Obama appoints another Czar for manufacturing and automotive policy.

Ron Bloom is a former union official so you know the manufacturing industry is in good hands with this guy.

As the GOP trains its fire on the plethora of czars in the Obama Administration, the president announced the appointment of another one Monday who will advise him on manufacturing and automotive policy. Ron Bloom , a former steelworkers union official, will serve as the administration's senior counselor for manufacturing policy, and he will continue to his work on the automotive task force, where he replaced Steve Rattner after his resignation as the nation’s "car czar" in July.

Olbermann asks Daily Kos to investigate Glenn Beck.

Really? This is what passes for journalism at MSNBC. Beck points out radicals in the White House while Olbermann points out Beck as some sort of I got your back Obama gimmick.

It appears Keith Olbermann is arming himself for an all out cable war with Glenn Beck. And he's asking his Daily Kos readers for help. Find everything you can about Glenn Beck, Stu Burguiere, and Roger Ailes. Tuesday we will expand this to the television audience and have a dedicated email address to accept leads, tips, contacts, on Beck, his radio producer Burguiere, and the chief of his tv enablers, Ailes.

Then I guess that Jossip bit about Olbermann stalking Rebecca Lobo may come into play yet again.

Obama school speech: Social Justice and all about Obama

Captain Ed puts up the scoresheet.

Update II: I’ve run the speech through a word frequency counter and found the following results: 56 iterations of “I” 19 iterations of “school” 10 iterations of “education” 8 iterations of “responsibility” 7 iterations of “country” 5 iterations each of “parents”, “teachers” 3 iterations of “nation” In other words, Barack Obama referenced himself more than school, education, responsibility, country/nation, parents, and teachers combined. And to think that people accused Obama of self-promotion!

The Social Justice comes at this part.

You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free.

I would have liked to see the original speech.

Sen. Max Baucus rations health care by taxing the hell out of you.

Now by "Cadillac" health care plans does he mean the ones by unions who were opposed to having health care benefits taxed or that was excluded somehow?

Although the proposal from Sen. Max Baucus excludes a "public option," it would allow for the creation of nonprofit health care cooperatives, an idea that some moderate Democrats and Republicans have expressed possible interest in supporting. ..Baucus' bill would cost less than $900 billion over 10 years, according to the source. The price tag is at least $100 billion less than any other health care reform bill currently under consideration by Congress, the source said. As with other reform proposals, the bill would bar insurance companies from dropping a policyholder in the event of illness, as long as that person has paid his or her premium in full. It adds new protections for people with pre-existing conditions and establishes tax credits to help low- and middle-income families purchase insurance coverage, the source noted. It creates health insurance exchanges to make it easier for small groups and individuals to buy insurance. The bill would be paid for, in part, by a new tax on health insurance companies that provide high-end "Cadillac" insurance plans, the source added. Supporters of such a tax, initially proposed by Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and other Democrats several weeks ago, say will it help curb the cost of health care by discouraging employers from offering such plans. They also argue that consumers, in turn, will be discouraged from overusing the health care system. Critics claim that the new tax will cause insurance companies to raise rates on all of their customers, even those without more expensive plans

It will also make companies drop those types of plans and forcing people to the health care cooperatives. So in other words the Dems will force people to be put on health care plans they didn't want in the first place, so they can't keep their plan and rations health care which is something Obama said would never happen.

Good job Dems.

Roland Martin lashes out at Glenn Beck and conservative nutbags.

I think the Van Jones resignation pushed him over the edge.

Term of Czar being objected by liberals on twitter.

Jake Tapper on his twitter seems to be in a mini feud over the term Czar.

@drgrist ...fearing use of word plays in to Right's hands -about 1 hour ago from mobile web @drgrist actually, only ppl objecting to use of word tonight on twitter are liberals -about 1 hour ago from mobile web @JamilSmith not at all...was observing what they were saying, not stating a new policyabout 2 hours ago from web @JamilSmith am just referring to ppl on twitter asking reporters not to use the term...about 2 hours ago from web @TeresaKopec youre the one who asked me about it, just responding. is it a hill to die on? i'm not fighting. i'm reporting.about 2 hours ago from web @alexrolfe it's liberals who are taking issue with media folk using the word "czar" - they fear it feeds into conservative boogiemenabout 2 hours ago from web @teresakopec ...as also happened with the word "liberal"! (i.e. progressive)about 2 hours ago from web @teresakopec it wasnt even a q until recently is my point - but seems tonight like liberals are giving in to conservatives on the word...about 2 hours ago from web i get the accountability issue, @Allahpundit. i'm just saying "czar" wasnt considered a pejorative until like 3 weeks agoabout 2 hours ago from web @jeffwartman dont be a moron. im referring to modern usage in American domestic politics. crikey.about 2 hours ago from web ...And i hear some liberals tonight throwing up semantic white flag. (and yes, i get that POTUS has many czars.)about 2 hours ago from web "Czar" once conveyed a WH senior adviser with one particular focus. Conservatives attempting to redefine word as pejorative...about 2 hours ago from web @stuart_oneill @TeresaKopec So you think conservatives have in the last 20 days so re-defined the word "czar" you raise semantic white flagabout 2 hours ago from web

More from Eugene Volokh

Czars: Others have pointed out that having offices called "czars" is an odd naming choice for a democracy. But czars weren't just authoritarians. They were ultimately authoritarians who left their country far poorer than their more democratic counterparts, lost a world war, and of course paved the way for an even worse system of government. The label "czar" thus doesn't historically connect to a model of strongman effectiveness -- it connects to a model of strongman failure.

Keith Ellison says public option is path to single payer.

That is what I like about today's liberals, they are too egoistical to figure out how for public/political appearances to keep their mouth shut.

Van Jones was approved by Michelle Obama and VP Biden.

Interesting little tidbit by Politico.

It confirmed that the real opposition party to Obama right now is the conservative grassroots that draws its energy from Fox News, talk radio and the Drudge Report, and often leaves Republican elected officials scrambling to catch up. And it was a fresh reminder that the White House’s vetting process didn’t fall down only on high-profile nominees like Tom Daschle. It barely touched the lower reaches of the administration – a White House official conceded Sunday that Jones’ past statements weren’t as thoroughly scrubbed due to his relatively low rank. Jones’ selection also was propelled by powerful patrons, who included the first lady and the vice president.

The best part is yet to come because now Van Jones is free from the White House you know he is going to make a spectacle of himself to show up conservative critics. That will lead even more people to point to Obama as having poor judgement.

Obama and Hillary knew about Lockerbie bomber release.

No.10 is ticked off that Obama and company acted surprise about the release which never made sense they wouldn't know what was going on along the way.

Downing Street has hit back at Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for attacking the decision to release the Lockerbie bomber. President Obama and the US Secretary of State fuelled a fierce American backlash against Britain, claiming Abdelbaset Al Megrahi should have been forced to serve out his jail sentence in Scotland – but a senior Whitehall aide said their reaction was ‘disingenuous’. British officials claim Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton were kept informed at all stages of discussions concerning Megrahi’s return. The officials say the Americans spoke out because they were taken aback by the row over Megrahi’s release, not because they did not know it was about to happen. ‘The US was kept fully in touch about everything that was going on with regard to Britain’s discussions with Libya in recent years and about Megrahi,’ said the Whitehall aide. ‘We would never do anything about Lockerbie without discussing it with the US. It is disingenuous of them to act as though Megrahi’s return was out of the blue.

Disingenuous? Yes
A shocking piece of behavior? No. Remember the AIG bonuses which we found out Obama and company knew months before they were paid out then acted shocked when they did get paid to boost public anger.

Different situation, same behavior.

Obama did not want Van Jones to resign.

Here is a confusing set of statements by Axelrod.

President Barack Obama did not personally seek the removal of Van Jones as the administration’s green jobs czar, White House senior adviser David Axelrod said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Absolutely not. This was Van Jones’ own decision,” Axelrod said. “He said in his statement that he didn’t want his comments to become a distraction from the issue that is so important to the future of our economy and communities around the country, and I commend him for making that decision.” Asked if the president was offended by Jones’s statements, Axelrod said he hasn’t spoken with Obama. Asked if he was offended, Axelrod said: “I haven’t read all of his comments either.”

Gateway Pundit who owned the story has the roundup.

Jack Webb talks to Barack Obama on Healthcare

Hell on the concept of what America is all about honestly.

(Politico) What Obama will say in his health care address

From the looks of it more of the same with the idea in his mind that he is going to soother everyone with his soothing tone.

The contents of the speech were still being debated over the weekend. But here is what POLTIICO gleaned from conversations with top aides: 1) Obama will lay out a specific “President’s Plan,” even if he doesn’t call it that. He will make clear what’s on the table, and what he thinks warrants further debate, such as how to pay for the overhaul. 2) He will not confront or scold the left. “This is a case for bold action, not a stick in the eye to our supporters,” said an official involved in speech preparation. “That’s not how President Obama thinks. The politics of triangulation don’t live in this White House.” 3) He will make an overture to Republicans. “He will lay out his vision for health reform – taking the best ideas from both parties, make the case for why as a nation we must act now, and dispel the myths and confusion that are affecting public opinion,” the aide said. 4) He will make it clear that it’s better to get something done than nothing done. White House aides are reminding fellow Democrats that the party lost Congress in 1994 by failing to do any health reforms at all after Congress balked at the original plan by President Bill Clinton. “The lesson of 1994 is not that tackling health reform is politically perilous. It’s that failing to act could be devastating,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House deputy communications director. 5) Obama will try to reassure the left about his commitment to a public option, or government insurance plan. Aides said they are rethinking what he will say about this. He wants to thread the needle of voicing support for a public option, without promising to kill health reform to get it. But liberal congressional leaders were unyielding in their support for it on a conference call he held from Camp David yesterday, and he's going to meet with them at the White House early next week.

Basically more of the same pie in the sky ideas with little details on how to pay for it and why such drastic action should be taken to have the government take over 1/6th of the nation's economy. Obama doesn't get the fact the public is not against finding ways to reform health care to make it cheaper, but against his and the Dems ways to reform it because it doesn't make any sense.

The speech was very much in flux over the weekend, because key decisions are being hashed out. Even the length is not yet set. “He has not made any final decisions about the ultimate form of his package,” said a top official guiding speech preparation. “Anyone that tells you that he has is misinformed or extrapolating from conversations. He’s going to talk to a lot of people between now and next Wednesday. The president is in the process of deciding what his ultimate proposal will look like." Also undecided: whether to follow up with nitty-gritty legislative language. “He has not made decisions about how he’s going to move this thing forward,” said a top West Wing aide.

Then Obama would be wasting everybody's time if he doesn't show some concrete details during or put it out right after because everyone is going to say it was the same old thing being spewed out.

This speech cannot resemble previous speeches or it will be a failure.

Pelosi too much of a coward to get rid of Rangel.

There are excuses in this politico piece but the fact she doesn't want to get rid of Rangel even thought the stuff he has pulled would put a non-politician in jail.

Stripping the Harlem Democrat of his chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee would force Pelosi to make a series of unpalatable decisions about Rangel’s successor that would create a ruckus in the Democratic caucus. It would also infuriate the Congressional Black Caucus, which is still sore over Pelosi’s decision to strip committees from former Louisiana Rep. Bill Jefferson – even after Jefferson had been found with a wad of tainted cash in his kitchen. “Unless they find $90,000 in his freezer, like they did with Jefferson, we’re going to wait [for the outcome of a House ethics probe],” said a Democratic aide familiar with Pelosi’s thinking on the matter. Staffers say the speaker has been so focused on the health care battle that she simply hasn’t devoted much time to Rangel’s recent troubles – and there’s no push among House Democrats to heed the fire-Rangel cries of Republicans, the New York Times, Washington Post and Buffalo News. “She hasn’t even spoken to the congressman about this latest episode,” said a close Rangel associate, referring to recent published reports that the 78-year-old Rangel underreported his assets by hundreds of thousands of dollars. “The speaker is totally behind him, and she told him that the last few times they have spoken,” the person added.

Along with the NAACP, the Congressional Black Caucus has become a damn embarrassment to black politicians. You can't keep defending the indefensible and continue to be taken seriously. Rangel has to go and go now.

NAACP supports Van Jones, of course they do.

Negro please.

NAACP has long lost its way and just knee jerks defends liberal blacks while trying to cast everyone as being racist by pointing out the obvious character flaws of Van Jones who so far has been found out to be a Mumia supporter, Israel hater, communist and a truther.

NAACP Continues its Support of Special Advisor of Green Jobs Van Jones and the White House Green Jobs Initiative. The NAACP is calling for civility in the national discourse on safe, clean communities and sustainable sources of domestic energy. It is time to end the personal attacks on administration officials as a distraction to crucial discussion on our nation and our world's environmental conditions. NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous: “It is sad and unfortunate that our nation's precious airwaves and cable television time are being occupied with the unscrupulous, diversionary tactics launched by right wing extremists such as Glenn Beck. These desperate tactics divert America's attention and intellectual resources away from issues affecting our families and communities. These life-and-death concerns are being overshadowed by employing ruthless attacks against Van Jones, White House Special Advisor for Green Jobs and dedicated advocate for safe, clean and healthy communities. Van Jones has established himself through his many years in public service as a hardworking advocate for positive, progressive change. He is a devoted husband and father. Mr. Beck and the other news services' portrayal of Mr. Jones to the contrary is not only distracting and disingenuous but harmful and destructive. “The only thing more outrageous than Mr. Beck’s attack on Van Jones is the fact that there are sponsors that continue to pay him to provide this type of offensive commentary. I can only assume hat this is the very reason that several dozen organizations throughout our country have gone on record stating they will boycott FOX News (the television network home of Glenn Beck). While we defend the right to free speech for all Americans, we expect news outlets throughout our country to uphold civility in their portrayal of the President of the United States as well as members of his administration and others who have wrongfully come under scrutiny. America's news outlets have the responsibility to uphold accuracy and integrity in their reporting."

So the things everyone is pointing out about Van Jones is wrong? BTW, Jealous and Van Jones came out of the same San Francisco black activist circle.

More on the Jealous/Van Jones connection.

He moved back to Northern California in 2004 to serve as president of the Rosenberg Foundation. The Bay Area, Jealous says, is currently a center of civil rights activism. “There’s just this brain trust in the Bay Area of black activities,” he says. “It’s a pretty incredible group I was in there.” His group included people like Steve Phillips of San Francisco, the founder of PowerPAC.org, and Van Jones of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, which currently is working on a plan to develop “green collar”—or environmentally friendly—jobs for young adults who are having trouble finding work. “There’s a real renaissance happening in the Bay Area amongst civil rights activists,” Jealous says. “The East Bay has always been a place for the idealistic who can also take a practical approach to accomplishing things.”

Van Jones also a Mumia supporter and Israel hater?

The part that may stunn people in the center and right is within Obama's cirle of friends none of this is a shock or thought of as being out of bounds.

Obama approves Honduras visas cut, Cuba visas greatly expanded.

In Obama's world where people like Van Jones are praised, this is not a great surprise. The state department must be giddy to finally have the clout to suck up to the leftist regimes in the world without a White House to scold them.

Broward County will force students to watch Obama

No surprise as Broward is a big time Dem county and the school board is Dem central in terms of political clout.

Broward Schools Superintendent James Notter wrote in a memo to principals Thursday that students will not be allowed to opt out of viewing Obama's address. The district has encouraged civics education through programs such as Kids Voting Broward and by watching presidential inaugural addresses, Notter wrote, so letting students skip Obama's speech "does not align with our practices and responsibility to provide a well-rounded, quality education for all students." That doesn't mean all school activities will cease during Obama's talk. Notter said schools can record the address and watch it later if the broadcast time conflicts with previously scheduled tests, field trips or other events. In his opinion, Notter said in an interview, having childen listen to the country's elected leader "is some of the purest of civics education." Letting them choose whether to not to attend would set a bad precedent, Notter said. He compared it to students who might object to saying the Pledge of Allegiance. "You don't get to go out into the hall," Notter said. "You're there and you're silent."

I did chuckle at Notter's memo.

“As one of the premier major school systems in America, we have consistently encouraged civics education in the broadest sense, e.g., Kids Voting, elected officials participating in Career Days, countywide broadcast of Inaugural address, etc.,” said Notter. “Therefore, providing for a separation from this Address does not align with our practices and responsibility to provide a well rounded, quality education for all students. This is the first time an American President has spoken directly to students on the importance of education and the challenge to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for one’s learning.” Schools will have the option to record or obtain a copy of the Address for later educational use, due to individual school needs, such as, tests at that time, field trips, prior scheduled events, and other reasonable conflicts.

If Broward is one of the premier school systems with a graduation rate of 60%, America is in deeper trouble than I thought.

Labor unions demand Massachusetts appoint new Senator.

Union labors don't care about the peoples vote, they demand an appointment or else. This is third world banana republic politics right here. No surprise that the unions are starting it.

Organized labor and senior members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation are mounting an intensive lobbying effort to persuade state legislators to support the appointment of an interim successor for the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. In advance of a state legislative hearing on the matter next week, a variety of groups, including labor unions and voting rights organizations, have been reaching out to lawmakers expressing their support for a plan to change the state succession law to give Gov. Deval Patrick (D-Mass.) the authority to install a temporary senator before the January special election to fill Kennedy’s seat . “There’s an unbelievable campaign going on,” said Robert J. Haynes, president of the Massachusetts chapter of the AFL-CIO. “Everybody is on deck to try to pull this off.” Haynes said that he is mobilizing his members in a campaign-style push to change the law because the state needed to be represented by two senators as Congress grapples with health care reform and other issues. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) plans to testify before the state’s Joint Committee on Election Laws, which is holding a hearing next Wednesday to consider a bill that would change the succession law. Kerry has said he supports the change, an idea that Kennedy discussed with him in the months before he died. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who has suggested he is open to accommodating Kennedy's request to change the law, is working with other members of the House delegation on drafting a letter to the committee. The AFL-CIO plans to send an e-mail to every member of the state House and Senate on Tuesday asking them to support the temporary succession plan, and union leaders are leaning on their members to lobby their representatives to vote in favor of changing the law.

Roland Martin/Tom Joyner blames mostly white people for Obama Speech boycott.

The juicy stuff is the first 2 mins 30 seconds and the rest is Senator wannabe Kendrick Meeks yamming about different talking points.

China's flag to go up in White House on Sept 20

I am convinced the White House is screwing with us because you can't make an easier event for people to explode in anger short of Obama declaring Mao appreciation day. This is from July and has flown low under the radar until now.

The national flag of the People's Republic of China (PRC) will be hoisted at the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on September 20, media reported Sunday. Chinese associations in the United States had applied to hold a ceremony in front of the US President’s residence to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of PRC. Chen Ronghua, chairman of Fujian Association of the United States, told reporters that their application was approved not only because of the sound Sino-US relations but also because China is a responsible country. "Many Americans admire China due to the success of last year’s Beijing Olympics," said Chen. More than 1,000 people will attend the ceremony and the performances held after it, according to Zhao Luqun, who will direct the performances. Zhao said the performances will demonstrate the friendship, magnanimous spirit and kindness of modern Chinese people.

(OP) Van Jones must be fired or quit from the White House.

Van Jones calling Republicans assholes is not a fireable offense given the context he used in that video.

Van Jones becoming a communist because of the Rodney King verdict is just dumb. Communist lovers who live in the west are never the ones who have actually lived or would live in a communist country. It is just a style thing for the empty headed.

Van Jones spewing racial nonsense about white polluters starts the ball rolling to getting him out of there.

But truther is a couple of notches above the birther and Van Jones explanations are pathetic and just insulting to people.

In a statement issued Thursday evening Jones said of “the petition that was circulated today, I do not agree with this statement and it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever.” He did not explain how his name came to be on the petition.

The Wash Times called the 9/11 truther people and they pointed out.

9/11Truth.org spokesman Mike Berger told the Washington Times over the phone that all of the signers had been verified by their group. He said 9/11Truth.org board members “spoke with each person on the list by phone or through email or individually confirm they hae added their name to that list.” “I think in most cases they spoke to them personally,” he added. “No one’s name was put on that list without them knowing it.”

Since the initial explanation got busted, Tapper twitted the second one.

a source says Jones did not carefully review the language in the petition before agreeing to add his name.

Then he is a liar or stupid or both. Pundits agree with Labor Day Weekend coming up he is gone by Monday, I say a Friday Night resign dump

Spain solar power industry crashes without welfare money.

Hey look, an unsustainable economic plan created by socialists collapses on it itself like a black hole. Who would have thought that would happen hmmm?

Spain's hopes of becoming a world leader in solar power have collapsed since the Spanish government slammed the brakes on generous subsidies. The sudden change has rippled across the global solar industry, in a warning of the problems that government-supported renewable-energy programs can encounter. .In 2008, Spain accounted for half the world's new solar-power installations in terms of wattage, thanks to government subsidies to promote clean energy. But late last year, as the global economic crisis worsened, the government dramatically scaled back those subsidies and capped the amount of subsidized solar power that could be installed. Factories world-wide that had ramped up production of solar-power components found that demand for solar panels was plummeting, leaving a glut in supply and pushing prices down. Job cuts followed. "The solar industry in 2009 has been undermined by [a] collapse in demand due to the decision by Spain," says Henning Wicht, a solar-power analyst at research group iSuppli.

Do you have a real industry if it has to be supported by taxpayers dollars who pay outrageous sums for an expensive source of power? Look at the logic jump by Zappo's government.

Wind energy was a cheaper renewable option than solar, so the Spanish government sought to make solar power more attractive by increasing subsidies, just as other countries, particularly Germany, were scaling back support. As a result, Spain's solar capacity last year increased to 3,342 megawatts from 695 megawatts, the size of a coal plant, a year earlier. Government subsidies for solar power jumped to €1.1 billion ($1.6 billion) in 2008 from €214 million in 2007. Solar power "was a financial product, not an energy solution," says Ignacio Sánchez Galán, chairman of Iberdrola, the world's biggest renewable-energy company. Iberdrola has largely shunned solar because wind power is cheaper and requires less land.

Spain's logic is awesome.

Japan's first lady says she rode on a spaceship.

It would have been cooler if she said it was the mothership.

Mother nature reclaiming Detroit houses

This is a neat pic essay. It says a helluva lot about Detroit.

(NYTIMES) Obama desperate to get any deal signed.

Its now down to a bill on his desk that says health reform so he can claim credit.

President Obama plans to address a joint session of Congress next week in an effort to rally support for health care legislation as White House officials look for ways to simplify and scale back the major Democratic bills, lower the cost and drop contentious but nonessential elements. Administration officials said Wednesday that Mr. Obama would be more specific than he has been to date about what he wants included in the plan. Doing so amounts to an acknowledgment that the president’s prior tactic of laying out broad principles and leaving Congress to fill in the details was no longer working and that Mr. Obama needed to become more personally involved in shaping the outcome. But the officials said Mr. Obama was unlikely to unveil a detailed legislative plan of his own. And they insisted that Mr. Obama had not given up on the provision that has attracted the most fire from the right, a proposal for a government-run competitor to private insurers, although many Democrats say the proposal may eventually be jettisoned. By signaling that they would seek to revise existing versions of legislation moving through the House and Senate, administration officials and Democratic leaders in Congress — many of whom had said earlier in the summer that they saw no need to scale back their ambitions — made clear that their political calculations had changed. With Congressional Republicans standing almost unanimously in opposition to the Democratic approach, the target now for Mr. Obama is primarily a handful of moderate Democrats and the one Republican who seems open to a deal, Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine. “It’s so important to get a deal,” a White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to be candid about strategy. “He will do almost anything it takes to get one.”

But Snowe has to stick herself in this self defeating mess. This is why rank and file conservatives hate the GOP now.

Olympia Snowe sends Obama a life jacket over Obamacare

Sigh, You just knew some idiot Republican would pull a stunt like this right?

Senior White House officials, in conversations with reporters today, are floating the idea that President Obama is secretly negotiating with Sen. Olympia Snowe over a health care compromise that would phase in a government-funded health care alternative if private insurance companies fail to meet quality and cost benchmarks over a certain period of the time. The public discussion of the Snowe “compromise” is meant to test the reaction of House Democrats, who will pass a bill that includes an immediate public option added to a new health insurance exchange. The White House hopes that, having voted for a public option, House Dems would accept a “trigger” as part of a conference committee compromise rather than putting the kibosh on the entire health care reform project. In some ways, this strategy is old, and in some ways it’s new. For months, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has been pushing the idea of a “trigger” internally, and he and Snowe regularly trade legislative and political intelligence.

The government is the referee and the rules will be rigged to be triggered regardless down the line to get Obamacare in play. How stupid is Snowe to think she can trust the Dems. Everytime conservatives fight they get undermined by one or two of these blasted Republicans who think they are smarters than everyone else.

Canada grants white South African man refugee status.

South Africa is up in arms calling Canada a racist nation for the ruling because it puts yet another spotlight on the high crime rate going on in that country.

A white man from South Africa has been given refugee status in Canada after claiming persecution, his lawyer said, angering many in his home country where race remains a highly sensitive issue. A Canadian immigration board panel issued its ruling late last week in the case involving Brandon Carl Huntley, according to his lawyer, Russell Kaplan. Kaplan said Tuesday it's likely the first time a white South African has been granted refugee status in Canada claiming persecution from black South Africans. The Immigration and Refugee Board refused to comment on the case or to release the decision. Board spokesman Stephane Malepart said he is barred from commenting on any individual case by privacy provisions. Malepart said the board is an independent tribunal that operates at arms' length from the Canadian government. Huntley argued that whites are targeted by black criminals in South Africa and that the government does nothing to protect them. He claimed he was attacked seven times during attempted robberies and muggings. Kaplan, a South African native who moved to Canada 20 years, said tribunal panel chair William Davis ruled that Huntley would stand out like a "sore thumb" due to his color in any part of South Africa and that Kaplan's fears of persecution are justified based on the evidence he submitted. In his its written decision, Davis said "I find that the claimant was a victim because of his race (white South African) rather than a victim of criminality." It also said that Huntley "has presented clear and convincing proof of the state's inability or unwillingness to protect him."

Only human music to calm monkeys. METALLICA!

That makes me more wary of monkeys and their mood swings.

Music inspired by the soothing calls of contented monkeys relaxes the animals when it is played back to them, researchers have discovered. Researchers composed "monkey melodies" to investigate whether non-human primates are capable of responding to music with the same emotions as people. They found that while monkeys were left cold by human music, they reacted emotionally to tunes that incorporated features commonly heard in monkey calls, such as rising and falling tones. Tamarin monkeys lounged around and ate more when they heard music inspired by the calming sounds the animals make when they are safe, the study found. ....Snowdon teamed up with David Teie, a cellist with the American National Symphony Orchestra, to investigate whether humans were alone in responding emotionally to music. In the study, 14 cotton-top tamarins were played 30-second blasts of music while the researchers noted any changes in their behaviour. The animals were played Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings and a soft piano piece from The Fragile by rock band Nine Inch Nails, followed by Metallica's Of Wolf and Man and an excerpt from The Grudge by rock band Tool. They then heard the specially composed monkey music. The only human music that elicited any response was the heavy metal band Metallica, whose music had the unexpected effect of calming the monkeys.

Firebomb chaos in Uppsala, Sweden

It seems those darn "youths" are at it again though you wouldn't know from the article which tries desperately to avoid the elephant in the room.

Authorities are convening a crisis meeting in Uppsala today after a wild weekend of firebombings and burning cars. On Saturday night in the suburb of Gottsunda, a number of cars were set alight, and a firebomb was thrown into a swimming centre, an officer of Upplands Police told news agency TT. It was the third night in a row of chaos, with youth gangs running rampant, according to a report in the Uppsala Nya Tidning.

Obama to drop public option, take on liberal Democrats.

Can it be? Obama ready to pull a Clinton which means taking on the far left of his party and daring them to do something? Could be a rope-a-dope.

Top officials privately concede the past six weeks have taken their toll on Obama's popularity. But the officials also see the new diminished expectations as an opportunity to prove their critics wrong by signing a health-care law, showing progress in Afghanistan, and using this month's anniversary of the fall of Lehman Brothers to push for a crackdown on Wall Street. On health care, Obama’s willingness to forgo the public option is sure to anger his party’s liberal base. But some administration officials welcome a showdown with liberal lawmakers if they argue they would rather have no health care law than an incremental one. The confrontation would allow Obama to show he is willing to stare down his own party to get things done. “We have been saying all along that the most important part of this debate is not the public option, but rather ensuring choice and competition,” an aide said. “There are lots of different ways to get there.”

Lets see how much Obama and the White House is willing to smack down the Daily Kos/Olbermann segment of the party to show who is in charge. This could all be a nice big showing for the public.

Update: I like AP's spin on this.

White House: Obama may detail health plans soon

Maybe the smartest man in the room should have done that in the first place.

Obama holds Ramadan Dinner but cancelled prayer event.

Just pointing out the obvious from the LATIMES.

May 7, 2009: Obama ends Bush-era National Prayer Day service at White House ... Sep 1, 2009: Guest list for Obama's White House Ramadan dinner Top of the ...

Obama White House plan to harvest personal data from social networking sites.

Via Instapundit comes this job offer found by the NLPC.

NLPC has uncovered a plan by the White House New Media operation to hire a technology vendor to conduct a massive, secret effort to harvest personal information on millions of Americans from social networking websites. The information to be captured includes comments, tag lines, emails, audio, and video. The targeted sites include Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and others – any space where the White House “maintains a presence.” In the course of investigating procurement by the White House New Media office, NLPC discovered a 51-page solicitation of bids that was filed on Friday, August 21, 2009. Filed as Solicitation # WHO-S-09-0003, it is posted at FedBizzOps.com. Click here to download a 51-page pdf of the solicitation.

It sounds like contracting out to a company to archive sites done by the EOP for official records.

1. Purpose The purpose of this Statement of Objectives (SOO) is to obtain the necessary services to ensure that content published by the Executive Office of the President (EOP) on publicly-accessible web sites is archived in accordance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA), that information posted on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP maintains a presence is archived in accordance with the PRA, and that all archived information is securely stored and provided to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for historical preservation, in accordance with the PRA. 2. Scope The contractor shall provide the necessary services to capture, store, extract to approved formats, and transfer content published by EOP on publicly-accessible web sites, along with information posted by non-EOP persons on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP offices under PRA maintains a presence, throughout the term of the contract. The contractor shall if possible, capture, store, extract to approved formats, and transfer content published by EOP on non-public websites. The contractor shall include in the information posted by non-EOP persons on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP maintains a presence both comments posted on pages created by EOP and messages sent to EOP accounts on those web sites. Publicly-accessible sites may include, but are not limited to social networking sites. The contractor shall provide a user-friendly way of organizing and searching captured information. The contractor shall properly transfer the captured information, as identified by EOP, to NARA in an acceptable format for both preservation in NARA’s Electronic Records Archive and presentation at the future Presidential Library. The Contractor shall provide a method to separate content posted by other EOP component offices as required.

The bolded and the secrecy clause on page 7 of the PDF file will cause people to ponder but on the surface it doesn't seem "evil.".

Sandy Cane, Italy's first black mayor.

She voted for Obama in America and now talks with Nick Griffin of the BNP...wait..what?

Sandy Cane, a 47-year-old Italian-American, becomes the mayor of the northern town of Viggiu, near Varese, east of Milan, after winning 30 per cent of votes cast by the town's 5,000 residents. The translator and hotel director, who has a black American father and an Italian mother, voted for Barack Obama in the US presidential elections. She said there was no contradiction in a black woman representing the Italian anti-immigration party. "To tolerate illegal immigration above all harms those who enter our country with the desire to work and integrate themselves and to have a normal life," she said. "In America I voted for Obama, in Italy for Bossi." Umberto Bossi, the rabble-rousing leader of the Northern League, is enjoying greater influence than ever in Silvio Berlusconi's coalition government after the party doubled its share of the vote to more than 10 per cent in this month's European elections. Earlier this week it emerged that Mr Bossi had had discussions with Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National Party, which does not accept non-whites as members. Ms Cane said she knew of no racist or xenophobic members of her party, adding that all she wanted to do was "clean up this town which is beautiful but very dirty".

First Huffy Post, she is talking about illegal illegal immigration and its a bit racist to think because she is black she wouldn't be against illegal immigration.

Now talking to Nick Griffin is a lot more odd.

EEOC sides with Somali Muslims at Swift Plant.

This all started last year when an influx of Somali Muslims started working at Swift plants in Greeley,CO and Nebraska.

Muslim workers are on bended knee in prayer. Company officials are on their toes. The result: a ruckus-free Ramadan. So far, anyway. “Everything is smooth now, and people are happy, and the company is happy,” said Asad Abdi, vice president of the East Africa Community Center in Greeley. The company had even put out dates, which are customarily eaten to break the fast, for the workers. At 10-minute intervals, the Muslims were allowed to leave production lines and go to prayer rooms — one for men, another for women. ....Last September, things were much different. Essentially, JBS got caught flat-footed. The company appeared blindsided by the religious practices of a large new demographic in the plant work force — East African refugees. The Ruckus of 2008 built steam over a week. First, Muslim workers complained when they couldn't leave production lines for end-of-fast prayers. Company management responded by giving Muslims an earlier break time near sunset. The sudden schedule shift irked other workers, however, who said Muslims were being granted preferential treatment. They protested and claimed the company was acting in breach of the union contract. The end result was severe. The company fired 100 Muslim workers for walking off the job. A similar fracas played out in Grand Island, Neb., where JBS also employs many East Africans.

CAIR got involved and filed complaints with the EEOC who of course sided with the complaints.

Muslim advocates said Friday that federal officials determined a Nebraska meatpacking plant wasn't doing enough to accommodate the religious needs of its Muslim workers but stopped short of laying out specific recommendations. The Chicago-based Council on American-Islamic Relations said the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission outlined its decision in a letter sent to the organization this week. The decision comes after a nearly yearlong investigation into conditions at the Grand Island JBS plant, where hundreds of Muslim workers walked out in protest last September because they weren't given time to pray. "It's a favorable finding ... it's definitely a victory," said Rima Kapitan, an employment attorney who worked on the case for the council.

That means that Swift will have to bend even more to satisfy those who are demanding certain Muslim customs from the Somali refugees be accepted and accommodated. That will again tick off Non-Muslims and start the cycle over again. Accommodation is a two way street and if your religious practices interfere with social and business dynamic of the workplace, both sides have to compromise. The problem here is the EEOC is allowing groups like CAIR to force Islamic customs and traditions into the workplace without realized the long term negative consequences.

Why would you want to work in a place with segregated prayer rooms or having to cover because of special reasons. The assimilation of various religious practices into American culture has stopped and now what you are seeing is the forcing of customs that in some cases are not compatible with Western Culture.

Instead of changing over time to have unique American characteristics like other religions, Islam is being allowed in cases like this to flourish without changing.

Hawaii's racist problem i.e. Lets kill Whitey.

I have heard/read stories over the years about the racist treatment anyone not a Hawaiian and Southern Poverty Law Center actually reports on it which is shocking.

A Hawaiian Studies professor at the University of Hawaii, Haunani-Kay Trask, is one of the most caustic critics of whites in the islands. In her 1999 book, From A Native Daughter, Trask wrote: "Just as … all exploited peoples are justified in feeling hostile and resentful toward those who exploit them, so we Hawaiians are justified in such feelings toward the haole. This is the legacy of racism, of colonialism." In a poem titled, "Racist White Woman," Trask wrote: "I could kick/Your face, puncture/Both eyes./You deserve this kind/Of violence./No more vicious/Tongues, obscene/Lies./Just a knife/Slitting your tight/Little heart." Trask's opposite number is Conklin, the "anti-sovereignty" white activist who has lived on Oahu for 17 years and says he loves Hawaii's culture, spirituality and history, but is labeled a racist by some of his detractors. He wrote a book entitled Hawaiian Apartheid: Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State. "Here in Hawaii, there is no compulsion to speak out on racist attacks. There are all these hate crimes and violent things happening to white people and you don't hear sovereignty activists speaking out against it," says Conklin, who manages a massive website on Hawaiian issues. "The violence has been going on for years and it's always been hush-hush."

tip Instapundit.

David Brook's manloving for Obama.

Remember the rule. If liberals like a conservative, he is not a conservative. Brooks is just your typical pseudo-elitist who holds no conservative values/convictions.