U.S. President Barack Obama bows to Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio at MacDill Air Force Base on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010 in Tampa, Fla.

'Professor' Obama? President's State of the Union Address Notches 4th Lowest Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Score Since FDR

Text of Obama's Address has a readability score for an average 8th grader - two grades lower than George W. Bush's Addresses and the historical average for modern presidents

Barack Obama's ability as a public speaker since his 2008 presidential campaign has been alternately viewed, often depending on whether or not one is an Obama supporter, along various dyads: being inspirational versus being aloof, intellectualizing versus lecturing etc.

However, a Smart Politics analysis of nearly 70 oral State of the Union Addresses since the mid-1930s finds the text of Obama's speech on Wednesday evening to have one of the lowest scores on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test ever recorded by a U.S. President.

The Flesch-Kincaid test is designed to assess the readability level of written text, with a formula that translates the score to a U.S. grade level. Longer sentences and sentences utilizing words with more syllables produce higher scores. Shorter sentences and sentences incorporating more monosyllabic words yield lower scores.

...

Obama's Flesch-Kincaid grade level score of 8.8 for his first State of the Union Address was the fourth lowest score since FDR's first Address in 1934.

What this means is that Obama wrote and delivered a speech that incorporated shorter sentences, with those sentences containing shorter words, than nearly every such Presidential Address in the modern era.

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cspg/smartpolitics/2010/01/professor_obama_presidents_sta.php

Pakistan Taliban Chief Reportedly Killed in U.S. Drone Strike

Sunday, January 31, 2010

 

BREAKING NEWS —  The head of the Taliban in Pakistan, Hakimullah Mehsud, has been killed in a U.S. drone attack, according to Pakistan state television.

The report stated that Mehsud had been injured in a drone attack in the Shaktoi area January 14 and died three days later.

He has been buried in Orakzai Agency.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584402,00.html

Deficit of Trust: Most Voters Don’t Believe President’s Assertions About Economy

During his State-of-the-Union address Wednesday night, President Obama spoke about a deficit of trust between the American people and political leaders. New Rasmussen Reports polling on the president’s speech shows just how deep that trust deficit has become.

The president in the speech declared that his administration has cut taxes for 95% of Americans. He even chided Republicans for not applauding on that point. However, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that taxes have been cut for 95% of Americans. Most (53%) say it has not happened, and 26% are not sure. Other polling shows that nearly half the nation’s voters expect their own taxes to go up during the Obama years.

The president also asserted that “after two years of recession, the economy is growing again.” Just 35% of voters believe that statement is true, while 50% say it is false.

Obama claimed that steps taken by his team are responsible for putting two million people to work “who would otherwise be unemployed.” Just 27% of voters say that statement is true. Fifty-one percent (51%) say it's false.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/january_2010/deficit_of_trust_most_voters_don_t_believe_president_s_assertions_about_economy

GOP revives 'soft on terror' charge

By JOSH GERSTEIN | 1/30/10 2:21 PM EST

...

Some Democrats want Obama to be even more forceful, including on the importance of civilian trials for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other alleged 9/11 plotters. “Obama and the Department of Justice need to get out there and push back very clearly with the public. ... Frankly, I thought New Yorkers were made of sterner stuff than this — traffic is going to be disrupted?” said Ken Gude of the liberal Center for American Progress.

Sen. Tom Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, said negotiators from the White House, Senate and House reached a final deal on healthcare reform days before Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts.
 
Labor leaders had announced an agreement with White House and congressional representatives over an excise tax on high-cost insurance plans on the Thursday before the special election. 

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/78889-harkin-health-deal-was-reached-days-before-browns-victory

Justice Official Clears Bush Lawyers in Torture Memo Probe

By Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman

Excerpt from the Aug. 1, 2002, ‘Torture Memo’:

For weeks, the right has heckled Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. for his plans to try the alleged 9/11 conspirators in New York City and his handling of the Christmas bombing plot suspect. Now the left is going to be upset: an upcoming Justice Department report from its ethics-watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), clears the Bush administration lawyers who authored the “torture” memos of professional-misconduct allegations.

While the probe is sharply critical of the legal reasoning used to justify waterboarding and other “enhanced” interrogation techniques, NEWSWEEK has learned that a senior Justice official who did the final review of the report softened an earlier OPR finding. Previously, the report concluded that two key authors—Jay Bybee, now a federal appellate court judge, and John Yoo, now a law professor—violated their professional obligations as lawyers when they crafted a crucial 2002 memo approving the use of harsh tactics, say two Justice sources who asked for anonymity discussing an internal matter. But the reviewer, career veteran David Margolis, downgraded that assessment to say they showed “poor judgment,” say the sources. (Under department rules, poor judgment does not constitute professional misconduct.) The shift is significant: the original finding would have triggered a referral to state bar associations for potential disciplinary action—which, in Bybee’s case, could have led to an impeachment inquiry.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/declassified/archive/2010/01/29/holder-under-fire.aspx

Bay what? Guantanamo eyed for 9/11 trial

By JOHN DOYLE and DAVID SEIFMAN in NY and CHARLES HURT in DC

Last Updated: 8:54 AM, January 30, 2010

Posted: 2:37 AM, January 30, 2010

The trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed won't be held in lower Manhattan and could take place in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, sources said last night.<p> </p><br> Administration officials said that no final decision had been made but that officials of the Department of Justice and the White House were working feverishly to find a venue that would be less expensive and less of a security risk than New York City.<p> </p><br> The back-to-the-future Gitmo option was reported yesterday by Fox News and was not disputed by White House officials.<p> </p><br> VIDEO: POSSIBLE VENUE CHANGE FOR 9/11TRIAL<p> </p><br> 'CAMP JUSTICE' READY TO ROLL<p> </p><br> EDITORIAL: BAM STARTS TO GET IT<p> </p><br> RICH LOWRY: A SHEIK-UP CALL FOR O'S JUSTICE JOKER<p> </p><br> OSAMA BLOWS ECO-SMOKE<p> </p><br> TERROR MA REAL PISTOL<p> </p><br> GRIM NEW WTC SIFT<p> </p><br> Such a move would likely bring howls of protest from liberals already frustrated that President Obama has failed to meet his deadline for closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.<p> </p><br> It would also indicate that after years of attacking the Bush administration for its handling of the war on terror, Obama officials are embracing one of the most controversial aspects of it.<p> </p><br> The administration is likely considering Gitmo because Congress is moving to cut off funding for holding the expensive trials in civilians courts.<p> </p><br> Rep. Peter King (R-LI) has introduced a bill that would prohibit the use of Justice Department funds to try Guantanamo detainees in federal civilian courts, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he would introduce a similar bill in the Senate next week.<p> </p><br> The Washington Post, meanwhile, reports that wherever the terror trials are eventually held, it is virtually certain that they will not take place in New York City.<p> </p><br> Police Commissioner Ray Kelly yesterday credited Mayor Bloomberg, who spoke out against the holding the trials in New York, with spurring the Obama administration to reconsider.<p> </p><br> "I think the president responded to, certainly, the mayor's statement yesterday and community concerns, and it, quite frankly, gives us a little more room in the Police Department," he said.<p> </p><br> "The mayor's position is the right position, and I think the mayor was the reason it was moved.<p> </p><br> "There was a lot of concern in the community. A lot of other political leaders were worried about it, but it wasn't until the mayor made the statement that the White House reacted. It's the right decision."<p> </p><br> But the administration insisted that Justice officials had been reviewing other options well before Bloomberg changed his mind and voiced his opposition.<p> </p><br> It was not until word leaked out that the DOJ was reconsidering that Bloomberg spoke up, one official said.<p> </p><br> Other domestic sites mentioned for the trials include a former military base in New York Harbor that welcomes summertime picnickers and bike riders, the US Military Academy at West Point, and Stewart Air National Guard Base in upstate Newburgh.<p> </p><br> Bloomberg said yesterday that he would not brand Obama a flip-flopper over his turnabout.<p> </p><br> "To me, it's a sign of maturity, strength and intellect," Bloomberg said on WOR radio yesterday.<p> </p><br> "If somebody comes up with a better idea -- if the world changes -- you change."<p> </p><br> Gov. Paterson said he was "elated that our concerns are being considered by the president and the federal government."<p> </p><br> The effort to nix New York as the venue for the "terror trial of the century" also got a boost yesterday when Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) urged Obama to hold the trial elsewhere.<p> </p><br> She cited the high threat of terrorist strikes, especially for a city like New York.<p> </p><br> "Without getting into classified details, I believe we should view the attempted Christmas Day plot as a continuation, not an end, of plots to strike the United States by al Qaeda affiliates," she wrote.<p> </p><br> "Moreover, New York City has been a high-priority target since at least the first World Trade Center bombing, in 1993. The trial of the most significant terrorist in custody would add to the threat."<p> </p><br> churt@nypost.com <p> </p><br>

The trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed won't be held in lower Manhattan and could take place in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, sources said last night.

Administration officials said that no final decision had been made but that officials of the Department of Justice and the White House were working feverishly to find a venue that would be less expensive and less of a security risk than New York City.

The back-to-the-future Gitmo option was reported yesterday by Fox News and was not disputed by White House officials.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/bay_what_gitmo_mCRoRefbWjHgmYQFT4vvIK

Amid fears that the White House may move the terrorist trials connected with September 11, 2001, to the Washington, D.C., region, GOP lawmakers are planning to introduce legislation that would bar the use federal funds for their prosecution in any U.S. civilian court.

The move comes as the White House, met with growing opposition, has reportedly begun considering alternative locations to the originally planned federal district court in downtown Manhattan to try the professed 9/11 “mastermind” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants.

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/78857-gop-lawmakers-to-try-to-block-federal-funds-for-911-prosecutions

Pelosi stopped one CIA operation. So why not waterboarding?

By Marc A. Thiessen

Friday, January 29, 2010

In mid-2004, then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi learned something from a CIA briefing that made her blood boil. Pelosi reportedly "came unglued" at the revelation and had "strong words" with national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, demanding that the CIA abandon its plans. As a result, a top-secret finding that President George W. Bush signed to authorize the CIA's activities was revised. Pelosi succeeded in stopping the agency from moving forward with the controversial operation.

What drove Pelosi to action? Not the CIA's waterboarding of suspected al-Qaeda terrorists. In a 2009 interview, a former senior Bush administration official directed me to a little-noticed item from Time magazine. According to this 2004 report, Pelosi objected to a CIA plan to provide money to moderate political parties in Iraq ahead of scheduled elections, in an effort to counter Iran, which was funneling millions to extremist elements. "House minority leader Nancy Pelosi 'came unglued' when she learned about what a source described as a plan for 'the CIA to put an operation in place to affect the outcome of the elections,' " Time reported. "Pelosi had strong words with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice in a phone call about the issue. . . . A senior U.S. official hinted that, under pressure from the Hill, the Administration scaled back its original plans." (Her role was also reported on this page by David Ignatius in 2007.)

Why is this important? Because on May 14, 2009, Pelosi, now speaker of the House, declared in a Capitol Hill news conference that she had opposed CIA waterboarding but was powerless to stop it. A former senior intelligence official told me in 2009 that he was shocked by Pelosi's claim because, he said, "Speaker Pelosi herself has stopped covert action programs that she has been briefed on by going to the White House. In that very same time frame [after she learned about waterboarding] Pelosi had gone back to the White House [over] a separate covert action program, expressed strong opposition to it. And the remarkable part to me, the White House backed off the program, changed one aspect of the program . . . she was particularly opposed to. And literally, the finding was pulled back and revised." If Pelosi had truly opposed waterboarding, he said, she had numerous ways to stop it -- but she didn't try.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/28/AR2010012803564.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Michael Moore's Anti-Greed Film May Receive Michigan Tax Credit

FOXNews.com

The Mackinac Center checked with the Michigan Film Office and learned that a "production person" had applied for a state tax credit for Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story," partly filmed in Michigan

The liberal documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has been a critic of state tax credits for Hollywood films, but did one of his own films benefit from one of those credits in his home state of Michigan?

It seems so, according to a report by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational institute focusing on issues in Michigan.

The center checked with the Michigan Film Office and learned that a "production person" had applied for one of the tax credits for "Capitalism: A Love Story," Moore's 2009 film about corporate greed, parts of which were filmed in Michigan.

The state offers refundable tax credits of up to 42 percent to film productions for shooting movies and spending money in Michigan -- an incentive similar to one offered by numerous other states to entice Hollywood and bolster the local economy.

Moore's production has qualified to receive a tax credit from Michigan, the film office told the Mackinac Center, once the state Treasury Department reviews and approves the application. It wasn't immediately clear how much money the film qualified for.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/01/29/michael-moores-anti-greed-film-receive-michigan-tax-credit/