Pass the barf bag.

(Politico) — The killing of Osama bin Laden and Paul Ryan’s budget plan have voters taking “a second look” at President Barack Obama heading into 2012, Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday night in New Hampshire.

“The American people now … have a crystal clear picture of how strong and decisive this president is. And that’s the last piece of the puzzle that had to be put in place for this great man,” Biden said at a party fundraising event in Nashua. “The American people will no longer confuse being contemplative with being a coward.”

That will have a wider effect on how voters think about some of Obama’s initially unpopular decisions, the vice president predicted.

“People are now beginning to take a second look at those incredibly difficult but absolutely necessary decisions the president had to make the day we walked into the West Wing,” Biden said.

Democrats have tried to frame Obama’s “gutsy call” to go forward with the Abbottabad raid as an argument for his reelection. In polls conducted in the days after the killing, his overall approval rating spiked, even as Americans gave some of their lowest marks on his handling of the economy.

Update: This is the speech that just keeps on giving.

NASHUA – Vice President Joe Biden, a two-time veteran of the New Hampshire primary, has seen the seasons change before in the Granite State. And he knows it’s ready to happen again, he told a gathering of state Democrats on Wednesday at the Radisson Hotel Nashua.

. . . “You can feel the change,” Biden noted, speaking before a crowd that included Gov. John Lynch, as well as former congressmen Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter, among other party leaders who lost their seats during last year’s elections.

“The American people get it, and they’re getting it more profoundly than ever before,” he said, his voice hushed to a dramatic whisper. “We have a leader with the backbone of a ramrod, and now the real Barack Obama … is coming into focus.”

Schultz is full of shit, he knows his career is on the line.

(Daily Caller) — Nearly 32 hours after his ill-conceived remarks about conservative talker Laura Ingraham, MSNBC’s “The Ed Show” host Ed Schultz appeared before his viewers to apologize for those remarks.

Schultz, who had called Ingraham a “right-wing slut,” first apologized to Ingraham and asked for her forgiveness, while explaining he would not be anchoring his program on Wednesday night.

“Good evening, Americans and welcome to ‘The Ed Show’ from New York tonight,” he said. “Thomas Roberts will be here tonight anchoring the program, but first want to take some time to offer an apology. On my radio show yesterday I used vile and inappropriate language when talking about talk show host Laura Ingraham. I am deeply sorry, and I apologize. It was wrong, uncalled for and I recognize the severity of what I said. I apologized to you, Laura and ask for your forgiveness.”

Keep reading…

Sometimes the truth hurts.

(The Hill) — A freshman House Republican on Wednesday singled out “most” liberal American Jews for not being sufficiently pro-Israel.

Rep. Joe Walsh (Ill.) questioned why U.S. Jews have not expressed more outrage over President Obama’s demand that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process be based around the 1967 borders, with mutually agreeable land swaps.

“The short answer is that most American Jews are liberal, and most American liberals side with the Palestinians and vague notions of ‘peace’ instead of with Israel’s well-being and security,”  Walsh wrote in an op-ed for the conservative Daily Caller.

Walsh, who is Catholic, added that the American Jewish community should be more pro-Israel.

“Like the president, the U.N., and most of Europe, too many American Jews aren’t as pro-Israel as they should be and too many share his belief that the Palestinians are victims of Israeli occupation,” he wrote. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Helen Thomas last seen nodding in approval.

(MEMRI) — Following are excerpts from an interview with Osama Hamdan, head of the Hamas Foreign Liaisons:

Osama Hamdan: Instead of one party negotiating and another conducting resistance, both parties – or rather, all the Palestinian forces – will operate within the single framework of confronting the Zionist entity, and this will not be an easy battle.

Interviewer: Will this be an armed confrontation?

Osama Hamdan: Yes, it will be an armed confrontation, as well as all other forms of struggle, including civil Intifdada against the occupation, against the wall, and against the Judaization of Jerusalem. There is no doubt, however, that the armed confrontation will continue to be the main effort and the backbone of the resistance, until the liberation of Palestine.

I think that politically, the two-state solution is over. The people who suggested this notion are the ones who say so. Therefore, trying to talk about a two-state solution again is like talking about something that is over and done with.

think that we are entering the phase of the liberation of Palestine. When we talk about the liberation of Palestine, we are talking about the notion of Return: the return of the refugees to their homeland, and the return of the Israelis to the countries from which they came.

Or something.

LONDON — Middle East envoy Tony Blair said Thursday that he believes President Barack Obama launched his peace initiative out of concern for what might happen to Israel if Palestinian statehood is endorsed by the U.N. General Assembly.

Speaking to an audience of Middle East-focused business leaders at London’s Royal Institution, the former British prime minister said that Obama was “frankly worried about the position that Israel is in.”

Blair described Obama’s initiative — rejected by Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu — as “an attempt to fill a vacuum which he sees as dangerous, particularly dangerous for Israel in the run-up to September,” when the assembly is expected to take up the issue of Palestinian statehood during the U.N.’s annual meeting.

Such a vote would be potentially damaging for the United States and Israel. Although the move is largely symbolic — the U.S. can veto any such move in the Security Council — a lopsided vote in the General Assembly would leave Washington looking isolated while rallying anti-Israel sentiment in Europe and elsewhere.

The only plans I think Ellison would be happy with involve handing our weapons over to the Taliban and walking away.

WASHINGTON – The House is currently debating a very long series of amendments to the defense authorization bill and four of Minnesota’s eight House members have amendments that will be debated on the floor.

Here are some of the highlights:

8th District Republican freshman Chip Cravaack continues his campaign to eliminate government funding for the U.S. Institute of Peace

St. Paul DFLer Betty McCollum continues her campaign against military bands. Her amendment would limit spending on professional musicians in the military to just $200 million a year, down from the current $320 million.

DFL Rep. Keith Ellison’s amendment would require the Secretary of Defense to present new war plans for Afghanistan in light of the recent death of Osama bin Laden.

I doubt Egypt’s Christians feel “Islamic sharia is the best system for non-Muslims.”

(Al-Masry) — The Muslim Brotherhood would apply Islamic sharia if it came to power, said leading Brotherhood figure Sobhi Saleh, adding that sharia protects non-Muslim citizens.

“Terms like civil or secular state are misleading,” he said. “Islamic sharia is the best system for Muslims and non-Muslims.”

Saleh apologized for his earlier statements that the Muslim Brotherhood could not recognize liberals or communists as Muslims, and that he disapproved of Muslims marrying outside the group.

How any rational adult could think socialism is the answer is beyond me.

(Daily Mail) — Doctors are prescribing drinking water for neglected elderly patients to stop them dying of thirst in hospital.

The measure – to remind nurses of the most basic necessity – is revealed in a damning report on pensioner care in NHS wards.

Some trusts are neglecting the elderly on such a fundamental level their wards could face closure orders.

The snapshot study, triggered by a Mail campaign, found staff routinely ignored patients’ calls for help and forgot to check that they had had enough to eat and drink.

Dehydration contributes to the death of more than 800 hospital patients every year.

Looks like the ACLU is doing the Obama regime’s bidding.

(Fox News) — The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit seeking to block enforcement of a new law in Indiana that targets undocumented immigrants.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, challenges the law’s expansion of local police powers to include arresting – without probable cause — immigrants who have been ordered deported and its making illegal the use of identification issued by foreign consulates.

The ACLU says the arrest provisions violate constitutional protections against arrest without probable cause. It also says that Indiana is overextending its constitutional bounds by regulating international affairs with the ID measure.

“Indiana has created a law that not only tramples on the constitutional rights of Hoosiers, but also improperly involves Indiana in areas that are clearly of federal, not state, concerns,” said Ken Falk, legal director of the ACLU of Indiana, in a statement on the organization’s website.

The law, which Gov. Mitch Daniels signed recently, is scheduled to go into effect on July 1. Like many states, Indiana drew inspiration for its measure from Arizona, which last year passed the strictest state-level immigration law in the country. Parts of it, however, have been blocked by court challenges.

Of course a 9% unemployment rate, economy going nowhere fast, $1.4 trillion deficit, $14 trillion national debt has nothing to do with it.

WASHINGTON — House Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, on Wednesday blamed most of President Barack Obama’s political problems on racism.

Clyburn, who’s from South Carolina and is a close ally of the president, offered his views in response to a question about Obama’s re-election prospects next year.

“I think they’re improving every day,” Clyburn said. “I think the president has been a good president, a great commander in chief.”

Clyburn, who met his wife at a 1960 court hearing after spending a night in jail for having engaged in a civil rights protest in Orangeburg, S.C., then brought up Obama’s race as the first black president.

“You know, I’m 70 years old,” he said. “And I can tell you; people don’t like to deal with it, but the fact of the matter is, the president’s problems are in large measure because of the color of his skin.”

Clyburn noted that he himself got hate mail, racist phone calls and offensive faxes on a regular basis. Asked how that relates to the president, Clyburn retorted: “We have the same skin color; that’s how it relates to him.”

One of the things I love about Inhofe is he’s not afraid to tell it like it is.

(BreitbartTV) — “He has never been rejected in his life, and I think there’s something — I’m not qualified to diagnose him — but there’s something wrong with a guy that is s going to go out of his way to do all these things…”

“…he is incredibly arrogant and he really believes that he can talk anybody out of anything.”

Klein’s grip on reality appears to be slipping away.

(RCP) — “It was a victory for socialism,” TIME’s Joe Klein said of last night’s election result in NY-26. A Democrat won a special election to fill a vacancy in the U.S. House from a very conservative district in New York.

For the last two years, Republicans have been lambasting Barack Obama who is right in the middle of the political spectrum, a mild liberal, as being a wild-eyed socialist. Well, there ain’t anything that he has proposed that is purely socialistic as our Medicare program; a single payer program run by the government. And the folks love it,” Klein also said.

Leftist child abuse.

(Daily Mail) — Meet Storm. With those big blue eyes, fair hair and chubby cheeks, the four-month-old is certainly adorable.

But whether this baby is a bruising boy or a blushing girl is, the parents say, a secret. In fact, they’re leaving the decision up to him – or her.

The bizarre move has led to Kathy Witterick, 38, and husband David Stocker, 39, being labelled the most politically correct family in the world.

There’s nothing ambiguous about the baby’s sex. The parents know – as do brothers Jazz, five, and Kio, two, who somehow are apparently keeping their mouths shut.

One close family friend also knows, as do the two midwives who helped deliver the baby in a birthing pool in the couple’s Toronto home on New Year’s Day.

That, however, is it. When Storm was born, the couple sent an email to the rest of their friends and family that stated: ‘We’ve decided not to share Storm’s sex for now — a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation, a stand up to what the world could become in Storm’s lifetime (a more progressive place? …).’

Their announcement, they told the Toronto Star, was at first met with silence. Then came the deluge.

Storm’s grandparents were supportive – but resented having to explain a gender-free baby to friends and co-workers.

Friends cleverly accused the couple of taking away the newborn’s right to choice by imposing their own ideology on the tiny baby.

Useful at what, being an idiot?

(ABC News) — Move over, Oprah.  Michelle Obama might be taking over.

Opening up with relationship advice, how to choose a “good husband,” self-esteem, and the attractiveness of her husband, the First Lady held a casual chat with a group of women today, dripping in girl power.

The gab session happened with a group of high school students visiting Oxford University to receive a campus tour and speak with the First Lady about their goals, career and…well, life.

There were no car giveaways. No picks for book club. But there was an awful lot of advice, emotions, and “sharing secrets,” in the words of the First Lady herself, exchanged.

First – how to choose a husband. Girls, do not have a checklist, Mrs. Obama advised.

“There are a lot of women who have the boxes. Did he go to the right school? What is his income, you know?”

The First Lady said that for her “it was none of that” which led her to choose her husband to marry.

“It was how he felt about his mother. The love he felt for his mother. His relationship to women. His work ethic,” Mrs. Obama said, “he did his work and he was good. And he was smart. And I liked that. And he was low-key and he wasn’t impressed with himself. And he was funny. And we joked a lot. And he loved his little sister.”

Those values, Mrs. Obama said, coupled with talent made her agree to call Barack Obama her husband.

“And he’s cute,” she added, “I always thought he would be useful. But I had no idea he was going to be president.”

Obama’s sitting on so much cash due to his non-stop fundraising I doubt he will even notice.

(CNBC) — The most prominent Israeli-American business leader in the United States, Haim Saban, says President Obama needs to do more to show his support of Israel in light of the President’s comments last week suggesting Israel needs to return to its pre-1967 borders to achieve peace with the Palestinians.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC, Saban, one of the biggest individual supporters to the Democratic Party and chairman of Saban Capital Group, said Obama needs to visit Israel as he has done with other countries in the Middle East.

“I’m very perplexed as to why the president, who’s been to Cairo, to Saudi Arabia, to Turkey, has not made a stop in Israel and spoken to the Israeli people, Saban said. “I believe that the president can clarify to the Israeli people what his positions are on Israel and calm them down. Because they are not calm right now.”

…Just as prickly an issue, is whether the president’s treatment of Israel will cause Saban to cut donations to Democrats. He has long been one of the largest individual donors, including giving millions of dollars to help the party build a new headquarters.

Right now, Saban doesn’t plan to donate to President Obama as he has other Democrats.

Where American troops will be more than happy to grant them their wishes of “martyrdom.”

(CNN) — Coalition forces in Afghanistan say that a recent security operation in the southeast part of the country suggests an influx of foreign fighters may be underway, just as the Taliban begins its “fighting season” against NATO troops.

And intelligence analysts say it seems a growing number of Europeans are among them.

On the night of May 8, a joint NATO-Afghan force encountered a group of militants in a place called Qalat, a district in Zabul province in southeastern Afghanistan. Ten militants were killed, according to a statement Tuesday from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The combined force “found passports and identification cards from France, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia amongst ten insurgents killed during the operation,” the statement said.

The NATO-Afghan force also detained an al Qaeda fighter of Moroccan origin who lived in Germany — and who provided details about other foreign fighters. The detainee said he had “observed foreigners from many countries converging in Pakistan to conduct attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan,” according to ISAF.

ISAF says the captured man had provided “information on the mechanics of getting foreign fighters to Afghanistan.” He said he had come through Iran — a route frequently used by al Qaeda and other jihadist groups – where he had been approached to become a suicide bomber.

The Moroccan was not identified, but news of his presence among militants will heighten worries in Germany about the number of its residents setting off to wage jihad. German authorities believe at least 220 German residents received training in Pakistan in the years after 9/11; around 40 are still suspected of being in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Others have returned to Germany and are under surveillance, according to German counterterrorism officials.

Many jihadists from Germany have joined an al Qaeda affiliate called the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. The IMU has been active in Zabul, the province where the German-Moroccan was recently captured.

He should have been fired.

(DC) — Finally the other shoe dropped on the Ed Schultz controversy on Wednesday.

In a release from MSNBC management, the network announced it would suspend Schultz for one week without pay for remarks he made on his Tuesday radio show calling conservative talker Laura Ingraham a “right-wing slut.” However, Schultz will be permitted to address the remarks on his Wednesday television show with the suspension beginning immediately afterwards:

“MSNBC management met with Ed Schultz this afternoon and accepted his offer to take one week of unpaid leave for the remarks he made yesterday on his radio program.

On his Tuesday radio program, Schultz took a shot at conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham for her criticism of President Barack Obama’s trip to Ireland, where he enjoyed a Guinness, while the Midwestern United States was being hit by severe weather.

And the hits just keep on coming.

(Daily Caller) – The Congressional Budget Office said in a new report that President Obama’s economic stimulus law will raise the federal deficit $830 billion over ten years, $43 billion more than the initially estimated cost of $787 billion.

During the law’s consideration in Congress, the Joint Committee on Taxation made the initial estimate.

CBO estimated the law lowered the unemployment rate by between .6 and 1.8 percent in the first quarter of 2011 and increased the number of people employed by between 1.2 million and 3.3 million during that same period.

Obama and congressional Democrats enacted the law, arguing it would provide a quick jolt to the economy. Republicans opposed the law, saying it would increase deficits and wasn’t designed to work quickly.

It’s almost like they were full of it back in February.

(Washington Examiner) – Zero Senate Democrats voted to move forward on President Obama’s 2012 budget proposal, and the motion to proceed on it failed by a unanimous 0-97 vote.

What this means is that thus far, no Senate Democrat has voted in favor of any budget plan.

As Guy Benson notes, this was the same Obama budget that Democrats effusively praised when it was released in February:

SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV): “President Obama’s budget is a serious attempt…” (Sen. Reid, Press Release, 2/14/11)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): “This is a responsible proposal… I believe this approach should have bipartisan support.” (Sen. Schumer Press Release, 2/15/11)

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): “I am encouraged … I applaud the President for remaining committed to innovation…” (Sen. Coons, Press Release, 2/14/11)

SEN. TOM CARPER (D-DE): “The President’s budget is an important step forward…”(Sen. Carper, Press Release, 2/14/11)

SEN. MARIA CANTWELL (D-WA): “I applaud President Obama…” (Sen. Cantwell, Press Release, 2/14/11)

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-NH): “…a responsible framework…”(Sen. Shaheen, Press Release, 2/14/11)

SEN. BILL NELSON (D-FL): “I personally think that the President’s budget is a step in the right direction.”(U.S. Senate, Finance Committee, Hearing, 2/16/11)

SEN. KENT CONRAD (D-ND): “The President’s budget gets it about right in the first year.”(Sen. Conrad, Press Release, 2/14/11)

SEN. BEN CARDIN (D-MD): “President Obama has given us a credible blueprint…” (Sen. Cardin, Press Release, 2/14/11)

SEN. KAY HAGAN (D-NC): “…a good start.” (Sen. Hagan, Press Release, 2/14/11)

SEN. HERB KOHL (D-WI): “The President’s budget is a good first step…” (Sen. Kohl, Press Release, 2/14/11)

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-NY): “… the President’s budget provides a good place to start the conversation.”(Sen. Gillibrand, Press Release, 2/14/11)

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): “…the President’s budget provides a good blueprint for achieving many of our shared goals.” (Sen. Blumenthal, Press Release, 2/14/11)

SEN. FRANK LAUTENBERG (D-NJ): “President Obama’s budget presents a careful evaluation of what our nation needs…” (Sen. Lautenberg Press Release, 2/14/11)

SEN. MAX BAUCUS (D-MT): “The President’s budget… strengthens our economy…” (U.S. Senate, Finance Committee, Hearing, 2/16/11)

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-OH): “The President’s budget proposal will put us on track…” (Sen. Brown, Press Release, 2/14/11)

SEN. AL FRANKEN (D-MN): “The President’s budget proposal is headed in the right direction…” (Sen. Franken, Press Release, 2/14/11)

SEN. TOM HARKIN (D-IA): “…the President has proposed a balanced approach…” (Sen. Harkin, Press Release, 2/14/11)

SEN. TOM UDALL (D-NM): “… it’s a solid starting point.” (Sen. Udall, Press Release, 2/14/11)

The herd is now complete.

(The Hill) — Five Republican senators jumped ship and voted against House Republicans’ 2012 budget on Wednesday.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) joined four other Republican senators who’d previously announced their opposition to the budget, which has sustained withering criticism by Democrats who say it would end Medicare as Americans currently know it.

Sens. Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) voted against it as they’d previously said they would, largely because of the reforms contained within the budget to Medicare, transforming it into a voucher-based system for Americans under the age of 55.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) also voted, as expected, against the plan because he views it as not going far enough.