So much for transparency:

One government official said State and the White House have been discussing reducing the amount of information the State Department releases about the secretary’s words and meetings, which by long tradition is more expansive than what’s released by some other agencies.

Reporters who deal with the State Department wouldn’t voice their complaints on the record. Those who spoke on background said they had enjoyed what they saw as excellent access to Clinton during a previous trip to Asia.

But the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler let some of the dissatisfaction show on his blog during the trip to Europe and the Middle East.

He reported from Sharm el-Sheikh that Clinton was the first secretary of state in seven years not to brief reporters at the beginning of a trip. “We got off the plane, wordless. This was a big deal for the press corps,” he wrote.

Of course, this could just be Obama’s way of keeping Hillary out of the spotlight…but, more likely, its a means of tightly controlling information on the slow-motion foreign policy disaster which will be Obama Administration foreign policy. After all, if you’re set to buddy up to terrorists and do all manner of things to debase America in the world, its best if the unwashed masses don’t get wind of it…

Setting the record straight on just what is at issue with Sebelius’ abortion position, and what Archbishop Naumann is doing by denying her communion:

Your Excellency: As you know the Governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius, is a Catholic with a long record of supporting abortion and has been nominated by President Obama to be the director of Health and Human Services.

Last year you wrote the governor a letter asking that she refrain from presenting herself to receive Holy Communion because she was not in communion with the Catholic Church and its teachings. Can you explain what prompted you to do this?

Archbishop Naumann: I had entered into a rather long dialogue with the governor over many months, trying as best as I could, to make her aware of the seriousness of her past actions as well as her present positions. Following our long conversations and additional actions on her part, such as vetoing a bill that was aimed at trying to regulate abortion clinics, I first asked her, privately in a letter, not to present herself for Communion for her own integrity and for her own spiritual welfare. My intention was not to make that public.

It was only subsequent to that when in March of the following year she presented herself for communion at one of our parishes and the pastor informed me that I wrote her again renewing my request. I informed her that I would make the request public because, in addition to my concern for her spiritual wellbeing, I was also very concerned about others being misled by her presenting herself as a faithful Catholic while holding positions that were completely contrary to our teaching on the sanctity of human life.

In many circumstances the media has tried to politicize the issue saying that you are abusing your pastoral authority to influence politics. How would you respond to that?

Archbishop Naumann: My intention and my aim have not been to influence politics at all. In fact the timing on all of this was really dictated by the governor’s own actions. It was not, for example, juxtaposed to an election. My concern was, first of all, for her spiritual welfare and then secondly, and equally important, to protect the rest of my flock from being misled by her actions.

Frequently I received letters from people who were outraged at how the governor continued to go to Communion and yet consistently over the years aggressively supported legalized abortion. I was not principally concerned with the people who were writing me letters because they understood the contradiction. My greater concern was the larger number of faithful who were not writing letters and who were subject to being confused and might be thinking that perhaps the Church did not really see this as all that serious of an issue. My motivation was primarily to protect the Church and her teaching, as well as to protect our people from being misled.

We Catholics were shocked at the number of Catholics hoodwinked into voting for Obama last year and the determination becomes ever stronger that, at least, no Catholic have the excuse of ignorance regarding such things. After Vatican II and Humanae Vitae there seeped into the Church the false belief that the Catholic Church wasn’t too concerned on matters of birth control and abortion – that, some how, Catholic teaching on such matters was officially the same, but not to be taken seriously. This false understanding was advanced with a rhetorical wink and a nudge by various liberal theologians, some of whom were (and are) ordained priests and bishops. This has led to confusion among many Catholics on these issues, and thus left the faithful open to various underhanded appeals by pro-abortion politicians seeking Catholic support.

Obama is just the strongest example of this sort of thing – a radical, pro-abortion leftist he yet managed to convince a large number of Catholics, including a substantial number of strongly practicing Catholics, that his pro-abortion position wasn’t as important as his positions on other aspects of Catholic social teaching, notably Obama’s support for programs allegedly designed to help the poor. What was missing was the complete understanding that it is morally worthless to provide welfare for the poor if you are also murdering as many of the poor as you can – might as well greedily keep all your money to yourself rather than engage in the hypocrisy of donating money to those you permit to survive the abortion gauntlet.

So, on we go – and Archbishop Naumann has laid it out: we are not concerned here, strictly, with politics but in ensuring that all those who voluntarily claim the Catholic faith for their own adhere to the teachings of that faith. No one is forced to be a Catholic, but if you are to take the label of Catholic and/or seek the support of Catholics, an honest adherence to genuine Catholic teaching is required. Naturally, this is treated on the left as an unwarranted breach of the separation of Church and State…but, of course, leftists who believe that sort of thing believe all sorts of other nonsense, and its best to not worry about what they think on such matters…staring too long into an insane abyss runs the risk of going insane, yourself, after all.

We’re here to impart the truth as we know it, not to curry favor with those who disagree with us.

Via NRO’s The Corner:

Sen. Judd Gregg (R, N.H.), formerly President Obama’s nominee for Commerce Secretary and the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, just castigated Obama over his budget proposal in a press conference on Capitol Hill.

“This translates to a debt-to-GDP ratio that we have not seen in this country since the end of World War II, when we were trying to pay off war debt,” he said. “If you take all of the presidents from George Washington to George Bush, and add up all of the debt they put on the books of the American people, President Obama’s plan adds more debt than that.”

Sen. Mitch McConnell, standing with Gregg, warned Democrats against passing the budget along party lines and using budget reconciliation to pass sweeping new programs. “If you do it with no bipartisan buy-in at all, then you own the whole thing.”

Its an amazingly stupid thing, this Obama plan – and it seems to be what you get when you have a Chief Executive who is a mere sock puppet while his minions are a dog’s breakfast of hacks, has-beens and wheeler-dealers…you get plans divorced from reality, but chock full of corruption. These fools are playing around with American power and wealth and they haven’t the foggiest notion that their little scams are going to eventually be paid for in American blood and treasure. They just don’t get it.

Geesh:

Gov. Paterson’s job performance ratings have crashed thorough the floor, with less than one in five New Yorkers saying he’s doing well, a new poll shows.

Just 19% of those polled gave him a positive rating, while 78% turned thumbs down, the Siena College poll found. That’s down from 51% positive and 45% negative in the same poll just two months ago.

How bad have things gone for a governor?

New York’s first black governor trails Attorney General Andrew Cuomo 55-22% among black voters in a potential 2010 primary.

If Patterson doesn’t read the writing on the wall, watch for the Democrat Powers That Be to try and force him out – Patterson on the ticket means an almost-certain GOP victory in the 2010 gubernatorial contest.

Its getting rather dicey out there for Democrats – polls show the GOP pulling even with Democrats in the “generic” Congressional ballot, independents swinging GOP, Patterson, Dodd and other Democrats in deep electoral trouble. Democrats better pray that Obama’s program works, because if things aren’t a lot better by September of next year, Democrats will be blown out at the polls.

As an aside: Obama’s program won’t work.

The thus far untold part of this story:

“Right now, you get the feeling this is all about protecting [White House Chief of Staff] Rahm Emanuel,” says a former Treasury Department lawyer, who worked in that department’s counsel’s office on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) before joining a D.C.-based law firm in February. “At the time, we were led to believe there were basically three or four people from the Administration at the table when the final deals were cut and one of them was Emanuel.”

Informal advisers to Geithner are growing increasingly frustrated, they say, that Geithner is being held up as the straw man for the public anger over the bonuses. “Just over the weekend you saw a new guy added to the target list, [White House economics adviser Larry] Summers,” says a longtime Geithner colleague at the New York Fed. “You have Dodd, Geithner, Summers, but there were other, more senior political people involved in this mess, and their names aren’t being mentioned. Why isn’t anyone asking Rahm Emanuel, ‘What meetings were you in?’ ‘What did you and the President know and when did you know it?’ Tim has some culpability, but he’s not the guy who signed off on the Dodd language. He wasn’t that empowered to do something like that.”

They have to protect Emanuel because the fall of Emanuel would be the domino closest to Obama, and it would be hard to keep Obama clean in the AIG mess if Emanuel was forced out over the scandal. The circumstantial evidence is already very strong that the sign-off on the AIG bonuses was the result of “pay for play”, Chicago-style politics; Obama can’t afford “what did the President know and when did he know it” questions about AIG. But this means that, at least for a while, Emanuel has to survive…thus the apparent tossing of Geithner and Summers under the bus.

We must keep in mind the depth upon depth of corruption we’re going to have here – we have a hopelessly corrupt Democratic party leadership which feels that an Obama Administration means a free pass. They aren’t worried about the Justice Department coming down on them, they know they can stymie any Congressional ethics probes and they figure the MSM has gotten itself too highly invested in Obama to really play the role of investigative watchdog. But the lynch pin of all this is Obama – as long as he’s safe and popular, everything else comes together, and so they have to keep the muck as far away from him as possible.

Sorry guys, just can’t think of anything to write worth reading. Have at it.

UPDATE, by Matt Margolis: At a loss for words today myself. So, I would like to call your attention to Parcbench…P op culture without the liberal bias. It launched today, so be sure to check it out.

Remember, its not really that important:

Only the light of God can overcome the great “darkness” present in “many parts of our world,” the evil represented by wars and tribal violence, but also by the egoism of men who exploit other men, leading to that hedonism which is at the source of escape into drugs, “sexual irresponsibility,” destruction of families and innocent human lives through abortion. Benedict XVI today addressed an invitation to reconciliation and hope to all of Africa, from the esplanade of Cimangola, in Luanda, Angola, where a million people gathered to participate in the great celebration…

If a million people – most of whom no doubt live in what Americans would consider impossible poverty – can gather to hear a message of hope, then we should put our financial crisis into proper perspective. It is the hope of the world – the Light of God – which will clear away the darkness of our times, and in our lives.

Fear God and nothing else in this world, my friends.

The news story:

California’s jobless rate surged in February to the highest level since 1983 while unemployment in Oregon and Nevada climbed above 10 percent for the first time in more than two decades.

Unemployment in California rose to 10.5 percent from 10.1 percent in January, its Employment Development Department reported today in Sacramento. Neighboring Oregon’s jobless rate rose a full percentage point to 10.8 percent, and Nevada’s increased to 10.1 percent.

“The West Coast is more heavily dependent on real estate and the decline there has been more pronounced” than in the rest of the U.S., said Sung Won-Sohn, an economics professor at California State University-Channel Islands in Camarillo, California. “We are not seeing any signs of stabilization in the job market.”

Unemployment across the nation may top 9 percent by the end of the year, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg, and it could go higher.

I’m guessing it will top out at 12-15% nationally, but for my Nevada I wouldn’t be surprised if 20% unemployment comes our way…tourism is down, gambling is down, Yucca Mountain has been shut down, there’s less and less demand for the products of Nevada’s mines. As for California – they seem bent in Sacramento in killing whatever golden geese are left. Tax increases when you’re bankrupt is stupid…but the Govinator and the CA legislature seem bent on it. Nary a thought given to genuine budget cuts…while the attempts of Nevada’s governor to cut the budget are being met with the usual “little, old ladies and children will die!!!!” nonsense from the usual suspects if we dare cut a penny from the budget.

It’d be nice if the Federal government was rational, but Obama and his Democrats seem determined that spending and tax increases are just what the economic doctor ordered…that plus the prospect of a massive carbon tax to fight mythical anthropogenic global warming. I’m hopeful it will change, of course – but I don’t see that happening until after the 2010 elections.

Its just spreading and spreading:

They carried signs, chanted slogans, urged motorists to honk horns. There was even a folk singer urging the audience to “take back” the country.

Sounds like your average protest, right?

The difference here: many of the protesters were political conservatives who had never felt it necessary to take to the streets before.

And yet there they were, about 300 strong, lining both sides of Main Street in front of Ballard Park on Saturday for a “Tea Party” protest against President Barack Obama’s $3.5 trillion budget and the government’s effort to “stimulate” the sagging national economy through spending.

“The primary focus is a concern over the direction the policies of the current administration are taking us,” said Andrew “Skip” March, a Ridgefield resident who helped organize the protest, news of which spread like wildfire on the Web.

“We were pleased and a little surprised by the number. We thought we’d have 100, maybe a little more,” March said…

…they urged the country to embrace the conservative principles of limited government and fiscal responsibility.

“The stimulus package, the spending bills, they have not been handled well. There is too much pork,” said Brian Blackman, 50, a tech support trainer from Ridgefield taking part in his first-ever protest.

Blackman said Barack Obama has proven himself to be just another politician who will say anything to get elected.

“He was supposed to bring positive change and he most certainly did not,” Blackman said. “If anything, he is making things worse and my kids are in serious trouble right now. The economy was in trouble before, but now we’re in serious trouble. I don’t see a bright spot and I’m worried about the future.”

Now, had you liberals actually run on a tax and spend policy instead of hiding behind rhetoric about deficit reduction and tax cuts, you might not have this problem of people having a sense of betrayal by The One…of course, had you run on that then we might be hearing of Senator Obama making speeches denouncing President McCain’s policies. But now you’ve lied in front of everyone, and the lie is being noted – and anger is growing.

UPDATE: In Connecticut, 300 show up to protest Dodd and Obama, 40 to protest AIG executives. I think we’re winning this debate.

UPDATE II: More than 4,000 showed up in Orlando!

Singer Lloyd Marcus told the crowd assembled in Lake Eola Park on Saturday that he was going to give them his take on the first days of the Obama administration.

Then he shrieked.

That pretty much summed up the mood in the park Saturday afternoon, when more than 4,000 people attended the Orlando Tea Party, a conservative rally aimed at expressing discontent with Washington.

“This is maybe the greatest single gathering of God-fearing patriots in the history of Orlando, Florida,” local conservative radio host Bud Hedinger, who emceed the event, told the crowd.

The attendees, many of whom said they’d heard about the rally on Hedinger’s radio show, brandished flags and homemade signs bearing slogans such as “Repeal the pork or our bacon is cooked” and “Obama lied, liberty died.”

“We’re really scared about what’s happening in our country,” said Debby Whisenand, 71, of Largo in Pinellas County. She waved a sign that read “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money” on one side, and “You can’t blame Bush anymore” on the other.

The disgusting tale of Dodd gets worse by the day – read this and weep, fellow Americans…and then ask the question:

How is it that we’ve tolerated this nonsense for so long?

We must put an end to this corruption, once and for all.