It’s not exactly a secret Obama is reaping the rewards of the counter-terror programs Bush put in place after 9/11.

(Politico) — Americans see the Republican Party as better able to protect the country from external threats, according to a new Gallup poll. The poll was released on the same day the Obama administration confirmed the death of Anwar al-Awlaki, a high-profile terror suspect in Yemen.

Forty-nine percent of respondents said Republicans were better at “protecting the country from international terrorism and military threats” than Democrats. Thirty-eight percent said they believed Democrats were better at protecting the country from terror threats.

Over the past decade, Democrats were seen as better for economic prosperity than the Republicans. That continued until 2010, when the GOP overtook Democrats on the issue.

This year, respondents said that Republicans were better than Democrats for prosperity by a margin of 48 percent to 39 percent.

But the poll also shows widespread dissatisfaction with both parties. Fifty-five percent of respondents said that two major parties do “such a poor job that a third major party is needed.” Only 38 percent said that the two parties were doing an adequate job.

In related news, Allah is running low on virgins.

On an operations level, this would be a bigger score than al-Awlaki.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two US officials say the drone strike in Yemen that killed Anward al-Awlaki appears to have also killed al-Qaida’s top Saudi bomb-maker.

Officials say intelligence indicates Ibrahim al-Asiri also died in the attack. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the death has not been officially confirmed.

Al-Asiri is the bomb-maker believed to have made the explosives used in the foiled Christmas Day airline attack in 2009 and last year’s attempted cargo plane bombing.

Al-Asiri’s death would make the attack perhaps the most successful single drone strike ever.

Socialists are so cute before they grow up and destroy once prosperous countries.

“I will ax the rich people to give some of their money to the government and ax the government to give the people, who really need the money.”

Via Greg Hengler who adds:

No doubt these kids are hearing this stuff at home and at school. But, hey, it’s left-wing ideology so it can’t be labeled as “brainwashing.” Ax their parents and teachers.

Thanks to everyone for making September the site’s best month ever. You guys make WZ what it is and are the ones responsible for the growth, so my hat’s off to you — a sincere thank you from the bottom of my heart.

And a special welcome to all the new readers, please make yourselves at home.

It’s almost as though they want to paint an entirely different picture than that of the Queen flashing her $42,150 diamond cuffs.

. . . “She always jokes about my motorcade. She gets embarrassed when she goes out with me because there’s an ambulance and a caboose and a dogsled. It trails for about a mile behind me,” he quipped.

Wow, really, does he actually think anyone out there believes that? The woman wears $540 sneakers to a food bank, paints wearing a $200 t-shirt and has spent a reported $10 million in taxpayer dollars going on vacations.

(ABC News) — Asked about first lady Michelle Obama’s incognito trip to Target Thursday, President Obama joked today that he doesn’t envy her secretive shopping. “I don’t even want to shop. All I want to do is take a walk,” he told Philadelphia radio host Michael Smerconish.

The day after the first lady was spotted by photographers shopping at the discount retailer in Alexandria, Va., the president said the she always reminds him that “nothing I do is undercover.”

The president said he was glad his wife “can sneak off” because “one thing she loves to do is go shopping at Target.”

Pray for Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani.

Washington (CNN) — Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani will be put to death for several charges of rape and extortion, charges that differ greatly from his original sentence of apostasy, Iran’s semi-official Fars News agency reported Friday.

Gholomali Rezvani, the deputy governor of Gilan province, where Nadarkhani was tried and convicted, accused Western media of twisting the real story, referring to him as a “rapist.” A previous report from the news agency claimed he had committed several violent crimes, including repeated rape and extortion.

“His crime is not, as some claim, converting others to Christianity,” Rezvani told Fars. “He is guilty of security-related crimes.”

In a translated Iranian Supreme Court brief from 2010, however, the charge of apostasy is the only charge leveled against Nadarkhani.

“Mr. Youcef Nadarkhani, son of Byrom, 32 years old, married, born in Rasht in the state of Gilan is convicted of turning his back on Islam, the greatest religion the prophesy of Mohammad at the age of 19,” reads the brief.

The brief was obtained by CNN from the American Center for Law and Justice and was translated from its original Farsi by the Confederation of Iranian Students in Washington.

It goes on to say that during the court proceeding, Nadarkhani denied the prophecy of Mohammad and the authority of Islam.

“He (Nadarkhani) has stated that he is a Christian and no longer Muslim,” states the brief. “During many sessions in court with the presence of his attorney and a judge, he has been sentenced to execution by hanging according to article 8 of Tahrir — olvasileh.”

First of two fundies today.

PORTLAND — First lady Michelle Obama told hundreds of supporters today at a Portland fundraiser that the presidential election will determine the nation’s future for generations.

The election presents a stark contrast between two visions and a GOP victory will hurt working families, she said.

“Whether it’s health care or the economy or education or foreign policy, the choice we make in this election will determine nothing less than who we are as a country and who we want to be,” she said.

The 25-minute speech focused primarily on her husband’s policy initiatives, and some of those initiatives require patience, she said.

“Change that is lasting and meaningful takes time,” she said.

About 650 people paid at least $100 each to attend today’s rally, which featured appearances by the state’s top Democrats, U.S. Reps. Chellie Pingree and Mike Michaud. Donors in the “preferred” section paid $250. . .

Around 4 p.m., a seven-car motorcade brought Obama to the Portland International Jetport. She then flew to a Providence, R.I., for another fundraising event.

Before today’s Ocean Gateway event, Obama attended a smaller fundraiser at a private home in Cape Elizabeth.

Today ends the year’s third-quarter period for campaign finance reports. Obama for America, the president’s re-election campaign committee, collected more than $47 million in the quarter ending June 30 and is on track to exceed the $745 million he raised to win election in 2008.

Democrats declined to say how much Michelle Obama raised during her visit to Maine today.

Full text of her sermonette below the fold:

(more…)

Mooch to the rescue!

(OFD) — Perhaps First Lady Obamaneeds to drop by President Obama’s re-election campaign headquarters in Chicago and give some tips on healthy eating and moderation: The overworked staffers are absolutely gorging on lousy food, according to Rufus Gifford, the National Finance Director for Obama for America. Staffers have eaten a year’s worth of junk in “the past few weeks,” Gifford said today. And they’re hyper-caffeinated, too.

“We’ve all had more pizza and bad takeout in the past few weeks than anyone should have in a year,” Gifford wrote in an e-mail request for a $3 donation.

“The staff and I are working around the clock, powered by too much coffee.”

Gifford was unperturbed by the fact that he and his fellow staffers might be facing years of consequences — and huge health-care costs — from diet-related diseases. . . .

President Obama’s Administration has created a comprehensive, multi-agency attack on obesity and diet-related disease, coordinated by Mrs. Obama’s Let’s move! campaign, but apparently Obama for America hasn’t gotten the memo. Maybe it’s time for staffers to take the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award challenge, which now includes a nutrition component, Mrs. Obama announced last weekend.

Keep reading…

HT: Dan

The toxic avengers.

It’s almost like people don’t trust Obama with the economy.

(The Hill) — A majority of Americans think Republicans are more able to protect the country from terrorist threats and increase U.S. prosperity, according to a new poll released Friday.

According to the new Gallup poll, 49 percent of Americans say the Republican Party is better equipped to protect the U.S. from global military and terrorist threats while 38 percent say Democrats are better able. Since roughly 2008, most Americans have been saying that the Republican Party was more likely to do a better job protecting Americans from terrorist and international military threats.

Similarly, on maintaining economic prosperity, 48 percent choose the Republican party while 39 percent choose the Democratic party. On both military threats and prosperity, 13 percent of those surveyed said they did not have an opinion or see any difference. By contrast, in 2008, 50 percent of those surveyed by Gallup said the Democratic party was more likely to keep the country prosperous in the coming years and 39 percent said the Republicans were more likely.

(LA Times) — The race is on to tap one of the most vital sources of campaign cash — Wall Street — and the early results are not looking good for President Obama.

The president’s campaign struggled this week to sell out a fundraising dinner Friday at Manhattan’s gilded Four Seasons restaurant despite its being hosted by America’s No. 1 capitalist, Warren Buffett, according to people close to the campaign who were not authorized to speak publicly. The dinner for 100 was also a relative bargain at $10,000 a plate; recent fundraisers in Hollywood and New York have gone for $35,800 a pop.

The episode highlights a worrying trend for the Obama campaign. Wall Street, a key contributor to Obama in 2008, seems to be switching allegiances.

“His record has been one of reform and that has been an uncomfortable process for some of the major sources of political cash,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political fundraising.

Or as one big-ticket Wall Street fundraiser for Obama put it: “It’s more difficult this time around.”

The race is far from over, but Obama’s difficulties speak to his contentious relationship with the financial community. After raising $43 million from the industry in 2008, he has spent much of his first term railing against Wall Street’s excesses. Pushing for financial reform, he made a reference to “fat cat bankers” that still has executives smarting.

Obama has made three campaign swings through Manhattan in the past few months, raising money from financial industry leaders on each visit. He wants the banking industry’s support. The question is whether the bankers still want him.

Note that notwithstanding all the hyperlinks in his post below, not one of them links to the “Pledge to America” proper, which is right here.

Speaker Boehner Marks Anniversary of “Pledge to America”

WASHINGTON, DC (Sep 23) — House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) today marked the one-year anniversary of the “Pledge to America,” the governing agenda that was built by listening to and is focused on the priorities of the American people. Speaker Boehner released the following statement:

“Republicans pledged to listen to the American people and focus on their priorities: creating jobs, cutting spending, and removing barriers to private-sector job growth. We’ve kept that pledge, and will continue to keep our promise to the millions of Americans who remain out of work and the small businesses hamstrung by today’s economic uncertainty.

“In the preamble to the Pledge to America, we promised to keep faith ‘with the values our nation was founded on, the principles we stand for, and the priorities of our people.’ This pledge requires an ongoing commitment to listening to the people, allowing the House to work its will, and placing governance before politics. And while we continue to be outnumbered in Washington, we hope the President and Democrats in Congress will work with us to find common ground and help put the priorities of the American people ahead of Washington’s.”

NOTE: Republican leaders unveiled the Pledge to America at a family-owned small business in Virginia. The Pledge and its key pillars — including creating jobs, cutting spending, and changing the way Congress works — were the byproduct of the innovative America Speaking Out project which seeks feedback and ideas from the American people on legislative proposals. Learn more about the Pledge at Pledge.GOP.Gov and follow it on Facebook at Facebook.com/PledgetoAmerica.

And American Muslims wonder why people are suspicious of them.

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — At the Washington-area mosque where Anwar al-Awlaki preached a decade ago, there were few tears over the death of the influential al-Qaida figure who more than anyone gave the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center its unwanted association with international terrorism. But some found the way he was killed to be un-American.

Most worshippers at Dar al-Hijrah for Friday services said they were glad that al-Awlaki was gone — that he besmirched not only their mosque but all of Islam by calling for the deaths of innocent Americans. Others rejected both al-Awlaki’s calls for violence against Americans and the U.S. airstrike that killed him in Yemen early Friday, saying he hadn’t even been charged with a crime. And a small few were unrepentant in their support of al-Awlaki, though most were unwilling have their names attached to their views.

“I like justice to be done the normal way,” said Tarik Diap. “If you’re guilty of doing something, you have the law, you have courts. This is, for me, you’re killing someone without proving innocence or guilt.”

Hassan Mohamed, 62, said no allegations against al-Awlaki had been proven.

“I don’t know why he should be killed,” he said. “I don’t approve of my government going around the world to kill innocent people.”

Leaders of the mosque issued a statement saying that although al-Awlaki “encouraged impressionable American-Muslims to attack their own country,” they deplored “extra-judicial assassination” and believed the drone attack “sends the wrong message to law-abiding people around the world.”

Yes, another creepy campaign email, second of the day.

From: Joe Biden
Subject: What’s stopping you, Drew?
Date: September 30, 2011 4:44:52 PM EDT
To: Drew
Reply-To: info@barackobama.com

Drew —

I need to ask you one last thing before tonight’s midnight deadline:

If you know you’re going to donate to this campaign eventually, what’s stopping you from doing it right now?

If you’re going to be a part of history in 2012, it’s time to get off the sidelines.

So, before midnight, will you chip in what you can and say you’re in?

This has never been about Barack and me.

We’re just two guys. It’s folks like you out there who will decide this election.

And what you’re capable of is incredible — if you decide to do it.

https://donate.barackobama.com/Friday-Deadline

Thank you,

Joe

And this scumbag is one of Obama’s closest allies.

(CNSNews.com) — AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said that his union coalition would participate in a planned recall campaign targeting Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) — a man Trumka referred to as “Lucifer.”

“Would I support going after Lucifer?” Trumka said, after being asked if he would support a recall of Walker. “Of course we’re going to be there.”

Trumka, taking questions after delivering a speech on jobs at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. said that Walker had “overreached” by using a “contrived deficit” to try to strip public-sector unions of their collective bargaining rights.

“I mean, the guy has overreached, he’s been a bad governor,” said Trumka. “He tried to use a contrived deficit to take people out.”

Whatever you’re doing, Herman, keep it up.

(Politico) — Black voters have not been “brainwashed,” and suggesting as much — as Herman Cain and Pat Buchanan have recently — is demeaning and derogatory, Jesse Jackson said Friday.

“Those are very strong words,” the veteran civil-rights activist told POLITICO. “It’s both demeaning and insulting.”

Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and a Republican presidential candidate, on Wednesday told CNN that black voters have been “brainwashed into not being open-minded, not even considering a conservative point of view.”

“I have received some of that same vitriol simply because I am running for the Republican nomination as a conservative.,” Cain told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “So it’s just brainwashing and people not being open-minded, pure and simple.”

On Thursday, Buchanan, an MSNBC contributor, endorsed that view.

“I admire Herman Cain for standing up and going against, if you will, the conventional wisdom, and being a tough African American businessman who succeeded in a tough world,” Buchanan said.

You know who I blame? That’s right, da Joooooos!

NEW ORLEANS — After months of debate, the journalism award named for veteran White House correspondent and current Falls Church News-Press columnist Helen Thomas will remain retired. In a sharply divided vote among delegates at the Society of Professional Journalists’ national convention in New Orleans Tuesday, the national board’s January decision to retire the award after Thomas made remarks critical of Israel was upheld by an 85-71 margin.

Two resolutions to reinstate the award came before the SPJ’s convention delegates at Tuesday’s closing business session. Delegates voted down a first resolution on a voice vote, and then voted 85-71 to defeat a second resolution that was sponsored by a coalition of members.

During a half-hour floor debate, following months of extensive e-mail exchanges on the subject among members of the society, some said they favored retiring the award rather than removing Thomas’s name because it would prevent future recipients from being associated with the controversy.

“It’s not an award to honor Helen Thomas every year; it’s an award to honor members of SPJ every year,” said Jeremy Steele, a member of the society’s diversity committee. “Is it fair to the person getting the award for a cloud to be over it?”