I'm would definitely do number 8 but it would probably cause them to get my order wrong....

U nailed that one....Gates is from the Bush administration too ....no wonder Chenny is in the hospital...Chenny is splitting his sides from laughing at Obama. I wonder how many times Chenny has said "I told em so".....

There isn't nothing wrong with Chenny's heart....he is about to die from his daily laughings at Obama....Guantanamo, surge in Afghanistan, predator strikes in Pakistan....what change?

Is this Obama or rapper LA Snow...u decide

http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/821966--meme-of-the-week-whoomp-there-he-is

our attempt at nation building after conflict is really what gets the US in a pro longed battle.....fight the conflict....achieve the mission if possible...THEN WE NEED TO GET OUT...leaving the other party to the conflict ALL the work of rebuilding.

President Obama's top counterterrorism adviser knows very little about terrorism, and that's scary for America.

John Brennan, deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism and homeland security, asserted in a speech last month that the United States cannot be at war with terrorism because terrorism is only a "tactic." Terrorism, however, is also a strategy and method, with a long history and extensive theoretical literature. This is why it is an "-ism" and not simply "terror." It is bewildering that Mr. Brennan would make such a glaring error on such a fundamental concept.

Mr. Brennan also asserted that "violent extremists" are victims of "political, economic and social forces." This dense statement implies that counterterrorism should focus not on terrorists themselves but the underlying causes that purportedly "victimized" them. It's similar to the discredited argument that the way to fight urban crime is through big-government social programs rather than putting more police on the beat. Making terrorists into victims also legitimates their grievances, which is a strange way to fight them.

Mr. Brennan's curious views may be part of a larger move by the O Force to redefine terrorism. According to Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of defense for policy, an effort is under way to revise counterterrorism strategy. Last week, at a speech at the Center for a New American Security, she said, "one of the discussions we're having in that context is what are the root causes of extremism."

The anguished quest for the "root causes" of political violence is hardly new. The root cause of terrorism has been the holy grail of counterterrorism research for decades. Most scholars have ruled out the simplistic notion that terrorism is the product of vague social or economic forces or that terrorism arises from backwardness or privation. Were that the case, there would be a great deal more terrorism in the world, and it would not be the hobby of a billionaire's son like Osama bin Laden. So a strategy that focuses on mitigating supposed root causes is hamstrung by the fact that the causes cannot reasonably be determined and that the United States is incapable of solving the world's social and economic problems.

Mr. Brennan also has been waging his own crusade on jihad. He claims "jihad is a holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one's community, and there is nothing holy or legitimate or Islamic about murdering innocent men, women and children." It's true that the term jihad can refer to the inner struggle for purification, something known as the "greater jihad" in Islamic theology. But jihad also can mean the violent struggle against non-Muslims for the defense or extension of the Islamic faith, something known as the "lesser jihad," which to the United States is the greater threat. Mr. Brennan chooses to blind himself to this definition of the word, which is like not understanding that the word "prey" can be both a noun and a verb, each with very different implications.

Mr. Brennan believes attacks on the United States should not be justified in religious terms, but this is how terrorists in fact do justify them. His obtuseness is dangerous. Knowing the enemy is a necessary precondition for victory. A good starting point is bin Laden's November 2002 "Letter to the American People" in which he explicitly addresses the question of why al Qaeda is at war with the United States. It is a comprehensive critique of American society, which he describes as the "worst civilization in the history of the world." Bin Laden's missive is steeped in religious language and is the product of a radical Islamic intellectual tradition that goes back more than a century.

Mr. Brennan's view of Islam as a universally benign force may lead him to dismiss some of al Qaeda's justifications for violence, which reveals willful ignorance. He may maintain that he knows more about Islam than our enemies, but they are dying to prove him wrong.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/11/terrorists-are-the-real-victims/

During the campaign, then-Sen. Barack Obama made light of what he saw as his predecessor-to-be's lack of diplomatic skill. As Wednesday's U.N. Security Council vote on sanctions over Iran's nuclear program showed, Mr. Obama's team could learn a few things about diplomacy from George W. Bush.

The vote sent "an unmistakable message" to Iran about the international community's commitment to stop nuclear proliferation, according to the White House. The vote tally also communicated a secondary point: President Obama is losing the international consensus that Mr. Bush once had. In three rounds of Bush-led U.N. votes on sanctions from 2006 through 2008, there were no negative votes and only one abstention, from Indonesia. By contrast, the resolution Mr. Obama spearheaded was met with two "no" votes, from Turkey and Brazil, and one abstention, from Lebanon. This is a very poor showing, especially given Mr. Obama's smugness about his ability to improve America's image before the world.

Turkey and Brazil were unimpressed at the warnings about opposing sanctions that reportedly came from U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan E. Rice. Turkey's response was predictable; Ankara has actively opposed sanctions against Iran and was one of the architects of the failed "uranium swap" deal that was intended to stave off U.N. action. Turkey is also pursuing better relations with Middle Eastern countries and distancing itself from the West, as illustrated by its growing rift with Israel. This is a foreign-policy disaster in the making that the Obama administration has thus far been incapable of heading off.

Brazil's defection is even more significant. Mr. Obama has touted his close relationship with Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose domestic policies mirror Mr. Obama's big-government liberalism. At last year's G-20 summit, Mr. Obama publicly asked Mr. Lula to use his good relations with Tehran to bring the Islamic republic to the negotiating table. Six months of intense negotiation primarily among Iran, Brazil and Turkey produced the nuclear swap deal. But Mr. Obama rejected the agreement in a letter to Mr. Lula after April's Nuclear Security Summit, saying in essence that Iran was only appearing to cooperate and would not agree to any substantive measures. Rejecting this flawed deal was the right call, but it was a major embarrassment for Mr. Lula. Brazil's "no" vote on sanctions can be read as a smack back at the United States. Brazil is also the first non-Muslim-majority country to fail to support sanctions against Iran.

Lebanon's abstention is noteworthy in that Lebanon recently replaced Libya on the Security Council. The Bush administration had been able to convince Moammar Gadhafi's government to join in the previous sanctions votes; Mr. Obama's team failed to bring in a "yea" from Beirut.

Talk is cheap, but true diplomacy is difficult. Mr. Obama has been coasting on the initial burst of public acclaim he received when he entered office. As time passes, he is finding it hard to deliver on the promised diplomatic achievements he thought he could secure by charisma alone. It turns out that global politics is more complex than it once seemed on the campaign trail. Perhaps the president should take a trip to Dallas to pick up a few pointers from Mr. Bush about how to rally the world behind the policies that are in America's best interests.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/10/obamas-diplomatic-flop/

Each American's share of the total U.S. debt will grow to $60,000 in the next five years unless Congress and the Obama administration reverse their reckless spending habits.

Treasury budget projections released last week show that red ink will swell to $19.6 trillion by 2015. If President Obama wins re-election in 2012, he could easily be responsible for doubling the national debt on his watch. It stood at $10.6 trillion when he took office, which is starting to sound quaint.

With a gift for understatement, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke called this an "unsustainable path" in testimony to the House Budget Committee on Wednesday. A closer look at the numbers suggests we're in worse shape than described.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) assumes 4 percent growth in gross domestic product from 2011 to 2014, which most experts consider an overly optimistic assumption. The Wall Street Journal's latest survey of 53 economists and forecasters found an expectation that the economy would grow at just 3.1 percent next year, which is a paltry rate following a recession, let alone a severe recession. Without growth, tax revenue will remain lower than expected and deficits will rise.

The Treasury also faces the possibility of having to pay higher interest rates - just like the government of Greece - as creditors become increasingly anxious about the U.S. government's high level of debt. As the percentage of government spending devoted to interest payments rises, bond ratings can fall. As bond ratings fall, interest on the debt rises. What once appeared to be a manageable problem quickly turns into a vicious cycle.

Under the Obama budget, CBO predicts that interest payments will eat up 18 percent of federal revenue in 2018 and 20 percent in 2020. Moody's Investors Service, one of the agencies that determines bond ratings, estimates that interest payments could exceed the critical 20 percent level as early as 2013. This could cause U.S. government bonds to slip from AAA to AA status, which would be a warning that the credit quality of U.S. bonds is becoming less reliable.

America's financial condition will continue to erode as Democrats refuse to curtail orgiastic government spending. The tally continues to rise. On top of the $826 billion stimulus and the $400 billion supplemental spending bill are a bloated proposal for a "jobs" bill and numerous other wasteful pork-laden initiatives. As the ever-increasing debt spirals further out of control, Americans should pray that the courts strike down as unconstitutional the Democrats' expensive takeover of the health care system. That would be a small but necessary start to come to grips with our spending addiction and the resultant debt disease.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/11/fast-track-to-the-poorhouse/

I've been posting in these threads about all them campaign promises broken for a long time....and about all them problems those Obama nominees have had....

Constitutional amendment limiting spending to what we can pay for each year fixes the problem.....and that is the only way Congress won't OVERSPEND.

"Roadmap to Recover" June 09

Here is the "Promised" list....Do u see any census jobs?

-The Department of the Interior will begin work to update and maintain 107 National Parks.

-The Department of Education is will fund 135,000 education jobs.

-The Department of Health and Human Services will pay for the expansion of 1,129 Health Centers.

-The Department of Transportation will begin improvements at 98 airports and over 1,500 highways.

-The Department of Veterans Affairs will make improvements at 90 veterans centers.

-The Department of Justice will hire or maintain 5,000 law enforcement officers.

-The Department of Agriculture will begin to build 200 new waste and water systems.

-The Environmental Protection Agency will start or accelerate work at 20 Superfund sites.

-The Department of Labor will create 125,000 summer youth jobs.

-The Department of Defense will undertake construction projects at 359 military facilities.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2009/0608/how-obama-plans-to-create-600000-jobs

ah, the promise was 600,000 new jobs for the 787 billion dollar stimulus...census jobs were NOT included in that but were to be a BONUS lessening unemployment. If Obama can't deliver, he ought to not PROMISE. No spin there.

The US economy created fewer jobs than expected last month as jittery firms shied away from rehiring laid-off Americans, official data showed Friday, fueling fears of a jobless recovery.

In figures that fell well below expectations -- sending markets across the world plummeting -- the Labor Department said 431,000 posts were created in May, most of them temporary government jobs for this year's census.

Private-sector jobs rose by just 41,000, less than a fifth of the amount predicted by analysts.

President Barack Obama's hopes of slashing US unemployment had been expected to get a substantial boost, amid predictions that 500,000 or more jobs would be created.

Obama shrugged off the report, saying a slight drop in the unemployment rate showed the economy was getting stronger.

The US unemployment rate dipped to 9.7 percent from April's 9.9 percent, as large numbers of workers left the labor market.

"This report is a sign that our economy is getting stronger by the day," Obama told a crowd at a suburban truck dealership in Maryland.

"There are going to be some months where people start worrying that, you know, maybe we're not out of the hole yet.

"But if we remain determined, if we stick to it, if we stay the course of investing in our people and businesses... then I'm absolutely positive we can succeed."

But his comments did little to shake fears of a jobless recovery.

"There is no sugarcoating this report as it was disappointing," said Joel Naroff of Naroff Economic Advisors. "Forget the headline number, the private sector is not out there hiring like crazy."

That response was echoed on Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 160 points, or more than 1.5 percent, in opening trades. Key indices in Europe also fell.

Analysts said the skittishness was caused by fears the private sector will not be able to prop up the economy as the government gradually withdraws stimulus spending.

"The softer performance in US private sector payrolls... raises concern that the recovery is faltering," Stephen Gallagher and Aneta Markowska of Societe Generale said in a note to clients.

That would spell bad news for the nearly one in 10 American workers who are unemployed and continue to stream into government offices asking for help.

The Labor Department says almost 4.7 million Americans now claim unemployment benefits, with 453,000 new claims in the last week of May alone.

Instead of rehiring staff many firms are asking workers to put in longer hours or are creating only part-time jobs, according to data also released Friday.

The Labor Department said the average workweek has increased by around 20 minutes from a year ago to just over 34 hours.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/us-job-data-for-may-worse-than-expected-20100604-xky1.html

Not enough is being done to clean up the oil....everything possible should be used to get the oil up while it's still out to sea.

That's where Obama could have made a difference....

It just seems like a bad time for any firm with the word "British" in its title. We know all too well the various setbacks experienced by the oil giant once known as British Petroleum; now British Airways has drawn much unwelcome attention to itself with a photo touting its new mobile-boarding pass system as it appears to expedite the air travel of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted man.





The photo appeared in the LHR News, the company's internal staff magazine covering London's Heathrow Airport. The image accompanied an article spelling out the benefits of the mobile-boarding setup, which permits users of mobile digital devices to print out their boarding passes on the fly. The boarding pass reads "Bin Laden/Osama" and appears in the graphic panel of a user's iPhone. (AT&T reception in remote Pakistani caves is apparently better than anyone might have guessed.)

What's more, the image features a frequent-flier number for passenger bin Laden — so much for all those airport terrorist watch lists — and has him flying first class on Oct. 26, 2010. As the travel site Gadling.com mused, "sadly, knowing the brilliant minds behind the anti-terror organizations, the terror level will be raised to 'red hot' on October 26, 2010, while airport police all over the world try to figure out which airport the most wanted terrorist in the world will be flying to."

So how did this happen? The short answer is that no one knows — or at least, no one's telling if they do. A British Airways spokeswoman told ABC News reporter Scott Mayerowitz that "a mistake has been made in this internal publication and we are working to find out how this occurred." And in response to a follow-up call from Yahoo! News, another spokeswoman for the airline remained firmly on message, saying, "We're still working to find out how this occurred at this time."

The gaffe could be the result of a tasteless prank that got out of hand — but current speculation is running toward the theory that it's the handiwork of a disgruntled employee. British Airways is currently locked in a labor dispute with the union representing its cabin-crew workers, and the strike has grounded flights for thousands of travelers in one of the busiest travel times of the year. At issue in the labor fight is a proposed cut in the base salaries for new flight attendants. The company estimates that it has lost more than $150 million in revenue during the dispute.

Between the union woes and the Osama PR setback, British Airways executives must be fondly reminiscing about last summer, when the major controversy was the airline's plan to sell ad space on its online boarding passes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100602/ts_ynews/ynews_ts2359

I expect the census is about as accurate as predicting when someone will step in chewed gum.....

Since Afghanistan is now Obama's war(He campaigned it... as the right war)) ....You'd think Obama would go where MOST Americans want their presidents on Memorial Day...and the list above proves that.

ROFLMAO

Probably the FACT that we already know that what Obama has offerred won't work....an invasion is going on everday on our borders....it's gonna take a drastic change of action to clean it up.

Another half a** attempt by the government at something that has already been proven that.... it don't work.

Terrible comparison....East Germany's wall was to keep people from leaving more than it was to keep people out. Big Difference....