Sen. Dodd and President Obama have repeatedly lied about the policy and process which permitted the AIG bonuses to be paid out.  Obama’s Stimulus Package is the vehicle that allowed this scandal to happen.

At least Dodd admitted he’s been lying today.

So Chris Dodd admitted he misled CNN, telling them on Tuesday he had nothing to do with the loophole that mysteriously found its way into legislation and paved the way for AIG’s bonuses to be paid.  The following day, Dodd confessed to CNN’s Dana Bash that he in fact wrote the loophole, though he said he did it at the behest of the administration and with the knowledge that he would lose the amendment altogether if he did not comply.

Will President Obama admit this evening with Jay Leno that he too has lied to the American public?  That he lied about how he permitted bonuses to AIG execs to proceed when he signed the Stimulus Package?  That he never read the legislation that he signed that was so important to save the economy?

Are pigs flying in Burbank?

Barry — this one ain’t Bush’s Fault (TM) whatsoevah.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I don’t think I’m the first person to ask this question, but it occurred to me as I was reading about global warming alarmists.

Has the former Vice President ever publicly debated someone who diasgrees with his views on global warming?

If so, I’d like to see the transcript.  If not, I wonder why he’s willingn neither to hold up his views to scrutiny from an intellectual adversary nor to challenge said adversary’s arguments.

When, during or just after last year’s presidential campaign, I talked to or read about young voters enthusiastic about Barack Obama, I found that a healthy percentage, perhaps as high as 80%, had little idea what their man stood for.  They were enthusiastic about the “new kind of politics” he was going to bring to Washington, how he was going to change the ways things were being done in our nation’s capital.

When I asked for specifics, I either got blank stares, repetitions of campaign clichés or discourses on how Obama was different from George W. Bush.

It wasn’t just the young Obama supporters who had little idea what their candidate stands for.  Lately, I’ve been hearing from some friends in Hollywood that their liberal Obama-supporting colleagues are dumbfounded by the amount of spending their candidate is proposing as president.  They didn’t think he’d so increase the federal debt.

Given the spending and regulation inherent in the Obama governing agenda, the Republican Party has a golden opportunity to pick off a good number of Obama supporters, particularly among the young.  That’s why I believe Michael Barone’s Examiner column which I quoted yesterday should be must-reading for anyone who wants to rebuild the GOP. (I hope he sent a copy to Chairman Steele.)

Pointing out that voters over 30 esssentially broke even in last fall’s presidential contest, Barone notes that Obama won younger voters by a margin of 66-32.  But, he also finds that younger Americans “are used to making their own choices, setting up their own networks, taking their own initiatives.”  This is not the first time he has addressed this issue.

And the Obama agenda discourages individual initiative.

(more…)

This is awesome.  While the Left is fawning over the change of policy regarding the UN Declaration (good move, Obama — truly), some promininent gay Republicans are noting the vicious irony.

From a press release yesterday: [GP Ed. Note: This press release did NOT come from Log Cabin Republicans-- the "official" gay Republican organization.  Rather it is a statement from two former LCR staffers.]

“It smacks of tokenism to sign a U.N. resolution on the treatment of gays and lesbians, while opening the door to closer relations with the brutally anti-gay regime in Iran,” said Jimmy LaSalvia, a Republican activist and former Policy Director for Log Cabin Republicans.  “While the Obama administration should be applauded for signing this resolution, the resolution is meaningless if they pursue a foreign policy that appeases tyrants like Ahmadinejad.”

According to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, the crime of homosexuality is punishable by death in Iran.  “If the Obama administration is serious about stopping the persecution of gays and lesbians across the globe, then they will make it clear that they will not deal with states like Iran where the penalty for being gay is death,” said Christopher Barron, the President of CapSouth Consulting and the former Political Director for Log Cabin Republicans.  “If the U.S. is going to be a leader in defending human rights, it’s going to take much more than a toothless U.N. resolution.”

Now here are my two cents:

Obama also wants to engage with the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah…. shall I go on?

It is important that the US join the world bodies in such action.  But it is MORE IMPORTANT that gays are not left hanging (pun intended) as Obama begins his campaign of appeasing the Islamists around the world.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Looks like TOTUS has its own blog now. (h/t – Cassy Fiano)  Which is important since he/she is the one apparently running the country.

I just watched Braveheart, a movie I have long enjoyed, for the first time since learning of Mel Gibson‘s anti-Semitic tirade in 2006 when pulled over for driving under the influence.  Given Gibson’s comments, I feared I might not see past his past behavior.  I was wrong.  The movie overcomes any negative image I had of its lead actor.

To be sure, when Gibson first appears on screen, I did not readily warm to the character (as I had when I watched the film in the past), but it was a lot like my reaction to Elijah Wood as Frodo in The Fellowship of the Ring.  When I first see him, his youth strikes me.  While in the books, Frodo was the oldest of the four principal hobbits (himself, Samwise, Merry & Pippin), in the film adaptation, Wood is the youngest of the four actors playing said hobbits. As you focus on the film, you concentrate in what’s in front of your eyes and if the acting, visuals and/or storytelling. are good enough, you usually lose sight of any objection you might have.  At least while you’re watching the film.

So it was with Mel Gibson.  Soon, I forgot his anti-Semitic slurs and focused on his screen character, William Wallace and his fight for freedom.  “It’s all for nothing,” he said, “if we don’t have our freedom.”

I don’t think they made any films about crusaders for equality, well, there was that movie about John Reed.  Still, I can’t imagine a scene of a dying hero crying out, “Equality,” having any resonance.

Freedom is an idea which resonates.  to secure it many heroes in many lands and many ages fought very bravely, sometimes futilely.  But, their stories are told and retold because we understand their goal.

And that is one (among many) reasons, Braveheart holds up despite the sometimes boorish behavior of its lead.