Events which occur throughout the week which catch my attention, I often record without commentary at the beginning of each issue.  Some of these events are ignored by the Obama Media Complex and some are covered.  Often, I take the lead paragraph from a story and do very little editing to it, so more information on any of these stories is easy to find.

The United States is invested billions in oil drilling by Brazil in the gulf, and President Obama is telling us that this is a great economic move for both countries….while oil platforms belonging to the U.S. are not being utilized.

There is a free state project, where 20,000 libertarian activists are being encouraged to move to New Hampshire, with the hope of changing the face of that state.

It became known the GE made $14.2 billion last year and paid no taxes.  Jeffrey Immelt, GE CEO, is Obama’s jobs czar, and he has positioned GE to do the stuff that government wants them to do, which means, all kinds of tax credits for GE.

Debt-stressed Portugal‘s Parliament on Wednesday refused to endorse more austerity measures aimed at avoiding a bailout.

A prominent group in Pakistan, the Jamaat Ahl-e-Sunnat, has called for “death” to US pastor Terry Jones for his act of burning a copy of the Quran and threatened its members will march to the Pakistani capital if the US ambassador is not expelled by April 7.

Egyptian television people are beginning to say that the Muslim Brotherhood have taken over the Egyptian revolution, and the revolutionary youth have been replaced by bearded men with guns.

A group of Muslims attacked Ayman Anwar Mitri, a 45 year old Christian Coptic man in the Upper Egyptian town of Qena, cutting off his ear. The Muslims claimed they were applying Sharia law because Mr. Mitri allegedly had an illicit affair with a Muslim woman.   Mr. Mitri, a low grade administrator at a secondary school, from elHasweya, in Qena, 492 KM from Cairo, had rented his flat to two Muslim sisters, Abeer and Sabrin Saif Al-Nasr, through an agent. After nine months he learned the sisters had been indicted for prostitution, so he asked them to leave and they did.

Iranian authorities have licensed a website calling for “war,” including the use of volunteer suicide militants, against what its founders see as the “invasion” of Bahrain by troops from countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Although the news has presented the U.S. no-fly zone as something we will be involved in for a short time, it looks like this could be for many months.  When Secretary Gates was asked if we ought to expect this to continue until the year’s end, Gates said, “I don’t think anybody knows the answer to that.”

Sri Lankan Muslims beat and stamp on an effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama during a protest rally against the allied forces’ air strike in Libya,

Eric Elliott, spokesman for U.S. Africa Command,  admits that “Odyssey Dawn” was not necessarily the best choice for names for the Libyan air strike, as Homer spent 10 years on his odyssey.

Qaddafy is sending out feelers to determine if some sort of cease-fire can be reached.

Unrest continues throughout the Middle East, including Syria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Libya, Jordan, Oman, and Bahrain.  When this all began, Glenn Beck began warning that the end game may be a caliphate (a huge Muslim nation; ideally, one which encompasses the world).  He was ridiculed as a nut-job for these pronouncements.   Now, even the NY Times is coming around to his way of thinking.

As many as 250–500,000 take to the streets in London to protest austerity cuts.  This is very well-organized, with professional pre-made signage, speakers and even a band.  The end result is smashed windows, graffiti, and splattered paint.

Speaking of revolutions, Canadian opposition parties toppled Prime Minister Stephen Harper‘s government in a no confidence vote Friday, triggering the country’s fourth election in seven years.

After teaching middle school math for only nine months in this tiny Chicago suburb, Safoorah Khan requested 3 weeks off for a pilgrimage to Mecca.   She was refused (1) because this is totally ridiculous and (2) she was the only math lab instructor at the end of the semester, which is when she wanted the 3 weeks off.  The school district refused and she has sued the school district.  The U.S. Justice Department has just filed a lawsuit on behalf of this Muslim teacher.

Muslim activists and CAIR are calling for a federal investigation into claims Arab-Americans and Muslims are routinely harassed, groped and grilled about their religion at U.S. border crossings.

Israel’s new iron dome rocket defense system deploys today.

ACORN is becoming active in Egypt, South Korea and the Prague.

Apparently, there was a Sharia-compliant mortgage program in Minnesota, which Governor Pawlenty shut down.

In Iowa, there was to be a mock school shooting/terrorism exercise scheduled for Saturday, March 26, 2011, at Treynor Community Schools.  The plan, Operation Closed Campus, is described as a full scale plan and exercise used to educate players in the proper response of a domestic terrorism or school shooting.  The proposed scenario to be acted out by the students, staff, faculty members, and emergency response teams.  The scenario details two white males, ages 17 and 18, with ties to anti-immigration groups and gun enthusiasts, opening fire on a group of minority students, hitting a Hispanic student.  This exercise was called off, and there was a threat which was reported about the exercise.

Jamie Gorelick may be appointed by Barack Obama to succeed Robert Mueller as FBI director.  She has been a key Janet Reno advisor as Deputy Attorney General during the Clinton years, but, apparently, she was also rewarded with a 7 year stint at Fannie Mae, where she made $26 million.  Somehow, all those who worked at FNMA during that time period, walked away with a lot of money, despite the fact that  FNMA and FHLMC agreed to insure worthless loans and is billions upon billions in debt.

64 Senators sent Barack Obama a letter (half Democrats and half Republicans) asking for him to get involved in the budget process.

It has come out that Samantha Power, Obama advisor, has called for a meaningful military presence in Israel by the U.S.

In Madison, WI, that controversial legislation limiting collective bargaining for public workers was published on Friday despite a judge’s hold on the measure, sparking a dispute over whether it takes effect Saturday.  The President has ignored at least 2 court orders; perhaps the Wisconsin legislature has decided to follow suit.

It’s not just in Wisconsin now—the Florida House delivered a major blow to public employee unions Friday, approving a bill that would ban automatic dues deduction from a government paycheck and require members to sign off on the use of their dues for political purposes.

It is the one-year anniversary of Obamacare.

It looks like Katie Couric is out as NBC’s nightly news anchor.

Caterpillar is talking about moving its business out of Illinois because of the tax hikes.

The liberal group Media Matters, funded in great part by George Soros, has quietly transformed itself in preparation for what its founder, David Brock, described in an interview as an all-out campaign of “guerrilla warfare and sabotage” aimed at the Fox News Channel.  The staff of about 90 will no longer monitor a variety of media outlets, but will focus on FoxNews and a few conservative websites.

UAW rally in Detroit shuts down Bank of America, chanting “Money for jobs.”

Former member of Ku Klux Klan, 70-year-old John Paul Rogers, is running for mayor of Lake Wales, FL as a Democrat.

Dem Rep. Gary Ackerman and MSNBC‘s Cenk Uygur both agree that opposing Obama in this Libyan no-fly zone is “Unpatriotic.”

Democratic Senator suggests that tracking devices be added to cars, so that people could be taxed according to the miles that they drive.

Republican leaders in about half the states are pushing to require voters to show photo ID’s.

Newt Gingrich is calling for abolishing the Ninth Circuit Court, which he sees as part of an activist judiciary, abolishing all “czars” created by the Obama administration and ensuring no American money pays for abortion.

News from 1977: Movie actress Elizabeth Taylor offered herself as a hostage for the more than 100 Air France hijack victims held by terrorists at Entebbe Airport in Uganda during the tense days before the Israeli rescue raid last July 4.

From:

Conservative Review #171 HTML PDF

So much for the 50 State Strategy, announced just one week ago. The Obama camp spins this as outlining several different paths to victory, but it sure looks like they are already on Plan B.

In a private pitch late last week to donors and former supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe outlined several alternatives to reaching the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House that runs counter to the conventional wisdom of recent elections.

At a fundraiser held at a Washington brewery Friday, Plouffe told a largely young crowd that the electoral map would be fundamentally different from the one in 2004. Wins in Ohio and Florida would guarantee Obama the presidency if he holds onto the states won by Democrat John Kerry, Plouffe said, but those two battlegrounds aren’t required for victory.

Florida, which has 27 electoral votes this year, gave the presidency to George W. Bush in the disputed election of 2000. Ohio, with its 20 electoral votes, ensured Bush of re-election in 2004 in his race against Kerry. Neither state was hospitable to Obama this year. Clinton handily won in Ohio and she prevailed in Florida although the national party had punished the state and the candidates didn’t campaign there.

Have the bitter clingers in Ohio and the Israel-loving Jews in Florida found something to dislike about Obama?

But George W. Bush won Florida and Ohio in 2000 and in 2004, so Obama starts by looking at the states Kerry won in 2004 and looks for pick-ups. But Obama’s guys see trouble even with those states, with McCain looking tough to beat in three of them.

The presumed Democratic nominee’s electoral math counts on holding onto the states Kerry won, among them Michigan (17 electoral votes), where Obama campaigns on Monday and Tuesday. Plouffe said most of the Kerry states should be reliable for Obama, but three currently look relatively competitive with Republican rival John McCain — Pennsylvania, Michigan and particularly New Hampshire.

Plouffe’s assessment isn’t exactly oozing confidence. Most Kerry states should be reliable? Sounds like they are trying to make it back to Kerry’s states and they are having trouble with the math.

So they will have to go after the Leaning-Republican states.

Plouffe and his aides are weighing where to contest, and where chances are too slim to marshal a large effort. A win in Virginia (13 electoral votes) or Georgia (15 votes) could give Obama a shot if he, like Kerry, loses Ohio or Florida.

Plouffe also has been touting Obama’s appeal in once Republican-leaning states where Democrats have made gains in recent gubernatorial and congressional races, such as Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Montana, Alaska and North Dakota.

Even if Obama were to win Virginia’s 13 electoral votes, a feat not achieved by a Democrat since 1964, if he loses Pennsylvania (21), they still under the gun. Add to McCain’s column Michigan (17) and New Hampshire (4), and Obama is in deep trouble.

One could argue Obama is lowering expectations, but frankly Plouffe is conceding that Obama may be the underdog in this Year of the Democrat.