Author: Personal Liberty

02.23.10 04:00 AM

Just a few days before the White House-initiated bipartisan healthcare summit is to take place, President Obama released a new reform proposal on Monday that builds on legislation that was created by the Senate late last year. However, the administration’s latest attempt at an overhaul of the healthcare system has drawn ire from many Republicans who see it as another example of the Democrats’ refusal to compromise.

Obama’s new plan is, in essence, a combination of the House and Senate bills that were created by Democrats in 2009.

The proposal still gives the federal government the power to regulate the health insurance industry by blocking or limiting substantial premium increases for consumers. It will also dramatically scale back the Senate proposal for a tax on high-cost insurance plans and will utilize a Medicare payroll tax increase to plug the revenue gap, according to The Associated Press.

In evaluating the new plan, GOP leaders have said that the proposed legislation and the bipartisan summit on Thursday are simply veiled efforts by Democrats to push through their own agenda.

"This week’s summit clearly has all the makings of a Democratic infomercial for continuing on a partisan course that relies on more backroom deals and parliamentary tricks to circumvent the will of the American people and jam through a massive government takeover of healthcare," said House Minority Leader John Boehner.

White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said the proposal is simply an "opening bid" going into Thursday’s summit.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…osal-19630377/

02.21.10 07:00 PM

During the recent convention of the Tea Party nation, former Republican Congressman and presidential candidate Tom Tancredo delivered a speech in which he blasted "illiterate" immigrants for having elected President Obama. His statement is now attracting growing criticism from ethnic organizations.

At the convention, Tancredo said that those who cannot spell or say the word "vote" in English elected Obama, whom he defined as "a committed socialist ideologue." He added that this happened because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote."

In response, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a prominent civil rights and advocacy group, said the speaker’s apparent call for literacy tests that would enable individuals to obtain voting rights would "turn back the clock on the civil rights movement."

"Mr. Tancredo’s offensive remarks are an insult to all those who fought, and sometimes died, to ensure that Americans of all races could exercise their right to vote," said CAIR national board chairman and North Carolina State Senator Larry Shaw.

Shaw also called on elected officials in both parties as well as National Tea Party Convention organizers to repudiate Tancredo’s remarks.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…ants-19622277/

02.21.10 07:01 PM

Scan me, strip me, pat me down, abuse my kids: it’s all okay, just keep me safe. That’s the mindset of today’s airline passenger. So that’s precisely what agents from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) do.

And the more compliant passengers become the more abusive government becomes.

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks the traveling public gladly handed over their 4th Amendment (that’s the one that is supposed to keep people “secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures”) rights to a government promising to keep them “safe.”

Hoping to remain safe we allowed airline security personnel to search through our luggage and carry-on bags as if we’re criminals and, if we “looked suspicious,” pat us down as well. Then the TSA was formed and in a matter of months thousands of new people were hired as screeners, and things got worse.

Now, according to press reports, this is what we get:

• Sippy cups taken from toddlers—A former Secret Service agent who left the service to raise her child was stopped by TSA because there was water in her 19-month-old son’s sippy cup. She asked if she could have it back if she drank or poured out the water but the “friendly” TSA agent refused. She asked for a supervisor. The supervisor told her she had to leave security, empty the cup and be re-screened. While being escorted out by TSA and a police officer she unscrewed the cap to drink the water and some spilled. She was then made to get down on her hands and knees to clean up the spill while her son cried for his cup. Then she was ordered to apologize for the spill and was threatened with arrest. In all, three TSA agents and four police officers were brought in to detain and harass a mom trying to have on hand what she needed to keep her son happy on a flight. Of course, she missed her flight. (The Philadelphia Enquirer)

• Moms forced to drink breast milk—A mother with an infant brought bottles of breast milk in her carryon bag so she wouldn’t have to nurse her child on the plane. TSA agents made her drink it to prove it wasn’t harmful.

• Kids’ Play-doh confiscated—TSA agents found tubs of Play-doh in a parent’s bag and confiscated it in front a 3-year-old, saying it looked like plastic explosives. The parent brought it to occupy the child on the flight. Sorry kid, you could be a terrorist.

• White-haired grandmothers strip searched—Suspicious-looking white-haired grandmothers are often taken out of the screening line and taken to another room for extra screening. It makes perfect sense. They fit the profile after all.

• Diminutive business woman charged with assaulting TSA agents—A small 57-year-old business woman was for some reason singled out for extra screening and TSA agents began emptying her carry-on bags. She objected and asked for a private screening. TSA took her to a private room and examined everything in her bags, including sniffing lipstick and pulling out credit cards. TSA agents claim the woman demanded the bags be carefully repacked. Upon leaving the room, according to TSA, the woman hit TSA agents with her bag and threw sandals. She was arrested, spent 17 hours in jail and charged with 10 felonies. A judge threw out all the charges and expunged her record because TSA didn’t save the video tape of the alleged incident. (The Philadelphia Enquirer)

• TSA agents as jokesters—A TSA agent confronted a young woman who had just come through the metal detector. Holding up a bag of white powder he asked her, “What’s this?” The woman said she was dumbfounded and became very frightened because nothing like that should have been in her bag. After harassing her about it for a moment the TSA agent smiled and said, “Just joking.”

• Four-year-old forced to remove leg braces and walk himself through screening—A Camden, N.J., police officer, his wife and their 4-year-old son were traveling to Orlando for the child’s birthday. The child, who was born 16 weeks premature, is developmentally delayed and has malformed ankles, was forced to remove his leg braces and walk through the metal detector on his own—something that he was just learning to do. He managed to make it through. The father, understandably upset, confronted a supervisor who turned and walked away. A local police officer approached and told the father he should calm down and enjoy his vacation. When a reporter asked a TSA spokesperson how such a thing could happen the TSA representative said the boy should never have been made to remove his braces, he should have just been taken to a screening room and had his braces swabbed for explosives instead. (The Philadelphia Enquirer)

Incidents like these leave you scratching you head. But it’s not just foolishness on the part of some undertrained agent—although there is a lot that throughout the TSA—it’s a power play by people given a little authority that they begin to abuse. And it plays into the hands of government seeking more control.

And here’s an example of how they always want more control: On the heels of the Christmas Day underwear bomber incident, TSA said it was installing naked body scanners in all airports: a boon to some well-heeled government players, as we documented here.

Now it’s not enough for them to rifle through your bags, humiliate you or feel you up, they now want to see you and your kids naked—and expose you to harmful radiation to boot. We documented the health risks posed by naked body scanners here.

Of course, TSA promised that there is no way for the images taken by the scanners to be saved or transmitted. As implausible as that was, that was their story. Now we see that TSA was indeed lying when it said the machines could not store or transmit images.

In London, Indian film star Shahrukh Khan told a British television audience that after he went through security at Heathrow Airport female security agents had printouts of his image made by the scanners. He said “you could see everything.” He autographed them and returned them to the women.

As usual, the goal by government is not to keep you safe, as evidenced by the facts that have come out about the Christmas Day underwear bomber. The goal is to continue to peel back your resistance to their tyranny. Scare you, show you a government solution and sell it, all while enriching a few well-connected people. That’s the government way.

But most go along to get along, as long as a semblance of safety is promised.

Scan me, strip me, pat me down, abuse my kids; even take pictures of my kid’s naked body. I feel safer already.

http://www.personalliberty.com/freed…-keep-me-safe/

02.18.10 07:02 PM

On Feb. 22, an amendment to the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009, authored by Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), which permits national park visitors to possess firearms consistent with the laws of the state in which the park is located, is set to go into effect. However, not everyone is happy.

The law was supported by the National Rifle Association (NRA), but has come under criticism from other groups, including Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (CNPSR).

The organization has said it is a significant departure from long-established gun regulations that allowed visitors to possess guns in parks only if they were stowed away and unloaded.

According to the group, numerous parks will be affected, but it highlighted 11 major ones of particular concern, including the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, a state that has permissive gun laws.

"While standing on Mather Point, enjoying the breathtaking view of the canyon, you could see another visitor with an assault rifle slung on his shoulder," CNPSR warned.

"[It] will have a chilling effect [as] a feeling of safety and security will be replaced by wariness and suspicion," said Bill Wade, chair of CNPSR’s executive council, adding that "This diminishes some of the ’specialness and reverence’ our citizens have long accorded to national parks."

CNPSR also expressed concern about a higher likelihood of shooting at wildlife and valuable resources, such as prehistoric petroglyphs.

Meanwhile, Coburn appeared unfazed by the criticism, saying that "if you give up on the 2nd Amendment, you give up on them all," and adding that it represents the "checks and balances" of the government and is the most important guarantee citizens have, quoted by Tulsa Beacon.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…arks-19611914/

02.18.10 07:02 PM

A coalition of gun violence prevention groups in Virginia has criticized the House Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee of the Virginia General Assembly for holding a surprise subcommittee meeting to pass HB 49, a bill that would repeal Virginia’s one-handgun-per-month law.

The bill was pre-filed in early January by Republican State Delegate Scott Lingamfelter, who is a retired U.S. Army colonel and sits on the Militia, Police, and Public Safety Committee. HB 49 would repeal the state’s law that limits Virginia residents to one handgun purchase every 30 days.

According to the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, the subcommittee had originally announced that it would conduct no further meetings, leaving HB 49 unreported. However, on Feb. 10, it reconvened late in the day giving only a few hours’ notice to the public to approve the piece of legislation.

"This is back-room politics at its very worst," said Andy Goddard, president of the Richmond Chapter of the Million Mom March, adding that the current law was designed to curb illegal gun trafficking in the Commonwealth.

"Attempting to repeal this law under the cover of a blizzard, in a surprise meeting, is reprehensible," he added.

Vagunforum.net says that only three other states ration handgun purchases—California, Maryland and New Jersey.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…ling-19617094/

02.18.10 07:02 PM

The most popular complementary and alternative (CAM) medicines for women suffering from breast cancer are biologically based therapies, such as vitamins or dietary supplements, a Michigan State University (MSU) researcher has found.

Gwen Wyatt of MSU’s College of Nursing, who is working to create a support intervention program for women recovering from breast cancer, looked at the five major categories of alternative therapies, including biological, mind-body, manipulative and body, energy and alternative medical systems.

After biologically based therapies, the second most popular CAM treatment option were mind-body therapies, which involve the use of audio tapes, video and music therapy.

Wyatt also discovered that the majority of women recovering from breast cancer surgery are using CAM methods without the full knowledge of their benefits.

"Women are using these therapies, but they have little education about safety and efficacy," said Wyatt. "They could really benefit from information on how to make a wise decision and choose the best therapies."

Women recovering from breast cancer who are interested in alternative therapies should consult their physician.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…ents-19617093/

02.18.10 07:02 PM

*“Snowmaggedon” didn’t last long enough. With my apologies to many friends in the Washington, D.C., area who work at productive jobs in the private sector, let me say, I wish your city had been paralyzed longer. The only time I feel safe from government is when it’s shut down.

*“Miss Me Yet?” That’s the provocative question that’s appearing on many billboards in the Midwest—above a larger-than-life-sized picture of a smiling and waving George W. Bush. While I was no fan of Mr. Bush’s budget-busting social policies—or for that matter, his propensity to risk American lives in every two-bit banana republic around the world—I do have to admit, yes, our country was safer and our dollar was stronger when he was in office.

*Another Kennedy bids adieu. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, has announced that he will not seek reelection in Massachusetts this fall. Unless he changes his mind (or another Kennedy steps forward), this will be the first time in more than half a century that no Kennedy is serving in Congress. While his dad combined a powerful legislative record with a dissolute personal life, the son has only managed to copy his father on the second.

*Big-buck investors bet Obamacare is dead. Maybe the liberals in Washington still hope to pass some version of a socialized healthcare bill, but the big money is betting it won’t happen. How do I know? HCA Inc., the largest hospital operator in the nation, just agreed to pay out a special dividend to its owners of $1.75 billion. No way would these canny investors do that if they didn’t think their business is going to be very, very profitable. They don’t plan to live on what Medicare pays.

—Chip Wood

http://www.personalliberty.com/chip-…and-obamacare/

02.18.10 05:00 AM

The White House has announced that President Obama is meeting with Tibet’s exiled leader the Dalai Lama today, despite demands by China to cancel the talks.

China has warned the meeting will damage Beijing’s relationship with Washington as the communist nation accuses the Dalai Lama of pushing to free Tibet from Chinese rule, a claim he denies.

Obama’s decision not to meet with the disputed region’s spiritual leader last year created a setback for the Tibetan cause and was interpreted by some as a sign of American weakness as well as an opportunity for China to enhance pressure on other countries to cut their ties to the exiled government, said the Dalai Lama’s special envoy Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, quoted by The New York Times.

"Unfortunately it had definitely created setbacks for us on that score," he told the news provider, but added that "it is my hope that this meeting will help overcome these concerns."

Meanwhile, deputy press secretary Bill Burton told reporters that the U.S. considers Tibet part of China, but urged the Chinese to respect Tibet’s cultural and religious traditions.

Commentators suggest Obama is walking a fine line between his desire to promote the rights of Tibetans while cultivating good relations with China, whose support he needs to counter nuclear proliferation by North Korea and Iran, secure an agreement on climate change and deal with the global financial crisis.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…ngth-19622279/

02.17.10 07:01 PM

Vice President Joe Biden struck back at Dick Cheney this week, stating that the former vice president is "factually and substantively wrong" regarding his criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of the war against al-Qaida.

Earlier, in an interview with ABC’s This Week, Cheney blasted the president’s approach to national security, including his decision to try 9/11 suspects in civilian rather than military courts.

In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Biden said that the former vice president is ignoring the facts and is either "misinformed or misinforming."

"I don’t know where Dick Cheney has been," said Biden. "Look, it’s one thing again to criticize. It’s another thing to sort of rewrite history."

Cheney also lashed out at Biden personally, criticizing the former Delaware senator for publicly stating that the U.S. is unlikely to face another attack similar to 9/11 due to the current administration’s approach to terrorism.

"You don’t want the vice president of the U.S. running around saying, ‘Oh, it’s not likely to happen,’" said Cheney.

The former vice president also strongly defended waterboarding, the controversial interrogation technique used against terrorist suspects during the Bush administration, but officially banned by President Obama.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…sive-19617092/

02.17.10 07:02 PM

Former vice president Dick Cheney has been a vocal political commentator in recent months, focusing mainly on criticizing the Obama administrations’ foreign and security policy. However, when asked what he thought about Sarah Palin’s suitability to run for president in 2012, Cheney sought to dodge the question.

Appearing on ABC’s This Week last Sunday, Cheney was asked if the former vice presidential candidate was qualified for the job. He responded by saying that he had not yet made a decision as to who he would support in two years.

"Whoever it is [he or she is] going to have to prove themselves capable of being president of the U.S. And those tests will come during the course of campaigns, obviously," he said, quoted by CNN.

Cheney added that all of the prospective candidates today still have work to do to persuade Americans that they are up to carrying out "the world’s toughest job."

Earlier this month the former governor of Alaska delivered the keynote speech at the first-ever Tea Party national convention in Nashville, Tenn. A day after the speech, Palin, who is a new Fox News commentator, revealed that she was receiving daily policy briefings from advisers, and hinted she might run for president in 2012.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…ions-19617098/

02.15.10 04:43 PM

Last Friday, a professor at the University of Alabama-Huntsville shot and killed three colleagues, and wounded three others, in a rampage that has reignited the debate about the merit of the laws passed in several states, and pending in many more, that allow guns on America’s campuses.

Amy Bishop, whose history includes a 1986 shooting death of her brother, allegedly opened fire at a department faculty meeting. According to media reports, the Harvard-educated professor had previously expressed resentment over being denied tenure, although nothing suggested she was violent.

Bishop’s history has caused anger among relatives of the shooting victims who have been quoted by the media as asking why the university hired someone with her background.

The accident has also spurred Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus to issue a statement in which it says that "[it] shows once again that an angry individual with access to a deadly handgun can commit mass murder wherever people gather, in workplaces, shopping malls, churches, schools and universities."

The organization’s director Andy Pelosi said that the gun lobby’s push to allow students and faculty to carry weapons on campus in order to fend off similar attacks is a "mistaken wild west fantasy."

"Why does anyone think that untrained students or professors would be better able to stop a rampage shooting than trained security officers?" he asked.

Pelosi called on lawmakers in states with pending ‘guns on campus’ bills to withdraw such legislation.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…mpus-19617100/

02.16.10 07:01 PM

It was the girl with the dark hair. For a few seconds Winston was too paralyzed to move. Whether she was really an agent of the Thought Police, or simply an amateur spy actuated by officiousness, hardly mattered. It was enough that she was watching him.”
George Orwell, 1984

With just days to go and a congressional recess looming, lawmakers are scrambling to find a legislative solution to re-up government surveillance and intelligence-gathering powers that are expiring at the end of the month.

With national security shaping up to be a major issue this election cycle, both sides are under intense pressure to reauthorize three expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Already Senate Democratic leaders are moving toward including a one-year extension on the provisions in their jobs bill, which was expected to be introduced this week.

No one doubts that the world changed for the worse since 9/11. One way has been our own government’s suspicion and surveillance of the very people that elected it.

Of course Washington has been telling us for a decade that it has no choice, that it must spy on us for our own good. It is all part of the War on Terror.

It is worth noting that our government began spying on us in earnest a generation earlier. That time it was because of the War on Drugs.

* * * *

It was a hot July day in 1990 and I needed a cold drink. The offices to the Myers’ newsletter were on the second floor the Old National Bank Building at the North Division Y on Division Street in Spokane, Wash. One of the perks of paying hefty rent in the new building was that the bank let us use their lunch room replete with cola and snack machines.

Moments after my quarters had plunked into the machine I had a cold can of Coca-Cola in my hands. On the way out of the lunch room I noticed a giant poster on the wall from the Department of the Treasury (see chart below).

Click on the image above to expand the view.As you can see its pretense is to catch criminals involved in “narcotics trafficking.” See the mention on the bottom? It offers “substantial rewards for information leading to the seizure of currency and/or the arrest and conviction of individuals violating United States currency laws.”

In other words, beware of the kindly bank teller if you deal in cash for whatever reason. He or she has openly been bribed to spy for the Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Department (IRS) and U.S. Customs to boot.

You can see that more than a decade before 9/11 our government was busying itself in spying on its citizens. And the biggest attack on our liberty isn’t on what kind of gun we can own, where we can smoke, or even what we search out on the Internet. It is the slow and insidious control of our currency. How much money we have, where we have it and how we move it has become a preoccupation of the Federal Government.

There was a time when there were $1,000 bills. That is no longer. A rapidly devaluing hundred dollar bill is the biggest unit of currency today (in 2010 a $100 bill has the purchasing power of a 1975 $20 bill).

Twenty five years ago you could buy and own U.S. Treasury bearer bonds. Unregistered, they avoided scores of red tape—they could be bought and sold literally overnight; or if necessary, kept in safe keeping away from prying eyes. They too are extinct.

There was a time when you could move money in and out of the country, no questions asked. You can’t do that anymore. For years anything over $10,000 going across the border must be reported.

Uncle Sam wants to know any transaction over $10,000. That law doesn’t just apply to banks or border agents. If you go into your Ford dealer tomorrow and plunk down $12,000 cash, it will be reported to the Feds. Not only that, but if you spend more than $10,000 cash at a car dealership within a year (bought two cars on two different occasions for $6,000 each), the dealer is responsible to report the total of both transactions. In effect, private business has been conscripted by the Federal Government to report on its customers. And the Federal Government’s heavy hand reaches beyond U.S. borders.

In the late 1990s I was driving from my home in Spokane to Calgary, Canada. At that time it was illegal to transport more than $10,000 currency out of the United States, but Canada had no such laws (that would come a few years later, no doubt under pressure from Washington). At the Kings Gate border in British Columbia the Canadian Customs Agent asked if I was carrying more than $10,000 cash.

“What do you care?” I asked.

This did not sit well with the young lady charged with protecting Canada.

“Are you going to tell me… or are we going to have to strip your car and your person?”

“The answer is no, but what I want to know is why are you asking me this? It is not against Canadian law for me to bring in any amount of currency, is it?”

“No,” she said, “it is not. But it is against U.S. law!”

To underscore what she was saying she pointed 75 yards to the U.S. Customs office welcoming southbound traffic.

“So what you are telling me is that you are not only a Canadian customs agent, but you are also acting at the behest of the United States government?”

I realized I was walking a razor thin line and in jeopardy of having my car torn apart. Fortunately she handed me my drivers license (the days before you had to have a passport) and without a word she motioned me to continue on my trip.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote to you about the War on Gold. What I have learned in the last few years is that our government is conducting a War on Cash. Washington despises cash because it is an instrument we can use to exercise our liberties without being monitored. Yet for non-criminals like you and me it is a disappearing tool. Fewer and fewer of us do business with currency any longer, leaving whatever commerce we have easily tracked and traced.

Yet just as criminals continue to have ready access to guns, they too have mountains of cash. There is almost $900 billion in circulation, four times the amount there was in 1990. Meanwhile there are only 300 million Americans. If the drug cartels and terrorists weren’t holding buckets of cash, every man, woman and child would have $3,000 stuffed in their pockets or mattresses. Even if you account for what the banks have on hand (which is surprisingly little), that is a ludicrous number.

Law abiding Americans are without the utility of cash and the inherent privacy it allows when conducting commerce. Yet the drug dealers and terrorists have stacks and stacks of currency on hand.

Today our government is able to track almost all of our transactions in this increasingly cashless and restricted society. Never mind the War on Drugs and the War on Terror. It seems to me that the real war is being conducted on the American people.

http://www.personalliberty.com/john-…hless-society/

02.12.10 05:16 PM

On the Larry King Live show last week, Vice President Joe Biden took credit for the success in Iraq, stating that the United States involvement in the war-torn country "could be one of the great achievements of [the Obama] administration."

The vice president’s statements have angered many Republicans who have pointed out that, as senators, Biden and Obama both opposed the surge in Iraq.

Biden also credited the current administration with the troop withdrawal process that is currently underway, an initiative that was actually negotiated in the Status of Forces Agreement before President Obama took office.

"The reduction in U.S. forces that is under way right now is…largely the continuation of the policy that President Bush had set in place when he negotiated the drawdown schedule with Prime Minister Maliki at the end of 2008," said Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution, quoted by Fox News.

When asked how the administration could take credit for an agreement that was signed before their tenure, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that Obama’s political pressure, as a then-candidate, helped to implement the withdrawal accord.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…ment-19614489/

02.15.10 07:01 PM

A large European study has found that low levels of circulating vitamin D are associated with a higher risk of developing colorectal cancer.

From 1992 to 1998, more than 520,000 participants from 10 western European countries completed detailed dietary questionnaires and gave blood samples. After tracking the subjects for several years, researchers identified 1,248 cases of colorectal cancer.

After matching those cases with the same number of healthy controls, the study’s authors found that participants with high levels of vitamin D experienced a 40 percent decrease in colorectal cancer risk when compared to subjects with the lowest levels.

However, while below average vitamin D levels were associated with an increased risk of developing the disease, extremely high levels of the nutrient were not related to any additional reduction in colon cancer risk.

Separate studies have also linked vitamin D to the regulation of glucose control, blood pressure and inflammation, three important risk factors associated with heart disease.

The best known sources for the nutrient are the flesh of salmon, tuna and mackerel as well as milk. The vitamin can also be taken in the form of nutritional supplements.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…ncer-19601509/

02.15.10 07:01 PM

President Obama lashed out at Senate Republicans last week, blaming them for holding up a number of his nominees for key federal positions. Obama warned the GOP that if they do not act on these "non-controversial" nominees that have "overwhelming support," then he would consider making several recess appointments when the Senate is not in session.

Since taking office the administration has announced nominees for 569 posts, but so far only 353 have been confirmed, Fox News reports. Obama faults the GOP’s "obstinacy," which he believes is "rooted not in substantive disagreements but in political expedience."

"I respect the Senate’s role to advise and consent, but for months, qualified nominees for critical positions in government—often positions related to our national security—have been held up despite having overwhelming support," Obama said.

The president’s appointment power would allow him to install his nominees while the Senate is in recess. To be confirmed, however, those appointments would need to be approved by the end of the next session of Congress.

Meanwhile, Republican leaders in the Senate have shot back at Democrats, stating that they had a 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority until just a few weeks ago and should have acted quicker on their own nominations, according to The Hill.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…nees-19611879/

02.14.10 07:01 PM

For the first time since being sworn into office, Senator Scott Brown (R-Mass.) got a chance to flex his conservative muscles by voting to block President Obama’s nominee to the National Labor Relations Board. As it turned out, however, the GOP did not need Brown’s 41st vote to sustain the filibuster.

Senate Democratic leaders failed to muster the 60 votes necessary to approve the nomination of Craig Becker to the board that resolves disputes between unions and management. The final tally was 52-33 in favor of appointing Becker. Fifteen senators were not able to cast their vote due to violent snowstorms in the Washington area.

Senators Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), crossed the aisle and voted to block the president’s nomination.

"Craig Becker’s theories about how the workplace should function, if ever put into practice, would impose new burdens on employers, hurt job creation and slow down the recovery," said Brown.

Becker has also been blasted by business leaders who fear that, if appointed, he would further empower unions by embracing the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow labor groups to have a stronger hand in organizing employees, according to The Washington Times. Republicans have heavily criticized the bill, which is scheduled to be voted on in the Senate later this year.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…inee-19609222/

02.14.10 07:01 PM

President Obama’s paternal aunt Zeituni Onyango, who is a citizen of Kenya and living in the U.S. illegally, appeared in a Boston court recently to fight a deportation order issued in 2004.

Onyango, who is wheelchair bound, testified before Judge Leonard Shapiro about her asylum request, according to media reports. Her previous request filed in 2002 was denied both in first instance and on appeal, but the 57-year-old remained in the U.S. nonetheless.

The latest round began in December 2008, when the deportation order was suspended pending a new asylum bid. Judge Shapiro did not issue a ruling last week, and attorneys have 30 days to file written closing briefs. The hearing may be continued on May 25 if there is no decision before then.

The case has come under fire from immigration reform proponents, such as Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, who said it is symptomatic of what is wrong with the U.S. asylum adjudication process.

"Her case is all too typical, where you have people who have had countless bites at the apple, continuing to press appeal after appeal…and never actually being removed from the country," he said, quoted by OneNewsNow.com.

Mehlman added that this only encourages immigrants to abuse America’s asylum policies.

A spokesperson for Obama said the president is not involved in any aspect of the case.

"This is a legal issue, and the president strongly believes that the law should be followed by everyone," press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters last week, quoted by CNN.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…tion-19609279/

02.11.10 07:01 PM

More than a year after the Bush administration left office activists are still trying to unravel some of the mysteries surrounding the alleged use of torture during the interrogations of terrorism suspects.

In the latest installment, DisbarTortureLawyers.com has joined forces with other organizations to demand the impeachment of Jay Bybee, a federal judge and the former head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Council. They claim that Bybee authored memos that sanctioned the use of torture and "offensive war."

The coalition has cited a recent Newsweek story that suggests the Department of Justice report on Bybee and his subordinates has been edited to remove the finding of misconduct that appeared in the report’s original version.

"If the Newsweek piece is true … then Congress should immediately launch a full scale investigation to determine if politics, political pressure or something worse entered into this decision," said DisbarTortureLawyers spokesperson and attorney Kevin Zeese.

He added that the group will also seek to work with foreign lawyers and judges to prosecute "torture advocates" for crimes against humanity.

"That torture has resulted in many deaths, not just of torture victims, but of our own soldiers who were killed by those who turned against America because our government tortured," Zeese concluded.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…ture-19593761/

02.11.10 07:02 PM

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs threw a sarcastic jab at Sarah Palin, mocking the former Alaska governor for looking down at talking points written on her left hand during her keynote speech at the National Tea Party Convention last week.

During her address in Nashville Feb. 6, photographers caught Palin looking down at her hand, where she had written the words "energy", "budget," "tax" and "lift American spirits." Later in her talk to fellow conservatives, the former vice presidential candidate ridiculed President Obama for his consistent use of teleprompters throughout his first year in office.

A few days later, while answering questions from reporters regarding healthcare reform, the White House press secretary turned his ink-stained hand toward the cameras while he derided Palin.

"Oh, I wrote a few things down," said Gibbs, looking at palm. "I wrote eggs, milk and bread… then I wrote down hope and change just in case I forgot them."

When asked about the content of Palin’s speech, Gibbs noted that the convention appeared to be "a pretty successful private enterprise," a possible reference to fees charged to attendees who came to hear her speak, according to The New York Times.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…otes-19609202/

02.10.10 07:01 PM

During the weekend, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin delivered the keynote address to the attendees of the Tea Party movement’s first-ever national convention Feb. 6, saying that the Obama administration’s policies were causing America to "drown in debt."

Speaking in Nashville, Palin said that the government’s outsize spending—in particular its massive $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal year 2011—will place undue burden on the shoulders of future generations.

Palin also criticized Obama’s foreign policy, dismissing it as too conciliatory and failing to "distinguish America’s friends from her enemies" as well as face up to the "true nature" of the threats to national security.

In concluding her speech, the former Alaska governor affirmed her support for the Tea Party movement, stating that "America is ready for another revolution and you are part of this." However, she reportedly dismissed the idea of becoming its leader as it was not "a top-down operation."

Finally, a day after the speech, Palin, who is a new Fox News commentator, revealed on the air that she was receiving daily policy briefings from advisers, and hinted she might run for president in 2012.

http://www.personalliberty.com/news/…ress-19604076/