Time and time again, we have heard President Obama make “perfectly clear” that his administration had given a particular issue “top priority” status. In fact, we were beginning to wonder which issues had not been made a “top priority” by the President.  Mark Knoller for CBS News is reporting an unofficial list of the top issues.  Fortunately, with 13 items enumerated, it will give David Letterman plenty of content to pick and choose for a a top ten countdown.

FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS: “…that’s something that’s going to be a top priority.” (4/27/10)

ENERGY SECURITY: “And that’s why my energy security plan has been one of the top priorities of my Administration since the day I took office.” (4/28/10)

EDUCATION REFORM: “To train our workers for the jobs of tomorrow, we’ve made education reform a top priority in this Administration.” (2/24/10)

STUDENT LOAN REFORM: “This is something that I’ve made a top priority.” (2/1/10)

EXPORTS BY SMALL BUSINESSES: “This is going to be a top priority.” (12/3/09)

HEALTH ASSISTANCE TO 9/11 FIRST RESPONDERS: “I’m not just talking the talk, we’ve been budgeting this as a top priority for this Administration.” (2/3/10)

END HOMELESSNESS AMONG VETERANS: “I’ve also directed (Veterans Affairs) Secretary Shinseki to focus on a top priority: reducing homeless among veterans.” (8/17/09)

HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS: “Our top priority is ensuring the public safety. That means appropriate sheltering in place or if necessary, getting as many people as possible out of harm’s way prior to landfall.” (5/29/09)

H1N1 FLU VACCINATIONS: “And throughout this process, my top priority has been the health and the safety of the American people.” (5/1/09)

SUPPORT FOR MILITARY FAMILIES: “These military families are heroes too. And they are a top priority of Michelle and me. And they will always have our support.” (5/30/09)

STRENTHENING TIES WITH CANADA AND MEXICO: “We’re going to make this a top priority…” (10/16/09)

CONSUMER PROTECTION: “During these challenging times, the needs of American consumers are a top priority of my Administration.” (2/11/09)

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION: “So this is going to be a top priority generally improving our environmental quality.” (11/5/09)

Rahim Jaffer, US-style Prevaricator

TORONTO: The US may be importing Canadian-style healthcare from our friendly neighbors to the north, but it’s nice to know it’s not a one-way street. It appears now that Canadians are importing US-style prevarication in their normal course of doing business. For us here in the US who may not be familiar with Rahim Jaffer the NIP will try to lay out the basics.

Rahim Jaffer was the first Muslim elected to the Canadian Parliament, serving from 1997 to 2008. After his defeat in the hotly contested 2008 election Jaffer reinvented himself as the “access point” for Canadian government money. According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Jaffer purported that doors for government money “were wide open to him”:

Two businessmen who heard Rahim Jaffer speak last August at a Toronto-area restaurant believed the former MP would be their connection to millions of dollars in government grants.

The men, who spoke to the CBC on condition of anonymity, said they were lured to the Aug. 25 meeting by an email that boasted: “Rahim Jaffer, who is the Canadian government money access point for us, will be in attendance.”

“We left with the impression Jaffer was the source of funding,” said the president of one company who pitched to Jaffer and his business colleague Nazim Gillani, the author of the email and the organizer of the meeting…

The two businessmen say they were presented with Jaffer’s business card, which indicated he was an MP, and his address was Centre Block at the House of Commons. Jaffer had lost his seat a year earlier. John Nicol and Dave Seglins, CBC News

Jaffer apparently has been studying the US stimulus boondoggle. He co-founded a company that pitched whopper-sized projects to the Canadian government, including a proposed $480-million “shovel-ready” and waste disposal project, looking for $100 million in government funds. Read more…

Richard Heene and Balloon Boy Falcon

FORT COLLINS, Colorado: It’s a great day in the prevarication business when we get to nab a famous liar right out of the daily headlines. It appears that we get to welcome Balloon Boy Hoax Perpetrator Richard Heene to the NIP Famous Liars Hall of Shame. We’ll have ample time to bloviate at a later date, but so far here are facts:

Thursday October 15 people all over the world stopped to watch live TV as a runaway balloon in the shape of a flying saucer flies over Colorado at speeds estimated up to 25 mph. Reportedly a 6 year old boy was trapped inside with questionable hope of rescue. The drama was riveting, so much so that TV media cut away from a speech by the president to cover it. (Sorry Barack.)

In an hour or so the balloon begins to deflate and lowers itself gently to the ground as millions around the world breathe a collective sigh of relief. The compartment stowing the balloon boy is opened, and to the horror of the viewing audience the mini-gondola is empty. Where is the boy? Did he fall to his death? Did he somehow escape unnoticed?  Read more…

2005 Crystal Globe

ZURICK: In 1977 Roman Polanski, then aged 44, seduces a 13 year old girl, Samantha Gailey. According to court transcripts Polanski first lures the young unescorted girl into posing for nude and semi-nude photos.

Her mother thought he was photographing her to consider her for upcoming screen roles, but Polanski had something else in mind. In his second photo shoot at the home of Jack Nicholson he gives the 13 yr-old alcohol, and to make sure she becomes compliant to his sexual advances gives her quaaludes. When she was sufficiently pacified he raped and sodomized her.

The crime, flight from justice are old news. But what is disturbing is the reaction of Hollywood and the entertainment industry to his recent arrest by Swiss police. Read more…

Navy veteran, slick salesman, champion archer and hunter from Akron Ohio goes missing on a fishing trip, leaving behind a wife, 3 children and one on the way. When his boat is found washed up on the Lake Erie shore after a violent storm, everyone mourns the loss of the charming and effervescent personalty known as Larry Bader.

Just a few short years later a friend of his does a double take when he sees a man calling himself Fritz Johnson entertaining crowds at a trade show in Chicago. Johnson was a well known radio and TV personality from Omaha, who got his start in the broadcasting business by perching on the city’s flag pole for one whole month. Strange thing though, Johnson was a dead ringer for the long-lost Larry Bader. Would a person who had faked his own suicide attract this kind of attention to himself?  Surely this man couldn’t be the same person… but just to make sure he calls Larry’s brother who comes the next day to Chicago. Read more…

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies that the holocaust ever happened, that it was a fiction created to enable the foundation of the state of Israel. Having spoken to actual survivors of Nazi death camps, as well as seen photos taken by a veteran who liberated Buchenwald, I think I believe mine own eyes and ears rather than the gratuitous assertions of a madman.

One of my family members was there and opened the gates at Buchenwald. Within a couple of days of opening the camp he participated with the Allies when they marched every man and women from a nearby village at bayonet point through the gates to bear witness of the atrocity. Read more…

Pulizter Schmulitzer

In 2004, it was exposed that USA Today correspondent and Pulitzer Prize nominee Jack Kelley had been fabricating stories and sources. He denied the charges and resigned. Read more here: from USA Today.