Thursday, May 17, 2012

RANDOM SHOTS! Obama Inserts Himself In History, Obama wanted Wright to Shut Up, and Much More!

FIRST SHOT!

Obama Inserts Himself Into The White House Website Biographies Of Past Presidents

When you start thinking that Obama can't do anything more to screw with the American people - you're proven wrong and he does!

In the Obama White House, it's all about "The One."

Need proof? Well, now Obama's White House staff has even started inserting Obama into the biographies of previous presidents.

Why you ask? Well, Obama believes that his accomplishment are as important as all of the most important events in the History of the United States. In fact, his staff has the cojones to try to make people think that Obama has had a role in some of the greatest historical moments in our history by inserting Obama in each of the former president's biographies.

Today, May 16th, 2012, it is being reported that the Obama White House is drawing ridicule for actually appending the official online biographies of nearly every president over the last century in order to link President Obama's accomplishments to those former Commanders In Chiefs.
Say that again? How do you insert yourself into other biographies? Especially those of dead presidents?

Well, it is creatively dishonest!

The Obama team has gone into the official pages of U.S. Presidents dating back to Calvin Coolidge to add friendly looking "Did you know?" fact boxes to the end of their bios.

Those additions were used to plug a host of Obama administration initiatives, ranging from the health care overhaul to the so-called "Buffett Rule" to his green-energy policies.

For instance, the following line was added to the official bio of the late President Ronald Reagan:

"In a June 28, 1985, speech, Reagan called for a fairer tax code, one where a multimillionaire did not have a lower tax rate than his secretary. Today, President Obama is calling for the same with the Buffett Rule."

The White House is coming under heavy criticism from conservatives for the changes, and not just to Reagan's page.

Late Tuesday, the White House defended itself, claiming the staff was merely adding links to other pages.

"No biographies have been altered," a White House official told Fox News. "We simply added links at the bottom of each page to related whitehouse.gov content, which is a commonly used best practice to encourage people to browse more pages on a site."

The additions do include links, but they're more than that. Each one finds a way to tout an Obama administration policy or practice in the process.

In other words, can you say propaganda?
Or is it "Obamaganda"?

There's this at the bottom of the Franklin D. Roosevelt biography, for instance:

"On August 14, 1935, President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. Today the Obama administration continues to protect seniors and ensure Social Security will be there for future generations."

And how about this at the end of President Lyndon Johnson's biography, the Obama staff attempts to draw a link between LBJ's signing of Medicare and Obama's signing of Obama Care:

"President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law in 1965 -- providing millions of elderly health care stability. President Obama's historic health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, strengthens Medicare, offers eligible seniors a range of preventive services with no cost-sharing, and provides discounts on drugs when in the coverage gap known as the 'donut hole.'"

The changes also link Harry Truman's call for civil rights to the Obama administration's push to repeal "don't ask, don't tell." And they link Jimmy Carter's creation of the Department of Energy to Obama's push for an "all of the above" energy approach today.

The Obama accomplishments cited range from the significant to the mundane.

On the bio of John F. Kennedy, the Obama staff cited the current president's decision to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps with a "presidential proclamation," as a way to link the current administration to Kennedy's - which launched the Peace Corps.

The only post-Coolidge president whose page is so far untouched is that of Gerald Ford.

Conservative blogs and publications ripped the White House on Tuesday for the move, even starting a Twitter hashtag #ObamaInHistory to mock him.

The Republican National Committee launched a tumblr page called: "Obama in History - World Changing Events You Didn't Know Obama Played A Part In."  Here's a sample their work and others:



















SECOND SHOT!

New book says, Obama begged Rev. Jeremiah Wright to keep quiet during 2008 Election - an Obama ally even offered him a bribe to do so!

An ally of then Senator Barack Obama offered Rev. Jeremiah Wright a bribe of $150,000 to keep his mouth shut until after the 2008 Election, according to excerpts released today from the upcoming book “The Amateur” by Edward Klein.

Rev. Wright, Obama’s former Chicago pastor, had become a significant political liability in the 2008 presidential campaign because of his anti-American, extremely racist rhetoric.

Just months before the election, networks were poring over months of Wright's sermons, which heard rhetoric from Wright that said the United States deserved the Terrorist attacks on 9/11. Wright had actually encouraged black Americans attending his so-called "church" to sing "God Damn America" instead of "God Bless America."

"After the media went ballistic on me, I received an e-mail offering me money not to preach at all until the November presidential election," Wright told Klein, according to the New York Post, which obtained the excerpts.

That’s when Obama himself got involved, Wright said, and made a personal plea to keep Wright out of the spotlight.

"Barack said he wanted to meet me in secret, in a secure place. And I said, 'You’re used to coming to my home, you've been here countless times, so what’s wrong with coming to my home?' So we met in the living room of the parsonage of Trinity United Church of Christ, at South Pleasant Avenue right off 95th Street, just Barack and me. I don’t know if he had a wire on him. His security was outside somewhere."

Wright added that Obama seemed more concern about his political circumstances than Wright’s personal well-being.

"And one of the first things Barack said was, 'I really wish you wouldn’t do any more public speaking until after the November election.' He knew I had some speaking engagements lined up, and he said, 'I wish you wouldn’t speak. It’s gonna hurt the campaign if you do that.' … I said, 'I don’t see it that way. And anyway, how am I supposed to support my family?' And he said, 'Well, I wish you wouldn’t speak in public. The press is gonna eat you alive.'"

According to Wright, he also received a short lecture from Obama on the necessity of sometimes stretching the truth.

"Barack said, 'I'm sorry you don’t see it the way I do. Do you know what your problem is?' And I said, 'No, what's my problem?' And he said, 'You have to tell the truth.' I said, 'That’s a good problem to have. That’s a good problem for all preachers to have. That’s why I could never be a politician.'"

Klein's book will be released May 15, and I can't help but wonder how fast its climbs to number one on the Best Seller's list.


THIRD SHOT!

Project Run By Obama Family & Friends Receives $5.9 Million Grant From Health and Human Services
Chicago Politics alive and well!

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded a $5.9 million grant to a University of Chicago Medical Center program run by one of President Barack Obama’s closest friends.

Obama’s longtime friend, Eric Whitaker, runs the Urban Health Initiative (UHI), which was founded as a means of connecting low-income patients with health clinics in their own communities.

The UHI was one of only 26 programs - out of 3,000 applications - to receive a slice of the $1 Billion in Taxpayer money from the executive's "We Can’t Wait" initiative, which is aimed at spurring job growth via executive action, reported Keith Koffler at White House Dossier.

HHS has denied any White House involvement in the decision, but the president will have a tough time feigning surprise given his deep ties to the UHI:

•Eric Whitaker runs the UHI, has known the president since his days at Harvard Law and occasionally vacations with the Obamas.

•Michelle Obama launched the UHI while working as an executive at the University of Chicago Medical Center, which runs the program.

•Valerie Jarrett, the president’s senior adviser, was the chairman of the University of Chicago Medical Center board of trustees until she resigned her post to join the White House.

•David Axelrod, now-communications director for the Obama campaign, provided public relations services to the UHI after Michelle Obama recommended that he be hired in 2006.

Despite those deep ties, HHS stands by its process, describing the decision making as free from White House influence.

"Applications that met the basic eligibility requirements underwent a competitive, objective review," an HHS spokesperson told White House Dossier.

Dossier noted that this is only the latest incident where "red flags" have been raised in the administration’s tangled relationship with the UHI.

A September report by The Daily Caller showed that Obama donor George Kaiser gave the UHI $10,000 in 2009 -  the very same year that George Kaiser received the $535 Million in Taxpayer dollars through a Department of Energy loan guarantee for Solyndra.

And so it never stops, even when you would think they'd be a little concerned about money and favors and greed during an election year - it just keeps going. It's as if they think they can do anything they want to do as they steal Millions of Taxpayer's dollars.

FOURTH SHOT!

Why Use Government Drones On The American Public?

Privacy concerns raised as US puts out rules for drone.

Debate over using drones to monitor American cities. But, why debate this when it is a clear assault on our liberty?

Besides, who's watching you using domestic drones?

Unmanned drones could soon be buzzing in the skies above many U.S. cities, as the Obama administration has given the green-light to use drone technology for local law enforcement amid widespread privacy concerns.

Concerns my ass! A great number of people are angry! It is a situation that Americans don't need, and should no have going on.

The Federal Aviation Administration explained the rules of the sky for these newly licensed drones at potentially dozens of sites across the country. The agency, on its website, said that government "entities" will have to obtain a special certificate in order to fly the aircraft, adding that the FAA is "streamlining the process for public agencies to safely fly (drones) in the nation's airspace."

In doing so, the government is taking a tool that has become synonymous with U.S. counter-terror warfare in countries like Pakistan and Yemen - and putting it in the hands of U.S. law enforcement.

But how can anyone justify this bullspit, especially when crime in America is at it's lowest in 30 years?

Unlike some of the drones used overseas, supposedly these will not be equipped with missiles. They are to be used "purely" for surveillance. But that alone has raised serious privacy concerns on Capitol Hill and beyond.

"Our Founding Fathers had no idea that there would be remote-control drones with television monitors that can feed back live data instantaneously - but if they had, they would have made darn sure ... that these things were subject to the Fourth Amendment (protecting individual privacy)," Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, told Fox News.

Drones have already been employed domestically in one situation. One situation that effected one person out of 350 Million Americans is going to justify the use of spying on Americans.

The incident in what was described as the first case where an unmanned drone was used "to arrest an American citizen on U.S. soil," a North Dakota SWAT team reportedly borrowed a Department of Homeland Security drone to monitor Rodney Brossart - who was involved in a 16-hour standoff at his North Dakota farm over six cattle that had wandered onto his property and which he claimed as his own.

The SWAT team apparently used the drone to make sure it was safe to arrest him, though his lawyer has since claimed Brossart was subjected to guerrilla-like police tactics and had his constitutional rights violated.

Advocates, though, say the drones are a force-multiplier for local cops.

"They're not going to be used for constant surveillance - typically they can stay in the air for about 30 minutes, so they're only going to be used for specific missions," said Gretchen West, executive vice president of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.

She said the drones would help law enforcement have "more eyes in the sky to help ... assist them when they're going into potentially volatile situations."

Lawmakers like Barton say there are "legitimate uses" for drones on U.S. soil, but that strict privacy standards will be needed. Of course, if government is in charge of making sure that "strict privacy standards" are met - then we can expect abuses.

"It would be okay for a drone to be used in order to make sure that all the cattle on a ranch are identified on an ongoing basis. It's okay ... to survey a forest to make sure there are no forest fires. But it would not be okay if that individual who purchased the drone then decided 'I think I'll go and check and see what's going on over in my neighbor's backyard'," Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said. "That would be wrong and that has to be protected against."

Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, agreed.

"We don't want a situation where every time we walk out of our front door we have to look up and wonder whether some invisible eye in the sky is monitoring us, you know, constantly," he said. "There are good uses for drones that everybody agrees with, but what we don't' want to see are drones used for constant, persistent, suspicion-less surveillance where we are all being watched for no particular reason."

OK, so I never thought there would be a day when I agree with an ACLU policy analyst. This is an open attack on our privacy. We must stop this before it happens.

Friends, this is all horseshit! There is no need for drones over our heads. They say it'll give the police more help, but the police need more officers on the street - not more eyes in the air. Besides the assault to our basic liberty, whereas Americans do no need to be watched - how about the cost of these things versus the cost of keeping Officers employed.


We have hundreds, if not thousands, of cities and towns in America that are on the verge of financially going under and these drones are actually being looked at as another expense? Besides being an assault on our liberty, it's like giving a drowning man an anchor and telling him that its there to help him! Just stupid!


FIFTH SHOT!

A lack of babies could mean the extinction of the Japanese people

Strange as it sounds, researchers are saying that Japan has a major problem in that they have a lack of children. And yes, it seems likely there will be even fewer in the future.

Japanese researchers have now warned of a doomsday scenario. They say that if Japan carries on the way it is, then the last child to be born there in 3011. The Japanese people will potentially disappear a few generations later.

Academics from the city of Sendai, which was hit hard by last year's tsunami, calculate there are now 16.6 Million children under the age of 14 now in Japan.

They say that number is shrinking at a disturbing rate of one every 100 seconds. If you do the math, as they have done, then you'll find that the country will have no children within a millennium.

Another study recently showed Japan's population is expected to fall a third from its current 127.7 million over the next Century. Government projections show the birth rate will hit just 1.35 children per woman within 50 years, well below the replacement rate.

Now academics have created a population clock to highlight the fall and encourage public debate on the issue.

"By indicating it in figures, I want people to think about the problem of the falling birthrate with a sense of urgency," Professor Hiroshi Yoshida, who led the research team, told the Japan Times newspaper.

The clock will be kept up-to-date by adding the latest population data each year. But though the clock is a nice idea, the real question that everyone is asking is a real simple one: Why is there a lack of children?

The answer seems to lie in several reasons.

One reason is the cost. Japan is an extremely expensive country and getting a child through college can wipe out a family's finances.

That might be the case, but no one says that everyone on earth has to go to college - besides research shows it goes much deeper than that because the Japanese government actually does support people with children extremely well.

One argument is that there are more "effeminate men" now called "Herbivores" in Japan who are either not interested in sex or women don't find masculine enough.
Japanese men have long been expected to live like characters on Mad Men, chasing secretaries, drinking with the boys, and splurging on watches, golf, and new cars.

Today, Japanese men are gaining a new identity as the "soushoku danshi" which literally translated means, "grass-eating boys." Named for their lack of interest in sex and their preference for quieter, less competitive lives, Japan's "herbivores" are provoking a national debate about how the country's economic stagnation since the early 1990s has altered men's behavior.

In Japan, newspapers, magazines, and television shows are fixated on the herbivores.

"Have men gotten weaker?" was one theme of a recent TV talk show. "Herbivores Aren't So Bad" is the title of a regular column on the Japanese Web site NB Online.

In this age of bromance and metrosexuals, why all the fuss? The short answer is that grass-eating men are alarming because they are the nexus between two of the biggest challenges facing Japanese society - the declining birth rate and anemic consumer buying.

Herbivores represent an unspoken rebellion against many of the masculine, materialist values associated with Japan's 1980s bubble economy.

Media Shakers, a consulting company that is a subsidiary of Dentsu, the country's largest advertising agency, estimates that 60 percent of men in their early 20s and at least 42 percent of men aged 23 to 34 consider themselves grass-eating men. Partner Agent, a Japanese dating agency, found in a survey that 61 percent of unmarried men in their 30s identified themselves as herbivores.

Of the 1,000 single men in their 20s and 30s polled by Lifenet, a Japanese life-insurance company, 75 percent described themselves as grass-eating men.

I can't help but wonder how the gay factor negatively effects the lack of baby equation?  I can't help but wonder if there has been an increase in Japan's gay population, and if so, how does that increase effect finding out the reasons for the lack of babies in Japan? 

Does "Herbivore" translate to "gay" in Japan, and if so, what is making men in Japan so effeminate? Is there a  problem with a lack of testosterone there?

Since sōshoku danshi (grass-eating boys) are often given as the primary cause of single women's woes in Japan, which coincidentally is the primary cause of single women's woes in San Francisco, I can't help but wonder why is there a lack of interest in sex with women in young men who are supposedly straight?

One study which surveyed 1,301 people, aged 16 to 49, also provided a glimpse of sexual behavior amongst married couples.

It found that approximately 40% of married respondents had not had sex in the past month, a 4% increase from the same survey conducted two years earlier and nearly 10% higher than in 2004. The 330 married respondents cited "vague reluctance after child birth," "can’t be bothered," and "fatigue from work" as the top three reasons for not being proactive about having sex.

Some suggest that Japan's lack of babies is also a symptom of the modern age where many young Japanese people prefer "virtual" friends with a robot or on the Internet, while others suggest their fascination with comics rather than relationships is the cause for a lack of babies.

A study was released earlier this year in which it showed Japan's young people are shunning the idea of marriage and having children.

The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research study also showed one in four unmarried men and women in their 30s had never had sex, and most young women preferred being single.

It also showed over 60 percent of unmarried young men didn't have a girlfriend, and nearly 50 percent of women of the same age weren't dating. And if that wasn't bad enough, young Japanese people are also, it seems, increasingly not interested in sex.

A survey by the Japan Family Planning Association found that 36 percent of males between 16 and 19 had "no interest" in sex.

Japan's falling birth rate could seem to be an interesting fact but of little consequence to a country like the United States, yet it could have a huge impact on how Japan interacts with the outside world in the future, even affecting how it supports international obligations and alliances.

"Japan will be more likely to prioritize healthcare than international security," Brad Glosserman and Tomoko Tsunada wrote in Foreign Policy Magazine. "Older societies are typically more risk-averse, and Japanese - 'reluctant realists' at the best of times - will be increasingly unwilling to put their most precious resource, their young, in harm's way," they said.

Japan's population isn't falling faster because people there are living longer. Japan has a life expectancy of about 86 years for women and 79 for men at present, and the ages are expected to rise in the coming decades.

More than 20 percent of Japan's people are aged 65 or over, one of the highest proportions of elderly in the world. Japan's graying population is a real problem for the country's leaders as they need to ensure the dwindling numbers of workers can pay for all the care needed for the growing army of pensioners.

And the elderly have increasingly more economic clout with Japanese companies targeting them increasingly.

One interesting figure has come out of the diaper manufacturer Unicharm. It announced last week for the first time ever sales of its adult diapers were larger than those for babies.

But Japan's elderly may have increased economic power now, but they know without more children the country is doomed.

"The universal longevity society is what we humans have longed for and what countries across the globe have been aiming for. Yet, in order for Japan, which is in the process of becoming one, to be truly considered as a model of universal longevity society, the country needs to recover the birth rate," Japan's Council of Aging warned in a letter to the prime minister.

The easy answer would be large-scale immigration from other Asian countries, but the Japanese public has historically opposed such a measure. Besides, bringing in other Asians doesn't help increasing the number of Japanese as a race.

Despite concerns about the lack of babies, the country is still a very crowded place. The majority of the population is packed into the coastal belts because the rest of the country is mostly mountains.

If you travel from Osaka through Kobe to the historic city of Kyoto, its impossible to see where one city ends and the other starts as the concrete jungle spreads for hundreds of miles.

Yes, fewer people there in the future may make it less crowded - but who will support the elderly that's left.

And in the United States, well it was just reported that minorities are having more babies than whites. So the question becomes, who will support all these babies when they grow up and there are no one to support them here?


SIXTH SHOT!

New York Police Department Officer Told To Get Muslim Leaders' Blessing Before City Will Honor Slain Officer Killed In Mosque

NYPD Officer Peter Cardillo was gunned down inside a Harlem mosque in one of the darkest moments in the department's history.

Now a New York police officer seeking to rename a Harlem street for a cop gunned down inside a Manhattan mosque 40 years ago was told by local leaders that he had to get the blessing of area Muslims before that can happen.
NYPD Officer Philip Cardillo was shot dead in an infamous 1972 incident in which police responded to a fake "officer down" call from Muhammad Mosque No. 7, which was the New York headquarters for the Nation of Islam.

The accused gunman was later acquitted, and the City of New York's perceived unwillingness to back the police has long been seen as a low point in relations between city government and the police department.

So after four decades, NYPD Inspector and local Precinct Commander Rodney Harrison wants a section of 123rd St. named after Officer Cardillo.

"It's been 40 years," say retired NYPD cop Randy Jurgensen, who was at the mosque when Cardillo was killed. It would be closure for the Cardillo family and the police officers there that day."

"I think they have to give the Inspector some sort of answer," he told Fox News.

In New York, the City Council typically approves street namings - or re-namings - on the recommendation of local Community Boards. But members of Community Board 10, which represents the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, have effectively blocked Harrison's plan by telling him to seek the approval of local Muslim leaders.

"The biggest concern is you are opening up old wounds," one board member told Harrison, according an observer at the hearing. "This [incident] was explosive. Harlem was split down the middle," one board member said to Harrison as he was making his proposal, according an observer at the hearing.

With the proposed street renaming in limbo, the irony of requesting local mosque leaders' permission to honor a fallen cop is not lost on police.

"I think they have to give the Inspector some sort of answer," said Jurgensen, who wrote "Circle of Six," a book about the incident. "They have to answer the request."

Jurgensen said Community Board 10 seems to be trying to avoid landing in the middle of a controversy. "They are understandably playing it safe," he said.

When Harrison attended the meeting with several retired NYPD officers, the board told him he should get a letter of support for the project from local Muslim Imams. He said he had spoken to several and had been assured they would not object, but he did not get letters expressing their support.

"While he had letters of support, he did not have any from any Imams," said one person from Community Board 10 who is familiar with the matter. "The letters aren't required for the proposal to go through, but we feel that those involved with the proposal should reach out to them."

Harrison, who could not be reached for comment, told the board he doesn't think it is likely imams will openly back the plan.

"They are not going to come in here and say, 'thumbs up,'" Harrison said.

Community Board 10 Chairwoman Henrietta Lyle told Fox News that Harrison had not completed his application properly. But at the public meeting, she said the board needs to hear from the mosques and that it is up to the NYPD to arrange a meeting with the Imams, according to an observer at the meeting.

"They seem to be making a lot of excuses not to do this for a cop who died trying to protect that community," said a source familiar with the issue.

The reason that I'm reprinting this story here is because it is a damn shame that a downed officer, an officer who had made the ultimate sacrifice for the City of New York has not received any sort of honor in 40 years. It is unbelievable as much as it is shameful.

SEVENTH SHOT!

INVESTING TIP

A friend passed this along to me. He said he got this advice from his broker today. And after hearing about this, I really think his broker might be on to something.

He said he called him yesterday morning and asked him what he should be investing in? He feels Interest Rates are going to be rising as they did during the late 70's early 80's, so he told him that he thought that they ought to be looking to get out of bonds and finding a safe haven in which to invest.

He asked his broker, "Should we move to precious metals, foreign currency or what?"

His broker responded, "If the current President is in office much longer, canned goods, water and ammunition are probably your best bet!"

To quote the poet: "Many a true word hath been spoke in jest."

LAST SHOT!



Have a good day!

Story by Tom Correa