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Judge Kessler’s February 22nd ObamaCare decision held that a decision not to make a government-mandated purchase in interstate commerce is economic activity and therefore activates the federal government’s authority under the Commerce Clause. This presents a bit of a conundrum: even assuming that she is correct, how about the failure to make any decision at all whether to buy or not to buy? Does that failure to engage in a decision-making process, which she determined to be activity, also constitute activity in interstate commerce? If so, George Orwell would be disappointed that he hadn’t lived to read about it. Both decisions...

We posted something brief yesterday about the ruling by Federal District Judge Gladys Kessler that ObamaCare is constitutional. However, with with some further analysis, courtesy of Avik Roy at Forbes, it becomes clear that Kessler’s decision may be weighted more in partisanship than in actual logic. This is an excerpt from Kessler’s ruling: “As previous Commerce Clause cases have all involved physical activity, as opposed to mental activity, i.e. decision-making, there is little judicial guidance on whether the latter falls within Congress’s power. See Thomas More Law Ctr., 720 F.Supp.2d at 893 (describing the “activity/inactivity distinction” as an issue of...

A federal judge has upheld the national health care law, making it the fifth ruling on the merits of the legal challenges to the individual mandate. The ruling by the Clinton appointee, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler of the District of Columbia continues the pattern of Democratic-appointed judges siding with the Obama administration and Republican judges siding with the plaintiffs in ruling the mandate unconstitutional. Kessler's ruling comes in a case brought by individual plaintiffs, where as the two decisions striking down the mandate have come in cases brought by 27 states, based in Virginia and Florida. Like the...

Dr. John C. Drew, a grant writing consultant in Laguna Niguel, Calif., tells Newsmax he met Obama in 1980 when Obama was a sophomore at Occidental College in Los Angeles. Drew had just graduated from Occidental and was attending graduate school at Cornell University. Drew’s then girlfriend, Caroline Boss—now Grauman-Boss—knew Obama because she shared classes with him at Occidental. During Christmas break, Drew says he was at Grauman-Boss’ home in Palo Alto when Obama came over with Mohammed Hasan Chandoo, his roommate from Pakistan. “He was arguing a straightforward Marxist-Leninist class-struggle point of view, which anticipated that there would be...

Michael Steele was supposed to drive the Republican Party out of the wilderness. Instead, he is driving the party to distraction. The latest flap involves the release of the Republican National Committee chairman’s book, “Right Now: A 12-Step Program for Defeating the Obama Agenda.” Steele failed to inform Republican congressional leaders that the book was coming out, and many of them learned about it only through Steele’s television appearances. But many see criticism over the book as a pretext for what really is disturbing a range of Republican leaders: Steele’s public comments, which can be described only as bizarre. Case...

Former Secret Service agent opens window into private lives of presidents October 14th, 2009 Jamie Weinstein In his In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents they Protect, journalist Ronald Kessler gives us a peek inside the intimate lives of our presidents. Through interviews with over 100 secret service agents from the past and present—dating all the way back to John F. Kennedy—Kessler paints a picture of what our presidents are like when no one is looking. They're always watching. We learn from the agents Kessler interviews that John F....

When we hire an employee, an electrician, or a plumber, we want to know that the individual has a good track record. Yet when electing Barack Obama, Americans ignored the fact that his track record was skimpy at best. As a community organizer, Obama was a good talker but his only tangible accomplishment was ridding a Chicago housing project of some asbestos. If Obama had virtually no impact as a community organizer, he was even more invisible in the state Senate and later in the U.S. Senate. In both, Obama had a reputation for voting “present,” thus avoiding controversial decisions...

The nation has not endured a presidential assassination since John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas in 1963. That is largely because of the dedication of Secret Service agents. But since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) took over the Secret Service in 2003, the agency has been cutting corners to the point where the lives of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and other protectees are endangered. That is the opinion of a number of current Secret Service agents who have told me for my book, “In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the...

Jimmy Carter was the "least likeable" president, Ronald Kessler reveals in his new book about the Secret Service that chronicles the agency’s activities guarding every president from Kennedy to Obama. "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect," already an Amazon.com best-seller since its publication on Tuesday, features startling disclosures about the presidents and their families. Newsmax Chief Washington Correspondent Kessler, the first journalist to penetrate the wall of secrecy that surrounds the U.S. Secret Service, based his book on interviews with more than 100 current and former...

Jimmy Carter was the "least likeable" president, Ronald Kessler reveals in his new book about the Secret Service that chronicles the agency’s activities guarding every president from Kennedy to Obama. "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect," already an Amazon.com best-seller since its publication on Tuesday, features startling disclosures about the presidents and their families. Newsmax Chief Washington Correspondent Kessler, the first journalist to penetrate the wall of secrecy that surrounds the U.S. Secret Service, based his book on interviews with more than 100 current and former...

Former US president John F. Kennedy had an affair with a Swedish flight attendant, according to a new book based on interviews with current and former Secret Service agents. According to ex-agent Robert Lutz, President Kennedy took a liking to a Swedish Pan Am Flight attendant who was riding on the press pool airplane which typically follows US presidents while they travel. While Lutz, who was assigned to the press plane, had initially planned to ask the good looking Swede out for dinner, members of the Secret Service detail assigned to President Kennedy told Lutz to back off. “She’s part...

President John F. Kennedy had secret trysts with Marilyn Monroe in a loft above the office of his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Ronald Kessler reveals in his new book about the Secret Service. "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect," released Tuesday, features startling disclosures about presidents from JFK to Barack Obama.

A new book by Newsmax Chief Washington Correspondent Ronald Kessler features startling revelations about current and former U.S. presidents, including Barack Obama. "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect," released Tuesday, August 4, discloses that threats against the president have increased dramatically – by a staggering 400 percent since Obama entered the White House. Kessler is the first journalist to penetrate the wall of secrecy that surrounds the U.S. Secret Service, and his book is based on interviews with more than 100 current and former agents.

WHEN it came to protecting Jenna and Barbara Bush, the Secret Service truly had its hands full, with President George W. Bush's wild and crazy daughters doing everything in their power to escape them, a new book reveals.

Well before Sarah Palin's stunning announcement that she is resigning as governor of Alaska, GOP insiders were concerned that Palin was showing signs that she was not up to leading the party to victory in 2012. On the surface, Palin has everything going for her. A rock star, she is smart, a terrific speaker, and an articulate spokesperson for Republican values. As governor and mayor, she has a string of real accomplishments to show for herself. As noted in the Newsmax story "Sarah Palin Mythology Debunked," much of the criticism of her has had no basis in fact. But unfair...

Jewish Leader: Obama May Be 'Most Hostile President to Israel’ "President Barack Obama’s refusal to take a stand on protests in Iran stands in sharp contrast to demands he has made on Israel, Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, says in a Newsmax interview. “I think he should take a strong stand to support the protesters in Iran who want to transform that society into one that promotes democracy and human rights,” Klein says. ”But while meddling in Israel’s affairs and making specific demands, he explicitly states he refuses to meddle in Iran’s policies and has said...

So is that it? Is the downturn over? After bouncing off of 6500, or more than half its peak value, and with Citigroup briefly breaking $1, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has rallied back more than 1200 points. So, is it safe to go back in the water? Best to figure out what went wrong first -- what I like to call a bear-raid extraordinaire.The Dow clearly got a boost from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's new and improved plan, announced on Monday, to rid our banks of those nasty toxic assets. The idea is to form a "Public-Private Investment Fund"...

President Barack Obama wants to “punish” those who succeed and who helped make America great, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh told a wildly cheering crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday. Limbaugh said Obama and the Democrats are waging an “assault” on capitalism by raising taxes on those who make more than $250,000 and by expanding welfare, limiting deductions on charitable contributions, increasing the deficit and giving the government an expanding role in Americans’ lives. “We can take this country back. All we need is to nominate the right candidate,” he said. Just before he spoke,...

More than 100 former American ambassadors are endorsing John McCain and Sarah Palin for president and vice president. To be announced by the McCain campaign later this week, the endorsements counter Barack Obama’s claims that McCain is inflexible when it comes to diplomacy and negotiations with other countries, Newsmax has learned. Obama has specifically said that in contrast to McCain, he would sit down with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other world dictators to negotiate, without preconditions. “Senator Obama does not have sufficient leadership experience, nor has he been tested in difficult times,” said Mark W. Erwin, a Democrat and...

In this episode of the "Conscience of Kansas" I interview New York Times bestselling author, Ronald Kessler about his new book, "The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack." I also talk to Robert Spencer, director of JihadWatch.com about his books and articles on terrorism. We talk about his new upcoming November release "Stealth Jihad."

Palin Has Transformed the Race Thursday, September 4, 2008 11:23 AM As if a light switch had been turned on, John McCain’s decision to add Sarah Palin to the ticket has transformed the race and energized conservatives. After the announcement that Palin would be the Republican vice presidential nominee, $7 million poured into the McCain campaign that same day. “That is the biggest day we have ever had,” Bob Heckman, the McCain campaign’s national conservative outreach director, tells Newsmax. “We’ve had an avalanche of phone calls and e-mails saying they want to volunteer and work with the campaign.” Palin’s acceptance...

McCain Shows He Is the Genuine Article Sunday, August 31, 2008 2:06 PM By: Ronald Kessler ST. PAUL, Minn. — As the Republican National Convention opens here, one thing has become clear: John McCain is both a master politician and genuine. In choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate, McCain wooed women voters to his side, lent sparkle to his own persona, and created excitement and media buzz about his candidacy. In selecting a vice presidential candidate with impeccable conservative credentials, he energized conservatives who were lukewarm about his run and now say they will work for him. As Grover...

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 8:56 AM By: Ronald Kessler A close look at Barack Obama's career reveals it has been even more mediocre than generally recognized. Before being elected to the Illinois state Senate, Obama worked as a community organizer and a lawyer in Chicago. In his memoir, Obama says being a community organizer taught him how to motivate the powerless and work the government to help them. His chief example is an effort to remove asbestos from Altgeld Gardens, an all-black public housing project on Chicago’s South Side. But those who were involved in the effort say Obama played...

From M. Stanton Evans: Herewith a letter sent to The Wall Street Journal a week ago in response to the recent anti-McCarthy article by Ronald Kessler. By way of explanation for the staccato nature of this letter, I was told that I could have 750-800 words to reply to Kessler (whose article ran to 1,059 words). I overran this by 85 words, but even so it's difficult to answer so many misstatements in such a constricted format. It's significant, for instance, that Kessler (falsely) invokes the authority of Willard Edwards to support his attack against McCarthy. I point out that...

In an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, Barack Obama again fabricated the background of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to try to excuse his longtime pastor’s denunciations of America and of whites. Referring to racial discrimination, violence, and segregation, Obama said Wright “went through experiences that I never went through.” In his speech on race in Philadelphia, Obama made similar claims. He described a “lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family . . .” Obama said this was “the reality in which...

In his speech on race, Sen. Barack Obama tried to explain away his longtime minister's denunciations of America by saying that for blacks of his generation, memories of "humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away." But an examination by Newsmax.com of the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.'s background reveals that Obama's characterization of his former pastor's upbringing is mythology. Described by Obama as his sounding board and mentor for more than two decades, Wright was born in Philadelphia in 1941. He lived in a racially mixed section called Germantown, which consisted of homes on broad tree-lined streets...

Clarification: The Obama campaign has told members of the press that Senator Obama was not in church on the day cited, July 22, because he had a speech he gave in Miami at 1:30 PM. Our writer, Jim Davis, says he attended several services at Senator Obama's church during the month of July, including July 22. The church holds services three times every Sunday at 7:30 and 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Central time. While both the early morning and evening service allowed Sen. Obama to attend the service and still give a speech in Miami, Mr. Davis stands by...

Juan Williams, a Fox commentator whose book addresses the 'phony leaders and dead end groups that "promote a Culture of Failure and are undermining Black America,” tells Newsmax that Wright’s sermons reflect “the victim mindset that is so self-defeating in the black community and one that is played on by weak black leadership that chooses to have black people identified as victims rather than inspiring them as people who have overcome. In posing as victims, they say the most prejudiced and vicious things, not only about whites but about America. They call it theology. In fact, it’s nothing but bigotry.”...

In a sermon delivered at Howard University, Barack Obama's longtime minister, friend and adviser blamed America for starting the AIDS virus, training professional killers, importing drugs and creating a racist society that would never elect a black candidate president. The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., pastor of Mr. Obama's Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, gave the sermon at the school's Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel in Washington on Jan. 15, 2006. "We've got more black men in prison than there are in college," he began. "Racism is alive and well. Racism is how this country was founded and how...

Frances Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association, describes the Democratic Party as the architect of modern day racism. Rice, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and lawyer, says in an interview it was Republicans who pushed through much of the ground-breaking civil rights legislation in Congress. Now, she says, Republicans stand for empowering blacks to help them out of poverty. In contrast, Rice says, the Democrats push to keep blacks dependent on government handouts and encourage them to see themselves as victims...

Guarding presidential candidates 24 hours a day, Secret Service agents know better than almost anyone what they are really like. Among Secret Service agents, no protectee evokes more disdain than Hillary Clinton. Secret Service agents assigned at various points to guarding Hillary during her campaign for the Senate were dismayed to find her two-faced and perpetually angry. “During the listening tour, she planned ‘impromptu’ visits at diners and local hangouts,” a former Secret Service agent told me for my book “A Matter of Character: Inside the White House of George W. Bush.” [Editor's Note: Get Ronald Kessler's book — go...

Keith Weissman and Steven Rosen Are PhDs and Middle East Experts Who Did Some Lobbying. They Thought They Were Doing What Washington Insiders Always Do. Thomas O’Donnell didn’t reveal his job when he phoned Keith Weissman in 2004 and got the policy analyst’s wife. He says he didn’t want to scare her. When Weissman returned the call and found out O’Donnell was an FBI agent, his first reaction was to attempt a joke: “What did I do?” “I’m sure you didn’t do anything,” O’Donnell told him. He wanted to meet that day, for five or ten minutes, and get Weissman’s...

As we finish another year without a terrorist attack, it’s a good time to think about why. The media and liberal politicians will tell you it’s an accident or a matter of luck. They are dead wrong. The reason we have not been attacked in the more than six years after 9/11 is the hard work of the FBI, the CIA, and our military, and the sweeping changes that have taken place in the intelligence community under George W. Bush. Bush’s proclamation that any country harboring a terrorist will be considered a terrorist country has meant that Arab countries began...

Romney Is the Real Deal Wednesday, December 26, 2007 7:53 AM By: Ronald Kessler Last April, Newsmax magazine ran a cover story headlined, “Romney to the Rescue: Romney’s Got the Right Stuff for 2008.” Based on interviews I conducted with Mitt Romney and his friends, family, and aides, as well as with critics and neutral observers, the profile depicted him as a remarkably successful businessman and conservative governor with impeccable character. Since the Newsmax article appeared nothing has changed. No one has revealed that Romney appointed a close friend as police chief who has since been indicted for dealings involving...

Last April, Newsmax magazine ran a cover story headlined, “Romney to the Rescue: Romney’s Got the Right Stuff for 2008.” Based on interviews I conducted with Mitt Romney and his friends, family, and aides, as well as with critics and neutral observers, the profile depicted him as a remarkably successful businessman and conservative governor with impeccable character. Since the Newsmax article appeared nothing has changed. No one has revealed that Romney appointed a close friend as police chief who has since been indicted for dealings involving figures with ties to the Mafia, as is the case with Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani...

WASHINGTON - After confessing to slaughtering 180,000 Kurds and plotting to build a doomsday nuke, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was so upset when his FBI interrogator left for home that he cried like a baby. FBI Special Agent George Piro whipped out two Cuban Cohibas - Saddam's favorite cigar - and they smoked on the patio behind his cell at Baghdad's airport. "When we were saying bye, he started to tear up," Piro recalled in the new book "The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack." The self-effacing G-man was hardly surprised - he had spent...

SADDAM Hussein was a germiphobe with a fondness for baby wipes and a compulsion to wash his hands, according to George Piro, the Arabic-speaking FBI agent who gained the dictator's trust and secretly debriefed him for seven months before his trial and execution. In his book, "The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack" (due Nov. 13), Ronald Kessler reports Piro spent five to seven hours a day with the Iraqi tyrant. "If Saddam had enough baby wipes, he would use them to clean food like apples before he ate them," Kessler told Page Six. "Piro...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- A U.S. federal judge in Washington has blocked the Pentagon from transferring a Guantanamo Bay detainee to Tunisia, where he allegedly faces torture, according to a ruling unsealed Tuesday. Lawyers said the order by U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler was an unprecedented direct intervention in the case of a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay,

As Hillary Clinton rises in the polls, her nose grows longer and longer. To be sure, she has never had any shame about making stories up out of thin air. After 9/11, Clinton appeared on national TV and claimed that when the two airplanes hit the World Trade Center, her daughter Chelsea was going to jog at Battery Park near the towers, where she heard and saw the catastrophe unfold. Clinton’s arrogance was so profound that she did not coordinate the story with Chelsea, who wrote an article for Talk in which she described what she had been doing that...

Condoleezza Rice may be willing to compromise at a Middle East negotiating table - but not at a jewelry counter. Coit Blacker, a Stanford professor who is one of the secretary of state's closest friends, recalls going into a shop where Rice asked to see earrings. The clerk showed her costume jewelry. Rice asked to see something nicer, prompting the clerk to whisper some sass under her breath. Blacker remembers Rice tearing the woman to shreds. "Let's get one thing straight," he recalls her saying. "You are behind the counter because you have to work for minimum wage. I'm on...

Suddenly, the mainstream media are taking Mitt Romney seriously. "60 Minutes" just featured Romney as its lead story Sunday night. Time magazine has Romney on the cover this week. The Romney campaign is besieged with interview requests. The surge in interest follows Romney's widely perceived "win" in the Republican debate on May 3. A recent New Hampshire poll has Romney leading the GOP pack in the key primary state. "The last couple of weeks have been important for Mitt Romney in terms of enlarging his presence on the national stage," Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's traveling press secretary, tells me. From the...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer leaked the identity of a CIA operative to Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus during a 2003 phone call, Pincus testified Monday as the first defense witness in the CIA leak trial. Pincus was one of the first reporters to learn the identity of Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador and prominent Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson. Pincus said he learned her identity July 12, 2003 but did not immediately write about it. Plame was outed by syndicated columnist Robert Novak two days later. Pincus testified on behalf of Vice...

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is considered a front-runner for the 2008 race, but does McCain have the temperament to be president? As portrayed by the mainstream media, McCain is an engaging war hero, a man of political moderation positioned between the left and the right. But to insiders who know him, McCain has an irrational, explosive side that make many of them question whether he is fit to serve as president and be commander in chief. Nowhere is that sentiment stronger than in the Senate, where McCain has few friends or supporters. In fact, when McCain ran for...

"Birth Control Is Selfish" ... The Message Society Doesn't Want To Hear This past weekend graduates of Saint Thomas University were treated to a surprising speech by 21-year-old graduating student Ben Kessler. Some graduates walked out, many jeered, and others spewed profanities in response to his speech. Just what did he speak of which caused such an outcry? The War in Iraq? Border control? NSA spying? None of the above. So, what exactly did Mr. Kessler do wrong? He touched society's third rail: contraception. Mr. Kessler had the audacity to call the use of birth control "an act of selfishness."...

WASHINGTON -- A Democratic senator is blocking Associate Attorney General Robert McCallum's nomination to be ambassador to Australia over allegations he improperly influenced the government's lawsuit against the tobacco industry. In a letter to President Bush, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said it was premature to place McCallum in a new position of trust as long as the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility is conducting an ethics inquiry into the handling of the tobacco case. Any senator may place a hold on an executive branch nominee, an act that can be overcome with 60 votes. The civil racketeering tobacco...

The big financial stories this week are perfectly related. In order to smooth AIG’s reported earnings, Hank Greenberg entered into a questionable swap with Warren Buffet. It kept his stock up then, but now that investors have figured it out, his stock has gone from $70 to $50 and he has joined the unemployed. He should have let his stock trade wildly. Fifteen NYSE Specialists were indicted this week for trading ahead of customers. Because of rules dating back to 1975 (the trade-through rule) Specialists have a virtual monopoly in the trading of listed stocks, but only if they abide...

Clinton Judge Emasculates Law Enforcement Agencies as Communist and Anarchist groups Plan Disruptions of Inaugural; Colombian Terrorists Target Bush for Death By Special Reports | January 18, 2005 Rulings by a Clinton-appointed federal judge, Gladys Kessler, have given unprecedented access to protesters to the inaugural parade route so that their "civil rights" may be protected. While the Washington Post and other Bush-bashing media are focusing on the cost of the January 20 Inauguration, a much more serious issue has emerged. Communist and anarchist groups may be planning to disrupt the inaugural and possibly commit violence. One organization sympathetic to a...

I just completed the book written by Ronal Kessler titled "A Matter of Character" and I remain very comfortable in the belief President Bush will be re-elected. I recommend everyone read this soley because the insight into the White House, President Bush, and his team is amazing. The comparsion of President Bush's White House to Carter and Clinton serves as a true notice of character. I was appalled to read how these two former Democratic Presidents acted outside of the public eye. It is not always about polls and being popular, it is about being a leader of true character...

A federal district judge in Washington has ordered a reporter for The New York Times to testify before a grand jury investigating the disclosure of the identity of a covert C.I.A. officer. In a decision dated Sept. 9 and released yesterday, the judge, Thomas F. Hogan, said the reporter, Judith Miller, must describe any conversations she had with "a specified executive branch official." The judge said Ms. Miller had received subpoenas issued by a special prosecutor investigating "the potentially illegal disclosure of the identity of C.I.A. official Valerie Plame." George Freeman, assistant general counsel of The New York Times Company,...

Debuting today, A Matter of Character: Inside the White House of George W. Bush by Ronald Kessler is the among the first books to be released from Penguin's new conservative imprint, Sentinel. Investigative journalist Ronald Kessler is the author of numerous bestsellers, including Inside the CIA and The Bureau. He talked to NRO editor Kathryn Lopez this weekend about A Matter of Character, the Bush administration, and the upcoming election. National Review Online: So President Bush isn't dumb, you say? Ronald Kessler: Most of what the public knows of Bush is filtered through the liberal bias of the media. He...