ConservativeChristianRepublican-Report - 20090928

Motivational-Inspirational-Historical-Educational-Political-Enjoyable

Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!



"FRC"

Call Finance Committee Senators today and urge them to support Sen. Hatch amendments to exclude abortion funding & protect conscience rights for health workers.

Senate Abortion Vote Tuesday--Your Call Can Help

Members of the U.S. Senate Financial Services Committee will be voting NEXT TUESDAY on amendments to keep abortion coverage out of Sen. Max Baucus's (D-Mont.) health care bill. Sen. Baucus's health care bill explicitly includes abortion and would subsidize health plans that cover all elective abortions. Such subsidies for abortion goes well beyond the status quo of preventing federal funds either from paying for abortion or subsidizing plans that covers abortion as is prevented under current laws governing Medicaid, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan, and the State Children's Health Insurance Plan.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has introduced several amendments that would prevent government funding for abortion and would protect current conscience laws for health workers. Please call these key Senators today and urge them to support Sen. Hatch's amendments to keep government funded abortions out of the Baucus bill:

Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.): 202-224-5521
Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Del.): 202-224-2441
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.): 202-224-2043
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.): 202-224-4843
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.): 202-224-5274
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine): 202-224-5344
Sincerely,

Tony Perkins
President



"My Comments"

NJ School Praises/Teaches Obama Values

In 1999, a child, Elian Gonzalas, of Florida was yanked out of the arms of his relatives by The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, as ordered by Attorney General Janet Reno, and returned him to Communist Cuba to rejoin and live with his father http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11FXW9lrPXI. Elian, his mother and stepfather, trying to escape from Communist Cuba, died in the ocean when their motor boat capsized. Elian and two others survived on inflated tubes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlIYkEGcq0o&NR=1.

The video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zrsl8o4ZPo from B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, NJ, which we have been viewing for a few days as an indoctorination in a New Jersey school is very much alike to the indoctrination Elian Gonzalas received when he was returned to Fidel Castro’s Communist Cuba http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5540113/ .

This New Jersey school may likely be only one which was caught on video, of perhaps many others across America, which have not been videotaped and released to the media.

In 1963, SCOTUS ordered the Bible readings to be removed from our public schools, attacking the Judeo-Christian values which were used as a tool to teach our children in the public schools. Since that time, radical left-wing Liberals alike to the ACLU’s agenda, has pushed the Supreme Court ruling to the point that children in public schools cannot even sing Christmas carols. It was this SCOTUS decision when our morality values started declining in the public schools. Our Holy Bible teachings “help”, not hinder in a correct direction of life.

Now, many in the NEA want to indoctrinate our children to promote Obama’s Socialistic values, rather than the teachings of our Ten Commandments. How would Liberals in the NEA public schools consider allowing the consequence of any elected Republican Conservative, or any other Conservative Christian leader’s social values to be praised and/or taught to their students?

Oscar Y. Harward



"Daily Motivations"

What are some of your brave, beautiful, and brilliant ideas? How do you want to make things better for yourself, your loved ones, your community and the world? What would you do if you ran the world? -- Shelly Rachanow



Encouraging Communication … with a Stick!

Looking for a way to encourage team members to more freely share their ideas and concerns? Like to discover (and learn from) viewpoints that are different from yours? Consider using a “talking stick.”

The talking stick has been used for centuries by many Native American tribes as a means for a just and impartial hearing – allowing all voices to be heard. When used in council circles, it designated who had the right to speak. When matters of great concern came before the council, the leading elder would hold the talking stick and begin. When he finished what he had to say, he would hold out the talking stick, and whoever wanted to speak after him would take it. In this manner the stick was passed from one individual to another until all who wished to speak had done so. The talking stick not only kept order but it also fostered mutual integrity. The holder of the stick was assured free speech, no reprisals, no humiliation and no interruptions. But with the stick also came responsibility. The speakers were charged with speak-ing wisely and truthfully. If they couldn’t do that, they’d be quiet or else bring dishonor to themselves.

Imagine the benefits a “talking stick “could bring to departmental and team meetings. It wouldn’t matter whether you passed a stick, a coffee mug, a ballpoint pen, a wrench, or whatever. What is important is the honoring of mutual integrity as well as the unstated assumption that everyone is seeking to under-stand a much larger perspective. So, give it a try – using these implementation tips:
Identify one or more focus questions to address. Encourage participants to speak freely.

Form an actual circle. This fosters equality and participation.

Introduce the “talking stick” and state the guidelines: Anyone may speak with no interruptions and no humiliation. Only the person holding the stick can talk. Each speaker must be truthful.
When everyone has spoken, summarize what has been said and explain what you will do with the information.
For most people, this will be an experience that seldom happens in corporate life and might very well become a critical retention tool as well as a source for innovation and competitive advantage.



"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)

"As the clay is in the potter's hands, so are you in My hand." (Jeremiah 18:6)

God reigns so supremely above His creation that we cannot question any of His actions. As Norman Geisler explains, "If it is a power that you can manipulate, it is not God." Whatever God wants to have happen will happen; His will cannot be thwarted.

Jeremiah reminded God's people of how completely God is in control. Because of their disobedience, they wanted to escape the judgment of the God they had spurned. God sent Jeremiah to the house of a potter. As the potter worked on a piece of clay, he skillfully shaped it with his hands into a beautiful vessel. But when another pot he was making was marred, he tossed it aside and began a new pot. He did what seemed best to him.

Through this illustration, God pointed out His limitless sovereignty. As Creator, God could do whatever He wanted with His creation. No matter how much the clay complained or rebelled, it was shaped by the strong hand of the potter.

God's creative actions set the stage for His sovereignty. He was able to create because He was in absolute control of every particle of material even before He brought it into being. Once He formed something, no matter how simple or complex, He remained in absolute authority.



"The Patriot Post"

"[T]he present Constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under its banners, bona fide must we combat our political foes." -- Alexander Hamilton, letter to James Bayard, 1802

"[T]here is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust." -- James Madison



EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

"After Acorn workers were caught on tape in three cities allegedly abetting what they believed was a fraudulent-mortgage and sex-trafficking scheme, the Senate has voted overwhelmingly to strip the group of funding in the Transportation/Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. The amendment, offered by Nebraska Republican Sen. Mike Johanns, passed by an 83-to-7 margin and marked the third time this year that Republicans have tried to block the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now from feeding at the federal trough. Seven Democrats refused to do the right thing. The magnificent seven are Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.; Bob Casey, D-Pa.; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; both Vermont Democrats, Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy, as well as both Illinois Democrats, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin and Roland Burris. This vote comes after the release of three hidden-camera videos showing Acorn housing staff in its Baltimore, Washington and New York offices apparently helping a couple posing as a pimp and a prostitute evade the IRS and apply for an illegal housing loan to set up a brothel. (Insert stimulus joke here.) The Census Bureau immediately severed ties with Acorn, unconcerned that prostitutes and tax evaders might be undercounted in the 2010 census." -- Investor's Business Daily



DEZINFORMATSIA

When the anchor misses the news: "I don't even know about it. So you've got me at a loss, I don't know. ... I know we've done some stories about ACORN before, but this one I don't know about. ... [M]aybe this is just one you leave to the cables." -- ABC News anchor Charlie Gibson

You call that outreach?: "He [Obama] made outreach to his conservative opponents, while also refuting many of their ideas. At times, it was almost like the President were a principal and Congress a bunch of unruly school kids." -- ABC's Jake Tapper on BO's speech last Wednesday

Speaking "truth" to those out of power: "The fallout continues from that extraordinary moment in the United States Congress. Presidents appearing there as respected guests have been interrupted before by boos and hisses, but this was different. A Congressman last [Wednesday] night calling a president an outright liar to his face. Just the latest indication of how ugly the debate over reforming health care has gotten." -- CBS's Katie Couric (Meanwhile, Obama has yet to apologize for calling his opponents liars in the same speech.)

"The insult heard 'round the world. ... Leading off tonight, the gift. When Congressman Joe Wilson shouted, 'You lie!' at President Obama last [Wednesday] night he gave the Democrats a gift they hope just keeps on giving. Wilson was forced -- and that does seem to be the word, forced -- to apologize today. And his Washington office has been mobbed mostly by right-wing supporters. Democrats hope to turn Wilson into the Cindy Sheehan of the anti-health care reform movement. A clownish figure of ridicule who hurts his own side, more than he helps." -- MSNBC's Mike Barnicle

"It's all about race": "I was at some town meetings this summer, most recently in Arkansas. And this is an awful lot about race. You just can't avoid it." -- Time magazine's Joe Klein

"You look at the image of the Republican Party, all white males with short haircuts. They look sort of angry. No women, no minorities, and it looks like they've sort of become unhinged." -- MSNBC's David Shuster on the party that is run by Michael Steele, who is black, and featured a female vice presidential candidate in Sarah Palin

"Now he's at the center of a period of racial turbulence sparked by his ascension. Even if he and the coterie of white male advisers around him don't choose to openly acknowledge it, this president is the ultimate civil rights figure -- a black man whose legitimacy is constantly challenged by a loco fringe." -- New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, one of many locos at the Times



INSIGHT

"Let no man turn aside, ever so slightly, from the broad path of honour, on the plausible pretence that he is justified by the goodness of his end. All good ends can be worked out by good means." -- English novelist Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." -- Greek philosopher Plato (c. 428-348 B.C.)

"It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged." -- English writer G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)



UPRIGHT

"Taxpayers deserve to know how ACORN and its vast web of nonprofit, tax-exempt affiliates are using their money (40 percent of the group's revenue comes from the government). The flagship group trains publicly funded ACORN tax advisers and mortgage counselors across the country." -- columnist Michelle Malkin

"Maybe August was simply a long dream (or nightmare, for some politicians). Our leaders spent the month in town hall meetings, hearing from citizens who want nothing to do with government-controlled health care. But with August over, President Barack Obama addressed a joint session of Congress to say, basically, never mind what happened last month. 'Now is the season for action,' Obama declared, in the course of a speech that advanced few new ideas and could pretty much have been written in July, or even January." -- columnist Rich Tucker

"One of the secrets of being a glib talker is not getting hung up over whether what you are saying is true, and instead giving your full attention to what is required by the audience and the circumstances of the moment, without letting facts get in your way and cramp your style. Obama has mastered that art. Con men understand that their job is not to use facts to convince skeptics but to use words to help the gullible to believe what they want to believe. No message has been more welcomed by the gullible, in countries around the world, than the promise of something for nothing. That is the core of Barack Obama's medical care plan." -- economist Thomas Sowell

"Can someone explain to me how President Barack Obama's grandiose scheme destined to reduce the quality of the best health care system in the history of the world, force millions of people who choose not to purchase health insurance to purchase it, greatly increase medical costs, our deficits and national debt, ultimately reduce patient choice, and place health care decisions in the hands of heartless bureaucrats is somehow a demonstration of compassion?" -- columnist David Limbaugh

"The president claims he has 'no interest in putting insurance companies out of business,' but that is exactly what will happen if the government forces them to expand the services they cover while simultaneously preventing them from charging higher fees, especially if the expanded pool of beneficiaries includes many of the least healthy individuals. ..... The president is beginning to sound like one of those late-night TV ad pitchmen. But no matter how many times he tries to repackage his product or promises the whole thing comes free, Americans aren't buying what he has to sell." -- columnist Linda Chavez



"Simple Truths"

"No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated and disciplined." -- Harry E. Fosdick



"9-12" --- A Picture To View Of Taxpayers In Washington

http://www.freedomworks.org/node/20204

All of those in the White House and on Capitol Hill must take notice that Americans are awakening that the appointive and legislative radical Liberal agenda must, and will be, turned around. - oyh



"The Web"

AFR TALK LIVE!

http://action.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147486840



Ensign receives handwritten confirmation

This doesn't happen often enough.

http://www.politico.com/livepulse/0909/Ensign_receives_handwritten_confirmation_.html?showall

By Carrie Budoff Brown

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance.

Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it "Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold."

The note was a follow-up to Ensign's questioning at the markup.



Poll: 77% of OK highschoolers can't name the first president

http://action.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147486840

Elijah Friedeman, the Millennial Perspective

In a study commissioned by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, high school students were asked questions about basic U.S. history and about the structure of our government.

The questions were taken from the test that immigrants must take to become U.S. citizens. You must answer six out of ten questions right to pass the test. According to immigration services, 92% of immigrants pass on the first try. Only 3% of Oklahoma high school students would have passed the test according to the poll.

The statistics are quite shocking. Only 29% of the students could correctly answer who was in charge of the executive branch. Ninety-percent didn’t know how many Supreme Court justices there are. Most shocking, though, is the fact that 77% of the students could not name our first president.

It’s easy to bash the study results, but I don’t think this is only a problem in Oklahoma. I imagine if you conducted similar polls across the nation, the results would be much the same.

Listed below are the ten questions that were asked along with the percentage of students who answer correctly.

What is the supreme law of the land? 28%

What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution? 26%

What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress? 27%

How many justices are there on the Supreme Court? 10%

Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? 14%

What ocean is on the east coast of the United States? 61%

What are the two major political parties in the United States? 43%

We elect a U.S. senator for how many years? 11%

Who was the first President of the United States? 23%

Who is in charge of the executive branch? 29%



Administration giving $400K to Qaddafi Family Foundations

Clarice Feldman

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/09/administration_giving_400k_to.html

NRO's Andy McCarthy reports that the Administration has notified Congress that the Department of State intends to give $400K to Foundations run by members of the Qaddafi family including the son who escorted the freed Lockerbie bomber back to a hero's welcome in Libya:

The Obama administration has notified Congress of the State Department's intention to contribute $400,000 to foundations run by Muammar Qaddafi's two children — $200,000 each for daughter Aisha and son Saif. Saif, you may recall, is the son who escorted the Lockerbie terrorist Abdel Baset al-Megrahi home to a hero's welcome in Libya after President Obama sternly "warned" Qaddafi that there was to be no hero's welcome.

Illinois Republican congressman Mark Steven Kirk (House Appropriations Subcommittee on State/Foreign Operations) has sent Obama a letter asking him to rescind the funding.

Could somebody please tell this president that this is not just Annenberg Foundation cash he's passing out to his personal terrorist pals like Bill Ayers but American taxpayer dollars he's doling out to the terrorist tyrant behind the murder — in just that one incident — of 270 people, including 189 Americans.

Just 40 months to go. God help us.



ACORN Funded Political, For-Profit Efforts, Data Show

Actions Were Before Leadership Change

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/24/AR2009092404249.html

Documents released by a Senate Republican on Thursday show that leaders of the ACORN community organizing network transferred several million dollars in charitable and government money meant for the poor to arms of the group that have political and sometimes profit-making missions.

ACORN's tax-exempt groups and allied organizations, long a target of conservative ire, used more than half their charitable and public money in 2006 to pay other ACORN affiliates, according to an analysis by the tax staff of Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa).

On Thursday, Grassley called the transactions a "big shell game" and said ACORN donors may be surprised by how the liberal group known for helping the poor obtain housing and health care was spending their money. He urged the Internal Revenue Service to take a closer look.

According to the Grassley report, charities "are being used to raise monies which are then funneled to other charities or to other organizations for purposes other than what the donor may have intended. . . . Dollars raised for charitable [purposes] appear to be used for impermissible lobbing and political activity."

ACORN officials, recently embarrassed by a video sting that showed counselors providing assistance to people posing as a pimp and a prostitute, said Grassley's accusations are based on financial transactions that occurred before a leadership shakeup last year. Bertha Lewis took over after co-founder and longtime director Wade Rathke was pushed to resign over his role in concealing from the full board his brother's embezzlement of ACORN money. Lewis said she has shut down dozens of affiliates.

"Senator Grassley made up his mind, and he didn't bother about the facts," Lewis said in an interview. "He's dealing with a lot of outdated information and decided to frame it with a predetermined conclusion. Yes, we had problems under Wade Rathke. . . . And we have been overhauling how we do things ever since."

Also on Thursday, Grassley requested that ACORN, which stands for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, be taken off a list of approved charities for federal employees to donate to in an annual giving campaign.

The senator's staff members began looking into the organization's tax status in late 2006 as part of his interest in more oversight of charitable groups. They finished much of their analysis in fall 2008, and it is based largely on 2006 financial transactions. The most recent data available cover transactions in 2007.

Project Vote, one of the most recognized organizations in the ACORN family, took in $8.6 million in 2006 but paid more than 60 percent of that -- $5.4 million -- to two groups then controlled by Rathke. About $4.6 million went to ACORN for "contractual and campaign services" and $779,000 went to Citizens Consulting Inc., which charged ACORN affiliates on a percentage basis for bookkeeping services.

Lewis said the organization lacked transparency under Rathke's leadership, and the board has been working to open up its operations and make sure that money transfers between its groups are well documented.

"What you will see since I took over is a complete overhaul of how everything is coded . . . to make sure that if monies are meant for one thing, they are documented and used for that purpose," she said.



Kerry asks $20m for Kennedy institute

Fiscal groups criticize military bill earmark

What a "SCAM"? Is this just another common example of the majority Democrats on Capitol Hill hiding/stealing and/or misappropriations of $20 million of taxpayers' money to honor a fellow Democrat; and all of this happening during a period of economic stress? America must remember these rogue misappropriations of taxpayers' funds. - oyh

By Bryan Bender
Globe Staff

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/09/25/watchdog_groups_rap_20m_earmark_for_kennedy_institute/?page=1

WASHINGTON - A large military spending bill moving through Congress contains a little-noticed outlay for Boston that has nothing to do with national defense: $20 million for an educational institute honoring late Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

The earmark, tucked into the defense bill at the request of Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, requires US taxpayers to help the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate realize its goal of building a repository for Kennedy’s papers and an accompanying civic learning center on the University of Massachusetts at Boston campus in Dorchester, next to the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum.

The item is drawing fire from fiscal watchdog groups, who assert that military funds should not be raided to pay for an institution that has nothing to do with improving military readiness.

“Whatever beneficial value civic education may have, it’s hard to see why the Defense Department should pay for it,’’ said Laura Peterson, a senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense in Washington. “It would seem the location of this hefty earmark has more to do with the powerful position of its sponsor than [the Defense Department’s] responsibility to educate elementary school children.’’

Kerry strongly defended the insertion of the $20 million earmark yesterday. He requested that it be included in the $360 billion defense budget, he said, to recognize Kennedy’s long tenure on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The institute will serve as a focal point for the late Massachusetts senator’s legacy, much as presidential libraries do. It will house Kennedy’s official papers and oral histories from the nearly half-century he served in the Senate. With a museum and exhibit space, it also will be dedicated to educating the general public, students, teachers, new US senators, and Senate staff about the role and importance of the Senate in American political life. The institute plans to host an annual “Summer Senate’’ for high school students from across the nation.

The $20 million earmark would cover as much as 40 percent of the institute’s initial fund-raising goal.

Beyond raising questions about the practice of slipping earmarks into bills in Congress, the provision also presents a potential ethical question for Paul Kirk, the longtime Kennedy aide Governor Deval Patrick appointed to fill the late senator’s seat yesterday.

Kirk, who stepped down yesterday as chairman of the JFK Library Foundation, has also served as a member of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute board and has played a key role in helping plan and raise funds for the new center. If he casts a vote in favor of the defense bill, he also will be voting in favor of an institute to which he has had close personal and professional connections.

A spokeswoman for Kirk, Stephanie Cutter, said yesterday that he does not see his roles as conflicting.

“Mr. Kirk expects to vote on every issue important to the people of Massachusetts. He resigned from the Edward M. Kennedy Institute board at 8 a.m. this morning, so we don’t expect a conflict to exist, but of course he’ll comply fully with the ethics rules of the Senate,’’ Cutter said in an e-mailed statement. She did not respond to a question about what role, if any, he played in securing the $20 million earmark.
Kirk is not running in the January special election for a new senator to fill out the remainder of Kennedy’s term. He has not yet said whether he intends to return to the JFK Library Foundation once his interim Senate appointment expires.

At Kerry’s request, Senator Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, added the $20 million earmark to the defense bill, congressional aides said. The funding would come on top of $5 million secured with Kerry’s help earlier this year in a Labor Department spending bill, which provided money for the institute’s planning and design.

The center had raised an additional $20 million in private donations earlier this year, and more money has been contributed by members of the public since Kennedy’s death last month from brain cancer, said Joe Ganley, an institute spokesman. Ultimately, Ganley said, the majority of the center’s funding will come from private donors, not taxpayers. He said many of Boston’s most influential civic leaders, including businessman Jack Connors, are helping to raise funds.

The institute’s president, and it’s only staff member so far, is Peter Meade, a former Blue Cross-Blue Shield executive who also serves on the board of the JFK Library Foundation. Meade was unavailable for comment yesterday, Ganley said.

Using the national defense budget for such earmarks is considered a particular affront by those advocating for fiscal discipline in the midst of two wars that are straining Pentagon coffers. Overall, the Senate version of the bill includes 778 earmarks worth $2.65 billion, including a number that have little or nothing to do with military matters.

A major concern is what gets cut from the Pentagon budget to make room for things like the Kennedy institute, said Winslow Wheeler, director of the Strauss Military Reform Project at the left-leaning Center for Defense Information in Washington.

“The committee did not add money to the bill to pay for its billions of dollars in pork,’’ Wheeler said.

A spokesman for Inouye declined to explain why the Kennedy institute earmark was inserted into the Pentagon budget, rather than into an education bill or other piece of legislation. In a statement released by his office, Inouye said, “It is my sincere hope that many of these students will be inspired to seek a life of public service, with the same spirit of patriotism and love of country that I saw each and every day from Senator Kennedy.’’

While Kerry said using the defense budget to fund Kennedy’s institute was a tribute to his “leadership on military technology, weapons systems, and safety equipment for our troops,’’ Wheeler said he believes there is a more practical reason.

“It’s a natural for Kerry to go to Inouye on this,’’ Wheeler said. “If it’s in the defense bill it must be a good idea. And the defense bill is sure to pass. He wanted a fast vehicle to get it enacted.’’



10 out of 10 Dictators Love Barack Obama

Texan2driver's Blog

When tinpot despots and dictators are singing your praises, you know you’re in trouble. When you cozy up to these same oppressive tyrants, it’s time for you to go. Is there a current “president” of the United States that comes to mind when you read those two statements? I’m not saying who it is, but his initials are Barack Hussein Obama.


Libya's Moammar Kadafi gives U.N. his opinions on Obama -- and more

He praises Obama, saying the U.S. should make him president for life. In a rambling speech, he also criticizes the Security Council and says the U.N. should move outside the U.S.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-kadafi-un24-2009sep24,0,1461568,print.story

By Tina SusmanReporting from The United Nations

Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi had a lot to gripe about: He was jet-lagged. There was no comfortable place to plant his tent. Some of the diplomats on the floor of the U.N. General Assembly were distracted.

"Please pay attention!" he said at one point Wednesday during his more than 90-minute speech, his first at the General Assembly.

Nevertheless, Kadafi offered a virtual valentine to none other than President Obama, his predecessor on the podium, praising him as a glimmer of hope for the next few years and suggesting that he take a cue from Libya and become president-for-life.

"We are content and happy if Obama can stay forever as the president of the United States," said Kadafi, Libya's leader since a military coup in 1969.

Obama wasn't in the room to receive the diplomatic kiss; he had left the hall after his own speech, as had Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice.

Kadafi's 40 years of one-man control has put him at odds with U.S. leadership, which only recently -- in 2007 -- removed Libya from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Lately, Kadafi has presided over a hero's welcome marking the return to Tripoli of a Libyan agent convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, which killed 270 people, and watched Western governments that once vilified him beat a path to his door in search of oil contracts. Once a pariah, Kadafi fulfilled a long-anticipated coming-out on the global stage with his U.N. speech.

Dressed in a flowing, coffee-colored cloak with a black pin of Africa sparkling on its front, he did not mention the release of Abdel Basset Ali Megrahi from a Scottish prison last month in a speech that veered from harsh denunciations of the U.S.-led Iraq invasion -- the "mother of all evils" -- to the praise for Obama.

"We Africans are happy, proud that a son of Africa governs the United States of America," said Kadafi, calling Obama's U.N. speech appealing for global unity "completely different." "We applaud that."

But he expressed fear that when Obama's presidency ends, the world could go "back to square one" if the wrong leader replaces him.

Elliott Abrams of the Council on Foreign Relations, who served as deputy national security advisor for the Middle East and North Africa under the Bush administration, said it wasn't unusual for Kadafi to personalize relationships with world leaders even when trashing their policies.

"It's not surprising that he thinks it normal to adore Obama while assaulting America," Abrams said.

Kadafi denounced the abuse of Iraqi detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison, condemned the U.N. Security Council as an elitist group dominated by superpowers with no respect for smaller countries, and criticized the U.S. interventions in Afghanistan and Somalia.

"There was a civil war in America. No one interfered," said Kadafi, who at one point tossed some of his notes over his shoulder.

Speakers are encouraged to keep their addresses relatively short -- 15 minutes or so -- but they rarely do, and there is no system for removing those who go long. Among other things, Kadafi called for new investigations of the killings of John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, Martin Luther King Jr. and a host of others.

Kadafi's address fell far short of the record held by Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who spoke for nearly 4 1/2 hours in 1960.

Like his speech, Kadafi's visit to New York has been stormy. His plan to pitch a large Bedouin tent on a Libyan-owned estate in New Jersey was quashed when area residents and state officials objected. On Wednesday, residents of the New York suburb of Bedford, about 40 miles north of Manhattan, objected to the tent being erected on property there. According to the Associated Press, the Libyan mission also asked to pitch the tent in Central Park.

Eventually, the AP said, he was housed at the Libyan diplomatic mission.

Wherever Kadafi slept, he didn't get enough.

"I'm jet-lagged," he said to the General Assembly, complaining that he had been awake since 4 a.m. and demanding that the U.N. be moved out of the United States, whose security measures are like "being a prisoner in the Guantanamo camp, where there is no free movement."

Not only would a move relieve the pressure on the United States to safeguard hundreds of heads of state and their delegates, it would make it far easier for people having to travel across time zones to reach the U.N., he said.

"This place is a target," Kadafi said. "Perhaps America will be targeted by a rocket. We want to relieve America of this worry."



"The e-mail Bag"

California Poll

The latest telephone poll taken by the California Governor's office asked whether people who live in California think illegal immigration is a serious problem:

19% responded, "Yes, it is a serious problem."

81% responded, "No es una problema seriosa."



My Body qualifies for CASH FOR CLUNKERS

Almost every time I sneeze, cough or laugh, either my radiator leaks or my exhaust backfires.

Send ME the CASH!