This blog is mainly about the spectacular train wreck at The Sacramento Bee and its parent company, the McClatchy Company. But I also post about current events, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, politics, anything else that grabs my attention. Take a look around this blog, hope you enjoy it.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Friday September 25 -- Got news or an update?
If you have news or an update, leave it in comments. . . .
43 comments:
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New York Times agrees to voluntary buyouts (Poynter Online)
TIMES: "Cost-Saving" Committee Meets Times Agrees to Offer Voluntary Buyouts Pay Cut to be Restored in January Representatives of the Guild and Times management met earlier this week to discuss the possibility of offering a Voluntary Buyout and to identify cost-saving opportunities that still may exist at the newspaper.
The meeting was part of a process that was agreed to in discussions between the union and company management last spring regarding the temporary 5 percent pay reduction that Guild members approved.
In response to a proposal by New York Guild President Bill O'Meara, Times Senior Vice President of Operations and Labor Terry Hayes said the company would agree to offer a voluntary buyout.
St. Petersburg Times implements 5% wage cut for all employees (Poynter Online)
To: All Times Publishing Company Staff From: Paul Tash Last week, the board of directors unanimously reached two decisions to bring our expenses into better balance with our revenues, and help the company weather this prolonged economic storm.
First, we will implement a 5 percent, across-the-board wage reduction for all employees, starting November 2nd.
We recognize that this will add to the strain that staffers are bearing, and we regret that this step is necessary.
But in due time, we would regret even more a failure to recognize and respond to the worst recession in our lifetimes.
Second, for retirees on the company's health plan, the board decided to phase out health care coverage.
Even as other companies dropped these benefits, Times Publishing preserved them as long as possible.
We will help retirees identify other choices for health coverage, and we support efforts to expand health care options for all Americans.
D.C. Council Member's Chief Arrested (Dem Scandal) The Washington Times
Federal authorities Thursday arrested the chief of staff to D.C. Council member Jim Graham and charged him with two counts of accepting bribes.
In an indictment unsealed Thursday, authorities say Ted Loza, 45, received cash payments on two separate occasions in exchange for agreeing to promote legislation favorable to the taxicab industry.
Mr. Graham is chairman of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation, which oversees and regulates the city's taxicab commission.
Narcissus And Echo: Obama And The Mainstream Media (American Thinker)
It is troubling that our president is a pathological narcissist caught up in the thought patterns of Darwin, Marx, and Alinsky.
Even more troubling is the fact that the Mainstream Media (MSM), suffering from an Obama-inspired narcosis, shirks its duty, refusing to publish or even explore any aspect of Obama's dark side.
There is room for much optimism, however. If the ancient story of Narcissus and Echo plays itself out as Ovid recorded it, and Obama and the MSM are their contemporary counterparts, both will fade away in the not too distant future.
Narcissus did not fall in love with his own reflection by accident; he was thus cursed by Nemesis for his audacious mockery of others.
As for Echo, it was her dishonesty and deception that caused Hera, queen of the gods, to curse her so that her body would dwindle away to a mere voice able only to echo the words of Narcissus.
Comparing the particulars of the original Narcissus and Echo tale to Obama and the MSM will spotlight for us the unnatural patterns of feeling and thinking currently operative in the latter pair...
ACORN -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- is stinking up Washington. And this is far more significant than if a suspiciously large number of operatives for a purely "private" outfit had been found systematically bending and breaking the law, because ACORN receives and spends taxpayer money -- lots of it -- and had carried the imprimatur of official partnerships with the IRS, the Census Bureau ... the kind of "cred" that in the political world comes only from "who you know." (Via FreeRepublic.com
Obama's Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings Hid Pedophilia (GatewayPundit)
Since when is this safe? Barack Obama's "safe school's czar" Kevin Jennings hid pedophilia from authorities.
Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings was a huge Obama supporter.
FOX News reported: President Obama's "safe schools czar" is a former schoolteacher who has advocated promoting homosexuality in schools, written about his past drug abuse, expressed his contempt for religion and detailed an incident in which he did not report an underage student who told him he was having sex with older men.
Conservatives are up in arms about the appointment of Kevin Jennings, Obama's director of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, saying he is too radical for the job.
Jennings was appointed to the position largely because of his longtime record of working to end bullying and discrimination in schools.
In 1990, as a teacher in Massachusetts, he founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which now has over 40 chapters at schools nationwide.
How schoolchildren were taught to sing Obama's praises (Daily Mail (U.K.)
Primary schoolchildren filmed singing a song praising President Obama are at the centre of a storm of controversy in the U.S. after the video was posted on the internet.
Right wing critics blasted the school for promoting politics in the classroom.
The video shows more than a dozen children dancing and singing a song about the president, quoting from his speeches and campaign slogans.
The chorus includes the chant ‘Mmm, mmm, mm! Barack Hussein Obama.’
One verse says: ‘He said that all must lend a hand. To make this country strong again.’
Another goes: ‘He said we must be clear today. Equal work means equal pay.’
The film was first posted on YouTube on September 6, just two days before the president made a controversial speech to students at the start of the autumn term.
But officials at the B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington Township, New Jersey, deny the timing had anything to do with politics and said the song was performed back in February.
They said the recording of the class song was ‘not authorised’ and it should never have been put online.
Poll: 89% Say Media Helped Elect, Promote Obama (newsmax.com)
It’s not just conservatives who accuse the media of showing a liberal bias.
A new survey from the Sacred Heart University Polling Institute shows that 89.3 percent of Americans believe the national media played a sizable role in helping to elect President Obama.
And 69.9 percent of respondents view the national news media as intent on promoting the Obama presidency, while 26.5 percent disagreed, and 3.6 percent were unsure.
More than half of those surveyed, 56.4 percent, said the news media are promoting Obama’s healthcare reform without objective criticism. Another 39.3 percent disagreed, and 4.3 percent were unsure.
A majority, to the tune of 57.6 percent, also maintain that the news media appear to be coordinating efforts to diminish the record of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Independents desert Obama, putting 2010 in play (Washington Examiner)
Independent voters are turning away from President Obama and his fellow Democrats in droves.
And if they can't find a way to get them back, the party could be in deep trouble for 2010 and beyond.
Independents gave Obama the White House last year with a vote for pragmatic competence. They have been repaid with partisanship and dithering. And unlike liberals who Obama has quickly re-energized after their summer doldrums, independents are devilishly hard to win back once they lose faith.
President Obama's Agenda Would Bring $13 Trillion in Budget Deficits, Not $9 Trillion (The Heritage Foundation)
Abstract: President Obama's budget will likely produce $13 trillion in deficit spending over the next 10 years--nearly $4 trillion more than forecast.
The White House figures are based on unrealistic estimates of discretionary spending, interest payments, and interest rates.
The White House also used budget gimmicks to hide the full cost of certain entitlements and failed to account for the full costs of cap-and-trade energy legislation and health care reform.
Bum Deal: Environmentalists Seek to Wipe Out Plush Toilet Paper (Washington Post)
ELMWOOD PARK, N.J. -- There is a battle for America's behinds.
It is a fight over toilet paper: the kind that is blanket-fluffy and getting fluffier so fast that manufacturers are running out of synonyms for "soft"
It's a menace, environmental groups say -- and a dark-comedy example of American excess.
The reason, they say, is that plush U.S. toilet paper is usually made by chopping down and grinding up trees that were decades or even a century old.
They want Americans, like Europeans, to wipe with tissue made from recycled paper goods.
STAFF EDITORIAL: Career Fair needs to include left out liberal arts majors (Marquette Tribune)
The Career Fair’s dated structure needs a tune-up and a new direction that will better benefit job-hungry students in liberal arts fields.
About 132 companies are attending the fair, including Brady Corp., Briggs & Stratton, Ernst & Young, General Mills and Deloitte. Wanted: financial managers, mechanical engineers, IT project managers, tax interns and team leaders.
Unwanted:
editorial interns, philosophers, writers, history majors, sociology researchers and publishing interns.
Even Milwaukee Radio is looking for account executives, not for writers or media personalities.
With such a huge segment of the student population excluded, what’s the point for liberal arts students to attend?
Obama’s playing dumb about ACORN is disingenuous in the extreme.
His longstanding activist, political, and financial connections to the group, as Stanley Kurtz showed prior to the presidential election, are wide and deep.
Indeed, they constitute his most significant and enduring tie to the anti-capitalist and revolutionary “New Left” movement of the 1960s.
Obama Administration Moves to Shutdown Disclosure of Big Labor-ACORN Connections (biggovernment.com)
Even before U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was sworn in, Big Labor insiders like AFL-CIO lawyer and Obama appointee Deborah Greenfield were busily dismantling useful union financial disclosures produced by former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.
It’s another Big Government – Big Labor partnership aimed at keeping individual workers, whom they claim to represent, in the dark.
Why the hurry? Perhaps Union Bosses wanted to prevent the Virginia GOP and inquisitive people like Patrick Semmens from visiting DOL’s UnionReports.gov website that clearly reveals the Big Labor-ACORN collusion.
Semmens discovered that teachers’ union bosses gave about $500,000 to the same Brooklyn ACORN office exposed on BigGovernment.com.
Both the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) awarded ACORN service contracts.
That’s right; union bosses gave teachers’ forced union dues to the same ACORN that appeared to have no problem facilitating child prostitution.
No wonder Solis’ Big Labor friends want to shutdown financial disclosure!
In fact, UnionReports.gov provides detailed union financial reports and is a primary source for many union members, reporters, columnists, bloggers, and researchers.
Judicial Watch Files Lawsuit against HUD to Obtain ACORN Documents (Earnedmedia.org)
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to obtain records related to federal grants provided to the controversial "community organization" Association for Community Reform Now (ACORN).
Judicial Watch filed its original Freedom of Information Act request on July 17. HUD acknowledged receipt of the request by letter on August 4th and granted itself additional time to process the request.
However, HUD has not abided by its own extended deadline and has failed to provide Judicial Watch with a specific date by which it would respond, even after Judicial Watch agreed to limit the scope of the request to just seven states.
ACORN’s mysterious sugar daddy (Email Blast Exposed by John Ziegler!) HOTAIR.com
When life hands you lemons, find a sugar daddy to turn it into lemonade. That appears to be the axiom in play at ACORN today, which has sent out an e-mail blast hoping to turn videos of several offices offering assistance for child-prostitution and tax evasion into a bountiful fund-raising opportunity.
Two sources have forwarded the fundraising e-mails to us today, one of whom is our old friend John Ziegler.
John says he has no idea how they got his name and e-mail address, except that he donated money once to a Democrat Congressman, a friend of his who is still serving in Congress now.
That certainly seems interesting in terms of connections to this political scandal.
Update: John’s friend is a current member of Congress, which makes his addition to ACORN’s list even more interesting. Do all Democrats share their e-mail lists with ACORN?
ACORN's corporate donors backing off (Washington Examiner)
Corporations that have given ACORN millions of dollars over the years are now cancelling their donations in the wake of videotape revelations of employees of the infamous community organizing giving advice on mortgage fraud, tax evasion, prostitution, and child sex slavery.
Bank of America is reviewing its grant program, while Citigroup is waiting for the results of on-going investigations. JP Morgan Chase had previously ended its relationship with ACORN.
Oversight of tax-exempt groups like ACORN examined (breitbart)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Treasury Department's inspector general is looking into the government's oversight of tax-exempt organizations like ACORN when they engage in political activities.
The office of California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa disclosed the IG's decision on Thursday amid a controversy over videotapes of ACORN employees offering advice about how to establish a brothel with underage prostitutes.
This sounds like another crazy czar to expose, and dispose. == -Czar wants parallel government broadcasting system- American Thinker, by Lee Cary
President Obama's diversity Czar at the Federal Communications Commission proposes adding a vast public broadcasting system to the growing list of Obama's parallel institutions. (Snip) In Prologue to a Farce: Communication and Democracy in America, Lloyd proposes what would become a huge federal broadcasting system and yet another Obama parallel institution. It would join the ''civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded'' as the U.S. military More @ FreeRepublic
Democrats Are Jarred by Drop In Fundraising -- Complacency, Absence of Big Donors Cited (Washington Post)
Democratic political committees have seen a decline in their fundraising fortunes this year, a result of complacency among their rank-and-file donors and a de facto boycott by many of their wealthiest givers, who have been put off by the party's harsh anti-business rhetoric.
The trend is a marked reversal from recent history, in which Democrats have erased the GOP's long-standing fundraising advantage.
In the first six months of 2009, Democratic campaign committees' receipts have dropped in comparison to the same period two years earlier.
The vast majority of those declines were accounted for by the absence of large donors who, strategists say, have shut their checkbooks in part because Democrats have heightened their attacks on the conduct of major financial firms and set their sights on rewriting the laws that regulate their behavior.
Barack Obama Will Redistribute $1 Trillion Each Year (GatewayPundit) Can we call him a socialist yet?
Barack Obama's policies will redistribute nearly $1 trillion each year.
By 2012, nearly $1 trillion from the top 30 percent of American families will be redistributed among the bottom 70 percent if Obama’s proposals on taxes, health care, and climate change become law, according to the Tax Foundation.
“Even if none of Obama’s policies becomes law, the extent of income redistribution is remarkable,” Scott Hodge, president of the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, said.
“The top-earning 40 percent of families will transfer $826 billion to the bottom 60 percent in 2012.”
VP Biden: If stimulus fails, 'I'm dead' (thehill.com)
Vice President Joe Biden told the nation's governors Thursday that if the $787 billion stimulus fails, "I'm dead."
Biden, who holds regular calls with governors and mayors to chart the progress of the stimulus package, said he was pushing accountability standards purely out of "self-interest."
Larry King to Michael Moore: 'You are Our #1 Propagandist' (NewsBusters.org)
CNN’s Larry King fawned over Michael Moore during an hour-long interview on his program on Wednesday, calling the leftist’s latest feature “a brilliant documentary,” and went on to label the director “our number one propagandist.”
A $4 billion bailout for the Postal Service? (Politico)
Democrats moved Thursday to give special relief to the financially strapped Postal Service, which would be allowed to defer $4 billion in payments due at the end of this month to cover retirement benefits for its employees.
Republicans protested the bailout but made no significant effort to block the provision, which has now been attached to a stop-gap spending bill slated to come before the House and Senate in the next week.
Daily Telegraph: Obama's churlishness to UK Prime Minister is unforgivable (Daily Telegraph (UK)
...We read that the Prime Minister was forced to dash through the kitchens of the UN in New York to secure a few minutes “face time” with President Obama after five requests for a sit-down meeting were rejected by the White House.
What are we to make of this? This country has proved, through the bravery of men like Acting Sgt Lockett, America’s staunchest ally in Afghanistan.
In return, the American President treats the British Prime Minister with casual contempt. The President’s graceless behaviour is unforgivable.
snip
You might have thought that after the shambles of Mr Brown’s first visit to the Obama White House - when there was no joint press conference and the President’s “gift” to the Prime Minister was a boxed DVD set - lessons would have been learned.
Apparently not...Mr Obama’s churlishness is fresh evidence that the US/UK special relationship is a one-way street.
Spokesman dismisses British media (Gibbs disses Brit media)Politico.com
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs tried to quiet speculation about a possible falling out between President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown by taking aim at one of his favorite targets: the British media.
"I think this is media generated," Gibbs told reporters on Air Force One.
Sen. Jim DeMint predicted that Obamacare would be President Barack Obama's Waterloo. While that's certainly a strong possibility, Obama has other Waterloos in the wings competing for the prize, such as his monstrous deficits and his disastrous foreign policy. The Heritage Foundation reports that Obama's budget would produce $13 trillion in deficits over the next decade, even more than the outrageous $9 trillion previously projected.
[Every Democrat] Votes Against Measure Allowing Americans To Keep Their Current Health Care (nrsc.org)
WASHINGTON – In a vote that should send chills up the spine of those satisfied with their current health insurance, Democrats in the Senate Finance Committee today rejected a Republican amendment that would allow Americans to keep their current health care coverage.
Sponsored by U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the amendment stated that the implementation of the final health care bill would not take place unless the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) was able to certify before Congress that the legislation would not cause more than 1,000,000Americans to lose their current coverage.
The amendment was rejected 10-13, with all Republican Senators voting in favor and all Democrats voting against.
Notably, the defeat of the Hatch Amendment comes on the same week that the head of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Douglas Elmendorf, testified before Congress that seniors would see reduced Medicare benefits under the bill currently in the Finance Committee.
It also came on the same day that various media accounts highlighted the Democrats’ defense of the proposed cuts in the popular Medicare Advantage program that so many senior citizens rely upon for their health care.
“It’s inexplicable that the same Democrats who continue to insist that Americans’ current health care coverage will not be affected by the Democrats’ government-run proposal would then turn around and vote against an amendment that would ensure just that,” National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Amber Wilkerson Marchand said today.
“Blanche Lincoln needs to level with her constituents, especially the senior citizens in her state who the head of the CBO said will see deep Medicare cuts in the Democrat proposal: will they get to keep their current health care coverage, and if so, why did she vote against legislation that would ensure such a provision will be included in the final bill?”
The lame, fringe mdia, is exposed once again, there is no good reason for them to continue their uselessness in any form. ===== White House: We blew it on Gitmo Patriot Room - Bill Dupray
So White House advisor Greg Craig has been stuffed into a broom closet for advising Obama to close Gitmo, a position Obama himself shouted every day from every grassy knoll in the country last year. It was a ridiculous, nakedly political position, divorced from all reality, but the left-wing base just had to be appeased. A fourth grader would have had the sense to ask of and demand an answer from Obama on what he planned to do with the terrorists once he closed Gitmo, but ***that question apparently didn't occur to anybody with press credentials.****
A newly-appointed HUD executive tells The Modesto Bee that illegal immigrants have the right to “live in their neighborhood of choice," and that landlords may be violating fair housing law if they require renters to have a Social Security number.
Here's the story in today's paper: www.modbee.com/local/story/868361.html#none
Anti-discrimination advocate John Trasviña, a newly appointed fair housing administrator for the Obama administration, will speak tonight in Modesto.
Trasviña took over this spring as assistant secretary of fair housing and equal opportunity for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
He will give the keynote address at the annual gala dinner for El Concilio, which is the Council for the Spanish Speaking in Modesto. Trasviña previously was general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
His speech in Modesto will be on fair-housing issues.
"We're in the midst of anti-immigrant sentiment in America," Trasviña said in a phone interview. He said the number of housing discrimination complaints filed with HUD is rising, and his office is trying to make sure people know their housing rights.
"Everybody should be able to live in their neighborhood of choice," Trasviña said. When asked if that includes illegal immigrants, Trasviña said yes.
While it "may or may not be" a violation of fair-housing law for a landlord to ask if a prospective tenant is in the country legally, Trasviña said, "Doing so inevitably leads to national origin discrimination."
Trasviña said even requiring a prospective tenant to provide a valid Social Security number on a rental application may be discriminatory.
"If there are other ways to demonstrate creditworthiness (other than by providing a Social Security number), then somebody should be able to do that," he said.
"Obviously, there's a legitimate need for a property owner to know that a tenant is who they say they are," Trasviña said. But "if only Latinos are asked to prove their citizenship," then landlords are discriminating.
Trasviña said HUD is focusing on making housing accessible for those with disabilities. All landlords, including those who own rental homes, he said, need to know their responsibility to abide by fair-housing laws.
Today's gala will be 5:30 to 9 p.m. at the Del Rio Golf and Country Club, 801 Stewart Road, Modesto. Tickets will be sold at the door for $75 and include dinner. The event will honor Olivia Ruiz, Modesto editor for Vida en El Valle; Ruben Pina, a program specialist for Migrant Education Region 111 and trustee of the Patterson Unified School District; and Habitat for Humanity, the nonprofit organization that helps families buy affordable housing.
Since hardly anybody watches Larry King, the Michael Moore crap went unnoticed. Kings' audience is age 70 and older and their political position is dementia Democrats.
43 comments:
New York Times agrees to voluntary buyouts (Poynter Online)
TIMES: "Cost-Saving" Committee Meets Times Agrees to Offer Voluntary Buyouts Pay Cut to be Restored in January
Representatives of the Guild and Times management met earlier this week to discuss the possibility of offering a Voluntary Buyout and to identify cost-saving opportunities that still may exist at the newspaper.
The meeting was part of a process that was agreed to in discussions between the union and company management last spring regarding the temporary 5 percent pay reduction that Guild members approved.
In response to a proposal by New York Guild President Bill O'Meara, Times Senior Vice President of Operations and Labor Terry Hayes said the company would agree to offer a voluntary buyout.
St. Petersburg Times implements 5% wage cut for all employees (Poynter Online)
To: All Times Publishing Company Staff From: Paul Tash
Last week, the board of directors unanimously reached two decisions to bring our expenses into better balance with our revenues, and help the company weather this prolonged economic storm.
First, we will implement a 5 percent, across-the-board wage reduction for all employees, starting November 2nd.
We recognize that this will add to the strain that staffers are bearing, and we regret that this step is necessary.
But in due time, we would regret even more a failure to recognize and respond to the worst recession in our lifetimes.
Second, for retirees on the company's health plan, the board decided to phase out health care coverage.
Even as other companies dropped these benefits, Times Publishing preserved them as long as possible.
We will help retirees identify other choices for health coverage, and we support efforts to expand health care options for all Americans.
D.C. Council Member's Chief Arrested (Dem Scandal)
The Washington Times
Federal authorities Thursday arrested the chief of staff to D.C. Council member Jim Graham and charged him with two counts of accepting bribes.
In an indictment unsealed Thursday, authorities say Ted Loza, 45, received cash payments on two separate occasions in exchange for agreeing to promote legislation favorable to the taxicab industry.
Mr. Graham is chairman of the Committee on Public Works and Transportation, which oversees and regulates the city's taxicab commission.
Yosi Sergant submits resignation, new WH policy guidelines on outreach established (The Washington Times-Water Cooler)
In the midst of the National Endowment for the Arts controversy, their former communications director Yosi Sergant has submitted his resignation.
Narcissus And Echo: Obama And The Mainstream Media (American Thinker)
It is troubling that our president is a pathological narcissist caught up in the thought patterns of Darwin, Marx, and Alinsky.
Even more troubling is the fact that the Mainstream Media (MSM), suffering from an Obama-inspired narcosis, shirks its duty, refusing to publish or even explore any aspect of Obama's dark side.
There is room for much optimism, however. If the ancient story of Narcissus and Echo plays itself out as Ovid recorded it, and Obama and the MSM are their contemporary counterparts, both will fade away in the not too distant future.
Narcissus did not fall in love with his own reflection by accident; he was thus cursed by Nemesis for his audacious mockery of others.
As for Echo, it was her dishonesty and deception that caused Hera, queen of the gods, to curse her so that her body would dwindle away to a mere voice able only to echo the words of Narcissus.
Comparing the particulars of the original Narcissus and Echo tale to Obama and the MSM will spotlight for us the unnatural patterns of feeling and thinking currently operative in the latter pair...
Reid blocks ACORN probe
Las Vegas Review-Journal
ACORN -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- is stinking up Washington. And this is far more significant than if a suspiciously large number of operatives for a purely "private" outfit had been found systematically bending and breaking the law, because ACORN receives and spends taxpayer money -- lots of it -- and had carried the imprimatur of official partnerships with the IRS, the Census Bureau ... the kind of "cred" that in the political world comes only from "who you know."
(Via FreeRepublic.com
Obama's Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings Hid Pedophilia (GatewayPundit)
Since when is this safe?
Barack Obama's "safe school's czar" Kevin Jennings hid pedophilia from authorities.
Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings was a huge Obama supporter.
FOX News reported: President Obama's "safe schools czar" is a former schoolteacher who has advocated promoting homosexuality in schools, written about his past drug abuse, expressed his contempt for religion and detailed an incident in which he did not report an underage student who told him he was having sex with older men.
Conservatives are up in arms about the appointment of Kevin Jennings, Obama's director of the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, saying he is too radical for the job.
Jennings was appointed to the position largely because of his longtime record of working to end bullying and discrimination in schools.
In 1990, as a teacher in Massachusetts, he founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which now has over 40 chapters at schools nationwide.
How schoolchildren were taught to sing Obama's praises (Daily Mail (U.K.)
Primary schoolchildren filmed singing a song praising President Obama are at the centre of a storm of controversy in the U.S. after the video was posted on the internet.
Right wing critics blasted the school for promoting politics in the classroom.
The video shows more than a dozen children dancing and singing a song about the president, quoting from his speeches and campaign slogans.
The chorus includes the chant ‘Mmm, mmm, mm! Barack Hussein Obama.’
One verse says: ‘He said that all must lend a hand. To make this country strong again.’
Another goes: ‘He said we must be clear today. Equal work means equal pay.’
The film was first posted on YouTube on September 6, just two days before the president made a controversial speech to students at the start of the autumn term.
But officials at the B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington Township, New Jersey, deny the timing had anything to do with politics and said the song was performed back in February.
They said the recording of the class song was ‘not authorised’ and it should never have been put online.
The power of the Internet unleashed: “Yosi Sergant submits resignation, [new WH policy guidelines] on outreach established.…”
Sick. School Children Taught to Sing Praises to Obama (GatewayPundit)
The radical left is now teaching American youth to sing praises to Obama:
It will probably be “accidentally” skipped or go unnoticed by ABC/CBS/MSNBC/CNN.
Charlie Gibson, no doubt, has no idea about this. Just like he doesn’t know about ACORN.
He can’t be bothered with that “journalism” stuff ya know.
Plus the fringe media couldn’t figure out why American parents didn’t want this trash broadcast into our schools was a good idea.
From the video: This was filmed around June 19, 2009 at the B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, NJ.
Barack Hussein Obama
He said that all must lend a hand [?]
To make this country strong again
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said we must be clear today
Equal work means equal pay
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said that we must take a stand
To make sure everyone gets a chance
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said Red, Yellow, Black or White
All are equal in his sight
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
Yes
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
Segue to: Hello, Mr. President we honor you today!
For all your great accomplishments, we all [do? doth??] say "hooray!"
Hooray Mr. President! You're number one!
The first Black American to lead this great na-TION!
Hooray, Mr. President something-something-some
A-something-something-something-some economy is number one again!
Hooray Mr. President, we're really proud of you!
And the same for all Americans [in?] the great Red White and Blue!
So something Mr. President we all just something-some,
So here's a hearty hip-hooray a-something-something-some!
Hip, hip hooray! (3x)
Poll: 89% Say Media Helped Elect, Promote Obama (newsmax.com)
It’s not just conservatives who accuse the media of showing a liberal bias.
A new survey from the Sacred Heart University Polling Institute shows that 89.3 percent of Americans believe the national media played a sizable role in helping to elect President Obama.
And 69.9 percent of respondents view the national news media as intent on promoting the Obama presidency, while 26.5 percent disagreed, and 3.6 percent were unsure.
More than half of those surveyed, 56.4 percent, said the news media are promoting Obama’s healthcare reform without objective criticism. Another 39.3 percent disagreed, and 4.3 percent were unsure.
A majority, to the tune of 57.6 percent, also maintain that the news media appear to be coordinating efforts to diminish the record of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Independents desert Obama, putting 2010 in play (Washington Examiner)
Independent voters are turning away from President Obama and his fellow Democrats in droves.
And if they can't find a way to get them back, the party could be in deep trouble for 2010 and beyond.
Independents gave Obama the White House last year with a vote for pragmatic competence. They have been repaid with partisanship and dithering. And unlike liberals who Obama has quickly re-energized after their summer doldrums, independents are devilishly hard to win back once they lose faith.
President Obama's Agenda Would Bring $13 Trillion in Budget Deficits, Not $9 Trillion (The Heritage Foundation)
Abstract: President Obama's budget will likely produce $13 trillion in deficit spending over the next 10 years--nearly $4 trillion more than forecast.
The White House figures are based on unrealistic estimates of discretionary spending, interest payments, and interest rates.
The White House also used budget gimmicks to hide the full cost of certain entitlements and failed to account for the full costs of cap-and-trade energy legislation and health care reform.
Bum Deal: Environmentalists Seek to Wipe Out Plush Toilet Paper (Washington Post)
ELMWOOD PARK, N.J. -- There is a battle for America's behinds.
It is a fight over toilet paper: the kind that is blanket-fluffy and getting fluffier so fast that manufacturers are running out of synonyms for "soft"
It's a menace, environmental groups say -- and a dark-comedy example of American excess.
The reason, they say, is that plush U.S. toilet paper is usually made by chopping down and grinding up trees that were decades or even a century old.
They want Americans, like Europeans, to wipe with tissue made from recycled paper goods.
Like Cuban’s I wipe with the NY Times, or McClatchy so it’s not really an issue for me.
STAFF EDITORIAL: Career Fair needs to include left out liberal arts majors (Marquette Tribune)
The Career Fair’s dated structure needs a tune-up and a new direction that will better benefit job-hungry students in liberal arts fields.
About 132 companies are attending the fair, including Brady Corp., Briggs & Stratton, Ernst & Young, General Mills and Deloitte.
Wanted: financial managers, mechanical engineers, IT project managers, tax interns and team leaders.
Unwanted:
editorial interns, philosophers, writers, history majors, sociology researchers and publishing interns.
Even Milwaukee Radio is looking for account executives, not for writers or media personalities.
With such a huge segment of the student population excluded, what’s the point for liberal arts students to attend?
Obama and ACORN: A Love Story (pajamasmedia.com)
Obama’s playing dumb about ACORN is disingenuous in the extreme.
His longstanding activist, political, and financial connections to the group, as Stanley Kurtz showed prior to the presidential election, are wide and deep.
Indeed, they constitute his most significant and enduring tie to the anti-capitalist and revolutionary “New Left” movement of the 1960s.
Obama Administration Moves to Shutdown Disclosure of Big Labor-ACORN Connections (biggovernment.com)
Even before U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis was sworn in, Big Labor insiders like AFL-CIO lawyer and Obama appointee Deborah Greenfield were busily dismantling useful union financial disclosures produced by former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.
It’s another Big Government – Big Labor partnership aimed at keeping individual workers, whom they claim to represent, in the dark.
Why the hurry? Perhaps Union Bosses wanted to prevent the Virginia GOP and inquisitive people like Patrick Semmens from visiting DOL’s UnionReports.gov website that clearly reveals the Big Labor-ACORN collusion.
Semmens discovered that teachers’ union bosses gave about $500,000 to the same Brooklyn ACORN office exposed on BigGovernment.com.
Both the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) awarded ACORN service contracts.
That’s right; union bosses gave teachers’ forced union dues to the same ACORN that appeared to have no problem facilitating child prostitution.
No wonder Solis’ Big Labor friends want to shutdown financial disclosure!
In fact, UnionReports.gov provides detailed union financial reports and is a primary source for many union members, reporters, columnists, bloggers, and researchers.
Judicial Watch Files Lawsuit against HUD to Obtain ACORN Documents (Earnedmedia.org)
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to obtain records related to federal grants provided to the controversial "community organization" Association for Community Reform Now (ACORN).
Judicial Watch filed its original Freedom of Information Act request on July 17. HUD acknowledged receipt of the request by letter on August 4th and granted itself additional time to process the request.
However, HUD has not abided by its own extended deadline and has failed to provide Judicial Watch with a specific date by which it would respond, even after Judicial Watch agreed to limit the scope of the request to just seven states.
ACORN’s mysterious sugar daddy
(Email Blast Exposed by John Ziegler!) HOTAIR.com
When life hands you lemons, find a sugar daddy to turn it into lemonade. That appears to be the axiom in play at ACORN today, which has sent out an e-mail blast hoping to turn videos of several offices offering assistance for child-prostitution and tax evasion into a bountiful fund-raising opportunity.
Two sources have forwarded the fundraising e-mails to us today, one of whom is our old friend John Ziegler.
John says he has no idea how they got his name and e-mail address, except that he donated money once to a Democrat Congressman, a friend of his who is still serving in Congress now.
That certainly seems interesting in terms of connections to this political scandal.
Update: John’s friend is a current member of Congress, which makes his addition to ACORN’s list even more interesting. Do all Democrats share their e-mail lists with ACORN?
ACORN's corporate donors backing off (Washington Examiner)
Corporations that have given ACORN millions of dollars over the years are now cancelling their donations in the wake of videotape revelations of employees of the infamous community organizing giving advice on mortgage fraud, tax evasion, prostitution, and child sex slavery.
Bank of America is reviewing its grant program, while Citigroup is waiting for the results of on-going investigations. JP Morgan Chase had previously ended its relationship with ACORN.
Oversight of tax-exempt groups like ACORN examined (breitbart)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Treasury Department's inspector general is looking into the government's oversight of tax-exempt organizations like ACORN when they engage in political activities.
The office of California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa disclosed the IG's decision on Thursday amid a controversy over videotapes of ACORN employees offering advice about how to establish a brothel with underage prostitutes.
This sounds like another crazy czar to expose, and dispose.
==
-Czar wants parallel government
broadcasting system-
American Thinker, by Lee Cary
President Obama's diversity Czar at the Federal Communications Commission proposes adding a vast public broadcasting system to the growing list of Obama's parallel institutions. (Snip) In Prologue to a Farce: Communication and Democracy in America, Lloyd proposes what would become a huge federal broadcasting system and yet another Obama parallel institution. It would join the ''civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded'' as the U.S. military
More @ FreeRepublic
Democrats Are Jarred by Drop In Fundraising -- Complacency, Absence of Big Donors Cited (Washington Post)
Democratic political committees have seen a decline in their fundraising fortunes this year, a result of complacency among their rank-and-file donors and a de facto boycott by many of their wealthiest givers, who have been put off by the party's harsh anti-business rhetoric.
The trend is a marked reversal from recent history, in which Democrats have erased the GOP's long-standing fundraising advantage.
In the first six months of 2009, Democratic campaign committees' receipts have dropped in comparison to the same period two years earlier.
The vast majority of those declines were accounted for by the absence of large donors who, strategists say, have shut their checkbooks in part because Democrats have heightened their attacks on the conduct of major financial firms and set their sights on rewriting the laws that regulate their behavior.
Barack Obama Will Redistribute $1 Trillion Each Year (GatewayPundit)
Can we call him a socialist yet?
Barack Obama's policies will redistribute nearly $1 trillion each year.
By 2012, nearly $1 trillion from the top 30 percent of American families will be redistributed among the bottom 70 percent if Obama’s proposals on taxes, health care, and climate change become law, according to the Tax Foundation.
“Even if none of Obama’s policies becomes law, the extent of income redistribution is remarkable,” Scott Hodge, president of the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, said.
“The top-earning 40 percent of families will transfer $826 billion to the bottom 60 percent in 2012.”
VP Biden: If stimulus fails, 'I'm dead' (thehill.com)
Vice President Joe Biden told the nation's governors Thursday that if the $787 billion stimulus fails, "I'm dead."
Biden, who holds regular calls with governors and mayors to chart the progress of the stimulus package, said he was pushing accountability standards purely out of "self-interest."
"If it fails, I'm dead," he said.
Why are school teachers giving funds to ACORN?
Larry King to Michael Moore: 'You are Our #1 Propagandist' (NewsBusters.org)
CNN’s Larry King fawned over Michael Moore during an hour-long interview on his program on Wednesday, calling the leftist’s latest feature “a brilliant documentary,” and went on to label the director “our number one propagandist.”
A $4 billion bailout for the Postal Service? (Politico)
Democrats moved Thursday to give special relief to the financially strapped Postal Service, which would be allowed to defer $4 billion in payments due at the end of this month to cover retirement benefits for its employees.
Republicans protested the bailout but made no significant effort to block the provision, which has now been attached to a stop-gap spending bill slated to come before the House and Senate in the next week.
Daily Telegraph: Obama's churlishness to UK Prime Minister is unforgivable (Daily Telegraph (UK)
...We read that the Prime Minister was forced to dash through the kitchens of the UN in New York to secure a few minutes “face time” with President Obama after five requests for a sit-down meeting were rejected by the White House.
What are we to make of this? This country has proved, through the bravery of men like Acting Sgt Lockett, America’s staunchest ally in Afghanistan.
In return, the American President treats the British Prime Minister with casual contempt. The President’s graceless behaviour is unforgivable.
snip
You might have thought that after the shambles of Mr Brown’s first visit to the Obama White House - when there was no joint press conference and the President’s “gift” to the Prime Minister was a boxed DVD set - lessons would have been learned.
Apparently not...Mr Obama’s churlishness is fresh evidence that the US/UK special relationship is a one-way street.
Spokesman dismisses British media (Gibbs disses Brit media)Politico.com
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs tried to quiet speculation about a possible falling out between President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown by taking aim at one of his favorite targets: the British media.
"I think this is media generated," Gibbs told reporters on Air Force One.
"Stop reading those London tabloids."
Obama's Competing Waterloos
Creators Syndicate Inc.
by David Limbaugh
Sen. Jim DeMint predicted that Obamacare would be President Barack Obama's Waterloo. While that's certainly a strong possibility, Obama has other Waterloos in the wings competing for the prize, such as his monstrous deficits and his disastrous foreign policy. The Heritage Foundation reports that Obama's budget would produce $13 trillion in deficits over the next decade, even more than the outrageous $9 trillion previously projected.
[Every Democrat] Votes Against Measure Allowing Americans To Keep Their Current Health Care (nrsc.org)
WASHINGTON – In a vote that should send chills up the spine of those satisfied with their current health insurance, Democrats in the Senate Finance Committee today rejected a Republican amendment that would allow Americans to keep their current health care coverage.
Sponsored by U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the amendment stated that the implementation of the final health care bill would not take place unless the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) was able to certify before Congress that the legislation would not cause more than 1,000,000Americans to lose their current coverage.
The amendment was rejected 10-13, with all Republican Senators voting in favor and all Democrats voting against.
Notably, the defeat of the Hatch Amendment comes on the same week that the head of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Douglas Elmendorf, testified before Congress that seniors would see reduced Medicare benefits under the bill currently in the Finance Committee.
It also came on the same day that various media accounts highlighted the Democrats’ defense of the proposed cuts in the popular Medicare Advantage program that so many senior citizens rely upon for their health care.
“It’s inexplicable that the same Democrats who continue to insist that Americans’ current health care coverage will not be affected by the Democrats’ government-run proposal would then turn around and vote against an amendment that would ensure just that,” National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Amber Wilkerson Marchand said today.
“Blanche Lincoln needs to level with her constituents, especially the senior citizens in her state who the head of the CBO said will see deep Medicare cuts in the Democrat proposal: will they get to keep their current health care coverage, and if so, why did she vote against legislation that would ensure such a provision will be included in the final bill?”
Time for an Obama tune:
♫ Waterloo ♫
Waterloo Waterloo
where will Obama
meet his Waterloo
Every puppy has his day
everybody has to pay
Obama has to meet his Waterloo[s]
The lame, fringe mdia, is exposed once again, there is no good reason for them to continue their uselessness in any form.
=====
White House: We blew it on Gitmo
Patriot Room - Bill Dupray
So White House advisor Greg Craig has been stuffed into a broom closet for advising Obama to close Gitmo, a position Obama himself shouted every day from every grassy knoll in the country last year. It was a ridiculous, nakedly political position, divorced from all reality, but the left-wing base just had to be appeased. A fourth grader would have had the sense to ask of and demand an answer from Obama on what he planned to do with the terrorists once he closed Gitmo, but ***that question apparently didn't occur to anybody with press credentials.****
A newly-appointed HUD executive tells The Modesto Bee that illegal immigrants have the right to “live in their neighborhood of choice," and that landlords may be violating fair housing law if they require renters to have a Social Security number.
Here's the story in today's paper:
www.modbee.com/local/story/868361.html#none
Anti-discrimination advocate John Trasviña, a newly appointed fair housing administrator for the Obama administration, will speak tonight in Modesto.
Trasviña took over this spring as assistant secretary of fair housing and equal opportunity for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
He will give the keynote address at the annual gala dinner for El Concilio, which is the Council for the Spanish Speaking in Modesto. Trasviña previously was general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.
His speech in Modesto will be on fair-housing issues.
"We're in the midst of anti-immigrant sentiment in America," Trasviña said in a phone interview. He said the number of housing discrimination complaints filed with HUD is rising, and his office is trying to make sure people know their housing rights.
"Everybody should be able to live in their neighborhood of choice," Trasviña said. When asked if that includes illegal immigrants, Trasviña said yes.
While it "may or may not be" a violation of fair-housing law for a landlord to ask if a prospective tenant is in the country legally, Trasviña said, "Doing so inevitably leads to national origin discrimination."
Trasviña said even requiring a prospective tenant to provide a valid Social Security number on a rental application may be discriminatory.
"If there are other ways to demonstrate creditworthiness (other than by providing a Social Security number), then somebody should be able to do that," he said.
"Obviously, there's a legitimate need for a property owner to know that a tenant is who they say they are," Trasviña said. But "if only Latinos are asked to prove their citizenship," then landlords are discriminating.
Trasviña said HUD is focusing on making housing accessible for those with disabilities. All landlords, including those who own rental homes, he said, need to know their responsibility to abide by fair-housing laws.
Today's gala will be 5:30 to 9 p.m. at the Del Rio Golf and Country Club, 801 Stewart Road, Modesto. Tickets will be sold at the door for $75 and include dinner. The event will honor Olivia Ruiz, Modesto editor for Vida en El Valle; Ruben Pina, a program specialist for Migrant Education Region 111 and trustee of the Patterson Unified School District; and Habitat for Humanity, the nonprofit organization that helps families buy affordable housing.
Since hardly anybody watches Larry King, the Michael Moore crap went unnoticed. Kings' audience is age 70 and older and their political position is dementia Democrats.
I love it when the "Singer" is in the house!
Ahmadinejad to Obama:
You're Gonna Regret This
---
It sounds as if Ahmadinejad didn't get the Hope & Change memo.
12:19 PM Neither did I. Just what did Ahhadobamablowme say that Barry was going to regret?
Wrecking crews tearing down former Star-Telegram annex building: http://www.star-telegram.com/business/story/1635271.html
Wrecking crews tearing down former Star-Telegram annex. Story and photo on paper's Web site.
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