out of the the UK:

America -- what have you done?
Saturday, 7th February 2009

Melanie Phillips

President Obama has had, by general consent, a torrid First Fortnight. To put it another way, it has taken precisely two weeks for the illusion that brought him to power to be exposed for the nonsense that it so obviously was. The transformational candidate who was going to sweep away pork-barrel politics, lobbyists and corruption has been up to his neck in sleaze, as eviscerated here by Charles Krauthammer. Despite the fact that he came to power promising to ‘ban all earmarks’, his ‘stimulus’ bill represents billions of dollars of special-interest tax breaks, giveaways and protections -- which have nothing to do with kick-starting the economy and everything to do with favouring pet Democrat causes.

He has been appointing one tax dodger, lobbyist and wheeler-dealer after another. After appointing one official,Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who had unaccountably forgotten to pay his taxes, he then watched his designated Health Secretary Tom Daschle fall on his sword because he too had taken a tax holiday. Daschle was furthermore a prominent actor in the world of lobbying and influence-peddling. Leon Panetta, Obama’s nominee for Director of the CIA has also, according to the Wall Street Journal, consulted for prominent companies and sat on the board of a public affairs firm that lobbies Congress. The Weekly Standard reports that Secretary of Labour nominee Hilda Solis was not only involved with a private organization lobbying her fellow legislators on a bill that she helped sponsor, but she apparently kept her involvement secret and failed to reveal a clear conflict of interest.

In foreign policy, Obama has started by trashing his own country through grossly misrepresenting its history and grovelling to America’s enemies such as Iran, which has flicked him aside with undiluted contempt. He has gratuitously upset America’s ally India by suggesting that America should muscle in and resolve the Kashmir question.

His right hand doesn’t seem to know what his left hand is doing. He reportedly asked retired Marine General Anthony Zinni to be US ambassador to Iraq, but then abruptly withdrew the appointment without explanation after it had been confirmed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And the precise role he is offering Dennis Ross – special envoy to Iran? Special adviser to Hillary? Special adviser to other special advisers? – remains mired in confusion.

I have argued before however that, given Obama’s radical roots in the neo-Marxist, nihilist politics of Saul Alinsky, it is the undermining of America’s fundamental values that is likely to be this President’s most strategically important goal. I have also suggested that, since this agenda is promoted through stealth politics which gull the credulous middle-classes while destroying the ground upon which they are standing, his second-tier appointments should be closely scrutinised.

And here’s a humdinger. Obama has picked a man called David Ogden to be deputy Attorney-General. Ogden has made his legal career from representing pornographers, trying to defeat child protection legislation and undermining family values. As FoxNews reported this week, he once represented a group of library directors arguing against the Children's Internet Protection Act, which ordered libraries and schools receiving funding for the Internet to restrict access to obscene sites. And on behalf of several media groups, he successfully argued against a child pornography law that required publishers to verify and document the age of their models, which would have ensured these models were at least 18.

The Family Research Council has more examples of his contribution to upholding American and western values. In one such case, he expressed the view that abortion was less damaging to a woman than having children:



In another, co-authored brief, he argued that it was an unconstitutional burden on 14-year old girls seeking an abortion for their parents to be notified -- because there was no difference between adults and mid-teens in their ability to grasp all the implications of such a decision:



And how did the 44th President react to the growing public dismay over the mess he was making? He threw his toys out of the pram -- or perhaps that should read, he got into the pram. For he fled the scene of the disaster and sought the company of seven year-olds instead. As the Telegraph reported:



Tired of being President – after two weeks!

Tax cheats, pork-barrel politics, ancillary child abuse, incompetence, chaos, treachery and infantilism. America – what have you done?!


http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/3332636/america-what-have-you-done.thtml

Oh here we go again. I will say this yet again. Every woman should have the right to choose whether it be birth, adoption or abortion. I really don't want to hear all the crybaby stuff about the babies not being born when the ones who are born are not being cared for. When all the adoption agencies, foster care, crisis centers, etc... are bare of unwanted, disabled, neglected, abused, etc.. children then and only then should we discuss the need for preventing abortions.

IF YOU DON'T APPROVE OF ABORTION... DON'T HAVE ONE!!!!!

werd.

Timothy Geithner's nomination was confirmed by a vote of 60-34. His explanation of his tax mistake and his appointment was good enough for 2/3 of the Senate.

Enough said.

Obama has had to find qualified people to fill positions by picking from a list of candidates who have been a part of Washington for years.
They are all corrupt in one way or another, but Obama has placed an unfounded Ethics requirement for them to follow from now on.
When one of them breaks this ethic requirement hence forth and he does nothing about it then holler and scream. I'll be the first one to join you in doing so. Until then I think we owe him the same trust as we gave to his predecessor before he scrubbed that!

Well said!

Well said!!!

you mean to tell me it's your position that an 8th grader should be able to walk into Planned Parenthood and have an abortion without having to inform her parents?

An 14 yr old can't even walk into a dentist office and get a dental checkup without their parent. And this guy is saying that having an abortion is less traumatic than carrying to term.. He also fought in court to have pornography filters taken off of school library computers' internet browsers.. and effectively for the legitimization on child porn...

But it's ALL about abortion, right, the sacred cow of the liberal left... I don't give a damn if you have an abortion or not.. abort your entire family tree for all I care. just don't be so freaking militant about wanting CHILDREN to have unfettered access to abortion services.

I'm just tired of all the appointment of all these extremists and of the administration making a fool of themselves in the international scene..

as for

I thought the watchword was "changing the way politics was run in Washington" and not the same old people doing the same old things.. but you're basically admitting that whole idea is being chucked out the window for political expediency, kinda like how he didn't know J Wright was a militant black nationalist.. rrrright...

a 14 year old????

I've not seen where it says that "an 8th grader should be able to walk into Planned Parenthood and have an abortion without having to inform her parents".

I must have missed that part, too.

maybe reread the article then. then because the deputy AG fought in court to secure the right of 14-18 year olds to have abortions without parental consent or even notification...

I don't consider that article as all facts. There's a lot of opinion in it.

the quoted portions were from Ogden's legal opinion...

so you still think a 14 year old needs to have unfettered access to abortion clinics, sans parental consent or notification??

Why are you putting words into my mouth? I didn't say that I thought that.

I still stand by what I said about the article.

I guess you do not know the process in the clinics but I can give you a heads up. The clinic requires an adult be with the teen. Someone the teen feels they can trust. The clinics are not taking advantage of these kids as you would portray here plus it costs $400 or so, no teens have access to that kind of money at the drop of a hat. Medicaid does not cover abortions so they have to find the money. Some private organizations will partially fund it if there is rape involved or incest.

Quit believing the right wing hype over this subject and do some personal research. You would have a better understanding.

"An adult they trust" like their 19 year old statutatory rapist boyfriend??

Right on Dragoness!!!

Umm so you think a 14 year old should be forced to have a baby because of her parents politics or religious beliefs?

I saw that in person once.

It was horrifying.

I was in the hospital about to give birth to my son. In the next bed there was what I would find out later to be a 13 year old girl. She had been laboring over twelve hours when I arrived.

The child was too big to be delivered vaginally but her parents standing by the bedside refused to allow the doctors to do a c-section. The labor was, as I heard them say, God's punishment for her sin. No drugs and no c-section said the parents.

Even when the doctors, in the hall outside, explained that both their daughter and their unborn grandchild could die if a c-section were not performed. Still they held their ground.

It was God's punishment for her sin they repeated.

The doctors and hospital, hero's in my eyes, obtained an emergency order from the court to do the c-section.

Women all over the ward whispered about this poor child as we listened to her scream in labor.

I never found out what happened to that girl or to the baby after the birth but I have never ever forgot her.

And here we have the same old PEOPLE who complain about the same old thing..........look you are an american if you have more education and guts to be president step up to the plate than us having to hear people like you biotch all day.................UHhh where is your ambition only centered on seeing someone else take charge huh and then critisizing them for doing something that you have no guts to do..............

Im sick of the haters you had candidates why the HELL DIDNT THEY WIN......................best bet that no one is believing the BS they have been dishing out for the last 8 YEARS.............

i guess im old fashioned abortion shouldnt be used as birth control if someone is raped i can see getting one but i think if they want to use it as birth control after the first one everything is tied up and they are legally not allowed to have kids