Obama Administration

The “Occupy Wall Street” protests are spreading, and they've reached Lexington. Hundreds of people across the country have been gathering in front of banks and financial centers to protest … er, um, something. That's the problem; no one really knows exactly what they are protesting. Even the Associated Press profiled them and came to the conclusion that they don't really know what it is they are angry about - just that they are angry. I stopped by the protest in Lexington on its first day. I talked to four different people, and none of them could articulate exactly what they wanted to see accomplished.

Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) is right to call on President Obama to follow the War Powers Act vis-a-vis Libya but for all the wrong reasons, namely political opportunism. If the president folds over  the use of force in Libya, Boehner and Co. get to portray him as weak. If President Obama decides to either fight or ignore them, it is an opportunity to show him as either guilty of recklessness, contempt of the rule of law, power mongering or all of the above as part of their warmup for the 2012 election.

Have you heard the one about the analysts who were bullied by a powerful president to change their findings that a proposed clean water regulation by the federal government would cost 7,000 American coal miners their jobs? The punch line: The firms employing the analysts who refused to “soften” their numbers have been told “the contract would not be renewed,” according to testimony offered during a congressional hearing in Washington by Steve Gardner, president of ECSI, a Kentucky consulting firm and one of the project's subcontractors.

A couple of weeks ago, President Obama’s National Labor Relations Board made a ruling that sent shock waves through the American business community. They tried to tell a private-sector company that they couldn’t build a new plant in another state simply because it was a “right to work” state. For several years now, Boeing, the Seattle-based aircraft builder, had been in negotiations with its union about expanding its plant in Puget Sound, Wash., to build the new jumbo 787 Dreamliner.  The new plant would add several hundred high-paying jobs to the community.

A couple of weeks ago, President Obama’s National Labor Relations Board made a ruling that sent shockwaves through the American business community. It tried to tell a private sector company that it couldn’t build a new plant in another state simply because it was a “right-to-work” state. For several years now, Boeing, the Seattle-based aircraft builder, had been in negotiations with its union about expanding its plant in Puget Sound to build its new jumbo 787 Dreamliner. The new plant would add several hundred high-paying jobs to the community.

What began as a simple, straightforward question on Wednesday concerning the White House's secret drone program eventually turned into the boldest stance taken by any lawmaker - whether from Washington or Frankfort - in a long time. After failing to get clear assurances from the Obama administration that it would not use drones to target Americans on U.S. soil without due process or a trial, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul took to the floor of the United States Senate at 11:47 a.m. and did not yield it back until after midnight.

Dear Editor, Gil Russell's letter about the Afghanistan War is talking my kind of talk. The American people should be tired of the Obama administration's political correctness in trying to pacify Muslim terrorists into laying down their acts of terrorism against the American people. The psychiatrist at Fort Hood was a Muslim terrorist, a U.S. citizen who turned against his fellow soldiers for the sake of his fanatical religious beliefs. There is an al-Qaida threat in Afghanistan as well as here at home, just waiting to destroy our way of life, in any way possible.

Dear Editor, The Obama administration seems intent on destroying former President Bush and the Republican Party, even if they destroy our country along with them. Of course, since they are apparently intent on socialist rule, they can't afford to have a major opposition party. Their release of top secret information regarding interrogation of prisoners is treasonous. I cannot believe all of the sympathy for these murderous cut-throats. I haven't seen any pictures of any of them being beheaded, or doused with gasoline and burned.

Dear Editor, The Obama administration has been in office for two weeks. The only change that I can see is they have put our ship of state in reverse, back to the 1990s. The Clinton administration decimated our military. He once said, "I hate the military. " He failed to respond to terrorist attacks, resulting in more and increasingly deadly attacks. Teddy Roosevelt said, "Speak softly and carry a big stick. " The Clinton administration did speak softly but broke our big stick in half.