By KARL ROVE

Last Friday, President Obama met with House Republicans in Baltimore. He took questions, parried criticisms, and allowed all of it to be put on television.

Framed as an opportunity for the president to hear from the other side, Mr. Obama’s real aim was to portray Republicans as obstructionist and boost his own public standing in the process.

Afterward, Gallup found that Mr. Obama’s approval hit 51%, up from 47% after the State of the Union address two days earlier. But in winning that small victory, Mr. Obama also further poisoned his relationship with Republicans by repeatedly saying things that are demonstrably not true.

For example, when Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling asked if the president’s new budget would, “like your old budget, triple the national debt” and increase “the cost of government to almost 25% of the economy,” Mr. Obama denied it. But that’s exactly what Mr. Obama proposed doing in his budget framework that Congress passed last April, according to both Congressional Budget Office and White House documents.

In Baltimore, Mr. Obama criticized the GOP’s response to last year’s $787 billion stimulus package saying, “I don’t understand . . . why we got opposition . . . before we had a chance to actually meet and exchange ideas.”

In truth, the president met with congressional Republicans to talk about the stimulus package the day before the press said Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey completed drafting the 1,073-page bill. What occurred was a photo-op, not an exchange of ideas. Democrats at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue were scornful of Republican input.

When Georgia Republican Rep. Tom Price complained in Baltimore that the president kept saying “that Republicans have offered no ideas and no solutions,” Mr. Obama shot back, “I don’t think I said that.”

But of course Mr. Obama and his people have said that repeatedly. They did so starting in April, when White House aides swarmed Sunday talk programs to label the GOP the “party of no” and say that the party lacked both constructive ideas and vision.

For the rest of this story please go here:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704259304575043342489432552.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

Face Forward Comments:

I really like Karl Rove.  This is the guy that was an advisor to Clinton.  He pulled him from the far left to a more centered political position.  From the point that Clinton began making his decisions based on the Karl Rove influence, he personally prospered and the country benefited. While there many things about Clinton that many people found offensive, he was widely applauded for his move to the center, politically.

On the other hand, we have a president now that has surrounded himself with yes men and those that are even further left of his own position.  This last week we began to see his heavily tilted, left leaning, position sway just a bit.  He is by no means making any effort to change any of his positions or policies he is however, making an effort to sound more centrist  If only he would actually  take the next step and do what is right for the people of the country.

MADISON, Wis. (Reuters) – A year after his historic election, President Barack Obama sought to remind Americans on Wednesday the biggest problems he is grappling with — from the economy to the war in Afghanistan — are the legacy of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

With his approval ratings down from once-lofty levels and Tuesday’s Democratic election losses raising questions about his political clout, Obama held no special ceremony to mark the anniversary of his election as America’s first black president.

He instead traveled to Wisconsin to appear before a friendly audience in a school gymnasium and promote education as a pillar of his economic recovery efforts.

Obama was elected on a promise of sweeping change after eight years under Bush, but many Americans are increasingly expressing impatience that his pledge has yet to bear fruit.

He used the preamble of his speech to insist his administration had indeed had important successes and also to remind Americans of the litany of daunting challenges he inherited when he took office in January.

“One year ago, Americans all across this country went to the polls and cast ballots for the future they wanted to see,” Obama said.

But he said his administration was also confronted with a “financial crisis that threatened to plunge our economy into a Great Depression, the worst that we’ve seen in generations.”

“We had record deficits, two wars, frayed alliances around the world,” Obama added.

For the rest of the story please go here

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-43692420091104

Face Forward Comments:

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I grew tired of the Bush excuses a long time ago. And now one year later he is standing in a High School Gym (his favorite audience) still trying to blame Bush. Obama, why didn’t he  mentioned the 2 years of the Democratic controlled congress that fought Bush on everything. How about Barney Frank’s destruction of Fannie Mae, or Chris Dodd’s incompetence in managing the oversight of the Banking system.

 Never mind, now I remember why you didn’t mention the failures of your party, you were too busy apologizing to the Muslims for the World trade Center attack that we (your words) provoked by being arrogant.  You were too busy taking over our automobile manufacturing industries so you could pay back the unions that elected you, you were too busy throwing Jeremiah Wright, (your old friend, pastor and white man hater) under the bus, you were too busy appointing Czars that held your Communistic view point and you were too busy hating on tax payers that invested in and built this nation. Here is some advice, “shut up, stop blaming others”, all of America, even those who are under your spell, are tired of it..

As far as Barack not achieving, he dosent have to apologize for not getting anything done.  Had he been successful with what he wants to accomplish, we would have all been calling each other comrade and wearing Mao T shirts by now.

Finally, I had to laugh at the frayed alliances comment by our president.  I am pretty sure our historically strongest allies, England and Israel might, might have a problem with that comment especailly since he has decided drop them as friends of this country. Barack is right, we do have frayed alliances however, now it’s with the countries we used to call friends.

And what powers did Obama specify?

“I hereby declare,” the proclamation states, “that the secretary [of Health and Human Services] may exercise the authority under section 1135 of the [Social Security Act].” Section 1135, in turn, allows the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, to review on a case-by-case basis applications from health care providers who wish certain restrictions be waived.

According to an explanation prepared by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, those restrictions that can be waived include:

Certification requirements for some doctors to be paid by Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP programs

Pre-approval requirements for some services

Requirements that doctors be licensed in the same state they’re practicing in order to get federal payments

Sanctions against moving patients to alternate facilities

A handful of other requirements governing how medical providers are paid.

In fact, the most ominous provision of a Section 1135 waiver may be alterations to HIPAA privacy regulations.

The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services explains that under a declared emergency, facilities granted a Section 1135 waiver no longer need to obtain a patient’s agreement to speak with family members or friends involved in the patient’s care, no longer need to distribute a notice of their privacy practices and no longer need to honor the patient’s right to request privacy restrictions or confidential communications.

“For example,” an HHS document on HIPAA explains, “an individual may request that her health care provider call her at her office, rather than her home. A health care provider must accommodate an individual’s reasonable request for such confidential communications.”

With a Section 1135 waiver granted by the CMS in a declared emergency, however, the provider need not accommodate the request in the example of calling the patient at her office.

President Obama justified the national emergency proclamation with the following words:

By rapidly identifying the virus, implementing public health measures, providing guidance for health professionals and the general public, and developing an effective vaccine, we have taken proactive steps to reduce the impact of the pandemic and protect the health of our citizens. As a nation, we have prepared at all levels of government, and as individuals and communities, taking unprecedented steps to counter the emerging pandemic.

Nevertheless, the 2009 H1N1 pandemic continues to evolve. The rates of illness continue to rise rapidly within many communities across the nation, and the potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources in some localities.

Thus, in recognition of the continuing progression of the pandemic, and in further preparation as a nation, we are taking additional steps to facilitate our response.

Excerpt from:

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=113964

Face Forward Comments:

When I wrote yesterday that there was something odd about the Declaration of Emergency by the Obama administration, I had no idea how odd.

I have continued to research through the CDC website trying to find some accurate information on the flu outbreak.  I was confused by the huge number of swine flu cases being reported by the CDC especially when considering that we were entering into regular flu season and there appeared to be a huge drop off of reported cases of “regular”, seasonal flu.  This morning I had picked up that many doctors were being told by the CDC to report all flu cases, as swine flu.  That accounted for the CDC’s abnormally high reported cases of swine flu when compared to seasonal flu.  The question remains, why?

This article was released from Reuters News Site yesterday and may explain some of it, though I am still at a loss at what Obama hopes to gain:

Securities exchanges have a sound network back-up if a severe pandemic keeps people home and clogging the Internet, but the Homeland Security Department has done little planning, Congressional investigators said on Monday.

The department does not even have a plan to start work on the issue, the General Accountability Office said.

But the Homeland Security Department accused the GAO of having unrealistic expectations of how the Internet could be managed if millions began to telework from home at the same time as bored or sick schoolchildren were playing online, sucking up valuable bandwidth.

Experts have for years pointed to the potential problem of Internet access during a severe pandemic, which would be a unique kind of emergency. It would be global, affecting many areas at once, and would last for weeks or months, unlike a disaster such as a hurricane or earthquake.

Believe it or not, I am not a conspiracy guy.  I leave that kind of stuff to Alex Jones or one of the guest on Coast to Coast AM, however I am a curious guy and some of the details by what is happening just does not make sense. The only logic I can draw is an excuse to gain control of internet content.  However, that is so far out there I cannot conceive of that being for real.  We all need to watch this one diligently.

WASHINGTON — As conspiracy theories go, this one met the legacy test: Skeptics remained convinced that ACORN, the community organizing group, tried to steal Ohio’s 2008 election, even though authorities declared the election clean.

So be forewarned, because what follows reawakens old suspicions — and Republicans say there’s a good reason. In a nutshell:

ACORN, under attack for other misdeeds, plotted privately to help elect liberal congressional candidates in several 2008 Ohio races, a previously undisclosed ACORN political plan shows. This is the first time that ACORN, formally called the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has been linked to Democratic congressional election efforts in Ohio.

ACORN’s detailed “Ohio 2007-08 Political Plan,” targeting swing “congressional districts upon which the balance of power in Congress will rest,” was ultimately scaled back. It appears the organization, which says it merely wants to empower disenfranchised people, decided not to mount voter campaigns that would have specifically helped Democrats Zack Space of Dover; Steve Driehaus of Cincinnati, and Mary Jo Kilroy of Columbus, all of whom won their congressional races anyway.

ACORN said in interviews with The Plain Dealer that its final efforts were generic — tied not to a political party but to conducting “the largest nonpartisan voter registration drive in Ohio’s history.” It calls the new conspiracy theories ridiculous.

But to some, ACORN’s early 13-page plan for the 2008 election reinforces what critics always assumed: The group’s goal was never nonpartisan. The political plan and other ACORN documents show that the group was interested not just in helping presidential candidate Barack Obama, whom it urged its members to support, according to post-election Federal Election Commission reports. ACORN also was interested in Congress and the Ohio Statehouse.

“There’s no question that ACORN strategized to figure out how its election efforts could maximize the benefit for selected Democratic candidates in the most competitive races,” U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa of California told The Plain Dealer.

Issa is the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. His staff obtained ACORN’s Ohio plan, drafted in April 2007, as part of a broader investigation into the group. Issa’s staff provided documents to The Plain Dealer at the newspaper’s request

For the rest of this article please go here:

http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2009/10/acorn_had_plan_that_critics_sa.html

Face Fwd Comments:

Hopefully,  there is no one still around that believes that ACORN is just a little non-profit organization working for the good of the working poor.  Yes, they have helped a few people.  Yes, many of the people that are in the organization are good people with good intentions, it is however, an exception not the rule.

Like every every business,  be it Enron, Fannie Mae, or the Mafia (all three criminal organizations), the culture of the company is defined by it’s leadership.  Maud Hurd the 2008 president of ACORN, was involved in the cover-up embezzlement of nearly a million dollars by Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke.  Wade Rathke was also involved in the cover up.  His excuse?  He didn’t want his political enemies to know because they might come after his organization.  DUH! 

You really need to read the whole article.  Incredible continuing denial even in the face of indisputable evidence.  Ohio, is just one state.  What are they guilty of in the other 49.