Previous articles on the American Emperor!

This web page lists stories which show how the American President or American Emperor is truely an emperor, like rulers of past Empires.

Originally this was page was here but I split it into two web pages. This web page and a second web page whichs shows the main purpose of government is to aid the elected officials and the special interest groups that helped elect them, not the people they claim to serve. Or as Michael Kaery said -

"Government of the people by the elected officials and appointed bureaucrats, for the elected officials, appointed bureaucrats and special intrest groups that helped them get into power!"

Obama ignored legal advice on Libya

Reports: Obama ignored advice on Libya

Jun. 18, 2011 12:00 AM

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama decided he could continue the air war in Libya without congressional approval despite rulings to the contrary from Justice Department and Pentagon lawyers, according to a published report.

The president relied instead on the opinions of other senior administration lawyers that continuing U.S. participation in the air operations against the regime of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi did not constitute "hostilities," triggering the need for congressional permission under the War Powers Resolution, the New York Times reported in its online edition Friday.

Among those reported to support the president's action were White House counsel Robert Bauer and State Department legal adviser Harold Koh, the paper said. Those opposed included Pentagon general counsel Jeh Johnson and Caroline Krass, acting head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel.

One issue was reported to be whether firing missiles from drones amounted to hostilities.

Presidents can ignore the advice of the Office of Legal Counsel, but they rarely do so, the newspaper said.

The 1973 law prohibits the military from being involved in actions for more than 60 days without congressional authorization, plus a 30-day extension. The 60-day deadline passed last month with the White House saying it is in compliance with the law. The 90-day mark is Sunday.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Associated Press.

Hmmm... when Obama became President he ordered 30,000 new troops added to the war in Afghanistan. Now he is pretending to have won the war by removing 10,000 of those troops?

I think it's time we win the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq like we did in Vietnam. Pretend we won the war, bring the troops home, and let the local freedom fighters who kicked our asses regain control of their country.

Source

Obama likely to cut 10K troops from Afghanistan

Posted 6/21/2011 3:16 PM ET

By Robert Burns And Julie Pace, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is expected to withdraw roughly 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan this year, with about 5,000 forces leaving this summer and an additional 5,000 Americans coming home by the end of the year, a senior U.S. defense official said Tuesday.

Obama could also announce a timetable for recalling the 20,000 other troops he ordered to Afghanistan as part of his December 2009 decision to send reinforcements to reverse the Taliban's battlefield momentum. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the plans before Obama's formal announcement. .

Obama spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday that the president had finalized his decision on the withdrawal plan and would address the nation from the White House at 8 p.m. Wednesday. He said the president informed his national security team of his plans during a White House meeting Tuesday morning.

While Carney would not discuss the details of Obama's decision, he said the drawdown set to begin next month puts the U.S. on a path toward giving Afghans control of their own security by 2014.

A reduction this year totaling 10,000 troops would be the rough equivalent of two brigades, which are the main building blocks of an Army division. It's not clear whether Obama's decision would require the Pentagon to pull out two full brigades or, instead, a collection of smaller combat and support units with an equivalent number of troops.

Obama was given a range of options for the withdrawal last week by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan. The military has favored a gradual reduction in troops but other advisers were advocating for significant decrease in the coming months.

The president has said he favors a "significant" withdrawal, his advisers have not quantified that statement.

At a democratic fundraiser in Washington Monday night, Obama said that by the end of the year, "we will be transitioning in Afghanistan to turn over more and more security to the Afghan people."

Following the announcement on the drawdown, Obama will visit troops Thursday at Fort Drum, the upstate New York military base that is home to the 10th Mountain Division, one of the most frequently deployed divisions to Afghanistan and Iraq.

While much of the attention is focused on how many troops will leave Afghanistan next month, the more telling aspects of Obama's decision center on what happens after July, particularly how long the president plans to keep the surge forces in the country.

Military commanders want to keep as many of those forces in Afghanistan for as long as possible, arguing that too fast a withdrawal could undermine the fragile security gains in the fight against the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, the al-Qaida training ground for the Sept. 11 attacks. There are also concerns about pulling out a substantial number of U.S. forces as the heightened summer fighting season gets under way.

Gates, who is retiring from the Pentagon next week, has said he believes the initial drawdown should be "modest."

But other advisers backed a more significant withdrawal that starts in July and proceeds steadily through the following months. That camp believes the slow yet steady security gains in Afghanistan, combined with the death of Osama bin Laden and U.S. success in dismantling much of the al-Qaida network in the country, give the president an opportunity to make larger reductions this year.

Gates said Monday that Obama's decision needs to incorporate domestic concerns about the war in Afghanistan into his decision on drawing down American troops there.

"It goes without saying that there are a lot of reservations in the Congress about the war in Afghanistan and our level of commitment. There are concerns among the American people who are tired of a decade of war," Gates said during a news conference at the State Department.

Twenty-seven senators, Democrats as well as Republicans, sent Obama a letter last week pressing for a shift in Afghanistan strategy and major troop cuts.

"Given our successes, it is the right moment to initiate a sizable and sustained reduction in forces, with the goal of steadily redeploying all regular combat troops," the senators wrote. "The costs of prolonging the war far outweigh the benefits."

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, differed with that assessment. He told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Tuesday that he agreed with Gates in hoping the withdrawal would be "modest."

"I believe that one more fighting season and we can get this thing pretty well wrapped up," McCain said.

There is broad public support for starting to withdraw U.S. troops. According to an Associated Press-GfK poll last month, 80 percent of Americans say they approve of Obama's decision to begin withdrawal of combat troops in July and end U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan by 2014. Just 15 percent disapprove.

Obama has tripled the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan since taking office, bringing the total there to about 100,000. The 30,000-troop surge he announced at the end of 2009 came with the condition that he would start bringing forces home in July 2011.

The president took months to settle on the surge strategy. This time around, aides say the process is far less formal and Obama is far more knowledgeable about the situation in Afghanistan than he was in 2009, his first year in office.

With the troop withdrawal set to begin next month, U.S. officials in Afghanistan said that military operations will become more focused and less ambitious over the coming three years. As troop levels decline the military will shift from a comprehensive counterinsurgency doctrine, which emphasizes small military-led development projects to gain the confidence of the local population, to counterterrorism, which focuses on capturing and killing insurgents, officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Obama has not announced the troop plan yet.

There are also indications that the administration, having learned from the U.S. experience in Iraq, will set deadline dates for the drawdown as it progresses, in order to keep pressure on the Afghans and give Congress mileposts.

With Iraq as a blueprint, commanders will need time to figure out what they call "battlefield geometry" -- what types of troops are needed where. Those could include trainers, intelligence officers, special operations forces, various support units -- from medical and construction to air transport -- as well as combat troops.

Much of that will depend on where the Afghan security forces are able to take the lead, as well as the state of the insurgency. Part of the debate will also require commanders to determine the appropriate ratio of trainers versus combat troops.

___

Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor and Matthew Lee in Washington and Solomon Moore in Kabul, Afghanistan contributed to this report.

___

Julie Pace can be reached at twitter.com/jpaceDC

I wonder how long it will be before the trigger happy Secret Service agents

who guard the President will shoot down a civilian airplane for getting too

close to the American Emperor.

Source

Two civilian planes intercepted near Camp David

ReutersBy Dan Whitcomb

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fighter jets intercepted two civilian planes in the vicinity of Camp David on Saturday, in separate incidents that both took place while President Barack Obama was there.

In both cases the planes were met by F-15 fighter jets and landed without incident at nearby airports, North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Bill Lewis said.

They marked the third and fourth such incidents in a month, all four of them taking place while Obama was at the Maryland presidential retreat.

The first plane, identified only as a civilian aircraft out of radio communication, was intercepted by a pair of fighter jets at about 12:17 p.m. local time on Saturday, Lewis said.

The second, a Cessna 210, was intercepted at about 6:56 p.m. on Saturday and was met by law enforcement at Carroll County Regional Airport in Maryland. No further details were immediately available.

Last Saturday, a small plane got within six miles of the presidential retreat before it was intercepted by an F-15 fighter jet.

And on June 11, fighter jets scrambled to guide another small plane away from the area without incident.

Camp David has been a presidential weekend and holiday retreat in the nearby Maryland mountains for decades.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Greg McCune)

More of that "Do as I say, not as I do" from our government masters!

Obama motorcade fined in London for "congestion levies"

Source

Jul 21, 2011

Obama motorcade fined in London

By Evan Vucci, AP

Presidential motorcades annoy some people, mostly because they back up traffic and sometimes because of environmental concerns.

One critic -- London Mayor Boris Johnson -- is in a position to do something about it.

Johnson has fined the United States 120 pounds -- some $200 -- in "congestion levies" from Obama's motorcade during his state visit to Great Britain in May.

It's the latest in a long-running feud between British officials and the U.S. embassy over previous (unpaid) fines.

The London Evening Standard reports:

Only one of the cars in the convoy is understood to have been issued with a fine, which the Americans refused to pay.

A Transport for London spokesman said: "Any vehicle, regardless of where it is registered, which is identified within the Congestion Charging Zone during the hours of operation without a valid charge, discount or exemption can be subject to a penalty. TfL pursues penalties from foreign registered vehicles that have not paid the charge."

The latest fines were issued as part of a long-running row with the US Embassy, which owes more than £5 million in unpaid congestion charge fines, having received more than 45,000 notices since its introduction in 2003.

Mr Johnson raised the issue with Mr Obama at a banquet at Buckingham Palace in a "very friendly conversation" in May.

He has argued that The Beast and the rest of the convoy should have paid the charge as London's roads were not closed - unlike during the Pope's visit last autumn, when the Popemobile was exempt.

The American Embassy defended the refusal by US diplomats to pay the C-charge insisting it was "wholly in accordance" with the 1960 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which a spokesman said "prohibits the imposition of this sort of tax on diplomatic missions".

Source

Cough up! Obama's London convoy among foreign drivers that owe £50m in unpaid London congestion charges

By Daniel Martin

Last updated at 10:00 AM on 21st July 2011

Barack Obama has been landed with a £120 fine for not paying the congestion charge on his recent state visit to London.

The charge was levied on the U.S. President’s motorcade after his visit in May – but Obama’s own limousine, nicknamed the ‘Beast’, escaped a fine as roadside cameras were unable to capture a picture of the number plate.

The unpaid fine is part of more than £50million owed by diplomatic missions in the capital.

London Mayor Boris Johnson spoke to President Obama during his visit to ask him to pay the £10 congestion charge for each of the vehicles in the presidential motorcade.

But even though the US Embassy has refused to comply, only one of the cars in the convoy was issued with a fine.

The Beast, President Obama’s armour-plated limousine, escaped a fine because congestion charge cameras were unable to record its number plate as it was travelling slowly, close to other vehicles in the motorcade.

Figures released by the Foreign Office yesterday show the U.S. has now racked up more than £5million in 45,005 unpaid congestion charge fees since the scheme’s introduction in 2003. Around £50million is owed by foreign diplomats for entering central London

Around £50 million is owed by foreign diplomats for entering central London

Barack Obama was asked to cough up for his convoy's failure to pay the congestion charge Boris Johnson said he spoke with Barack Obama about the outstanding bill in a 'very friendly conversation'

Boris Johnson said he spoke with Barack Obama about the outstanding bill in a 'very friendly conversation'

It makes the US the largest offender out of 62 countries who have outstanding of more than £100,000.

Russia, Japan, Germany and Nigeria all have bills for unpaid congestion charge fines running into the millions

Russia, Japan, Germany and Nigeria all have bills for unpaid congestion charge fines running into the millions

The US embassy argues it should not pay because the 1960 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations ‘prohibits the imposition of this sort of tax on diplomatic missions’. However the British authorities say the charge is not a tax.

But the U.S. embassy argues it should not pay as the 1960 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations ‘prohibits this sort of tax on diplomatic missions’.

A spokesman for Transport for London said: ‘TfL pursues penalties from foreign registered vehicles that have not paid the charge.’

‘No Congestion Charge payments were made for the vehicles in the Presidential motorcade. TfL has issued penalty charges to the registered keepers where it was able to do so.’

A total of 14 countries owe more than £1million, including Russia (£4.4million), Japan (£3.5million), Germany (£3.4million) and Nigeria (£2.6million).

In addition, some £491,000 has been racked up in unpaid parking fines, including £27,700 from China after 257 unpaid fines. Second on the list is Afghanistan, with 245 unpaid fines totalling £25,800.

Source

Whoops! Barack Obama Fined Over London Congestion Charge

by Mitch Marconi

It looks like being the President of the United States doesn't always get you a free pass when it comes to green paper.

President Barack Obama's presidential motorcade has been fined over the London congestion charge, but the president has reportedly refused to pay the issued fine for his presidential vehicle 'The Beast', as cameras photographing the motorcade was not able to capture a photograph of Obama's license plate number, as the 'Beast' was bumper-to-bumper with the other cars in the motorcade.

According to The Standard, Obama was fined over the London congestion charge he refused to pay. The initial charge was for £10, but now the fine has bumped up the amount to £120. Yikes.

A Transport for London (TfL) spokesman said: "Any vehicle, regardless of where it is registered, which is identified within the Congestion Charging Zone during the hours of operation without a valid charge, discount or exemption can be subject to a penalty. TfL pursues penalties from foreign registered vehicles that have not paid the charge."

Secret Service sends fighter jets to intercept Grandma, who is flying a home built plane.

I wonder how long it will be before trigger happy fighter pilots shoot down a civilian plane that accidentally wanders into the restricted air space reserved for the American Emperor, or the President as most people call him.

Source

F-16s intercept plane during Obama's Chicago visit

APAP

SOUTH BARRINGTON, Ill. (AP) — Two F-16 fighter jets intercepted a plane flown by a 75-year-old woman after it entered restricted airspace during President Barack Obama's recent visit to Chicago, federal officials said Thursday.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command told The Daily Herald (bit.ly/nlePww ) that the jets were summoned when air traffic controllers couldn't contact the pilot Wednesday afternoon. The president was in Chicago for a fundraiser celebrating his 50th birthday.

The jets intercepted the Kitfox Model 2, a kit airplane, piloted by Myrtle Rose of South Barrington, a Chicago suburb. Rose turned the plane around and returned to Mill Rose Farm Airport, NORAD spokesman Lt. Michael Humphreys said.

Rose's plane didn't have a radio, which forced NORAD to use the jets to identify and intercept the plane, Humphreys said.

With such temporary flight restrictions, "there are no lines drawn in the air. It's sometimes a little hard to tell where you're at," NORAD spokeswoman Stacey Knott told the newspaper. "Typically, it's just a mistake."

The pilot met with local authorities, Knott said. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.

Rose didn't appear shaken after the incident, South Barrington Deputy Police Chief Ray Cordell said. "She was unaware that she had entered restricted air space," Cordell said. "Surprised was probably the right term."

Calls to a listing for Rose in South Barrington rang unanswered Thursday. The town, home to about 4,500 residents, is about 30 miles northwest of Chicago.

"We do not have fighter jets flying over the village very often," Cordell said.

___

Information from: Daily Herald, http://www.dailyherald.com

Source

75-year-old widow was pilot intercepted by F-16s during Obama visit

By Madhu Krishnamurthy

A 75-year-old South Barrington pilot got the surprise of her life when her small plane was intercepted by two F-16 fighter jets Wednesday night after it entered restricted airspace temporarily put in place for President Barack Obama's visit to Chicago.

The jets were scrambled from Toledo by the North American Aerospace Defense Command at 5:34 p.m. after the Kitfox Model 2, piloted by Myrtle Rose, flew into temporarily restricted airspace, NORAD spokesman Lt. Michael Humphreys said.

NORAD officials said Rose's plane did not have a radio, forcing the Command to scramble the jets to identify it. The jets intercepted the plane, forcing it to turn around and return to its home airport at Mill Rose Farm, Humphreys said.

The airport is basically a grass landing strip in the middle of a residential area owned by the Rose family of South Barrington. The FAA has record of several aircraft registered to the family's patriarch, William R. Rose, one of the founders of South Barrington, who died in April 2010 at 83.

The pilot, Myrtle Rose — William's widow — was flying the plane by herself, South Barrington Deputy Police Chief Ray Cordell said.

“She was unaware that she had entered restricted air space,” Cordell said, adding that Rose didn't seem shaken. “Surprised was probably the right term.”

Someone reached Thursday at Rose Packing Company Inc., which owns Mill Rose Farm airport, declined to comment. Rose herself could not be reached for comment.

For the quiet bedroom community of South Barrington, it's the most excitement the village of roughly 4,500 people has seen in years.

“We do not have fighter jets flying over the village very often,” Cordell said.

South Barrington police got involved after receiving a call from Illinois State Police notifying them that the Federal Aviation Administration was looking for the pilot.

Cordell said Rose gave a statement to the FAA, which “didn't believe there was any threat.”

FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said the agency's investigation, nonetheless, could take several weeks.

“With these types of Temporary Flight Restriction violations, there are no lines drawn in the air; it's sometimes a little hard to tell where you're at,” said NORAD spokeswoman Stacey Knott. “Typically, it's just a mistake.”

• Daily Herald staff writers Paul Biasco and Lee Filas contributed to this report.

Source

75-year-old pilot explains encounter with F-16s

APBy DON BABWIN - Associated Press | AP – 23 hrs ago

CHICAGO (AP) — Myrtle Rose was taking a short flight over suburban Chicago when the 75-year-old aviation enthusiast looked out her cockpit window to see two F-16 fighter jets. She assumed the military pilots were just slowing down to get a closer look at her antique plane.

It wasn't until she landed her 1941 Piper J-3 Cub that friends and the police told her the attention was much more serious — for straying into restricted airspace during a visit by President Barack Obama.

Rose, who tries to fly every day when weather permits, said she had been itching to get back in the air Wednesday after a number of days on the ground. She normally uses her computer to check for airspace restrictions, but it wasn't working properly.

"I hadn't flown in over a week," she said. "It was a beautiful afternoon." After some guests departed her home, she "just climbed in the airplane and left."

To make matters worse, she said, "I didn't have my radio on. I was just flying around."

On any other day, the brief flight would never have attracted notice. But Obama was in Chicago for a fundraiser marking his 50th birthday.

"There's really no excuse for not knowing," said Lt. Col. Mike Humphreys, a spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which scrambled the two warplanes, a proposition that costs $9,000 an hour for each jet. "Anyone who flies an aircraft should know the restrictions."

Rose said she was about 30 miles from O'Hare Airport when her plane was intercepted. As the fighters appeared, she wasn't alarmed.

"I thought, 'Oh, well, they're just looking at how cute the Cub is," she said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press. The blue-and-yellow plane had won a best-in-class award at the Oshkosh Air Show, a huge annual gathering in Wisconsin.

Another NORAD representative suggested Rose had no business thinking that a military jet racing toward her would be in any way related to the cuteness of her plane.

"The biggest thing to keep in mind is that when F-16s come screaming up to you, they are probably trying to tell you something," spokeswoman Stacey Knott said.

Rose, who has been flying since the mid-1960s and even performed as a wing walker until five or six years ago, said the jet pilots could not have been more considerate.

Though she never saw their faces — hard to do, she said, since she was puttering along at about 60 mph and the jets were doing what she figured was about 300 mph — she was impressed with the way the pilot who pulled in front of her kept his distance to avoid rattling her wood-and-fabric plane.

"He was very respectful," she said.

Rose returned to land on the grass airstrip at her home in the affluent South Barrington area. Her late husband owned Rose Packing Co., a meat packer that supplies Canadian bacon to McDonald's restaurants.

Once she was on the ground, some friends rushed over and told her that the rendezvous had nothing to do with the good looks of the plane named Winston. After the aircraft was in the hangar, her yard began filling with police cars.

Rose said she filled out a report with the Federal Aviation Administration, including a note describing how she mistakenly believed the jets were circling to admire her plane. She said she has not heard from the agency.

FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Cory said the investigation would probably take several weeks. Penalties could include a fine or a suspension of her pilot's license, or the agency might not take any action at all.

Rose, a Republican who said she did not vote for Obama, joked about mailing the president a note for his birthday.

"Oh, dear, maybe I should send him a belated birthday card and say, 'You should have stayed home and Michelle baked you a birthday cake.'"

Rose said she does have a bone to pick with NORAD, or whoever released the information about her close encounter with the jets.

"The worst part is they put my age in there," she said. "I don't think that was nice."

Source

Secret Service using new $1.1 million buses for Obama Midwest trip

By Associated Press, Published: August 15

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is traveling the Midwest on a new $1.1 million bus purchased by the Secret Service, an impenetrable-looking conveyance the size of a cross-country Greyhound, painted all in black, with dark tinted windows and flashing red and blue lights.

Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan emphasized that the bus wasn’t purchased solely for the president and would be used for other dignitaries in the future. He said the agency has not previously had buses in its fleet and was overdue to get some since it’s had to protect politicians traveling by bus for decades.

In the past, the service has had to lease buses and retrofit them for that purpose.

Donovan said two buses were purchased and one is being used by Obama as he travels through Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. Both will be used by other officeholders and candidates.

Donovan declined to comment on the buses’ design or capability. He said the decision to purchase the buses was made about a year ago but had been under discussion longer, and that the money was taken from a fund for transportation and armored vehicles.

Source

$1.1M Secret Service Bus Makes Debut On Obama’s Midwest Tour

Ryan J. Reilly | August 15, 2011, 9:30PM

With President Barack Obama embarking on his mid-August tour of the midwest on Monday, the public got its first look at one of two $1.1 million armored buses that, as TPM first reported back in April, were recently purchased by the Secret Service and will be used on the campaign trail.

The bus is "an impenetrable-looking conveyance the size of a cross-country Greyhound, painted all in black, with dark tinted windows and flashing red and blue lights," according to a Associated Press description.

But don't worry, Republicans: you get one too. An identical bus was purchased by the Secret Service and will be made available to the eventual Republican presidential candidate, presumably once the politician is afforded Secret Service protection. The vehicles wouldn't be exclusive to the campaign trail -- they'll also be useful for when the Secret Service transports dignitaries, according to the agency.

Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan told TPM the agency wasn't getting into the details of the security and communications features of the vehicles. But he said that like the presidential limousine known as "The Beast," the buses meet the standards for transporting the commander-in-chief.

Donovan told TPM back in April that the agency was "overdue for having this type of protective asset in our fleet" and that designing their own vehicle "really gave us a level of security which we don't get when we lease a bus."

Source

U.S. Secret Service gets 2 new buses ahead of Obama tour

By Mark Knoller

Updated: 6:15 p.m. ET

The U.S. Secret Service has two new buses in its fleet for President Obama to use on his three-day, three-state Midwestern bus trip that kicked off Monday.

CBS News has learned the buses were purchased in recent months at a cost of just under $1.1-million each and will serve as part of the fleet of vehicles the Service uses for all of its protectees.

In the past, the Secret Service would lease buses as needed and outfit them with the security and communications equipment.

"We have not been satisfied with the level of protection offered by leased buses," said a Secret Service official.

Last year, the Secret Service placed an order for two buses with the Hemphill Brothers Coach Company of Whites Creek, Tennessee at a combined cost of $2,191,960.

The buses have lavish interiors and are usually leased to transport stars of the entertainment industry.

The company's website says its clients have included Beyonce, Cher, Gloria Estefan, Jennifer Lopez, Stevie Wonder, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Madonna, Jack Nicholson, and Pope Benedict.

Mr. Obama will travel through Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois on the tour. He has four town hall meetings planned, as well as a forum on rural economic issues.

Although the bus trip has the feel of a campaign swing, the White House is billing it as "official." That means taxpayers pick up all the related costs. When Mr. Obama ventures out on political trips, his campaign or the Democratic National Committee pay a small portion of the cost of presidential travel, as required by the Federal Elections Commission.

But spokesman Jay Carney says "the president is not engaged in a primary election and he is doing what presidents do, which is go out in the country and engage with the American people, have discussions about the economy and other policy issues."

Aboard Air Force One en route to the start of the bus trip in St. Paul, Minn., Carney told reporters that "to suggest that any time the president leaves Washington it's a political trip would mean that presidents could never leave unless they were physically campaigning on their own behalf, and he's not; he's out here doing his job and meeting with the American people."

But Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called a news conference in Minnesota this morning to raise objections to the taxpayer-funded nature of the president's trip.

U.S. building new secret drone bases

Officials: U.S. building new secret drone bases

by Craig Whitlock and Greg Miller - Sept. 21, 2011 12:00 AM

Washington Post

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is assembling a constellation of secret drone bases for counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as part of a newly aggressive campaign to attack al-Qaida affiliates in Somalia and Yemen, U.S. officials said.

One of the installations is being established in Ethiopia, a U.S. ally in the fight against al-Shabab, the militant group that controls much of Somalia.

Another base is in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, where a small fleet of "hunter-killer" drones resumed operations this month after an experimental mission demonstrated that the unmanned aircraft could effectively patrol Somalia from there.

The U.S. military also has flown drones over Somalia and Yemen from bases in Djibouti, a tiny African nation at the junction of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. In addition, the CIA is building a secret airstrip in the Arabian Peninsula so it can deploy armed drones over Yemen.

The rapid expansion of the undeclared drone wars is a reflection of the growing alarm with which U.S. officials view the activities of al-Qaida affiliates in Yemen and Somalia, even as al-Qaida's core leadership in Pakistan has been weakened by U.S. counterterrorism operations.

The U.S. government is known to have used drones to carry out lethal attacks in at least six countries. The negotiations that preceded the establishment of the base in the Republic of Seychelles illustrate the efforts the United States is making to broaden the range of its drone weapons.

The island nation of 85,000 people has hosted a small fleet of MQ-9 Reaper drones operated by the U.S. Navy and Air Force since September 2009.

U.S. and Seychellois officials have previously acknowledged the drones' presence but have said that their primary mission was to track pirates in regional waters. But classified U.S. diplomatic cables show that the unmanned aircraft have also conducted counterterrorism missions over Somalia, about 800 miles to the northwest.

The cables reveal that U.S. officials asked leaders in the Seychelles to keep the counterterrorism missions secret. The Reapers are described by the military as "hunter-killer" drones because they can be equipped with Hellfire missiles and satellite-guided bombs.

U.S. officials said they had no plans to arm the Reapers when the mission was announced. The cables show, however, that U.S. officials were thinking about weaponizing the drones.

During a meeting with Seychelles President James Michel on Sept. 18, 2009, American diplomats said the U.S. government "would seek . . . specific discussions . . . to gain approval" to arm the Reapers "should the desire to do so ever arise," according to a cable summarizing the meeting.

Remember Obama owns the streets of Los Angeles

Source

Drivers Warned Ahead of President Obama's Visit

KTLA News

4:08 a.m. PDT, September 26, 2011

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- President Barack Obama is returning to the Los Angeles area Monday, and drivers on the Westside can expect major traffic delays.

Obama is scheduled to attend two separate events to help raise funds for his 2012 re-election campaign.

As many as 1,500 people are expected to pack the House of Blues for a benefit concert at 4:30 p.m. hosted by "Modern Family" actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson. The sold out concert, with tickets ranging from $250 to $10,000, will feature performances from B.o.B., Adam 12 and the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles.

The President will then travel down to Fig & Olive on Melrose for a private fundraiser at 6 p.m. where the price per plate is a whopping $17, 900 per person.

Sheriff's officials have issued a traffic alert, detailing street closures and telling drivers to avoid the area, if possible.

"Local access will be restricted in some areas. Residents, businesses, and visitors to West Hollywood are strongly encouraged to plan ahead to avoid any inconveniences," the advisory stated.

The following streets will be affected:

• Sunset Boulevard (from Doheny Drive to Sweetzer Avenue);
• Santa Monica Boulevard (from Doheny Drive to La Cienega Boulevard);
• Olive Drive (from Sunset Boulevard to Santa Monica Boulevard);
• Holloway Drive (front Sunset Boulevard to La Cienega Boulevard);
• La Cienega Boulevard (from Sunset Boulevard to Rosewood Avenue);
• Fountain Avenue (from La Cienega Boulevard to Sweetzer Avenue);
• Delongpre Avenue (from Fountain Avenue to Flores Street).

San Vicente Boulevard (from Santa Monica Boulevard to Melrose Avenue)

Meantime, authorities are investigating a vandalism attack against Obama's campaign office in West Los Angeles.

The president is expected to leave Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Massachusetts airport sues Secret Service over Obama visit

Massachusetts airport sues Secret Service over Obama visit

Sept. 28, 2011 11:57 AM

Associated Press

BOSTON - The owner of a small Massachusetts airport has sued the Secret Service for $676,000 for damage he says was caused by President Barack Obama's security detail during a visit last year.

Robert Stetson, owner of the private Marlboro Airport, filed suit Tuesday in federal court in Worcester.

Stetson says in his lawsuit that Secret Service vehicles caused severe damage to the airport's runway and grass apron when the president's helicopter landed there in April 2010. Obama was in Massachusetts to inspect severe flooding in the area.

Stetson says the helicopter had permission to land and caused no damage, but he never gave permission for the accompanying vehicles.

Stetson says the Secret Service has denied causing damage.

A Secret Service spokesman says the agency does not comment on pending litigation.

Obama: A disaster for civil liberties

"President Obama not only retained the controversial Bush policies, he expanded on them"

"Obama reportedly promised Bush officials in private that no one would be investigated or prosecuted for torture"

"Obama failed to close Guantanamo Bay as promised. He continued warrantless surveillance and military tribunals that denied defendants basic rights. He asserted the right to kill U.S. citizens he views as terrorists. His administration has fought to block dozens of public-interest lawsuits challenging privacy violations and presidential abuses."

Source

Obama: A disaster for civil liberties

By Jonathan Turley

September 29, 2011

With the 2012 presidential election before us, the country is again caught up in debating national security issues, our ongoing wars and the threat of terrorism. There is one related subject, however, that is rarely mentioned: civil liberties.

Protecting individual rights and liberties — apart from the right to be tax-free — seems barely relevant to candidates or voters. One man is primarily responsible for the disappearance of civil liberties from the national debate, and he is Barack Obama. While many are reluctant to admit it, Obama has proved a disaster not just for specific civil liberties but the civil liberties cause in the United States.

Civil libertarians have long had a dysfunctional relationship with the Democratic Party, which treats them as a captive voting bloc with nowhere else to turn in elections. Not even this history, however, prepared civil libertarians for Obama. After the George W. Bush years, they were ready to fight to regain ground lost after Sept. 11. Historically, this country has tended to correct periods of heightened police powers with a pendulum swing back toward greater individual rights. Many were questioning the extreme measures taken by the Bush administration, especially after the disclosure of abuses and illegalities. Candidate Obama capitalized on this swing and portrayed himself as the champion of civil liberties.

However, President Obama not only retained the controversial Bush policies, he expanded on them. The earliest, and most startling, move came quickly. Soon after his election, various military and political figures reported that Obama reportedly promised Bush officials in private that no one would be investigated or prosecuted for torture. In his first year, Obama made good on that promise, announcing that no CIA employee would be prosecuted for torture. Later, his administration refused to prosecute any of the Bush officials responsible for ordering or justifying the program and embraced the "just following orders" defense for other officials, the very defense rejected by the United States at the Nuremberg trials after World War II.

Obama failed to close Guantanamo Bay as promised. He continued warrantless surveillance and military tribunals that denied defendants basic rights. He asserted the right to kill U.S. citizens he views as terrorists. His administration has fought to block dozens of public-interest lawsuits challenging privacy violations and presidential abuses.

But perhaps the biggest blow to civil liberties is what he has done to the movement itself. It has quieted to a whisper, muted by the power of Obama's personality and his symbolic importance as the first black president as well as the liberal who replaced Bush. Indeed, only a few days after he took office, the Nobel committee awarded him the Nobel Peace Prize without his having a single accomplishment to his credit beyond being elected. Many Democrats were, and remain, enraptured.

It's almost a classic case of the Stockholm syndrome, in which a hostage bonds with his captor despite the obvious threat to his existence. Even though many Democrats admit in private that they are shocked by Obama's position on civil liberties, they are incapable of opposing him. Some insist that they are simply motivated by realism: A Republican would be worse. However, realism alone cannot explain the utter absence of a push for an alternative Democratic candidate or organized opposition to Obama's policies on civil liberties in Congress during his term. It looks more like a cult of personality. Obama's policies have become secondary to his persona.

Ironically, had Obama been defeated in 2008, it is likely that an alliance for civil liberties might have coalesced and effectively fought the government's burgeoning police powers. A Gallup poll released this week shows 49% of Americans, a record since the poll began asking this question in 2003, believe that "the federal government poses an immediate threat to individuals' rights and freedoms." Yet the Obama administration long ago made a cynical calculation that it already had such voters in the bag and tacked to the right on this issue to show Obama was not "soft" on terror. He assumed that, yet again, civil libertarians might grumble and gripe but, come election day, they would not dare stay home.

This calculation may be wrong. Obama may have flown by the fail-safe line, especially when it comes to waterboarding. For many civil libertarians, it will be virtually impossible to vote for someone who has flagrantly ignored the Convention Against Torture or its underlying Nuremberg Principles. As Obama and Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. have admitted, waterboarding is clearly torture and has been long defined as such by both international and U.S. courts. It is not only a crime but a war crime. By blocking the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for torture, Obama violated international law and reinforced other countries in refusing investigation of their own alleged war crimes. The administration magnified the damage by blocking efforts of other countries like Spain from investigating our alleged war crimes. In this process, his administration shredded principles on the accountability of government officials and lawyers facilitating war crimes and further destroyed the credibility of the U.S. in objecting to civil liberties abuses abroad.

In time, the election of Barack Obama may stand as one of the single most devastating events in our history for civil liberties. Now the president has begun campaigning for a second term. He will again be selling himself more than his policies, but he is likely to find many civil libertarians who simply are not buying.

Jonathan Turley is a professor of law at George Washington University.

Obama murders American cleric in Yemen

"Civil liberties groups have questioned the government's authority to kill an American without trial" - Hell I question the American government authority to kill anybody, with a trial or without a trail.

Source

U.S. strike kills American al-Qaida cleric in Yemen

Sept. 30, 2011 06:30 AM

Associated Press

SANAA, Yemen - In a significant new blow to al-Qaida, U.S. airstrikes in the mountains of Yemen on Friday killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American militant cleric who became a prominent figure in the terror network's most dangerous branch, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits for attacks in the United States.

Yemen's Defense Ministry also Friday said another American militant, Samir Khan, who produced an English-language al-Qaida Web magazine, died in the U.S. airstrike that killed American-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

The strike was the biggest U.S. success in hitting al-Qaida's leadership figures since the May killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. But it raises questions that other strikes did not: Al-Awlaki was an American citizen who has not been charged with any crime. Civil liberties groups have questioned the government's authority to kill an American without trial.

The 40-year-old al-Awlaki was for years an influential mouthpiece for al-Qaida's ideology of holy war, with his English-language sermons urging attacks on the United States widely circulated among militants in the West.

But U.S. officials say he moved into a direct operational role in organizing such attacks as he hid alongside al-Qaida militants in the rugged mountains of Yemen. Most notably, they believe he was involved in recruiting and preparing a young Nigerian who on Christmas Day 2009 tried to blow up a U.S. airliner heading to Detroit, failing only because he botched the detonation of explosives sewn into his underpants.

Khan, in his 20s, was an American of Pakistani heritage from North Carolina who produced "Inspire," an English-language Web magazine which spread al-Qaida ideology and promoted attacks against U.S. targets, even running articles on how to put together explosives.

In one issue. Khan wrote that he had moved to Yemen and joined al-Qaida's fighters, pledging to "wage jihad for the rest of our lives."

Washington has called al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the branch in Yemen is called, the most direct threat to the United States after it plotted that attack and a foiled attempt to mail explosives to synagogues in Chicago.

In July, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said al-Awlaki was a priority target alongside Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's successor as the terror network's leader. The Yemeni-American had been in the U.S. crosshairs since his killing was approved by President Barack Obama in April 2010 - making him the first American placed on the CIA "kill or capture" list. At least twice, airstrikes were called in on locations in Yemen where al-Awlaki was suspected of being, but he wasn't harmed.

A U.S. counterterrorism official said American forces targeted a convoy in which al-Awlaki was travelling with a drone and jet attack and believe he's been killed. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Yemeni government announced that al-Awlaki was "targeted and killed" around 9:55 a.m outside the town of Khashef in mountainous Jawf province, 87 miles (140 kilometers) east of the capital Sanaa. It gave no further details.

Local tribal and security officials said al-Awlaki was travelling in a two-car convoy with two other al-Qaida in Yemen operatives from al-Jawf to neighboring Marib province when they were hit by an airstrike. They said the other two operatives were also believed dead. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.

Al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, began as a mosque preacher as he conducted his university studies in the United States, and he was not seen by his congregations as radical. While preaching in San Diego, he came to know two of the men who would eventually become suicide-hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The FBI questioned al-Awlaki at the time but found no cause to detain him.

In 2004, al-Awlaki returned to Yemen, and in the years that followed, his English-language sermons - distributed on the Internet - increasingly turned to denunciations of the United States and calls for jihad, or holy war. The sermons turned up in the possession of a number of militants in the U.S. and Europe arrested for plotting attacks.

Al-Awlaki exchanged up to 20 emails with U.S. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, alleged killer of 13 people in the Nov. 5, 2009, rampage at Fort Hood. Hasan initiated the contacts, drawn by al-Awlaki's Internet sermons, and approached him for religious advice.

Al-Awlaki has said he didn't tell Hasan to carry out the shootings, but he later praised Hasan as a "hero" on his Web site for killing American soldiers who would be heading for Afghanistan or Iraq to fight Muslims.

In New York, the Pakistani-American man who pleaded guilty to the May 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt told interrogators he was "inspired" by al-Awlaki after making contact over the Internet.

After the Fort Hood attack, al-Awlaki moved from Yemen's capital, Sanaa, into the mountains where his Awalik tribe is based and - it appears - grew to build direct ties with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, if he had not developed them already. The branch is led by a Yemeni militant named Nasser al-Wahishi.

Yemeni officials have said al-Awlaki had contacts with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the accused would-be Christmas plane bomber, who was in Yemen in 2009. They say the believe al-Awlaki met with the 23-year-old Nigerian, along with other al-Qaida leaders, in al-Qaida strongholds in the country in the weeks before the failed bombing.

Al-Awlaki has said Abdulmutallab was his "student" but said he never told him to carry out the airline attack.

The cleric is also believed to have been an important middleman between al-Qaida militants and the multiple tribes that dominate large parts of Yemen, particular in the mountains of Jawf, Marib and Shabwa province where the terror group's fighters are believed to be holed up.

Last month, al-Awlaki was seen attending a funeral of a senior tribal chief in Shabwa, witnesses said, adding that security officials were also among those attending. Other witnesess said al-Awlaki was involved in negotiations with a local tribe in Yemen's Mudiya region, which was preventing al-Qaida fighters from travelling from their strongholds to the southern city of Zinjibar, which was taken over recently by Islamic militants. The witnesses spoke on condition of anonumity for fear of reprisals and their accounts could not be independently confirmed.

Yemen, the Arab world's most impoverished nation, has become a haven for hundreds of al-Qaida militants. The country has also been torn by political turmoil as President Saleh struggles to stay in power in the face of seven months of protests. In recent months, Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida have exploited the chaos to seize control of several cities in Yemen's south, including Zinjibar.

A previous attack against al-Awlaki on May 5, shortly after the May raid that killed Osama bin Laden, was carried out by a combination of U.S. drones and jets.

The operation was run by the U.S. military's elite counterterrorism unit, the Joint Special Operations Command - the same unit that got bin Laden. JSOC has worked closely with Yemeni counterterrorism forces for years, in the fight against al-Qaida.

Top U.S. counterterrorism adviser John Brennan says such cooperation with Yemen has improved since the political unrest there. Brennan said the Yemenis have been more willing to share information about the location of al-Qaida targets, as a way to fight the Yemeni branch challenging them for power. Other U.S. officials say the Yemenis have also allowed the U.S. to fly more armed drone and aircraft missions over its territory than ever previously, trying to use U.S. military power to stay in power. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

Obama is a carbon copy clone of Emperor Bush

Source

Cheney: After Yemen strike, Obama owes apology to Bush

By Joby Warrick, Published: October 2

Former vice president Dick Cheney on Sunday called last week’s CIA drone strike against al-Qaeda operative Anwar Awlaki a validation of the George W. Bush administration’s terrorist-fighting strategy, and said that President Obama should apologize for his past criticism of those policies.

Cheney endorsed the killing of Awlaki as “justified,” despite Awlaki’s U.S. citizenship, and suggested that the Obama White House was being hypocritical when it approved a deadly strike against the New Mexico-born Awlaki while condemning Bush’s use of so-called enhanced interrogation methods of al-Qaeda prisoners.

“They’ve agreed they need to be tough and aggressive in defending the nation and using some of the same techniques that the Bush administration did,” Cheney said on CNN’s Sunday talk show “State of the Nation with Candy Crowley.” “And they need, as I say, to go back and reconsider some of the criticisms they offered about our policies.”

The Obama administration defended its decision to kill Awlaki, the first U.S. citizen to be added to the CIA’s target list, saying the al-Qaeda propagandist was part of a terrorist organization actively planning attacks on the United States. A Justice Department memo providing legal justification for the strike concluded that Awlaki was not entitled to normal legal protections because he was a combatant in a war against Americans.

But that reasoning rankled Cheney, who noted that Obama had criticized Bush-era decisions that justified the harsh treatment of al-Qaeda prisoners.

“They, in effect, said that we had walked away from our ideals, or taken policy contrary to our ideals, when we had enhanced interrogation techniques,” said Cheney, who has acknowledged supporting the Bush-era use of secret prisons and waterboarding for al-Qaeda suspects. “Now they clearly have moved in the direction of taking robust action when they think it is justified.”

Asked by host Crowley if he would like an apology, he replied: “Well, I would.”

But Cheney said that the Awlaki hit “was a good strike.”

On the same broadcast, the former head of the House Intelligence Committee called on the White House to release the legal memos justifying the use of lethal force against Awlaki. Former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) said Obama should allow a public debate about the legal basis for its fight against terrorism, avoiding what she said was excessive secrecy under Bush and Cheney.

Of Cheney’s request for an apology, she said: “I think Vice President Cheney has a rather thin skin for a guy who has been in the partisan wars as long as he has.”

American politicians do the same things! Remember when Bush flew a fighter jet to an aircraft carrier and made is infamous proclamation that "the end of major fighting was over" in Iraq.

Michele Obama also made a shopping trip to Target a week or so ago in what some people in the media say was a "set up" to make her look like one of us "working folks" instead of a royal government ruler, with expensive tastes.

Source

Putin’s Diving Exploit Was a Setup, Aide Says

By ELLEN BARRY

Published: October 5, 2011

MOSCOW — Vladimir V. Putin’s press secretary, Dmitri S. Peskov, said now famous television video of the Russian prime minister diving to the bottom of a bay and discovering ceramic jugs from the sixth century was, in fact, a setup.

In an interview released late on Tuesday, Mr. Peskov said that the jugs had actually been found by archeologists during an expedition “several weeks or days before.” They were then placed in six feet of water where Mr. Putin, dressed in a wetsuit and trailed by cameramen, could find them.

“Naturally, they either left them there, or they put them there,” Mr. Peskov said. “This is completely normal. It is totally not a pretext for malicious joy and so forth.”

The episode provoked considerable amusement among the Internet users who are most skeptical of Mr. Putin’s herculean image. In an interview with Dozhd TV, a Web-based news and analysis channel, Mr. Peskov chuckled and noted that he was on vacation when the episode was filmed, so he “could not have thought it up.”

Mr. Peskov went on to say, however, that Mr. Putin’s public relations operation is less extensive than outsiders tend to think. “In general, regarding his ‘legend’ and so forth, Putin doesn’t need press secretaries or image-makers or public relations firms or anyone else,” he said. “In fact, most of the time, he does it himself.”

2012 Presidential Elections

Tired of having an American Emperor?

Doonesbury makes fun of Ron Paul & Libertarians

Dr. Paul, your candidacy defies understanding.

Excuse me? While everyone shares some of your views, very few people share them all. Does he mean like ending the insane "war on drugs"? Ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Cutting the literally billions of dollars in government welfare programs for rich corporations in the industrial military complex? Ending the unconstitutional Patriot Act? Ending the Homeland Security and TSA, who's main functions is to grope and feel up travelers at airports? Expecting Americans to pay 30 percent of their income to support the insane, bloated Federal bureaucracy? In addition to paying another 10 percent of their income to support their bloated state government bureaucracies?

The fact is, your philosophy is pure utopianism. No modern society could function under a Libertarian government, which is why none exists. I suspect King George and all the other tyrants in the 18th century said that about the new dangled democracy brought on by the American revolution. Give Libertarianism a little time. The Libertarian Party was only founded in the 1970's.

Is there a question in there? No. What would be the point? I suspect the point is that the author of Doonesbury wants you to write off Ron Paul and Libertarianism without analyzing the it. Of course he doesn't want that to happen because it would cut into the status quo the Democratic and Republican Parties have.

Newt Gingrich's thugs attack Ron Paul supporter

Source

‘Everyone step on his toes!’ Gingrich security harasses Ron Paul supporter: Scenes from the Florida primary

By Yahoo! News

SNIP I removed the first article

WINDERMERE, Fla.--Next time, Eddie Dillard won't wear flip-flops.

Dillard, a 29-year-old Ron Paul supporter from this suburb near Orlando, arrived to vote at his precinct at Winderemere Baptist Church early Tuesday morning. Pulling into the parking lot, Dillard noticed a man outside the polling place with a Gingrich sign. He decided to run home, slip into his "Ron Paul Rocks America" T-shirt, grab a "Ron Paul 2012" sign from his garage, and return to give his candidate some representation outside the precinct after he cast his vote.

Dillard found a quiet spot along a sidewalk lined with tiny American flags and held up his sign. Little did he know, Newt Gingrich had chosen that very spot to make his first Primary Day campaign stop.

When Gingrich's bus pulled up, Dillard stood silently holding his sign and watched the news-media horde swamp the candidate. Gingrich stepped down from the bus and made a beeline for Dillard. He stopped in front of Dillard and his sign and parked himself for a round of handshaking and pictures with voters. The placement couldn't have been worse. There was Gingrich, standing with his wife Callista at their first event of the day, and a giant Ron Paul sign floated inches from their crowns.

Noticing the awkward optics, Gingrich aides and security personnel swarmed Dillard, trying to intimidate him into moving. One of Gingrich's security agents stepped in front of him. When Dillard didn't budge, the agent lifted his heeled shoe over Dillard's bare foot and dug the back of it into his skin, twisting it side-to-side like he was stomping out a cigarette. Shocked, Dillard kept his ground and took a picture of the agent with his phone, which was quickly knocked out of his hand. Dillard slipped off his flip-flop to pick up the phone with his foot, and a Gingrich supporter kicked the sandal away.

"Don't kick me!" Dillard said to the man who knocked away his sandal. More members of Gingrich's security retinue approached, shoving their shoulders and chests in front of him.

"Just block him!" a Gingrich campaign aide said. "Everyone step on his toes!"

Gingrich supporters handed a "Newt 2012" yard sign up to the front to put in front of Dillard's Paul sign. The two signs, zipping back and forth inches from Gingrich's head, circled each other in the air like a fighter jets in a dogfight.

When the candidate finished taking pictures with voters, furious Gingrich aides grilled Dillard.

"If we did this to you, you guys would be furious," said an aide before stomping back toward the bus. "They have no class. No class."

As Gingrich pulled away, Dillard looked down at his foot. With the adrenaline pumping, he hadn't noticed the pain, but now it was starting to sink in. A bruise was forming, and there was a cut mark where the security agent had dug in his heel.

"That was really something," Dillard said afterwards. "My heart's racing. Not what I expected to happen today."

--Chris Moody, 12:01 p.m. ET

Don't buzz the Emperor when you have 40 pounds of weed on your plane!!!!

Pilot detained after straying into Obama's airspace

By Dan Weikel and Ari Bloomekatz, Los Angeles Times

February 17, 2012

A small private plane carrying a load of marijuana strayed into President Obama's no-fly zone over Los Angeles on Thursday and was forced to land at Long Beach Airport after being intercepted by U.S. Air Force jet fighters, authorities said.

The four-seat Cessna entered the restricted airspace about 11 a.m. as the president was flying from Orange County to Los Angeles aboard Marine One, a military helicopter provided for his use. Federal officials said the aircraft was never close enough to endanger Obama.

Air traffic controllers tried repeatedly to contact the single-engine Cessna, authorities said, but the pilot did not respond. The plane was quickly intercepted by two F-16 fighters from March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, they said.

After the Cessna touched down, federal agents and Long Beach police detained the pilot for questioning and found what law enforcement officials described as a large amount of marijuana on board the aircraft.

The pilot was taken into custody by Long Beach police, but his identity and other details were not released because of the continuing drug investigation.

Aircraft are typically prohibited from flying within 10 miles of any plane or helicopter carrying the president.

Brian Leary, a spokesman for the United States Secret Service, which provides protection for the president, said the plane violated temporary restrictions that had been imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration for Obama's visit.

Pilots who violate airspace restricted for security reasons can face revocation of their flying certificates, FAA officials said. If illegal drugs are found onboard, the aircraft can be confiscated by law enforcement agencies.

After his morning fundraisers, Obama departed from Los Angeles International Airport about 2:45 p.m. and flew to San Francisco, White House officials said. They declined to comment on the airspace violation.

It was not clear who was piloting the Cessna, which according to federal records was manufactured in 1961. The plane's FAA registration lists the owner as David W. Major, 52, of Grover Beach, a town south of Pismo Beach in San Luis Obispo County.

Major holds a student pilot certificate issued in 2008, according to the FAA. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.

dan.weikel@latimes.com

ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com

Bend over the President wants your money!

Who Pays for Presidents to Raise Money for Re-election Campaigns? You Do!

By Jake Tapper, Richard Coolidge & Sherisse Pham

Power Players – Fri, Feb 24, 2012

President Obama and Democrats have raised $250 million dollars so far this election cycle. But who actually pays for the president's travel costs so he can get to these multimillion dollar mansions to raise money? In part, you and I do.

So far this year, President Obama has taken four trips, including 18 fundraisers outside the greater Washington, D.C. area. But during each trip he also conducted official business. That means that the White House -- in other words, taxpayers -- splits the cost with the Obama campaign.

But how do they split it? Take Obama's recent trip out west, when he travelled to three states over three days. He attended eight fundraisers, and held just two official events - a factory tour in Wisconsin and a Boeing plant visit in Seattle.

The cost of operating Air Force One is $179,750 per hour, according to the U.S. Air Force. White House Pool reports show that the plane flew for nearly 12 hours for that trip, which means the plane ride alone cost more than $2 million. That doesn't even include the cost of flying advance workers and specialty vehicles ahead of time to the president's destination, not to mention the cost of setting up security.

So what was the total cost of that trip to taxpayers?

"We'll never know," said Brendan Doherty, who tracks presidential travel as a political scientist at the United States Naval Academy.

"Even on a trip that ends up designated as 100 percent political," he added, "taxpayers end up bearing most of the cost."

The campaign does not reimburse the government for the cost of flying Air Force One, but for the equivalent cost of flying the president and his staff first class on a commercial airline.

Indeed, Presidents Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, and on and on all used this same formula. Doherty says when it comes to presidents taking advantage of this billing technicality, each one exploits it more than his predecessor.

"If we were having this conversation 20 plus years ago, we'd be talking about George H.W. Bush's record-breaking funds. Four years after that we would be talking about Bill Clinton and how he shattered George H.W. Bush's records. Eight years later we'd be talking about George W. Bush eclipsing the fundraising pace that Bill Clinton set in his first term," said Doherty. "And now eight years later Barack Obama is breaking records that George W Bush set."

So far the Obama campaign has reimbursed the government $1.5 million.

Secret Service thugs investigage woman for saying "Pretend it's Obama"

On the other hand if you are creating a jobs program for overpaid Secret Service thugs, I guess you want to arrest people for any trivial thing you can find.

Source

Obama comment made during Santorum visit probed

by Sarah Eddington - Mar. 23, 2012 04:59 PM

MONROE, La. -- A comment made by a spectator during Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum's visit to West Monroe has led to a Secret Service investigation.

Santorum was at the Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office Rifle Range on Friday morning as part of his campaign through Louisiana before Saturday's Republican presidential primary.

While Santorum was firing off some rounds from a gun at a paper target before delivering his campaign speech , an unidentified woman in the crowd shouted: "Pretend it's Obama."

Santorum, who was wearing protective shooting ear muffs at the time, later told reporters he didn't hear the woman's "absurd" remark.

"It's a very terrible and horrible remark, and I'm glad I didn't hear it," he said.

A representative from the Secret Service confirmed the incident and the fact that the agency is looking into the matter, but couldn't provide further details.

"We are conducting the appropriate investigative steps," said George Ogilvie, public affairs officer for the Secret Service.

Pilot arrested for violating Emperor Obama's air space????

In a similar incident that occurred in Long Beach a plane that violated Emperor Obama's airspace was illegally searched and the pilot was arrested after marijuana was found Source

F-16s intercept plane that strays into Obama's L.A. airspace

By Michael Winter, USA TODAY

For the second time in three months, U.S. fighter jets have intercepted a small plane that strayed into President Obama's airspace during fundraising trips to Los Angeles.

Two F-16s swooped down on the single-engine Piper 28 northeast of Los Angeles about 9:45 a.m. PT (12:45 p.m. ET) and shadowed it to a landing five minutes later, the North American Aerospace Defense Command reports.

The plane landed at the small airport in El Monte, and the pilot was detained and questioned by the Secret Service, police Lt. Dan Burlingham told the Associated Press.

"It appears, as far as we know, that it was just a mistake," he said.

NBC News says the pilot was a student and was released after questioning. But the Los Angeles Times, citing a law enforcement source, said the pilot was arrested.

The intrusion occurred as Obama was about to leave Los Angeles International Airport aboard Air Force One after his record-breaking fundraiser at the Studio City home of actor George Clooney. The president departed at 9:53 a.m. for Reno, where he spoke about the economy.

On Feb. 16, two F-16s were scrambled from March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County after a Cessna 182 entered restricted airspace as the president's helicopter was ferrying him back to LAX. Authorities found 40 pounds of marijuana on the plane when it landed in Long Beach and arrested the pilot.

Pilot who violated Emperor Obama's airspace arrested, sources say

Pilot who violated Obama's airspace arrested, sources say

May 11, 2012 | 12:19 pm

President Barack Obama returns a salute as he steps off the Marine One helicopter prior to boarding Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles.

Two F-16 military fighter jets intercepted a general aviation airplane that violated airspace restrictions as President Obama was leaving Los Angeles on Friday and guided the plane to El Monte Airport.

Law enforcement sources told The Times that Secret Service agents interviewed the pilot at El Monte Airport and that he has been arrested.

The sources said the incident appears to have been unintentional. The pilot's name was not released.

"The fighters responded to a temporary flight restriction violation by a Piper 28 aircraft," the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said in a statement. "After intercepting the aircraft, the F-16s followed it until it landed without incident, at approximately [9:50 a.m. PST] where the plane was met by local law enforcement."

Obama arrived at LAX from Cheviot Hills by helicopter, then left LAX on Air Force One at 9:53 a.m. Large parts of L.A.'s airspace were under flight restrictions because of the president's trip.

In February, a small-plane pilot who strayed into Obama’s airspace was also intercepted.

Long Beach police officials said “a large amount of marijuana” was found on board that plane.

Two F-16 fighter jets intercepted the Cessna 182 after air traffic controllers tried to contact the pilot.

The pilot did not respond and eventually landed -– with escorts -- at Long Beach Airport.

Authorities have told The Times that as much as 10 kilograms of marijuana aboard the plane was seized.

Despite concerns about traffic nightmares and possible protests, Obama's fundraiser at the home of actor George Clooney in Studio City went off without a hitch.

People, some cheering, lined the route of Obama's motorcade near Clooney's home. Some noted the president's announcement this week that he supported gay marriage.

Inside, Obama addressed the issue in his remarks at the fundraiser.

"Obviously, yesterday we made some news," he said to applause. "But the truth is it was a logical extension of what America is supposed to be. It grew directly out of this difference in visions. Are we a country that includes everybody and gives everybody a shot and treats everybody fairly, and is that going to make us stronger? Are we welcoming to immigrants? Are we welcoming to people who aren't like us -- does that make us stronger? I believe it does. So that's what's at stake."

Even in the celebrity-laden neighborhood, a presidential motorcade rolling down the street was something special.

About 200 people gathered at the corner of Fryman Canyon Road and Iredell Street to cheer as Obama glided past in a long line of black SUVs, California Highway Patrol motorcycles and other vehicles. The problem was figuring out which one the president was in.

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