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Saul Alinsky: The activist who terrifies the rightNewt and other conservatives are obsessed with tying Obama to Saul Alinsky. Here's where their hatred comes from By Thomas J Sugrue Tuesday, Feb 7, 2012 8:00 AM 18:51:25 EST **SNIP** By his own admission, Obama had a rough time being a community organizer. “Sometimes I called a meeting, and nobody showed up,” he recalled. **SNIP** For his part, Alinsky, who died in 1972, never had much patience for elected officials: Change would not come from top-down leadership, but rather from pressure from below. In his view, politicians took the path of least...

... In the new web ad entitled "Not Up to the Job" to be released Monday, the RNC reminds voters that Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.) opposed Obama and backed then New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic nomination contest. The web video shows footage of Rep. Wasserman Schultz praising then candidate-Clinton and leading supporters in a chant of "Hillary."

KABUL, Afghanistan – When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s, Maulvi Qalamuddin headed the Committee to Protect Virtue and Prevent Vice, the religious police that shut down girls' schools, beat up men with insufficiently long beards and arrested those in possession of music or video tapes. Nowadays, the 60-year-old Taliban cleric is on a different mission: He is overseeing a network of schools that teach reading, writing and math to thousands of girls in his home province of Logar, an insurgent hotbed just south of Kabul.

Although Beyonce is on maternity leave to look after her precious newborn Blue Ivy, the hard-working mom is still lining up projects for the year ahead. The "Countdown" singer has just revealed her plans to pitch in for Obama's reelection campaign by creating a T-shirt as part of the "Runway to Win" fundraising effort

Reporting from Las Vegas— President Obama is spending the day in Las Vegas and Colorado trying to sell his vision for America's energy future, but he's going to have to work to overshadow the buzz around his personal clash with the Arizona governor the day before. On Thursday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) came to the defense of Gov. Jan. Brewer in a conversation with Fox Business Network, where he suggested that President Obama can be a little abrasive. "Apparently Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, had a similar exchange with the president," McCain said Thursday morning. "It is very well-known...

Warren Buffet’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, served as a stage prop for President Obama’s State of the Union speech. She was the President’s chief display of the alleged unfairness of our tax system –a little person paying a higher tax rate than her billionaire boss. Bosanek’s prominent role in Obama’s “fairness” campaign piqued my curiosity, and I imagine the curiosity of others. How much does her boss pay this downtrodden woman?So far, no one has volunteered this information.

The Wall Street Journal reports that GM will attack critics during a Capitol Hill hearing Wednesday. “General Motors Co. Chief Executive Dan Akerson is preparing to go on the offensive against congressional critics who say GM's battery-powered Chevrolet Volt is a government-financed misfire, according to people familiar with the company's plans,” the paper reports.

A shared interest in supporting Israel, fostered over 15 years, is at the heart of casino mogul Sheldon Adelson's support for Newt Gingrich's presidential bid. It has been decades since America saw a wealthy patron become so identified with a presidential candidate. But Mr. Adelson and his wife, Miriam, account for a large share of the funding for an independent group supporting Mr. Gingrich's presidential bid, giving $5 million this week and $5 million earlier in January. On Tuesday, the pro-Gingrich political-action committee bought $6 million of airtime in Florida for television ads, according to Rick Tyler...

Reports say President Obama’s State of the Union Address tonight will be focusing, in part, on economic fairness.... “He’s going to convince me he’s interested in fairness when he gets those 20,000 workers to work,” Grassley says. “He’s the only person standing in the way of those 20,000 jobs. You can’t blame John Deere, you can’t blame Caterpillar, you can’t blame Wall Street, you can’t blame anybody else. So if he’s going to be fair and equitable, create those 20,000 jobs.” Grassley says the pipeline also promises to create another 120,000 jobs indirectly. Grassley, a Republican, says America needs more...

Your nightly news won’t lead withthisstory. Even at just 47%, there are no numbers to support Barack Obama’s approval ratings. It is clear that those responding to questions about Obama’s favorability are just not ready to say they don’t approve of him because he is Black. In any number of categoriesand measurements Obama has experienced sharpdropsin support. These black and white bottomlinessimply do not support Obama’s 47% approval rating.

[Hussein] embarks Wednesday on a three-day tour of politically crucial states in a post-State of the Union journey to sell his 2012 economic policy goals while pitching his presidency to a divided public.

President Obama will pledge in Tuesday night’s State of the Union address to work with Congress where possible in forging “an economy built to last.” But he will warn his opponents that he will “fight obstruction with action,” and promise to “oppose any effort to return to the very same policies that brought on this economic crisis in the first place,” according to excerpts of the speech released by the White House. The speech, to be delivered at 9 p.m., is the president’s third such address and comes amid a tumultuous Republican battle to see who will challenge his bid...

Four Kenyan officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, will stand trial on human rights violations that are alleged to have occurred after the 2007 election, the International Criminal Court ruled Monday.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 22% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16

The United States wants it, but China is getting it. Less than a month after President Obama visited Brazil in March to make a pitch for oil, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was off to Beijing to sign oil contracts with two huge state-owned Chinese companies.

Obama to shift strategy on healthcare in 2012By Julian Pecquet - 01/22/12 07:10 PM ET President Obama, who offered to work with Republicans last year to revamp the healthcare reform law, is expected to adopt a much different tone in Tuesday’s State of the Union address. Bruised from the huge GOP electoral gains in 2010, Obama said he wanted to work in a bipartisan fashion on healthcare in last year’s speech. Republicans scoffed at what was called an olive branch, and worked to repeal the entire law. While the GOP-led House passed such a measure, the legislation was defeated in...

PresidentBarackObama made a campaignstopinNewYork City on Thursday hopingfordeeppockets at fourfundraisers, including a concert at the Harlem’s ApolloTheatre headlined byAl Green and India Aire. Supporters of the presidentlinedup along125th street inboth directions to access the show. Milly Murphy, a retired teacher living in Harlem, rattled off reasons why she was coming to the concert."The health bill,the concern for people who are not doing well economically, good Supreme Court appointments,certainlyputting Leon Paneta inso that the departments focused together andgotbin Laden. I meanthe list could go on."

I’ve always said that if someone calculated a ratio of credit-for-things-accomplished/things-accomplished President Obama would score extremely low. Andrew Sullivan collects the facts. One question I was left with after reading this was why does the President score so low on that ratio? Why hasn’t he gotten more credit for what I believe history will ultimately judge as a record of remarkable accomplishments?

Militants believed to belong to al-Qaeda launched Monday offences on government institutions in the southeast city of al-Baythda,some260 Kilometers southwest the Yemeni capital of Sana'a. The militants continued their assault today and seized control of the central prison releasing all of its inmates. They also attacked an intelligence prison in the city and set it ablaze , leaving a soldier killed and another injured.

The Obama administration took steps Tuesday to stop the spread of non-native snakes like pythons and anacondas throughout the Florida Everglades.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 22% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19

The Occupy movement has been decidedly white. You may not have heard that, as you did about the Tea Party movement, just as you didn’t hear about the anti war movement being overwhelmingly white. That’s because the media wanted a certain narrative out there regarding the Tea Party movement. Heaven forbid they mention the many black Tea Party speakers, but so far, the Occupy Movement hasn’t even had that. But there are some black pastors who are trying to change that. The Rev. Harold Mayberry stood before his First African Methodist Episcopal Church congregation Sunday morning in Oakland and outlined...

First Lady Michelle Obama turns 48 on Tuesday, and the Obama re-election campaign is using her birthday to help organize the troops for the November elections. In 2011, Mrs. Obama celebrated her 47th birthday when President Barack Obama took her to a fancy dinner at The Source, a Wolfgang Puck restaurant in the Newseum in Washington.

... Washington’s new diplomatic initiative has fallen on deaf ears, with Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai remarking pointedly, "The normal trade relations and energy cooperation between China and Iran have nothing to do with the nuclear issue We should not mix issues with different natures, and China's legitimate concerns and demands should be respected. We believe the normal economic ties between countries in the world and Iran should not be affected."

[Hussein] headed out to church this morning for the third time in a month, the latest sign that the president may be using religion to boost his image as the campaign heats up. [Hussein] has rarely gone to church since becoming president.... The increasingly large doses of religion added to the Obamas’ public profile has been accompanied by other Average Joe-pleasing displays of middle class virtuousness, like Michelle shopping at Target or the president heading to Best Buy to purchase gifts for his daughters and to PetSmart to get a bone for the dog.

"A Lebanese suspect from the Hezbollah group has been taken into custody by Thai officials and police are investigating further," Chalerm Yoobamrung told Reuters. "Following concern raised by the Israeli embassy about a possible attack by a group of Lebanese terrorists in Bangkok, Thai police officials had been coordinating with Israeli officials since before the New Year."

Michelle Obama already let loose for a little “random dancing” on "iCarly" and now another clip from her upcoming cameo on the show has been released to Entertainment Weekly. The snippet from the episode features the first lady saluting Carly and her friends for their webcast birthday surprise for Carly’s dad, an Air Force colonel stationed on a submarine.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 22% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19

Prez offers us more of the shameMichael Goodwin Last Updated: 3:30 AM, January 4, 2012 In a commercial that helped elect him mayor of New York in 1977, Ed Koch looked at the TV camera and noted that incumbent Abe Beame wanted “four more years to finish the job. Finish the job?” Koch deadpanned. “Hasn’t he done enough?” **SNIP** Yet he, like all failing incumbents, also has a major disadvantage: a record. Which is why it comes as a surprise that Obama plans to make attacks on Congress a centerpiece of his campaign. It’s doubling-down on his biggest mistakes and...

"In the coming weeks we're also going to unveil a new website, Business USA. And this site will be a one-stop shop for small businesses and exporters...with or without congress, I'm going to keep at it. But it would be a lot easier if Congress helped," President Obama said at the White House today.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-nine percent (39%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16

- President Barack Obama plans to ask Congress for more power to shrink the federal government, a White House official said Friday. Obama plans to speak at 11:20 a.m. about his plans to make the federal government "leaner, smarter and more consumer-friendly," the official said.

Conservatives in crisisBy Brent Budowsky - 01/11/12 06:45 PM ET As conservatives prepare for an urgent meeting this weekend to discuss their options in the 2012 campaign, they face an epic crisis of identity and electability that creates rising odds for the reelection of President Obama. Throughout the 2012 campaign, there has not been one credible conservative candidate for the presidency. Conservatives now face a choice between a front-runner of no lasting convictions — who has lost campaigns for two out of three major offices he has previously run for and who champions a predatory capitalism that applauds layoffs when...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 22% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -16

More than 500,000 people in Haiti are still living in makeshift tents two years after an earthquake devastated the country. The Caribbean state was hit by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake on January 12, 2010, which led to more than 220,000 deaths and left 1.5 million homeless.

...5. Island of Misadventure Incident: With the White House still working on an unfinished jobs plan, Mr. Obama took a vacation to the resort island of Martha’s Vineyard last August. ...4. Hawaii Five-Oh No Incident: The Obamas took a 17-day trip Hawaii at the end of last year, the family’s annual Christmas vacation. ...3. Concerted Efforts Incident: In May of last year, the Obamas held a “celebration of poetry and prose” party in the East Room of the White House, with Chicago rapper Common among the invited guests ...2. Date Fright Incident: Mr. and Mrs. Obama jetted up to New...

Group considered close to Obama administration concedes bias against Israel in e-mail. A senior employee of the US think tank Center for American Progress (CAP) appears to have admitted in an e-mail sent from his CAP account that a blogger for the policy organization used anti-Semitic language to attack supporters of the Jewish state. CAP advises the Democratic Party on Middle East policy and is an important source of ideas for the Obama administration.

Presidential Tracking Poll The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 22% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -18

The Whoppers of 2011FactCheck.org – Tue, Dec 20, 2011 **SNIP** Democratic Whopper: Obama’s Dying Mother We also discovered in 2011 that one of President Barack Obama’s favorite personal anecdotes — which he had told any number of times to sell his health-care legislation to the public — was not true. The president told the story often during the 2008 presidential campaign and the many months before he signed the health care law. He said his mother, as she was dying, nearly was denied health insurance coverage due to the fact that her ovarian cancer was considered a preexisting condition. But...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19

In a scathing letter sent to Barack Obama this morning, Senator Marco Rubio said that under the President’s first term in office, “more and more people have come to believe that America is becoming a deadbeat nation.” Rubio went on to pledge that he would challenge any further increase in the debt ceiling, arguing that “we [Congress] need to make it routine to actually spend no more than we take in.” In the letter obtained by HUMAN EVENTS, the Florida Senator said that President Obama’s upcoming request to increase the debt ceiling by a whopping $1.2 trillion will cause the...

German unemployment fell to its lowest rate in December since 1991, according to the German Federal Labour Agency. The adjusted jobless rate fell to 6.8% from 6.9% in November, the Federal Labour Office said.

Richard Cordray started his new job on Thursday as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Though he may wear that fancy new title, he lacks the statutory power and constitutional authority of the office. On Wednesday, after the Senate adjourned for one day, President Obama unilaterally installed Mr. Cordray to the CFPB and added three members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), claiming these were “recess appointments” even though the Senate was in pro-forma session, not recess.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 22% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20

Cleveland, I know you’re hearing a lot of promises from a lot of politicians lately. But today, you’re only going to hear one from me. As long as I have the privilege of serving as your president, I promise to do everything I can, every day, to make this country a place where hard work and responsibility mean something –where everyone can get ahead, not just those at the very top or those who know how to work the system.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 22% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20 (see trends).

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 22% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20

Jim Geraghty It appears the Republican National Committee has recognized the “expiration date” phenomenon: With Republican voters in Iowa set to finally begin picking a nominee to challenge President Obama, GOP officials in Washington are quietly and methodically finishing what operatives are calling “the book” — 500 pages of Obama quotes and video links that will form the backbone of the party’s attack strategy against the president leading up to Election Day 2012. The document, portions of which were reviewed by The Washington Post, lays out how GOP officials plan to use Obama’s words and voice as they build an...