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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. securities regulators fumbled five probes of Bernard Madoff's operations and missed opportunities to uncover the financier's $65 billion investment fraud, a report by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's inspector general said on Wednesday. The SEC received more than ample information over the years to warrant a thorough and comprehensive examination or investigation of Madoff and his firm, the report said.

Speaking of misinformation, here is a question, how can the MSM crow that the recession is over when 1) positive GDP quarterly results haven’t been reported and 2) the EIA is reporting we once again used LESS gasoline than the disastrous year before??? 3) Summer job hires were virtually nil. 4) The gross number of unemployed has not dropped in any month despite the statistical skewing of the unemployment rate due to the continuing reduction in civilian labor force because all those on unemployment for over a year are NOT being counted as unemployed. And 5) Tax collections revenue continues...

To listen to the White House and its supporters in and out of the media, you would think that opposition to "ObamaCare" is the hobgoblin of a few small minds on the right. Racists, fascists, Neanderthals, the whole "Star Wars" cantina of boogeymen and cranks stand opposed to much-needed reform. Left out of this fairly naked effort to demonize many with the actions of a few is the simple fact that ObamaCare -- however defined -- has been tanking in the polls for weeks. President Obama's handling of health care is unpopular with a majority of Americans and a majority...

It’s enough to make this particular female long for the repeal of the 19th Amendment… Senator Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) has a history of saying and doing silly things, like announcing “that she would conduct hearings and have radio station owners subpoenaed to testify so that the Senate could determine why people tune in Rush Limbaugh and tune out Air America,” the self-identified “liberal” radio station. And then there was the time she voted to extend Social Security benefits to illegal aliens. But Debbie Stabenow has outdone herself with her latest declaration. As Sean Hannity reported on his FOX News...

Just caught the nd of a phone interview on CNN.. A woman from Tehran was describing going to a protest today in front of Parlement, and the protesters were ambushed by Basiji streaming out of a masque, who bwgan massacring the protesters, beating them to death, shooting them..Still on now..the woman is crying as she begs us for help!

Joe's Babe of the Week: Debbie Stabenow

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid became the latest Democrat to stray into rhetorical trouble Tuesday, botching statements on three subjects in one news conference - including the fragile health of the chamber's most senior members. The Nevada Democrat reported that one of them, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., was absent because he was receiving a new round of treatment for his brain cancer. Asked if the cancer was in remission, Reid replied, "As far as I know, it is, yes." Kennedy's office refused to confirm Reid's comments or make any statement in response, the public silence a classic...

President Barack Obama has taken more steps to guarantee another 9/11 attack on America. He did that by forbidding enhanced interrogations that have already prevented a second 9/11 in Los Angeles. But it gets worse. He issued the interrogation memo but edited out everything that documented how enhanced interrogation works. So he not only guaranteed more terrorist attacks on America but, in a single stroke, also committed a massive fraud by censoring out the effectiveness information. If anyone ought to be investigated for actions that damage America, it is not the Bush administration, but none other than President Obama. And...

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Eric Holder says he won't play "hide and seek" with secret memos about harsh interrogations of terror suspects and their effectiveness. Holder is testifying before the House Appropriations Committee and says he's willing to release as much information as possible about the interrogations. He was asked about the fierce debate that has erupted since the Justice Department released four memos last week detailing the harsh techniques used on some detainees during the Bush administration. Republicans have urged President Barack Obama to release other classified reports detailing what intelligence information was gained from such questioning. Holder said...

The seeds of discontent have already been sown. The divide between those who cherish true freedom and liberty and detest the intrusion of the federal government, and those who blindly follow an Obama administration ready to spend this country into an abyss of debt makes the Grand Canyon look like a crack in the sidewalk. Fertilizing this separation apparently is the job of the leftist lapdog media. Journalism that presents facts and relates a true balance is long dead, while advocacy reporting by the leftist press has become blatantly one sided. The coverage of massive Tea Party protests this week,...

Obama Abdicates US's Role As Superpower By James G. Wiles, For The Bulletin In 1916, Field Marshall Ludendorf returned to Berlin after a visit to the front-lines of Germany’s ally, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His report to the Kaiser and the General Staff was to the point: “we are allied,” he said, “to a corpse.” Somehow, one doubts that thought occurred to the Leader of the Free World (as American presidents used to be styled) as he and the Mighty Michelle (credit: BBC) winged their way home from their triumphant European tour. In that tour, nothing of benefit to the United...

U.S.A. Captain Richard Phillips (bless him!) is raining on Barack Obama’s Easter Parade. So, too is U.S. Central Command Chief Gen. David Petraeus (not so long ago “General Betray Us” to Code Pink, Obama and the Dems). With the escalating dramatic Indian Ocean standoff, here we have an international incident with the Obamas--two short days before Easter Sunday--still looking for a church to attend and three days before the Easter Egg roll on the White House east lawn. Cpt. Phillip’s failed breakaway swim back to his ship is bound to work against him in Washington, DC--where an appeaser (Barack-”I won”-Obama)...

President Barack Obama has stirred yet another controversy when he appeared to bow to the King of Saudi Arabia during the recent G20 Economic Summit. The appropriateness of an elected President bowing before an absolute monarch has been questioned. The writer Mark Steyn suggested, rather caustically, "So let me see if I understand American protocol in the age of Obama: The First Lady hugs Queen Elizabeth as if she's some granny at a seniors' center photo-op, but the President of this republic prostrates himself before King Abdullah as if he's a subject of the Saudi pseudo-Crown." While the behavior of...

It has come to our attention that the lying thieving half-wit, currently masquerading as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has recently been visiting your shores and has had the chutzpah to lecture your leading financiers on honesty, integrity and morality http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/gordon-brown/5050162/Gordon-Browns-damning-attack-on-bankers.html This, from the lying thieving son of a bitch who claims to have; Abolished Boom and Bust Lifted 65 million children out of poverty And who; Raised levels of British taxation to unprecedented levels, largely by stealth. Can't tell the difference between spending and investing. Led his country to the largest budget deficit and public and private debt...

SOURCE: Reporters were told in advance if president was going to call on them. Senior Administration Officials notified reporters from Stars & Stripes, Univision and other news outlets that they should have question ready. Several reporters moved up in assigned seats as result...

No, we can't definitively prove that Gordon Brown said that after witnessing a "Wrong Region" code when inserting a DVD given to him by Barack Obama, but we're sure something of the sort was uttered. Read on, it's funny stuff

We are putting on a show now ladies and gentlemen. This show we are putting on is a public execution of the Department of the Treasury while more grievances are happening as we focus on eliminating Geithner from the cabinet.

I’ve been searching for the video of Obama accidentally reading Irish PM Brian Cowen’s speech yesterday. He even thanks himself at the end! Apparently his teleprompter went loopy. If this were GWB, the video would be everywhere, yet I can’t find a clip on the Internet of a public press conference that took place yesterday. It will come out, but this is amazing. Thank Sky News for doing its job: Mr Cowen stopped, turned to the president and said: “That’s your speech.” A laughing Mr Obama returned to the podium to take over but it seems the script had finally...

Rush claimed it was a distraction to focus on replacing Geithner? Did I misunderstand?

WASHINGTON – One of President Barack Obama's economic advisers said Sunday that the economy is fundamentally sound, a striking reversal from the Democrat's campaign rhetoric as his administration now guides the nation's financial health amid dire conditions. Obama's Democratic allies pleaded for patience for an administration hitting the two-month mark this week, while Republicans said the White House's plans ignore small business and the immediate need to fix what ails the economy. During the fall campaign, Obama mercilessly mocked his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, for declaring, "The fundamentals of our economy are strong." Obama's team painted the veteran senator...

As the ink finishes drying on the $787 billion spending plan President Barack Obama signed last month, discussions in Washington suggest more may be in store. Mr. Obama signed the legislation to generate more economic activity to lift the nation out of recession, over the objections of critics who worried borrowing would only worsen matters. Now some Democrats and their advisers wonder whether the spending might actually amount to too little and have entertained the idea of another “economic stimulus” bill. Democratic members of Congress listened yesterday to economists who said they easily foresee another stimulus act to supplement the...

We knew Sarah Palin would be murder on wolves had she been elected, but we expected more of the Obama Administration and its political appointees. While we have had some strong pronouncements for animal protection from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and there are many signs that positive changes are afoot more broadly within the Obama Administration, we’ve got our very first dose of awful news from the newly installed leaders in the executive branch. On Friday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that his agency would proceed with the delisting of both the Great Lakes and Northern Rockies wolf populations. I...

Two big stories emerged from Pres. Obama’s interview with New York Times reporters aboard Air Force One yesterday: 1. we have a whining, self-pitying president. 2. The Times scrubbed from its article the worst of the president’s comments, the ones that revealed him in that self-pitying light. Fortunately, the Today show had the tapes, and played them this morning. According to Today, when President Obama met with reporters from the New York Times yesterday aboard Air Force One, his goal was “trying to sound hopeful and reassuring.” Mission not accomplished. As ambivalent as were the president’s putatively reassuring words on...

Barack Obama's offhand approach to Gordon Brown's Washington visit last week came about because the president has facing exhaustion over America's economic crisis and is unable to focus on foreign affairs, the Sunday Telegraph has been told. Sources close to the White House say Mr Obama and his staff have been "overwhelmed" by the economic meltdown and have voiced concerns that the new president is not getting enough rest. British officials, meanwhile, admit that the White House and US State Department staff were utterly bemused by complaints that the Prime Minister should have been granted full-blown press conference and a...

Congressman Barney Frank says he wants some of those responsible for our current financial meltdown to be prosecuted. And we couldn't agree more. First up in the court dock: Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. Even by the extraordinarily loose standards of Congress, it takes some chutzpah for someone such as Frank to suggest that he'll seek prosecutions for those behind the housing and financial crunch and for what he called "a strongly empowered systemic risk regulator."

During President Barack Obama’s recent address, it was spellbinding to listen to a checklist of spending items lasting an hour. At one point, Mr. Obama said he would “cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term.” When he spoke out against leaving a debt for our children to pay, the Republicans cheered loudly. Then Mr. Obama sought to distance himself from any blame in the matter of deficits by saying that the deficit had been inherited. What deficit does he mean? The one he inherited from President George W. Bush was about $600 billion. In the...

You can’t possibly be getting the reality of what is happening now from the news, as it is so wild, radical and incredible that reporters frankly hesitate to tell it like it is. If they report on it, they probably can’t believe what they’re reporting and are afraid to appear to be going over the edge even if telling the truth. But it’s as shocking as it seems to be. President Barack Obama and the Democrats have gone on a wild, if not insane, spending and regulation binge never before experienced in the history of America or in the history...

Natural causes ruling in KC changed to homicide Eds: APNewsNow. KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Kansas City police and medical examiners who first believed a man died of natural causes now say he's a homicide victim, after three bullet holes were discovered in his body. The Kansas City Star reported Thursday that the wounds -- two of them in Anthony Crockett's head -- were noticed by funeral home workers after the man's body was embalmed Friday. After the 49-year-old's body was sent to the medical examiner, the death was ruled a homicide. Detectives and Jackson County medical examiners never visited...

Competence: Is Your Boss Faking It? By Jeffrey Kluger Bosses may be an overbearing breed, but more often than not, you've got to admire their business chops. Wouldn't you love to have that same sense of competence and confidence, that ability to assess tough problems and reach smart solutions on the fly? Guess what? So would they. If you have ever suspected that your boss isn't actually good enough at what he or she does to deserve the job in the first place, a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that you might be...

A high-powered team of Los Angeles attorneys representing President Obama in his effort to keep his birth certificate, college records and passport documents concealed from the public has suggested there should be "monetary sanctions" against a lawyer whose clients have brought a complaint alleging Obama doesn't qualify for the Oval Office under the Constitution's demand for a "natural born" citizen in that post. The suggestion came in an exchange of e-mails and documents in a case brought by former presidential candidate Alan Keyes and others in California. The case originally sought to have the state's electors ordered to withhold their...

Emanuel: White House not 'amateur hour' Jon Ward (Contact) Defending the White House in the wake of Sen. Judd Gregg's withdrawal as Commerce Secretary, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said it is not "amateur hour" and that the Obama administration is still doing better than President Clinton was at this point. "Some may call it amateur hour. Having been in two separate White Houses, I'm more than — and within our third week given this set of accomplishments — measure them up," said Mr. Emanuel, who served as a senior adviser in the Clinton White House from 1993 to 1998....

My 20 year old sent me a link to a website (language in the headline on the site would be censored on FR) but so would the language being read by the President of the United States in the links to his audio book. Is this common knowledge that the President uses x-rated language in his book, it's the first I've heard of it?

Predator drones flown from base in Pakistan, U.S. lawmaker says Sen. Feinstein's surprise disclosure likely to complicate joint campaign against Taliban militants Greg Miller | Washington Bureau 7:06 PM CST, February 12, 2009 WASHINGTON, D.C. - A senior U.S. lawmaker said Thursday that unmanned CIA Predator aircraft operating in Pakistan are flown from an airbase inside that country, a revelation likely to embarrass the Pakistani government and complicate its counterterrorism collaboration with the United States. The disclosure by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, marked the first time a U.S. official had publicly commented on...

This is First Amended Petition for Writ of Mandate for our Obama eligibility Project. Orly Taitz, Esq. (SBN 223433) 26302 La Paz Mission Viejo Ca 92691 Tel: (949) 683-5411 Fax: (949) 586-8110 The Law Office of Gary G. Kreep Gary G. Kreep, Esq. (SBN 066482) 932 D Street, Suite 2 Ramona, CA 92065 Tel: (760) 788-6624 Fax: (760) 788-6414 Attorney for Plaintiffs SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF SACRAMENTO Ambassador Dr. Alan Keyes; Wiley S Drake; and Markham Robinson, Petitioners, v. California Secretary of State Debra Bowen; Senator Barack Hussein Obama; Senator Joe Biden; California Democratic Party Electors: Aleitz Huguenin,...

Utah's congressional delegation is calling President Obama's decision to move the U.S. census into the White House a purely partisan move and potentially dangerous to congressional redistricting around the country. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told FOX News on Tuesday that he finds it hard to believe the Obama administration felt the need to place re-evaluation of the inner workings of the census so high on his to-do list, just three weeks into his presidency. "This is nothing more than a political land grab," Chaffetz said. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, told the Salt Lake Tribune that the move "shouldn't happen." He...

Writing in the National Journal Magazine, political analyst Charlie Cook opines that President Barack Obama had better start playing his own game, or his administration is going to get labeled incompetent. Cook, who edits the respected "Cook Political Report," writes that, with such stains on the record as Sen. Tom Daschle’s withdrawal as Health and Human Services secretary nominee, embarrassing disclosures about Treasury nominee Timothy Geithner’s taxes, and a stimulus package that has run up against a wall of criticism, President Obama may be setting himself up for the shortest honeymoon in presidential history.

Clips of Barack Obama using the kind of language not normally associated with a US President are spreading like wildfire online. The clips are from the audiobook version of Barack Obama's autobiography, Dreams from my Father, which is read by the president himself. They include quotes attributed to a schoolfriend of Obama's who had a rich vocabulary which is reproduced in graphic detail in the book. US actress April Winchell has posted audio clips of President Obama reading some of Ray's fruitier expressions on her website, www.aprilwinchell.com. She writes: "You're about to hear the President of United States using language...

On his first official day in the White House, President Barack Obama was on the horn to President Mahmoud Abbas. “The spokesman for President Abbas revealed that Mr. Obama had told the Palestinian leader that their conversation was his first with a foreign statesman since taking office.” (TimesOnLine, Jan. 22, 2009). Some thought that first call to the leader of the Palestinian authority was for spite. Others for statesman like reasons, still others for appeasement. Given that a clip from Al-Jazeera televised Hamas-controlled Palestinians “burning up the phone bank from Gaza” to rally support for his presidential campaign, perhaps the...

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — A fired-up Barack Obama ditched his TelePrompter to rally House Democrats and rip Republican opponents of his recovery package Thursday night – at one point openly mocking the GOP for failing to follow through on promises of bipartisanship. In what was the most pointedly partisan speech of his young presidency, Obama rejected Republican arguments that massive spending in the $819 billion stimulus bill that passed the House should be replaced by a new round of massive tax cuts. “I welcome this debate, but we are not going to get relief by turning back to the same policies...

Link only - Obama declares disaster in Kentucky ice storm

Too many Senate Republicans are turning tail rather than demanding concrete answers to obvious ethical questions from three of President Obama’s most important Cabinet picks. Have these GOPers forgotten the difference between having an open mind — a good thing — and lying down like doormats? The three nominees who merited far more serious scrutiny were Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder and Timothy Geithner — for secretary of state, attorney general and Treasury secretary, respectively. Clinton was approved Wednesday after receiving kid-glove treatment from her former Senate colleagues. Holder’s confirmation seems on a glide path, thanks to Republicans cowering after Democrats...

OAKLAND – Johannes Mehserle, the former BART police officer involved in the fatal New Year’s Day shooting of an unarmed 22-year-old, was arrested without incident Tuesday evening in Nevada, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. The Oakland Police Department informed the Nevada authorities Tuesday morning that an arrest warrant for homicide from Alameda County was pending against the 27-year-old Mehserle, and that he was believed to be in the Zephyr Cove area of Lake Tahoe, according to a statement by Douglas County Undersheriff Paul Howell. Widely circulated amateur videos of the incident at Oakland’s Fruitvale station, showing Mehserle shooting...

Everybody loves a rollicking British bedroom farce. In the 1960s sexual taboos were called into question, popular culture was in a transitional stage, and David Niven and Deborah Kerr starred in a harmless bit of cinematic fluff entitled: Prudence and the Pill.In keeping with the cultural imperative of the decade, "The Pill" of the title was looked upon as a Magic Bullet that could protect man and woman, young and old, from every manner of irresponsible behavior. As in all farce comedies, things go awry, birth control pills and aspirins get switched and mother and daughter wind up pregnant. A...

Chicago public school bureaucrats skirted competitive bidding rules to buy 30 cappuccino/espresso machines for $67,000, with most of the machines going unused because the schools they were ordered for had not asked for them, according to a report by the CPS Office of Inspector General. That was just one example of questionable CPS actions detailed in the inspector general's 2008 annual report. Others included high school staffers changing grades to pump up transcripts of student athletes and workers at a restricted-enrollment grade school falsifying addresses to get relatives admitted. In the case of the cappuccino machines, central office administrators split...

Obama's Inability to Hire Good Help Rears Its Head … Again We started covering Sen. Barack Obama's inability to hire good staffers in June 2007, when he blamed staffers for some opposition research trying to link Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, to outsourcing in India; for injecting some venom in the David Geffen/Hillary Clinton fight; and for missing an event with firefighters in New Hampshire. In December, we noted again that Obama was blaming the answers on a 1996 questionnaire on a staffer; and was blaming his touring with "cured" ex-gay gospel singer Donnie McClurkin (which antagonized gays and lesbians) on...

As I have written in the past, it is testimony to the mettle of the American Republic that it can, from time to time, suffer fools at its helm. It has endured the drunkenness of Ulysses S. Grant, the socialism of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the constitutional violations of Richard M. Nixon and the alley-cat morality of Warren G. Harding, John F. Kennedy and William J. Clinton. We have managed to survive even the naivete of James E. Carter, the peanut farmer turned politician who proved "The Peter Principle" by rising to his own special level of ineptitude and remaining there...

208,000-worker, $38 billion agency fails to deliver on a slew of projects Stumping for President Bush's ill-fated immigration overhaul in 2006, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff vowed that his department would wrest "operational control" of the nation's borders away from human and drug traffickers within five years. That projection was based on the prospect of tough new enforcement measures as well as a temporary-worker program meant to stanch the flow of illegal immigrants, including the most ambitious use of surveillance technology ever tried on the U.S.-Mexico border. Two years later, the legislative overhaul has been shelved, development of the "virtual...

Several months ago the San Francisco Chronicle exposed California Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring for hiring a shadowy Australian immigrant to be Chief Operating Officer of the Party. I also detailed the scandal in widely published articles. When they appeared, Nehring’s fellow radical ultra-conservatives screamed in pain and anguish. They accused me of lying about and smearing Nehring and his intimate circle. Nehring’s crony successor as San Diego Party Chairman (Tony Krvaric) a recent immigrant from Sweden isn’t even civil with me even as I offer the Party FREE television time on my station. The truth, of course, is that...

Have you ever received poor service from someone you expected should be helping you as part of his or her job? The answer is almost certainly "yes." And, if you're like most people, you have probably also experienced the frustration of working with someone who made your own job more difficult. In both cases you may have wondered, "Why don't they just fire this person?" Firing someone may seem easy in theory, but it is often a last resort for an employer. ... Whenever you encounter someone who you think deserves to be fired -- either in your own workplace...

(IsraelNN.com) The head of the police investigation regarding Olmert's alleged intervention in the Bank Leumi privatization recommends charges against the Prime Minister. The investigative team as a whole leans towards an indictment of the Prime Minister, in opposition to the stance taken by the head of the Police Department's Investigations Wing, Yochanan Danino. The Bank Leumi case is one of four cases against the Prime Minister currently being investigated by the police. It involves suspicions that Olmert, as Acting Minister of Finance in late 2005, attempted to change the terms of the sale of the bank to fit the terms...