Obama's back: A roundup of gatecrashers, polls, pols and wild horses

Catching up:

The president and his family are back in the White House recovering from their Hawaii beachfront vacation.

Just in time to issue a proclamation for National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month.

So the capital's political news resumes. It now turns out that at that White House Indian state dinner Nov. 24, the very first of the Barack and Michelle Obama administration, every single guest at the tent party was a gatecrasher. In fact, they gave out tickets on the corner like TV shows in New York.

It was the initial state to-do run by Obama Chicago pal and White House social secretary Desiree Rogers, and she didn't know how these things go and was worried no one would show. So she just told a whole bunch of her friends to come over.

No, just kidding. There were gatecrashers. Remember that couple from the circus that had 18 seconds of their fame by slipping through security, posing for scrapbook photos and....

...finding their way later onto obliging TV shows?

Well today as part of its ongoing official investigation into who had the extra state dinner dessert, the Secret Service announced that a third uninvited person slipped through the metal detector and guest checkoff list while Ms. Rogers had no one stationed at the gate.

Good thing the dinner wasn't for whomever is president of Nigeria this month.

Speaking of which, some comforting news for any would-be air passenger who's had to toss an oversize shampoo container:

Now that we're in the tenth year of the fighting in Afghanistan, where 9/11 was planned and rehearsed, the nation's airplane security folks have just issued a list of countries from which passengers will be especially scrutinized before boarding flights to the United States. Especially, say, those buying one-way tickets, paying cash and bringing only one set of underwear.

The new list involves high-volume tourist meccas like Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Nigeria, Sudan. Now if only there were some direct flights from these places to especially scrutinize.

For heaven's sake, don't anyone mention that canny terrorists could fly to another, less-sinister place to catch a U.S.-bound plane. Oh, wait: that Nigerian guy already did this from Amsterdam and Homeland Security Secy. Janet Napolitano announced the system worked fine.

So now as part of its tightened security steps to protect Americans, TSA will no doubt place a brave Dutch citizen on every inbound flight.

Speaking of surefire government plans, new polls out today from Rasmussen Reports show that Americans who like the Democratic Obama-Reid-Pelosi healthcare legislation have surged to 42%. However, 52% really don't like it, mainly middle-class Americans.

A majority of Americans believe the plan will hurt healthcare quality, 59% are infidels who figure it will actually increase healthcare costs, 57% oppose the bills' plans to cut Medicare benefits by hundreds of billions of dollars and, for some strange reason, 78% of Americans suspect that Obama administration cost estimates are way under the actual expenses.

However, in the spirit of promised bipartisanship, Americans are united in who should pay for the healthcare legislation: Someone else. They like the idea of having those earning more than a half-mill finance the changes.

In other news about wealthy people, Republican Rep. Henry Brown of South Carolina announced his retirement today.

That means nothing to the residents of 434 other congressional districts, but it adds to the growing list of members of Congress on both sides giving up and opting to leave their Hill jobs.

Both political parties will churn out talking points that each retirement dooms the other side. But it's too early to tell how the voluntary departure of incumbents will affect the November midterm elections, which history suggests cost seats for the party controlling the White House.

Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Peter King of New York, who also seems to find his way onto cable shows quite often, told Don Imus this morning on the Fox Business Network that, contrary to reports, he really is considering a run for the U.S. Senate seat once held by Hillary Clinton and now occupied by Democratic appointee Kirsten Gillibrand. Said King: "Actually, I am looking at it — you know, a number of people have come to me."

Speaking of political minorities, In Defense of Animals points out that Obama's Interior Department continues a new roundup of wild horses on public and private Western lands these days, despite a federal judge's suggested postponement.

The animal ancestors of early-day mustangs, the wild horses are "removed" because the Bureau of Land Management says the freeloading horses compete for forage with private cattle, whose owners happen to pay BLM a fee for munching said taxpayer-owned grass.

In the interests of the administration's promised transparency, the roundups -- accomplished by helicopters stampeding the wild creatures into holding pens for shipment -- are closed to the public.

Eliot Katz, a veterinarian and president of IDA said: "For America's wild horses, President Obama's promise of change rings hollow. His administration has continued the same secretive and destructive Bush Administration war on the wild horses of the American West." Finally, something in 2010 that's Bush's fault.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: GreenHornHorseFacts.com  (file); Getty Images (file. a brave Dutch windmill).

Comments

[Frank Mancuso]

Nice job. Someone finally hit the mark on our wild horse dilemma. This President more then anyone should appreciate the living symbol of American Freedom and protect it. Thanks.

[kit]

They're not "wild" horses, they're feral horses. Horses went extinct in North America before the first humans arrived. More money should be spent on preserving native grazing species like bison and pronghorns then to expend so much effort on the descendants of Spanish conquistadors' runaways. In the end, they have no more right to the grass than the cows.

[Suzanne Moore]

I agree with Frank, you're one of the very few who seem to "get it." Taxpayers are paying for a LOT more than subsidizing the Welfare Ranchers. This "gather" alone cost us about $3,000,000 with no end in sight. This must be stopped and investigated.

Kit ~ You are dead wrong. Horse did go extinct - almost - and these horses are considered by geneticists as a reintroduced native species. They are the SAME species as the last KNOWN ancestor here. Even newer studies prove the horse continued to exist thousands of years later than was thought. The horses ARE native. Of course Native Americans have said from the get-go that the Spaniards did NOT introduce horses in America because they were already here. Naturally, no one listened to THEM.

Thank you.

[Robynne Catheron]

These horses are wild. Feral means having returned to an untamed state from domestication. These horses are also native. DNA tests have proven that the horse originated in what is now Utah and Wyoming some 55 million years ago. Before they became extinct, many crossed over the Bering Strait land-bridge into Siberia, through Asia and then into Europe, some eventually making it into Spain. The Spanish returned them to America, albeit unttingly, landing in what is now the Carolinas, hence the wild horses on our eastern shores. The pronghorn is native, but the bison originated in Eurasia, and migrated to North America in the reverse direction across the land bridge.

In the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act, Congress granted the horses federal protection and millions of acres of public land, free from harassment, branding and slaughter. The cattle mentioned are privately owned, and now outnumber the wild horses 100 to 1 on the land granted to the horses. Millions upon millions of OUR tax dollars are being spent right now caring for over 34,000 wild horses in BLM holding facilities, and they intend to spend millions more rounding up most of the remaining horses. The BLM is complaining that they're running out of funds to take care of the horses they've rounded up, but if they had left them alone like Congress mandated they wouldn't be in this predicament. The reason? The wealthy cattle and sheep ranchers want the horses' land for their cattle, and our government gives them what they want.

America's wild horses and burros belong to the American public, and they have earned their right to live here. America was built on horseback, and horses have served us well at home and in battle. Most of the cattle, on the other hand, is intended for sale overseas.

[Robynne Catheron]

I'm curious- Regarding the roundups, why wasn't the federal judge's suggested postponement followed by the Department of the Interior? Are they not held accountable by anyone?

(He didn't order it.)

[Mary]

The white house and Barack Obama has ignored thousands of calls in the past months begging for help to stop the corrupt BLM. I certainly hope these politicians will contine to ignore them when it comes time to be voted out!

[ForTheWildOnes]

The real truth is our wild horses & burros are being managed to extinction by the DOI/BLM! Why? For the cattle, big game hunting & energy industries on our public lands. This is not what the majority of Americans want for our indomitable wild herds.

Call Obama for a moratorium now on all roundups until Congress & Americans work to re-protect our wild horses/burros on their legal Western lands.

Our wild horses/burros are NOT overpopulated, are NOT destroying rangelands & are NOT starving per BLM claims. Compare only 30-36K horses left on public lands to 1-4M cattle & 2-3M big game animals.

BLM's Don Glenn said a wild horse needs 150 acres of semi-arid Western lands to graze. The original legal herd areas of 53M acres would support 353,000 horses; the BLM's questionable reduction to 32M acres presently would still support 213,000 horses.

How can the BLM get away with reducing wild horse/burro legal herd areas by 20M+ acres & zeroing out over 100 herds so far with more being eliminated daily?

If 30-36K horses remain now in the wild & BLM plans to remove 10-12K/year for the next 3 years, that leaves zero on the range! If there are only 15-18K in the wild, as independent sources say, our herds will be gone in just over a year!

Taxpayers reamed. Grazing fees are so low that we're in the hole $125M/year for BLM to run that program, welfare cattle grazing (a $76B industry in 2008). We pay another $50M+/year for inhumane roundups & imprisonment of our sterilized wild horses/burros around the U.S., never again wild & free in their native West.

The law has been so gutted since 1971 that our wild herds are no longer protected. Reject the Salazoo Plan & demand Congress to designate sanctuaries for just our wild horses/burros & wildlife, without the cattle, on their legal Western public lands. Improve & pass the ROAM Act.

Save our living legends--symbols of freedom, family, spirit, independence & our Western heritage before it's too late!

[LoriProphoto]

He was too busy for the most part enjoying his holiday in Hawaii while the horses were being driven through the frozen ranges and hauled off to oblivion, so hopefully something will happen now (we can only hope). I wonder what his girls would think about what is going on, maybe we should direct some of our appeals to them, they might not be old enough or allowed to see them but I am willing to bet that Mrs Obama will sit up and take notice?

Pie in the sky.

Onward and upwards keep the pressure on and hopefully for once the good guys will win!!! God Bless our Mustangs.

[Diana]

After all horses have done for this country throughout its history, it's absolutely disgusting how they have been treated. Bottom line: cruelty in unacceptable!

The BLM is clearly making a reputation for itself, not held accountable for anything. And the world is watching.