The NIP so far has steered clear of the the Obama birth record controversy due to lack of concrete evidence either way. Taking our roll as watchdogs seriously, we ourselves do not want to be accused of disseminating false information. However, Diana West has now compiled a compelling list of discrepancies and omissions the deserve scrutiny. We think you need to consider the many points she raises.

The fact is, the birth certificate controversy is only the beginning of the presidential mystery. There is so much we don’t know for certain about President Obama. Inexplicably but intriguigingly, he has failed to produce his bona fides, while the media (and the White House media in particular), who could ask for them, don’t care, or don’t want to care. Diana West.

1. The original, long-form 1961 Hawaiian birth certificate….
2. Marriage license between Obama’s father (Barak Sr.) and mother (Stanley Ann Dunham) — not found, not released
3. Obama’s baptism records — sealed
4. Obama’s adoption records — sealed
5. Records of Obama’s and his mother’s reptriation as US citizens on return from Indonesia — not found, not released
6. Name change (Barry Sotero to Barack Hussein Obama) records — not found, not released
7. Noelani Elementary School (Hawaii) — not released
8. Punahou School financial aid or school records — not released
9. Occidental College financial aid records — not released. (These records were, however, subpoenaed but Obama lawyers succeeded in quashing the subpoena in court. No other Occi records have been released.)
10. Columbia College records — not released
11. Columbia senior thesis — not released
12. Harvard Law School records (not mentioned below, but not released)
13. Obama’s law client list — sealed
14. Obama’s files from career as an Illinois State Senator — sealed
15. Obama’s record with Illinois State Bar Association — sealed
16. Obama’s medical records — not released
17. Obama’s passport records — not released

For 25 even more compelling questions read Diana West’s column here.

PHOENIX, AZ: Last Friday April 23rd we saw protestors in Phoenix hurtling water bottles and other projectiles at the police. The protestors in Arizona are all riled up because now if they get stopped speeding they have to show their driver’s license to proof they are in the country legally. This is the kind of rough-and-ready protest we have come to expect from the Left. Compare the Tea Party Grandmas who have the SWAT called out on them to this crowd and it makes you wonder why the media is all over Tea Partiers and give passes to the Left.

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SELWYN DUKE: Contradiction is no stranger to the mainstream media, and it is on full display in their treatment of the Catholic-priest sexual abuse story.  Normally, the media take pains to point out that transgressors should not be used to typify the group with which they’re associated.  For instance, when terrorism is covered, we’re told that the jihadists of the world constitute just a small group of “extremists” and do not represent Islam.  That is, when the media can’t manage to identify such people only as “youths” and must actually address the issue in the first place.  Yet, with the Church matter, they have no problem blaming the Church as a whole, tarnishing the reputations of the institution, Catholics in general and all priests through gratuitous, slanted coverage.

But there is one group in this story that not only isn’t painted with a broad brush, it’s whited out: homosexuals.  Claim that the abuse was homosexual in nature and you’ll hear accusations of intolerance, bigotry and backwardness.  “Don’t be ignorant,” say the apologists, “Haven’t you heard about psychology and the ‘determination’ that homosexuality and pedophilia are completely different things?”  Well, I will ask if they’ve heard about word definitions. Read more…

JAMES SIMPSON: Forgive the obscene photo of Politically Incorrect show host Bill Maher, but it serves as a stark visual testimonial to the Left’s true nature. Every day, the Left shows us with their own actions that they are exactly what they accuse conservatives and tea partiers of being.

It is astonishing that they have the gall to accuse anyone of anything. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. But then we remember that the smear and the lie is all they have. As a post at Powerline relates, “It is liberals, not conservatives, who rely on ad hominem attacks, outrageous allegations and violent imagery.” The accusations of racism and threats of violence put forth by Congressional Democrats since Saturday are straight out of the Alinsky playbook. They probaby made the calls themselves.

Thank God for talk radio and the internet. Thanks to the New Media, they can no longer do these things with impunity. As Andrew Breitbart says, “The emperor has no clothes.” The Left is being exposed for the empty fraud of a movement it is, and as that happens, they are getting increasingly desperate. Yes we do have to worry about violence. From the Left. But this is nothing new either. Read more…

JAMES SIMPSON: Rick Sanchez made a bald-faced lie on CNN yesterday in defense of President Obama’s budget numbers. He was attempting to methodically debunk Republican claims about Obama budgets, arguing that most of the trillions in spending came on Republicans’ watch and Obama just added a little bit.

He started by claiming that Obama came into office facing a $1.2 trillion budget. Obama makes the same claim. Actually, the deficit for 2008, Bush’s last year in office, was $459 billion. Bush does share responsibility for TARP though, so you could say that Obama was only partially responsible for 2009’s deficit, even though his proposals added $787 billion in new spending through the failed “Stimulus,” which was not supported by Republicans.

I know, I know. It was all Bush’s fault, so Obama can’t be blamed even if he had to shell out $800 billion of our dollars to save his Wall Street and union friends. In fact, Bush and the Republicans do share some of the blame for the financial crisis, but it was a sin of omission, not commission. The truth is that the financial crisis was the direct result of a half-century of Democrat meddling with the housing market. Bush and the Republicans failed in that they did not push hard enough for needed reform.

But however you want to argue it for 2009, Obama owns the 2010 and 2011 budgets all alone. FY 2010 included the largest regular budgetary increase in recent history, a whopping 15 percent higher than Bush’s 2009 proposal. According to Obama’s 2011 budget, deficits for 2010 and 2011 are projected to be $1.6 trillion and $1.3 trillion respectively. And while Obama continues to call for health care reform, no spending for it is included in the 2011 budget.

The 2011 budget does, however, include an assumed $150 billion in deficit reduction from passage of healthcare reform. Who is he kidding? This is the same smoke and mirrors game the Senate played in claiming “savings” from overhauling healthcare. Don’t believe it! The true cost will be in the trillions. Read more…

CHAPPAQUIDDICK, MA: Tuesday’s earthquake in Massachusetts has brought to mind an incident now over 40 years old. Some visitors to our YouTube channel have reminded us about it with their comments on our video “The Truck That Ran Over Socialism.” It seems appropriate that I comment on the tragic drowning of Mary Jo Kopechne as I was there shortly after it happened on July 19, 1969. I believe there is a lesson yet to be learned regarding that tragic evening, a lesson worthy of our attention here at the NIP.

The Drowning. While vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard Ted Kennedy attended a party. He left the party early with a young girl, Mary Jo Kopechne, a staff member who served on his brother Robert’s 1968 presidential campaign. Kennedy took the unusual step of taking the car keys from his chauffeur, leaving his driver to fend for himself. Kennedy, driving back home with Mary Jo, left a paved road and made an abrupt turn onto a bumpy dirt road leading to a secluded beach. It was a dark night, with less than 1/4 moon for light. Kenney drove a considerable distance until he inadvertently drove off a bridge over what amounted to a drainage ditch for Poucha Pond. The car capsized and Kennedy escaped while Kopechne drowned.

I visited Chappaquiddick not long after the accident back in the summer of 1969. As an eye witness to the conditions of the roads at the time, I can personally testify that there is no way that Kennedy was “lost” or made a bad turn. The road was very bumpy (a condition not reported by anyone as far as I know). This road was barely a one lane dirt track. It was such a contrast from the 2 lane paved road that no one could have made the mistake of following that route and thinking it was leading back to the ferry for Edgartown.

Kennedy drove some distance on the dirt road before reaching the bridge, a distance long enough that both he and Mary Jo would have realized that they were on “the wrong road.” It took Kennedy to a beach that, even on the sunny day when I was there, was very secluded. That midnight Kennedy knew it would be deserted. Read more…

ST. BARTS & KAILUA: What’s up with Hollywood that it has such a fascination for dictators? Bill Maher articulated it often when he has shown his impatience with the US political process. He seems to be enamored with the efficiency of a despot’s rule.

Apparently we can add Microsoft founder Paul Allen to the list of starry-eyed admirers as he was seen partying last week with Beyonce and Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi’s son Hannibal:

Popstar Beyonce Knowles reportedly performed at a party thrown by Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi’s son Hannibal, notorious for violence against women, for almost an hour on New Year’s Eve, New York Post reported.

The 28-year-old singer performed five songs in a sexy black leotard at the Nikki Beach club on St. Barts in front of a crowd that included her husband Jay-Z, Usher, Microsoft founder Paul Allen and Lindsay Lohan…

Just a week earlier, on Christmas Day, Hannibal, 33 — also known as Moutassim — allegedly attacked his wife, Aline Skaf, in his suite at Claridge’s in London. Three of his security staff were arrested for obstructing police. Skaf was reportedly hospitalized with a broken nose while Hannibal was whisked away in a diplomatic car.  New York Post

Hannibal (well-named) gets whisked away with diplomatic immunity while his wife is hospitalized. Then a few days later he jets to St. Barts and parties with Paul Allen, Beyonce, and other celebrities.  Despotic rulers love their glamour and their luxury and celebrities love to party with them.

While we’re at it why not compare George W. Bush’s Christmas holidays at his own home with Obama’s Christmas holidays? For the last two Christmases Obama has vacationed at a $4,000 a night villa in Hawaii while he also rents two adjacent villas for his family and friends. Let’s not forget the transportation costs to and from Hawaii for his entourage, and housing for his security staff. Kailua is known as the most beautiful beach in Hawaii and a traditional vacationing spot for royalty. What a better spot for our own royalty to soak away their stress while we are being subjected to attempted suicide bombers? Surely none of his loyal subjects complained when he didn’t even bother to make a statement about the bombing for three days.

The left’s appetite for luxury is never satiated, along with their demand that the rest of us fund them in their extravagance.