radical and extreme views would be chosen to oversee NIEs, the IC's most comprehensive and authoritative intelligence assessments," Hoekstra wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by FOXNews.com.

Hoekstra applauded Freeman's decision to withdraw his name, but called the process "yet another breakdown in the Obama administration vetting."

As NIC chairman, Freeman would have been responsible for drawing from assessments from all 16 intelligence agencies and formulating mid-and-long-term strategic intelligence plans.

More than a dozen lawmakers had already called for an investigation by the time Blair's inspector general, Edward Maguire, decided to launch one. Democratic Rep. Steve Israel, N.Y., first urged Maguire to launch a probe in a letter Saturday. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Israel also asked Maguire to look into Freeman's work with the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation and its deal with Iran.

Blair argued that Freeman's rich background would make him an asset to the intelligence community and other foreign policy analysts had dismissed the criticism of him as a smear campaign.

Freeman has a formidable resume of foreign policy positions that include U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia under George H.W. Bush and assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs -- a position that earned him public service awards for his role in creating a NATO-centered post-Cold War European security system. Freeman also served as Richard Nixon's chief translator in China in 1972.

Blair's office said he did not seek White House approval for the appointment, which did not require Senate approval.

But statements the former ambassador made over the last three decades on U.S. peace efforts in the Middle East and Iran's threat to the international community had also prompted some to question his objectivity in a role that requires it.

In a speech to the Pacific Council on International Policy in October 2007, Freeman said the U.S. has "abandoned the role of Middle East peacemaker to back Israel's efforts to pacify its captive and increasingly ghettoized Arab populations."

"We wring our hands while sitting on them as the Jewish state continues to seize ever more Arab land for its colonists," he said.

In reference to the Iraq war, Freeman said, "Now the United States has brought the Palestinian experience -- of humiliation, dislocation, and death -- to millions more in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"By invading Iraq, we transformed an intervention in Afghanistan most Muslims had supported into what looks to them like a wider war against Islam. We destroyed the Iraqi state and catalyzed anarchy, sectarian violence, terrorism and civil war in that country."

Also, The Weekly Standard recently posted a 2006 e-mail from Freeman to a listserv in which he said the Chinese government was "overly cautious" in its effort to "intervene on a timely basis to nip the demonstrations in the bud" during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

FOX News' James Rosen contributed to this report

The president did not make any pledge to eliminate earmarks, WHAT ?

President Obama on Wednesday announced new reforms he said would prevent wasteful earmarks, but spoke in support of the practice and defended what he called an "imperfect" spending bill passed by Congress -- one loaded with thousands of earmarks.

The president did not make any pledge to eliminate earmarks or reduce them. Rather, he and House Democrats announced new reforms to subject them to greater scrutiny and transparency.

"Done right, earmarks have given legislators the opportunity to direct federal money to worthy projects that benefit people in their district, and that's why I have opposed their outright elimination," Obama said. "But the fact is that on occasion, earmarks have been used as a vehicle for waste, and fraud and abuse. Projects have been inserted at the 11th hour, without review, and sometimes without merit, in order to satisfy the political or personal agendas of a given legislator, rather than the public interest."

Obama said the reforms would require lawmakers seeking earmarks to post them on their Web sites in advance, so the public and press can review them. He said each earmark should be "open to scrutiny" at public hearings.

"If my administration evaluates an earmark and determines that it has no legitimate public purpose, we will seek to eliminate it," Obama said.

He also said all earmarks for for-profit companies should be subject to competitive bidding requirements.

"The awarding of earmarks to private companies is the single most corrupting element of this practice," Obama said.

The announcement comes after Congress passed a $410 billion spending package. Obama said he plans to sign the bill, despite the billions of dollars worth of earmarks in it. Taxpayers for Common Sense estimated the package contained 8,570 disclosed earmarks worth $7.7 billion.

"I am signing an imperfect omnibus bill because it's necessary for the ongoing functions of government," Obama said, adding that he would use it as a "departure point" for enacting new reforms.

He did not respond to a question asking why he is not signing the spending bill in public.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who opposed the earmarks in the bill, criticized his former election opponent Wednesday for not pledging to "use his veto pen" to stop pork-barrel projects.

"The president's rhetoric is impressive, but his statement affirms we will continue to do business as usual in Washington regarding earmarks in appropriations legislation," he said in a written statement. "This is an opportunity missed."

The 1,132-page bill has an extraordinary reach, wrapping together nine spending bills to fund the annual operating budgets of every Cabinet department except Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs. Among the many earmarks are $485,000 for a boarding school for at-risk native students in western Alaska and $1.2 million for Helen Keller International so the nonprofit can provide eyeglasses to students with poor vision.

Most of the government has been running on a stopgap funding bill set to expire at midnight Wednesday. Refusing to sign the newly completed spending bill would force Congress to pass another bill to keep the lights on come Thursday or else shut down the massive federal government. That is an unlikely possibility for a president who has spent just seven weeks in office.

The $410 billion bill includes significant increases in food aid for the poor, energy research and other programs. It was supposed to have been completed last fall, but Democrats opted against election-year battles with Republicans and former President George W. Bush.

The measure was a top priority for Democratic leaders, who praised it for numerous increases denied by Bush. It once enjoyed support from Republicans.

But the bill ran into an unexpected political hailstorm in Congress after Obama's spending-heavy economic stimulus bill and his 2010 budget plan, which forecast a $1.8 trillion deficit for the current budget year.

The bill's big increases -- among them a 14 percent boost for a popular program that feeds infants and poor women and a 10 percent increase for housing vouchers for the poor -- represent a clear win for Democrats who spent most of the past decade battling with Bush over money for domestic programs. Republicans, though, had called on Obama to veto the measure.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Carter VS Obama what's the difference

Carter preached a message of hope and renewal, and the Media was in love with this man giving him wide spread support, this obscure figure received support from the Liberal Media, which allotted him favorable coverage wherever his campaign took him. With the media's help Carter won key primary election victories, making him into a rock star among the masses. This rock Star image helped him reach his goal by winning the presidency and being the countries new President-Elect in less then 9 months.
President Carter took office January 20, 1977, one of the very first Executive Orders was to give unconditional amnesty to Vietnam War Draft Evaders. He also fired 800 CIA agents including George Bush Sr.

Carter Quote:"The Republican party is a party with a narrow vision, a party that is afraid of the future." The new President's approval ratings was around 70%, which didn't last very long. Even though the press was giving his new agenda all of there support with lots of coverage. the new President,was an experience former Govenor who still suffered from political inexperience. He was very quick to retreat under fire, very indecisive, and was not interested in opposing points of view, when it came to his own polices. In less then four Great years of this Administration President Carter managed to alienate Wallstreet and the Federal Reserve. Because of this administrations polices the American people were given a recession that gave them record high unemployment in double digits, inflation, and interest rates around 17%. Not only was his Domestic policy in disarray, but so was his foreign policy. The Carter Doctrine gave great verbal warnings to the Soviet Union to behave correctly. Carter Quote: "War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children." The Carter Doctrine allowed Tehran to hold the United States hostage with the failed negotiations for our US embassy staff who were being held hostages in Tehran since Nov. 4th 1979. During President Carters Re-Election Bid he threw a hail marry pass, and unded up with a disastrous attempt at military rescue in April 1980. This gave americans one more good reason to elect former Governor Ronald Reagan. This Country is in for a long rocky road ……………

Obama Offers to Scrap Missile Shield If Russia Cooperates on Iran

President Obama offered to consider scrapping plans for a missile defense shield in Europe if Russia helps rein in Iran's nuclear program, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.

The article said Obama wrote to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to tell him Russia's aid in resolving the threat from Iran would make the missile shield plans unnecessary, according to an account from Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

A senior administration official told FOX News that Obama sent a letter to Medvedev but "we won't comment on the specifics."

Obama inherited plans to build the system in Poland and the Czech Republic from the Bush administration, but the new administration has equivocated over the project. Though the plans were put in place to deter nations like Iran and North Korea from launching attacks and developing nuclear weapons, Russia has interpreted the planned installation as a threat.

The senior administration official said the U.S. will continue to "consult with the Czech Republic and Poland on the program," but will also continue to review the plan.

"We'll be evaluating the future of the program based on a number of factors ... whether it will work, whether it will be cost-effective, whether it will reduce the threat and whether that threat can be reduced though diplomacy with Russia and our NATO allies," the official said.

Reuters reported last month that the Obama administration would at least review the plans for a missile defense shield in Europe, provided Russia helps curb Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Clinton is expected to meet with Russia's foreign minister in Geneva later this week.

State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said last month that the U.S. wants to "engage" Russia on the issue of the missile defense and review their proposals to "counter missiles from rogue states."

Nominee Ron Kirk to Pay $10,000 in Back Taxes

Ron Kirk, nominated as U.S. Trade Representative in the Obama administration, owes an estimated $10,000 in back taxes from earlier in the decade.

WASHINGTON -- Ron Kirk, nominated as U.S. Trade Representative in the Obama administration, owes an estimated $10,000 in back taxes from earlier in the decade and has agreed to make his payments, the Senate Finance Committee said Monday.

The committee said the taxes arise from Kirk's handling of speaking fees that he donated to his alma mater, and for his deduction of the full cost of season tickets to the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team.

The disclosure made the former Dallas mayor the latest in a string of top-level Obama administration appointees found to have underpaid their taxes, following Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Tom Daschle, who withdrew as candidate for Health and Human Services secretary. Nancy Killefer, Obama's pick for chief performance officer, also bowed out amid tax problems.

There was no immediate reaction from the White House to the underpayments, which were uncovered by the committee's staff in a review of Kirk's nomination papers.

Despite the error, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, issued a statement calling Kirk "the right person for this job," and said he would attempt to have the nomination moved through the panel quickly.

Kirk routinely gave any speaking fees he earned to Austin College, the committee said, and did not list them on his tax returns.

Instead, the committee said he should have listed the fees as income, then claimed them as charitable donations. The estimated effect was to reduce Kirk's tax bill by an estimated $5,800, according to the report.

Kirk also deducted more than $17,000 as entertainment expenses for the cost of Mavericks' tickets. The committee said he substantiated about $9,900 of that amount, and will owe about $2,600 in taxes on the balance.

The committee said that last fall, Kirk amended his income tax return for 2006, paying an additional $2,188 in tax and $139 in interest after a notification from the Internal Revenue Service. The return was filed by a paid tax preparer, the panel added.