Why Is George W still doing this?

On a tip from

Ed Kilbane

Senior National Correspondent

Here's an opinion piece by Chuck Green who writes "Greener Pastures" for the Denver Post Aurora Sentinel...one of the more liberal papers in the country. Additionally, Mr. Green is a life long Democrat...so this is rather a stunning piece... 

Obama is victim of Bush's failed promises

Greener Pastures Column -- 5/ 15/10 

Barack Obama is setting a record-setting number of records during his first year in office.

Largest budget ever. Largest deficit ever. Largest number of broken promises ever. Most self-serving speeches ever. Largest number of agenda-setting failures ever. Fastest dive in popularity ever.

Wow! Talk about change.

Just one year ago, fresh from his inauguration celebrations, President Obama was flying high. After one of the nation's most inspiring political campaigns, the election of America's first black president had captured the hopes and dreams of millions. To his devout followers, it was inconceivable that a year later his administration would be gripped in self-imposed crisis.

Of course, they don't see it as self-imposed. It's all George Bush's fault.

George Bush, who doesn't have a vote in congress and who no longer occupies the White House, is to blame for it all.

He broke Obama's promise to put all bills on the White House web site for five days before signing them.

He broke Obama's promise to have the congressional health care negotiations broadcast live on C-SPAN.

He broke Obama's promise to end earmarks.

He broke Obama's promise to keep unemployment from rising above 8 percent.

He broke Obama's promise to close the detention center at Guantanamo in the first year.

He broke Obama's promise to make peace with direct, no precondition talks with America's most hate-filled enemies during his first year in office, ushering in a new era of global cooperation.

He broke Obama's promise to end the hiring of former lobbyists into high White House jobs.

He broke Obama's promise to end no-compete contracts with the government.

He broke Obama's promise to disclose the names of all attendees at closed White House meetings.

He broke Obama's promise for a new era of bipartisan cooperation in all matters.

He broke Obama's promise to have chosen a home church to attend Sunday services with his family by Easter of last year.

Yes, it's all George Bush's fault. President Obama is nothing more than a puppet in the never-ending failed Bush administration.

If only George Bush wasn't still in charge, all of President Obama's problems would be solved. His promises would have been kept, the economy would be back on track, Iran would have stopped its work on developing a nuclear bomb and would be negotiating a peace treaty with Israel. North Korea would have ended its tyrannical regime, and integrity would have been restored to the federal government.

Oh, and did I mention what it would be like if the Democrats, under the leadership of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, didn't have the heavy yoke of George Bush around their necks? There would be no ear marks, no closed-door drafting of bills, no increase in deficit spending, no special-interest influence (unions), no vote buying (Nebraska, Louisiana).

If only George Bush wasn't still in charge, we'd have real change by now.

All the broken promises, all the failed legislation and delay (health care reform, immigration reform) is not President Obama's fault or the fault of the Democrat-controlled Congress. It's all George Bush's fault.

Take for example the decision of Eric Holder, the president's attorney general, to hold terrorists' trials in New York City. Or his decision to try the Christmas Day underpants bomber as a civilian.

Two disastrous decisions.

Certainly those were bad judgments based on poor advice from George Bush.

Need more proof?

You might recall that when Scott Brown won the election to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts , capturing "the Ted Kennedy seat", President Obama said that Brown's victory was the result of the same voter anger that propelled Obama into office in 2008. People were still angry about George Bush and the policies of the past 10 years. And they wanted change.

Yes, according to the president, the voter rebellion in Massachusetts was George Bush's fault.

Therefore, in retaliation, they elected a Republican to the Ted Kennedy seat, ending a half-century of domination by Democrats. It is all George Bush's fault.

Will the failed administration of George Bush ever end, and the time for hope and change ever arrive?

Will President Obama ever accept responsibility for something... - anything?

(Chuck Green is a veteran Colorado journalist and former editor-in-chief of The Denver Post.) 

Why Is George W still doing this?

The case of the apple not falling far from the tree

Liberals...Not to worry he'll get re-elected

Sandi Jackson reveals her anguish over Jesse Jackson Jr.'s affair

 Giovana Huidobro

BY MICHAEL SNEED Sun-Times Columnist

It's a story as old as time: adultery, anguish and atonement. Last Tuesday, when news broke of U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s extramarital relationship with a blond nightclub hostess -- kryptonite in the world of the African-American woman -- his wife, Ald. Sandi Jackson, inserted a little laughter into the public disclosure.

The venue she chose to publicly thwack her errant husband was her 47th birthday party/fund-raiser tossed by her 7th Ward staff at the Park 52 restaurant in Hyde Park.

"I'd known about it nearly two years ago because Jesse told me late one night in Washington," Ald. Sandi Jackson said of her husband Jesse Jackson Jr.'s affair.

"I told them: 'I put my foot knee-deep in his ass and he has been having a very difficult time sleeping peacefully since then.' "

Surprisingly, she did it with her husband in attendance.

"Jesse laughed because he knew it was true," Ald. Jackson told me. "But I also wanted everyone to know I was not taking it lightly."

What Ald. Jackson wasn't taking lightly was how much the public disclosure had hurt.

In an exclusive interview punctuated with tears and laughter at a West Side restaurant Thursday, a vivacious, but intense Sandi Jackson talked about her private anguish; her sea legs as a new alderman in the process of transforming her ward's old Steel Works lakefront, and her commuter marriage to the son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, whose life of service has also been pockmarked by sexual scandal.

"You know, when the Clintons ran into marital trouble, I thought Hillary should leave Bill," she said. "I couldn't stand what Tiger Woods did and how his wife had to suffer publicly.

"But when the 'beast' lands at your door, it can be a very, very different experience. No one really knows what they are going to do until they are in that situation. When it happens to you it's amazing how what you once thought was black and white becomes variations of a color called gray."

Although Congressman Jackson's name had surfaced in the Rod Blagojevich trial involving the alleged sale of President Obama's former U.S. Senate seat, word of Jackson's affair, interspersed somewhere in that time frame, did not hit the news until last week.

Sleepless nights and marriage counseling

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Rep. Jackson had asked fund-raiser Raghuveer Nayak to buy plane tickets for a Washington woman, Giovana Huidobro, whom the congressman had described as a "social acquaintance" to FBI agents investigating Blagojevich.

But Sandi Jackson had known about the woman before her face appeared on Page 1, she said.

"I'd known about it nearly two years ago because Jesse told me late one night in our home in Washington," she said.

"He said it was over. I was mortified and in agony, but he knew if I found out any other way it would be over. That the only way to save our marriage was to come clean."

Her reaction?

"In the beginning I thought how could Jesse do this to me? Our children were so small. I immediately began to question myself. 'Did I work hard enough? Had I not sacrificed enough helping his career? Was it my stretch marks? My pouchy stomach?' "

And it happened when Sandi Jackson was finding her own public voice as an alderman.

"I was juggling motherhood, a commuter marriage, an aldermanic office pushing hard to transform the long vacant South Side Steel Works into a major redevelopment--and being the wife of a well-known politician for whom I work hard as a paid political consultant.

"There were sleepless nights and I started losing hair and I told him I would only consider staying if we got into therapy."

Her husband, she said, "agreed and we got through it."

Before the news broke, she said, "I thought I was done with this. That we could go on with a new chapter in our lives.

"We had the luxury of privacy to undergo intense marital counseling and spiritual therapy to save our marriage," she said. "I thought we had turned the corner. Then this sucker punch in the press -- and having to live it all over again publicly."

Sandi Jackson said it's hard enough keeping a marriage on track, "but when you are doing it with everybody watching, it makes it even more difficult."

Her husband's recent hubris on the "Don Wade & Roma" radio show telling the feds to "Bring it on!" didn't help.

"Look, I'm the one who told Jesse to push back a little when he went on the 'Don Wade & Roma' show," she said. "He had remained silent due to his lawyer's instructions, but I felt it was time he needed to give his constituents -- who needed to hear from him -- a sense of fight."

Her husband "never had an intention to run for mayor" but needed to gear up for re-election to his House seat.

Sandi Jackson said her husband "has been quiet, withdrawn and concerned."

"Everyone has noticed his weight loss. He was fighting for his marriage privately and publicly fighting allegations."

She views her marriage as "a marathon."

"We've been through a lot, but things happen. I had hoped it wouldn't happen to me, but I'm not naive. Vows mean you work to stay engaged and stick it out. I'm not one to cut and run.

"When Jesse told me about the indiscretion, I didn't want details. I know what adultery looks like. I didn't need to visualize it. I needed to concentrate on my kids."

An attorney who was married for 10 years before having her two children -- 10-year-old Jessica and 7-year-old Jesse Jackson III -- nicknamed "Tre" -- she had four earlier miscarriages and a child who died shortly after he was born.

"It's been surreal. I feel bad for Jesse because he is living this thing all over again. He is remorseful over this fire storm he's created around us."

So where is she emotionally right now?

"I don't know except I want to stay focused on my children and doing a good job for my constituents," she said.

She "can't stop working just because of my personal situation," Ald. Jackson said.

"We have a real opportunity to bring in thousands of jobs in the 7th Ward due to the old Steel Works lakefront development and jobs that could last for 20 years."

In her "quieter moments it's very difficult, but there are people out there who have situations far worse than mine," she says. "Mine is a matter of the heart. For many it's a matter of survival. My heart will heal."

Mom taught her how to be strong

Sandi Jackson, whose parents divorced when she was 12, is one of three children who grew up in Akron, Ohio. Her mother, Sarah Stevens, 65, never remarried and lives with the couple in their home in Washington, D.C.

"Jesse lives in Washington during the week, and I reside in Chicago; then we trade routes on the weekend. But my mother is with our children every day. In the summer, we all live in Chicago," she explained.

It was her mother, she says, who taught her strength.

"My mother took on three jobs to support us; working as a nursing assistant in a hospital and cleaning houses on weekends. She taught me a lot about courage and independence. That no matter what happens in my life, I could be strong, too."

As a child in a poor family, she said, her mother "made everything into an adventure."

"When our utilities were cut off, she told us we were going to camp -- inside the house. We'd watch the candles carefully to make sure they'd never die out or touch anything. We'd sleep by the fireplace . . . our campfire. Our gas fireplace. We thought we were experiencing something no one else was experiencing."

Her mother was " always tired, but she was just happy to be with her kids -- that's where Jesse and I are right now."

Sandi and Jesse Jackson were married in 1991 and finished law school together.

"I've worked for congressmen; my father-in-law; my husband . . . and now I've found my own voice working for my ward," she says. "It's now time for me to give back as a public servant -- with my own voice -- and my own decisions.

"The name on my resume is Sandi Stevens Jackson, and I was my mother's daughter before I got married."

The case of the apple not falling far from the tree

Repent...express regret over one's wrongdoing

Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.

- Sidney J. Harris

Repent...express regret over one's wrongdoing

You just knew it was coming

Chavez: Venezuela Studying Nuclear Program

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Monday that his government is carrying out initial studies into starting a nuclear energy program.

Chavez brought up the issue during a news conference, saying the South American country needs an atomic energy program.

"We're taking on the project of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and they aren't going to stop us," Chavez said. "We need it and we're carrying out the first studies."

Chavez is a close ally of Iran and has defended the Iranian nuclear program, saying he is sure Iran is not making atomic weapons in spite of U.S. and European suspicions.

He has mentioned plans for an atomic energy program previously. It remains unclear how quickly he intends to pursue the program.

Chavez brought up the issue while referring to the case of a physicist and his wife in New Mexico who are accused by U.S. authorities of offering to help develop a nuclear weapon in contacts with an undercover U.S. agent posing as a representative of the Venezuelan government.

"They detained some scientist professors, I think Argentines, and then I was ready to respond when I saw that a government spokesman came out there saying that no, no, there is no evidence," Chavez said.

The U.S. government is not alleging Venezuela or anyone working for it sought U.S. secrets in the case.

Chavez brought up the case as an example of some of the claims his leftist government has to contend with.

"They invent so many things," he said. "The fact they say there is no evidence doesn't mean they aren't going to find it tomorrow, or fabricate it ... that Venezuela is making an atomic bomb."

He called that idea preposterous, saying: "Who in Venezuela could take on a project of that type? Who? We aren't going to take it on."

You just knew it was coming

The Dream Act

Maybe the title should have been...How to create 12 million Democrats out of thin air.

This is just another liberal...."I got my foot in the door move"...if ever I saw one!

  What this amounts to is a last ditch pathetic attempt at granting illegals amnesty before this worthless scumbag and his cohorts are thrown out of office in November.

Reid Adding Amnesty Measure to Defense Bill

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday he wants to attach an amendment to a defense policy bill that would help young people in the United States illegally become legal U.S. residents.

The Nevada Democrat said at a Capitol news conference that the legislation known as the DREAM Act is long overdue. He would not say whether he has the votes for the amendment. The act would allow young people who attend college or join the military to become legal U.S. residents.

The young people must have come to the country when they were under 16 years of age and have been in the country five years. Those who join the military must serve at least two years and complete two years of college.

Democrats have also promised gay rights groups an end to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy" that bars gays from serving openly in the military. That is in the bill that Reid said he will try to take up next week.

Republicans oppose both measures.

Asked whether he had the votes for the DREAM Act, Reid responded: "I sure hope so."

President Barack Obama has been under fire in the immigrant and Hispanic communities because Congress has failed to move an immigration reform bill despite his promise to deal with the issue in his first year in the Oval Office.

Some critics say Democrats' end-of-the-year push on immigration reform is a political move. Reid is facing a tough re-election challenge from tea party favorite Sharron Angle, who supports tougher immigration laws. Hispanics make up a quarter of Nevada's population.

A spokesman for the Nevada Republican Party declared Reid's announcement a campaign stunt.

"Nevada voters will overwhelmingly reject these desperate political parlor games that could only come from a 28-year establishment Democrat seeking a fifth term in the U.S. Senate," Jahan Wilcox said in a statement.

Reid blamed Republicans for the inability to pass a sweeping immigration reform bill.

"I've tried to. I've tried so very, very hard, but those Republicans we've had in the last Congress (who backed immigration reform) have left us," he said.

Minutes before Reid announced his plans, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell described the defense policy bill as "needlessly controversial" because of the inclusion of the "don't ask, don't tell" measure and plans to add the DREAM Act.

"I can't tell you right now how easy it will be to move forward with that bill," said McConnell.

The Dream Act