The Guardian’s John Crace translates the train wreck of an answer Barack Obama gave in response to a simple question.

Just goes to show you how much of Barack Obama’s image can be credited to his teleprompter.

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, was finally indicted today on federal corruption charges.

Several aides were also charged in the 75-page indictment filed late Thursday afternoon in federal court.

“Since 2002, even before he was first elected governor … Governor Rod Blagojevich and a circle of his closest aides … engaged in a scheme to deprive the people of Illinois of honest government,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Blagojevich, 52, was indicted on 16 felony counts, including racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud, extortion conspiracy, attempted extortion and making false statements to federal agents.

He allegedly abused his office in numerous matters to seek money, campaign contributions, and employment for himself and others, in exchange for official actions, including trying to leverage his authority to appoint a United States senator, U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in a statement.

Here is the full indictment.

I was wondering what kind of blunders would be committed by Team Obama overseas… well… apparently, they blundered the scheduling, and Obama thinks it is appropriate to give the Queen of England an iPod as a gift… when she already has one.

Embarrassing.

Obama may not like wiretapping terrorists to protect his country (he was a vocal opponent to the NSA terrorist surveillance program) but he has no problem nominating someone who secretly taped a conversation between his wife and their priest to use against her in divorce proceedings.

President Obama’s nominee for secretary of the Navy was involved in a divorce that drew national attention for his secret taping of a conversation between his wife and his family priest that he used against her in court proceedings.

The nominee, Ray Mabus, is a former governor of Mississippi and a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and he served in the Navy during the Vietnam War. Mr. Mabus, a Democrat, was a strong supporter of Mr. Obama in the campaign last year.

In 1998, as Mr. Mabus and his wife, Julie (now Julie Hines), sought to work out their marital problems, he surreptitiously recorded a meeting the couple had with the Rev. Jerry McBride, a mutual friend. 

So, is Obama surrounded by incompetant people who didn’t know about this, or is Obama just not concerned with someone who violated the privacy another American citizen? According to the White House, they knew.

A White House official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations on a personnel matter, said that officials who reviewed Mr. Mabus’s background knew about the messy divorce and did not view it as material to his potential duties as Navy secretary. 

In response to questions, the White House released a statement Sunday that said, “The president nominated Governor Mabus to be secretary of the Navy because he has the proven leadership and experience our nation needs to serve in this important position.”

So I guess Obama condones secreting tapings of conversations of Americans?

I guess since Mabus’s wife isn’t a terrorist and wasn’t plotting a terrorist attack it was okay.

…the government, led by comrade Obama, is telling private business how it should be run.

The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.

On Monday, President Barack Obama is to unveil his plans for the auto industry, including a response to a request for additional funds by GM and Chrysler. The plan is based on recommendations from the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, headed by the Treasury Department.

The White House confirmed Wagoner was leaving at the government’s behest after The Associated Press reported his immediate departure, without giving a reason.

General Motors issued a vague statement Sunday night that did not officially confirm Wagoner’s departure. 

Down with Big Brother. Down with Big Brother. Down with Big Brother.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Some banks want to bail out of the bail out.

The War on Terror technically ended on January 20, 2009. But now, it is is officially dead.

The end of the Global War on Terror — or at least the use of that phrase — has been codified at the Pentagon. Reports that the phrase was being retired have been circulating for some time amongst senior administration officials, and this morning speechwriters and other staff were notified via this e-mail to use “Overseas Contingency Operation” instead. 

“Recently, in a LtGen [John] Bergman, USMC, statement for the 25 March [congressional] hearing, OMB required that the following change be made before going to the Hill,” Dave Riedel, of the Office of Security Review, wrote in an e-mail. 

“OMB says: ‘This Administration prefers to avoid using the term “Long War” or “Global War on Terror” [GWOT]. Please use “Overseas Contingency Operation.'”

Overseas Contingency Operation?

It is really an embarrassment that Obama is the commander-in-chief. It is insulting to our military, and a disgrace to the memory of all the lives lost in the war on terror.

So, not only were Obama’s questions at last night’s press conference pre-selected, but he used his trusty teleprompter to help him deliver his responses.

I can recall Bush getting criticized for so-called “staged” press conferences, so, please, my liberal friends, pile on the criticisms of Obama for doing the same thing.

Obama pretends like he is accepting responsibility for the AIG bonus scandal, but, as I said before, Obama is still passing the buck.

Marc Thiessen, over at NRO’s The Corner, notes how Obama is directly responsible for the AIG bonus scandal, and not only that, he and the Democrats own it.

President Obama has expressed outrage over the AIG bailouts. “I’m angry too,” he says. He wasn’t told by the Treasury secretary for days, the White House says.

Why are Republicans letting him get away with it?

President Obama rammed through the stimulus bill — over Republican objections — that explicitly protected the AIG bonuses.

Here is the language from page H1412 of the final stimulus bill, SEC. 111. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE:

em>(iii) The prohibition required under clause (i) shall not be construed to prohibit any bonus payment required to be paid pursuant to a written employment contract executed on or before February 11, 2009, as such valid employment contracts are determined by the Secretary or the designee of the Secretary.

Not a single House Republican voted for this bill and only three Republicans in the Senate did. Obama owns it.

Let’s also keep in mind that not only was it Obama and the Democrats who wanted this pushed through quickly and without oversight, but he, Chris Dodd, and other Democrats were getting campaign cash from AIG. 

Obama isn’t outraged about the bonuses for his campaign contributors… he is outraged that the country found out.

Republican criticisms may not hold water with the faithful left… but now Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) is blaming the Obama administration for the AIG bonus scandal…

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said the Obama administration asked him to insert a provision in last month’s $787 billion economic- stimulus legislation that had the effect of authorizing American International Group Inc.’s bonuses.

Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said yesterday he agreed to modify restrictions on executive pay at companies receiving taxpayer assistance to exempt bonuses already agreed upon in contracts. He said he did so without realizing the change would benefit AIG, whose recent $165 million payment to employees has sparked a public furor.

Dodd said he had wanted to limit executive compensation at companies that got money from the government’s financial-rescue fund. AIG has received $173 billion in bailout money. His provision was changed as the stimulus legislation was negotiated between the House and Senate.

“I did not want to make any changes to my original Senate- passed amendment” to the stimulus bill, “but I did so at the request of administration officials, who gave us no indication that this was in any way related to AIG,” Dodd said in a statement released last night.

“Let me be clear — I was completely unaware of these AIG bonuses until I learned of them last week,” said Dodd, who didn’t name the administration officials who made the request.

In all fairness, Dodd is one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the Senate in 2010… and he may be trying to shift blame away from himself to save his chances of reelection, which this scandal most certainly hurts. Still, Barack Obama is responsible in that he signed the legislation that made those bonuses possible.

Sadly, Barack Obama, is not taking the blame… though he thinks he can save face by claiming to “accept responsibility.”

“Nobody here drafted those contracts (providing for the bonuses). Nobody here was responsible for supervising AIG and allowing themselves to put the economy at risk by some of the outrageous behavior that they were engaged in,” Obama said. “We are responsible, though. The buck stops with me. And my goal is to make sure that we never put ourselves in this kind of position again.”

Sorry, but signing into law a bill that allowed for those bonuses means you aren’t just responsible for the bonuses… but it means you are partially to blame. Accepting responsibility after denying any role in the situation is meaningless, especially when his signature allowed for those bonuses to happen.

Once again, Obama is passing the buck, even though he is pretending not to.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: And here’s the people who got AIG money:

Some of the donations to lawmakers include Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), $103,100;then-Senator, now President Barack Obama(D-Ill.), $101,332; then-Senator, now Vice President Joe Biden (D-Del.), $19,975; Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), $59,499; former Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), $35,965; Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), $11,000; and Sen. Max Baucus, (D-MT), $24,750.

“During that period of time when these companies were imploding and coming to the American people and asking for funds — I think political contributions coming during that time to Senator Dodd or others certainly bears further examination,” Pence told CNSNews.com.

Now, liberals, you were quick to demand that GOPers tainted with Abramoff money resign…what do you wish to do to Democrats tainted with AIG money?

If President Truman’s motto was “The Buck Stops Here,” then Barack Obama’s motto  is “Passing The Buck” … The fundamentals of Barack Obama’s hypocrisy are strong … and the culture of corruption and the 2010 elections…