Obama Job Freeze: You ain't seen nothin' yet ... Worse, the June jobs data mark a milestone of sorts: Our unemployment rate equals that of the no-growth Eurozone nations. Why is this job decline happening? The private sector — the real engine of economic and job growth — won't hire because it's scared of what it sees coming out of Washington. On the horizon, as far as the eye can see, are higher taxes, uncontrolled spending and layers upon layers of new regulations. Who would hire new workers faced with that? Also, the federal government is meddling in the private sector as never before — in essence, nationalizing two of the three major carmakers with $200 billion in subsidies and capital infusions, turning our banking system into a fourth branch of government through the $700 billion TARP program, spending $200 billion to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and put them back in the business of lending to people who can't pay their loans — which is how we got into trouble in the first place. And that's only what's been done in the last half year or so. What really scares private businesses is what's in the pipeline. (ibdeditorials.com)Related video: Obama Stimulus: No New Jobs
Obama 'Townhall' fakery exposed ... You may have missed it, but on Wednesday, Barack Obama held yet another so-called townhall meeting. This one was to discuss his health care plans and use the new tools of "social media" to do it. Although surrounded by a live audience, the main focus of the event was to reach people using the White House web site, Facebook, and Twitter. The problem is that there should be some kind of standards when it comes to a townhall meeting. By labeling it as such, Americans get the impression that this is a meeting of average Joes (and Janes) -- people from all walks of life and all parts of the political spectrum -- who can throw out questions to the president. Well... not quite... As we have seen in many Obama events already, the purpose is strictly to get his message out and NOT hear from the American people, even though that is the stage upon which his sales pitch is being delivered. The White House picks the questions ahead of time, and the audience is generally made up of Obama supporters. Does this sound like a townhall meeting to you? (gopusa.com)
U.S. grows weary of tired, old Obama rhetoric ... While I realize my efforts to decode Barack Obama may turn into a never-ending task, I want to focus on another of his rhetorical habits: his ceaseless attempts to portray himself as America's philosopher-king, the person standing not only above country but above politics itself. Obama is, he would have us believe, uniquely able to transcend old, tired, and rutted debates, to think anew, and to bring a fresh, creative approach to the problems of our time. He alone inhabits the upper world. (commentarymagazine.com)
Obama pleases Communist Party big ... Generally, the Communist Party spends a lot of time criticizing Democrats running for and holding public office for not being socialistic enough. This appears to have changed since President Obama was elected. “In this legislative session, we can envision winning a Medicare-like public option and then going further in the years ahead,” writes Sam Webb, Chair of the Communist Party USA. “The core of this struggle, whether we like it or not, turns on the inclusion of a public option in a health care bill,” continues Webb on government takeover of health care issue. “President Obama reaffirmed his support for such an option and the Congressional Progressive Caucus recently expressed its full support for a public option that is government run, covers everyone, and goes into effect right away.” The conversation isn’t limited to health care issues, either. “The new conditions of struggle are possible only – and I want to emphasize only – because we elected President Obama and a Congress with pronounced progressive and center currents,” adds Webb. (thelibertypapers.org)
NYT: U.S. embassy provides shelter for Honduran drug thug kin ... The Obama administration has ardently opposed Mr. Zelaya’s removal, so much so that the president’s wife and son are now taking refuge at the American ambassador’s residence here. American officials are also studying whether Mr. Zelaya’s ouster on Sunday fits the legal definition of a coup, a determination that could lead to a cutoff of millions of dollars in American aid. That decision could come as early as Friday. (nytimes.com)
Obama's hush-hush Muslim Czar censored ... Somewhat strangely, given Obama’s very public diplomatic overture in Cairo, there was no public announcement that a new office of a Special Representative to Muslim Communities had been created. News of its debut was buried in an internal State Department memo last week, and it was only after spokesman Ian Kelley was questioned by reporters that an appearance by Pandith on July 1 in the daily briefing room was scheduled. (rferl.org)
Octavio Sanchez: A Honduran exposes the truth ... If you are not familiar with the country’s history and the Honduran constitution it is almost impossible that you would understand what happened here this past weekend. In 1982 my country adopted a new Constitution to allow our ordered return to democracy. After 19 previous constitution - two Spanish ones, three as part of the Republic of Central America and 14 as an independent nation - this one, at 28, has been the longest lasting one. It has lasted for so long because it responds and adapts to our changing reality, as seen in the fact that out of its original 379 articles, 7 of them have been completely or partially repealed, 18 have been interpreted and 121 have been reformed. It also includes 7 articles that cannot be repealed or amended because they address issues that are critical for us. Those unchangeable articles deal with the form of government, the extent of our borders, the number of years of the presidential term; two prohibitions -one to reelect presidents and another one to change the article that states who can’t run for president - and one article that penalizes the abrogation of the Constitution. In these 28 years Honduras has found legal ways to deal with its own problems. Each and every successful country around the world lived similar trial and error processes until they were able to find legal vehicles that adapt to their reality. (netrightnation.com)
Clueless Obama Admin. owes Hondurans an apology ... The latest events concerning the political situation in Honduras confirm my analysis that President Obama made a huge foreign policy blunder. Against all common sense, he followed the lead of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and condemned the removal of Mel Zelaya from the Honduran presidency, calling it ‘an illegal military coup.’ At the time, I warned that he was making a premature and uninformed decision that could only lead to embarrassment for the United States and encouragement for Chávez. It is now clear that when President Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Zelaya’s removal an illegal military coup, they did it either without seeking the opinion of the Administration’s experts in the matter, or in blatant disregard thereof. In either case, this episode has turned into a major embarrassment for the President. Given his inclination to apologize to the world for alleged American errors he attributes to other administrations, it is time he manned up and apologized to the people of Honduras for his own rash statements. (examiner.com)
Shame on CITGO ... Freedom Watch, a US non-governmental organization (NGO), announced on Thursday that it has formally notified the Venezuelan-run oil company Citgo about the class action filed against Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, for alleged acts of terrorism and violation of human rights. Larry Klayman, founder and President of Freedom Watch, said that the Venezuelan government has 20 days to respond the lawsuit filed last April in a Miami court on behalf of the Venezuelan journalist Ricardo Guanipa who qualified for political asylum in the US since 2005. The lawsuit was filed against Chávez, several government officials and against Citgo, a wholly-owned subsidiary in the United States of the state-owned oil company Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (Pdvsa). (english.eluniversal.com)
Wrong-Way Obama ... This is exactly backwards. It was Zelaya, who in his avowal to ignore a supreme court decision and proceed with an illegal power grab, subverted his country's democracy. Nevertheless, the Pentagon has cut off all cooperation with the Honduran military and Obama administration officials told The New York Times of their intention to give the poverty-stricken Central American nation "a taste of isolation" (would they threaten such consequences for the mullahs in Iran?). Secretary of State Clinton said that Honduras' actions "should be condemned by all" and President Obama said that his administration would "stand with democracy" by supporting Zelaya's reinstatement. Propping up an authoritarian undermining his country's constitution (which he claimed needs fixing to reflect a new "national reality," apparently one in which he rules forever) is a strange way to demonstrate that solidarity. (nydailynews.com)Obama: We don't need no stinkin' Constitution ... The oath of office taken by a United States President states as follows: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Notice it does not say "I will preserve, protect and defend my political agenda," but clearly requires any president to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution." It now seems apparent that our current president must believe that the flub of the oath by Chief Justice John Roberts on inauguration day was tacit permission for him to ignore the wording of the oath. Why do I say this? Because the series of legislation, presidential orders and other acts taken by President Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Congress during the last six months has discarded the Constitution by the wayside like so much fast-food trash. (georgetownnews.com)
Gov't lawyers halt Obama ... A senior U.S. official said Wednesday that the United States had delayed any decision to cut aid to Honduras until Monday in order to give diplomatic moves time to return ousted President Manuel Zelaya to power. State Department lawyers were also still trying to determine whether there are legal reasons to shut off aid. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said his government was in the meantime preparing for the possibility of an aid eventual cut-off. "We've taken some actions to hit the pause button ... on assistance programs that we would be legally required to terminate if" lawyers determine there is a basis to say Zelaya's overthrow resulted from a military coup, Kelly said. (easybourse.com)
'Fair Share' really means 'Forced-labor unionism' ... In principle, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees has an excellent argument for the so-called “fair share” law that went into effect in Maryland this week. It negotiates contracts for tens of thousands of state employees, whether they are members of the union or not. Conducting those negotiations costs money, and it isn’t right that non-members get the benefits without paying their share of the costs. But the potential side effects of the law are cause for concern. (weblogs.baltimoresun.com)
Picket line violence against woman downgraded to 'mischief' ... A striking Toronto city worker has been charged with mischief following an altercation at a temporary dump site, and police are asking all concerned to cool down. "Any sort of violence or erratic behaviour or criminality will not be tolerated," Const. Tony Vella told ctvtoronto.ca on Thursday. In Thursday morning's incident at 200 Eglinton Ave. W., there were three city workers picketing a temporary dump site along with a local resident upset about the park being used as a dump. A woman drove up to unload garbage. A protester got into an altercation with her, Vella said. (toronto.ctv.ca)
IBEW out on strike v. oppressive national park ... Visitors to Denali National Park are being greeted by strikers on a picket line at the park entrance. Larry Bell, business manager for IBEW Local 1547, says three picket lines have been set up. One is at the park entrance and the other two are at the visitor center. The strike was called Wednesday after negotiations between the union representing 17 bus mechanics, radio technicians and warehouse workers at the national park broke down over wage and pension issues. (victoriaadvocate.com)
The System is rigged ... The former Stuart Smalley becomes the 60th Democrat in the U.S. Senate, thanks to the community organizers at ACORN and the little-known Secretary of State Project. Is the system being rigged? It was Ritchie who orchestrated the recount that gave Democratic challenger Franken a lead some six weeks after Coleman appeared to win by 725 votes on Election Day. Ritchie has extensive ties to the Acorn organization now under federal investigation for vote fraud and was endorsed by the community activist group in 2006. In 2006, the Minnesota Acorn Political Committee endorsed Ritchie and contributed to his campaign. Other contributors to his campaign included George Soros, along with the likes of Deborah Rappaport, a Saul Alinsky disciple who co-founded the Midwest Academy, a radical Acorn clone. "Mark Ritchie as we all know is a hard-core liberal who was endorsed by Acorn and funded by Acorn," Matthew Vadum, senior editor of CapitolResearch.org, a nonprofit think tank, recently told NewsMax. "It is not surprising that he has a permissive attitude toward the recount process." Also contributing to Ritchie was James Rucker, the former director of grass-roots mobilization at MoveOn.org and reportedly a co-founder of the Secretary of State Project that played a critical role in this and other elections and will do so in the future. (investors.com)Bonus links:
• Summary of Saul Alinsky's 'Rules for Radicals'
• More Saul Alinsky stories: here
• 'Rules for Radicals' at amazon.com
Shame on Stuart Smalley ... In the November 4 election Coleman won by 725 votes. After a recount he still won by 215. Then Franken's "Minnesotans" got busy canvassing. They demanded that votes once disqualified in their counties be counted. They found thousands of absentee ballots previously rejected for such indelicacies as fabricated addresses. Coleman cried foul and asked that one statewide standard be applied to all recounts. However, he got nowhere with this plea for equal protection of the law, and in the meantime Franken's larcenous operatives picked up 1,350 more absentee votes, some bearing the names of pop singers. Ultimately Franken's team managed a 312-vote victory from the 2.9 million votes cast. The Wall Street Journal was not alone in its judgment that "Mr. Franken now goes to the Senate having effectively stolen an election." (spectator.org)
U.S. flunks Democracy ... Some, such as Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, have even accused Washington of complicity with the military junta in Honduras. This must be seen as a setback for President Barack Obama's policy of supporting democracy, which has been clearly stated in his Cairo address last month. It must have come also as a disappointment for those who have expected Obama to invest more in promoting democracy, particularly in the Middle East. (gulfnews.com)
Democratic In Name Only ... Here is where the Honduran example departs from the conventional wisdom: Instead of suspending the constitution and assuming power for themselves, the generals supported the Congress, which in an emergency session declared its own top leader as Zelaya's interim successor and affirmed the election in November of a permanent successor. These actions were also affirmed by the Honduran Supreme Court. In other words, as was said over and over here after Watergate, "the system worked." So why is Obama - and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - siding with Chávez and two of his America-hating buddies, Cuba's Fidel Castro and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, against an intact democracy? (washingtonexaminer.com)
Sick: Selling out to pro-union front group ... New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says his administration is looking at the concept of forcing employers to provide paid sick days. Two other U.S. cities have such measures - San Francisco and Washington, D.C. A voter-approved effort to require it in Milwaukee was recently struck down by a judge who said it was unconstitutional. Bloomberg said at a campaign forum Thursday evening that he cannot commit to the idea yet but says his staff is studying it. He was speaking to the Working Families Party, whose endorsement he is trying to win in the mayoral race. Paid sick days are a priority for the group. (wxow.com)International Collectivism
Obama apologizes to Putin for Cold War ... Days from his first Moscow summit, President Barack Obama declared Thursday that former Russian President Vladimir Putin "still has a lot of sway" in his nation and needs an in-person reminder the Cold War is over. On next week's trip, Obama will meet not only with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev but with Putin, the prime minister who hand-picked Medvedev as his successor. Said Obama: "I think that it's important that even as we move forward with President Medvedev that Putin understand that the old Cold War approaches to U.S.-Russian relations is outdated. ... Putin has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new." (abcnews.go.com)Obama ugly-wrong on Honduras ... It has been interesting watching the response to the Honduran military's recent ousting of its nation's president, Manuel Zelaya. Barack Obama called the action "not legal" and Hillary Clinton said that the arrest of Zelaya should be condemned. Most interesting, perhaps, is that taking this position places them shoulder to shoulder with Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega and Venezuelan's roaring mouse, Hugo Chávez, who is threatening military action against Honduras. Now, some would say this is an eclectic group — others would say, not so much — regardless, what has gotten them so upset? Let's start with what they say. They are calling the ouster a "coup" and claim that Zelaya is still Honduras' rightful president. Some of them say we must support democracy. But they have said little, if anything, about the rule of law. And most of what they have said is wrong. In fact, Obama's position is striking. More than almost anything else — almost anything — this dance with the Devil reveals his true colors. (renewamerica.com)
U.S., U.N. smack down anti-Communists ... The people of Honduras are pleading for media fairness and understanding of how they saved their democratic system of government from an international conspiracy based in Venezuela and Cuba. In desperate messages to the outside world, Hondurans want America to know they do not want former President Manuel “Mel” Zelaya returned to power through the intervention of the United States and the United Nations. On Tuesday the leftist governments of Barack Obama and Hugo Chávez sponsored a United Nations resolution that condemned the people of Honduras for resisting the spread of communism by evicting a would-be dictator. Many people in Honduras view “Mel” as a puppet of Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, who is destroying the democratic system and the opposition in that country. In Honduras, demonstrators have appealed to the media to tell the truth. One sign said in Spanish: “CNN: That the entire world opens its eyes ... Honduras wants peace not a dictatorship.” (newswithviews.com)
Socialist thugs set Saturday deadline ... Earlier Thursday, Micheletti warned presidents Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina and Rafael Correa of Ecuador against travelling to Honduras with Zelaya. 'I will hold Cristina Kirchner and Correa accountable for whatever happens in the country,' Micheletti said in an interview published Thursday in conservative Argentine daily La Nacion. Ousted early Sunday, Zelaya confirmed Thursday at a press conference in Panama City that he would return Saturday to Honduras. (monstersandcritics.com)
Typical union-dues embezzlement in Bahamas ... The AAAWU Interim President Anthony Bain yesterday announced in a press conference that President Nelerene Harding, Robert Pickstock, Esther Clarke and Ivy Smith have all been suspended from full membership in the union. Mr. Bain alleges that the group unconstitutionally signed off on 1,039 checks valued at some $1,366,135.01. And according to Mr. Bain, he has a duty to uphold the union’s constitution. "We want to show our members that in excess of $1 million has been pulled out of the union’s account without the proper officer’s, in this case, the treasurer’s signature," he said. (jonesbahamas.com)
