White House Holding Troop Funding Hostage to... Education Spending(??)

This is unconscionable. I guess the thinking goes that, if you want to protect and fund our troops overseas, you'll support more boondoggle spending on education. Somehow, when I think of Teddy Roosevelt's reference to the "bully pulpit," I think he had something altogether different in mind than holding the security of our troops hostage to the political desires of a radical administration. Positions like this sure do a lot to undermine the White House denials that they're holding border security hostage to immigration reform legislation, which I never thought was that far-fetched, anyway. If there's one thing we know about Obama, it's that he has no problem making us suffer...

Obama, Democrats At Odds Over Education Reform Funding

The White House is locked in a standoff with Democratic leaders in Congress over funding for school reforms, as deficit concerns and Afghanistan War politics collide with an education priority for the Obama administration.

Ron Claiborne takes a look at the cutbacks schools are being forced to make.

President Obama is threatening to vetothe $80 billion war funding bill approved in the House on Thursday if the final bill includes proposed cuts to the administration's "Race to the Top" education reform competition.

The House bill -- which would pay for the 30,000 additional troops ordered to Afghanistan -- includes roughly $15 billion in emergency education funding to prevent hundreds of thousands of teacher layoffs and fund Pell Grants. To pay for it, however, the House proposed cutting $800 million from the Obama administration's current education reforms.

"The administration is more than willing to work with the Congress to pursue fiscally responsible ways to finance education jobs; however, these rescissions undercut programs that have already received applications from more than three dozen States," said the statement of administration policy released Thursday.

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"It would be short-sighted to weaken funding for these reforms just as they begin to show such promise. The administration urges the House to include education jobs funding in a version of H.R. 4899 that does not rescind education reform funding. If the final bill presented to the President includes cuts to education reforms, the President's senior advisors would recommend a veto," the administration said.

The White House now finds itself at odds with top Democrats in the House, who support using money tagged for "Race to the Top" to pay for immediate education needs.

"It has been suggested to us that the Secretary of Education is somewhat unhappy because of the offsets that we have required in order to pay for this additional funding," said Rep. David Obey , D-Wisconsin , Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, during the House floor debate on Thursday. "I would suggest there is nothing wrong with providing the Secretary a modest amount of funds to promote educational change. God knows we need it. But to suggest we are being unduly harsh is a joke."

In first round of the "Race to the Top" competition the Education Department awarded $100 million to Delaware and $500 million toTennessee. The House bill would reduce the $3.4 billion remaining for the second round of the competition by $500 million.

Massive teacher layoffs due to budget shortfalls and waning stimulus funds are expected to have a dramatic impact on students: come next fall students may face larger class sizes, fewer after-school and summer programs, and the elimination of certain subjects -- such as art, music, or advanced placement classes.

"This vote will ensure our teachers remain in the classrooms and our students don't lose a year of learning. We will not allow our children's education to become a casualty of the state of the economy," said Rep. George Miller, D-California, Chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, in a written statement. "These are responsible, targeted investments that will create and secure jobs, and keep our promise to our nation's children.

Teachers' unions, which lobbied hard for the emergency education funding, have also spoken out against the administration's threat to veto the bill.

"It's deeply disappointing that a Democratic administration would threaten to veto a jobs bill because paying for it would require a negligible cut from its new pet programs. We understand the administration wants to protect its favorite programs for future disbursements, but we need to protect kids and this generation of new teachers now," American Federation of TeachersPresident Randi Weingarten said Thursday.

Including the education cuts reflects the political reality facing Congressional Democrats, who must govern with an anti-war Democratic caucus and an anti-spending opposition. House Republicans are supportive of the war effort, but opposed attaching additional domestic spending to the bill. Democrats on the other hand, were swayed to support the supplemental because of the unrelated funding, which many viewed as a chance to revive their jobs agenda.

Looking ahead it's unclear if the President will face the same kind of opposition in the Senate, which must approve the House legislation for it to become law. A group of Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Indiana, have aligned with the president to oppose the education cuts in the House bill.

"The proposed education cuts are unacceptable," wrote thirteen Democratic senators in a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye on Friday. "Choosing between preserving teacher jobs and supporting vital education reforms is a false choice and would set a dangerous precedent. By reducing promised funding for these important reforms, Congress would be pulling the rug out from under the efforts of thousands of communities around the country working to improve their schools."

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Obama's Rationing-Expert Medicare Chief's Radicalism Requires Senate End-Run

While it's not unheard of for Presidents to make recess appointments to certain positions in order to avoid Senate oversight, it IS surprising that Obama would have to resort to such tactics to get his healthcare rationing expert appointed when he has such overwhelming support, with Democrats controlling 59 seats in the upper body. Which leaves us with three possibilities that I can identify.

Either:

1. The Senate Dems are pealing away from him during an election year and they're starting to resist his agenda to destroy America. I mean, the Senate Dems have pretty good jobs - why would they want to kill the golden goose? I have to discount this theory because the Senate Dems have had no problem so far with Obama's 18-month joyride of devastation on our economy, our culture, and our liberties. So that brings me to...

2. Obama doesn't want to put additional pressure on the Senate Dems in an election year. Sounds reasonable, but remember, Obama was perfectly comfortable asking Dems to vote along party lines and ignore mass protest against his very unpopular healthcare act, so I'm frowning at that one, too. That leaves us with...

3. Berwick is so radical that he couldn't withstand any scrutiny at all in the Senate. I feel pretty good about this one. We'll probably find Berwick has some previously expressed opinions on healthcare that fall somewhere around Jospeh Mengele in the continuum of healthcare-as-public-policy thought.

Oh, look here... we're already coming up with scary stuff...

A www.nytimes.com article on Wednesday brought out the fact that Berwick has been outspoken about “the need to ration heath care and cap spending, has supported efforts to ‘reduce the total supply of high-technology medical and surgical care’ and has expressed great admiration for the British healthcare system.”

Obama bypasses Senate for new Medicare chief

President Barack Obama bypassed the Senate Wednesday and appointed Dr. Donald Berwick, a Harvard professor and patient care specialist, to run Medicare and Medicaid.

The decision to use a so-called recess appointment to install Berwick as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services drew immediate fire from the GOP. Republicans have raised concerns about Berwick's views on rationing of care and other matters and said it was wrong for Obama to go around the normal Senate confirmation process, even though the recess appointment is a tool used by presidents of both parties.

Berwick has wide support in the medical community but Democrats feared the GOP would use his confirmation hearings as an opportunity to reopen last year's divisive health caredebate. Obama defended the decision to appoint Berwick and two other officials, one to a pension board and the other to a White House science post.

"It's unfortunate that at a time when our nation is facing enormous challenges, many in Congress have decided to delay critical nominations for political purposes," Obama said in a statement Wednesday. "These recess appointments will allow three extremely qualified candidates to get to work on behalf of the American people right away."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused Obama of trying to "arrogantly circumvent the American people" with Congress out of town for its annual July Fourth break. Berwick could serve through next year without Senate confirmation.

"Democrats haven't scheduled so much as a committee hearing for Donald Berwick but the mere possibility of allowing the American people the opportunity to hear what he intends to do with their health care is evidently reason enough for this administration to sneak him through without public scrutiny," said McConnell, R-Ky.

Berwick, 63, is a pediatrician, Harvard University professor and leader of a health care think tank, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, that works to develop and implement concepts for improving patient care. The programs he will oversee - Medicare and Medicaid for the elderly, poor and disabled, along with the Children's Health Insurance Program - provide care to about 100 million people, or around 1 in 3 Americans.

The American Hospital Association was among the groups that weighed in to support Berwick Wednesday.

"Don has dedicated his career to engaging hospitals, doctors, nurses and other health care providers to improve patient care," said Rich Umbendstock, head of the hospital association. "A physician and innovator in health care quality, his knowledge of the health care system makes him the right choice."

Republicans have seized on comments like one Berwick made to an interviewer last year: "The decision is not whether or not we will ration care - the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open. And right now, we are doing it blindly."

Republicans say that shows Berwick would deny needed care based on cost. Supporters contend rationing already is done by insurance companies and Berwick simply wants transparency and accountability in medical decisions.

It's just those echoes of the health care debate that Democrats would prefer not to replay on the Senate floor.

Medicare has been without an administrator since 2006, and the White House says the need to fill the post is critical because of its role in implementing the new health care law. Medicare is to be a key testing ground for numerous aspects of the new law, from developing new medical techniques to trying out new payment systems, and the White House says a permanent leader is key with deadlines approaching.

Obama last made a batch of recess appointments in March. Also appointed Wednesday were:

-Philip E. Coyle III as associate director for national security and international affairs at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

-Joshua Gotbaum as director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

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Hezbollah Ayatollah Dead, CNN Mourns

Nothing odd about CNN weeping over a terrorist organization losing one of its "giants," is there? I'm guessing maybe he was the guy who invented the exploding wireless bra bomb.

CNN editor sad over ayatollah's death

By YAAKOV LAPPIN

CNN’s senior editor of Middle East affairs, Octavia Nasr, posted a message on her Twitter account on Sunday in which she expressed sadness at the death of Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, described by terrorism analysts as the spiritual mentor of Hizbullah.

“Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah... One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot,” Nasr wrote.

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Nasr’s remarks drew fire from the Honest Reporting media watchdog, which asked on its Web site, “Is Nasr a Hezbollah sympathizer? This is disturbing enough given that the group is designated a terrorist organization by the US and is committed to the destruction of Israel.

And which of Fadlallah’s individual views does Nasr admire?” CNN did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Although described by sections of the Western media as a firebrand-preacher-turnedmoderate, Fadlallah went on record as praising the massacre of eight Israeli students at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem in 2008, according to Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs researcher Shimon Shapira.

“In his sermon during Friday prayers, Fadlallah declared, ‘The heroic operation in Jerusalem proved that the mujahedeen in Palestine are able to hit the Zionists hard.’ His remarks were carried by Hizbullah’s television network, Al-Manar,’” Shapira said in a 2008 article for the JCPA.

In March of that year, Fadlallah told Al-Manar that Israel had “inflated” the number of Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, in an interview translated and made available by MEMRI.

“Zionism has inflated the number of victims in this holocaust beyond imagination.
They say there were six million Jews – not six million, not three million, or anything like that...
But the world accepted this [figure], and it does not allow anyone to discuss this,” the ayatollah said.

Ely Karmon, senior researcher at the Institute for Counter Terrorism at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that Fadlallah was an extremist figure who had continued to exert major influence on Hizbullah even after distancing himself from the organization due to a dispute over its subservience to Iran.

Karmon carried out an in-depth study into Fadlallah’s Web site in 2000 and compared it to Hizbullah’s.

“Every Friday, he would publish his sermon online, which carried both a religious and a political message. Two days later, the same messages would be published by Hizbullah’s Web Site. He continued to influence Hizbullah... He remained fiercely anti-American and anti-Israel,” Karmon said.

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Holder Files Lawsuit Against Arizona

The federal government just filed suit against the state of Arizona for daring to enforce the law. It's deeply troubling to see the federal government attacking our own state governments to protect lawbreakers, but on the plus side, the lawsuit was filed by Eric Holder, which means at least the legal work should be sub-par.

White House files lawsuit against Arizona over controversial immigration law

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration was expected to file a lawsuit Tuesday against Arizona over its controversial immigration legislation, making a legal attempt to kill the measures recently described by the president as posing a serious threat to civil rights.

Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, a former Arizona governor, were to announce the suit later Tuesday. It alleges Arizona illegally intruded into federal jurisdiction when it passed the legislation set to become law later this month.

The state law gives police the power to question anyone they suspect is an illegal immigrant. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said the state was forced to deal with its illegal immigrant problem in the absence of any federal immigration reform.

Upon word of the impending lawsuit, Brewer's spokesman called it "a terribly bad decision."

"Arizona obviously has a terrible border security crisis that needs to be addressed, so Gov. Brewer has repeatedly said she would have preferred the resources and attention of the federal government would be focused on that crisis rather than this," Paul Senseman said.

The White House and civil rights organizations have condemned the law as amounting to racial profiling. President Barack Obama recently urged Congress to make immigration reform a legislative priority in the months to come as he called the Arizona law "unenforceable" and a surefire road to civil rights abuses.

The law has sparked an emotional debate about immigration throughout the United States. A number of other states and jurisdictions have followed Arizona's lead, introducing similar laws even as Arizona suffers a public relations black eye amid dozens of nationwide boycotts.

The economic impact on the state hasn't stopped one municipal candidate from proposing even tougher measures aimed at illegal immigrants.

Barry Wong, a candidate for the Arizona utilities commission, is threatening to cut off power and gas to illegal immigrants if he's elected.

"It is not a right. It is a service," Barry Wong said recently.

Brewer recently allocated US$250,000 to help improve the state's public image. Tourists are reportedly shunning Arizona not just because of the new law, but also due to perceptions that the state is too dangerous to visit because of the escalating drug war at the Mexican border.

In a recent report, Arizona's Tourism and Economic Development Task Force urged Brewer and other elected officials to stop portraying the state as unsafe if they want tourists to return.

The state must "provide facts that inform potential visitors/meeting planners and the general public that Arizona is a safe and welcoming destination," the task force said in its report.

Two Arizona senators assailed the White House on Tuesday for failing to deal with a mounting illegal immigration problem until now.

"The Obama administration has not done everything it can do to protect the people of Arizona from the violence and crime illegal immigration brings to our state," Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl said in a statement. "Until it does, the federal government should not be suing Arizona."

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Former NASA Head: Current Islamo-Focus of Agency "Deeply Flawed"

Michael Griffin, former head of NASA for the Bush administration, came out swinging today about Charles Bolden's assertion that the "prime mission" of NASA is to make Muslims feel better about themselves. I wonder how some of the other people who spent their careers making NASA what it is will respond?

Former NASA Director Says Muslim Outreach Push 'Deeply Flawed'

The former head of NASA on Tuesday described as "deeply flawed" the idea that the space exploration agency's priority should be outreach to Muslim countries, after current Administrator Charles Bolden made that assertion in an interview last month.

"NASA ... represents the best of America. Its purpose is not to inspire Muslims or any other cultural entity," Michael Griffin, who served as NASA administrator during the latter half of the Bush administration, told FoxNews.com.

Bolden created a firestorm after telling Al Jazeera last month that President Obama told him before he took the job that he wanted him to do three things: inspire children to learn math and science, expand international relationships and "perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering."

Officials from the White House and NASA on Tuesday stood by Bolden's statement that part of his mission is to improve relations with Muslim countries -- though NASA backed off the claim that such international diplomacy is Bolden's "foremost" responsibility.

Griffin said Tuesday that collaboration with other countries, including Muslim nations, is welcome and should be encouraged -- but that it would be a mistake to prioritize that over NASA's "fundamental mission" of space exploration.

"If by doing great things, people are inspired, well then that's wonderful," Griffin said. "If you get it in the wrong order ... it becomes an empty shell."

Griffin added: "That is exactly what is in danger of happening."

He also said that while welcome, Muslim-nation cooperation is not vital for U.S. advancements in space exploration.

"There is no technology they have that we need," Griffin said.

The former administrator stressed that any criticism should be directed at Obama, not Bolden, since NASA merely carries out policy.

The White House stood by Bolden on Tuesday. Spokesman Nick Shapiro said in a written statement to FoxNews.com that Obama "wants NASA to engage with the world's best scientists and engineers as we work together to push the boundaries of exploration.

"Meeting that mandate requires NASA to partner with countries around the world like Russia and Japan, as well as collaboration with Israel and with many Muslim-majority countries. The space race began as a global competition, but, today, it is a global collaboration," he said.

Bob Jacobs, NASA's assistant administrator for public affairs, echoed that point. However, he said that Bolden was speaking of priorities when it came to "outreach" and not about NASA's primary missions of "science, aeronautics and space exploration." He said the "core mission" is exploration and that it was unfortunate Bolden's comments are now being viewed through a "partisan prism."

Though the Al Jazeera interview drew widespread attention, it wasn't the first time Bolden made the assertion.

A Feb. 16 blog in the Orlando Sentinel reported that Bolden discussed the outreach during a lecture to engineering students. As he did in the interview with Al Jazeera last month, Bolden was quoted then saying Obama told him to "find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries."

He reportedly talked about the importance of helping countries establish space programs and pointed to the largest Muslim country in the world, Indonesia, as a possible partner.

"We really like Indonesia because the State Department, the Department of Education (and) other agencies in the U.S. are reaching out to Indonesia as the largest Muslim nation in the world," he said.

Bolden did not describe such outreach as his prime mission at the time.

The NASA administrator was in the Middle East last month marking the one-year anniversary since Obama delivered an address to Muslim nations in Cairo. Bolden spoke in June at the American University in Cairo, and in the interview with Al Jazeera he described space travel as an international collaboration of which Muslim nations must be a part.

"It is a matter of trying to reach out and get the best of all worlds, if you will, and there is much to be gained by drawing in the contributions that are possible from the Muslim (nations)," he said.

He held up the International Space Station as a model, praising the contributions there from the Russians and the Chinese.

However, Bolden denied the suggestion that he was on a diplomatic mission. "Not at all. It's not a diplomatic anything," he said.

He also said the United States is not going to travel beyond low-Earth orbit on its own and that no country is going to make it to Mars without international help.

Griffin disputed this point. He said the U.S. can still make those strides without international aid if it wishes, and that, "To the extent that we wish to go to Mars, we can go to Mars."

Griffin said the U.S. should in fact seek international cooperation for those missions, but that it would be "clearly false" to suggest the U.S. needs that cooperation.

Bolden has faced criticism this year for overseeing the cancellation of the agency's Constellation program, which was building new rockets and spaceships capable of returning astronauts to the moon. Stressing the importance of international cooperation in future missions, Bolden told Al Jazeera that the moon, Mars and asteroids are still planned destinations for NASA.

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