-By Warner Todd Huston
From the early days of his campaign, Obama made with the flourish that, should he be elected, lobbyists would not be welcome in his new tone Washington, his Washington of change and hope. Soon after the election, Obama’s spokesman John Podesta made a great show of announcing that Obama was insisting on the “strictest ethics rules ever applied” to his ongoing choices for members of his administration and his transition team.
In the early November news conference, Podesta proudly proclaimed that Obama was so interested in distancing himself from the old, business-as-usual Washington that they didn’t care if they were excluding people of long Washington experience with their supposed strict ethics rules. Podesta sternly told reporters, “I’ve heard the complaint that we’re leaving all these extra people on the side, that we’re leaving all the people that know everything out in the cold. So be it. That’s a commitment that is one the American people expect and one the President-elect made.”
Yet within weeks it became clear that this new ethical standard was merely so much window dressing. Now, lobbyists abound in Obama’s administration and have since day one. Not only that, but tax cheats seem to be particularly drawn to the new president.
Continue reading “It’s About The Change Yet Lobbyists and Tax Cheats Abound in New Administration”
During the campaign, Barack Obama maintained that he would focus on intervening between Pakistan and India over their disputed Kashmir region. Obama repeatedly claimed that settling the Kashmir question was a 
I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of Old Media people like columnist 
In a what-was-he-thinking move, Representative Peter King (R-NY) has recently introduced H.R. 414, the Camera Phone Predator Alert Act which is aimed at preventing “predators” from taking illicit photos of others in public with cell phones. The bill will force cell phone manufacturers to make the camera feature of a cell phone emit a noise so that it will be audibly obvious when a picture is taken.
Joe Biden has decided that he is going to serve Barack Obama as a sort of senior advisor that will be “the last guy in the room when he makes these critical decisions.” At least that is how the 
So, where exactly did the communist graphics inspired artist Shepard Fairey get the image of Obama for his ubiquitous “Hope” poster featuring a confident, young Obama intently staring off into the distance for glorious leader’s future, anyway? Turns out the celebrated artist stole it from an Associated Press freelance photographer and never bothered to acknowledge where he got it in the first place. I guess the word “ethics” didn’t fit as easily on that iconic Fairey poster, eh?
There used to be a saying in the vaunted counter-culture days of the 1960’s that went: “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” This bit of instant doggerel was used to justify all sorts of aberrant, self destructive behavior by the hippie generation like drug use, sexual promiscuity and a rampant anti-intellectualism. Thankfully, that foolish era has passed us… more or less. Unfortunately a new era has dawned turning the USA into an Obamanation that may end up reviving the worst of the 60’s era. The new phrase might be considered to have now become “Turn O, give in, bail out.”
An extremely liberal co-worker of mine — he’s in the past said that the “rich” should be killed, for instance — asked me a serious question by which he felt he could gauge whether or not I was a “real” American in his eyes during the rise of the age of Obama. He wondered whether I wish success for Barack Obama as our president. After a few seconds of reflection I had to honestly give a qualified “no” in answer to his query. Naturally this fellow went off about how it was unAmerican to wish the president to fail and how it would damage the country. But, after he briefly calmed down, and brief calm is usually all we can expect from him, I gave him a fuller explanation.
The Boston Globe had an interesting piece on January 19 that pretty much proved that the left is never, ever interested in working with others, only in conquering and destroying others. They aren’t interested in the ages old American system of compromise but only in the Marxian concept of destruction, absorption and recreation.
Meet 
It ain’t easy being green, and in the case of Barack Obama’s inaugural, it seems like he’s not even trying to green it up. According to the 
Rod Dreher, author of the “crunchy cons” definition of that certain sort of “Birkenstock wearing, environmental, gun-loving” Republican has 
OK, we all know how corrupt and venal the various governments in Illinois are, right? Well, let’s talk about some good news in the Land of Lincoln for a change.
The newly sworn-in Democratic Representative from New York’s 29th District, Eric Massa, has apparently made a fuel of himself… and of those that elected him. And the amusing thing is he did it on the way to his swearing in ceremony. No waiting to actually take office for Massa. No, this man thinks BIG!