What he did for my brothers (Vets) is a great thing.

Read it again. The answer to your question is there.

620

581

NOT!

President Barack Obama gave an unusually personal speech about his religious faith on Thursday, saying that "it is the biblical injunction to serve the least of these that keeps me going and keeps me from being overwhelmed," in address to a prayer breakfast in Washington.

The speech, delivered at the National Prayer Breakfast, comes on the heels of public opinion surveys that show only a minority of Americans know that Obama is a Christian and that a growing number believe he's a Muslim.

"My Christian faith has been sustaining for me over the last couple of years and even more so when Michelle and I hear our faith questioned from time to time," the president said Thursday, referring to his wife. "We are reminded that ultimately what matters is not what other people say about us but that we are true to our conscience and true to our God."

"When I wake in the morning, I wait on the Lord, I ask him to give me the strength to do right by our country and our people," Obama said later. "And when I go to bed at night, I wait on the Lord and I ask him to forgive me my sins and to look after my family and to make me an instrument of the Lord."

The address was televised and streamed live on the White House website.

The White House denied that the speech is a response to public misperceptions about Obama's religion.

"He's a committed Christian, one who takes his faith very seriously," said a White House official before the speech. "There may be misunderstanding and some folks who attack his faith, but at the end of the day the American people know who he is and where he stands."

A major survey last fall, however, showed that a substantial and growing number of Americans believes that Obama - a self-described Christian - is Muslim.

Nearly 1 in 5 Americans believes Obama is a Muslim, up from about one in 10 Americans who said he was Muslim in 2009, according to the survey. It was conducted in July and August by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Fewer than half of Democrats and African-Americans, core components of Obama's political base, correctly identified Obama as Christian.

The Rev. Joel Hunter, a Florida minister who is close to the president and was consulted about parts of Obama's Thursday speech, says he has encouraged Obama to open up about his faith.

"He needs to openly declare himself a Christian and not settle for people's skepticism at that point," said Hunter, who leads an evangelical church in Orlando. "All of us ought to be able to say who we are and taken for our word. It's frustrating because he still has some people questioning his faith."

Hunter says that he and the White House were caught off-guard by the results of last year's Pew survey on Americans' views of Obama's religion.

On Thursday, Obama spoke at length about his prayer life, saying his prayers fall into three categories: for those who are struggling, for personal humility, and to be closer to God.

"Faith reminds me that in spite of being one very imperfect man I can still help whoever I can, however I can, wherever I can for as long as I can," Obama said of the first kind of prayer, "and that somehow God will buttress these efforts."

"The second recurring theme in my prayer is a prayer for humility," Obama said later. "God answered the prayer early on by having me marry Michelle."

"The challenge is to balance this uncertainty and humility with a need to fight for deeply held convictions," he continued. "I pray for this wisdom very day. I pray for God to show me and all us the limits of our understanding."

With regard to his third kind of prayer, Obama said the recurring theme "is that I might walk closer to God and make that walk my first and most important walk."

The White House believes that some of the ignorance about the president's faith is the result of a misinformation campaign against him.

"Under the radar there are of course those who would not tell the truth about him," said the White House official, who would not speak for attribution. "There are folks who have a misunderstanding of the president's faith and who repeat that misunderstanding."

But Hunter said that the speech was as much a product of Obama settling into office and feeling more comfortable about revealing his personal side.

The White House official echoed that point. "He's had a little over two years in office now and he's had some time to reflect on how his faith intersects with public work," the official said. "He's had the time to make those reflections."

The National Prayer Breakfast has been an annual Washington event for 58 years

*** Focusing on Obama’s faith: This FOX focus group of Iowa Republicans, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kGasHGXSy4&feature=player_embedded who watched Obama's interview with Bill O'Reilly is more evidence that no matter how many times the president talks about his Christian faith (remember he did so VERY publicly just last week), a certain segment of the population still believes -- incorrectly -- that he's a Muslim.

Don't they still teach, "See Dick Run," the alphabet, and all that good stuff?

I think we will all miss Jim Webb.

Really?

They don't have English throughout the 12 years of public school?

The Treasury Department will propose three different options on Friday for phasing out troubled mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and overhauling the federal government’s role in the mortgage market, an Obama administration official said late Tuesday evening.

To replace Fannie and Freddie, the administration will offer a range of choices, including a newly created government guarantee for residential home loans, an extremely limited guarantee that could be expanded in the event of another housing meltdown, or the de facto removal of any federal mortgage backstop.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the plans on its website Tuesday.

The federal government assumed control of Fannie and Freddie at the height of the 2008 financial crisis, saddling taxpayers with the risks of a batch of subprime loans mostly issued before the Wall Street crash. The Federal Housing Finance Agency estimates that losses on those loans will run the government between $142 billion and $259 billion.

In the wreckage of the housing crash, Fannie, Freddie, and another government-sponsored enterprise, Ginnie Mae, underwrite 95 percent of all new residential mortgages, a share that will complicate policymakers’ efforts to extricate the GSEs from the mortgage market.

But that appears to be the administration’s plan. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the administration official said that the Treasury Department will propose the eventual elimination of Fannie and Freddie. The official confirmed that Treasury will also support lowering the maximum amount of a mortgage that Fannie and Freddie can guarantee, after lawmakers raised it on an emergency basis two years ago.

The move—and the decision to offer lawmakers a menu of options instead of a single, preferred solution—appears designed to deflect political pressure and to ease the transition away from Fannie and Freddie’s emergency role in the mortgage market. Republicans made the entities a bogeyman during the midterm elections.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/administration-official-treasury-to-offer-three-plans-to-phase-out-fannie-freddie-20110208

*** Phasing out Fannie and Freddie: Here’s some news out of the White House: “More than two years after the government seized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Obama administration will recommend phasing out the housing-finance giants and gradually reducing the government's footprint in the mortgage market, according to people familiar with the matter,” the Wall Street Journal says. “The administration is expected to include three options for a post-Fannie and Freddie world when it releases a long-awaited proposal for the future of the nation's $10.6 trillion mortgage market, which could come as soon as Friday. Together with federal agencies, Fannie and Freddie have accounted for nine of 10 new loan originations in the past year.” Can the housing market handle this? How Wall Street responds to this news today could impact which plan gets emphasized. Bottom line: This is a classic trial balloon leak.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/09/6017144-first-thoughts-tea-party-defiance

Ask the right questions and the results change dramatically.

Only 18% favor total repeal.

The rest favor strengthening the bill yet doing away with the mandatory rule.

It could.

Who was the first to call it?

I told you the Republican Party was not the big winners in the mid-terms that they claimed they were.

Tea Party defiance: In a defeat last night for House Republican leaders, legislation to extend certain Patriot Act programs was unable to get the two-thirds vote needed for passage as 26 Republicans voted no, including seven freshmen who are associated with the Tea Party. Per NBC’s Luke Russert, the vote -- 277 to 148 -- represented the first insurrection against the House GOP leadership by its freshman members since it was expected to pass easily. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) blamed Democrats for the defeat. “I am surprised that so many Democrats who supported an extension of these very same provisions last Congress suddenly changed their votes,” he said in a statement. “It’s unfortunate that partisan politics seems to have prevented so many Democrats from doing what’s best for America’s national security.” But when your party controls the House, and when 26 of your members voted against, it’s hard to pass the blame (and it was the House GOP leaders, after all, who made the decision to bring the bill to the floor under these rules). As Russert notes, had those seven Tea Party freshmen voted yes, the legislation would have passed.
*** Was the failure really surprising? Still, House Republicans can vote again on the legislation under regular procedures that would require only a simple majority. While the legislation last night was expected to pass, we probably shouldn’t be surprised that an issue like the Patriot Act was able to unite libertarian-leaning Tea Party folks and liberals. The question for House GOP leaders -- as well as the Obama White House -- is what the vote means on future matters, such as the upcoming push to raise the debt ceiling. This was the first test of the vote-counting abilities of the House GOP leadership. And either they knew this was going to go down and wanted to make a point, or they were surprised, which means their job in keeping their caucus in line is going to be as tough as the so-called "Conventional Wisdom" crowd has been predicting. Today, at 12:30 pm ET, President Obama and Vice President Biden will have lunch with the three House GOP leaders who are responsible for rounding up their party’s votes, Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy.

The House GOP’s shaky start: Although overshadowed by other events -- the Arizona shootings, Obama’s State of the Union, the unrest in Egypt -- the House GOP’s first month in power has gotten off to a shaky start. In addition to last night’s failed Patriot Act vote, a member of the House leadership (NRCC Chair Pete Sessions) didn’t show up for his original swearing in but still cast votes; House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan outlined a $32 billion cut in government spending, which is lower than earlier promises; and the House GOP has been criticized for focusing more on ideological battles (the health-care law, abortion) than on the nation’s economy. The good news for the House GOP? The lack of attention to these events.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/09/6017144-first-thoughts-tea-party-defiance

WASHINGTON — A married congressman from upstate New York resigned suddenly Wednesday after a scandal erupted over emails and a shirtless photo supposedly sent to a woman in response to a Craigslist dating ad.

Republican Christopher Lee had just begun his second term representing New York's 26th District. Just hours after the scandal broke on Gawker.com, Lee announced that he was quitting Congress, and a clerk read his letter of resignation on the House floor.

In a statement, Lee said:

"It has been a tremendous honor to serve the people of Western New York. I regret the harm that my actions have caused my family, my staff and my constituents. I deeply and sincerely apologize to them all. I have made profound mistakes and I promise to work as hard as I can to seek their forgiveness.

"The challenges we face in Western New York and across the country are too serious for me to allow this distraction to continue, and so I am announcing that I have resigned my seat in Congress effective immediately."

The controversy erupted when Gawker reported that a Maryland woman had sent in emails supposedly written by Lee in response to a dating ad that she had placed on Craigslist. Gawker said the ad had asked: "Will someone prove to me not all CL men look like toads?"

In response came emails from a man representing himself as a divorced lobbyist younger than Lee's actual age of 46. The woman responded.

Gawker published a shirtless photo that he had taken of himself, flexing his muscles. One of the emails described him as a "fit fun classy guy." Gawker said the emails were sent from a Gmail account that Lee confirmed to be his own.

Gawker said the flirting ended when the woman concluded after an online search that Lee had lied. She then sent the material to Gawker.

Lee and his wife, Michele, live in Amherst, N.Y. They have one son.

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner told NBC News that it was Lee's decision to resign.

Lee served on the House Ways and Means Committee and was active on economic revitalization issues. He has a business background stemming from his family's manufacturing business.

Lee had been involved with flight safety issues since a plane crashed into a house in Clarence, part of his Buffalo-area district, on Feb. 12, 1009, killing 49 people aboard the plane and the home's owner.

Scott Maurer, whose daughter was one of those who died in the crash, was at a news conference on flight safety with Lee in Washington on Tuesday. He said Lee was "a hard worker and a good guy" who "loved and cared for" his community.

"He was 100 percent professional with us, 100 percent supportive and seriously was considerate and concerned with aviation safety, so to hear that he's resigned is a huge loss of support for our efforts," Maurer said Wednesday night.

His exit triggers a special election, which Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo must call. Lee was first elected in 2008 with 55 percent of the vote, and GOP presidential candidate John McCain won the district — New York's 26th — in 2008 with 52 percent. Lee was reelected in 2010 with 74 percent of the vote.

The 26th District covers all or part of seven counties, including suburbs of Buffalo and Rochester. It has been a solidly Republican district.

Lee's resignation comes almost a year after Democrat Eric Massa resigned his seat in western New York's 29th Congressional District amid an investigation into whether he sexually harassed male staffers.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41498568/ns/politics-capitol_hill/

583

LOL

English is mandatory in schools.

In this case it was fabrication of intelligence reports and just plain outright lies.

Keeping a promise he made on the campaign trail in 2006, Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) did more for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan on his first day in the Senate than the man he ousted, George Felix Allen, did in the entire previous Congress.

Going unnoticed in the frenzy of Democrats assuming control of Capitol Hill and George W. Bush seeking to plunge the country deeper into the Iraq quagmire, Webb introduced the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2007, legislation that will provide the newest Veterans with educational benefits like those received by men and women who served in the three decades following World War II.

"As a veteran who hails from a family with a long history of military service, I am proud to offer this bill as my first piece of legislation in the United States Senate," said Webb, in introducing his bill last week. "The G.I. bill program was designed to help veterans readjust to civilian life, avoid high levels of unemployment, and give veterans the opportunity to receive the education and training that they missed while bravely serving in the military."

Webb, a former Secretary of the Navy and a highly-decorated Vietnam Veteran, introduced his legislation to provide enhanced benefits to those serving in the military since September 11, 2001. It will replace the Montgomery G.I. Bill, to which military personnel must contribute -- while earning a low active-duty salary anyway -- and which only provides financial support of up to $800 per month for educational expenses, which may not cover the cost of a full college education.

The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act will pay for Veterans' tuition, books, fees, and other training costs, while also providing a monthly stipend of $1,000 for living expenses, thus making it much more possible for a large number of Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan to actually be able to complete a college education and build a better life.

"The United States has never erred when it has made sustained new investments in higher education and job training," said Webb. "Enacting the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2007 is not only the right thing to do for our men and women in uniform, but it also is a strong tonic for an economy plagued by growing disparities in wealth, stagnant wages, and the outsourcing of American jobs."

Webb also pointed out that Veterans have enough adjustments to make upon returning to civilian society and those who went into the military in part to get a college education and better their lot in life, deserve the country's support in realizing educational opportunity without additional hardship.

"Better-educated veterans have a more positive readjustment experience," said Webb, who earned a Navy Cross, Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and two Purple Hearts for his Vietnam service. "This experience lowers the costs of treating post-traumatic stress disorder and other readjustment-related difficulties."

Saying that the limited Montgomery G.I. Bill is "simply insufficient after 9/11," Webb made the case that the extreme adversity, sacrifice and risk endured by those serving in today's military makes providing greater Veterans benefits a matter of fairness and national honor.

"Now our nation is fighting a worldwide war against terrorism. Since 9/11, we have witnessed a sharp increase in the demands placed upon our military," said Webb. "Many of our military members are serving two or three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. In light of these immense hardships, it is now time to implement a more robust educational assistance program for our heroic veterans who have sacrificed so much for our great Nation."

Within the text of Webb's legislation it says that "the people of the United States greatly value military service and recognize the difficult challenges involved in readjusting to civilian life after wartime service in the Armed Forces." Quick passage of this legislation will show that a Democratic Congress truly does value the troops and that the Commonwealth of Virginia -- which is home to a large number of Veterans -- was wise to elect Webb to replace Allen, who did nothing like this while a member of the do-nothing GOP Congress.

And Webb's going to be there to keep reminding people that patriotism involves supporting the troops in deeds, as well as with words and magnetic ribbons on cars.

"I am a proud Veteran who is honored to serve this great nation," said Webb on his first day as a United States Senator. "As long as I represent Virginians in the United States Senate, I will make it a priority to help protect our brave men and women in uniform."

http://www.democrats.com/node/11650