David Drake

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 28% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -12. That’s the lowest rating yet recorded for President Obama.

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48% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. That is the lowest level of total approval yet recorded for this President. Fifty-one percent (51%) now disapprove.

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Just 23% believe health care costs will go down if health care reform is passed. Most (53%) expect prices would rise and 50% expect the quality of care would decline.

More people believe President Barack Obama's health care plan is a bad idea, according to a recent WSJ/NBC poll.

In the poll, conducted July 24-27, 42 percent of respondents said the plan was a bad idea, while 36 percent said it was a good idea. The number of people with a negative opinion of the plan increased by 10 percent from last month and is up 16 percent from April.

From a purely political standpoint Obama has lost the healthcare message war.

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The problem really boils down to the fact people don't trust big, government-run programs to perform well, and no matter how you slice it that's what Obama and the Democrats are pushing.

“This is a president who needs a vacation,” says Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff. “His job rating is … certainly an acceptable mark. But if you look at it over time, it has [gone] south without a doubt.”

Obama's Noelani Elementary School Kindergarten records are oddly missing from the State of Hawaii Department of Education. See the above link to where local paper reports the lost records. The important feature of this conspiracy is that Kindergarten records would have contained the following:

1. Obama's REAL Birth Certificate.
2. An application with the following:
• His Legal name.
• Parents or Legal Guardians’ names.
• Date of Birth
• Place of Birth
• Vaccination Records

Conspiracy theorists contend that the loss of records is important for two additional reasons. The Department of Education does not "lose" the records of one particular student. Breeding the claim, who paid whom what sum to make this record disappear? Finally the loss prevents the release of shamefully low test scores, embarrassing Equal Opportunity advancements, and trails of fraudulent funding to hide that could possibly "excuse" the quashing of public school Kindergarten entry records. Adding to the fuel is the fact that for the rest of his life he attended very expensive private schools and has had his records legally sealed to deny the public his true life story.

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The Jakarta plot begins with Obama’s stepfather (Lolo Soetero) taking the family to Jakarta, Indonesia and enrolled him in a Catholic school (Fransiskus Assisi) as Barry Soetoro as seen on the only document that exists in the public from any of Obama’s schools. It was not released by Obama but obtained by an investigative reporter.

This document bred a whole new series of heories [sic] that Obama was adopted by Soetero and Obama became a citizen on Indonesia. Under Indonesian law, Obama could not hold dual citizenship.

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Obama’s disclosure prompted ABC News to contact the presidential candidate's campaign, which confirmed that in 1981, the year Obama transferred from Occidental College to Columbia University, Barack visited his mother and sister Maya in Indonesia. Obama then went on to Pakistan with a friend from college whose family was from that country, the campaign said. Further, it was disclosed that Obama was in Pakistan for about three weeks, said the campaign, staying with his friend's family in Karachi and also visiting Hyderabad in Southern India.

Pakistan in 1981 was under military rule. It was difficult for U.S. citizens to travel to the country without assistance. It would have been easier for someone to enter Pakistan on an Indonesian passport. If Obama indeed possessed Indonesian citizenship as a child, it is unlikely he retains such citizenship. This has never been disclosed or discussed by the Obama campaign. This posed the question about Obama's registration in Indonesia under the name "Barry Soetoro" also raises questions as to whether he adopted that name in the U.S. at any time. According to Illinois state filings, when Obama registered as an attorney in 1991, under the name Barack Obama, he attested to never using any other names or aliases.

The Kindergarten twins (Nordyke) conspiracy spun off from the “lost” kindergarten records. The question is why the Nordyke twin’s, who were born a few hours after Obama, announcement was missing from the newspaper. The theory is that they were removed so Obama’s could be inserted.

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The mother of twin’s recalls nothing of significance while she was in the hospital and can neither confirm or deny Obama and his mother were there.

New Jersey has never been short of corruption scandals, but the one that unfolded yesterday was surprising even by the standards of the state that inspired "The Sopranos."

Federal agents swept across New Jersey and New York on Thursday, charging 44 people -- including mayors, rabbis and even one alleged trafficker in human kidneys -- in a decadelong investigation into public corruption and international money laundering.

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The arrests in the public-corruption portion of the probe included the Democratic mayors of Hoboken and Secaucus, Peter Cammarano III and Dennis Elwell; Republican state Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt; and Democrat Leona Beldini, the deputy mayor of Jersey City.

Altogether, 44 people were arrested Thursday, stemming from the investigation into the sale of black-market kidneys and fake Gucci handbags that evolved into a sweeping probe of corruption in New Jersey.

Among them were 29 New Jersey public officials, including three mayors, two state assemblymen, several city council members, local commissioners and regulatory inspectors. All but one of the officeholders are Democrats.

The 911 caller who reported two men possibly breaking into the home of black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. acknowledged that they might just have been having a hard time with the door and said she saw two suitcases on the porch.

Cambridge police Monday released the 911 recording and radio transmissions from the scene.

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In her 911 call, Lucia Whalen, who works at the Harvard alumni magazine, told the operator that she was not sure what was happening.

Speaking calmly, she told the operator that she was stopped by an elderly woman who told her that she noticed two men trying to get into a house. Whalen initially said she saw two men pushing on the door.

She did not mention the race of the men until pressed by a dispatcher to describe them.

"Um, well, there were two larger men," Whalen said on the tape. "One looked kind of Hispanic, but I’m not really sure. And the other one entered, and I didn’t see what he looked like at all."

The officer who arrested Gates, Sgt. James Crowley, said in his police report that he talked to Whalen soon after he arrived at Gates’ home. "She went on to tell me that she observed what appeared to be two black males with backpacks on the porch," Crowley wrote in his report.

[the poll] for Sunday shows that 29% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President.

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Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -11. That’s the first time his ratings have reached double digits in negative territory.

Invoking an argument used by President George W. Bush, the Obama administration has turned down a request from a watchdog group for a list of health industry executives who have visited the White House to discuss the massive healthcare overhaul.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sent a letter to the Secret Service asking about visits from 18 executives representing health insurers, drug makers, doctors and other players in the debate. The group wants the material in order to gauge the influence of those executives in crafting a new healthcare policy.

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Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics said it would file suit against the Obama administration as early as today. The group already has sued the administration over its failure to release details about visits from coal industry executives.

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As a candidate, President Obama vowed that in devising a healthcare bill he would invite in TV cameras -- specifically C-SPAN -- so that Americans could have a window into negotiations that normally play out behind closed doors.

Having promised transparency, the administration should be willing to disclose who it is consulting in shaping healthcare policy, said an attorney for the citizens' group.

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"It's extremely disappointing," said Anne Weismann, the group's chief counsel. Obama is relying on a legal argument that "continues one of the bad, anti-transparency, pro-secrecy approaches that the Bush administration had taken. And it seems completely at odds with the president's commitment . . . to bring a new level of transparency to his government."

Gidget the Chihuahua, who achieved pop-culture immortality in the “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” ad campaigns run by the fast-food outlet in the 1990s, died of an apparent stroke in Santa Clarita, Calif., on Tuesday while watching television. She was 15.

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Gidget starred in Taco Bell ads for two years, beginning in late 1997. “She” became a “he” in the spots, which depicted the canine on a quest for Taco Bell fare. The tagline “Yo Quiero Taco Bell” (I want Taco Bell) passed into the lexicon, and Gidget became an instant celebrity. She showed up at movie premieres, on magazine covers, and even at the opening session of the New York Stock Exchange. A toy version sold briskly at Taco Bell’s 6,000 outlets. But the $200 million ad campaign did not do much for Taco Bell sales, and the company dropped Gidget after complaints from franchisees.

Moscow smoking ban passes: No more lighting up for bar patrons, amendment to allow designated smoking rooms is dropped/David Johnson, Moscow-Pullman Daily News

More Info: Members of the Moscow City Council voted unanimously Monday night to ban smoking in bars and private clubs. The prohibition will go into effect probably within a couple of weeks, City Attorney Randy Fife said. The ordinance will allow smoking outside bars and clubs in designated areas at least 20 feet away from main entrances.

Authorities are investigating whether Michael Jackson's death was a case of manslaughter, according to a search warrant served on the offices of the entertainer's doctor.

The search of Dr. Conrad Murray's clinic in Houston was conducted Wednesday morning by agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, two detectives from the LAPD's Robbery Homicide division and officers from the Houston Police Department, according to Murray's attorney.

Dr. Conrad Murray's lawyer, Ed Chernoff, just released a statement about today's raid at the doc's office -- saying law enforcement officials were searching for evidence "of the offense of manslaughter."

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"The search warrant authorized law enforcement to search for and seize items, including documents, they believed constituted evidence of the offense of manslaughter.

Law enforcement concluded their search around 12:30pm, and left with a forensic image of a business computer hard drive and 21 documents. None of the documents taken had previously been requested by law enforcement or the L.A. Coroner's office."

Michael Jackson's dad yesterday accused his son's doctor of being behind his death.

Joe Jackson repeated his claims of "foul play" - but went further as he pointed the finger at medic Conrad Murray.

He told US chatshow host Larry King: "The doctor gave him something to make him rest and he don't wake up no more. Something is wrong."

Joe, 79, accused Dr Murray of fleeing after his son's death in Los Angeles on June 25.

He said: "He ran away. They had to look for him for three days to find him. To me that is foul play.

"Something happened there. This wasn't just drugs. There's something else behind all of that."

You may recall that Michael Jackson's family commissioned a second autopsy on the star's body after the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office conducted one.

Well, the results are in and they are not any different.

A source with knowledge of the findings from both autopsies tells E! News that the private pathologist's findings are consistent with the county coroner's.

In addition to finding needle marks on Jackson's body, both procedures revealed a potentially lethal amount of Propofol in the late singer's system.

Propofol is a potent anesthetic administered via IV that leaves people in a largely comatose state. It should never be found outside a hospital, but it was.

Sony Pictures has paid $60 million for the rights to release a movie of footage shot during Michael Jackson's rehearsals for his This Is It concert tour, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film will hit theaters October 30. According to ther [sic] reports, AEG Live, which is said to have 80 hours of rehearsal footage at its disposal[.]

Barack Obama, who completed six months in office Monday, has a 55% approval rating in the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, putting him 10th among the dozen presidents who have served since World War II at this point in their tenures.

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"Approval ratings are absolutely critical for a president achieving his agenda," says Republican pollster Whit Ayres. For Obama, the timing of his slide in ratings is particularly unhelpful: He's intensified his push to pass health care bills in the House and Senate before Congress leaves on its August recess. He'll press his case at a news conference at 8 p.m. Wednesday. His overall approval rating has dropped 9 percentage points since his inauguration in January, and his disapproval rate has jumped 16 points, to 41%.

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More people disapprove than approve of Obama on four domestic issues: the economy, taxes, health care and the federal budget deficit.

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The biggest drop has been on his handling of the economy, down 12 points since February; his disapproval is up 19 points. The most erosion has come not from Republicans or independents but among his own Democrats. Support from conservative and moderate Democrats is down by 18 points. Another group in the party's political base — those earning $20,000 to $50,000 a year — had a drop of 15 percentage points, to 47%.

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At 55% overall, Obama's approval rating is a tick below that of George W. Bush at six months.

A roadside bomb killed 12 Afghan traders as they drove through Afghanistan's remote west on Monday in an attack apparently meant for Afghan or foreign troops, witnesses and officials said.

Highly destructive home-made bombs planted in the road are by far the most deadly weapons used by the Taliban and other insurgents, frequently killing civilians as well as the security forces they traditionally target.

"I saw 12 men were killed and four were wounded," Abdul Razzaq Samadi, a local tribal chief who was at the scene of the blast, told Reuters.

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Violence across Afghanistan has hit its highest level since 2001, when the Taliban's austere Islamist government was ousted for failing to hand over al Qaeda leaders wanted over the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

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Violence has spiked across the country since those operations began, with military and civilian casualties surging.

"I'll have them niggers voting Democratic for two hundred years."

Johnson reportedly made the following comment in explaining why the civil rights bill was so important to him. He said it was simple: "I'll have them niggers voting Democratic for two hundred years."

"The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia. It is necessary that the order be promoted immediately and in every state in the Union. Will you please inform me as to the possibilities of rebuilding the Klan realm of W. Va."

"I will never submit to fight beneath that banner with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds."

Iraqi authorities have arrested a member of an Iranian-backed militia for the missile attack that killed three soldiers from the Minnesota National Guard.

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During a search of the house where the suspect and an aide were arrested, Iraqi officials said, they seized four Iranian-made rockets and documents listing names of Iraqi officials to be targeted. The men, who were arrested Friday night, told Iraqi authorities that they had been instructed in Iran to "plant improvised explosive devices, scare citizens and destabilize the country[.]"