A Tehran news weekly was shut down by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week after featuring President-elect Barack Obama on its front cover and asking the question, “Why doesn’t Iran have an Obama?”

The news magazine Shahrvand-e Emrouz [Today’s Citizen] went too far for the hardline president, who quickly had Iran’s Press Supervisory Board ban the publication, the Times of London reported.

The closure of the propular reformist weekly suggests that Ahmadinejad is determined to silence his critics as he prepares for elections next June that could hand him a second-four year term.

The Iranian media has blamed numerous problems in recent weeks on Ahmadinejad. His expansionary budget is blamed for rampant inflation, oil prices have plummeted, aides have admitted that he suffers from strain and exhaustion, and an embarrassing forgery scandal claimed the scalp of his interior minister last week, the Times reported.

This week, however, Ahmadinejad collected support from some newspapers for his message of congratulations to Obama, which several newspaper commentaries on Tuesday presented an important opportunity.

Ahmadinejad’s message, sent last Thursday, was the first time an Iranian leader has offered such wishes to the winner of a U.S. presidential election since the two countries broke off relations after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy.

Most recently, the two nations have been deeply at odds over Iran’s nuclear program and what Washington says is Iran’s support for Shiite militias in Iraq — a charge that Iran denies.

The state-owned Khorshid newspaper said Ahmadinejad’s message “shattered America’s incorrect view” that the Iranian president is not open the world.

The independent Etemaad newspaper said, “The message could create an important opportunity for both sides.”

Another independent newspaper, Etemad-e Melli, reported that Ahmadinejad’s press adviser, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, expected Obama to give “a deserving answer to the message as soon as possible.”

The American president-elect on Friday confirmed having received Ahmadinejad’s letter and said he would review it and “respond appropriately.”

In his first news conference since last week’s election, Obama declined to say Friday what proposals he might pursue in connection with Iran, but called the country’s alleged efforts to develop nuclear weapons unacceptable.

“We have to mount an international effort to prevent that from happening,” Obama said.

Iran says its nuclear program is intended only for peaceful purposes such as energy production.

Ahmadinejad’s outreach to the United States’ next president did have some critics at home among hard-line newspapers and lawmakers who said it made Iran appear weak.

Click here for more on this story from the Times of London.

The Times of London and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,449945,00.html

Read the documents shown below http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/pennsylvania/paedce/2:2008cv04083/281573/13/

It seems very possible that President Elect Obama is simply not fit, in more ways that one, to serve as the President of the US!

This site has been a supporter of www.obamacrimes.com since the day we heard about these allegations, but it seems now with Obama’s failure to produce documentation he SHOULD have readily available, there just might be something to this whole thing!

Keep checking back with us for more info!

Further links and theories related to this story:
http://james4america.wordpress.com/2008/10/25/judge-surrick-received-the-decision-he-issued/

Administration aides say President Bush is unhappy that his discussion Monday with President-elect Barack Obama was leaked and cast as a horse trade between signing a second economic stimulus bill in exchange for congressional passage of the Colombia Free Trade deal.

President Bush is unhappy the conversation held Monday between him and President-elect Barack Obama has been cast as a trade-off between Bush signing a second stimulus package in exchange for congressional passage of the Colombia Free Trade Deal,” administration officials told FOX News on Tuesday.

Obama asked Bush to help the sagging auto industry during their private meeting in the White House, senior aides to both men said. Bush stressed the need to work with Colombia, but to make it sound like a horse trade is unfair and inaccurate, an aide told FOX News.

The Bush administration, along with Congress, negotiated a $700 billion rescue package last month for the financial industry, but federal officials are resisting Democratic calls for a similar bailout for automakers, despite warnings that General Motors might not survive the year.

Democrats want a second stimulus that would include aid to Detroit’s big three automakers, unemployment benefits and infrastructure projects.

Bush’s desire to pass the Colombia Free Trade deal on its merits is no secret, a senior White House aide told FOX News. But that deal has been frozen by the Democratic majority in Congress.

The U.S. and Colombia are close allies, and the president wants to increase trade between the two countries. But Democrats say a deal would mean more jobs being exported, which is taboo for a party supported by a heavily unionized workforce that elected Obama.

Democrats say they also object to the human rights climate in Colombia, which union leaders have described as seriously threatening to workers. Colombia’s government says such claims are blown out of proportion and workers are protected.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that Democrats have suggested that neither Obama nor congressional leaders are willing to concede the Colombia pact to Bush and they may choose to wait to hold off on a new stimulus bill until Obama becomes president on Jan. 20.

Bush aides said the president is unhappy the conversation between him and Obama was leaked to the media at all, and insisted the two leaders were not engaged in a quid pro quo between the automakers and a free trade pact.

“President Bush did not suggest a quid pro quo. Both leaders discussed ideas for the economy. The president has long said free trade helps create jobs and opens markets to our businesses. We believe the free trade agreements can and should pass today on their merits,” said press secretary Dana Perino.

Senior aides to both men said the two issues were part of a long discussion about automakers and the ability of the trade deal to help not only the economy but also a key ally. A senior administration official suggested that Obama be careful to keep his counsel.

Deutsche Bank on Monday downgraded GM to sell from hold, with a price target of $0, saying the carmaker may not be able to fund its U.S. operations beyond December without government intervention, FOX Business Network reported.

Deutsche Bank said it believes the U.S. government will be compelled to intervene through a capital infusion or loan.

“Without government assistance, we believe that GM’s collapse would be inevitable, and that it would precipitate systemic risk that would be difficult to overcome for automakers, suppliers, retailers, and sectors of the U.S. economy,” the broker said. Even if GM avoids bankruptcy, equity shareholders are unlikely to get anything back, it added.

FOX News’ Bret Baier contributed to this report.

More at http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/11/11/obama-urges-bush-help-auto-indusstry/

WASHINGTON — A Republican congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist or fascist dictatorship.

“It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he’s the one who proposed this national security force,” Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. “I’m just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism.”

Broun cited a July speech by Obama that has circulated on the Internet in which the then-Democratic presidential candidate called for a civilian force to take some of the national security burden off the military.

“That’s exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it’s exactly what the Soviet Union did,” Broun said. “When he’s proposing to have a national security force that’s answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he’s showing me signs of being Marxist.”

Obama’s comments about a national security force came during a speech in Colorado about building a new civil service corps. Among other things, he called for expanding the nation’s foreign service and doubling the size of the Peace Corps “to renew our diplomacy.”

“We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set,” Obama said in July. “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”

Broun said he also believes Obama likely will move to ban gun ownership if he does build a national police force.

Obama has said he respects the Second Amendment right to bear arms and favors “common sense” gun laws. Gun rights advocates interpret that as meaning he’ll at least enact curbs on ownership of assault weapons and concealed weapons. As an Illinois state lawmaker, Obama supported a ban on semiautomatic weapons and tighter restrictions on firearms generally.

“We can’t be lulled into complacency,” Broun said. “You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany. I’m not comparing him to Adolf Hitler. What I’m saying is there is the potential.”

Obama’s transition office did not respond immediately to Broun’s remarks.

 

FOX News’ Greta Van Susteren went to Alaska to get Gov. Sarah Palin’s reflections on the presidential election.

After a whirlwind campaign alongside Sen. John McCain, Sarah Palin is defending herself against criticism stemming from the tens of thousands of dollars spent on her wardrobe as well as several reported foreign affairs missteps.

 

“When I arrived at the convention, there were clothes waiting for me, and clothes being ordered for me and the family, for eight of us,” the Alaska governor told FOX News’ Greta Van Susteren, in an interview that aired Monday night. “And ever since then, those clothes, knowing that they didn’t belong to me … we boxed them all up, sent them back to the rightful owners, the Republican National Committee, and that’s the story on the clothes.” 

Attorneys for the Republican National Committee are still trying to determine exactly what clothing was bought for Palin and exactly what has been returned, The Associated Press reports.

Palin dismissed the controversy over the reported $150,000 bill as “irrelevant,” along with claims from Republican aides that she could not identify the members of NAFTA or that she thought Africa was a country — and not a continent.

“It just seems like such an irrelevant issue when you consider what is going on in the world today and how a new administration is being ushered in and people being concerned about the direction of the nation and policies that will be adopted,” Palin said. “Clothes just seem irrelevant.”

Palin continued, “I just think that there was unfair criticism that maybe lingers today, that my family and I asked for anybody to pay for any our clothes.”

Regarding the reported Africa gaffe, Palin said, “And never, ever did I talk about, well, gee, is it a country or is it a continent? I just don’t know about this issue. So I don’t know how they took our one discussion on Africa and turned that into what they turned it into … Along those same lines, of course, was the criticism that supposedly I didn’t know who the participants in NAFTA were.”

Amid speculation nationwide about Palin’s political future, the governor told FOX News that she’s unsure of what 2012 will bring, but added that she doesn’t intend on running away from future criticism.

“Your life is an open book and you open yourself up to criticism and you’d better be ready to take that criticism,” Palin said. “In other words, don’t run for office if you can’t handle it.”
Palin, who could seek re-election in 2010 or potentially run for president in four years, said she will rely on faith.

“Putting my life in my creator’s hands — this is what I always do,” she said. “I’m like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I’m like, don’t let me miss the open door … And if there is an open door in ‘12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I’ll plow through that door.”

Palin’s father, Chuck Heath, told the Associated Press that Palin spent part of the weekend going through her clothing to determine what belongs to the Republican Party.

“She was just frantically … trying to sort stuff out,” Heath told AP. “That’s the problem, you know, the kids lose underwear, and everything has to be accounted for. Nothing goes right back to normal.”

Palin’s father said his daughter told him the only clothing or accessories she personally had purchased in the past four months was a pair of shoes.

The McCain-Palin campaign said last week that about a third of the clothing was returned immediately because it was the wrong size, or for other reasons. However, other purchases apparently were made after that, a campaign official told AP.

In Wasilla, her hometown backers welcomed their former mayor, putting aside their disappointment over her unsuccessful bid.

Jessica Steele, proprietor of the Beehive Beauty Shop and keeper of the governor’s up-do since 2002, cannot wait to see what Palin does next move.

“That’s something I want to talk to her about: What’s our vision for her hair?” Steele told AP. “I can’t wait to see her and say, ‘OK, I’ve got you alone for three hours. Just relax, and how are you, really?”‘

While Palin remains popular, the reality of defeat is evident.

Bags of fan mail, as many as 400 letters a day, partially fill a room at her parent’s house. But Palin’s parents no longer meet Secret Service agents when they pick up their children at Cottonwood Creek Elementary, where Palin’s youngest daughter, Piper, is a student. The reporters and camera crews are gone from the Palin home on Lake Lucille, once patrolled by Coast Guard boats. Now a thick sheet of ice covers the lake.

Four state troopers still guard the governor 24 hours a day, Heath told AP — something Palin never had before.

And in a bit of familiarity, Heath said he brought a pot of moose chili to Palin’s house this past weekend.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More at http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/11/10/sarah-palin-defends-criticism-post-election-interview/