The day’s top political news:
Washington Post: List of U.S. Nuclear Sites Posted Online by Mistake
A U.S. document containing sensitive details about hundreds of civilian nuclear sites across the country was posted online Monday, an apparently inadvertent security breach that had federal officials scrambling yesterday to remedy the mistake.
The 266-page document was published on May 6 as a transmission from President Barack Obama to the U.S. Congress. According to the document, the list was required by law and will be provided to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Some of the pages are marked "highly confidential safeguards sensitive." The document details the location of the nuclear sites and what is being done there. The document was posted on the Government Printing Office Web site, and has since been removed.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090603/D98J6BAG0.html
The Emergence of President Obama's Muslim Roots
ABC News' Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller report that during a conference call in preparation for President Obama's trip to Cairo, where he will address the Muslim world, deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Denis McDonough said "the President himself experienced Islam on three continents before he was able to -- or before he's been able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world -- you know, growing up in Indonesia, having a Muslim father -- obviously Muslim Americans (are) a key part of Illinois and Chicago."
Given widespread unease and prejudice against Muslims among Americans, especially in the wake of 9/11, the Obama campaign was perhaps understandably very sensitive during the primaries and general election to downplay the candidate's Muslim roots.
The candidate was even offended when referred to by his initials "BHO," because he considered the use of his middle name, "Hussein," an attempt to frighten voters.
Obama says Iran's energy concerns are legitimate
Obama’s actions signal a back down from effectively confronting Iran on its efforts to achieve nuclear weapons. The statement provides a wink at previous charges and resolutions.
In a BBC interview broadcast Tuesday, Obama also restated plans to pursue direct diplomacy with Tehran to encourage it to set aside any ambitions for nuclear weapons it might harbor.
Iran has insisted its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity. But the U.S. and other Western governments accuse Tehran of seeking atomic weapons.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/02/AR2009060200947_pf.html
Opinion:
Obama’s DOJ opens the door to the sort of vote fraud that has made ACORN famous.
Georgia Democrats have a very long history of crooked politics, fraudulent voting, and outright vote theft. Now, the Obama Department of Justice has provided a ruling that will make such fraud easy.
Basically, Obama’s Justice Department says requiring proof of citizenship in order to vote is discrimination. You read that right. There is no “however” involved.
Georgia Democrats who have almost certainly joined others across the country working to figure a way to use illegal immigrants to further Democrat intentions, must be popping corks, or opening jars of moonshine in celebration.
Georgia Democrats have long led the nation in corruption.
When the “Godfather” of the ole Talmadge machine died after being elected governor, but before he could be sworn in, Georgia Democrats entertained the entire nation with a show of political snatch and grab that led to the state having three governors at one point.
Talmadge’s son Herman got a piece of the action via write in voting – in his home county, the younger Talmadge received write in votes that were cast in alphabetical order. Democrats didn’t blink at the obvious fraud.
Of course, in recent history, Democrats have often used Black churches in their vote schemes and scams. These are the same Democrats who denied blacks meaningful voting until the early 1960s saw an end to the infamous county unit system, and ended the “White Democrat Primary” in which the real voting was accomplished.
When I began computerizing Georgia voter lists for the very first time back in 1965, Democrats had no problem explaining to me why they continued to vote for deceased relatives. In fact, some considered such voting to be an obligation.
Now, we have the flood of illegal aliens – Georgia being one of the most afflicted states in that regard. Add to that the recent record of Georgia’s voting Republican – taking over state government entirely – and the state’s Democrats are most anxious to get illegal alien voters registered and be assured the illegals will vote straight Democrat.
Even as investigations of Obama’s ACORN are growing, the DOJ makes its Georgia ruling and thus the Obama government accomplishes what ACORN is accused of doing – making fraudulent voting open and easier.
Normal Georgians whose primary political concern in honest and effective government, have been dealt a serious blow by the Obama administration. But who is surprised? Certainly none of us who have had to confront George Democrat voting conspiracies before.
Buddy
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jun/01/us-voting-checks-060109/
Feds spike voter citizenship checks in Georgia
SHANNON McCAFFREY, The Associated Press
ATLANTA — The Justice Department has rejected Georgia's system of using Social Security numbers and driver's license data to check whether prospective voters are citizens, a process that was a subject of a federal lawsuit in the weeks leading up to November's election.
In a letter released on Monday, the Justice Department said the state's voter verification program is frequently inaccurate and has a "discriminatory effect" on minority voters. The decision means Georgia must halt the citizenship checks, although the state can still ask the Justice Department to reconsider, according to the letter and to the Georgia secretary of state's office.
"This flawed system frequently subjects a disproportionate number of African-American, Asian and/or Hispanic voters to additional, and more importantly, erroneous burdens on the right to register to vote," Loretta King, acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's civil rights division, said. King's letter was sent to Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker on Friday.
The decision comes as Georgia awaits word on whether a law passed in the spring that requires newly registering voters to show proof of citizenship will pass muster with DOJ. Under the law that takes effect in January, people must show their proof up front compared to doing checks through databases.
A three-judge federal panel in October ordered the state to seek Justice Department preclearance for the checks under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the same reason the federal agency must sign off on the new law that made Georgia only the second state after Arizona to require such proof. Georgia is one of several states that need federal approval before changing election rules because of a history of discriminatory Jim Crow-era voting practices.
Secretary of State Karen Handel blasted DOJ's decision, saying it opens the floodgates for non-citizens to vote in the state.
"Clearly, politics took priority over common sense and good public policy," said Handel, a Republican candidate for governor in 2010.
Justice Department officials said the citizenship match through driver's license and Social Security data has flagged 7,007 individuals as non-citizens but that many have been shown to be in error.
"Thousands of citizens who are in fact eligible to vote under Georgia law have been flagged," the Justice Department letter said.
The Justice Department decision marks the first time the new Democratic Obama administration has weighed in on Georgia's election laws. It is also the first time the Justice Department has rejected a change in election procedures by Georgia since the 1990s, according to a spokesman for the Georgia attorney general.
"We are pleased with this decision," said Elise Shore, Southeastern Regional Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "It vindicates our filing of the lawsuit."
But Handel said that more than 2,100 people who attempted to register in Georgia still have not resolved questions regarding their citizenship. Her office's inspector general is investigating more than 30 cases of non-citizens casting ballots in Georgia elections, including the case of a Henry County non-citizen who said she registered to vote and cast ballots in 2004 and 2006.
Handel said the checks were designed to follow federal guidelines to ensure the integrity of the vote and that those eligible are casting ballots.
But the ACLU and the Mexican American defense fund sued, saying the efforts amounted to a "systematic purging" of rolls just weeks before the election.
(NOTE: Involvement in this absurd issue by the ACLU should be the only signal needed to redflag this matter for all decent, patriotic, intelligent Americans. The ACLU is a conspiracy against such Americans.)
Separately, the U.S., Supreme Court is considering a challenge to the portion of the Voting Rights Act requiring Georgia and select other states to seek approval before tinkering with election law.
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Georgia Secretary of State: http://www.sos.georgia.gov
U.S. Department of Justice: http://www.usdoj.gov
The day’s top blogs:
1.
Steve Kest, executive director of ACORN, right, and ACORN member Hugh Alleyne listen to a question during a news conference in Washington (AP).
The U.S. Census is supposed to be free of politics, but one group with a history of voter fraud, ACORN, is participating in next year's count, raising concerns about the politicization of the decennial survey.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now signed on as a national partner with the U.S. Census Bureau in February 2009 to assist with the recruitment of the 1.4 million temporary workers needed to go door-to-door to count every person in the United States -- currently believed to be more than 306 million people.
A U.S. Census "sell sheet," an advertisement used to recruit national partners, says partnerships with groups like ACORN "play an important role in making the 2010 Census successful," including by "help[ing] recruit census workers."
The bureau is currently employing help from more than 250 national partners, including TARGET and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), to assist in the hiring effort.
But ACORN's partnership with the 2010 Census is worrisome to lawmakers who say past allegations of fraud should raise concerns about the organization.
"It's a concern, especially when you look at all the different charges of voter fraud. And it's not just the lawmakers' concern. It should be the concern of every citizen in the country," Rep. Lynn A. Westmoreland, R-Ga., vice ranking member of the subcommittee for the U.S. Census, told FOXNews.com. "We want an enumeration. We don't want to have any false numbers."
ACORN, which claims to be a non-partisan grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income people, came under fire in 2007 when Washington State filed felony charges against several paid ACORN employees and supervisors for more than 1,700 fraudulent voter registrations. In March 2008, an ACORN worker in Pennsylvania was sentenced for making 29 phony voter registration forms. The group's activities were frequently questioned in the 2008 presidential election.
ACORN spokesman Scott Levenson told FOXNews.com that "ACORN as an organization has not been charged with any crime." He added that fears that the organization will unfairly influence the census are unfounded.
"It will be the Census Bureau that determines the role and scope of its 300 national partners. ACORN is committed to a fair and accurate count," Levenson said.
The census is an official count of the country's population mandated by the U.S. Constitution. It is used to determine distribution of taxpayer money through grants and appropriations and the apportionment of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives. Every U.S. household unit, including those occupied by non-citizens and illegal immigrants, must be counted.
Westmoreland and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, a member of the House census subcommittee, said the panel has held hearings to make sure the penalties for census takers committing fraud are clearly defined.
"I feel fairly confident that the penalties for an individual manipulating the count are pretty severe," Chaffetz said. The penalty for any fraudulent activity can be up to five years in jail.
Westmoreland said he hopes the Census Bureau will maintain its measures to ensure an accurate report.
"I feel comfortable right now with the people at the census department that they're going to put forth their best effort to have a fair count," he said.
The U.S. Census Bureau has refuted any suggestions that ACORN or any other groups will fraudulently and unduly influence the results of the census.
(NOTE: Anyone stupid enough to believe that claim is suspect for being a potential prospect for Florida swamp land. It is most certainly a claim by someone with a distinctly left wing bias – liberal Democrats are conspiring with ACORN and other such cabals, to steal future elections by gerrymandering Congressional district lines. Meanwhile, Georgia was ordered to avoid seeking proof of citizenship from potential voters. An open invitation by the Obama Justice Department for fraudulent voting and vote theft. “Shameful” is far too mile a term.)
"The Census (Bureau) is a nonpartisan, non-political agency and we're very dedicated to an accurate account," bureau spokesman Stephen Buckner told FOXNews.com. "We have a lot of quality controls in place to keep any kind of systemic error or fraudulent behavior to affect the counts."
Buckner said the bureau received an overwhelming number of qualified applicants -- more than 1 million -- for the 140,000 census taker jobs filled to complete the first phase of the effort. Each applicant, he said, must take a basic skills exam, which includes reading a map and entering data into a handheld computer. Applicants are also subject to an FBI background check, he said.
But Buckner acknowledged that it is difficult to track an applicant's political background.
"I have no way of tracking any of that information," he said. "If somebody comes in to a position with a political agenda and their work exhibits that, there are rules against that," he said.
Buckner stressed the need for organizations like ACORN to assist in the effort, saying that "any group that has a grassroots organization that can help get the word out that we have jobs" is helpful.
In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau had 140,000 partnerships from "national organizations to local and community organizations to elected officials," he said. "The list is as broad as the phone book."
2.
Thugs Vs. Voters
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Voting Rights: It's more than disturbing to see the Justice Department drop a case against armed bullies practicing intimidation tactics last Election Day. No American should ever fear to vote.
The Washington Times reports that political staffers at Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department have trumped careerists and ordered that a complaint be dropped against three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense who used a billy club to harass voters in Philadelphia on the day of last year's November elections.
The incident became a sensation on Election Day itself, thanks to quickly posted YouTube video showing two of the threatening men dressed in paramilitary garb.
After months of work, Justice officials were on the verge of applying sanctions against the three this month, according to the Times, but "their superiors ordered them to reverse course, according to interviews and documents."
(NOTE: The prosecution’s decisions were implied racism. They have sent a message to other thugs that the Obama Justice Department will simply wink at threatening potential voters. Thus we see the Obama administration allowing Black Panthers, ACORN, and other left wing groups of thugs to do to Republican voters what the old KKK was formed to do.)
Two had their lawsuit dismissed with no penalty imposed, while the third man was banned from taking a weapon to a polling place in the future. Records indicate that the three men had refused to appear in court.
An interesting aspect to the case is that civil rights activist and former Bobby Kennedy aide Bartle Bull, working as an official poll watcher on the day, accused the Panthers of making themselves "an intimidating presence" in a sworn statement.
"In all my experience in politics, in civil rights litigation and in my efforts in the 1960s to secure the right to vote in Mississippi," according to Bull, "I have never encountered or heard of another instance in the United States where armed and uniformed men blocked the entrance to a polling location."
The Justice complaint called the incident part of a national operation to have New Black Panther members stationed at various polling places.
Voter intimidation has obviously played a big role in American history. Southern states had long used literacy tests and other means to keep blacks from casting ballots. The 1965 Voting Rights Act authorized the federal government to stop any "test or device . . . used for the purpose or with the effect of denying or abridging the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color."
The alleged behavior of the Panthers, however, is more akin to the physical bullying the Ku Klux Klan practiced during elections, memorably depicted in the final scenes of D.W. Griffith's propagandistic 1915 film, "The Birth of a Nation."
The fundamental legitimacy of our representative government depends on Americans' ability to exercise their power to vote with full peace of mind. There must be zero tolerance for anyone threatening that with physical violence. Our new attorney general takes this matter far too lightly.
3.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/06/republican_party_survival_plan.html
Republican Party Survival Plan for the Obama Years
Harold Witkov
-Satire-
I am sick and tired of hearing that Republicans need to shelve their conservative values if they want to survive. This idea could not be farther from the truth. In fact, the way things are going under President Obama, I can guarantee the Republicans will return to power within the next eight years, assuming they follow a specific plan of action.
The nuclear world is getting more dangerous everyday. China and Russia cannot be trusted. How long will it be before Pakistan shares her nuclear technology with a more radical Muslim nation, or terrorist group? Ahmadinejad wants to erase Israel from the map. As he closes in on nuclear capability, what plans does he have for the United States? North Korean lunatic dictator Kim Jung Il keeps improving his long-range missile technology and recently set off a powerful underground nuclear explosion. And with all these ominous shadows over the globe, our President holds on to the belief he can persuade maniac dictators from their ambitions by using his charm and with the help of world community sanctions. There is a nuclear storm coming and when the 3AM phone call comes to the White House, it will be too late.
(NOTE: Liberals should never be allowed to hold decision making positions in war time. They are incompetent in dealing with such challenges. As we have seen from Clinton and Obama, liberals see fighting a war as a criminal law matter. They grant “rights’ once reserved for citizens to POWs – terrorists captured on battlefields. That’s beyond foolish…it’s downright irresponsible.)
Here is the plan. In order for the GOP to survive the Obama years, we need to start building fallout shelters in our backyards. When the nukes start falling, the theory goes, we Republicans will be safe in our bunkers. When the mushroom clouds clear, the vaporized Democrats will be gone and everyone left will be Republicans!
Once we commence building our fallout shelters, we may discover that some of our Democrat friends will be upset with us. If that happens to you, be sure you are reassuring. Say, "I do not want Obama to fail, I really want Obama to succeed, and he probably will, but I'm doing this just in case." Over time, the Obama White House may decide that Republicans building fallout shelters in their backyards might be bad for Democrat morale and accuse Republicans of being un-American. They might even go so far as to outlaw fallout shelters. If that is the case, we must secretly adapt. Cover the backyard entrance to your fallout shelter with a round rubber child's pool and secretly, from your home, tunnel underground to complete your bunker. Once completed, start storing canned goods and other essentials, and feel free to include a copy of the U.S. Constitution.
At some point in time, probably when it appears our President is nearing some great nuclear proliferation breakthrough, the nukes will start falling on America. Of course, when the bombs start falling, our Democrat friends will snap out of their mesmerism, understand the danger, and discover their Republican neighbors are safe within shelters. They will no doubt seek us out, start pounding upon our bunker doors, and plead for us to let them in.
We will have no choice but to do so. After all, they are our fellow Americans. Besides, it would be a great way to demonstrate compassionate conservatism.
In writing this satire, it is not my intention to jest about the potential deaths of millions of Americans because, regardless of party affiliation, each human life is a precious gift from God. If nuclear bombs rain down upon us, fallout shelters will not help. We all lose. However, the American people need to understand the dangerous path our President is following. Someone needs to tell him there are evil dictators in the world and to let them develop and perfect nuclear weapons is unconscionable behavior.
Someone should also tell the President he is just as vulnerable to a nuclear attack as the rest of us. After all, with Joe Biden as his VP, it is only a matter of time before the tyrants of the world learn where the President's secret hideout is.
4.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/06022009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/a_grovelpalooza_172086.htm
A GROVELPALOOZA
RALPH PETERS
ONE question remains about President Obama's upcoming schlock-concerts in the Middle East: "How deeply will he grovel?"
With top tour dates in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the political message is clear: President George W. Bush is gone, democracy's an annoyance, human rights apply only to Gitmo inmates and America owes the Middle East confessions, concessions and apologies.
The key contents of the president's ballyhooed speech to "the Muslim world" are discouragingly predictable: Along with blather about working cooperatively for a better, shared future, he'll stress that "Islam's a religion of peace" and that America isn't Islam's enemy.
(NOTE: It is useless to note again that Obama did not grow up in America. His formative years were spent among Muslims and even attending Muslim religious schools and religious services. To suggest none of this wore off on the young Obama – or whatever name he used at the time – and led him to become susceptible to the Muslim positions is simply not credible. Living in a Muslim environment, young Obama most certainly tried his best to fit in.)
But what if Islam -- as enforced by the Saudis and their surrogates -- isn't a religion of peace? What if their Islam needs America as an enemy? And what if a crucial core of radicalized Muslims don't want what we have to offer and pray for our destruction?
What if the Saudi version of Islam is the problem?
While all major religions have engaged in horrendous oppression at various points, the Wahhabi counterrevolution that's poisoned Sunni Islam has done its best to kill any hint of tolerance.
The Saudis have funded a once-great faith's grotesque degeneration. And let's not mention terrorism.
Instead of encouraging Middle Easterners to take responsibility for their own failures, to stop discriminating against those of other faiths (including Shia Muslims) and to firmly reject violence in the name of religion, our president will employ his commanding voice to deliver a message of American contrition.
For all the American left's blather about human rights and freedom, the Obama administration has turned its back on democracy, women's rights and the most basic social and political liberties in the Arab world.
But presenting a rhetorical welfare check to the collapsed civilization of the Middle East won't advance our interests -- or those of the average Arab.
I can't alter his speech, but I ask our first multi-racial president to bear in mind two things during the brief flight between Cairo and Riyadh: The Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula and Egypt were the earliest, greatest and most tenacious enslavers of black Africans. And the Saudis are the leading sponsors of religious hatred in the world today.
Who owes whom an apology?
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