Thursday, April 8, 2010

We keep playing.

GOP gathering a 'jump-start'.............

New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- Nearly 4,000 GOP insiders are descending Thursday on New Orleans for the start of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, thought by many to be the unofficial kickoff to the 2012 presidential cycle. Along with speeches from party leaders, the conference's agenda includes strategy sessions and even a GOP-themed film festival -- not to mention behind-the-scenes networking and a sampling of the city's abundant food and drink. The conference is taking place just steps from Bourbon Street. The Republican National Committee and Republican Governors Association, eager to fill their coffers in a midterm election year, also are holding fundraisers to piggyback off the gathering, which takes place every four years...Link

Obama authorizes assassination of U.S. citizen.

In late January, I wrote about the Obama administration's "presidential assassination program," whereby American citizens are targeted for killings far away from any battlefield, based exclusively on unchecked accusations by the Executive Branch that they're involved in Terrorism. At the time, The Washington Post's Dana Priest had noted deep in a long article that Obama had continued Bush's policy (which Bush never actually implemented) of having the Joint Chiefs of Staff compile "hit lists" of Americans, and Priest suggested that the American-born Islamic cleric Anwar al-Awlaki was on that list. The following week, Obama's Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair, acknowledged in Congressional testimony that the administration reserves the "right" to carry out such assassinations...Link