Clueless in Washington

The AP is reporting that two days after he lifted President Bush's executive order banning federal funding of stem cell research on human embryos, President Obama signed a law that bans federal funding of any "research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death."

What? You Say. He removes President Bush's Ban on federal funding of Stem Cell research and then signs a law that forbids federal funding of stem cell research. That doesn't make sense, how is this possible?

Well here is what happened folks. President Obama signed the omnibus appropriations bill into law on Wednesday not knowing that buried in the 465 page bill was what is know as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, which has been included in the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services every year since 1996.

The amendment says, in part:

"None of the funds made available in this Act may be used for-(1) the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research purposes; or (2) research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death."

Found in Section 509 of Title V of the omnibus bill (at page 280 of the 465-page document), the federal funding ban not only prohibits the government from providing tax dollars to support research that kills or risks injury to a human embryo, it also mandates that the government use an all-inclusive definition of "human embryo" that encompasses any nascent human life from the moment that life comes into being, even if created in a laboratory through cloning, in vitro fertilization or any other means.

"For the purposes of this section," says the law, "the term 'human embryo or embryos' includes any organism that is derived by fertilization, parthenogenesis, cloning, or any other means from one or more human gametes or human diploid cells."

At a widely publicized White House ceremony on Monday, President Obama signed his own executive order lifting an executive order that President Bush had signed in 2001.

"For the past 8 years, the authority of the Department of Health and Human Services, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to fund and conduct human embryonic stem cell research has been limited by Presidential actions," said the order that President Obama signed Monday.

"The purpose of this order is to remove these limitations on scientific inquiry, to expand NIH support for the exploration of human stem cell research, and in so doing to enhance the contribution of America's scientists to important new discoveries and new therapies for the benefit of humankind."

The order went on to say:

"The Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary), through the Director of NIH, may support and conduct responsible, scientifically worthy human stem cell research, including human embryonic stem cell research, to the extent permitted by law."

However, thanks to President Obama signing the omnibus appropriations bill on Wednesday, he unknowingly signed the Dickey-Wicker language in Section 509 of the omnibus bill into law as well, which will continue to forbid federal funding of research that even puts embryos at risk.

Which brings me to a couple of questions here, what happened to Obama's promise to wait and to not immediately sign into law, bills that came across his desk without reading them, and didn't he or someone on his staff read this bill before he signed it. Not that I'm complaining mind you because I supported President Bush's stand on this.

But can you just imagine what a field day the press would have had if this was Bush who had signed a bill that contradicted something he lifted. they would have been howling on how inept he is, etc.,etc..

Does Obama have a clue? It's certainly looks like he doesn't.

It Won't Be Long Before China Dictates US Policy

An AP Story entitled China "worried" about US Treasury holdings published today says it all.

The Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is worried about the state of the US Economy and our ability to pay them back.

"Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I'm a little bit worried," Wen said at a news conference Friday after the closing of China's annual legislative session. "I would like to call on the United States to honor its words, stay a credible nation and ensure the safety of Chinese assets."

"China is telling the U.S. to be careful, not to overspend and keep an eye on the dollar," said Kelvin Lau, regional economist at Standard Chartered in Hong Kong. "There are risks that China cannot control, so they're depending on the U.S. to maintain fiscal prudence and keep the dollar reasonably stable."

"Inside China there has been a lot of debate about whether they should continue to buy Treasuries," said Frank Gong, chief China economist for JP Morgan.

A couple of items in this article concern me. First off, in the fourth paragraph, " China is TELLING the U.S. to be careful", not asking, not advising, not suggesting, TELLING us.

Secondly there was this sentence in the article:

Wen gave no indication whether Beijing wants changes in U.S. policy.

The above statement implies that Bejing could ask for a change in US Policy. This is what happens when a foreign country invest heavily in US Debt. They position themselves to be able to start dictating policy to our leaders. We cannot allow this to happen.

China already holds about 1 Trillion in US Debt. This is staggering, and we are about to add another 787 Billion to that. We cannot continue on this path. We should be searching for other ways to stimulate the economy and GET RID of the pork barrel earmarks, this is not the time for them.

Some have even suggested that China could invoke eminent domain and take US property as collateral for the loans. I don't know if I'd go that far but it is a looming question: If China called in its loans and we are unable to pay, what would happen?

President Obama has placed restrictions on CEO pay of some of the firms that have received bailout money, does anyone doubt that the Chinese could begin to dictate US Policy under the threat of calling in the loans if we don't comply.

I'm not saying that will happen, I'm just saying that the possibility exists and I believe we must remain very cautious in dealing with China, as it appears that they are becoming very cautious in dealing with us.

Lower the payroll tax deductions and kill the earmarks projects and you will see the economy begin to pick up on its own, the people will have more money to spend each week, and the government will not have to finance unnecessary projects, thereby not having to tax us to pay for them.

Feds Target Arizona Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Arizona Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has always butted heads with officials in Arizona who seem hellbent on not enforcing the illegal immigration laws of that state.

He has repeatedly stood up to Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, enforcing immigration laws despite the politicians not wanting them enforced.

Enter the Obama administration who appoints Janet Napolitano as head of Homeland Security and suddenly the Sheriff and his department are under Federal investigation, very coincidental, don't you think.

Federal authorities have told Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio that they will investigate his department over allegations of discriminatory practices and unconstitutional searches and seizures.

The U.S. Justice Department said in a letter delivered Tuesday to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio that the investigation will focus on alleged patterns of discrimination based on a person's national origin.

Considering that the overwhelming majority of the Illegal Aliens in Arizona are Mexican, due to Arizona bordering Mexico, I don't know how anyone can support a complaint of discrimination based on national origin. And, as far as unconstitutional searches and seizures go, since when did Illegal Aliens have Constitutional Rights, they are not citizens of this country.

Sheriff Arpaio, who has been described as "America's Toughest Sheriff" is known for feeding jail inmates green bologna sandwiches, clothing them in pink underwear, and making them work on chain gangs. He has received praise for his anti-immigration efforts from many who believe the federal government isn't doing enough to remove people who are in this country illegally.

His raids and sweeps of illegal immigrants in Phoenix and nearby Guadalupe have drawn protests from community leaders and civil liberties advocates.

Sheriff Arpaio, a Republican, has been criticized for letting thousands of felony warrants go unserved while he chased illegal immigrants.

According to the Arizona Department of Public Safety, there are about 59,000 outstanding, unserved felony warrants in the state. The majority are in Maricopa County, the state's most populated county.

The above statement is very misleading, first off, the approximately 59,000 felony warrants are outstanding in the whole state not just Maricopa County, and wouldn't it serve to reason that because Maricopa County is the most populated that there would be more felony warrants there also.

Another thing is that just because there are unserved felony warrants doesn't mean there haven't been attempts to locate and serve them, as a Police Sergeant, I can tell you that many warrants go unserved because we are unable to locate the person.

Also many of felony warrants will be for non-violent crimes as well, just because a person has a felony warrant doesn't necessarily mean that are dangerous to society.

Add to this that many of those warrants could be for Illegal Aliens who have committed felonies in Arizona, with false names and false addresses it can be very difficult to locate these people.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio does the job the people of Arizona elected him to do, he has an 85% approval rating to prove it and is reelected to his position again and again. That PROVES that the people of Arizona approve of his job performance even if former Governor and now head of Homeland Secuity, Janet Napolitano does not.

It's time to stand up and support Sheriff Joe Arpaio whether you live in Arizona or not, he is an example to law enforcement officers everywhere, and he should be able to do his job without interference from local, state, or Federal Officials who are trying to discourage him.

Maybe those elected officials should think about doing their jobs, and they too may have an 85% approval rating.

Sheriff Arpaio, I, a Police Sergeant, salute you. Never Give Up.

Obama Exhausted and Overwhelmed ?

A recent snub of British prime Minister Gordon Brown's visit to the White House and the fallout from that gaffe have prompted President Obama's aides to defend the snub. President Obama's aides stated that the President has recently become exhausted and overwhelmed due to dealing with the nation's economic crisis.

Really ? Exhausted? Overwhelmed ? Apparently not exhausted or overwhelmed enough to cancel any of the numerous gala parties that have been taking place at the White House on a regualr basis, some going well past midnight.

The real problem here is that President Obama's inexperience is showing, and his staff seems to have little knowledge on the protocol of handling diplomatic visits.

This is not the way to treat a visiting dignitary, especially the Prime Minister of one of our staunchest allies, Great Britian.

Can you just imagine the response from the news media and the Democrats had one of the Bush Administration officials made a statement similar to the one made by an Obama State Department Official who was in charge of the Prime Minister's visit:

"There's nothing special about Britain. You're just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn't expect special treatment."

This coming from the admistartion of a newly elected President who was going to repair all the so called damage to our international relationships by President Bush. This guy can't even get it right with our allies let alone our fair weathered friends or enemies.

So far the Obama administration has shown its biggest weakness: Forgein Policy ! They can't even handle the visits of our allies.