AP: Obama Playing 'Grand Tourist' in Rio 'Sure to Endear Him Even More' to Brazilian People

Media Research Center "CBS's Sunday edition of the Evening News seemed to pick up on the tone of the AP article, as White House correspondent Chip Reid declared: "It's being called the split-screen presidency – on one side the military operation in Libya; on the other President Obama in Brazil, visiting a Rio de Janeiro shanty town known as the City Of God. And refusing to allow the turmoil in Libya to distract him from what he insists is vitally important business here."

More from Media Research on this subject here.   All this makes the difference in the way media treated Bush even more stark.

Pump prices may put Obama in peril

Washington Times  "Consumers' pain at the gas pump will likely be shared by President Obama at the polls in 2012 and could cost him a second term unless energy prices take a drastic turn for the better in the next 18 months.
""Energy prices should be the Achilles' heel for Obama," said Scott Wheeler, executive director of a conservative political action committee."  Via Heritage.

NY Times  "Volvo, the Swedish automaker, is the most reliant of the European car companies on Japanese parts — seven of its suppliers are based in the region ravaged by the earthquake and tsunami, including one on the cusp of the radiation zone. Volvo managers are trying to determine how many parts already were loaded on ships."

 The Double Whammy Of Libya And Japan Bullish For Oil Prices  "What’s more: crude oil demand in the US rose 4.4% last month, further indication of a recovering economy.
"Add in the very real blow to nuclear power prospects by the the existence of iodine and cesia in the Tokyo tap water and the uncertainty of getting the reactors in northern Japan completely under control and in repair."

With no debate and no objective, Obama enters a war

 Washington Examiner   "Since World War II, the executive branch has steadily grabbed more war powers, and Congress has supinely acquiesced. Truman, Johnson, Reagan, Clinton and Bush all fought wars without a formal declaration, but at least Bush used force only after Congress authorized it."

NBC's Andrea Mitchell Enthralled by 'Remarkable Job' on Libya Done By Obama and Rice "...Mitchell, who after a 2008 presidential debate hailed Barack Obama’s foreign policy knowledge (“boy, he did show a command of foreign policy in terms of the nuts and bolts of it”), on Sunday’s Meet the Press trumpeted now-President Obama’s Libya action: “This was pretty remarkable – bringing this whole coalition together and getting the Arab League” to back military action."  Brent Baker, MRC

Libya 101   "So while Barack Obama is picking out his college basketball bracket, Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice, Obama's ambassador to the United Nations, jump into action. Hillary manages to convince the Arab League of Nations not only to support a no-fly zone but had Arab governments willing to participate in military action. Meanwhile, Susan Rice..."
So Obama lets Pelosi and Reid carry the load for healthcare,  Brazil drill for our oil and Bill Clinton handle his press conferences. But he has been PRESENT in spirit.

IMPEACHMENT CALLS .. FROM DEMOCRATS?  "Funny how these progressives suddenly become so concerned about our constitution. I would think that many of these progressives probably supported not only ObamaCare but a single-payer, individual mandate system of healthcare in this country ..... where do they find the constitutional authority for that?"

"Speaking of moonbats, Michael Moore tweeted over the weekend that Obama should return his Nobel Peace Prize  because of our actions in Libya. Why return it? The Nobel Peace Prize has become a joke, and Obama is a joke. The prize is right where it needs to be. Does anybody even take it seriously anymore? I mean, when Obama was awarded the prize, what had the guy even done other than be elected?" Neal Boortz.   
  No disrespect intended.

By the Numbers: Obama's Alliances vs. Bush's Unilateralism  "Just for the record, let us see how Bush's "unilateralism" looks when placed against Obama's working with the world:"...

British Conservative Melanie Phillips Being Investigated For Her Blogpost on Fogel Family Massacre

Gateway Pundit   "A Melanie Phillips blogpost on the Spectator website which referred to the “moral depravity” of Arab “savages” is being investigated by the Press Complaints Commission.
"The online comment piece, headlined “Armchair barbarism”, focused on media coverage of the murder of five members of a Jewish family in the West Bank settlement of Itamar by Palestinian militants earlier this month.
"“The moral depravity of the Arabs is finding a grotesque echo in the moral bankruptcy and worse of the British and American ‘liberal’ media,” wrote Phillips."























Ms Phillips can now join the company of such courageous and persecuted critics of Islam as Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant.

Video: Ezra Levant's eloquent and heroic defense before the Canadian Human Rights Commission. The opening statement he reads is powerful, but so is his unscripted defense.

Wisconsin protests veer to the left

Althouse "The protests began with the teachers — well-paid, privileged Wisconsin professionals. After a few days, students took over, aided by union folk bused in from wherever. But the weeks wear on, and people have other things to do. The bill is passed. But the people still show up to the Capitol. Earlier today, there was an anti-war rally. And then, this evening, there were these muddle-headed lefties. A vivid public square is a fine thing. I love it. I celebrate diversity. But the cause of the teachers and the public employees unions brought out the crowds and made the Capitol square the cool place to hang out, and the opportunistic politicos have descended. "

Grievance Politics Barks, King Hearings Move On

Bruce Thornton  "But facts seldom inhibit grievance-politics mongers, whose power and prestige derive from incessantly replaying the melodrama of white racism, xenophobia, and other “irrational fears,” as Eugene Robinson put it in The Washington Post. Hence the panoply of false analogies, cheap pathos, and outright lies that has characterized King’s critics."

That 3 am phone call

http://wpcomics.washingtonpost.com/client/wpc/po/2011/03/17/

The Rise of Samantha Power and the risks for the American- Israel relationship  "As stories leak out regarding who was responsible for Barack Obama's sudden pivot from passivity regarding Libya towards military engagement (albeit with England and France being in the lead) one name has emerged as playing a key role in persuading him to push the button: Samantha Power.
"Her influence might cause qualms among supporters of the American-Israel relationship."

Obama’s Justice Department visual acceleration to global governance

Canada Free Press  "Whether you first learned about this change in the American Spectator which reportedly “broke” the story, or in an article penned by Stephanie Mencimer at Mother Jones who accuses “Obama-haters these days seem to find evidence everywhere of socialism creeping into the federal government,” this issue has never been more important than it is today."

More here

From Back to Basics :  "It is most telling that the quote has been generally attributed to C. Wilfred Jenks, a man “who facilitated a greater role for socialists and communists at the U.N., and the global ‘workers rights movement.’” In 1958, Jenks published a series of essays under the title The Common Law of Mankind, which is actually a compilation of his essays that favor the implementation of International law over the laws of individual nations. His legal writings are quite vast and complex, although his favoritism toward the integration of U.S. law under global governance is clearly evident in his writings.
"The fact that former Attorney General Janet Reno used that quotation in her 2001 address to the graduating class at Cornell is also quite telling. From members of the Council on Foreign Relations from FDR through Clinton, Bush 1.0 and Bush 2.0 and now under the higher octane Obama, the globalist agenda is fast moving and becoming more visible."

Hat tip to Joy Roeder, Garibaldi, Oregon in beautiful Tillamook County.

European governments “completely puzzled” about U.S. position on Libya

Foreign Policy  "Clinton's unwillingness to commit the United States to a specific position led many in the room to wonder exactly where the administration stood on the situation in Libya.
""Frankly we are just completely puzzled," the diplomat said. "We are wondering if this is a priority for the United States."
"On the same day, Clinton had a short meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in which Sarkozy pressed Clinton to come out more forcefully in favor of action in Libya. She declined Sarkozy's request, according to a government source familiar with the meeting."
 Hat tip to  Weasel Zippers

Charles Krauthammer on the social security fund

Et tu, Jack Lew?  "The relative ease of the fix is what makes the Obama administration's Social Security strategy so shocking. The new line from the White House is: no need to fix it because there is no problem. As Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew wrote in USA Today just a few weeks ago, the trust fund is solvent until 2037. Therefore, Social Security is now off the table in debt-reduction talks.

"This claim is a breathtaking fraud."


Jack Lew takes Issue with Krauthammer  "In today’s Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer calls into question the integrity of the Social Security trust fund and the integrity of statements I have made recently about the program. Let’s examine his charges."
Jack Lew is the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

It’s still an empty lockbox  "Invoking the “full faith and credit” mantra for those IOUs in the trust fund is empty bluster. It does not change the fact that, as the OMB itself acknowledged, those IOUs “do not consist of real economic assets that can be drawn down in the future to fund benefits.” Yet Lew continues to insist that these “special issue” trinkets will pay off seniors for the next 26 years."

Florida circuit court judge allows case to proceed under Islamic law

Jihad Watch  "What was that Hamas-linked CAIR and other Islamic supremacist groups were saying about how it was utterly fanciful that Sharia would ever be used to judge cases in American courts?"
Via Atlas Shrugs.

Florida Judge who Permitted Case to Proceed Based on Sharia Law Appointed by Jeb Bush "Now he has to deal with his appointing a judge who has welcomed Sharia Law into our legal system. It would seem that Judge Nielsen might want to brush up on his knowledge about Article VI of his country's Constitution, which says:"

Clause 2: This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

Pursuing the Brazilian Dream

Powerline Blog  "Many liberals have an almost solipsistic* view of the world; they seen unable to understand that there is a big, wide world beyond our borders that we do not control. They somehow think that we can hobble our own economy, without consequences. They are wrong. Just as our ancestors came here for opportunity, our children and grandchildren may one day be forced to go somewhere else. Whether that happens or not depends on whether Washington continues the self-destructive policies that we have seen since 2007."  Democrats.

*sol·ip·sis·tic / sol·ip·sism Noun 
1. Philosophy . the theory that only the self exists, or can be proved to exist.
2. extreme preoccupation with and indulgence of one's feelings, desires, etc.; egoistic self-absorption.