More on "The Give Act", Torture Memos, Spending Cuts that are Not, More Obama Admin Corruption

1) Obama urges citizens to undertake national service WASHINGTON – Calling on Americans to volunteer, President Barack Obama signed a $5.7 billion national service bill Tuesday that triples the size of the AmeriCorps service program over the next eight years and expands ways for students to earn money for college. "What this legislation does, then, is to help harness this patriotism and connect deeds to needs," said Obama, a former community organizer in Chicago. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090422/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_national_service 1a) New law to 'manage' 8 million 'volunteers' WND reported when the bill began its quick trip through Congress, and its original language called for a study of how best to implement a mandatory national service program for citizens of the United States (emphasis mine).  Later the language was dropped from that bill, only to appear at the same time in another legislative proposal. That plan, H.R. 1444, now is in committee. See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=95674 2) Obama open to torture memos probe, prosecution WASHINGTON – Widening an explosive debate on torture, President Barack Obama on Tuesday opened the possibility of prosecution for Bush-era lawyers who authorized brutal interrogation of terror suspects and suggested Congress might order a full investigation. Less than a week after declaring it was time for the nation to move on rather than "laying blame for the past," Obama found himself describing what might be done next to investigate what he called the loss of "our moral bearings." See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090422/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_interrogation_memos 2a) Cheney: Release interrogation success stories Argues techniques such as waterboarding yielded crucial results for U.S. …"One of the things that I find a little bit disturbing about this recent disclosure is they put out the legal memos, the memos that the CIA got from the Office of Legal Counsel, but they didn't put out the memos that showed the success of the effort," Cheney said. See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=95730 And: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8009571.stm 3) Obama’s Spending vs Obama’s Spending Cuts — in Pictures See: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/04/20/obamas-spending-vs-obamas-spending-cuts-in-pictures/ 4) Key Obama Climate Change Exchange Being Swayed by Top U.N. Officials A greenhouse gases trading system funded with the support of then-Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama, which is likely to play a major role in his $650 million cap-and-trade initiative, lists five present or former top-ranking U.N. officials on its advisory board who've had enormous influence over climate change matters -- including one who received $1 million from a convicted South Korean lobbyist. The most controversial figure of the five, Maurice Strong, was one of former Secretary General Kofi Annan's key aides at the U.N. for years until the Iraq Oil-for-Food scandal forced him to leave. Since then Strong has lived mostly in China. Calls to the exchange for comment about Strong's role, and that of other U.N. figures, were not returned. See: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/20/key-obama-climate-change-exchange-swayed-officials/ 5) EXCLUSIVE: Senator's husband's firm cashes in on crisis On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband's real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms. See: http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/21/senate-husbands-firm-cashes-in-on-crisis/ 6) Janet Napolitano said what? “And yes, when we find illegal workers, yes, appropriate action, some of which is criminal, most of that is civil, because crossing the border is not a crime per se. It is civil. But anyway, going after those as well.” ENTRY WITHOUT INSPECTION IS A CRIME: In fact, pursuant to 8 U.S.C. 1325, crossing the border illegally is a crime–a misdemeanor for the first offense and a felony for the second and subsequent offenses. But of course, ignoring or mischaracterizing the law is a very convenient way for those in power to avoid the laws they find most inconvenient. Sadly, statements such as these are also a signal that Americans will have to wait a long time before their government articulates any credible immigration enforcement policy. See: http://michellemalkin.com/2009/04/21/janet-napolitano-said-what/ 7) Obama chief Axelrod sells 'astroturfing' firm Inventor of artificial 'grassroots' efforts dismissed tea parties as fake White House senior adviser David Axelrod – who has dismissed the April 15 tea parties as "astroturf" rather than grassroots events" – stands to profit $3 million over the next five years from selling his interest in ASK Public Strategies, a Chicago public relations firm he created that many credit with having invented "astroturfing."  The term "astroturfing" refers to a practice in which a public relations firm or a corporation artificially creates an impression of grassroots support for a cause or concern. See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=95744 8) The Richer-Is-Greener Curve In my Findings column, I explain how researchers have discovered that, over the long term, being richer often translates into being greener. Many environmental problems get worse as a country first industrializes, but once it reaches a certain level of income, the trend often reverses, producing a curve shaped like an upside-down U. It’s called a Kuznets curve (in honor of the economist Simon Kuznets, who detected this pattern in trends of income inequality). See: http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/20/the-richer-is-greener-curve/ 9) Miss California: God was testing me Contestant loses pageant crown after answering 'gay' marriage question At Sunday night's Miss USA pageant, contestant Carrie Prejean was asked the one question she dreaded most, "Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage; do you think every state should follow suit?" Her answer, which suddenly has made her the center of both praise and scorn, included the words, "In my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised and that's how I think it should be – between a man and a woman." See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=95656