Obama did not save the Economy, its even worse now.

AP tries to pull a fast one in touting the good number of unemployment dropping 0.1%, the problem is it dropped for a very bad reason.

– It's the clearest sign yet the recession is finally ending: Employers laid off far fewer workers in July, the jobless rate dipped for the first time in 15 months and workers' hours and pay edged upward. Those are the kind of figures that could give Americans the psychological boost necessary for recovery to take root after the worst recession since World War II. A net total of 247,000 jobs were lost last month, the fewest in a year and a drastic improvement from the 443,000 that vanished in June. The Labor Department's report Friday showed that the unemployment rate dropped a notch to 9.4 percent in July, from 9.5 percent the previous month. Together with slight increases in the average workweek and wages, the new figures suggested the economy is in a transition from recession to recovery. "The worst may be behind us," President Barack Obama declared. "Today, we're pointed in the right direction."

This is a horrible lie and proves AP is acting cheerleader for Obama since most people will read the opening paragraphs and papers usually do a chop job to fit in print or even their own sites. Don't believes check around on google news for this same article on various web sites and see how much editing is done. But at the bottom, AP buries the really story.

Analysts say companies will keep cutting jobs probably through the rest of this year, though the pace of layoffs should continue to taper off. The beginnings of recovery could actually push the unemployment rate higher, since far more people would be energized to look for work again. In fact, the main reason the unemployment rate declined last month was not an inspiring one: Hundreds of thousands of people, some discouraged by their failed job searches, left the labor force. The labor force includes only those who are either employed or are looking for work. If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included the unemployment rate would have been 16.3 percent in July. All told, 14.5 million were out of work in July. Job-seekers are finding it harder to get work because there are so few openings. A record 4.97 million people had been unemployed six months or longer in July. And the average length of unemployment grew to 25.1 weeks, also a record.

Former secretary of labor Robert Reich who I have zero love for says the same thing.

The economy is getting worse more slowly. That's just about the only clear reading that's coming from the economic reports, including this morning's important one on employment. The pace of job losses slowed -- payrolls fell by 247,000, after a 443,000 loss in June, and the official jobless rate dropped from 9.5 to 9.4 percent. Be careful with these figures, though. They don't include the increasing numbers of people working part-time who'd rather have full-time jobs. Nor do they include a large number who have given up looking for work. They don't reflect the many millions who have found new jobs that pay less than the old ones they lost. And they don't include one of the shortest typical workweeks on record, for those who still have full-time jobs. (On this score, though, another indication that things are worsening more slowly -- the workweek went up very slightly from 33 hours.) Nor, for that matter, do the numbers reflect the 130,000 people who are coming into the labor force each month ready and willing to work, who can't find jobs. If all these people are included, my estimate is that one out of five Americans who would otherwise be working full-time are now underemployed. We are still experiencing the biggest decline of any post-World War II economic slump. .....Yet -- here's another important thing to watch -- job losses continue to outpace that contraction. In other words, employers are using this downdraft to lay off more workers, proportionately, than they have since the Great Depression. The late economist Arthur Okun, after reviewing economic history, once pronounced a rule of thumb that every 2 percent drop in economic growth generates a 1 percent rise in unemployment. This time, that rule has been broken: The fall in growth has resulted in a much greater rise in unemployment. And if underemployment is figured in, a truly astonishing rise.

Yes, Obamacare would encourage abortion coverage.

Honestly, its right there in the bill, do you think a Dem congress and President wouldn't have an abortion option in a health care bill?

Health care legislation before Congress would allow a new government-sponsored insurance plan to cover abortions, a decision that would affect millions of women and recast federal policy on the divisive issue. Federal funds for abortions are now restricted to cases involving rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother. Abortion opponents say those restrictions should carry over to any health insurance sold through a new marketplace envisioned under the legislation, an exchange where people would choose private coverage or the public plan. Donna Crane, policy director for NARAL Pro-Choice America, said abortion opponents "want an abortion ban in private insurance, and that's not neutrality at all _ that's a radical departure from current law. They want something far more extreme than where I think the American public is." A compromise approved by a House committee last week attempted to balance questions of federal funding, personal choice and the conscience rights of clinicians. It would allow the public plan to cover abortion but without using federal funds, only dollars from beneficiary premiums. Likewise, private plans in the new insurance exchange could opt to cover abortion, but no federal subsidies would be used to pay for the procedure. "It's a sham," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life. "It's a bookkeeping scheme. The plan pays for abortion, and the government subsidizes the plan."

Obama is not the Joker but Two Face.

Townhall's Greg Hengler puts in two mins what has been known by Obama's critics like me have been pointing out. He has the ability to act like a President but is truly a thin skinned arrogant man who believes he knows what is best for everyone.

(Video) SEIU union thugs beat up black man in St.Louis

*Updated* Added video and run down of how Obama's shock troops from the SEIU union decided to deal with people who dared to cross Black jesus.


Union thugs getting their violence on early?

UPDATE: St. Louis County police say six people were arrested. Two of those were arrested on suspicion of assault, one of resisting arrest and three on suspicion of committing peace disturbances. Carnahan was gone when the ruckus started. Kenneth Gladney, a 38-year-old conservative activist from St. Louis, said he was attacked by some of those arrested as he handed out yellow flags with “Don't tread on me” printed on them. He spoke to the Post-Dispatch from the emergency room of the St. John's Mercy Medical Center, where he said he was waiting to be treated for injuries to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face that he suffered in the attack. Gladney, who is black, said one of his attackers, also a black man, used a racial slur against him before the attack started. “It just seems there's no freedom of speech without being attacked,” he said.

Haw! Drudge pointing out the White House advice is being brought to the scene.

Obama 1993: Citizens must engage themselves.

So why is Obama and the Dems now trying so hard to keep people out of the political process?

The interview was done after Obama led an effort called Project Vote that helped register 150,000 new black voters in Chicago. It was recorded in October 1993 at the Chicago law office of Obama’s former boss, Judd Miner, and reveals the future president’s appreciation of techniques that would later help him win the White House. “In a media age like this, you really have to reach out to young people and show that registration was hip, was popular, was trendy,” Obama, who turns 48 today, said in the interview. “Politics does matter,” he said. “It can make the difference in terms of a benefits check. It can make the difference in terms of school funding. Citizens can’t just remove themselves from that process. They actually have to engage themselves and not just leave it to the professionals.”

They are engaged but getting beat up and locked out for it.

Err..Congress actually brought four more jets.

Pentagon and Defense Department actually wanted four planes total and Congress decided to add four more.

Congress plans to spend $550 million to buy eight new jets, a substantial upgrade to the fleet used by federal officials at a time when lawmakers have criticized the use of corporate jets by companies receiving taxpayer funds. The purchases will help accommodate growing travel demand by congressional officials. The new planes augment a fleet of about two dozen passenger jets maintained by the Air Force for lawmakers, administration officials and military chiefs to fly on government trips in the U.S. and abroad. The congressional shopping list goes beyond what the Air Force had initially requested as part of its annual appropriations. The Pentagon sought to buy one Gulfstream V and one business-class equivalent of a Boeing 737 to replace aging planes. The Defense Department also asked to buy two additional 737s that were being leased. .Lawmakers in the House last week added funds to buy a total of three Gulfstream planes and two additional 737s on top of the Pentagon's request. The purchases must still be approved by the Senate. The Air Force version of the Gulfstream V each costs $66 million, according to the Department of Defense, and the 737s cost about $70 million. Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said the Department of Defense didn't request the additional planes and doesn't need them. "We ask for what we need and only what we need," he told reporters Wednesday. "We've always frowned upon earmarks and additives that are above and beyond what we ask for."

Obamacare opponents = political terrorists

Another Washington Post writer, Steven Pearlstein, goes off the deep end to demonize opponents to Obamacare.

As a columnist who regularly dishes out sharp criticism, I try not to question the motives of people with whom I don't agree. Today, I'm going to step over that line. The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they've given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They've become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems. There are lots of valid criticisms that can be made against the health reform plans moving through Congress -- I've made a few myself. But there is no credible way to look at what has been proposed by the president or any congressional committee and conclude that these will result in a government takeover of the health-care system. That is a flat-out lie whose only purpose is to scare the public and stop political conversation.

Then he goes on to parrot White House talking points and some screwy logic that he never follows thru to its end.

The Republican lies about the economics of health reform are also heavily laced with hypocrisy. While holding themselves out as paragons of fiscal rectitude, Republicans grandstand against just about every idea to reduce the amount of health care people consume or the prices paid to health-care providers -- the only two ways I can think of to credibly bring health spending under control.

How is it grandstanding to point out that these two options to the American people which will lead to less care in the long run that they are expecting? The post below about France and its problems with UHC is the fact to keep costs down and have the highest quality health care the outside factors have to be controlled.

That's because the French share Americans' distaste for restrictions on patient choice and they insist on autonomous private practitioners rather than a British-style national health service, which the French dismiss as "socialized medicine." Virtually all physicians in France participate in the nation's public health insurance, Sécurité Sociale. Their freedoms of diagnosis and therapy are protected in ways that would make their managed-care-controlled US counterparts envious. However, the average American physician earns more than five times the average US wage while the average French physician makes only about two times the average earnings of his or her compatriots. But the lower income of French physicians is allayed by two factors. Practice liability is greatly diminished by a tort-averse legal system, and medical schools, although extremely competitive to enter, are tuition-free. Thus, French physicians enter their careers with little if any debt and pay much lower malpractice insurance premiums. ....Doctors only agreed to participate in compulsory health insurance if the law protected a patient's choice of practitioner and guaranteed physicians' control over medical decision-making. Given their current frustrations, America's doctors might finally be convinced to throw their support behind universal health insurance if it protected their professional judgment and created a sane system of billing and reimbursement. French legislators also overcame insurance industry resistance by permitting the nation's already existing insurers to administer its new healthcare funds. Private health insurers are also central to the system as supplemental insurers who cover patient expenses that are not paid for by Sécurité Sociale. Indeed, nearly 90 percent of the French population possesses such coverage, making France home to a booming private health insurance market.

Considering every plan coming from the Dems is the exact opposite which will drive private insurers out of business and restrict choice and care, excuse Obamacare critics for pointing it out to the American people.

France Fights Universal Care's High Cost

Good article on France's universal health care system getting out of control while its population refuses anything substantial in bringing it back to black.

The French system's fragile solvency shows how tough it is to provide universal coverage while controlling costs, the professed twin goals of President Barack Obama's proposed overhaul. .....French taxpayers fund a state health insurer, Assurance Maladie, proportionally to their income, and patients get treatment even if they can't pay for it. France spends 11% of national output on health services, compared with 17% in the U.S., and routinely outranks the U.S. in infant mortality and some other health measures. The problem is that Assurance Maladie has been in the red since 1989. This year the annual shortfall is expected to reach €9.4 billion ($13.5 billion), and €15 billion in 2010, or roughly 10% of its budget. France's woes provide grist to critics of Mr. Obama and the Democrats' vision of a new public health plan to compete with private health insurers. Republicans argue that tens of millions of Americans would leave their employer-provided coverage for the cheaper, public option, bankrupting the federal government. Despite the structural differences between the U.S. and French systems, both face similar root problems: rising drug costs, aging populations and growing unemployment, albeit for slightly different reasons. In the U.S., being unemployed means you might lose your coverage; in France, it means less tax money flowing into Assurance Maladie's coffers. France faces a major obstacle to its reforms: French people consider access to health care a societal right, and any effort to cut coverage can lead to a big fight.

Obama and Dems declaring war on those who oppose them.

Obama poll numbers have dropped and he has dropped the pretence of post-racial Black jesus character and back to the community organzier thuggery. Consider these three items via Hot Air.

White House to Democrats: 'Punch back twice as hard'

He has activated his Organizing for America groups

Obama does his own bit of Astroturfing that goes a bit off course.

Then you have the all out press of the Dems like Pelosi and Reid lashing out at the protestors as waving swastikas and being led by talk radio hosts or ditzy Barbara Boxer saying the protestors are too well dressed.

Obama expected a celebration for his health care reform and is having a hissy fit that people will not only dare oppose him but actually get off their butts and go to these town hall meetings. The sense of panic and the determination to paint all protestors as fringe only serves to make voters angry that Obama and the Dems are being so arrogant to dismiss them.

There is a general sense of disillusionment and realization that Obama is really not Black jesus sent to earth to save everyone. He is just a Chicago politician willing to lie to get what he wants done in spite of even video evidence.

SEIU union thugs snuck into Russ Carnahan townhall.

Gateway Pundit with the details as the Dems stack the deck and block out those who do not agree with them.

SEIU union thugs cause violence at Castor/Reed town hall meeting.

*Update* SEIU union thugs beat up black man in St.Louis.

Earlier today, the word got spread around by the AFL-CIO that the unions were going to get more involved in the town halls to make sure the anti Obamacare people know their place.

The nation's largest federation of labor organizations has promised to directly engage with boisterous conservative protesters at Democratic town halls during the August recess. In a memo sent out on Thursday, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney outlined the blueprint for how the union conglomerate would step up recess activities on health care reform and other topics pertinent to the labor community. The document makes clear that Obama allies view the town hall forums as ground zero of the health care debate. It also uses the specter of the infamous 2000 recount "Brooks Brothers" protest to rally its members to the administration's side. "The principal battleground in the campaign will be town hall meetings and other gatherings with members of Congress in their home districts," reads the memo. "We want your help to organize major union participation to counter the right-wing "Tea-Party Patriots" who will try to disrupt those meetings, as they've been trying to do to meetings for the last month. ...

So today the SEIU thugs got the ball rolling in "engaging directly" with protesters.

What was intended to be a town hall discussion on President Barack Obama's health care reform proposal dissolved into a shouting match with shoving and scuffles in Ybor City tonight. The event brought home to Tampa the recent phenomenon of angry opponents of Obama's proposal disrupting town hall meetings by Democratic members of Congress during the August recess. This meeting was organized by Democratic state Rep. Betty Reed but was to include comments on the proposal by U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, a strong supporter. Castor tried to speak for nearly 15 minutes but the crowd drowned her out, chanting, "You work for us,'' "Tyranny, tyranny,'' and "Read the bill." She ultimately left the meeting early, further angering some attendees. The problems began when a crowd of around 500, many of them recruited to attend by interest groups both for and against the proposal, sought to enter the meeting room. The room, in the offices of the Hillsborough County Children's Board on East Palm Avenue, has a capacity of only about 250. Several hundred people, mostly opponents, wound up outside or packing a hallway leading into the meeting room. Some scuffled with members of the sponsoring groups who manned the doorway. One man who said he was injured and intended to file a police complaint, Randy Arthur of Oldsmar, was outside the meeting room with his wife, Kathy Arthur, when organizers tried to close the doors. She said he was slammed against a wall. He later talked to police officers, his knit shirt ripped and a few scratches visible on his chest. ....The meeting was organized by Reed plus the Service Employees International Union, other unions and Organizing for America, a liberal group that grew out of the Obama presidential campaign. Some opponents accused the organizers of trying to stack the crowd by allowing early admission to those on their side. Reed denied that, saying those admitted early were organizers setting up the room. In any case, opponents appeared to outnumber proponents both inside and outside. After doors to the meeting room closed, some of those outside crowded around the windows of the meeting room, where they held up signs and chanted.

Obama 2008: They bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun

As he is doing now with his critics I suppose.

Mobster wisdom tells us never to bring a knife to a gun fight. But what does political wisdom say about bringing a gun to a knife fight? That’s exactly what Barack Obama said he would do to counter Republican attacks “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said at a Philadelphia fundraiser Friday night. “Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans.”

Neil Cavuto rips into Obama's tactics against American critics.

Obama finally stepped over the line with his Chicago/Alinsky political tactics because people are finally getting the point on how thin skinned and vicious he can be against people who simply disagree with him.

Allahpundit.

The One can’t stop demagoging his critics for the simple reason that his image won’t allow it. As the risen Christ of American politics, his agenda is ipso facto good and just; treating his critics’ concerns as valid instead of the ravings of a lunatic mob would be like Jesus telling Satan, “Well, you’ve got a point there.” The whole Hopenchange mythos is at its core demagoguery. What do you want him to say, Neil?

Congress buys three Gulfstream 550 jets .

This really a good used of taxpayers money to buy three elite jets for congress critters in a time of recession?

Last year, lawmakers excoriated the CEOs of the Big Three automakers for traveling to Washington, D.C., by private jet to attend a hearing about a possible bailout of their companies. But apparently Congress is not philosophically averse to private air travel: At the end of July, the House approved nearly $200 million for the Air Force to buy three elite Gulfstream jets for ferrying top government officials and Members of Congress. The Air Force had asked for one Gulfstream 550 jet (price tag: about $65 million) as part of an ongoing upgrade of its passenger air service. But the House Appropriations Committee, at its own initiative, added to the 2010 Defense appropriations bill another $132 million for two more airplanes and specified that they be assigned to the D.C.-area units that carry Members of Congress, military brass and top government officials. Because the Appropriations Committee viewed the additional aircraft as an expansion of an existing Defense Department program, it did not treat the money for two more planes as an earmark, and the legislation does not disclose which Member had requested the additional money. An Appropriations Committee staffer said the military was already planning to replace its passenger fleet, and the committee “looked at the request and decided they should speed up the replacement.”

They knew it was wrong and tried to hide it which is typical of the Dem party in these cases.

Wha? NBC on right post-Silverman path, executive says

There is some denial going on here.

In the wake of Ben Silverman's departure from NBC, the top programming executives left behind said the network is on the right path and will be patient with changes he put into motion, including a bold prime-time talk show with Jay Leno. NBC entertainment chief Angela Bromstad, in an interview session Wednesday with the Television Critics Association, underplayed Silverman's exit as co-chairman of NBC Entertainment last month to start a new venture. "I think this has always been Ben's plan ... to transition back to his entrepreneurial roots," Bromstad said, looking surprised when the remark drew skeptical laughs. "I don't think he was looking to be at NBC for a long-term thing." NBC failed to launch any new hit shows and remained mired in fourth place under Silverman, and industry and media speculation had been growing that his tenure might be at an end. He's heading a new multimedia production and distribution venture with Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp.

In NFL terms, Silverman came in to be the coach of a 6-10 team and turned them into a 2-14 team with less talent. Anything other than seeing Silverman as a disaster for NBC is delusional.

Obama knows all about 'Manufactured Outrage'

Via Guy Benson of the NRO Corner who points out in case you forgot that Obama is schooled in the art of creating outrage.

As the DNC and the White House desperately attempt to marginalize and bully the majority of Americans who oppose the government takeover of healthcare, they're increasingly relying on their media allies to paint the widespread, genuine opposition as "manufactured" outrage voiced by "mobs" of "angry radicals." It doesn't take a Ph.D. in psychology to conclude this knee-jerk demonization may represent an acute case of projection. Today's Democratic party is led by a man who spent much of his adult life specializing in the art of public agitation. Acting as a top organizer for radical groups like ACORN, Barack Obama devoted years to prodding underprivileged Chicagoans to channel their political anger by orchestrating activist mob scenes—designed to coerce businesses and elected officials.

Obama as the Joker is RACIST!!!! part 2

Let us be edumacated by Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post why the joker poster is racist.

By using the "urban" makeup of the Heath Ledger Joker, instead of the urbane makeup of the Jack Nicholson character, the poster connects Obama to something many of his detractors fear but can't openly discuss. He is black and he is identified with the inner city, a source of political instability in the 1960s and '70s, and a lingering bogeyman in political consciousness despite falling crime rates. The Joker's makeup in "Dark Knight" -- the latest film in a long franchise that dramatizes fear of the urban world -- emphasized the wounded nature of the villain, the sense that he was both a product and source of violence. Although Ledger was white, and the Joker is white, this equation of the wounded and the wounding mirrors basic racial typology in America. Urban blacks -- the thinking goes -- don't just live in dangerous neighborhoods, they carry that danger with them like a virus. Scientific studies, which demonstrate the social consequences of living in neighborhoods with high rates of crime, get processed and misinterpreted in the popular unconscious, underscoring the idea. Violence breeds violence. It is an ugly idea, operating covertly in that gray area that is always supposed to be opened up to honest examination whenever America has one of its "we need to talk this through" episodes. But it lingers, unspoken but powerful, leaving all too many people with the sense that exposure to crime creates an ineluctable propensity to crime. Superimpose that idea, through the Joker's makeup, onto Obama's face, and you have subtly coded, highly effective racial and political argument. Forget socialism, this poster is another attempt to accomplish an association between Obama and the unpredictable, seeming danger of urban life. It is another effort to establish what failed to jell in the debate about Obama's association with Chicago radical William Ayers and the controversy over the racially charged sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Obama, like the Joker and like the racial stereotype of the black man, carries within him an unknowable, volatile and dangerous marker of urban violence, which could erupt at any time. The charge of socialism is secondary to the basic message that Obama can't be trusted, not because he is a politician, but because he's black.

It took two days but this is by far the biggest stretch to brand the joker poster as purely racist. It takes the Joker's love of chaos and combines it with urban black men are violent imagery to come to a ridiculous conclusion because in the writer's mind any slight to Obama must come from a racist point of view.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson tries to defend his hyperbole outrage when he called the poster a demonic and mean spirited slur against Obama.

"....and when this writer and a handful of other critics had the temerity to brand the Obama Joker poster as a demonic and mean spirited slur of President Obama, the Obama loathers went into a manic tail spin. Just as with Bush and the vampire or Hitler depiction, to call Obama a socialist because they don't like his health care reform proposals and economic policies is to sail way off the deep end. The Web sites and chat rooms quickly filled with shrill screeches about the first Amendment, free speech, and liberal double standard hypocrisy. Those were the more charitable defenses. As silly and loose screwed as the depiction of Obama is as a socialist Joker, this writer did not scream for the posters to be summarily yanked down and tossed in a Hitlerian banned-book bonfire. Instead, the call was simply for the individual or groups slapping the posters up to publicly ID themselves and take credit for their work. Come forth and take public pride in branding the president a jokester and a socialist. Don't slink around at midnight, taking the guerilla graffiti artist's route, and smear walls with the posters when cars disappear around the bend. That's not the joker's MO. It's certainly not befitting someone who's bold enough to call the president the Joker and a socialist.

The call was to smoke out the person to be given a public beatdown by Hutchinson and others who do not like anyone mocking Obama. Does this look like a simple call for a decent debate?

Hutchinson is challenging the group or individual that put up the poster to have the courage and decency to publicly identify themselves. "Depicting the president as demonic and a socialist goes beyond political spoofery," says Hutchinson, "it is mean-spirited and dangerous." "We have issued a public challenge to the person or group that put up the poster to come forth and publicly tell why they have used this offensive depiction to ridicule President Obama."

Or how about the writers at "Hip Hop Wired"

A poster of Obama in make-up resembling the Joker, a character from the film "The Dark Knight," went viral immediately in the streets of Los Angeles, under the image is the word "socialism." The "artist" remains silent. As if the picture isn't discourteous enough, the implication of Obama reforming the government into a socialist society completely undermines the mission and agenda of Obama's presidency On behalf of the staff here at HipHopWired.com, we join Hutchinson and encourage the mastermind behind the poster to make themselves known, exercise their freedom of speech and explain his/her intention. Such a statement deserves expounding, otherwise the move could be rendered just as cowardly as white sheets and burning crosses. Just saying.

Hutchinson is smart enough to try and walk back from is inital statement but the damage is done. The hypersensistivity of the quotes above point out that any criticism of Obama is twisted into a racist creed by his supporters because it is easier than trying to defend his policies which have become unpopular with the general public.

Shockingly the only one who is a rabid Obama supporter that is frothing at the mouth is over at the Guardian's CIF page in Lola Adesioye who lives to call Obama critics racist.

But ultimately this poster was made to catch the eye and stick in people's minds – which it has done. George Bush, and indeed black people in his cabinet such as Condoleezza Rice, were regularly portrayed as the Joker, devils and other unkind caricatures. While sensitivity is important, Obama will not escape the same treatment. And why should he? Isn't the right to make fun of the president one of the most enjoyable aspects of a democracy?

Tell Hutchinson.

Cash for Clunkers good for foreign makers not Big 3.

Via the Corner which points out the sales of foreign cars are dominating the big 3 and even Ford with Focus on the top is probably losing money on it because of legacy costs.

Four of the five top-selling cars in the government's "Cash for Clunkers" program are made by foreign automakers, according to new data released Tuesday by federal transportation officials. The trade-in program has proved so popular that the government is in danger of running out of money for the rebates; Senate leaders said they plan to schedule a vote this week to boost funding. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said 157,000 trades had occurred as of Tuesday morning, eating up $664 million of the $1 billion appropriated for the effort. More than 80 percent of the vehicles turned in were trucks and sport-utility vehicles, the government said. The top-selling new car is the Ford Focus, followed by the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Toyota Prius and Toyota Camry. The new vehicles on average get 25.4 miles per gallon, compared with an average of 15.8 mpg for the trade-ins.

Keep in mind most of the foreign makers build their cars here in America which is a plus for American employees.

Obama for whatever reason is not releasing the numbers even though Cash for Clunkers is a success.

Josh Marshall hates dissent at townhalls.

I don't remember any big outcry when liberals did the same over the last 8 years in various forums including townhalls on how to get organized and demanding answers to issues they don't agree with their congress critter.

It now seems clear that 'tea party' movement types, organized by highly-funded corporate backed outfits like "Freedom Works" are putting together a plan to disrupt and shut down as many town hall events as possible. That's entirely different from making sure you've got a lot of activists at events with t-shirts or protesting with pickets outside the venue or making sure one of your activists gets to ask a question. This amounts to a sort of civic vigilanteism.

or democracy in action depending on your point of view.

Soccer club target of Muslim anger over song

The now typical threats and pressure to get something changed.

Football is religion for most Schalke 04 fans and the late Pope John Paul II was even an honorary club member, but some Muslims now feel offended by the official anthem of the Bundesliga club. Many German Muslims, including some Schalke fans, have voiced their protest and threatened the club over the third stanza of the "Blue and White, how I love you" anthem which, refers to the prophet Mohammed. Schalke's home strip is blue and white. The incident was reported by some Turkish media a week ago, and by now threats have been expressed on various internet forums and prompted Schalke to work together with the police and other authorities. Germany has some 4 million Muslim inhabitants, most of whom have a Turkish background. The passage the Muslims consider insulting translates as following into English: "Mohammed was a prophet / who understood nothing about football / but from all the blaze of colour / he picked the blue and white." According to the German folk song archive, the anthem is based on a hunting tune from 1797 which says "Mohammed is my patron! He knew real beauty. He, for whom only green was holy from all the colours." The Schalke version was created in 1924 and the wording edited in 1963. It is sung ahead of every home game. A club spokesman said that the club has received "around 350 emails," adding: "We are taking the situation very seriously and are in contact with police and state protection institutions."

Hezbollah stockpiles 40,000 rockets near Israel border

But Israel should cool its heels while its enemies arm themselves to the teeth. Yeah, okay.

Three years after Israel fought a bloody war in Lebanon against Hezbollah, there are fears that hostilities could erupt again — this time with the militant group better armed than ever. According to Israeli, United Nations and Hezbollah officials, the Shia Muslim militia is stronger than it was in 2006 when it took on the Israeli army in a war that killed 1,191 Lebanese and 43 Israeli civilians. Hezbollah has up to 40,000 rockets and is training its forces to use ground-to-ground missiles capable of hitting Tel Aviv, and anti-aircraft missiles that could challenge Israel’s dominance of the skies over Lebanon. Brigadier-General Alon Friedman, the deputy head of the Israeli Northern Command, told The Times from his headquarters overlooking the Israeli-Lebanese border that the peace of the past three years could “explode at any minute”.

Israelis quietly question U.S. resolve against Iran

Your basic "You get balls of steel or not" question. If today's event of Obama sucking up to Iran doesn't convince Israel they have Jimmy Carter deux in the White House they are going to get sucker punched hard.

U.S. terror suspects spoke of "jihad"

FBI laid out some of their evidence against the seven terrorist suspects from North Carolina.

U.S. prosecutors played FBI recordings in court on Tuesday as evidence that seven North Carolina terrorism suspects discussed waging "jihad," which can mean "holy war," as part of a conspiracy to conduct attacks overseas. Prosecutors at the detention hearing in Raleigh used the recordings to argue that Daniel Patrick Boyd, his two sons and four other men, who are all accused of conspiring to carry out terrorism attacks abroad, should remain in custody. An eighth suspect in the case is not in the United States. U.S. Magistrate William Webb recessed the hearing until Wednesday, when he was due to rule on whether the suspects should remain detained. The seven accused, who appeared in orange prison jumpsuits, were arrested last month on charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad. Boyd and others also face weapons charges.

More from CNN.

Jay Glazer marks up Chris Mortensen's bus.

I am jonesing for NFL Football and ESPN continues its annually tradition of annoying football segments to fill time like Mortensen running around the different camps in his bus. Thankfully Glazer crossed his path and scored a small victory for suffering viewers like me.

Jeremy Clarkson causes some outrage over Volkswagen Scirocco spoof ad.

I thought it was in bad taste and hilarious.

He has upset the Germans once before. Now Jeremy Clarkson may have done it again, this time probably also offending the Poles just for good measure. The presenter has made a spoof car advert that jokes about Germany's invasion of Poland, which led to the Second World War. Scores of angry viewers complained to the BBC, media regulator Ofcom and on online message boards after it was shown on Sunday night's Top Gear show, watched by 6.7million. The spoof advert, for the Volkswagen Scirocco TDI, contained a clip of people in Warsaw panicking and rushing to board trains and buses to escape the city. Joking about the car's fuel economy, it ended with the tag line: 'Volkswagen Scirocco TDI. Berlin to Warsaw in one tank' - a reference to Adolf Hitler's decision to invade Poland.

Obama vs Drudge starts off hilariously awful.

The problem that Linda Douglass has with her rebuttal over clips saying Obama favors a single payer system and eliminating private insurance is that its all factual. The charge that it was taken out of context allowed Breitbart to put up an uncut version which makes Obama looks worse about being gung-ho over single payer system.



So now Linda has made these clips even more viral and shown to be either clueless about the actual content or a liar. Obama wasn't taken out of context but it shows a contempt for the public that are watching the clips to be told they are not hearing what they are listening too.

Obama kissing up to Ahmadinejad and Mullahs is a new low.

So desperate Obama is to be seen as all things to all people, he would throw the Iranian protesters under the boss to appease the Mullahs. It follows the pattern where he treats America's allies like garbage and their enemies like royalty. Even Jimmy Carter didn't reach this level of groveling till after he left office.

Obama and DNC send out the shock troops against town hall protests.

Dissent is cool unless its against Obama then it becomes a problem. MSNBC and other news outlets are leading with their Alinsky playbook on dealing with the people who dare to oppose them.

Needless to say, this is the left’s pitiful — and ironic, given the lip service paid above to “thoughtful discussion” — strategy to win the ObamaCare debate by framing the GOP as stone-cold nuts before its own message machine gets rolling during the recess this month. Already today, we’ve had Axelrod whining on MSNBC about “fearmongering” (more irony!), Boxer fretting about people in suits “storming” the town halls, and smilin’ Dick Durbin lamenting that “tea baggers” are trying to turn the meetings into “free for alls.”

8 years they used this playbook against those who disagreed with them and now they are getting a taste of their own plays they don't like it.

Stephen Sommers mocks what people liked about GI Joe

Sommers is an idiot, you don't let your true feelings known about how you view your and the audience you want it to play to till long after its released. But it confirms my suspicions this is another of those movies where America is downplayed for the chic internationalists flavor.

Paramount's decision to focus so heavily on just one segment of the audience illustrates -- in a market increasingly fragmented by demographics and swayed by word of mouth via Twitter, text messages and Facebook updates -- the lengths to which studios will go to maximize early exposure among audiences most likely to embrace a film and minimize it for everyone else. "Our starting point for this movie is not Hollywood and Manhattan but rather mid-America," Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore said. "There are a group of people we think are going to respond to the movie who are normally not the first priority. But we're making them a priority." Yet overseas, where big action films often earn 60% or more of their ticket sales, rah-rah American sentiment doesn't play well. So those references have vanished from the advertising. European marketing, rather, focuses on action sequences set in Paris -- where the Eiffel Tower collapses -- Egypt and Tokyo, and emphasizes that G.I. Joe is an international team of crack operatives and not some Yankee soldier. When it comes to selling "G.I. Joe" outside the U.S., the message is "this is not a George Bush movie -- it's an Obama world," director Stephen Sommers said. "Right from the writing stage we said to ourselves, this can't be about beefy guys on steroids who all met each other in the Vietnam War, but an elite organization that's made up of the best of the best from around the world."

Wonderful, lets focus on taking what made GI Joe especially the 80's cartoon so wonderful and junk for some international mish mash to appease the simpletons who don't like America.

UK to monitor and control thousands of the worst familes.

At some point all the jokes about PC UK with all its thousands of cameras and anti-social laws enforced by the government has led to this point where its not funny anymore.

THOUSANDS of the worst families in England are to be put in “sin bins” in a bid to change their bad behaviour, Ed Balls announced yesterday. The Children’s Secretary set out £400million plans to put 20,000 problem families under 24-hour CCTV super-vision in their own homes. They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals. Private security guards will also be sent round to carry out home checks, while parents will be given help to combat drug and alcohol addiction. Around 2,000 families have gone through these Family Intervention Projects so far. But ministers want to target 20,000 more in the next two years, with each costing between £5,000 and £20,000 – a potential total bill of £400million.

The worst part is in the article you never get a sense of outrage that is something you find in Iran or China, not a country in the West.

More indictments of Baltimore's Mayor Sheila Dixon

Maybe its the rise of the internet in delivering news but there seems to be a rise in politicians on all levels getting into more and more trouble.

The new indictments issued last week in the City Hall corruption probe has many of Baltimore's political leaders impatient for resolution to a case that has spanned three years and left the city's reputation in limbo. "Most people I talk to are saying 'Let's just get this over with,' " said Baltimore Del. Curtis S. Anderson, a Democrat. "Let's get to trial and see what really happened." A grand jury indicted Democratic Mayor Sheila Dixon on theft and perjury charges, as well as City Councilwoman Helen L. Holton and baking magnate and developer John Paterakis for allegedly violating campaign finance rules. The new indictments obtained in the Dixon case in some respects restore and add to State Prosecutor Robert A. Rohrbaugh's original charges, handed up in January although some of them were later dismissed. The charges sparked a new round of debate about Dixon's future. "It is not something we are proud of," Del. Talmadge Branch, a longtime state delegate from East Baltimore said of the new indictments. Branch, a Democrat, said many were hoping the cloud over City Hall would "blow over." But it hasn't, leaving Branch "waiting and seeing" what happens. Others declined to comment. Gov. Martin O'Malley had nothing to say about the new indictments, according to his spokesman, Rick Abbruzzese. Baltimore Congressman Elijah E. Cummings was busy working on health care legislation and could not comment, said his spokeswoman Jennifer Kohl. Sen. Benjamin Cardin's spokeswoman never called back with a statement.

No tax hike for middle class says White House.

Robert Gibbs actually gets hit with some followups since this is something that can't not happen in reality. Even the NYTIMES is pointing out the plan of taxing only the super rich is idiotic.

Australian police foil terrorist plot.

This is the same kind of plot used by the group who wanted to storm Fort Dix and take out military personnel.

-- Four suspects accused of planning to carry out a terrorist attack on a military base in Australia were arrested in early morning busts across Melbourne on Tuesday, authorities said. Police executed 19 search warrants in nine Melbourne neighborhoods as part of the investigation into the group, which is suspected of having ties to Al-Shabaab, a Somali insurgent group with ties to al Qaeda, authorities said. The suspects planned to storm the Australian base with automatic weapons and carry out a "sustained attack on military personnel until they themselves were killed," said Tony Negus, deputy commissioner of the Australian Federal Police. Some 400 officers took part in the pre-dawn raids, foiling the alleged terror plot, police said. Investigators have been looking into the group for more than six months, officials said. If the alleged plot had been successful, it would have been "the most serious terrorist attack on Australian soil," Negus said.

Obama as the Joker? RACIST! says LA Weekly.

Why so serious? They had no problems with George Bush as a vampire or any problems with Vanity Fair making Bush out to be the Joker, but Obama poster as the Joker with Socialism at the bottom? Horrific!

The poster, which bears a very superficial resemblance to Shepard Fairey's famous Obama Hope illustration, has been pasted on freeway supports and other public surfaces. It has a bit of everything to appeal to the drunk tank of California conservatism: Obama is in white face, his mouth (like Ledger's Joker's) has been grotesquely slit wide open and the word "Socialism" appears below his face. The only thing missing is a noose.

It is such an outrage that this piece of free expression must be answered for because making fun of Obama is out of bounds!

Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson is calling the depiction, politically mean spirited and dangerous. Hutchinson is challenging the group or individual that put up the poster to have the courage and decency to publicly identify themselves. "Depicting the president as demonic and a socialist goes beyond political spoofery," says Hutchinson, "it is mean-spirited and dangerous." "We have issued a public challenge to the person or group that put up the poster to come forth and publicly tell why they have used this offensive depiction to ridicule President Obama."

Did Hutchinson say the same for any previous President? Nah. But this knee jerk reaction by liberals is just going to make this poster bigger.

Radio Shack changes name to "The Shack."

Nothing says quality buying than shopping at a place called "The Shack."

Jobless grad suing her college because she can't get a job.

Instapundit questions if this is a dangerous precedent. I say it is just a typical example of this generation thinking they are entitled to all their desires served up to them on a silver platter, when it doesn't happen yesterday then it must be somebody's fault.

She has given new meaning to a class-action lawsuit. Trina Thompson gave it the old college try, but couldn't find work. Now she thinks her sheepskin wasn't worth her time, and is suing her alma mater for her money back. The Monroe College grad wants the $70,000 she spent on tuition because she hasn't found gainful employment since earning her bachelor's degree in April, according to a suit filed in Bronx Supreme Court on July 24. The 27-year-old alleges the business-oriented Bronx school hasn't lived up to its end of the bargain, and has not done enough to find her a job. The information-technology student blames Monroe's Office of Career Advancement for not providing her with the leads and career advice it promised. "They have not tried hard enough to help me," the frustrated Bronx resident wrote about the school in her lawsuit.

Obama officials: No guarantee middle class taxes won't go up

They are finally dropping this other lie from Obama's campaign where he says he wouldn't raise taxes on the middle class. It first came out in his healthcare presser where he said the plan wouldn't be funded primarily by the middle class and today they are stepping away from it a lot more.

President Barack Obama's treasury secretary said Sunday he cannot rule out higher taxes to help tame an exploding budget deficit, and his chief economic adviser would not dismiss raising them on middle-class Americans as part of a health care overhaul. As the White House sought to balance campaign rhetoric with governing, officials appeared willing to extend unemployment benefits. With former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan saying he is "pretty sure we've already seen the bottom" of the recession, Obama aides sought to defend the economic stimulus and calm a jittery public. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers both sidestepped questions on Obama's intentions about taxes. Geithner said the White House was not ready to rule out a tax hike to lower the federal deficit; Summers said Obama's proposed health care overhaul needs funding from somewhere. "There is a lot that can happen over time," Summers said, adding that the administration believes "it is never a good idea to absolutely rule things out, no matter what."

NYTIMES even had to admit the no taxes pledge is a fantasy.

But his no-new-tax admonition for most Americans even now complicates the behind-the-scenes work of the panel he established to recommend ways to simplify the tax code and raise more revenue. The panel, which is led by Paul A. Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, is to report by Dec. 4. Overhauling the code, as in 1986, generally creates winners and losers across the board; leaving 95 percent of taxpayers unscathed will not be easy. That has already proved true in the health care deliberations. Proposals to raise about $50 billion over 10 years by taxing sugared drinks foundered partly because the levy would hit nearly everyone. And when Congressional leaders opposed Mr. Obama’s chief idea for raising revenues — limiting affluent taxpayers’ deductions — his campaign vow against taxing the middle class made finding an acceptable alternative difficult. While the president endorsed House Democrats’ surtax idea, saying it “meets my principle that it’s not being shouldered by families who are already having a tough time,” he could not embrace a bipartisan Senate proposal to tax employer-provided health benefits above a certain amount. He had criticized a similar idea as a middle-class tax during his presidential campaign. Yet taxing at least the most generous employer-provided plans above a threshold amount would meet two elusive goals for Mr. Obama: It would raise a lot of money and, economists say, cut overall health spending by making consumers more cost-conscious. Administration officials recently began promoting a fallback. Rather than tax individuals, it would single out insurance companies that sell “Cadillac” plans. David Axelrod, a White House strategist, has described the proposal in populist terms, saying it would hit “the $40,000 policies that the head of Goldman Sachs has” and “not impact on the middle class.” That position, analysts predict, cannot hold over time. “There is no way we can pay for health care and the rest of the Obama agenda, plus get our long-term deficits under control, simply by raising taxes on the wealthy,” said Isabel V. Sawhill, a former Clinton administration budget official. “The middle class is going to have to contribute as well."

Obama admitting his health plan will lead to a single payer system?

But you have piece the puzzle together. Its not shocking because the majority of Dems and their followers want to eliminate private insurance and move the entire health system to be run by the government. What is annoying is the outright lying being done by Obama and no one in the MSM will call him on it which makes clip like these go viral.