From Mike Ramirez at the New York Post today.

Obama is having yet another “press conference” tonight in an effort to save ObamaCare, and even more importantly to him, his presidency. With his popularity fading and support for his plan dropping, there is little chance that tonight will be anything more than another scripted and staged performance of empty rhetoric attended by a drooling, adoring media.

But in the hope that meaningful questions might by asked of the president, Sen. Jim DeMint has put forward his Top Five:

1. If the major provisions of the health care bills will not kick in until 2013, four years from now, why the rush to pass a thousand-page bill before the August recess, a bill you admit that you haven’t fully read yourself?

2. You have said your health care bill will cut costs and not increase the deficit. But, independent analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office contradicts both claims, saying it will raise costs and increase the deficit by $240 billion in the first ten years. What independent analysis will you provide that supports your claims and refutes CBO’s?

3. You have repeatedly said that your health care bill allows any American who likes their current employer-based plan to keep it. But the most comprehensive independent analysis available, by the Lewin Group, contradicts your claim and found your bill will force over 80 million Americans to lose their current coverage. Will you provide independent analysis to refute this study?

4. Your own record in the Senate reveals you spent years voting against nearly every reform to make health care more affordable and accessible, but this week you said that opponents of your plan are “content to perpetuate the status quo, [and] are, in fact, fighting reform on behalf of powerful special interests.” Which specific elected officials will you cite that have proposed to keep the status quo, and is that how you characterize the opposition of the 52 Blue Dog Democrats in the House and the moderate Democrats in the Senate?

5. Yes or no question: Will you guarantee pro-life Americans that, under your plan, they will not be forced to subsidize elective abortions

The American people deserve real answers, not another presidential infomercial.

And if the mainstream media continues to prop up Obama and his policies with these silly T.V. shows, instead of asking tough, relevant questions, then he will become their Waterloo, just as surely as ObamaCare will be his.

. . . ‘Obama Care Bear’?”

Sigh.

As I’ve asked before . . . Just How Dumb Does This Guy Think We ARE????

It looks like we may have our answer.

I keep asking myself on a daily basis, Just how dumb does Obama think we are?

Yesterday at an AARP town hall meeting, V.P. Biden was trotted out to repeat the lie that ObamaCare will just be an option, and we will all have the choice to continue our private medical coverage. That wasn’t too surprising.

But then Biden repeated this administration’s really big whopper that the Obama plan to take over the health care system is the only way to keep us from going bankrupt as a nation.

“Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt? The answer is yes, that’s what I’m telling you,” said Biden.

Huh???

Obama and the president’s men, among them Emanuel and Axelrod, think they are so much smarter than the rest of us that they can manipulate the American people by telling bald-faced lies that they then repeat over and over again. It’s obvious they believe we are so dimwitted that if we hear their same b***sh*t enough times, we will come to accept that it must be true.

They may have a point. Heck, I think they have poor Joe believing them.

Investor’s Business Daily discovered this latest Obama tyrannical power grab on only page 16 of the 1,018 page bill. Read the entire story here.

Obama says he will “allow” us (ain’t that just grand of him?) to retain our private insurance, but what he fails to mention is that his plan will kill the market for private individual coverage by not letting any new policies be written after the public option becomes law.

Investor’s concludes: “It took just 16 pages of reading to find this naked attempt by the political powers to increase their reach. It’s scary to think how many more breaches of liberty we’ll come across in the final 1,002.“

UPDATE:

Obama lies to liberal bloggers saying he is “not familiar” with the provision on P.16. Hear the audio.

Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas and CBS news reporter Chip Reid today grilled White House spokesman Robert Gibbs about the tightly controlled staging of Obama’s town hall meetings.

“The point is the control from here. We have never had that in the White House. And we have had some control but not this control. I mean I’m amazed, I’m amazed at you people who call for openness and transparency . . .It’s a pattern of controlling the press . . . that is shocking . . . ,” Thomas said.

Gibbs was giggly and dismissive as usual. Take a look.

To find a party near you, click on the map or visit TeaPartyDay.com for a complete list.

To stop “skyrocketing” – Obama’s word, not mine – energy costs,

Sign the petition here.

There’s been quite a bit of buzz this week on Capitol Hill about a possible national sales tax or “value-added tax”, and the Obama administration has refused to rule out the VAT to pay for its socialized medicine scheme.

The prospect of even more taxation, and regressive taxation at that,  during a time when Americans are already struggling, is appalling.

And as Neil Cavuto points out, once the government levies a tax, it never goes anywhere — but up.

From Ben Smith on Politico this morning:

On his trip to get a burger with Brian Williams at Five Guys this afternoon, the President appears to have learned of the existence of a Defense Department intelligence arm, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, from an agency employee also at the burger restaurant.

“So explain to me exactly what this National Geospatial…” Obama said, after the worker mentioned his employer, according to a video of the event.

“We work with, uh, satellite imagery,” the worker, Walter replied.

A POLITICO reader caught the exchange, which starts around 5:45 on this C-SPAN video.

The transcript:

Obama: What do you do Walter?
Walter: I work at, uh, NGA, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
Obama: Outstanding, how long you been doing that?
Walter: About six years
Obama: Yea?
Walter: Yes.
Obama: You like it?
Walter: I do, keeps me…
Obama: So explain to me exactly what this National Geospatial…uh…
Walter: Uh, we work with, uh, satellite imagery..
Obama: Right
Walter: [unintelligible] …support systems, so…
Obama: Sounds like good work.
Walter: Enjoy the weekend.
Obama: Appreciate it.

According to the Defense Department:

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a Department of Defense combat support agency and a member of the national Intelligence Community (IC). NGA develops imagery and map-based intelligence solutions for U.S. national defense, homeland security and safety of navigation.

NGA provides timely, relevant and accurate geospatial intelligence in support of national security objectives. The term “geospatial intelligence” means the exploitation and analysis of imagery and geospatial information to describe, assess and visually depict physical features and geographically referenced activities on the Earth. Geospatial intelligence consists of imagery, imagery intelligence and geospatial (e.g., mapping, charting and geodesy) information.

Guess they’re not getting much airtime in the President’s Daily Brief.

Yesterday Robert Gibbs, White House Press Secretary, went after the British press in his typical snide, snotty manner:

“I want to speak generally about some reports I’ve witnessed over the past few years in the British media,” Gibbs said. “In some ways, I’m surprised it filtered down.”

“Let’s just say if I wanted to look up, if I wanted to read a write-up of how Manchester United fared last night in the Champions League Cup, I’d might open up a British newspaper,” he continued. “If I was looking for something that bordered on truthful news, I’m not entirely sure it’d be the first pack of clips I’d pick up.”

Nile Gardiner of the The Daily Telegraph today fired back:

For all its talk of “raising America’s standing” in the world after the Bush years, the Obama administration is doing a spectacularly bad job of reaching out to its allies. Unfortunately this is the new face of America’s public diplomacy, which will only serve to alienate public opinion across the Atlantic. Congratulations Gibbs – you’ve just made an enemy out of the entire British media, quite an achievement for the man in charge of selling the President’s message.

Once again, a news outlet that isn’t slobbering over this president, e.g. talk radio, Fox News and now the British media, is targeted, labeled as lying and condemned by the White House.

This administration just can’t handle the truth.

Because the truth shall set us free — of Obama.

There appears to be more and more evidence that Obama and his henchmen targeted Chrysler dealers for closing who had contributed to the Republican party.

In an article in The Washington Examiner, Mark Tapscott asks:

How do we account for the fact millions of dollars were contributed to GOP candidates by Chrysler who are being closed by the government, but only one has been found so far that is being closed that contributed to the Obama campaign in 2008?

How indeed.

Read the rest of the article here.