Today, my mom finishes 6 weeks of radiation to treat Stage 2 breast cancer. While most people think she is quiet and shy — the fact is she probably is in some ways. But since my dad passed away roughly 10 years ago she has slowly become more confident in dealing with life’s many issues. She has negotiated a car purchase, re-modeled a bathroom and maneuvered through Medicare all on her own. But she really proved her strength when she was diagnosed with breast cancer early this summer. When Drs. Caughran and Padulla from Grand Rapids’ Lack’s Cancer Center informed…

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U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice has been on the job for 18 months now, but she doesn’t have much to show for it. Her record of accomplishments and performance on behalf of the American people is embarrassing. While Rice has been active in the social scene of Washington and The White House, a study released by the uber-serious non-profit group Security Council Report suggests that the past year has been the most inactive Security Council since 1991. Rice missed crucial negotiations on Iran’s continued enrichment of uranium, she failed to speak out when Iran was elected to the…

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It sounds as if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has had enough. Her new strong tone on North Korea is a welcome, albeit overdue, shift. The Obama Administration’s North Korea policy for the past 18 months has consisted of public relations ploys of pretending to get tough on the rogue state and a propensity to re-package the hard work of the Bush team and call it something new and improved. Her announcement that the Obama Administration will enforce the existing sanctions on nuclear related materials and luxury goods going in and out of North Korea is yet another example. While…

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the main stream media will try and tell you that tough sanctions on north korea started in 2009 with the obama administration…but they didn’t. the obama team re-packaged the bush team’s work. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/07/21/north-korean-sanctions-aim-luxury-items/

http://www.politico.com/%20grenell%20on%20shirley%20sherrod Obama’s White House is still in campaign mode. And the political appointees they hired to lead federal agencies are in campaign mode. This team isn’t governing America thoughtfully. They make quick and short term decisions based on political calculation and media coverage designed to quickly move public opinion. The Shirley Sherrod incident only highlights the partisan calculation this White House and its allies do on a daily basis. For example, Robert Gibbs’ has been biting and condescending toward Republicans and all non-Democrats from the moment he stepped on the podium. Rahm Emanuel has been caught pounding the White House’s…

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White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is a campaign style spokesman who thrives on political spin. But after almost 18 months of acting as the official White House Spokesman, he shouldn’t be allowed to spin foreign policy facts on Meet the Press without pushback from David Gregory or other journalists. On Sunday, Gibbs tried to spin the Obama Administration’s policies on Iran and North Korea by misrepresenting the facts about the support the Obama team got at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Gibbs either doesn’t understand what happened at the UN or he is lying. Gibbs repeatedly referred to…

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Grand Isle, Louisiana – Sitting on the Gulf of Mexico looking out into a vast coastline of small islands and thousands of acres of marshland gives you a great perspective as to just how difficult it will be to clean the incoming oil from plants, sand and animals of all types. The thick oil kills most everything it touches. In fact, we were instructed by Buggy Vegas’ employees at Bridge Side Marina to buy Dawn dish soap before leaving in our boat to tour the oil spill in case we touched the oil. “You have to get it off your…

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bigjournalism.com/ richard grenell

After 17 months of diplomacy, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice was only able to get 12 of the 15 countries on the United Nations Security Council to vote to place increased sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s illegal pursuit of nuclear weapons. Yesterday, on Fox News Sunday, Rice jumped to defend the Obama Administration’s lackluster performance by claiming that previous Iran resolutions were not unanimous during the Bush Administration and that there were “abstentions”. Her strategy to minimize the Bush team’s performance in order to make her own poor performance look better isn’t factual. After so much hype about…

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Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina didn’t think it would be so easy. Both women fought hard and campaigned like champions. Both Women had Republican challengers that ran aggressive campaigns against them. But both Carly and Meg won big. And both races were over shortly after 9 PM. Meg Whitman seemed to have a scary primary race developing when Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner ran a series of immigration ads in the last few weeks that made the race tense and close. Meg quickly responded with tough ads of her own to correct her record. More importantly, she never lost her cool….

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Two words: Don Imus. So where is the main stream media on Helen Thomas’ hateful words? She hasn’t been an unbiased journalist for years. Her liberal rantings and diatribes have been lamely disguised as questions and yet, because she is old and practiced, she’s been excused. Hearst should act now and send her to a silent retirement.

Where was she this time? The United Nations Security Council yesterday held an emergency Security Council meeting on Israel’s raid of a ship headed to Gaza — and the United States was represented by the deputy at the US Mission. Reporters, UN members and activists were mystified as to why Susan Rice, the American Ambassador to the UN, was a no-show to the roughly 12-hour negotiations which left a key ally fending off global criticism without the top American diplomat to help. The emergency meeting included a public meeting and a series of private consultations. The UN Security Council ultimately…

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Voters across the country are holding out-of-touch politicians accountable for their years of egocentric decisions and callous indifference to constituents. Southern California Democrat Jane Harman exemplifies the politician that voters are tired of. Harman’s career in Congress may very well end in California’s primary election on June 8th. What is clear to district voters is that Harman’s silly and childish public fight with Speaker Nancy Pelosi has neutered her ability to be effective in introducing or passing legislation. Its clear Harman won’t work with Republicans and can’t work with her own party’s leadership. She has single-handedly alienated most everyone she…

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Last week, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice called a press conference. She used her political capital and soapbox to bring together UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin to combat what she calls “a global problem.” She called on world leaders to follow her lead in bringing an end to this global scourge. As the powerful group gathered in front of the international media assembled to witness the announcement, Rice proclaimed, “It’s a killer. The suffering it causes is direct and immediate—lives lost for no reason, futures shattered in an instant. But its toll is truly…

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Charles Blow graduated from Grambling State University but now works for the New York Times as “Visual Op/Ed Columnist”. I am not sure what a visual op/ed columnist does but today’s column by Blow is neither visual nor worthy of the New York Times. Blow’s writing is choppy and vapid. His filing today is a 474 word piece of partisan whining for his favorite political party titled “Liberals in Limbo”. While conservatives won’t be shocked that Blow is on staff and writing for the Grey Lady, intellectuals everyway should demand she do better than Blow. One has to wonder, what…

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Coming on the heels of not speaking out on Iran’s election last week to the Commission on the Status of Women and three other UN Committees, Susan Rice, the sometimes American Ambassador to the UN, today didn’t even mention Libya’s name when asked about the African country’s election to the UN’s Human Rights Council. It was a softball question to Rice from a veteran UN reporter: “Some human rights groups have complained about Libya joining the Council, do you share those concerns?” Rice said that sticking with diplomatic tradition, she wouldn’t reveal how America votes. And then she went on…

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http://www.politico.com/grenell%20on%20kagan This isn’t about Kagan’s sexuality, it’s about her potential honesty. This isn’t about one picture of a woman playing softball, it’s about her truthfulness. But Kagan could end all of this by speaking up. Christine Pelosi’s post is actually laughable. This has nothing to do with being a woman. Being closeted or just being good at softball has nothing to do with the struggles real women have been through or the problems that closeted gay people have made for everyday gay Americans fighting to be treated equally. It’s actually offensive to women and to gays to minimize this issue….

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Now comes word that United States Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice wasn’t even at the UN, let alone in the committee room, when UN members voted Iran onto the Commission on the Status of Women committee. Not only was our Ambassador not in the room for the vote, she wasn’t even in the building. Wouldn’t you think that a female American Ambassador would understand the importance of standing up against a country that has some of the most hostile laws toward women? Shouldn’t Rice want to use the opportunity to highlight the regime’s record toward women? What’s also troubling…

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It must be campaign season. How else do you explain Jerry Brown’s recent fascination with investigations and allegations announced with lots of media in tow and advantageously timed to benefit traditional Democratic constituencies and issues? There is no doubt that the Brown campaign committee and political advisors are strategically planning the roll-out of official attorney general “investigations” to maximize public attention and perception. But what is most troubling about Jerry Brown’s use of the Attorney General’s office to campaign for his return to the governor’s mansion is that his cavalier press conferences, media interviews and announced investigations are only chasing…

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South Park has outraged yet another religion. Coming on the heels of offending Scientologists, Catholics, Evangelicals and just about every ethnic group born to man, Matt Stone and Trey Parker are writers who make people squirm, laugh and think. Nearly every interest group, public official and celebrity caught up in the day’s news has been used in South Park’s story line to make viewers laugh. The show is smart and thought-provoking while the jokes are crude and vulgar, and no one is immune from criticism. I like South Park because it makes me laugh when I want to just laugh….

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