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Energy Czar Carole Browner, responsible for the Executive Branch’s “Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy,” has not read the bill that passed the House of Representatives in its entirety.

Hat tip: Townhall.com’s Greg Hengler

Iran:

“It is not productive, given the history of US and Iranian relations to be seen as meddling in Iranian elections,” he said.

“But when I see violence directed at peaceful protesters, when I see peaceful dissent being suppressed… it is of concern to me and it is of concern to the American people.”

 Honduras:

Leaders from across the Western Hemisphere and beyond called for return to power of Zelaya, who arrested on Sunday morning by soldiers who stormed his residence and forced him into exile. The country now has another president appointed by its Congress, Roberto Micheletti, who insisted that Zelaya was legally removed by the courts and Congress for violating Honduras’ constitution and attempting to extend his own rule.

“We are very clear about the fact that President Zelaya is the democratically elected president,” Obama said.

Hat tip: Townhall.com’s Carol Platt Liebau

Rod Blagojevich was in the news for one of the more bizarre “post-scandal” things I have ever seen.

Former Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich says it’s difficult watching his wife, Patti, fill in for him on a reality show, but he appreciated the former Illinois first lady’s televised exercise in tarantula-eating as an “act of love.”

Perhaps CNN thought it was irrelevant to mention the Islamic religious affiliation of those planning to bomb a synagogue and shoot down a US military airplane.

The CNN article doesn’t once mention any sort of religious affiliation, desire to avenge muslim deaths, nor the desire to, “do jihad.”  I suppose it was not an important detail.

Just throwing it out there.  She keeps on getting soundbites and headlines because she represents “a bold new face of republicanism.” However, I’m guessing that after a few months, perhaps a year or two, we’ll see her slip to becoming an independent, or even a democrat.

I feel silly adding to the attention that is already out there, but she has become the opposite of the Rush Limbaugh phenomenon.  Instead of Limbaugh representing the “worst” in the minds of democrats, McCain embodies the “best” in the GOP in their minds, and is given ample screen time and headlines.

Apparently she is 24, attended Columbia, earning a degree in Art History.  I feel much the same as Matt Lewis:

What can I say about her that hasn’t already been said? My position can best be summed up by Matthew Yglesias, who wrote: “To the best of my knowledge we’re talking about a young woman who’s never accomplished anything or held a job.”

Obama’s recent visit to Notre Dame certainly stirred up emotions on the issue of abortion.  I agree with many that it is fine to honor the office of the President of the United States and have Obama come speak at any university.  The bestowal of an honorary doctorate however, seems out of place.  I think ASU said it best when they opted to not award an honorary degree.

The university decided against awarding Obama the degree because it is customarily awarded for “lifetime achievement,” ASU spokeswoman Sharon Keeler told POLITICO.

“It’s normally awarded to someone who has been in their field for some time,” she said. “Considering that the president is at the beginning of his presidency, his body of work is just beginning.”

People will always disagree on different political issues, but abortion is something that steps beyond the plain old arguments of what the government ought to do with tax dollars.  Instead, it involves the most profound and fundamental actions we take with regard to the moral and ethical issue of life.  For Notre Dame to award a doctorate to someone that “talks out of both sides of his mouth” on the issue just doesn’t make sense.

Obama has been in office a short while (in the big picture) and I found this article by Robert Kaplan quite informative.  In it he outlines the large number of potential crises that Obama hasn’t had the luxury of months of preparation to make a decision about.

Yes, Obama has faced great crises and choices already: the meltdown of the economy, the bailout of the Detroit automobile companies, the release of the Bush-era memorandums on torture. But all of these crisis were entirely predictable. They are leftovers from the last administration. And the decisions Obama has made on them are the product of staff meetings going back to the days before he was even elected. In all of them he has had the advantage of advance planning. The piracy incident off the coast of Somalia and the swine flu epidemic (provided it doesn’t get worse) do not qualify as crises that define a presidency.

President Obama will challenge the cabinet to find ways to save $100 million dollars over the next 90 days.  Yeah, you may need to read that again to be sure you saw “$100 million” correctly.  At this rate, we’ll be saving $400 million a year, while we spend beyond our means in excess of 1,000 times that much every year through 2019 according to President Obama’s budget request in PDF.  That isn’t the money from taxes I’m talking about, that is money we don’t have that we’re spending.  And 1,000 times is actually a floor that Obama’s proposed budget never intends to reach, it is projected to always be higher.  So unless the savings he is going to challenge the cabinet for the other 275 days a years adds up to something way more substantial, this is as ridiculous as it sounds.

President Obama is proposing more deficit spending than President Bush ever did, yet the Obama administration is going to try to sell fiscal responsibility?

A senior administration official described the edict as part of Obama’s “commitment to go line by line through the budget to cut spending” and “reform the government.”

It seems a poor trick, a ploy.  But at least we get some humor, as sad as it is from this.  Wait until you read what some of the departments are proposing.

The Department of Homeland Security’s plan to save an estimated $52 million over five years by purchasing office supplies in bulk.

The Department of Agriculture’s effort to consolidate 1,500 employees from seven locations into a single facility in 2011. It’s estimated to save $62 million over a 15-year lease.

We have been holding the private sector’s feet to the fire as the robber barons of this recession, while those that run the federal government give us little faith that they have any idea what they’re doing with our money.  The Department of Homeland Security has been around for years, part of a federal government that has been around even longer, and they’re just discovering the wonders of bulk purchasing?

While news of this report circulated, many on the right were flabbergasted that this administration’s Department of Homeland Security would release such a report. There seemed to be an overall knee jerk reaction to it from many republicans.  However, I think that when one considers it as a report dealing primarily with white supremacist groups and the like, it seems plausible, but still in line with the juvenile mistakes Obama’s administration has been making since day one.  Some of the language is ambiguous at best, identifying extremists as advocating fundamental conservative issues such as states rights and abortion.

Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.

Can you imagine a report during Bush’s administration that said to “be on the lookout for left wing extremists that advocate an anti-war opinion and favor impeachment of the President?” And on top of that, states for all to see that there is no evidence of anything bad being planned.

Overall, the report lacks a solid foundation when it comes to details and facts.  Jonah Goldberg seems to capture my feelings in his article at the National Review.

The problem with it is that it makes little effort to document or demonstrate its contention that “extremist” groups are resurgent, that they are right-wing, or that they may be formed from the ranks of “disgruntled military veterans.” Worse, it’s very sloppy about what qualifies someone as “extremist” in the first place. Basically, it’s fancy bureaucratese for: We’re guessing bad people will do bad things because the economy is bad and the president is black. But we have no real evidence.

Charles Krauthammer has some of the most outstanding articles on current political discourse and happenings.  Wouldn’t it be great if he wrote more than once a week?

In this one, he talks about Obama’s budget claims and what not.  One of the best parts is where Obama is identifying huge savings down the road.

The boast that he had “identified $2 trillion in deficit reductions over the next decade.” It takes audacity to repeat this after it had been so widely exposed as transparently phony. Most of this $2 trillion is conjured up by refraining from spending $180 billion a year for 10 more years of surges in Iraq. Hell, why not make the “deficit reductions” $10 trillion — the extra $8 trillion coming from refraining from repeating the $787 billion stimulus package annually through 2019.