The Obama White House is drawing ridicule for appending the official online biographies of nearly every president over the last century in order to link President Obama’s accomplishments to the former commanders in chief.

The Obama team went into the pages of U.S. presidents dating back to Calvin Coolidge to add friendly looking “Did you know?” fact boxes to the end of their bios. Those additions were used to plug a host of Obama administration initiatives, ranging from the health care overhaul to the so-called “Buffett Rule” to his green-energy policies.

For instance, the following line was added to the official bio of the late President Ronald Reagan:

“In a June 28, 1985, speech, Reagan called for a fairer tax code, one where a multimillionaire did not have a lower tax rate than his secretary. Today, President Obama is calling for the same with the Buffett Rule.”

Thus stating that President Obama is just like Ronald Reagan.

The White House is coming under heavy criticism from conservatives for the changes, and not just to Reagan’s page.

Late Tuesday, the White House defended itself, claiming the staff was merely adding links to other pages.

“No biographies have been altered,” a White House official told Fox News. “We simply added links at the bottom of each page to related whitehouse.gov content, which is a commonly used best practice to encourage people to browse more pages on a site.”

The additions do include links, but they’re more than that. Each one finds a way to tout an Obama administration policy or practice in the process.

There’s this at the bottom of the Franklin D. Roosevelt biography, for instance:

“On August 14, 1935, President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. Today the Obama administration continues to protect seniors and ensure Social Security will be there for future generations.”

And this, at the end of President Lyndon Johnson‘s, drawing a link between his signing of Medicare and Obama’s signing of the health care overhaul:

“President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law in 1965 — providing millions of elderly health care stability. President Obama’s historic health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act, strengthens Medicare, offers eligible seniors a range of preventive services with no cost-sharing, and provides discounts on drugs when in the coverage gap known as the ‘donut hole.’”

The changes also link Harry Truman‘s call for civil rights to the Obama administration’s push to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.” And they link Jimmy Carter‘s creation of the Department of Energy to Obama’s push for an “all of the above” energy approach today.

The Obama accomplishments cited range from the significant to the mundane.

On the bio of John F. Kennedy, the Obama staff cited the current president’s decision to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps with a “presidential proclamation,” as a way to link the current administration to Kennedy’s — which launched the Peace Corps.

The only post-Coolidge president whose page is so far untouched is that of Gerald Ford.

Conservative blogs and publications ripped the White House Tuesday for the move, even starting a Twitter hashtag #ObamaInHistory to mock him. The Republican National Committee launched a tumble page called: “Obama in History — World Changing Events You Didn’t Know Obama Played A Part In.”

The page goes on to show pictures of Obama standing with historical figures ranging from Einstein to Elvis to The Beatles. It also shows Obama at the Berlin Wall and Stonehenge.

Source

I guess that when you don’t have a record you are proud of to run on you have to associate yourself with Presidents past.  And when you are the President you can control what is written about you and your predecessors on the White House website.

Romney Praised for Supporting Traditional Marriage

Mitt Romney, the presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee, drew rousing support Saturday at a conservative Christian university as he defended traditional marriage between a man and a woman.

Romney, often viewed with skepticism by the most conservative ranks of the Republican party, stressed the importance of personal faith and commitment to families in a speech to the graduating class at Liberty University in the eastern U.S. state of Virginia.

But days after U.S. President Barack Obama declared his support for legalizing same-sex marriages, Romney won his biggest cheers from the crowd of more than 30,000 with brief comments supporting heterosexual marriage.

“Marriage is a relationship between one man and one woman.”

Obama’s new support for same-gender marriage is controversial in the U.S., where six states and the District of Columbia have laws permitting men to marry each other and women to wed other women. But 31 states have banned it, including North Carolina in a referendum earlier this month. Nonetheless, surveys show that nationwide the acceptance of gay marriages is growing and that a slight majority favors it.

But the surveys also show there is a split politically, with Democrats, like Obama, lending widespread support for same-sex marriages, and Republicans mostly opposed. Younger voters also are more accepting, with older voters less so.

from MoreWhat.com:

What is the strongest case for electing Mitt Romney for President in 2012? The simplest answer: He is not Barack Obama. The controversy surrounding Mitt Romney’s conservative credentials requires a longer explanation. Given the field of Republican candidates in the 2008 presidential campaign my choice was enthusiastically Mitt Romney. While many favored Fred Thompson I chose Romney because Thompson’s ‘heart’ wasn’t in it. Others had too much baggage and even though Romney was not without fault our nation desperately needed an individual with his skill set and intangibles.

I did not support Romney in 2012 because of the way he caved to the GOP allowing McCain to be the nominee. That said and the fact that Bachmann and Santorum withdrew and the new Newt is not the old Newt I once again enthusiastically throw my support behind Mitt Romney. He still has the skill set we need. And if he had made the argument that Romneycare was a matter of giving Taxachusetts what they wanted I would be supporting him without reservations. Of course it didn’t help that argument when revelations were reported that ‘his people’ helped author Obamacare.

So now you have your arrows ready to impale me from afar. Not so fast. Provide me with a candidate who is not without fault. The problem is finding one who’s faults are manageable. Mitt Romney has an impressive resume’ of success that dwarfs any failures. Barack Obama cannot make the same claim.

In the report offered at the top of this post that fact is clear. On one of the most basic of traditional American values Mitt Romney stands strong while Barack Obama once again changes his position in light of what he sees as necessary to attract part of his leftist base.

Mitt Romney supports the definition of marriage as between one man and one woman. Barack Obama has gone on record as opposing that value. With a sustained majority in the House of Representatives and a new conservative majority in the Senate a Mitt Romney presidency will return America to its former self. A land of prosperity where life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is available to any American willing to do the hard work to make it happen.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

For many years he has not been allowed contact with the outside world.  His attorney, Mr. Mohammad Ali Dadkhah was recently arrested and has been sentenced to 9 years in prison.

Yet a letter, written by Pastor Nadarkhani, has been allowed out of the prison by the Mullahs of Iran.

Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani

Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani has written an open letter to “all those who are concerned” with his plight thanking them and asking for prayer. The letter written earlier this week is the first time in nearly a year that Pastor Youcef has been able to speak out publicly about his illegal imprisonment in Iran.

He encourages the members of his congregation and supporters all over the world that he is in “perfect health” and urges them to continue having faith in God. He specifically thanks everyone who has “asked for my release, or campaigns and human rights activities which are going on against the charges which are applied to me,” and he urges everyone to “pray for me.”

Below is the entire letter from Pastor Youcef obtained and translated into English by Jason DeMars of Present Truth Ministries, who the ACLJ has been working with on Pastor Youcef’s case from the beginning.

May 7, 2012

Greetings from your servant and younger brother in Christ, Youcef Nadarkhani.

To: All those who are concerned and worried about my current situation.

First, I would like to inform all of my beloved brothers and sisters that I am in perfect health in the flesh and spirit. And I try to have a little different approach from others to these days, and consider it as the day of exam and trial of my faith. And in these days which are hard in order to prove your loyalty and sincerity to God, I am trying to do the best in my power to stay right with what I have learned from God’s commandments.

I need to remind my beloveds, though my trial due has been so long, and as in the flesh I wish these days to end, yet I have surrendered myself to God’s will.

I am neither a political person nor do I know about political complicity, but I know that while there are many things in common between different cultures, there are also differences between these cultures around the world which can result in criticism, which most of the times response to this criticisms will be harsh and as a result will lengthen our problems.

From time to time I am informed about the news which is spreading in the media about my current situation, for instance being supported by various churches and famous politicians who have asked for my release, or campaigns and human rights activities which are going on against the charges which are applied to me. I do believe that these kind of activities can be very helpful in order to reach freedom, and respecting the human rights in a right way can bring forth great results in this.

I want to appreciate all those are trying to reach to this goal. But at the other hand, I’d like to announce my disgust at insulting words or activities which make stress and trouble, which unfortunately are done with the justification (excuse) of defending human rights and freedom, for the final result is so clear and obvious for me. Insulting the belief of other nations or people, whether they be a majority or minority, is not accepted and is an unworthy deed, specifically for those who have this teaching to love and respect others more than themselves and treat them the same as you want to be treated.

Then, burning and insulting is not a reverent behavior for a Christian, but it’s worthy to be in obedience to the word of God and humble ourselves to glorify God.

I try to be humble and obedient to those who are in power, obedience to those in authority which God has granted to the officials of my country, and pray for them to rule the country according to the will of God and be successful in doing this. For I know this in this way I have obeyed God’s word. I try to obey along with those whom I see in a common situation with me. They never had any complaint, but just let the power of God be manifested in their lives, and though sometimes we read that they have used this right to defend themselves, for they had this right, I am not an exception as well and have used all possibilities and so forth and am waiting for the final result.

So I ask all the beloved ones to pray for me as the holy word has said. At the end I hope this be prepared as soon as possible, as the authorities of my country will do with free will according to their law and commandments which are answerable to.

May God’s Grace and Mercy be upon you now and forever. Amen.

Youcef Nadarkhani

The original letter in Farsi is posted here.

It is very encouraging that Pastor Youcef is not only able to communicate with the outside world, but that he is aware of the international outcry on his behalf. News of his story is reaching all the way around the world back into the heart of Iran.

It is critical that we keep this intense pressure on Iran for his release. Please continue to pray, Tweet for Youcef, and urge the U.S. Senate to quickly and unanimously pass a resolution demanding his release.

For what reason has the Mullahs allowed this letter to be released?  Is this a play to reduce the sanctions on the country?  I am glad that as of 7 May he is still alive, but for how long and at what price will his release cost the world.

The world must cry out now to the Iran Government that preaching a religion not your own is not a crime.  That persecuting a man for his beliefs is not a crime.  It is now time to release Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani NOW!

Heads Up People.  The Sun, our Star is acting up again.

From SpaceWeather:

Huge sunspot AR1476 is crackling with M-class solar flares and appears to be on the verge of producing something even stronger. The sunspot’s ‘beta-gamma-delta’ magnetic field harbors energy for X-class flares, the most powerful kind. Radio operators are recording strong bursts of shortwave static from the sunspot as it turns toward Earth.

Earlier today, amateur astronomer Thomas Ashcraft of New Mexico detected strong shortwave radio bursts coming from the sunspot. Click to hear the “solar static” that roared out of his loudspeaker.

“The strongest burst so far occured around 1631 UT on May 9th,” reports Ashcraft. “I am observing at 28 MHz and 21.1 MHz. As I send this note I am hearing more bursting, indicating powerful magnetic dynamism within active region 1476.”

Solar radio bursts are caused by plasma instabilities that ripple through the sun’s atmosphere in the aftermath of powerful flares. With AR1476 poised for more eruptions, this ‘radio activity’ is likely to continue for days.

Expect atmospherics to act up for a while, the Northern Lights should be spectacular for those who can view them.  But be warned that radio signals will be experiencing problems for the next few days.

Benjamin Netanyahu is congratulated by former Israeli President Zalman Shazar during a ceremony honoring the elite commandos who rescued the hostages from the Sabena Flight 571.

On May 8th 1972 -forty years ago today- the Israeli government faced a volatile hostage situation at Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion) outside Tel Aviv-

Belgian-flagged Sabena flight 571 had departed smoothly from Vienna, yet twenty minutes after takeoff two male and two female Black September terrorists (of ’72 Munich Olympics massacre fame) had hijacked the plane. Fortunately their attempts to penetrate the pilot’s cabin were repulsed, and a brilliantly clever pilot named Reginald Levy managed to occupy and soothe the terrorists with diversionary chat over the craft’s loudspeaker system until landing safely in Israel.

Defense Minister Moshe Dayan had already received the pilot’s distress signals, but while acting out ‘negotiations’ with Black September the wily Dayan was actually planning a military solution dubbed Operation Isotope.

Once on the tarmac, Black September demands that 315 Palestinian prisoners then in Israeli jails be released were backed-up by samples of their explosives being walked-out by Captain Levy so negotiators could see that threats to blow-up the plane were indeed genuine. Passengers by all accounts were freaking-out by this point.

The ‘technicians’ board Sabena 571

But it didn’t take long for a team of 16 elite Sayeret Matkal commandos to approach the plane disguised as ground-crew in white coveralls. They convinced the Palestinians that the plane was in dire need of maintenance, boarded (above), and within a span of ten minutes had killed the two male terrorists while arresting the women.

Participating in the raid were not one but two future Israeli Prime Ministers, Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu. Unlike the United States today, these are the caliber of men that Israelis view as leadership material.

Today of course PM Netanyahu faces a far larger threat, and indeed an existential one… the possibility of 7th-Century barbarians in Tehran going nuclear. But now that you know what he’s made of, what’s the chance of that ever happening on Bibi’s watch, ya think?

Since he’s already schooled recalcitrant ‘ally’ Obama repeatedly -and has got him on the electoral ropes now- Netanyahu today has made the necessary domestic moves by cancelling recently planned September elections and pivoting to form a government of national unity with center-left Kadima. Clearly the Israeli PM made a deal that will enable -not restrain- his ability to call for an all-out attack on Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas… and all while the Syrian military is preoccupied with clinging to power in Demascus:

How do you say ‘duck and cover’ in Persian, anyway?

Yes Canada.  According to Olivier de Schutter of Belgium the real problem area of hunger is Canada and not Africa, Syria, or even Asia.

From UN Watch:

As much of the world starves,a UN hunger expert investigates CanadaBy Hillel Neuer

“There is no food and no clean water, nothing,” Mahmoud, a 12-year-old boy from Homs, Syria, told Reuters Thursday. “There is no shop open and we only have one meal a day. How can we live like that and survive?”

According to the World Food Program, half a million people don’t have enough to eat in Syria. Fears are growing that the regime is using hunger as a weapon.

This is the kind of emergency which should attract the attention of the UN Human Rights Council’s hunger monitor, who has the ability to spotlight situations and place them on the world agenda. Yet Olivier de Schutter of Belgium, the “Special Rapporteur on the right to food,” is not going to Syria.

Instead, the UN’s food monitor is coming to investigate Canada.

That’s right. Despite dire food emergencies around the globe, De Schutter will be devoting the scarce time and resources of the international community on an 11-day tour of Canada—a country that ranks at the bottom of global hunger concerns.

A key co-ordinator and promoter of De Schutter’s mission is Food Secure Canada, a lobby group whose website accuses the Harper government of “failing Canadians…and [failing to] fulfill the right to food for all.” The group calls instead for a “People’s Food Policy.”

I asked De Schutter if his time wouldn’t better be spent on calling attention to countries that actually have starving people.

 

“Globally, 1.3 billion people are overweight or obese,” he responded via his spokesperson, “and this causes a range of diseases such as certain types of cancers, cardio-vascular diseases or (especially) type-2 diabetes that are a huge burden.”

In other words, the hunger expert is not even that interested in hunger, but the opposite. Sure, we should all eat less fries, but do Canadians need a costly UN inquiry to tell us that?

Before Canadians can take De Schutter seriously, they ought to ask him some serious questions about whether his mission is about human rights or a political agenda.

First, consider the origins of the UN’s “right to food” mandate. In voluminous background information provided by De Schutter and his local promoters, there’s no mention that their sponsor was Cuba, a country where some women resort to prostitution for food. De Schutter does not want you to know that Havana’s Communist government created his post, nor that the co-sponsors included China, North Korea, Iran and Zimbabwe.

These and other repressive regimes are seeking a political weapon to attack the West. That is why the first person they chose to fill the post, when it started in 2000, was Jean Ziegler. The former Swiss Socialist politician was a man they could trust: In 1989, he announced to the world the creation of the Muammar Gaddafi Human Rights Prize.

The award spread propaganda for its namesake, and elevated his ideological allies. Recipients include Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. In 2002, the prize went to convicted French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy — and to Jean Ziegler himself.

From 2000 to 2008, Ziegler’s UN reports and probes turned a blind eye to the world’s hungry. Instead he attacked America, the West, capitalism and Israel. The human rights council applauded him, and repeatedly renewed his mandate. Only because of term limits did they replace him in 2008 with De Schutter, who praises and emulates his predecessor.

De Schutter’s consistent argument is that if there is hunger, Western countries are to blame. His attacks on international trade are so ideologically extreme that even Pascal Lamy, head of the World Trade Organization and a member of the French Socialist party, criticized De Schutter’s approach for threatening to drive food prices higher and “exacerbating the negative impacts on poor consumers.”

Second, even when they visit the right countries, Ziegler and De Schutter reach the wrong conclusions. Ziegler went to Cuba, but it was a staged visit that hailed Castro’s policies as almost divine. De Schutter went to Syria—in 2010, long before the current crisis — and mentioned several problems, but his report took pains to repeatedly praise the Assad regime.

Like Ziegler, De Schutter has repeatedly made one-sided attacks on Israel lacking any nexus to his mandate. Last July, he issued a pre-emptive attack against his own boss, in a press release titled “UN Special Rapporteur opposes Ban Ki-Moon’s conclusions on flotilla.” De Schutter was outraged that a panel appointed by the UN chief found that Israel’s blockade of Gaza, to stop Hamas importing Iranian missiles, was actually legal — contradicting what De Schutter’s human rights council had said the year before.

Hunger is a human rights issue. Tragically, what most interests De Schutter and his council is scapegoating the West. For the next two weeks, that means Canada.

When your bosses are Cuba, China, North Korea, Iran and Zimbabwe no wonder you will be investigating Canada for hunger and starvation instead of North Korea or Zimbabwe.

This is just one example of the stupidity and insanity in that Tower of Babel called the United Nations.

 

Prominent human rights advocate and attorney Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, who represents the Christian pastor sentenced to death in Iran in a case that sparked international condemnation, has reportedly been sentenced to nine years in jail for allegedly “acting against national security” in Iran.

Dadkhah has represented several political and human rights activists jailed since Iran’s 2009 disputed elections, including Youcef Nadarkhani, the Iranian pastor charged with apostasy and sentenced to death for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity.

“I have been convicted of acting against the national security, spreading propaganda against the regime and keeping banned books at home,” Dadkhah told the Guardian. Dadkhah has also reportedly been banned from teaching at universities or practicing law for 10 years.

The American Center for Law and Justice, or ACLJ, which has been working to secure the release of Nadarkhani, fears the decision to jail Dadkhah puts the Christian pastor at greater risk.

“The news that this renowned human rights attorney has been sentenced to prison by Iranian officials is very troubling,” said Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the ACLJ. “With his attorney facing nine years in prison, and no other lawyer likely to take the case, Pastor Youcef has no legal advocate, which places him at greater risk.”

Dadkhah was reportedly in court defending one of his clients when the judge announced his own nine-year sentence. He is expected to be jailed soon.

Dadkhah was also the attorney for 12 Christians who stood trial on Easter Sunday in Iran.

Source

The Iranians have not been able to make Pastor Nadarkhani recant and return to Islam.  In fact his faith has gotten stronger.  Nor have the 12 other Christians recanted.  And although the Green Revolution is hidden, it is not dead.  The only resource that the Mullahs of Iran now have is either imprisonment and/or death.  For they cannot truly control their people, or their minds.

First up: 

Look toward the southeast on Thursday night (May 3) about an hour after sunset, and you will behold a rare and beautiful sight, a triple conjunction of the moon, the planet Saturn, and the bright star Spica.

A conjunction occurs when two or more astronomical objects are close together in the sky. In reality they are far apart in space; their closeness is just an effect of perspective. In astrology such close encounters are supposed to cause serious effects, but astronomers know that conjunctions are nothing more than a beautiful sight and a photo opportunity.

Because Saturn is the farthest planet from the sun visible to the naked eye, its movements in our sky are very slow. It has been in the constellation Virgo, close to Spica, for a couple of years now. The moon, on the other hand, is very close to Earth, so appears to move relatively quickly across the sky.

Conjunctions like this one provide an excellent opportunity to see how rapidly the moon moves from night to night. On Thursday night, the moon will be well to the right of Saturn and Spica. Twenty-four hours later, on Friday night, it will be well to the left of Saturn and Spica.

Full Story

Second: 

Super Moon!
Skywatchers take note: The biggest full moon of the year is due to arrive this weekend.

The moon will officially become full Saturday (May 5) at 11:35 p.m. EDT. And because this month’s full moon coincides with the moon’s perigee — its closest approach to Earth — it will also be the year’s biggest.

The moon will swing in 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) from our planet, offering skywatchers a spectacular view of an extra-big, extra-bright moon, nicknamed a supermoon.

And not only does the moon’s perigee coincide with full moon this month, but this perigee will be the nearest to Earth of any this year, as the distance of the moon’s close approach varies by about 3 percent, according to meteorologist Joe Rao, SPACE.com’s sky watching columnist. This happens because the moon’s orbit is not perfectly circular.

This month’s full moon is due to be about 16 percent brighter than average. In contrast, later this year on Nov. 28, the full moon will coincide with apogee, the moon’s farthest approach, offering a particularly small and dim full moon.

Though the unusual appearance of this month’s full moon may be surprising to some, there’s no reason for alarm, scientists warn. The slight distance difference isn’t enough to cause any earthquakes or extreme tidal effects, experts say.

However, the normal tides around the world will be particularly high and low. At perigee, the moon will exert about 42 percent more tidal force than it will during its next apogee two weeks later, Rao said.

The last supermoon occurred in March 2011.

To view this weekend’s supermoon to best effect, look for it just after it rises or before it sets, when it is close to the horizon. There, you can catch a view of the moon behind buildings or trees, an effect which produces an optical illusion, making the moon seem even larger than it really is.

Source

And finally: 

From SpaceWeather:

Earth is entering a stream of debris from Halley’s Comet, source of the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. The shower peaks this weekend on May 5th and 6th. Glare from a perigee full Moon–a “Super Moon”–will interfere with the display. Nevertheless, observers especially in the southern hemisphere could still see dozens of meteors during the hours before local sunrise on May 6th.

What a weekend to be a sky watcher!

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR CURRENT POSTINGS

I haven’t kept up with the news much, but in the past couple of weeks the most maddening Obama outrage, to me, has been a draft proposal of a Presidential Executive Order requiring all company’s bidding for a Government contract to disclose their political donations. Obama’s own strategy of domestic terrorism. If your company bids for Government contracts, who will you donate to? Not to Republican candidates if you want to win the bid.

Jonah Goldberg – Liberal Facism (food for thought):

Fascism, at its core, is the view that every nook and cranny of society should work together in spiritual union toward the same goals overseen by the state. “Everything in the state, nothing outside the state,” is how Mussolini defined it. Mussolini coined the word “totalitarian” to describe not a tyrannical society but a humane one in which everyone is taken care of and contributes equally. — P.80

Today, liberals remember the progressives as do-gooders who cleaned up the food supply and agitated for a more generous social welfare state and better working conditions. Fine, the progressives did that. But so did the Nazis and the Italian Fascists. And they did it for the same reasons and in loyalty to roughly the same principles. — P.81

…What distinguished Nazism was that it forthrightly included a worldview we now associate almost completely with the political left: identity politics. This was what distinguished Nazism from doctrinaire communism, and it seems hard to argue the marriage of one leftist vision to another can somehow produce right-wing progeny. If this was how the world worked, we would have to label nationalist-socialist organizations like the PLO and Cuban Communist Party right-wing. — P.73 (Thanks to John Hawkins at Right Wing News)

Friends may or may not be posting here in my continued absence. Please scroll down for possible recent posts, and please accept my apology for disappearing so abruptly. I look forward to returning renewed and refreshed. See you then.