Obama Fulfills Wish to Little Girl From Make a Wish Foundation

From Denny: This was a touching moment when a young girl with a serious disease made a wish to meet the President. Obama does seem to have a way with children without talking down to them as they always walk away from the experience all smiles and deeply satisfied.

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Latest Political Foibles - Editorial Cartoons 5 Dec 2009

From Denny: The Secret Service took a beating this week as well they should have, how lame can you get? Tiger Woods took another beating, this one from his irate wife fed up with his sleeping around. You go, girl! Send her to Afghanistan to win the war suggests one cartoonist. :) Obama announces his controversial plans to escalate in Afghanistan while the rest of us are war weary. And plenty of Santa cartoons to get you in the mood for the holiday season...

Secret Service and their lame excuses as to why they did not protect the President or the Prime Minister of India adequately... It might as well have been Bart Simpson in charge of security.

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Health care:

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Iran dilemma of thumbing their nose at world and going ahead and building now 10 times the number of nukes:

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Obama's Afghan War controversial strategy that's just wearing out the public patience after eight years of expensive wars burdening the taxpayers and costing jobs:

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Tiger Woods getting beat up by his irate wife for having an idiot affair. It's bad enough the guy is known for being a bad tipper, emotionally stingy and cheap on philanthropy. "Do ya think?" Karma is on his case...?

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And to get you in the mood for Christmas...

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Assassins Security Recipe For Disaster: Obama State Dinner

From Denny: Did anyone take the security of these heads of state seriously? Heads need to roll at the top, middle management and individual agents who were lax on this detail. Somehow, protecting the President of the United States is the whole reason this agency was created. With a President who has a 400% increase in death threats against him, why was there such a cavalier attitude about his safety?

Not to mention it made America look like a bunch of Bozo the clowns falling down on the job protecting the Prime Minister of India. Yeah, I bet he really felt safe. Even my state governor, the first Indian-American to become an American governor, attended. Of course, being Republican he has turned out to be a lame politician. He spends all his time running for President in 2012, rejecting federal funds to help the unemployed in Louisiana, projects to continue rebuilding New Orleans and closing down much needed hospitals. Bet this guy was thrilled to find out he wasn't that safe after all.

And while we are on the subject of security the smart thing to do would be to station Secret Service (not the pretend kind) behind both heads of state at all times: as they move through a crowd, as they sit at the dinner. I don't care if they do look like butlers; do it. Then, as at least one agent is watching Obama's back - literally - place another agent with his back against that agent, watching his.

On to the party crashers who thought this was so very funny... They need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. If Democrats want respect then they need to get serious and tough with the jerks in life, making an example of them.

Any well-trained Special Forces person, posing as a party crasher, could have easily gotten so close to Obama and the Prime Minister as to kill them.

Then the worst scenario of all: A well-trained or motivated assassin could have cleaned house on the top tier of our government - President, Vice President, Speaker of the House and Chief of Staff. That would have left us with Senator Pro-tem, Senator Byrd from West Virginia to run the country, an aging 90 years plus man in poor health.

So, for the Secret Service to peddle this incident as no big deal I take serious issue. Mr. President, get tough and start firing these people from their jobs, as these big heads are too full of themselves anyway.

And while you are at it, lose the Social Secretary. What was she thinking trying to get tickets to two unconnected unknown people? They were not vetted by the FBI or the Secret Service either - unlike the majority of other well-known persons and politicians present. The Social Secretary was well advised by the General Manager of the White House who briefs and teaches every new incoming administration as to protocols and how to smoothly run an event. There are so many serious loop-holes of the obvious transgressions that this is only the beginners list.

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Prez Obama Lays Out Bleak New Afghanistan Strategy

From Denny: Can I tell you that most Democrats and progressives are downright skeptical this strategy will actually work? The Army has been telling the American public - and the world - that a surge of overwhelming force is what's needed. Well, Bush already did that and to no avail.

Until the Afghan war lords, the true leaders who influence the entire population, decide it's time to throw out the Taliban then not much will ever change for the better in that country. We Americans may have grand plans, grand visions for the future of Afghanistan and high hopes for their culture. It still does not change the fact these people are not directly involved in shaping their own future. What you refuse to fight for will never come into being.

And Karzai is a sorry excuse for what passes for good government. What started out with great promise years ago has become a farce. He now looks like a bejeweled weasel sitting on a pile of gold: American foreign aid money.

President Obama in his speech at West Point laying out new battle plan:

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Success in Kandahar key to the strategy working well:

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Video: Prez Obamas First State Dinner Rocks the White House

From Denny: Prez Obama has been making headlines for his first state dinner. The relationship with India has been tenuous since Obama came into office. India has taken offense at not being treated as a first string player in the global debate as they felt they were during the Bush years.

While I don't think President Obama intentionally meant to bruise India's feelings he was ill advised. Rather than follow exactly what his advisers thought he should have first sent a team to speak to the leadership and get a pulse on their attitudes. If he did send someone then they are not very good at reading people. The information Obama was given by his past administration's advisers was outdated in regards to India to say the least. "The times they are a changing."

Generally, these are the minute mistakes of a first year President; they all do something to this effect. These are the missteps which can easily be corrected to everyone's satisfaction and President Obama is a gracious man capable of carrying it forward.

India is a rising global power with one billion of the planet's population. Did you also know they are the largest world democracy as well?

The Obama state dinner was a hot ticket in status hungry Washington, D. C., especially since the Obamas featured both Hollywood and Bollywood for the rocking entertainment.

The incredible gesture from India to create a stunner dress for the First Lady was touching to American's hearts.

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The awesome stunner dress made in India by an Indian designer for the Obama's first state dinner. Everyone was wowed by the First Lady's entrance:

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Video: Bill Clinton Retrieves 2 Jailed U.S. Journalists From North Korea

From Denny: For weeks now the State Department has been acting like a real State Department and been quietly negotiating for the release of the U.S. journalists North Korea sentenced to prison for years of hard labor because they were caught sneaking into the country to do a story. Anyone with a brain would know better than to try and deceive a paranoid deceptive government and they paid a high price for their gamble.

Former President Bill Clinton was sent to retrieve the women. All Clinton had to do was publicly reap the fruits of the many background diplomats who did the heavy lifting to achieve this political coup. The former President is the high level status of attention and interaction the North Koreans were seeking. Clinton is known for both his charm and his knowledge of how best to handle difficult situations.

These journalists should count themselves extremely lucky that President Obama was willing to seek their freedom. Under a Republican administration they would have been considered expendable and left to rot in prison for their full terms.

Moral of the story? As an American don't get jailed in a foreign country unless you have lots of friends in high places to pay for your release or there is a Democrat in the White House.

Now the real questions remain: What did Clinton privately promise North Korea? Was it enough to extract a public apology from a heavy weight powerful country? Will North Korea power down on their nuclear ambitions?

For now, North Korea threw a temper tantrum and got the international attention it was seeking by stepping on the faces of two women. Fortunately, Clinton and Obama are class acts and retrieved them.

This video is from early this morning before Clinton's plane had taken off and was in the air. Smart move from the White House not to crow about it until they knew all parties were out of North Korean air space.




This is the video hours later after confirmation from the White House the jailed reporters and Clinton were on their way home to America.



Analysis from CNN Asia correspondent on how this is perceived in North Korea

Video: Beer with the President in the Rose Garden

From Denny: The long awaited "Beer Summit" went well by all accounts. VP Joe Biden also attended.

CNN's Candy Crowley reports on the White House meeting between the Harvard professor and the Cambridge cop.

National Day of Prayer

In 1775, the First Continental Congress called for a National Day of Prayer. In 1952 Congress established the NDP as an annual event by a joint resolution, signed into law by President Truman. In 1988, the law was amended to designate the first Thursday in May for NDP, and was signed into law by President Reagan.

The mission of the National Day of Prayer Task Force is to communicate with every family the need for personal repentance and prayer, and to mobilize families to personal and corporate prayer, particularly on behalf of the nation and those in leadership on all levels of local, national, church and educational areas of influence.

In 1800, John Adams wrote in a letter to his wife Abigail, "I Pray Heaven to Bestow The Best of Blessing on THIS HOUSE, and on ALL that shall hereafter Inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof!" It was his last year in office, but the first year any president occupied the White House.

Franklin D. Roosevelt had Adam's quote lettered in gold in the marble over the fireplace in the State Dining Room of the White House.

Indeed, prayer is the only enduring path to hope and change, and our nation needs a lot of both right now. However, the current inhabitant of the White House will not be observing NDP. Robert Gibbs told his press club, "We're doing a proclamation, which I know that many administrations in the past have done," but Obama will not be inviting faith leaders to the White House (like Wright, Pfleger and Farrakhan?), or attending any of the events associate with NDP.

That notwithstanding, The Patriot Post's National Advisory Board and staff invite you to join us, and millions of our countrymen, in prayer for our nation today at 12:00 local time. The NDP theme for this year, "Prayer ... America's Hope," is based on Psalm 33:22, "May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you." Link to the National Day of Prayer Web site (www.ndptf.org) for more information.

WRITTEN by Mark Alexander, publisher of The Patriot Post (http://patriotpost.us), in his email essay dated May 7th, 2009

R.I.P. Tony Snow

There is plenty of coverage across the Internet and on television news programs on the death of Tony Snow, but to just let it pass without an entry here would be wrong. Tony Snow was that rare modern-day newsman who was accepted and respected by the mainstream media even though he did not subscribe to their usual liberal school of thought. Born in 1955 in Kentucky, Snow was raised in Cincinnati by his father, a school principal, and his mother who died of colon cancer when Snow was just 17 years old. He graduated from Davidson College in 1977, and began work as a newspaper editor in North Carolina for The Greensboro Record in 1979. His editorial career eventually led him to take over the editorial page at the prestigious The Washington Times from 1987-1991. Throughout the 1990's he worked as a regular columnist at USA Today, made numerous television news appearances, and also was syndicated to over 200 newspapers throughout the country. He took a sabbatical from 1991-1993 to work in the administration of President George H.W. Bush as a speech writer and media assistant. In the mid-90's, Snow took over as the regular substitute host for The Rush Limbaugh Show on radio, and in 2003 began The Tony Snow Show on Fox News radio. Snow had become one of the leading conservative voices in America, making numerous Fox News appearances and often substituting on television for Bill O'Reilly, but his professionalism and fairness gained him the respect from both sides of the aisle in Washington and from his media colleagues across the ideological spectrum. In April of 2006, Tony Snow was named as the new White House Press Secretary, the main face and voice of the administration of President George W. Bush, a position that he held until being overwhelmed by the same colon cancer that had taken the life of his mother 35 years earlier, that would eventually take his life yesterday. Tony was an avid musician who played the flute, trombone, piccolo, accordion, saxophone, and guitar. He was a part of a cover band called Beats Workin' and got to play publicly with members of Jethro Tull, the Doobie Brothers, and Steely Dan. Tony Snow is survived by his wife of 21 years, Jill Ellen Walker, two daughters and a son. Not many come along like Tony Snow, who combine class, intelligence, humor, and a general overall good-natured demeanor that comes through no matter what your opinions of his political views. During a time of severe political partisanship in America, the loss of men like Snow and Tim Russert, who passed away a few weeks ago, is a serious blow to American journalism, and a loss for us all.