“Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, reportedly has signed an appeal for funds to outfit a ship–to be named The Audacity of Hope–that will challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza in September or October. Khalidi and his wife (who also signed the appeal) became friends and occasional dinner companions of Barack Obama when Khalidi was on the faculty of the University of Chicago. Khalidi also contributed to the education of Obama on issues relating to the Middle East. Just before Khalidi moved to Columbia, at a dinner honoring Khalidi, Obama saluted the rabidly anti-Israel professor for “offer[ing] constant reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases.”

Obama and Rashid Khalidi go way back. Obama babysat Khalidi’s kids; Khalidi did a fund-raiser for Obama in 2001; and Obama sat on the board of the Woods Foundation with terrorist Bill Ayers and gave Khalidi $40,000 and $30,000 grants respectively.

For those of you unfamiliar with Rashid Khalidi, go here.

* Professor of Middle East Studies at Columbia University
* Former PLO operative
* Has justified as legitimate Palestinian “resistance” that results in death of armed Israelis
* Rejects the possibility of a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

(from Atlas, March 2008)

AMERICA IS STILL ALIVE! The PROGRESSIVES HAVE NOT WON!

Via the Right Scoop. Even Mediaite, in full sneer at the content, can’t help gawking at how remarkably high the production values are. That’s par for the course with the RGA, though. The famous “Remember November” ad from a few months ago was one of the only spots in recent memory that went viral not because of any gimmick in the script but purely by virtue of the atmospherics. (Allahpundit-HotAir)

So much for transparency.

Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.

The law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from “surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities.” Given that the SEC is a regulatory body, the provision covers almost every action by the agency, lawyers say. Congress and federal agencies can request information, but the public cannot. (FoxBusiness)

Last year, President Obama promised to focus “every single day” on getting Americans back to work:

“My commitment to you, the American people, is that I will focus every single day on how we can get people back to work, and how we can build an economy that continues to make real the promise of America for generations to come.” (BigGovernment)

Sarah Palin was dismissed as a light weight and Islamophobe. They can’t say the same about Newt!

In my posts (here, here) objecting to the building of a mosque near the site of Ground Zero in New York set to open on the 10th anniversary of the attacks by radical Islam, I hardly mentioned the significance of the name “Cordoba House” which the mosque builders proposed for this 13 story mega mosque. (FloppingAces.net)

For the ignorant that don’t seem to understand for what the TEA Party movement really stands; here is the Contract From America which many Tea Party movement supporters are now requiring candidates to sign before they will support their campaigns. I know that candidates will no longer receive a single dime from me or a moment of my time unless they are on board. The percentages listed represent the public that supports the item.

The Contract from America Source Here: (Click story title)

(FloppingAces.net)

Regular Atlas readers are familiar with the vile shrine being built at the site of the crash of the 911 flight 93. That flight went down when a group of heroic Americans saved the Capitol and/or White House from Muslim terrorists after the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked and destroyed.
Please read the following plea from the father of Thomas Burnett. Thomas was the ringleader of the small group of courageous men who fought back against the Muslim terrorists on United Flight 93 on September 11, 2001, that crashed in the fields in Pennsylvania. He made four now-famous cell phone calls to his wife from the plane, making a quick assessment of the Muslims’ suicidal flight plan, and made a decision to “do something.” He gave his life to ensure that the plane would not reach its intended destination in Washington.

(Atlas Shrugs)

Editor: Somebody, stop this MARXIST from ruining our health care system! PLEASE!

I’m honestly shocked. Wasn’t the whole point of the recess appointment to avoid questions in a high-profile forum about Berwick’s fondness for NHS’s rationing authority and his views of health care as redistribution? Now, suddenly, Obama’s going to force Reid and company to deal with the Berwick headache three and a half months from the midterms? What possible logic could there be?

Obama’s effort to clear Berwick through the Senate on top of his recess appointment would grant his nominee the job indefinitely, as he would serve at “the pleasure of the president,” according to a White House aide.

(HotAir.com)

It’s official. There is now a Tea Party Caucus in the Congress of the United States of America.

Representative Michelle Bachmann filed the paperwork late last week, and the approval was granted almost immediately:

(BigGovernment)

Originally Posted, October 29, 2008

America is facing potentially the gravest constitutional crisis in her history. Barack Obama must either stand up in a public forum and prove, with conclusive documentary evidence, that he is “a natural born Citizen” of the United States who has not renounced his American citizenship—or he must step down as the Democratic Party’s candidate for President of the United States—preferably before the election is held, and in any event before the Electoral College meets. Because, pursuant to the Constitution, only “a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States at the time of the Adoption of th[e] Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President” (Article II, Section 1, Clause 4). And Obama clearly was not “a Citizen of the United States at the time of the Adoption of th[e] Constitution.”

Whether the evidence will show that Obama is, or is not, “a natural born Citizen” who has never renounced his American citizenship is an open question. The arguments on both sides are as yet speculative. But Obama’s stubborn refusal to provide what he claims is “his own” country with conclusive proof on that score compels the presumption that he knows, or at least strongly suspects, that no sufficient evidence in his favor exists. After all, he is not being pressed to solve a problem in quantum physics that is “above his pay grade,” but only asked to provide the public with the original copy of some official record that establishes his citizenship. The vast majority of Americans could easily do so. Why will Obama not dispel the doubts about his eligibility—unless he can not? (NewsWithViews.com)

(Unconstitutional Meddling with Kenyan Constitution by Obama White House)

A Republican lawmaker is accusing the White House of “unconscionable” and “illegal” acts for its role in Kenya’s referendum on a new constitution, which would legalize abortion in the country for the first time.

Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey cited a report by the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, which estimated that more than $23 million in U.S. taxpayer funds have been spent on the referendum, and Smith and other conservatives have complained that at least some of that money has been spent in sport of the proposed constitution, possibly violating U.S. law.

“Under no circumstances should the U.S. government take sides,” Smith said at a news conference Wednesday. “Yet that is precisely what the Obama administration has done.”

(FNC)

The latest Gallup Poll on U.S. institutions shows something we all sense — Americans are losing faith.

That includes the presidency, which enjoys the high confidence of only 36% of Americans, according to the new poll.

President Obama can take heart from the fact that the rating is still better than that of Congress; only 11% of Americans have a great deal or a lot of confidence in it, dead last among the 16 groups surveyed. (USAToday)

Tucker Carlson may wind up generating a little sympathy for Journolisters in his Day Four revelations. Target selection is everything in these stories, and something tells me that today will generate a lot more schadenfreude than anger among Hot Air regulars. For this installment, Jonathan Strong gathers the collected Journolist wisdom about Keith Olbermann — and finds that this group doesn’t like him much more than the Right does:

If you were one of the 400 members of the listserv Journolist, perhaps one of the most vicious insults you could hurl at a colleague is: You’re just like Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity.

If the reader holds neutral — or even positive — views about the Fox News hosts, the insult may not sting. But in the cloistered world of liberal listserv enclaves, Hannityism is a cardinal sin. After all, Fox is a “dangerous,” “deranged” “cesspool” that, possibly, the FCC should be investigating.

The feelings against MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, then, must run deep.

“He’s become O’Reilly on the left– completely predictable, unfunny, and arrogant,” said Georgetown University Professor Michael Kazin in May 2009. “To my mind, what they do is no different form Hannity and O’Reilly,” said the New America Foundation’s Michael Cohen, “At least Hannity and O’Reilly engage with the other side (if mainly just to yell at them). Olbermann is just an echo chamber.” (Ed Morrissey–HotAir)

A timely op-ed on a day when Biden’s going around telling people that the “heavy lifting” on legislation is finished and that they’re ready to run on what they’ve already passed. That means no more major bills — except, possibly, until the lame-duck session, when even the bare trace of accountability that exists now will be all gone.

Honestly, with huge GOP gains a fait accompli, it’s time to start worrying about this. Loudly and often. Just one question: What can be done to stop them?

(Allahpundit–HotAir)

People walking the streets armed with guns must be dangerous, right? The Brady Campaign and the Violence Policy Center keep claiming that even those individuals who have legally obtained permits to carry concealed handguns are extremely dangerous. With millions of Americans already having been issued such permits from the various states, this is an important issue.

The gun control organizations have frequently made these claims in the press. The Associated Press articles by Erik Schelzig and by Jim Abrams have given extensive, uncritical coverage. Members of the gun control organizations have made these claims unchallenged on such places as Fox News and on the Huffington Post. But the gun control advocates inaccurately describe many shooting cases, choosing to ignore that the majority of incidents involve people properly defending themselves.

(BigGovernment.com)

WASHINGTON

Some 90,000 leaked U.S. military records amount to an blow-by-blow account of six years of the Afghanistan war, including unreported incidents of Afghan civilian killings as well as covert operations against Taliban figures, two newspapers and a magazine with access to the documents reported Sunday.

The online whistle-blower organization Wikileaks was expected to post the documents on its website Sunday. The New York Times, London’s Guardian newspaper and the German weekly Der Spiegel were given early access to the documents.

(FNC-AP)

Citing his defense of smaller government and advocacy for reduced taxes, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Saturday endorsed Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate race.

Rubio and Chamber officials appeared at an early afternoon Rubio campaign rally at the Plaza Theater in Orlando.

“At the end of the day, this is a guy that got things done,” Bill Miller, the Chamber’s senior vice president of political affairs, said of the Miami-based Republican.

(OrlandoSentinal.com)

Eleven years ago, like every citizen elected to serve in Congress or any person appointed to any federal position, I swore an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.”

I’ve always thought it significant that the Founders included domestic enemies in that oath of office. They thought liberty was as much at risk from threats within our borders as from outside, and French political thinker and historian Alexis de Tocqueville agreed with that warning.

In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the greatest threat to our nation was clear – and foreign. While Islamic terrorism still represents the greatest external threat to America and American lives, the avowed program of the Obama regime has changed the picture in a fundamental way.

(Washington Times)

“Two thumbs up!” said a smiling Sam Adam junior, Blago’s defense attorney, when I asked him what he thought of his client’s chances. Adam finished closing arguments today (my notes and observations from the courtroom are below). The jury will get its’ instructions at 9am central time tomorrow. Defendent Rod Blagojevich and his brother Robert Blagojevich are charged with various counts, including bribery, racketeering and lying to federal investigators.

When asked how long its estimated the jury would take to come up with a verdict, one attorney summed it up by saying “they take as long as they take”.

((ALL TIMES ARE IN CENTRAL STANDARD TIME, BECAUSE THE COURTROOM IS LOCATED IN CHICAGO))

UPDATE 3:39 p.m.

Blago is now signing autographs and smiling as he walks to his waiting car. He wouldn’t respond to reporters’ questions.

3:19 p.m.

Judge Zagel is now talking to the attorneys. The jury is out of the room. Instructions should take 45 minutes but deliberations won’t begin until after copies of instructions are given.

Alternates are told no contact with media and no discussing case. Jurors are allowed to set their own schedule. If tie, the judge will cast deciding vote.

He tells lawyers to “assemble exhibits you want to go to the jury room (at 9 a.m. CT).”

Judge to Sam Adam, Jr., “I thought your argument was entirely free of contemption.”

Everyone laughed. (Liveshots-FNC)

“LET’S MAKE A DEAL!”

WASHINGTON — Embattled Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel was meeting with the head of the House ethics committee and other top Democrats amid rumors he may try to work out a deal rather than face a full vetting of the charges he is now facing.

A settlement would mean Rangel must admit he committed some ethical misconduct.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Tuesday that “everyone would like for the Rangle issue to go away” and that the ethics process with Rangel is not a pleasant one. (FNC)

Former GOP presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson warns that not extending the Bush tax cuts could have “devastating” and “catastrophic” consequences for the American economy.

“We must urge Congress and the president to renew the Bush tax cuts early, before they expire and before investors lose confidence in the U.S. economy,” Thompson stated in a letter he signed on behalf of the League of American Voters, a nonpartisan organization that advocates conservative principles.

Beginning Tuesday, Thompson will be promoting the proposed tax-cut renewal in a national TV ad campaign and petition drive the league is funding.

The former actor is joining forces with the League of American Voters as spokesman for a campaign to pressure members of Congress to renew the Bush tax cuts.

(Newsmax)