An invitation to the president's first state dinner is one of the highest honors a US citizen can receive, and President Barack Obama's choice of guests made it clear that although the meal was officially in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, it was unofficially in honor of the folks who got him elected.

For example, Gen. Colin Powell, who offered his endorsement to the president in the waning days of the 2008 presidential campaign made an appearance, along with CBS Anchor Katie Couric, whose hit job on former Alaska Sen. Sarah Palin marginalized one of the president's fiercest political foes.

The lack of conservative -- or even Republican representation at the dinner (Bobby Jindal and his wife were one of only two Republicans invited, and Jindal only received an invitation because he is the son of Indian immigrants) -- made it clear to just about every person on earth, with the possible exception of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari (who also was not invited), that this wasn't so much a "state" dinner as it was a "payback" dinner.

Read more...

Congressman Joe Pitts is angry.

Pitts, one of two Republicans to successfully attach an abortion amendment to the House version of the health care reform package, is seething over changes Democratic leaders in the Senate have made to the amendment's language.

"I've only had a cursory look, but basically ... it's like the Capps amendment that we had in the House version, the Pelosi bill," he tells me on the eve of tonight's Senate vote to move the legislation to the floor for debate. "It's nothing but an accounting mechanism. It still provides that public funds will subsidize abortions."

Read more...

After standing up at a health care town hall in August and challenging Republicrat Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, stay-at-home mom Katy Abram took a lot of heat from the Left (and even some left-leaning independents) questioning her motives.

As she continues to fight for her beliefs by speaking to various conservative organizations such as the Tea Party Express in Orlando, Fla., the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC, the 9/12 Rally in Lebanon, Pa. and others, Abram continues to provide inspiration for other conservative activists. She also continues to attract criticism from liberals.

Read more...

Let's not kid ourselves.

Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to return five 9/11 terror suspects to New York City to stand trial in civilian court, rather than in military commissions, was undoubtedly made with the blessing of President Barack Obama. By way of deduction, this decision has little to do with furthering the interests of justice. If that were the case, neither Holder nor Obama would have put the cases in such dire jeopardy.

Holder points to the success the Department of Justice has had in prosecuting previous terror cases in civilian courts. He points to the convictions of the so-called shoe bomber, Richard Reid, who attempted to light a bomb on board an airplane in 2001; the blind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, who conspired to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993; and Zacarias Moussaoui, who conspired to execute the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. While all three men are serving life sentences, their cases are dramatically different from the ones currently discussed in terms of both scope, magnitude and evidence collection.

For example, each of those cases were investigated by civilian authorities such as police officers and FBI agents. Additionally, most of the critical evidence was gathered on American soil. In each of those three cases, federal prosecutors had more than just the suspect's confession upon which to base their case.

Read more...