Proof of qualifications

The interesting part is that 29 representatives voted against this bill. Why wouldn't you want to know the legal status of candidates on a ballot?

PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona House has approved a bill that would require President Barack Obama to show his birth certificate if he hopes to be on the state's ballot for a re-election bid.

The House approved the measure on a 31-29 vote, sending it to the Senate.

It would require U.S. presidential candidates who want to appear on the ballot in Arizona to submit documents proving they meet the constitutional requirements to be president.

Supporters say the bill would help settle a controversy over whether Obama was born in the United States.

Opponents say it's a waste of time that makes Arizona mocked by the rest of the country. Obama has released his Hawaii birth certificate proving he's a "natural-born citizen" qualified to be president.

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And I thought justice was supposed to be blind

With Justice John Paul Steven just months away from retirement, the White House says President Obama is considering a more diverse pool of candidates, including whites, blacks and Hispanics -- men and women -- to tap for his replacement.

"I think he will have a broad group of people that represent many – that represent America as a way of looking at the nominee," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday.

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Did you ever think Medicare/Medicaid would be used to do this?

WASHINGTON -- Hospitals that accept Medicare and Medicaid payments from the U.S. government must let patients choose which persons, including gay and lesbian partners, can visit them and help make critical health decisions, President Barack Obama said Thursday.

With no fanfare, the White House on Thursday night released a statement by Obama instructing the Health and Human Services Department to draft rules requiring federally subsidized hospitals to grant all patients the right to designate people who can visit and consult with them at crucial moments.

The designated visitors should have the same rights that immediate family members now enjoy, Obama's instructions said. It said Medicare-Medicaid hospitals, which include most of the nation's facilities, may not deny visitation and consultation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

The new rules, Obama said, should "guarantee that all patients' advance directives, such as durable powers of attorney and health care proxies, are respected," and that patients' designees be able to "make informed decisions regarding patients' care."

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The last line of defense

The only thing that kept FDR from ruining this country back in the 30's and 40's was a Supreme Court that stopped him. I knew that and that's why I voted for McCain. With all his flaws, he promised to nominate good judges to the court. But Obama won and now, with Stevens retiring, he will have his second radical nomination. If McCain had won, we would be looking at a solid 6-3 conservative majority on the court. Instead we will have 4 conservatives, 4 left-wing radicals who rule from the "heart," and one swing vote who makes decisions based on which way the wind is blowing that day (Justice Kennedy). One more retirement from the Court, and Obama will be unstoppable.

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Bankruptcy and then impotency...the new America

President Obama will rewrite America’s policy on nuclear weapons next week, heralding further reductions in the U.S. stockpile and giving a pledge not to develop new systems.

After a review of the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal that has involved, among others, the Pentagon, the Department of Energy and the intelligence services, as well as the White House, Obama is expected to reject the doctrine on nuclear weapons — the “nuclear posture” — adopted by George W. Bush, which included the possibility of the United States launching an attack on a non-nuclear state.

The Obama Administration has come under pressure from arms control analysts to redefine the circumstances in which the U.S. might consider using nuclear weapons, and to state beyond doubt that the justification for keeping them is purely as a deterrent.

After the president’s speech in Prague last April, when he laid out his personal vision of a world without nuclear weapons, the U.S. has been carrying out a review of its nuclear posture and the conclusions are due to be published in a declassified version early next week — before Obama flies back to Prague to sign the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with President Medvedev of Russia on April 8.

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