Health Care Bill Could Face String of Legal Challenges

Organizations and lawmakers opposed to the health care reform package are getting their legal briefs in a bunch, threatening to challenge the constitutionality of the sweeping overhaul should it make its way to President Obama's desk.

Republicans have agreed to allow the Democratic-led Senate to move up the time for a final vote to 8 a.m. Thursday so that lawmakers and their staff can go home for Christmas. But GOP supporters aren't backing down on their threats to put a stop to the legislation using whatever legal means possible.

Two key issues seem to be attracting the bulk of the legal threats: a mandate for individuals to purchase health insurance and the special treatment that states like Nebraska are getting in the bill.

On the first issue, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., on Tuesday renewed the call to examine the constitutionality of whether the federal government can require Americans to purchase a product.

"I don't believe Congress has the legal or moral authority to force this mandate on its citizens," Ensign said in a statement, raising what's known as a "constitutional point of order." Such procedural challenges are rare and typically lead to a vote.

The non-profit Fund for Personal Liberty, as well as a Virginia-based group called the 10th Amendment Foundation, already have threatened to file suit in federal court over this issue if the health care bill passes.

The Constitution allows Congress to tax, borrow, spend, declare war, raise an army and regulate commerce, among other things. Proponents of the insurance mandate point to the Commerce Clause in arguing that Congress is within its rights to require health insurance and dismiss such potential legal challenges.

But foes say the across-the-board requirement is too broad.

"I personally do not believe the Congress has the authority to enact an individual mandate requiring a person to purchase a product from a private seller," said Kent Masterson Brown, lead counsel with The Fund for Personal Liberty. "I don't think the power is there. This is not regulating anything."

He said his group would be joined by the Washington Legal Foundation in filing suit against the health care bill.

"This thing may be stillborn, even if it passes," he said.

Even though Obama argues that the mandate is similar to laws requiring drivers to obtain auto insurance, opponents cite several key differences. First, the auto insurance mandate is avoidable, since anyone who doesn't want to pay doesn't have to drive. Second, auto insurance is mandated in large part so that drivers carry liability insurance to cover damages to other people and cars -- not themselves. Third, auto insurance regulation occurs at the state level.

When the Congressional Budget Office considered the idea of a health insurance mandate back in 1994 under the Clinton administration, it concluded that the mandate would be "an unprecedented form of federal action." The only congressional mandate close to that was the draft, the CBO concluded.

Ensign cited that finding in his complaint.

Still, the legislation does provide for federal subsidies for those who might have trouble affording insurance coverage, and it provides for exemptions for some individuals.

Other legal objections are emerging in the wake of a concession that Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., won for his state as a condition for his support of the health care bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid agreed to provide for full and permanent federal aid for Nebraska's expanded Medicaid population. It was only one of a slew of hand-crafted sweetheart deals for those senators who agreed to support the bill.

But the Nelson deal swiftly drew the ire of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who has asked his state's attorney general to give the issue a legal review. He told Fox News on Tuesday that other states can probably bring a "constitutional challenge" over the issue. He said it's unfair for one state to get special treatment while others pick up the tab.

"I don't believe most senators believe this is OK," Graham said. "I think it stinks. I think it's sleazy."

Graham said his state could file an equal rights suit under the Constitution. The Constitution calls for "equal protection" of all citizens.

Likewise, two Republican state representatives from Tennessee on Monday asked their state attorney general to look into the issue -- they called the Medicaid expansion an "unfunded mandate."

Rep. Debra Young Maggart and Rep. Susan Lynn claimed the Nebraska deal was unfair to other states and asked that Attorney General Robert Cooper take "appropriate legal action" against the federal government if the bill becomes law.

"It is clear by the wording of the legislation itself that not every state would face a similar and equal burden," they wrote. "We see this as a violation of equal protection of the law, an affront to our sovereignty, and a breach of the U.S. Constitution."

The non-profit Liberty Legal Institute is poised to assist states that are considering filing suit against the government over the health care bill. The group would not disclose where the suits might come from, but claimed great interest in putting health care reform to the legal test.

"There are a lot of states that are concerned that this violated the 10th Amendment and they are weighing their options," Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel, said in a statement.

The 10th Amendment declares that powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution are "reserved" for the states or "the people."

Still another challenge is coming from Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who on the Senate floor raised concerns about a section in the health care bill that appears to say that the Senate cannot make changes to it in the future.

"It shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment, or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection," the section says.

DeMint said he found that "particularly troubling."

"We will be passing a new law and at the same time creating a Senate rule that makes it out of order to amend or even repeal the law," DeMint said. "I'm not even sure that it's constitutional."

The overall section the senator referred to applied to the creation of an Independent Medicare Advisory Board.

But a senior Reid aide noted that the language restricting the repeal of the measure only applied to one subsection -- a subsection dealing with the manner in which the proposal for the board is introduced and considered in Congress. The aide said the language DeMint found "troubling" did not apply to board or its duties as a whole.

Plus the aide noted that the language can be waived by a 60-vote majority in the Senate.

"It's really a sign of desperation," the aide said.

I Feel Cuba: Narrated by Andy Garcia

Understand what it feels like to loose a country

Teacher, Teacher, Obama's Friends are Throwing Sand in the Sandbox Again!

The White House is taking some cheap shots and trying to punish the only news network that reports the truth- did they forget its the most watched Cable News Show? I thought Obama loved being in millions of homes at once!
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White House Escalates War of Words With Fox News

Calling Fox News "a wing of the Republican Party," the Obama administration on Sunday escalated its war of words against the channel, even as observers questioned the wisdom of a White House war on a news organization.

"What I think is fair to say about Fox -- and certainly it's the way we view it -- is that it really is more a wing of the Republican Party," said Anita Dunn, White House communications director, on CNN. "They take their talking points, put them on the air; take their opposition research, put them on the air. And that's fine. But let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is."

Fox News senior vice president Michael Clemente, who likens the channel to a newspaper with separate sections on straight news and commentary, suggested White House officials were intentionally conflating opinion show hosts like Glenn Beck with news reporters like Major Garrett.

"It's astounding the White House cannot distinguish between news and opinion programming," Clemente said. "It seems self-serving on their part."

In recent weeks, the White House has begun using its government blog to directly attack what it called "Fox lies." David Gergen, who has worked for President Bill Clinton and three Republican presidents, questioned the propriety of the White House declaring war on a news organization.

"It's a very risky strategy. It's not one that I would advocate," Gergen said on CNN. "If you're going to get very personal against the media, you're going to find that the animosities are just going to deepen. And you're going to find that you sort of almost draw viewers and readers to the people you're attacking. You build them up in some ways, you give them stature."

He added: "The press always has the last barrel of ink."

Gergen's sentiments were echoed by Tony Blankley, who once served as press secretary to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

"Going after a news organization, in my experience, is always a loser," Blankley said on CNN. "They have a big audience. And Fox has an audience of not just conservatives -- they've got liberals and moderates who watch too. They've got Obama supporters who are watching. So it's a temptation for a politician, but it needs to be resisted."

Nia Malika Henderson, White House correspondent for the Politico newspaper, also questioned the White House offensive against Fox.

"Obama's only been a boon to their ratings and I don't understand how this kind of escalation of rhetoric and kind of taking them on, one on one, would do anything other than escalate their ratings even more," she said.

Dunn used an appearance on CNN's "Reliable Sources" over the weekend to complain about Fox News' coverage of the Obama presidential campaign a year ago.

"It was a time this country was in two wars," she recalled. "We'd had a financial collapse probably more significant than any financial collapse since the Great Depression. If you were a Fox News viewer in the fall election, what you would have seen would have been that the biggest stories and biggest threats facing America were a guy named Bill Ayers and something called ACORN."

Ayers was co-founder of the Weather Underground, a communist terrorist group that bombed the Pentagon and other buildings in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1995, Ayers hosted Obama at his home for a political function and the two men later served together on the board of an anti-poverty group known as the Woods Fund.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which once had close ties to Obama, has been accused by a variety of law enforcement agencies of voter fraud. In recent weeks, the Democrat-controlled Congress moved to sever funding to ACORN after Fox News aired undercover videotapes of ACORN employees giving advice on how to break the law to a pair of journalists disguised as a pimp and prostitute.

As for Dunn's complaint about Fox News' coverage of the Obama campaign, a study by the Pew Research Center showed that 40 percent of Fox News stories on Obama in the last six weeks of the campaign were negative. Similarly, 40 percent of Fox News' stories on Obama's Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, were negative.

On CNN, by contrast, there was a 22-point disparity in the percentage of negative stories on Obama (39 percent) and McCain (61 percent). The disparity was even greater at MSNBC, according to Pew, where just 14 percent of Obama stories were negative, compared to a whopping 73 percent of McCain stories -- a spread of 59 points.

Although Dunn accused Fox News of being a "wing of the Republican Party," she said the
network does not champion conservatism.

"It's not ideological," she acknowledged. "I mean, obviously, there are many commentators who are conservative, liberal, centrist -- and everybody understands that."

Still, Obama refused to appear on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace on Sept. 20, the day he appeared on five other Sunday shows. At the time, the White House characterized the snub as payback for the Fox Broadcast Network's decision not to air an Obama prime time appearance. But last weekend, Dunn blamed Fox News Channel's coverage of the administration for Obama's snub of Fox News Sunday.

"Is this why he did not appear?" Dunn said. "The answer is yes."
Wallace has called White House officials "the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington."

Dunn was asked by CNN's Howard Kurtz whether Obama would grant an interview to Fox News by the end of the year.

"Obviously, he'll go on Fox, because he engages with ideological opponents and he has done that before, he will do it again," Dunn replied. "I can't give you a date, because frankly I can't give you dates for anybody else right now."

But last week, Fox News was informed by the White House that Obama would grant no interviews to the channel until at least 2010. The edict was relayed to Fox News by a White House official after Dunn discussed the channel at a meeting with presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs and other Obama advisers.

"What I will say is that when he (Obama) goes on Fox, he understands he's not going on it really as a news network, at this point," Dunn said on CNN. "He's going on to debate the opposition. And that's fine. He never minds doing that."

Dunn also strongly implied that Fox had failed to follow up on a New York Times story about a scandal swirling around GOP Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, although Fox News broadcast the stories on numerous shows, including Special Report with Bret Baier.

Clemente questioned the motives of the White House attack, which comes in the wake of an informal coffee last month between Fox chairman Roger Ailes and Obama adviser David Axelrod.

"Instead of governing, the White House continues to be in campaign mode, and Fox News is the target of their attack mentality," he said. "Perhaps the energy would be better spent on the critical issues that voters are worried about."

Blankley suggested the war on Fox News is unpresidential.

"It lowers the prestige," he said. "If you're president or speaker, at a certain level, you don't want to be seen to be engaging that kind of petty bickering. If you're just a congressman, maybe you can do it."

In an interview over the summer, Obama made clear that Fox News has gotten under his skin.
"I've got one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration," he told CNBC's John Harwood. "You'd be hard pressed if you watched the entire day to find a positive story about me on that front."

At the White House Correspondents Dinner in May, Obama even mocked the media for supporting him.

"Most of you covered me; all of you voted for me," Obama said, spurring laughter and applause from the assembled journalists. "Apologies to the Fox table."

Gergen said the White House should delegate its attacks to outside support groups.

"Why don't they take this over to the DNC, over to the Democratic National Committee, and have their struggles like that fought out over there and not out of the White House?" Gergen
said. "I have real questions about that strategy."

Obama's Name Carved into 18th Hole--with Swastika

Symbol carved into green at Lakeville golf course

LAKEVILLE, Mass -- Police along with the Secret Service are investigating after a local country club discovered a symbol resembling a swastika carved into the green.

Lakeville County Club workers discovered the vandalism early Monday morning.

Carved into the green on the 18th hole was a swastika look-a-like next to President Barack Obama's name.

The vandals snuck in at night and carved their message of hate, according to the owner of the country club.

"We don't know if they did it with some type of cleated shoe, or they had some type of tool and this time of year to have that happen, it's a problem it's much harder to fix now," said Lou Mincone, the assistant manager of the Lakeville Country Club.

The manager is trying to figure out the best way to get rid of it.

Workers attempted to cover it temporarily with green spray paint; however, the symbol was carved too deep. They will now try to get turf from another area to fill in the message.
Work is scheduled to begin on Tuesday morning.

Video: Barack Obama Communism Billboard Surfaces in Missouri

School Kids Taught to Praise Obama...But It's Not Indoctrination!

I am speechless.





Articles:

NJ Principle Unapologetic for Videotape: FoxNews

The principal of a New Jersey elementary school where young students were videotaped singing the praises of President Obama is making no apologies for the videotape and says she would allow the performance again if she could, according to parents who spoke with her Thursday night.

Three parents told FOXNews.com that Dr. Denise King, principal of B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, N.J., defended the controversial performance, which was videotaped and posted on YouTube, when they approached her during a "Back to School" event.

Parent Jim Angelillo said King told him the lesson was merely part of Black History month, and not an attempt to indoctrinate students, as critics have charged. He said he believes teachers have the freedom to express their political views, but not in the classroom.

"Freedom of speech, not freedom to teach," Angelillo told FOXNews.com.

King has long been a fan of Obama, hanging pictures of the president in her school's hallways and touting her trip to his inauguration in the school yearbook.

Included in the full-page yearbook spread were Obama campaign slogans ("Yes we can! Yes we did!") and photos King took in Washington on Jan. 20, when she attended the inauguration.

There also were photos taken at the school depicting students doing Obama-themed activities about their "hopes for the future," featuring posters of Obama. According to the yearbook, students watched the inauguration in class.

Parents said Elvira James, the teacher of the class that was videotaped, also seemed to be promoting Obama.

"She praised him, she put pictures on the walls," said Jim Pronchick, whose 8-year-old son, Jimmy, was in James' class last year. "When he won (the election) they really went off."

Leslie Gibson, who has two children at the school, said she was "shocked" at the videotape, adding that political beliefs, like religious views, should be kept at home. She also said King made a "big deal" about her attendance at the inauguration.

"Throughout the school, there were signs posted supporting Barack Obama quite a bit," Gibson told FOXNews.com. "I understand it's a historical event, but on the same token, I like politics to be left at home and I think she should follow that as well."

Attempts to reach King on Friday were unsuccessful. A recording at the school said its mailbox was full and could not accept new messages.

A search of public records revealed that King, 46, of Cinnaminson, N.J., last voted in 2004 and had not declared any political affiliation. No records of political contributions could be found.

In November, the 9,700-plus residents of Burlington, N.J., a Philadelphia suburb, voted overwhelming for Obama, who received 3,285 votes to Sen. John McCain's 1,308.

The controversy over the YouTube video extended into northwest Arkansas on Friday, as officials at the Bernice Young Elementary School in Springdale said they had been received calls from across the country and Canada from irate parents and other individuals.

Principal Debbie Flora told the Associated Press that the callers claimed the school was teaching political opinion and that some "did not use very kind language."


Glenn Beck on Video:

Steve Crowder Does UC Berkley: College Hippies Everywhere!

Barack Obama: In His Own Words: Sep 21st (Glenn)

Transcipt, Charts and Video

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"How about the funding for ACORN?"
"Frankly its not something that I've followed closely, I didn't even know ACORN was getting a lot of federal funding."-Barack Obama

.:: Glenn::. Tonight I've decided to ask the President some questions and use the answers that hes already given because he is not giving anything new...I hear people say, he ran as a centrist and now he is not governing that way...I maintain that Obama told us absolutely everything that he was going to do and he still is, every step of the way. People just didn't listen, they only heard what they wanted to hear.

"I have not said that I was a single payer supporter because frankly, we historically, have had an employer-based system in this country with private insurers and for us to transition to a single payer system, I believe would be too disruptive."- Barack Obama

.::Me::. So he is not for a single payer system not because its
fundamentally bad, but because its too "disruptive"?

.::Glenn::. Well what I happen to know is that a few years ago Obama said this...

"I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer, universal health care plan...A single payer health care plan--universal health care plan. That's what I'd like to see." - Barack Obama to the AFL-CIO in 2003

.::Video::.Portions Shown



.::Video::. Tides Center Rep talking about how a we will move towards the single payer system without being so disruptive.

.::Chart::.

Here are a couple other blog posts on the Soros-Obama Connection:
Little Green Footballs
WebLoggin

.::Glenn::. Is it even feasible to have this number of marxist, radicals, anti-capitalist etc near him?.... Maybe the President is blind to character? Maybe the President is part of the problem? Maybe the President is in danger because no one is vetting these people? Is the FBI even showing up for work? That's for you to decide. But You won't be able to decided if the people the President grants interviews too only ask him insipid shallow questions over and over and over again...

Obama's favorite line when deflecting questions is...Bush look at that guy.
Bush had czars too!...Yeah some people were yelling back then too and I have the archives to prove how much I was yelling at that guy. But Bush's czars didn't have the radical ideology many of these people do...
He will say that Bush started us down the path down socialism...and he would be right by that.
Bush started the crazy spending...he'd be right again....
Bush started the bailouts...yes he did, hated him for it.

My question to President Obama would be um, I'm sorry, is this just Bush's third term? Are you continuing all of his policies?

....Anyone out there who voted for Obama should be asking themselves, jeeze did I misunderstand that President because I thought he believed in change? Or was it that he misunderstood me?

We should have seen this coming before his first day in office when he said this, "We are 5 days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America"-Barack Obama

.::Paraphrasing Glenn::. Obama has been compared to FDR, Kennedy, Lincoln, is that because people are afraid to just look at him? Why is no one making him talk about his mentor- Frank Marshal Davis- a radical communist? Do you still care lessons from your mentor with you? Is it reasonable to ask what part of Davis he carries around with him? No one is looking at his college years. Look at what he says about his associations in college.

"To avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminist and punk-rock performance poets." - Barack Obama, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance

.::Glenn::. "I hate to keep bring up the past but we have to ask. He chose his friends carefully back then, the question is does he choose his advisors closely now."

Video: Van Jones talking about Redistributing Wealth

.::Glenn::. That sounds radical to most Americans but listen to what our own President says

"The Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth...The tragedies of the civil rights movement was , um, because the civil rights movement became so court focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers though which you bring about redistributive change." - Obama on Chicago Public Radio, 2001

.::Paraphrasing Glenn::. Are we listeneing American?? Because he is telling us that we have dismissed the community organizers...ACORN, Tides, SEIU, Apollo etc... that can put together the coalition that can bring about change...

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Barack Obama on ACORN

"How about the funding for ACORN?" George Stephanopoulos
"Frankly its not something that I've followed closely, I didn't even know ACORN was getting a lot of federal funding."-Barack Obama
"Well the Senate and the House have voted to cut it off." George Stephanopoulos
"Ya know, what I know is what I saw in that video was certainty inappropriate and deserves to be.."-Barack Obama
"So your not committing to cutting off federal funding?" George Stephanopoulos
"George this is not the biggest issue facing the country, its not something I'm paying a lot of attention too." -Barack Obama

"Before I even get inaugurated, were going to be calling all of you in to help us shape the agenda. Were going to be having meetings all across the country with community organizations [ACORN] so that you have input into the agenda for the next presidency of the United States of America"- Barack Obama

.::paraphrasing Glenn::. Obama also closely tied to SEIU, which ACORN founder Wade Rafky is also closely tied too...

"I've spent my entire adult life working with SEIU. I'm not a newcomer to this. I didn't just suddenly discover SEIU..."-Barack Obama

.::Glenn::. Then there is Ameri-Cor, or is it Ameri-Cor. I'm not really sure what the president is describing here.

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the nation security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force thats just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded."-Barack Obama

.::Glenn::. Really, why do we need that?

"Ive been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran project vote voter registration drive in Illinois, when I ran project vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciated your work." -Sam Graham-Felsen, Ran Obama's Campaign Blog

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.::Glenn::. Just past week he has raised the possibility of amnesty and citizenship for the 20 million people who are already here illegally.

"If someone is here illegally they won't be covered under this plan. That's a commitment I've made. But I also want to make this clear. Even though I don't believe we can extend coverage to those that are here illegally, I don't believe that we can simply ignore the fact that our immigration system is broken.......If anything this debate underscores necessity for passing comprehensive immigration reform and resolving the issue of 12 million undocumented people living and working in this country once and for all." - Barack Obama

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Obama and ACORN

Guest: John Fund, Author, Stealing Elections, The Wall Street Journal

.::Glenn::. He didnt know they were getting federal funding?
.::Fund::. It's curious because ACORN has gotten federal funding throughout his existence and he has a long hisotry of working with ACORN. He was a trainer for them in Chicago and a lawyer for them. I suspect at some point ACORN paid him, I suspect some of that was federal funds.

.::Note::. ABC was the ONLY Network
to ask President Obama about ACORN

.::Fund::. Obamas campaign spend over $800,000 with an ACORN affiliate to get out the vote. Voter registration...and the money was categorized and reported to Federal Election Commission as staging and lighting....Then they corrected themselves when they got caught by a Pittsburg paper. So the Obama campaign was not particularaly eager to have people know that they were hiring a ACORN affiliate to help with voter registration.

.::Fund::. Its strange because throughout his career he has been proud of being affiliated with ACORN....He knew everything about and now he knows nothings about ACORN makes me think something is there...All I know is that he is retrieting from ACORN faster than a speeding bullet.

.::Fund::. He just refered to the conduct as inappropriate, I think almost anyone would have used a stronger word.

.::Note::. Then attorney Barack Obama
represented ACORN in Lawsuit in 1995

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Socialism, Slip of Tongue

Maxine Waters, the Congresswoman who called Senators that oppose the bill Neanderthals, says that they will pressure them to accept the bill and claims that "we will say to the President we want you to use every weapon in you basket to get those Senators to do what they are doing." is featured in this video where there is a very significant slip of the tongue.

Is it really that unreasonable to think that part of our elected officials want socialism?

Details on the Obama Administration 'Czars'

Glenn Beck complied an extensive list of the Czars, their job descriptions, official titles, when they were appointed and a bunch of other great information. Make sure to take some time and arm yourself with the facts. Get informed so that you can correct all the nut jobs out there that think this is no big deal.

....................................................................................................................................................

Glenn Beck's List of Obama's Czars

As of July 20, 2009:

• The Brainroom counts 32 czars in the Obama administration, based on media reports from reputable sources that have identified the official in question as a czar.
• In addition, President Obama has said that he will create the position of cyber czar, and there have been media reports that there could be a health insurance czar and a copyright czar. When and if those positions are filled, that would bring the total to 35.
• Since czar isn't an official job title, the number is somewhat in the eye of the beholder.

NOTE: positions that also existed under previous administrations are indicated with an *.

1. Afghanistan Czar - Richard Holbrooke

Title: Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Appointed: January 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: State

• Will work with CENTCOM head Gen. David Petraeus to integrate U.S. civilian and military efforts in the region.
• 45 years of experience have made him a fixture of the Democrats' foreign policy establishment.
• Was U.S. ambassador to U.N., 1999-2001
• Brokered the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords in Bosnia
• Also served as Assistant secretary of state, East Asia and the Pacific (1976 to 1980); worked in foreign service (1962 to 1976)
• From 1972 through 1976, was the editor of Foreign Policy magazine.

2. AIDS Czar * - Jeffrey Crowley

Title: Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy
Salary: $102,000
Reports to: President Obama (as part of the Executive Office of the President’s Domestic Policy Council)
Appointed: February 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Health and Human Services

• Coordinates HIV/AIDS policy domestically and internationally.
• Senior Research Scholar at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute and a Senior Scholar at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University Law Center.
• Was Deputy Executive Director for Programs at the National Association of People with AIDS
• Has Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health

3. Auto Recovery Czar - Ed Montgomery

Title: Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Larry Summers, the president's top economic adviser, and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis
Appointed: March 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Labor

• Will work to leverage government resources to support the workers, communities and regions that rely on the American auto industry.
• Was Deputy Secretary and Chief Economist at the Labor Department (1997 to 1998)
• Is Dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland (2003 to present)
• Has PhD in economics from Harvard
• In 2008, made $1,200 in political donations, all of which went to Obama’s presidential campaign.
• Wife is the granddaughter of a General Motors worker from Portland, Mich.
• Drives a 2000 Lincoln

4. Border Czar * - Alan Bersin

Title: Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
Appointed: April 2009
Agencies that might have handled similar issues: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

• Will coordinate all of the department's border security and law-enforcement efforts.
• Essentially had the same job under President Clinton; served as Attorney General Janet Reno's special representative on border issues, a job that he held while retaining the position of U.S. attorney for San Diego.
• This time, boss will be Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who will expect him to handle illegal immigration and drug violence issues along the Mexican-American border
• Previous experience: Chairman of the San Diego Regional Airport Authority (2006 to 2009); Secretary of Education for California (2005 to 2006); Superintendent of San Diego Public Schools (1998 to 2005); U.S. Attorney for San Diego (1993 to 1998)
• Graduate of Harvard and Yale Law School
• Talking about border security shortly before he was named Clinton border czar in 1995, said he wanted to focus on suspected smugglers of both drugs and people and was not interested in prosecuting “economic migrants.”
• Often tied to the 1994 border policy called “Operation Gatekeeper.” The policy shifted the U.S. focus from the arresting of immigrants who actually crossed the border to an increased border presence designed to stop border crossing in the first place. When Bersin left the position in 1998, border arrests were on pace for an 18-year low of just more than 200,000. Latino groups complained that Operation Gatekeeper was immoral, saying the program monitored the border near San Diego but simply forced illegal immigrants to other, more dangerous areas.
• Has given more than $50,000 to political campaigns since 1999, almost all of it to Democrats.

5. California Water Czar - David J. Hayes

Title: Deputy Interior Secretary
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar
Appointed: June 2009
Confirmed by Senate (as Deputy Interior Security): May 20, 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Interior

• Charged with coordinating federal agencies to ease California's water shortage
• Graduate of Stanford Law School; clerked for U.S. District Court for the D.C., has been a partner at two big D.C. law firms
• Was deputy interior secretary under Bruce Babbitt during Clinton administration
• From 1993 to 1995, was chairman of the board at the Environmental Law Institute, a non-profit research center.
• As a lobbyist, represented the Southern California Metropolitan Water District in 2001
• In August 2008, wrote a policy report while working at the Progressive Policy Institute accusing the Bush administration of leaving a “damaging legacy” in their natural resource management policies
• Donated $2,300 to Clinton during 2008 campaign; after she withdrew, donated $2,300 to Obama

6. Car Czar - Ron Bloom

NOTE: on July 13, 2009, Bloom took over as head of the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, replacing Steven Rattner

Title: Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council head Larry Summers
Appointed: July 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Treasury

• A leader of the White House task force overseeing auto company bailouts; worked on restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler LLC.
• Was special assistant to president of the United Steelworkers union from 1996-Feb 2009
• Has negotiated restructuring deals for more than 50 companies, getting major concessions from unions and companies.
• Was raised in New York in a pro-union family, which included a schoolteacher mother and unionized relatives.
• After working for the Service Employees International Union, got an MBA from Harvard University because he thought unions lacked business smarts, he said in a 1996 interview in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
• From 1985 to 1990, he worked as an investment banker with Lazard Freres & Co., which specializes in mergers, acquisitions and corporate restructuring, before co-founding the investment-banking firm Keilin and Bloom.

7. Central Region Czar - Dennis Ross

Title: Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the Central Region (encompasses the Middle East, the Gulf, Afghanistan, Pakistan and South Asia)
Salary: unknown
Reports to: National Security Adviser Gen. James L. Jones
Appointed: June 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: State

• Spent 12 years in the George H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations trying to create a permanent agreement between the governments of Israel and the Palestinian territories
• In 1981, was named to President Ronald Reagan’s national security staff as the director of Near East and South Asian Affairs.
• Was director of the State Department’s Policy Planning office during President George H. W. Bush’s term.
• 1993: appointed to the position of Middle East coordinator, making him the top negotiator for peace between Israel and Palestinian territories
• After he left government in 2000, headed up Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a hawkish think tank with a pro-Israeli bent

8. Climate Czar - Todd Stern

Title: Special Envoy for Climate Change
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Appointed: January 2009
Agency or department that might have handled similar issues: Environmental Protection Agency; State

• Responsible for developing international approaches to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.
• Served in the Clinton White House from 1993 to 1999; Was Head of the Initiative on Global Climate Change (1997 to 1999) and Adviser to the Secretary of the Treasury (1999 to 2001)
• As a top aide to President Clinton, helped negotiate the Kyoto and Buenos Aires climate pacts, both of which fell apart partially because of a lack of U.S. support during Bush administration.
• After Bush was elected to office, went to the Wilmer Hale law firm, where he is a partner in the regulatory and government affairs division.
• Was most recently a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he focused on climate change and environmental issues.
• Has written extensively on climate change, and has called on the American government and the international community to take a series of steps to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.
• Supports a national cap-and-trade system that would limit carbon emissions and reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil
• Has law degree from Harvard

9. Domestic Violence Czar - Lynn Rosenthal

Title: White House adviser on Violence Against Women
Salary: unknown
Reports to: President Obama and Vice President Biden
Appointed: June 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Health and Human Services

• Will advise the President and Vice President on domestic violence and sexual assault issues.
• 2000-2006: served as the Executive Director of the National Network to End Domestic Violence
• Was an advocate for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2000 and 2005 and has assisted states and local communities with implementation of this federal legislation
• Was director of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence

10. Drug Czar * - Gil Kerlikowske

Title: Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy
Salary: unknown
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: March 2009
Confirmed by Senate: May 7, 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Justice

• Directs drug-control policy in the U.S.; is expected to shift drug policy to intervention, treatment and a reduction of problem drug use.
• Was police chief for the city of Seattle from 2000-2009
• Was Deputy Director of the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (1998 to 2000); Police Chief for the city of Buffalo (1994 to 1998); Police chief of Fort Pierce, Fla. (N/A to 1994)
• A strong gun-control advocate, urged both the Washington legislature and the U.S. Congress to pass an assault-weapons ban and has worked to close the loophole that doesn't require background checks at gun shows
• 2003: admitted that busting people for personal marijuana possession was not a top priority of the Seattle police department.
• As Seattle police chief, assigned an officer full-time to the drug court, which commuted sentences of drug users who complete medical treatment in lieu of going to jail.

11. Economic Czar * - Paul Volcker

Title: Chairman of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board
Salary: Volcker reportedly isn't paid for his advice.
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: January 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Treasury

• Charged with offering independent, nonpartisan information, analysis, and advice to the President as he formulates and implements his plans for economic recovery.
• Some reports say he's been marginalized by Larry Summers.
• Former Federal Reserve chairman (1979-1987)
• Was Undersecretary for Monetary Affairs, Department of the Treasury (1969 to 1974); Deputy Undersecretary for Monetary Affairs, Department of the Treasury (1963 to 1965)
• Gave Obama campaign $2,300 in 2008.

12. Energy and Environment Czar - Carol Browner

Title: Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change
Salary: $172,200
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: January 2009
Agency that might have handled similar issues: EPA

• Coordinates energy and climate policy, emphasizing regulation and conservation.
• Was Environmental Protection Agency administrator in the Clinton administration (1993-2000)
• Was Florida Secretary of the Environment (1991 to 1993)
• Founded and continues to serve as a principal of The Albright Group LLC, a global strategy firm led by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Also a principal of Albright Capital Management, an investment advisory firm that concentrates on emerging markets.
• Worked on the Socialist International's Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which argues that the global community must work collectively to address environmental policies
• Described Bush administration as the "worst environmental administration ever"
• While orchestrating private discussions between the White House and auto industry officials on vehicle fuel efficiency standards, kept the talks as quiet as possible. Mary Nichols, the head of the California Air Resources Board, said, "We put nothing in writing, ever."
• 2003: A federal judge held the Environmental Protection Agency in contempt for destroying computer files during the Clinton administration that had been sought by a conservative legal foundation. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth also ordered the EPA to pay the Landmark Legal Foundation's legal fees and costs because the agency disobeyed his order to preserve the electronic records of Browner, the former EPA chief.

13. Faith-Based Czar * - Joshua DuBois

Title: Director of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships
Salary: $98,000
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: February 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Health and Human Services

• Acts as a liaison between faith and secular community groups and the White House, often partnering with them to tackle social issues. Helps these groups apply for federal grants available to them.
• Is 26 years old
• Has master’s in public affairs from Princeton University; served as associate pastor
• Worked for Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) as an intern and then as a fellow for Rep. Charles B. Rangel (DN. Y.).
• Hired as a legislative correspondent in Obama’s Senate office in May 2005
• In 2008, at the age of 25, was appointed director of religious affairs for the Obama campaign.

14. Government Performance Czar - Jeffrey Zients

Title: Chief Performance Officer
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orzag
Appointed: April 2009
Confirmed by the Senate (as deputy director for management for the OMB): June 19, 2009
Agency that might have handled similar issues: OMB

• Charged with cutting costs and finding best practices throughout government.
• Has never worked in government before
• Was a chief executive and former management consultant
• Was founder of Portfolio Logic (2004 to present); Partner of the Washington Baseball Club (2004 to 2006); CEO of the Advisory Board (1998 to 2004)
• Has donated just over $90,000 to political campaigns since 1999, almost all of which went to Democratic candidates

15. Great Lakes Czar - Cameron Davis

Title: Special advisor to the U.S. EPA overseeing its Great Lakes restoration plan
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson
Appointed: June 2009
Agency that might have handled similar issues: Environmental Protection Agency

• Oversees the administration's initiative to restore the Great Lakes' environment.
• President of the Chicago-based environmentalist group Alliance for the Great Lakes
• Was a litigating attorney and served as an adjunct clinical assistant professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School.
• Served with the United Nations Environment Program in Nairobi, Kenya, where he worked on the Montreal Protocol to protect the Earth’s ozone layer, and U.S. EPA’s Office of Regional Counsel in Chicago.

16. Green Jobs Czar - Van Jones

Title: Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Head of Council on Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley
Appointed: March 2009
Agency or department that might have handled similar issues: Environmental Protection Agency; Labor

• Will focus on environmentally-friendly employment within the administration and boost support for the idea nationwide
• Rose from near obscurity in the Oakland, Calif., grassroots organizing scene to the leader of a national movement to spur the green economy.
• Founded Green For All, an organization focused on creating green jobs in impoverished areas
• Also co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Color of Change, which includes Bay Area PoliceWatch, a group devoted to "protect[ing] the community from police misconduct"
• Published New York Times best-seller The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, in October 2008
• Started career as a prison-reform advocate in Oakland, Calif., lobbying for reform of the juvenile justice system and youth-violence prevention programs
• Has law degree from Yale
• 2007: worked on the Green Jobs Act with then-Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), who co-sponsored the bill in the House
• 1993: was arrested at the Los Angeles riots that followed the acquittal of cops in the Rodney King beating. "I was arrested simply for being a police observer," says Jones, who had just graduated from Yale Law School and was working with the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco.
• 1999: was arrested in the 1999 Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization
• Excerpt from a Nov. 2005 interview in the East Bay Express:
Jones had planned to move to Washington, DC, and had already landed a job and an apartment there. But in jail, he said, "I met all these young radical people of color -- I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, 'This is what I need to be a part of.'" Although he already had a plane ticket, he decided to stay in San Francisco. "I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary." In the months that followed, he let go of any lingering thoughts that he might fit in with the status quo. "I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th," he said. "By August, I was a communist." In 1994, the young activists formed a socialist collective, Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM, which held study groups on the theories of Marx and Lenin and dreamed of a multiracial socialist utopia. They protested police brutality and got arrested for crashing through police barricades. In 1996, Jones decided to launch his own operation, which he named the Ella Baker Center after an unsung hero of the civil-rights movement.

17. Guantanamo Closure Czar - Daniel Fried

Title: Special envoy to oversee the closure of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
Appointed: March 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Justice; State

• Works to get help of foreign governments in moving toward closure of Guantanamo Bay, in fulfillment of Obama's promise to close the prison within a year of taking office.
• Was Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, State Department (2005 to 2009); Director for European and Eurasian Affairs, State Department (2001 to 2005); U.S. Ambassador to Poland (1997 to 2001)

18. Health Czar * - Nancy-Ann DeParle

Title: Counselor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Health Reform
Salary: $158,500
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: March 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Health and Human Services (HHS)

• Coordinates the development of the Administration's healthcare policy agenda.
• Experience: Managing Director, CCMP Capital (since 2001); Adjunct professor (focusing on healthcare policy), Wharton School of Business (since 2001); Commissioner, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (since 2001); Fellow, Harvard Institue of Politics (2000 to 2001); Director, Healthcare Financing Administration (1997 to 2000)
• Has law degree from Harvard
• Served as the OMB’s representative on health-care reform during Bill Clinton’s first term
• As head of the HHS Health Care Financing Administration under Clinton, ran the largest health insurance provider in America, overseeing $600 billion in payments annually to 74 million recipients of Medicare and Medicaid
• 2001: left government to take a year-long fellowship at Harvard’s Institute of Politics, where she was part of Harvard’s Health Care Policy Forum and led a weekly study group on reforming Medicare.
• During Bush administration, sat on the boards of many health companies, from medical treatment producers to hospital systems
• In September 2008, donated $2,300 each to Clinton and Barack Obama.

19. Information Czar - Vivek Kundra

Title: Federal Chief Information Officer
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag
Appointed: March 2009
Agencies that might have handled similar issues: other federal agency CIOs

• Basically in charge of overseeing other federal agency CIOs and for setting technology policy across the government.
• Head of a federal technology budget that amounts to $71 billion annually
• Operation is housed in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and will likely have authority to question how money in departmental technology budgets is used
• Formerly head of the District of Columbia's technology operations
• Shortly after he joined the OMB, federal authorities raided his old District government office. They arrested two technology office managers and a subcontractor, charging them with a bribery scheme that allegedly defrauded the city out of at least $500,000. Kundra was not a suspect in the case, the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
• Has a masters from Maryland in information technology.
• Experience: Washington, D.C. Chief Technology Officer (2007 to 2009); State of Virginia's Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Trade (2006 to 2007); CEO of computer security firm Creostar

20. Intelligence Czar * - Dennis Blair

Title: Director of National Intelligence
Salary: $197,700
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: January 2009
Confirmed by Senate: January 28, 2009
Agency that might have handled similar issues: CIA

• Nation’s top intelligence official.
• Retired four-star admiral.
• Graduate of the United States Naval Academy, 1968; sixth-generation naval officer
• Lacks professional roots in the world of intelligence
• Held a number of prestigious Washington posts, including the Pentagon’s top liaison to the CIA and director of the Joint Staff.
• Ran the non-profit Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), which focuses primarily on issues related to national security, and does a lot of work for the Defense Department. Left IDA under a cloud of controversy in mid-2006.

21. Mideast Peace Czar - George Mitchell

Title: Special Envoy for Middle East Peace
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
Appointed: January 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: State

• Works to maintain the shaky peace between Israel and Hamas after recent hostilities
• Senate majority leader from 1989 to 1994
• Was special envoy to Northern Ireland during the Clinton administration and lead investigator into steroid use in Major League Baseball.
• 2000: led a fact-finding committee to study violence in the Middle East; 2001's Mitchell Report formed the basis for the road map for Middle East peace

22. Pay Czar - Kenneth R. Feinberg

Title: Special Master on executive pay
Salary: reportedly receiving no compensation for his work.
Reports to: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
Appointed: June 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Treasury

• Named to examine compensation practices at companies that have been bailed out more than once by the federal government
• Oversaw the payouts to the families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks
• Was the chief administrator to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, which commemorates the students who died in the April 2007 shooting rampage at Virginia Tech
• Founder and managing partner of Feinberg Rozen LLP (1992 to present), law firm specializing in mediation
• Was Chief of staff for Sen. Edward Kennedy (1978 to 1980)
• While working with the Feinberg Group, donated over $150,000, nearly all of which has gone to Democratic candidates and political action committees. In 2007, donated $2,300 to 2008 presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani (R).

23. Regulatory Czar - Cass R. Sunstein *

Title: Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Office of Management and Budget head Peter Orszag
Appointed: January 2009
Nomination was sent to Senate on April 20, 2009 - no action yet taken
Agency that might have handled similar issues: OMB

• Will be responsible for reviewing draft regulations and assessing their costs and benefits
• Is a Harvard Law School professor; prior to that, was a professor at the Univ. of Chicago Law School (1981-2008)
• Academic specialties: constitutional law, administrative law, and regulatory policy
• Obama: "Cass is not only a valued advisor, he is a dear friend"
• Known for advancing a field called "law and behavioral economics" that seeks to shape law and policy around the way research shows people actually behave; though embraced by conservatives, critics say it fails to account for the sometimes less-than-rational aspects of human behavior.
• In his 2002 book, Republic.com, discussed the drawbacks of limitless choices on the Internet that allow people to seek out only like-minded people and opinions that merely fortify their own views; he talked about the idea of the government requiring sites to link to opposing views. He later came to realize it was a "bad idea."
• In his 2004 book, Animal Rights, suggested that animals ought to be able to bring suit, with private citizens acting as their representatives, to ensure that animals are not treated in a way that violates current law.
• In a 2007 speech at Harvard he called for banning hunting in the U.S.
• The American Conservative Union started a website, Stop Sunstein, in an effort to keep him out of the White House.

24. Science Czar - John Holdren

Title: Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology
Salary: unknown
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: December 2008
Confirmed by Senate: March 19, 2009
Agency or department that might have handled similar issues: Energy

• Top adviser to Obama on science and technology, issues that are increasingly relevant to other issues such as homeland security, energy and environmentalism
• Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy and Director, Program in Science, Technology, and Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (1996-2009); Harvard University Professor of Environmental Science and Public Policy (1996-2009); University of California, Berkeley Professor of Energy and Resources Emeritus (1996 to present)
• Studied aerospace engineering and plasma physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — where he earned his BS and MS — and Stanford University, where he received his doctorate in 1970
• Is an outspoken advocate of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and believes the United States should sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty.
• In a 2008 New York Times op-ed, Holdren called climate change skeptics “dangerous” members of a “denier fringe.”
• In 1971, co-authored a paper in Global Ecology suggesting "some form of ecocatastrophe, if not thermonuclear war, seems almost certain to overtake us before the end of the century."
• Some conservative media outlets have called attention to a book Holdren co-authored in 1977 titled Ecoscience: Population, Resources, and Environment. The book reportedly includes this statement: "population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution." Holdren's office says he "does not now and never has been an advocate of compulsory abortions or other repressive measures to limit fertility."

25. Stimulus Accountability Czar - Earl Devaney

Title: Chair of the Recovery Act Transparency and Accountability Board
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Vice President Biden
Appointed: February 2009
Agency that might have handled similar issues: OMB

• Leads oversight board that monitors money spent by the stimulus package
• Experience: Inspector General at the Interior Department (1999 to present); Director of criminal enforcement at the Environmental Protection Agency (1991 to 1999); Special Agent at the Secret Service (1970 to 1991)
• During his tenure at Interior, uncovered the shady dealings of disgraced ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, an investigation that eventually led to Abramoff's imprisonment and the resignation of Interior's no. 2, J. Steven Griles, for lying under oath about his own role in the scandal.
• On July 8, 2009, the U.S. General Services Administration issued a press release announcing an $18 million contract for a new recovery.gov web site, which quoted Devaney as saying, “We are pleased that another major milestone has been achieved."

26. Sudan Czar - J. Scott Gration

Title: Special Envoy to Sudan
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Appointed: March 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: State

• Will coordinate U.S. role in the aftermath of the genocide in Darfur
• Experience: Supreme Allied Command, NATO (2004 to 2005); Air Force assistant deputy undersecretary for international affairs (2003 to 2004)
• Commanded all air operations during the Iraq war in 2003
• 2006: left Air Force position to join Obama’s staff after traveling to Africa with the then-Senator from Illinois, even though he was a Republican
• Has won a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, a Defense Superior Service Medal and 16 other awards
• Is a fluent Swahili speaker who grew up in the Congo
• Has called on the Obama administration to incentivize participation by the Sudanese government in peace talks by lifting sanctions, a position that is controversial. Also worked to position himself as the principal negotiator between the Sudanese government and its adversaries in Darfur, and is planning an international conference for September 2009
• Has M.A. in security studies from Georgetown

27. TARP Czar - Herb Allison

Title: Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
Appointed: June 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Treasury

• Leads the government's $700 billion financial rescue program in the office of financial stability
• Veteran Wall Street banker and interim head of the mortgage-finance company Fannie Mae
• Worked at Merrill Lynch for 28 years, reaching position of president and COO
• Was CEO of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association College Retirement Equities Fund (2002 to 2008); CEO of the Alliance for Lifelong Learning (2000 to 2002)
• Has undergraduate degree from Yale and MBA from Stanford
• 2000: was John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign finance chairman
• In 2008, donated $2,300 to Obama's presidential campaign

28. Technology Czar - Aneesh Chopra

Title: Chief Technology Officer
Salary: unknown
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: April 2009
Confirmed by Senate: May 21, 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Commerce

• Will lead in the effort to eliminate wasteful government programs
• Will probably work to increase broadband access nationwide and computerize medical records
• Was Virginia’s secretary of technology (2005-2009)
• Has degree in public health from Johns Hopkins, Master's from Harvard in public policy
• Worked at Morgan Stanley as investment banker; also worked at Advisory Board, a health-care research and consultancy firm
• Has donated more than $24,000 since 1997 to various campaigns. With the exception of a $1,000 donation to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) in 2004, all of Chopra’s contributions have gone to Democrats. From 2007 to 2008, Chopra donated $2,750 to Obama’s presidential campaign.

29. Terrorism Czar - John Brennan

Title: Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism
Salary: $172,200
Reports to: National Security Adviser James L. Jones
Appointed: January 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Homeland Security

• Under Obama's plan the homeland security adviser’s office would be eliminated, and the National Security Council would take over those duties. Brennan would be responsible for guarding against natural disasters and terrorism.
• Has called for increased integration between the Departments of Commerce, State and Defense
• Graduated from Fordham University in 1977 after a year of intensive Arabic and Middle Eastern studies in Cairo. Earned his J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin before joining the CIA as an intelligence director in 1980.
• Is a CIA veteran and fluent Arabic speaker
• Was CIA deputy executive director (2001 to 2003) and National Counter-Terrorism Center, Chair (2004 to 2005)
• Worked at Analysis Corp, (2005 to 2008);
• Staunch supporter of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Program; defended the use of extraordinary rendition, saying it is “an absolutely vital tool.”

30. Urban Affairs Czar - Adolfo Carrion Jr.

Title: White House Director of Urban Affairs
Salary: $158,500
Reports to: President Obama
Appointed: February 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Housing and Urban Development

• Job entails coordinating transportation and housing initiatives, as well as serving as a conduit for federal aid to economically hard-hit cities.
• Has undergraduate degree in world religions from Kings College; became an associate pastor at a Bronx church; earned his master’s degree in urban planning from Hunter College
• Was Bronx Borough President (2001-2009); President of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (since 2007); City Council member (1998 to 2000)
• Many reporters say he has higher ambitions and will probably run for New York City mayor in the next ten years.
• Was an active campaigner for Obama, travelling across the country to speak on his behalf. He focused particularly on states with large Hispanic populations.
• The NY Daily News reported numerous developers made tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations to Carrión around the same time he was considering approving their projects in the Bronx.

31. Weapons Czar - Ashton Carter

Title: Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics
Salary: unknown
Reports to: Defense Secretary Robert Gates
Appointed: April 2009
Confirmed by Senate: April 23, 2009
Department that might have handled similar issues: Defense

• Will coordinate the Pentagon's acquisitions, technology and logistics for weapons.
• Will oversee a weapons-buying system that Obama has placed at the top of his list of federal programs he wants to fix and will be asked to quickly weigh in on difficult decisions concerning at least 10 major defense programs, while also instantly dissecting the procurement system’s ailments so he can advise the administration on its Pentagon acquisition reform agenda
• Is a physicist and Harvard academic whose only previous Pentagon stint was in a mid-level policy post from 1993 until 1996 under the Clinton administration
• Graduated from Yale summa cum laude; studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar and earned a doctorate in theoretical physics.
• Chair of Harvard’s International Relations, Science & Security Area International Security Program within the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy (1993 to 1996); Director of the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School (early 1990s)
• Has donated primarily to Democratic politicians since 2000. He donated $6,900 to then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in 2007 and 2008. He gave the same amount to then Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) during that same span.

32. WMD Policy Czar - Gary Samore

Title: White House Coordinator for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Security and Arms Control
Salary: unknown
Reports to: National Security Advisor Gen. James L. Jones
Appointed: January 2009
Department or agency that might have handled similar issues: NSC; Defense; State

• Will coordinate issues related to weapons of mass destruction across the government. His portfolio includes proliferation, nuclear and conventional arms control, threat reduction, and terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction.
• Position sits within the National Security Council.
• Is a veteran arms control negotiator.
• B.A. in sociology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and his PhD in government from Harvard University in 1984.
• After brief stints with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the RAND Corporation, joined the State Department during the Reagan administration in 1987. Held several positions there, including director of the Office of Regional Non-proliferation Affairs; special assistant to the Ambassador-at-Large for Non-proliferation and Nuclear Energy Policy; and deputy to Ambassador-at-Large for Korean Affairs Robert Gallucci. Helped to negotiate the 1994 U.S.-North Korea Framework Treaty
• Joined the Clinton administration’s National Security Council in 1995 as an adviser on nonproliferation. Coordinated U.S. policy on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
• Was Director, Council on Foreign Relations (2006 to 2009); Vice President for Global Security and Sustainability, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (2005); Researcher, International Institute of Strategic Studies (2001 to 2005)

It's Paid Political Advertising! No I'm not talking about Obama, I'm talking about Bush

I have one thing to ask the left-wing...Why is it "Paid Political Advertising" with a Republican President and not with a Democrat?

My momma would tell me to not say this next thing, but I'm throwing it out there for all of cyberspace.

Shut UP you radical left-wing socialist, Marxist, communist lying pricks!
..........................................................................................................................................................

Flashback 1991: Gephardt Called Bush's Speech to Students 'Paid Political Advertising'

By Noel Sheppard
September 3, 2009


As Barack Obama prepares a nationwide broadcast to America's students next Tuesday, it has been revealed that Democrats complained in 1991 when then President George H. W. Bush broadcast a speech from a Northwest Washington junior high school.

In fact, the House Majority leader at the time, Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.), said "The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students."

Such was reported by the Washington Post on October 3, 1991 (h/t KY3 Political Notebook via Chuck Todd):

House Democrats criticized President Bush yesterday for using Education Department funds to produce and broadcast a speech that he made Tuesday at a Northwest Washington junior high school.

The Democratic critics accused Bush of turning government money for education to his own political use, namely, an ongoing effort to inoculate himself against their charges of inattention to domestic issues. The speech at Alice Deal Junior High School, broadcast live on radio and television, urged students to study hard, avoid drugs and turn in troublemakers.

"The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said. "And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.' "

Two House committees demanded that the department explain the use of its funds for the speech, an explanation that Deputy Secretary David T. Kearns provided late in the day in a letter to Rep. William D. Ford (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. Education Secretary Lamar Alexander was out of town. [...]

Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colo.), chairwoman of the Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families, said it was outrageous for the White House to "start using precious dollars for campaigns" when "we are struggling for every silly dime we can get" for education programs.

Rep. Martin Frost (D-Tex.) said that if Bush feels obliged to use government funds to hire outside consultants "to make him look good," then he should fire some of the public relations experts on the White House payroll. "Then the president might be more sympathetic to unemployment benefits," Frost said, referring to Bush's threat to veto legislation to extend benefits.

Makes one wonder if today's media, with the economy in what they've repeatedly called the worst recession since the Great Depression, will question Obama's use of education funds for his upcoming speech.

After all, when you look at Education Secretary Arne Duncan's letter concerning this event, one has to assume it's costing the Department a great deal of money.

Chick Chat: Truth will set you free right?

Every once in a while I can't help but feel discouraged with the direction this country is going. I spend most of my free time researching, reading, writing about these major issues going on and yet I still feel completely helpless. Even going to the protests and the meetings, I still feel helpless. Every couple of weeks I start watching the news and see the spending and the socialism creeping up and I feel like I am swimming against the current and going absolutely no where. Because this isn’t about health care or spending, it’s about dependency, control and accepting all those things that are morally repugnant.

I never thought I would say this, but I can sympathies with the liberals who truly hated Bush. They would look at this and say stop whining because we had to put up with your idiot for 8 years. My problem is that I often wonder if we would survive another 4/8 years of this. I know Bush made mistakes during his presidency but I at least felt safe. Safe from foreign attacks, safe from our government and safe to speak out. I don't always feel so safe speaking out.

People in my family joke that we are all going to be thrown in a family cell one day because we are all so outspoken about our viewpoints. I'm starting to think its not that funny anymore. I don't know what will happen a few years down the road and the more research that I do, the less I feel I know.

I write this because I hope that there are more out there like me. I can't imagine I'm the only one that is tired of being on the wrong side of what is popular, what is easy, what is wealthy, what is powerful.

I take that back, the truth is powerful. "Truth will set you free" right? But where is the truth now? Is it being hidden?

Truth...Come out, come out, wherever you are!!

I just hope that the truth can overcome the layers and layers of bureaucracy and corruption. I’m not particularly religious person, but tonight I'll say an extra prayer for America.

I pray that we are given the strength to search for the truth. I pray that we are given the strength to spread the truth we uncover. I pray that we are given the strength to live by the principles of the truth we seek. I pray that those who need to hear the truth give us their attention. I pray that He doesn’t abandon America as we face our greatest threat yet. I pray that He hasn’t abandoned us already in our progressive secularization.I pray that we are given His guidance as we continue the ideological battle in which we are embroiled. I pray for His blessings.

Chick Chat: Living life with the liberty to pursue happiness

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The Bill:
Cybersecurity Act of 2009

Original Article:
Bill would give Obama power to shut down internet, networks during cyber attack: NetworkWorld

Updated Article:
Bill would give president emergency control of Internet: CNETNews

Details:
Cybersecurity Act of 2009 : Directs the President to establish or designate a Cybersecurity Advisory Panel to advise the President. Private networks could be shut down by government order and would be regulated by government mandated security standards and technical configurations


Thoughts:

This is an extremely scary thought. One of our basic rights is the freedom of speech and although Jefferson could not have conceived of the notion of the internet, it has become a staple part of the American conversation. What is scary is that there doesn't seem to be a clear definition of the"national security" reasons to shut down the internet. Also frightening is the fact that Obama will be putting together this Advisory Panel and they will report directly to him. Now considering teh wonderful job he has done of choosing socialist, anti-capitalist and communist to his current Czar-asters, I'M WORRIED! (Thanks to Glenn for Czar-asters info- check out posts about him)

What is there stopping this panel from deciding that people who speak out against our President or Congress aren't creating some sort of national security issue. There are plenty of ways to twist and turn people's concerns into some sort of evil plan. I personally don't like Barry O, but I wish him no harm. Especially since we have the dimwitted spill-national-security-secrets-Biden as the other option. Could you imagine how awful he would be as President?? God we would be blown up within a year because he would accidentally tell our enemies the codes to all our nukes.

Moving on, this issue is really quite a concern. It's not quite as much at the forefront as health care in all the news medias or in people's minds yet. But it poses a big threat to the health care debate, when people start to hear more about this there is going to be some major backlash on the internet, if there isn't already! That, conveniently, moves the debate away from health care.

However, the health care debate is (to me) about a lot more than just MRI's and gov't funded abortions. It's about the basic principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Living life with the liberty to pursue happiness in whatever way we so desire. For me that means holding on to my freedom from government control, so I will continue to pursue my life with my liberties until I am labeled a national threat for my "un-American, racist" viewpoints.

Chick Chat: Not for Sale Anymore

I am disgusted and yet not surprised to hear that Communist Dictator Fidel Castro is now calling the changes that Obama is trying to make,"positive". But I have to ask, isn't something terribly wrong when a communist dictator is saying we are making positive changes?? For him positive is communism. So what kind of changes are we making?

Sidenote: Notice I wrote DICTATOR, because although the media seems to be convinced that at some point in history there was a free election in Cuba during which Fidel was elected, there wasn't. January of 1959 Fidel Castro marched into Havana and overthrew the previous leader, also a dictator by the name of Batista. Neither Fidel nor his brother Raul were ever freely chosen as leaders and as a Cuban- American I find it offensive that they are given that distinction in American media.

Getting to the article, lets look at the key points:

• Obama is trying to make positive changes in the United States, but is being fought at every turn by right-wingers who hate him because he is black wrote Fidel
  
• Obama inherited many problems from his predecessor and was trying to resolve them but the "powerful extreme right won't be happy with anything that diminishes their prerogatives in the slightest way."-Fidel
• Castro wrote, "the extreme right hates him for being African-American and fights what the president does to improve the deteriorated image of that country."
• "I don't have the slightest doubt that the racist right will do everything possible to wear him down, blocking his program to get him out of the game one way or another, at the least political cost," Castro wrote.
  

The problem is not that the right is racist!

I am so sick and tired of being called a racist for not approving of the President. I could care less if he was Hispanic, African-American, Asian, whatever. I care about his fundamental views and beliefs. I care about his policies. I care about what he is doing to this country, not what color his skin is or what religion he practices.

I think that the American people are starting to realize what a mistake we made in Nov of 2008 and are starting to pull away from this administration. And I believe that the leftists, the radicals, the Fidel Castros of this world are desperately trying to cling to the momentum they had going for them a year ago by scaring people away from the right. Vilifying the right and creating this stigma that it's racist to be anti-Obama. We'll I have news for the left, American's aren't buying it any more.

Chick Chat: A Message to My Generation

The greatest ignorance is to reject something you know nothing about. - H. Jackson Brown, Jr

Today I was with a friend of mine who is around my age. I asked her if she was going to the protest tomorrow and she told me that she would think about it if she knew what there was to protest about.

She used all the same excuses I've heard from the majority of young people I meet. I don't really care about politics. It doesn't interest or affect me that much if I'm informed or not. Well I have a message for you fellow Generation Y.

Wake up!

Wake up and take a look around you.

Stop saying it doesn't interest you.
Stop saying it doesn't affect you.

One day, not too far away, you will be very interested when it starts affecting you.

You will be interested the day you finally get to climb the corporate ladder, only to realize you are paying the majority to the government. The day you realize that you have no options about what you are paying for and who you are supporting with that money. You will be interested when you have to ration the things that you've never imagined going without. And no, I'm not talking about health care.

You will be interested when you get married and realize that the holy sacrament you've entered into is another way for the IRS to get a hefty contribution. You will be interested when you start a family some 5, 10, 15 years down the line and realize those precious little loved ones will still be paying your father debts when they have children.

You will be interested if, God forbid, some day you have a child born with a problem and they are denied the help you so desire for them. You will care when someone labels them a second class citizen.

You will be interested the day that you're children go to school and come back believing that our country isn't fundamentally good or founded on Judeo-Christian principles. You will care when they think that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry were evil corrupt men. You will take notice when a bad decision in your child's life can't be resolved because they've never had to take on personal responsibility.

You will care when your parents start to deteriorate and aren't provided with the care, comfort or compassion that they need and deserve.

You will care when you are no longer invincible to sickness, sadness, consequences...

Three things have happened at this point.

You have stopped reading because you are completely apathetic to what I am talking about, in which case there is no hope for you. You have read this and think that I am completely insane, in which case there is hope for you, perhaps just in the future. Or you have read this and think that there might be something to this waking up thing, in which case there is hope... for our country and for you.

Some of the things I have talked about are already happening. Some of them are very close to becoming a reality and others are not that unbelievable if you look at the direction that we are heading as a country. I have to tell you again fellow Generation Y.

Wake Up!

You can't afford to be apathetic.

Maybe if I say it again you will listen.

You're life can't afford for you to be apathetic.

Stop excusing yourself from the conversation that is going on around you because you can't take a moment from the keggers, martinis or club mixes. Stop listening to pop media and believing that they are giving you facts.

Jon Stewart is not news.

Perez Hilton is not news.

Wake up!

You can't afford to be apathetic, but you also can't afford to be ignorant. You can't afford to be ignorant to the truth, especially now. You can't afford to be idealistic or politically correct. You can't afford to think with the the crowd.

George MacDonald once said,
"The two pillars of 'political correctness' are: a) willful ignorance b) a steadfast refusal to face the truth."

Face the truth Gen Y and become informed. We cannot afford to be a politically correct, idealistic generation any more.

Every generation fights the "man". Every generation has waves of idealistic thinking that infiltrate the ranks. Every generation has those that fight for the individual causes and beliefs, "advancement" for supposed "political correctness". While others simply accept the issues they are given and bathe in apathy.

If we were smart, the really advanced generation we would realize that every generation eventually becomes the "man". Willful ignorance and apathy are consent. We will have to live with the consequences of the "advancements" that we are in the midst of making. Inevitably, apathetic generation upon apathetic generation forms a very different America. An America we will not recognize nor control.

We are fighting against our future.

The future of our aging parents. The future of our brothers, sisters our friends.
The future of our children.

We can't afford to fight against ourselves; we must wake up from our idealistic trance and fight for ourselves.