Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2009

Some clips from last night's (totally hot) Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. Note especially the first one at top, which features the phenomental Marisa Miller steaming down the runway in the Harlequin Fantasy Bra, estimated to be worth at least $3 million:

Recall my earlier entries, with Marisa Miller pics and links to Victoria Secret's own videos, "Marisa Miller at Victoria's Secret Fashion Show!

The fasion show was also a contest for the newest "Runway Angel." Kylie Bisutti, featured at bottom, took the prize. Ms. Kylie's a California Girl, from Simi Valley:

See also, the Los Angeles Times, "'Victoria's Secret Fashion Show' Runway," and the Orange County Register, "Photos: Fantasy Lingerie at Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show."

P.S. Fergie of Black Eyed Peas was looking hot, right up there in the sexy-licious mix!

Salahi E-Mails Show Confusion Over State Dinner Invite

We have two new reports suggesting that Tareq and Michaele Salahi misunderstood the nature of their e-mail communications with Michele Jones, the White House appointee to the Pentagon. See MSNBC, "Party Crashers’ E-Mails Gush With Gratitude: Were Salahis Genuinely Confused About State Dinner Invitation? Maybe." Plus, from the Washington Post, "E-Mails Suggest Confusion Over State Dinner Invite":

The e-mails show that Michele S. Jones, special assistant to the secretary of defense and White House liaison, told the Salahis that the dinner was closed. But she offered to try to get them into the "arrival ceremony," presumably the daytime ceremony that kicks off a foreign leader's visit, often attended by several hundred people. The couple's lawyers told NBC that the Salahis thought this meant the dinner's receiving line.

The lawyers also told NBC that the Salahis say Jones called them the night before the dinner to say they were cleared for the receiving line. In the morning, Jones e-mailed to say that the arrival ceremony was canceled -- rain forced it inside -- but that she was still working on the state dinner. But later that day, lawyers claim, Jones left the Salahis a voice mail saying she had had no luck; but the couple, already in Washington, never got the message.

Tareq Salahi's next e-mail to Jones was a thank-you at night's end: "We ended up going to the gate to just check, in case it got approved, since we didn't know, and our name was indeed on the list." Jones's response: "Tareq you are most welcome. Delighted that you and Michaele had a wonderful time:)."

An administration official said Tuesday night that the e-mails support Jones's denial Monday that she told the couple she could get them in. "All Ms. Jones tells them is she is trying," the official said. "She never tells them yes and even leaves them a voice mail the day of saying, sorry, but it didn't happen." The Salahis, meanwhile, still can't point to "an e-mail actually inviting them."

As for Jones's final blithe note, the official said, she "responded that way to be polite," assuming the Salahis got tickets some other way.

ABC News had this piece yesterday as well, "E-Mails Show Salahis Never Got White House State Dinner Invite From Pentagon: Couple Had Claimed After E-Mails Came Out, They Would Be 'Completely Exonerated'."

Plus, from Ronald Kessler, "Secret Service Under Scrutiny for Salahi Slipup: Breach at the State Dinner Lends New Urgency to a Review of Secret Service Procedures." Referring to that piece, ChattahBox points fingers elsewhere, "State Dinner Security Lapse Mary Cheney’s Fault?"

But as any student of the presidency knows, the buck stops in the Oval Office, and even Kessler's clear about that:

New York: Your newsmax.com column implies that Pres. Obama is taking unnecessary risks with his own security. But does a president really know how lax his security is? Who reviews these operations and reports to the president? If magnometers aren't used or turned off, does a president have this kind of info? Thanks.

Ronald Kessler: The president certainly has this kind of information since my book, In the President's Secret Service, came out. Whenever I appear on TV or on the radio to do publicity for the book, people ask how can this happen and why isnt' the president doing something about it. Obama issued a statement after the security breach at the White House saying that he has "full confidence" in the Secret Service. While it's true that Secret Service agents are dedicated, brave and will take a bullet for the president, Secret Servicew management has been derelict in its duty. If the president continues to express confidence in the Secret Service without replacing the director and totally revamping the management he will be jeopardizing his own life in the opinion of many agents I have interviewed. In that respect, he will be following, unfortunately, in the footsteps of Abraham Lincolna and John F. Kennedy who also ignored advice to beef up their security [emphasis added].

I'll have more later on the deeply problematic screw-up of White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers.

President Obama's Afghanistan Speech (VIDEO)

I haven't commented because I literally flipped on the television just as President Obama was giving his last few lines:

This vast and diverse citizenry will not always agree on every issue – nor should we. But I also know that we, as a country, cannot sustain our leadership nor navigate the momentous challenges of our time if we allow ourselves to be split asunder by the same rancor and cynicism and partisanship that has in recent times poisoned our national discourse.

It is easy to forget that when this war began, we were united – bound together by the fresh memory of a horrific attack, and by the determination to defend our homeland and the values we hold dear. I refuse to accept the notion that we cannot summon that unity again. I believe with every fiber of my being that we – as Americans – can still come together behind a common purpose. For our values are not simply words written into parchment – they are a creed that calls us together, and that has carried us through the darkest of storms as one nation, one people.

America – we are passing through a time of great trial. And the message that we send in the midst of these storms must be clear: that our cause is just, our resolve unwavering. We will go forward with the confidence that right makes might, and with the commitment to forge an America that is safer, a world that is more secure, and a future that represents not the deepest of fears but the highest of hopes. Thank you, God Bless you, God Bless our troops, and may God Bless the United States of America.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Actually, what I did see was a different president, and uncomfortable president, not the uplifting presdident of old. The weight of office is wearing on the man.

Ann Althouse speaks for me:

He sounded oddly stern, like he was lecturing us. Annoyed at us. The words were meant to be inspirational but there was no lift... no lift of a driving dream. Is he tired of being Obama? Or was it the vibe in the room? I don't think those West Point folk liked him too much. He made some pauses that felt awkward in advance of grudging applause, and the response at the end was minimal. The camera searched among the faces and found only grim ones. No one glowed with the fire of Obama-love.

More at Memeorandum. See especially, Fred Barnes, "A Disappointing Speech in Support of the Right Policy."

Worn-Out Tools: David Frum Joins Charles Johnson in Ideological Exile

I blogged previously on the conservative schadenfreude at Mad King Charles' final break with the right wing. So, that that's, right? Well no, actually. Now we've got David Frum pleading for Charles Johnson to think twice about his shifting allegiances:

Charles Johnson, editor of the Little Green Footballs site, has written a post declaring his personal breach with the American right.

He offers 10 reasons, but they all boil down to the same one: His outrage at the bad characters found in right-wing media and blogosphere.

And yes, there’s no shortage of bad characters. No shortage on the left-hand side either. Or the middle, for that matter. But why surrender to them? Why let them get away with their claim to define your movement? Why not stand up to them? That was Rudyard Kipling’s advice to those who felt as Johnson now feels:

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools;

These are days for stooping and building.

Look, the Kipling quote's a nice touch, but only at first blush. For all of Frum's erudition, the dude's got to know that Kipling's poetry's probably not the best for hammering home any proud conservative traditions, e.g., "The White Man's Burden" can't be thought of too well these days on either side of the ideological fence; and on the night that President Obama delivered a major address on Afghanistan, some might recall Kipling's own most dour ditty, "The Young British Soldier":

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.

That's just great. Pinch me when C.J. joins Daily Kos in saluting the troops with "screw them."

Besides, that last line in the poem, "build ‘em up with worn-out tools ..." Well, also not the best choice of words for Charles Johnson, now being extolled by the radical left for his virtues. So, confer Urban Dictionary's entry for "tool":

Someone who is a complete idiot/ one who is used by other people, and usually dosen't even realize it/ someone who can't think for themselves/ an asshat.

I'm not picking on David Frum. I know he's a former Reagan speechwriter and all that. But at a time with conservatives are doing extremely well in opposing this administration AND winning elections, it's hardly productive for former right-wing hot shots to join with the other side.

Charles Johnson Completes Auto-Excommunication From the Entire Conservative Blogosphere

I guess this completes the circle, "Why I Parted Ways With The Right."

I was never that big a fan of Charles Johnson, but last year I was amazed at his ability to weed out the most vile comments and posts at Daily Kos, and so I visited there routinely. C.J. hadn't fully transmogrified into the premiere enemy of everything-not-LGF, but the writing was on the wall with the early attacks on Pamela Geller, and the wierd denunciation of must about any European criticism of Islam as "fascism."

Anyway, there's lots of attention to C.J. auth-excommunication. See ...

Ace of Spades HQ, "Obligatory: Charles Johnson Makes it Official."

Another Black Conservative, "Little Green Footballs Officially Goes Left."

The Daley Gator, "Charles Johnson is not man enough to watch SEC football."

Da TechGuy, "FLASH! Charles Johnson trolls for hits: Lobbies to be an MSNBC regular…"

Gold-Plated Witch on Wheels, "Charles Johnson Explains Why He Parted Ways with Right Wing Nuts."

Indecision Forever, "Little Green Footballs Joins the Liberal Elite America Haters."

Israel Matsav, "Say it isn't so: Charles Johnson trivializes the Holocaust."

James Joyner, "Charles Johnson ‘Breaks’ From the Right."

JammieWearingFool, "Driver of Crazy Train Comes Clean."

Jawa Report, "You'readouch you'readouche Can You Do the Fandango."

Jules Crittenden, "Charles Johnson Explains The Crazy Hating."

Left Coast Rebel, "Little Green Footballs: Charles Johnson Jekyll and Hyde."

Legal Insurrection, "Someone Needs Attention."

Moonbattery, "Charles Johnson Explains Himself."

Neocon Express, "Charles Johnson is a Low-Life Who Abuses the Holocaust to Make Cheap Political Points."

Pirate's Cove, "Speaking of barking moonbat unhinged crazy...

Right Wing Nut House, "CHARLES JOHNSON’S WORLD."

Riehl World View, "For Chuckles Johnson, It's Meltdown Number Two."

Robert Stacy McCain, "Charles Johnson Parts Ways With Reality."

Saberpoint, "Charles Johnson Jumps the Lizard."

Snooper's Report, "Little Green Turtle Turds Is DOA."

Stop the ACLU, "Speaking of barking moonbat unhinged crazy..."

Tom Maguire, "Pale Riders."

YidWithLid, "A Sad Day in the Blog World The "Death" of a Legend; Little Green Footballs."

Wake Up America, "The Right's Present To The Left- Charles Johnson."

All good stuff. I especialy like the brilliant Exurban League's, "Why I Parted Ways With Little Green Footballs":

1. Calling everyone to the right of LGF "fascists," both in America (see: Pat Buchanan, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.) and in Europe (see: Vlaams Belang, BNP, SIOE, Pat Buchanan [He's European?], and 56 other microscopic splinter parties no one has ever heard of.)

2. Seeing bigotry, hatred and white supremacism in everything (see: Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Robert Stacy McCain, occasional Fox News viewers, etc.)

3. Confusing pre-Roe legal arrangements with "the Dark Ages," and faith for "fanaticism" (see: Christians, anti-abortion groups, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins, the entire religious right, etc.)

4. Support for anti-science bad craziness while pretending to be pro-science (see: creationism, climate change denialism, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, James Inhofe, etc.). And writing phrases like "anti-science bad craziness."

5. Support for Christophobic bigotry (see: Sarah Palin, Dobson, the entire religious right, etc.) ...

Check the original post for the rest.

I'm not linking, but Andrew Sullivan confirms that he and Charles were indeed separated at birth. See, "Leaving the Right."

If I missed anyone's post in the roundup, just drop your link in the comments, or send me an e-mail.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs: 'No Scientic Basis for Dispute' Over Global Warming

It's really bad. Watch the video. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs demonstrates his total amateurism in responding to questions on the CRU "Climaquiddick" scandal. World Net Daily has more, "Gibbs: 'No Dispute' on Global Warming: Dismisses 31,000 Scientists Who Signed Petition Challenging 'Consensus'."

But see also, Douglas Keenan, at Pajamas Media, "The Fraud Is Everywhere: SUNY Albany and Queens University Belfast Join Climategate":

Some of the emails leaked in Climategate discuss my work. Following is a comment on that, and on something more important.

In 2007, I published a peer-reviewed paper alleging that some important research relied upon by the IPCC (for the treatment of urbanization effects) was fraudulent. The emails show that Tom Wigley — one of the most oft-cited climatologists and an extreme warming advocate — thought my paper was valid. They also show that Phil Jones, the head of the Climatic Research Unit, tried to convince the journal editor not to publish my paper.

After my paper was published, the State University of New York — where the research discussed in my paper was conducted — carried out an investigation. During the investigation, I was not interviewed — contrary to the university’s policies, federal regulations, and natural justice. I was allowed to comment on the report of the investigation, before the report’s release.

But I was not allowed to see the report. Truly Kafkaesque.

The report apparently concluded that there was no fraud. The leaked files contain the defense used against my allegation, a defense obviously and strongly contradicted by the documentary record. It is no surprise then that the university still refuses to release the report. (More details on all of this — including source documents — are on my site.)

My paper demonstrates that by 2001, Jones knew there were severe problems with the urbanization research. Yet Jones continued to rely on that research in his work, including in his work for the latest report of the IPCC.

More at the link.

See also, the Wall Street Journal, "Climategate: The Fallout Continues from CRU Hacking," and Bret Stephens, "Climategate: Follow the Money."

Salahis Speak Out on 'Today Show', Play Victim Card: 'Our Lives Have Been Destroyed'; Matt Lauer Gives Party Crashers Free Pass on Islamist Ties!

Gateway Pundit has the headline, "The Radical Salahis Stick With Their Story – Say They Were Invited to White House."

But check the video:

The key moment is at about 1:30 minutes. Matt Lauer asks the couple if they've been "mischaracterized" by the media. Tareq and Michaele plead they've been devastated: "Our lives have been destroyed." The couple is totally evasive throughout the entire interview, and Lauer -- who asks some pointed questions -- lets these fame-seekers off the hook. He asks only one follow up question, saying he wants to be "more specific," but is stonewalled again by the Salahis. They plead the the truth will come out in the Secret Service investigation, but the couple's radical ties to ATFP never come up. Lauer drops the ball and skips any mention of the White House's epic security breach, and especially the key role that Desiree Rogers -- the Obamas' hand-groomed Social Secretary and flak-catcher -- had in creating the scandal.

Give Lauer credit for exposing the Salahis' fraud in the early part of the interview, where they refuse to respond to questions about their Pentagon e-mails. Otherwise, way too sweet of an appearance. These people are not victims. They're glamor-seekers, and stuff's hitting the fan now. As Michelle Malkin indicated today, there's lots more here than meets the eye. See, ""Crashergate, Desiree Rogers, and the Chicago Way: Land of no consequences; Update: House Panel to Hold Hearing."

More at Hot Air, "Video: Crashers Deny Crashing White House party." Also, the Los Angeles Times, "State Dinner Crashers Exchanged E-Mails with Pentagon Official." (via Memeorandum).

ADDED: Linked at Common Sense Political Thought, "Oh, the Poor Dears! See also, Camp of the Saints, "A FISHY MAIN COURSE."

Desiree Rogers to Face Homeland Security Panel: Obama's Gal at Center of Salahi Scandal; Gatecrashers Claim Pentagon Appointee Approved Dinner Invite!

From the Washington Post, "House Republicans Ask Desiree Rogers to Join Party-Crasher Hearing":

Republican members of the House Homeland Security committee have invited White House social secretary Desirée Rogers to testify Thursday, a committee aide said Monday night, about how a couple from Northern Virginia slipped into the White House last week for a state dinner, despite not being on the guest list.

Rogers acknowledged to the Associated Press last week that no one from her office was at a security checkpoint Nov. 24 to assist Secret Service agents in determining whether partygoers should be admitted to the mansion. Tareq and Michaele Salahi were waved through the checkpoint and later came face-to-face with President Obama in a receiving line.

Michael Shearer, at Swampland, tries to get Ms. Rogers' off the hook, "Piling On Desirée Rogers—Is The Social Secretary To Blame For Two Ticketless Boobs At The White House?" (via Memeorandum).

Michelle Malkin's got the devasting exposé, "Crashergate, Desiree Rogers, and the Chicago Way: Land of no consequences; Update: House Panel to Hold Hearing":

As I noted in Chapter 2 of Culture of Corruption, Rogers sees herself not merely as a party planner, but as the overseer of the White House “strategy for events.” While she pays lip service to exercising restraint in Washington (“As we go through our struggle, there is a need to be prudent”), Rogers defended the lavish “Camelot” scene that quickly became an Obama hallmark in the economically-stressed first 100 days. The celebrity-filled cocktail nights and conga lines are a means to end, she explained to National Public Radio:

“My belief is that we don’t always get everything accomplished over a meeting table,”” Rogers says. “Many times it’s over cocktails, it’s over dinner and so the other piece to our work will be what kind of events can we create?”

Fittingly, Ms. Rogers’ personal motto is laissez les bon temps rouler: Let the good times roll. With her savvy fundraising skills, she helped keep Team Obama rolling in dough during the 2008 presidential campaign. According to left-wing watchdog Public Citizen, Rogers bundled more than $200,000 for Obama and contributed $28,500 to committees supporting her good friend. A Harvard MBA and former Allstate Financial executive, Rogers spent 2004 to -2008 as head of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas, a $1.1 billion natural gas utility in Chicago. During her tenure, the utility’s parent company was sued for artificially inflating gas prices; a settlement with Illinois regulators required the firm to refund $100 million to consumers. Separate actions resulted in fines of $500,000 for a backlog of overdue meter safety inspections and $1 million for failing to properly inspect distribution pipes. In April 2009, financial disclosure forms revealed that Rogers “collected more than $1 million for her work as president of two gas companies for part of 2008. Later, she earned a $350,000 salary from Allstate Financial as president of its social-networking division, and $150,000 in board fees from Equity Residential, a real-estate investment trust in which she also holds at least $250,000 in stock.”

Rogers has known Mr. and Mrs. O for more than a decade. How did they meet? Ivy League connections – —the same connections that Michelle Obama griped would keep her “on the periphery.” Rogers’ ex-husband, John W. Rogers, Jr., played basketball with Michelle O’s brother, Craig Robinson, at Princeton. As I’ve mentioned previously, Mr. Rogers also served as a campaign finance bundler for Team Obama. The Rogerses were among 79 top fundraisers who, according to the Washington Post, tapped their personal networks to raise at least $200,000 each. The bundlers recruited a total of more than 27,000 donors to write maximum-limit checks for $2,300 each.

Plus, at the Los Angeles Times, "State Dinner Crashers Exchanged E-Mails with Pentagon Official":

Federal authorities say Tareq and Michaele Salahi were mistakenly admitted by Secret Service agents who failed to verify that they were on the guest list. But authorities acknowledged Monday that in the weeks leading up to the dinner, the Salahis traded e-mails with Michele S. Jones, a top Obama political appointee at the Pentagon, in hopes of scoring an invitation.

One source close to the investigation said the couple produced the e-mails at the security checkpoint last Tuesday to show that they had been invited to the event. The Secret Service, which has interviewed the Salahis as part of its own investigation, has obtained copies of the e-mails.

On Monday night, the White House released a statement in which Jones said she did nothing to help the couple get into the dinner.

"I did not state at any time, or imply that I had tickets for ANY portion of the evening's events," according to the statement from Jones, whose title is special assistant to the Secretary of Defense and White House liaison. "I specifically stated that they did not have tickets and in fact that I did not have the authority to authorize attendance, admittance or access to any part of the evening's activities. Even though I informed them of this, they still decided to come."

Jones, who did not return calls seeking comment, is a retired Army major who was appointed in July.

Plus, "State Dinner Crashers Waved E-Mails From Pentagon Official at Checkpoint."

Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing

Lied to threatened cheated and deceived
Hear nothing see nothing say nothing
Led up garden paths and into blind alleys
Hear nothing see nothing say nothing

*****

Listen here.

Same situation here:

I'm no "birther," but on this, Andrew McCarthy speaks for me, "Suborned in the U.S.A.: The Birth-Certificate Controversy is About Obama’s Honesty, Not Where He Was Born."

There's nothing racist about this advertisement, but to the radical left, that's raaacist!!!

Scared Monkeys isn't buying it, "Three Monkeys Racist ... More Foolishness from the Liberal LEFT ... Obama Ad with Racial Undertones, GET REAL!"

Actually, it's the Radical LEFT, but who's to quibble.

The fact is, with Barack Obama we've been lied to, threatened, cheated, and decieved, but the left wants you to Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing. And that's change you can believe in!

The Obama-Salahi Connection: Why No Invite for White House Gatecrashers?

I'm honored that my work on the Salahis was picked up by Atlas Shrugs, Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, and World Net Daily (as well as many others to whom I've linked in earlier entries).

World Net Daily's piece develops the implications of Tareq Salahi's Palestinian ties in full, "White House 'Gatecrashers' Tied to Terror Sympathizer":

But Reliapundit at the Astute Bloggers has questions: For example, why would the Salahis sneak into a state dinner if they knew the president? The Secret Service confirmed, after the gatecrashers left the party unescorted, that the couple had not been officially invited. It's now known, of course, that Barack Obama met the Salahis as far back as 2005, and the couple claims to have been in "the Obamas' glass-enclosed viewing area after an inauguration concert at the Lincoln Memorial." So, there are a lot of unanswered questions.

The intense severity of the security breach is foremost, with scrutiny focusing on the breakdown at the Secret Service. As this morning's Washington Post indicates, "Security experts called the breach an indefensible breakdown that will almost certainly lead to changes within the Secret Service ..."

But after that we're left with Tareq Salahi's shadowy ties to radical Islamists and terror-enablers, especially Columbia University's Rashid Khalidi. Certainly these relationships aren't something that the mainstream press wants to discuss. As Debbie Schlussel noted yesterday, the New York Times, in previously published reports, removed reference to Tareq Salahi's membership at the American Task Force on Palestine, an Israel-bashing group now shown as having long relations with the terrorist organizations in the Middle East. See, "NY Times Scrubs Its Own Reporting on White House Party Crasher Tareq Salahi’s Board Membership in Pro-Palestinian Terror Group."

And Media Matters doesn't want to discuss Salahi's Palestian ties either; and in fact, the Soros-backed unit describes Jim Hoft's entry on the story as a "conspiracy." See, "Gateway Pundit Concocts Conspiracy Theory Involving WH Party Crashers, Rashid Khalidi, and Obama's 'Radicalism'."

The Salahis' reasons for crashing the event are being questioned as well, and the couple's now denying any profit-motivations for their actions. See Fox News, "White House Crashers' Rep Reportedly Says They Do Not Seek Cash for Interviews." (Although Anne Applebaum's piece this morning chaulks it up to the routine climbers' quest for "wealth and fame." See, "Social Climbing With a Twist: White House Gate-Crashers in a Long Tradition.")

So why, then? It's clear that the couple's forthcoming reality show gig was already clinched (a Bravo camera crew was trailing the Salahis at the entrance to the White House). Perhaps, given the Salahis' well-advertised earlier meetings with the Obamas, lacking an invitation, the couple felt entitled to be at the dinner anyway. And if that's so, the White House had to play dumb. After Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, and Barack's long association with the sleazy Chicago underworld of ACORN thugs and (alleged) secret homosexual lovers, the last thing the president needs is for an old Palestianian pal to demonstrate open entrée at a state dinner hosting the prime minister of India.

So, perhaps besides the egregious security breakdown (which amply illustrates gross administration incompetence; no White House social-functions personnel were stationed at the gates), it's mostly a White House in damage control issue at this point. Van Jones, Anita Dunn, Bertha Lewis ... the list goes on. Maybe there's a limit to the heat the president's willing to take on his outrageous ties to ideological extremists and Palestinian lobbyists.

Fresh Conservative takes a look at this angle, "Gate Crashers or Genial Guests?":

Over the years, Barack Obama has distanced himself from the circle of extremist associates like Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko and Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Yet, while the White House denies it was the notorious Ayers on the White House visitor’s list, the cofounder of Weather Underground’s name has mysteriously disappeared from the roster.

New questions arise: could Khalidi, supporter of Palestinian terror and former Palestine Liberation Organization worker, have an ideological association to zany power couple Tareq and Michaele Salahi, crashers of the State Dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh?

Coincidentally, it appears that one half of the reality TV Washington, DC couple that allegedly busted through the security detail at the White House is Tareq Salahi of the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) Board of Directors. The American Task Force on Palestine is an inadvertent successor group of the American Committee on Jerusalem (1995-2003), to which Khalidi once served as President.

Tareq Salahi’s picture, which was still posted a week ago on the American Task Force on Palestine website, is currently deleted from the Board of Directors gallery. Yet, as cited by TPM Document Collectors, the audacious party boy remains on the Board of the American Task Force on Palestine’s website.

At the State Dinner, the Salahi’s were officially announced and took cozy photographs with the Vice President, Chief of Staff and Katie Couric. And if that weren’t stunning enough, it now appears, “President Obama met the couple…as they went through the receiving line.” The Secret Service is downplaying security threats posed by the couple, and the Salahi’s attorney Paul Gardner claims his, “clients were cleared, by the White House to be there.” If it is found out that Salahi was a valid guest, the question that deserves an answer is who granted the Khalidi-styled Director entry to the function? Specifically, because the Obama administration, on perpetual surveillance for threats posed from right-wing extremists, pro-life advocates, ex-military, and born again Christians are, together with the Secret Service, bizarrely downplaying security threats posed by the Salahi’s.

Supping around the First State Dinner table with cronies like Michaele and Tareq wouldn’t be a first for Obama, who admittedly dined on more than one occasion with the likes of Mona and Rashid Khalidi. Based on President Obama’s comfort level dining with PLO activists, its feasible that either he, or a close associate, extended the invitation to kindred Palestinian sympathizer Tareq Salahi and his wife.

Let’s review: Salahi is on the Board of Directors of the Palestinian Task Force, which has connections to the former American Committee on Jerusalem, who’s president was Rashid Khalidi. Obama is a friend and supporter of Khalidi. Then, out of nowhere the Salahi’s show up at the first White House State Dinner, and make it past high security barriers to the reception line, successfully gaining direct access to the President of the United States.

Could this be one big serendipitous twist of fate? Perhaps, but if Michaele and Tareq were indeed legitimate White House guests, such a revelation would be indicative of anti-Israeli sentiment deep within the recesses of the Obama administration, and would be more unsettling than two reality TV wannabes successfully crashing a White House party. If proven that the Salahi's are old friends of Obama, such startling news could be all that is needed to catapult the president into his own starring role in a reality show entitled, How to Dupe a Nation. The series could be a primetime special where a left wing, liberal, anti-America, Israel hating, radical socialist, swindles America into electing a barefaced impostor to the undeserved position of leader of the free world.

Leftists Reduced to Childish Whining Amid Obama-Democratic Epic Failures

James B. Webb's incessant and whiney trolling got me to thinking about how, nearly a year into the Obama administration, the radical left is still obssessed with the Bush administration, and the GOP remains the constant scapegoat for whatever happens to be the Democratic epic fail of the day.

At one of my White House gatecrasher posts yesterday, crazed JBW left a comment so totally off topic to be mind boggling:

With respect, a Republican administration is responsible for the current recession, our two open-ended and unfunded overseas wars and adding trillions to the federal deficit. The current level of outrage on the right over government spending was virtually nonexistent for eight full years before Obama took office and I find it to be the height of partisan hypocrisy.

That just creates one of those, yawn, "yeah right" moments -- especially given the existence of charts like these:

And back in May, Brian Riedl wrote that:

President Obama continues to distance himself from this "inherited" budget deficit. But the day he was inaugurated, the 2009 deficit was forecast at $1.2 trillion — meaning $600 billion has already been added during his four-month presidency (an amount that, by itself, would exceed all 2001-07 annual budget deficits). And should the president really be allowed to distance himself from the $1.2 trillion "inherited" portion of the deficit, given that as a senator he supported nearly all policies and bailouts that created it?

The president also talks of cutting the deficit in half from this bloated level. But even after the recession ends and the troops return home, he'd still run $1 trillion deficits — compared to President Bush's $162 billion pre-recession deficit. In other words, the structural budget deficit (which excludes the impacts of booms/recessions) would more than quintuple.

And even Obama's not unaware of his engorgement on the budget pie. See this morning's New York Times, "Debate on Creating Jobs, Without Raising Deficit":

While stimulus measures usually are not “paid for” by spending cuts or tax increases since that would defeat the purpose of pumping money into the economy, the fact that even liberal groups now are suggesting ways to avoid adding to the deficit shows widespread acceptance of the political if not economic danger of adding to the ever-growing national debt.

Of course, no one wants to increase the size of the deficit, and no one's as good at doing so than the Obama administration and the current Democratic Congress. (See also, the Washington Post, "In Health-Care reform, No Deficit Cure," via Memeorandum.)

In any case, the other example of GOP scapegoating is the freaking unreal post yesterday on the Salahi dinner-crashers, "Before Obama Met Salahi, George Met Jack." Shorter Crooks and Liars: The virtually catastrophic state dinner gate-crashing crisis is nothing compared to George Bush's long-forgotten relationship to the convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff now doing time in a federal correctional facility in Maryland, or something ...

Dumb Democrats, JBW too.