Obama Visits Fort Campbell

In his first Presidential visit to Kentucky, President Obama addressed a cheering crowd at Ft. Campbell today for a short (16 minutes) but rousing speech. Acknowledging that more soldiers have been deployed - and killed - from Ft. Campbell than anyplace else in America in the war in Afghanistan, he praised Kentucky's Special Operations forces who were part on last Sunday's raid in Pakistan. He also awarded the commando units the "Presidential Unit Citation", the highest honor a President can give to a military unit.

The identities of those Ft. Campbell soldiers specifically involved are being kept secret to protect from potential terrorist reprisals, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.


Not everyone is so enthralled with Obama's handling of the situation. Discrepancies abound in the many conflictions versions being told by officials regarding the circumstances of Bin Laden's death. Some are feeling deja vu of Bush's claim that Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction" that turned out not to be true, as it sinks in now that Obama escalated the war in Afghanistan because that's where Bin Laden supposedly was - and now we're being told "oops, he was in Pakistan all along, sorry." And adminstration officials have stated that Bin Laden's death will have no impact whatsoever on the timetable for withdrawing US forces from Afghanistan.

The President also made no mention of the top-secret experimental stealth super-copter that crashed during the raid. The official explanation being given is that it got "caught in an air vortex" due to temperatures higher than expected. That doesn't exactly sound like much of a super-copter, if you ask me; but they didn't ask me.


Then too, there's the whole can of worms about all the reports that Osama Bin Laden has actually already been dead for years now. FOX News and the Pakistan Observer reported in 2001 that Bin Laden died from a lung complication. There was even an article about Bin Laden's 2001 funeral in an Egyptian newspaper. And in 2002, the FBI's counter-terrorism chief Dale Watson said he believed Bin Laden was probably dead.

Whatever the real truths are behind world events that have caused President Obama's hair to start greying prematurely, I just hope and pray he knows what he's doing. Even though he's keeping the identities of the soldiers a secret, I'm not sure even admitting that Kentucky was involved in the Bin Laden raid is a good idea. Feel me?

Glencoe Gun Shop's Obama Sign

Reported on WLWT-TV:

GLENCOE, Ky. -- A racially charged sign that takes aim at President Barack Obama is raising eyebrows in northern Kentucky.

The sign is located along Main Street in Glencoe at the Eagle Hill Armoury gun store.

The sign reads, "Obama complains Americans are fat, police act stupid, U.S.A. is a bully, the president is a nagger." However, at some point over the weekend, the last word was changed to be a racial slur.

The store owner said that he changed the sign immediately after being told about the slur and that he reported the issue to police.

The man who owns the sign, Bryan Roach, said that vandals changed the sign.

"It was basically vandalized, and we didn't appreciate it," Roach said. "Somebody had actually taken one of the letters out of one of the other words. I think it was in 'complains,' and put it in a place that made a word that we don't advocate or condone at all."

Sounds awfully disingenuous to me. I find it extremely hard to believe that the gun shop's choice of the word "nagger" to describe President Obama was perfectly innocent and had no pun intended. Furthermore, WLWT says Mr. Roach is refusing to change the sign even though all the media attention will surely encourage further racist vandalism.

Coal Industry Pressuring Obama?

There's a recent article in the Lexington Herald-Leader about a puzzling reversal - or what seems to be one - in Obama's policy on strip-mining:

The celebration was short for the Obama administration's expected crackdown on devastating coal-mining practices in Kentucky and West Virginia.

Back in March, the applause and good press rolled in.

A retooled Environmental Protection Agency, under administrator Lisa Jackson, announced that it was formally questioning a couple of mountaintop-removal permit applications and would scrutinize others for compliance with the Clean Water Act and other federal laws.

With considerably less fanfare, the EPA last month quietly informed a congressman from West Virginia that it had given the green light to 42 permit applications while raising concerns about six others in the Corps of Engineers' Huntington district.

There hasn't been time for a thorough review of 42 mining permits, so we can only assume that the administration caved to pressure from coal interests.

That assumption is confirmed by the Los Angeles Times which reports that there was a "series of White House meetings with coal companies and advocates," including U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-West Virginia, and West Virginia's Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin.

Daniel John Essek

Sonny Landham wasn't the only would-be dark-horse candidate in the recent election.

A Whitley County truck driver named Daniel Essek ran for Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell's senate seat, and actually garnered 14 percent. That may not seem statistically significant to you, but 14% is actually quite impressive considering Essek ran his campaign with very little money or publicity, and his press releases were rife with misspellings. With more of a budget and more of a staff, Essek could very well be a contender in 2010.

However, Essek's latest scheme is getting him some very bad press indeed. Essek has announced his intention to file papers to ask that President-Elect Barack Obama be compelled to submit his birth certificate to a judge in London, KY in order to prove his U.S. citizenship.

In preparation for this action, Essek has filed a request for permission to file a court case without having to pay a fee, citing an inability to afford it. "I also affirm, owing to my poverty, having not the money, request all fees of this filing and service be waived", he wrote.

In his legal motion, Essek stated he heads an organization called The Society for Liberty and Prosperity, which has no members. Despite this, the organization somehow held an organizational meeting at Essek's home in Emlyn, KY this past weekend.

You can read more about it here and here.

Obama effigy hung from noose on UK campus

From polwatchers.typepad.com:

University of Kentucky police are investigating who hung an effigy of Democrat Sen. Barack Obama from a tree on the Lexington campus Wednesday morning.

UK President Lee Todd said that UK police have notified federal authorities of the incident. Todd said a professor saw the effigy on the tree near the Rose Street parking garage across from the Mining and Mineral Resources building this morning and called police. The professor then sent Todd an email notifying him of the incident.

UK police took down the effigy and have it as evidence, Todd said. He called the act "deplorable" and says that type of behavior is not tolerated on UK's campus.

The effigy had a mask of Obama on it and there was a noose around the effigy's neck, Todd said.

And:

Ed Donovan, a spokesman for the Secret Service, confirmed that the federal agency charged with protecting presidents and presidential candidates had been notified and were working with UK police to determine who was responsible.

Donovan said he couldn't go into the specifics of the investigation.

"We take any threat against any of our protectees very, seriously," Donovan said.

Meanwhile, just over the river from Louisville, in Clarksville, IN:

A Clarksville man expressed his opposition to Barack Obama’s presidential candidacy by hanging an inflatable doll made to look like the Democratic nominee from a tree on his front lawn – until his son took it down as reporters gathered at the scene.

“It is not racially motivated,” Kirk Deddo said today as he stood under the tree outside his Potters Lane home. Deddo is white; Obama is the first black to be nominated for president by a major political party.

Gary Leavell, president of the Clark County chapter of the NAACP, said after the scene was described to him, “That’s a direct threat on the life of Obama as far as I’m concerned.”

Leavell said he would ask Clark County Prosecutor Steve Stewart to look into the matter.

Stewart could not be reached for comment. But Jeremy Mull, chief deputy prosecutor, said after making a brief legal search that “it does not appear to be in violation of any Indiana criminal statute.”

But Mull added, “Personally, I find such conduct to be deplorable.”