July 5, 2010

Obama Fairness? White House Staffers See Amazingly Unequal Pay

In January one of the early “successes” of the White House was the Lilly Ledbetter Act, legislation that was supposed to insure equal pay “for everybody.” Apparently, as in all Obama’s pronouncements, the outcome of Obama’s drive for “fairness” is rarely as advertised. In this case, some people are more equal than others at least if we take various White House staffer’s pay scales into account.

As it happens about 36 percent of White House staffers make a low 30 percent of what the top 23 percent earn. Bill Collier of The Freedomist calculated that 42 percent of the salary budget is paid out to only 23 percent of the staffers.

What about all that vaunted equal outcome in pay, President Obama? I thought you were all about “fairness”?

Collier also notes that 52 percent of White House staffers only have the “fairness” of receiving a scant 32 percent of the payroll budget.

Looks like Obama is just like those eeeeevil corporations that pay fatcats the high dollar while screwing all the little people. I mean, isn’t this the characterization that the Obamaists use to attack corporations? So, why, oh, why, President Obama, is there no “equal pay” in your White House?

The records were released last week on the White House website.

<a target="_blank" href="http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/web.archive.org/web/20100706091356/http:/=2fwww.socrata.com/Government/2010-Report-to-Congress-on-White-House-Staff/vedg-c5sb" title="2010 Report to Congress on White House Staff">2010 Report to Congress on White House Staff</a>

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Posted by Warner Todd Huston at 11:50 am | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

» Filed Under Anti-Capitalism, Barack Obama, Delusional Dupes and DUmmies, Democrats, Dems In Charge: Now What?, Economy, Government, Government corruption, Government malfeasance/misfeasance, Hypocrisy/Situational Ethics, News, President, liberalism

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Florida’s Lt. Col. Allen West’s Independence Day Address

Lt. Col. Allen West is running for Florida’s 22nd Congressional District. This man is the real deal, Florida. We need men like Col. West in Washington D.C.

http://allenwestforcongress.com/

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Posted by Warner Todd Huston at 11:48 am | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

» Filed Under Congress, Conservatism, Conservatives, Elections, News, Tea Parties, Tea Party/Protests, Video

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Shocker! Conservatives More Patriotic Than Liberals

And, by shocker, I mean I gave serious consideration to whether I even wanted to write a post on this poll. I don’t write about water being wet, do I?

Conservatives are more than twice as likely as liberals to express very strong patriotism, according to a new USA Today/Gallup poll in which 48 percent of conservatives said they were “extremely patriotic,” but only 19 percent of liberals made that claim.

Well, come one, patriotism boils down to love of country, and which group is continuously trying to change America into France Greece? Which side continuously gripes about how mean America is, about every problem being caused, home and abroad, because of what America stands for? Which group is more likely to salute the flag? Heck, which group had a presidential candidate who had to be goaded into wearing a flag pin and saluting the flag as he ran for President?

Now, CNS News makes a big deal out of using the word “extremely,” as it may possibly be some sort of negative, but, here is an interesting breakdown from the second page of the Gallup link

Eighty seven percent of Conservatives are extremely/very patriotic, 41% of liberals are very patriotic, and a whopping 38% of liberals really couldn’t give a rat’s butt about this country.

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» Filed Under Conservatives, Liberal World, News, Patriotism, Polls, liberalism

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NASA Now Tasked With Building Muslim Self Esteem

Yes, you read that correctly. The head of NASA, Charles Bolden, had this to say in an interview with Al Jazeera (via Powerline and Weasel Zippers (who provides the bold)

“Bolden: I am here in the region – its sort of the first anniversary of President Barack Obama’s visit to Cairo – and his speech there when he gave what has now become known as Obama’s “Cairo Initiative” where he announced that he wanted this to become a new beginning of the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world. When I became the NASA Administrator – before I became the NASA Administrator - he charged me with three things: One was that he wanted me to re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, that he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with predominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.”

Well, yeah, I can understand that the Muslim world could feel rather left out and demoralized, since, for the most part, they haven’t been part of inventing, nor contributed much in science, the arts, engineering, etc, or anything else, since the 17th Century. Probably since the religion of blowing things up has become moribund in the past, and their leaders stifle modernism. Yes, many Muslim countries are using the tools of modern society, ones such as Dubai. Good for them. But, the religious leaders keep the people dumb.

And, as Paul at Powerline points out, exploring space didn’t even make the top three missions NASA (for those of a liberal bent, that stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is being tasked with. We have entered the age of touchy feely. Goodbye exploration and advancement.

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach

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» Filed Under Agenda based science, Barack Obama, Foreign Relations, Multiculturalism/PC, News, Politics As Usual, RoP, Science/pseudo-science, Video

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In Florida Schools, Bibles Banned… On Religious Freedom Day

-By Warner Todd Huston

A group called Liberty Counsel is suing Florida’s Collier County Schools for banning Bibles from being distributed on its campuses even after allowing the practice for years. The organization World Changers has been distributing Bibles to students during off-school hours on the day closest to national Religious Freedom Day — held on January 16 — for some time. Yet now school district officials have declared that the Bible holds no “educational benefit” to students. (download .pdf of complaint here)

The Collier County School District policy specifically allows the distribution of literature by nonprofit organizations, but only with the approval of the superintendent and the Community Request Committee, whose members are appointed by the superintendent. Approval was denied to World Changers, despite the fact that its distribution included a disclaimer of any school endorsement or sponsorship and that receiving a Bible was purely voluntary. The district, nevertheless, censored World Changers’ message simply because it included the Bible.

Liberty Counsel founder Matthew D. Staver said in a press release, “…we are compelled to sue to protect the right simply to make free Bibles available to students in public schools. Many of our founding fathers were taught to read using the Bible. If it had no educational value, then many of them would have been illiterate. The distribution of religious literature in a forum opened for secular literature is constitutionally protected.”

And this is just the point, isn’t it? Whether you believe that the Christian Bible is the Word of God, whether you believe in the Christian religion itself, no matter how you feel about any religion, to say that The Bible holds no “educational benefit” to students is an ignorant statement. Much of Western history has been influenced by the Bible and even if that weren’t true — which it is — the founding of the United States is thoroughly infused with the Bible (also another truth the left does not want to hear). From George Washington’s constant overtures to Divine Providence, to the Declaration of Independence, to many of our early proclamations and famous speeches, the influence of Christianity and its God is felt. To understand much of our history is to find the influence of the Bible and the Christian doctrines that it spawned.

To say that the Bible holds no educational benefit to American students is to teach a warped and incomplete history to those very students. Unfortunately, this is the empty, fallacious form of education in which our fetid schools are wallowing.

And to ban the distribution of Bibles on Religious Freedom day is an apostasy to the American way that amazes for the obvious blindness evinced by the book banners in the Collier County School District. These people should be ashamed of themselves for their ignorance. So much for that crazy old American idea of religious freedom!

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» Filed Under 1st Amendment, Anti-Americanism, Anti-free speech, Christianity, Constitution, Education, Gov.Censorship, Government hostility towards religion, History, Homeschooling, News, Revisionism, Social Engineering, Stupidity, Unconstitutional, anti-Liberty/Freedom

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July 4, 2010

July 1st and 2nd, 1776: The Break was Made

by Maggie @ Maggie’s Notebook

The rains pelted down. Caesar Rodney from the Delaware delegation was missing and his vote for the new republic was sorely needed. British warships were just off shore…

July 2st and 2nd, 1776 – God Bless the U.S.A.

Monday, July 1, 1776, began hot and steamy in Philadelphia and before the morning was ended a full-scale storm would break….

John Adams: This morning is assigned the greatest debate of all,…A declaration, that these colonies are free and independent states,…May heaven prosper the newborn republic.

At ten o’clock, with the doors closed, John Hancock sounded the gavel. Richard Henry Lee’s prior motion calling for independence was again read aloud;…Immediately, [John] Dickinson, gaunt and deathly pale, stood to be heard. With marked earnestness, he marshaled all past argument and reasoning against “premature” separation from Britain.

Dickinson: My conduct this day, I expect, will give the finishing blow to my once great…and now too diminished popularity….But thinking as I do on the subject of debate, silence would be guilt.

Then he sat down and all was silent except the rain…No one spoke, no one rose to answer him, until Adams at last “determined to speak”….Outside the wind picked up. The storm struck with thunder, lightning, and pelting rain. He spoke on steadily, making the case for independence as he had so often before. He was logical, positive, sensitive to the historic importance of the moment, and looking into the future, saw a new nation, a new time…

To [Thomas] Jefferson, Adams was “not graceful nor elegant, nor remarkably fluent,” but:

Thomas Jefferson:…[Adams] spoke with a power of thought and expression that moved us from our seats.

…when later that evening a preliminary vote was taken, four colonies unexpectedly held back, refusing to proclaim independence. Pennsylvania stood with John Dickinson and voted no. The New York delegates abstained, saying they favored the motion but lacked specific instructions. South Carolina, too,…voted no, while Delaware, with only two delegates present, was divided.

The missing Delaware delegate was Caesar Rodney, one of the most ardent of the independence faction. Where he was or when he might reappear was unclear, but a rider had been sent racing off to find him. …Edward Rutledge [moved] that a final vote be postponed until the next day, implying that for the sake of unanimity, South Carolina might change its mind, Adams and others immediately agreed.

For while the nine (9) colonies supporting independence made a clear majority, it was hardly the show of solidarity that such a step ought to have. That night, at the City Tavern and at the lodging houses of the delegates, it was extremely tense. The crux of the matter was the Pennsylvania delegation, for in the preliminary vote three of the seven Pennsylvania delegates had gone against John Dickinson and declared in the affirmative, and it was of utmost interest that one of the three, along with Franklin and John Morton, was James Wilson, who, though a friend and ally of Dickinson, had switched sides to vote for independence.

The question now was how many of the rest who were in league with Dickinson would on the morrow continue to “vote point blank against the known and declared sense of their constituents.” To compound the tension that night, word reached Philadelphia of the sighting off New York of a hundred British [war] ships, the first arrivals of a fleet that would number over four hundred. Tuesday, July 2…it appears that just as the doors to Congress were about to be closed at the usual hour of nine ‘clock, Caesar Rodney, mud-spattered, “booted and spurred,” made his dramatic entrance….Almost unimaginable, he had ridden eighty miles through the night, changing horses several times, to be there in time to cast his vote.

Yet more important even than the arrival of Rodney were two empty chairs among the Pennsylvania delegation. Refusing to vote for independence but understanding the need for Congress to speak with one voice, John Dickinson and Robert Morris has voluntarily absented themselves from the proceedings, thus swinging Pennsylvania behind independence by a vote of three to two.

What private agreements had been made the night before, if any, who or how many had come to the State House that morning knowing what was afoot, no one recorded. Outside, more rain threatened, and at about ten came another cloudburst….New York continued to abstain, but South Carolina, as hinted…joined the majority to make the decision unanimous in the sense that no colony stood opposed….

So, it was done, the break was made…on July 2 , 1776, in Philadelphia, the American colonies declared independence. If not all thirteen clocks had struck as one, twelve had, and with the other silent, the effect was the same. ~ Excerpt from David McCullough’s book John Adams.

John Adams’ Speech before the Continental Congress – On Being Free (Video)

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» Filed Under Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Founding Fathers, History, Holidays, News, Video
» Tags: 4th of July,Founders,Independence Day,Philadelphia

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CNN/Money Does 100 Great Things About America-Happy July 4th!

Forget politics today, let the hardcore progressives do their typical thing (whoops, that was kinda political). CNN/Money makes a list of 100 great things about America, and, as they say, they are in no particular order (which was good, since I was about to blast them for #1 on the list). What are some of them? I’ll post up the first 10, then check out the rest, and the slight commentary that goes with each one

The Internet
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights
Baseball
Mount Rushmore
Food in New Orleans
Rock and roll
Hawaii
iPod, iPad, and everything Apple
Barbecue Carolina, Mississippi, K.C., Memphis…it’s all good. (yeah, it’s all good, but, Eastern NC barbecue is the bomb. And, BTW, down South, barbecue is a noun, not a verb)
Ford Mustang

I’m going to add some of my own, in no particular order

The Declaration of Independence (nuff said)
Beach Music (shagging the night away)
Ben Franklin (he was The Most Interesting Man In The World at that time)
Refrigeration (but, does the light go out when you close the door?)
Coffee percolator (all praise Benjamin Thomas Rumford)
Revolver (respect my authoritah!)
Cowboys (get along, little doggie)
Motorcycle (freedom! Open road! Bugs in your teeth!)
The vibrator (originally intended to relax tired and sore muscles)
Football (real football, not that weenie kick the ball back and forth for hours on end)
Mobile phone (a nefarious plot so we can never take time off)
Orville and Wilbur Wright (First flight in NC)
NHL (face it, America owns ice hockey now)
The Beach Boys (sitting at the beach, just chillin’)
The Eagles
Jimmy Hendrix
Elvis (though not a fan, can’t ignore his contributions)
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Grand Canyon (can see it from space, yo!)
The Statue Of Liberty (OK, built by the French, but, does anything explain what America is about better?)

I can, of course, list tons and tons more stuff. Plenty comes to mind, and, it is hard to stop. However, I will stop there, and ask you, what are some great things about America?

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach

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» Filed Under 1st Amendment, 2nd Amendment, Bill Of Rights, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Guns, Holidays, Music, News, The United States of America

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The USA: A country for the little guy

An Independence Day reflection

I was born and bred in the Australian working class and, despite my success in academe and business, I still feel most at home among working class people. They seem to me to have a realism that the bourgeoisie lack. And I notice the same good-humoured realism among small-town Americans too. Big cities and grand theorizing seem to undermine common sense.

And there is no doubt that people from humble beginnings can rise to the top in both Australia and the USA — from a B grade actor like Ronald Reagan to a parasite like Barack Obama.

But I think that a major factor in making America great is an extraordinarily simple one and one that is often overlooked: America has Congressional elections every two years. That puts the politicians in mortal fear of the little guy — of ordinary Americans.

The politicians have got very little room to maneuver. If they run off the rails they will very rapidly be out on their ear. And that fear does mostly restrain them from grand follies. So America is in a very real sense the country where the little guy rules — and that has made it great. And there is no doubt that the grand folly of Obamacare will deliver many a well-deserved boot up the backside to Democrat politicians this November.

And one of the wonderful things about ordinary Americans and Australians is that they are benevolent. They are kindly people who are ready to help others if they can. And that has made the USA into an incredibly generous nation.

What leaves me in awe is that America has repeatedly shown its readiness to risk the lives of its finest young men in order to rescue people in other countries from tyranny and brutality. America itself has not been seriously threatened for around 200 years so most of America’s many wars have simply been efforts to help others.

And I think therefore that it is very right to remind ourselves of that awesome sacrifice on this day. I think the video below does that:

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.). For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. To keep up with attacks on free speech see TONGUE-TIED. Also, don’t forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me here

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» Filed Under American Exceptionalism, Congress, Elections, History, News, Patriotism, Representative Government, The United States of America, Video

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A New Declaration of Independence for a New Revolution

-By Warner Todd Huston

America is fast coming to a crossroads from which there will be no return if we take the wrong path. Do we take the road that leads away from America and toward a Euro-esque way of governing? Do we cast aside our American character and bury our great nation in a grave of socialist-styled authority? Do we damn our progeny to a failed superstate that violate every tenet of our original ideals?

I say we do not. I say we reject the democrat’s Euro-esque ideas and refocus ourselves on American exceptionalism. Our federal system has strayed far from our founding ideals and we may soon find that its time for a new Declaration of Independence from a tyrannical government that has usurped power from proper authority.

Since it is Independence Day this weekend, I offer this new Declaration as a rallying cry to all those willing to return to our true American character.

A New Declaration of Independence

When in the Course of human events it again becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with a failed authority and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God as well as our original, properly constituted laws entitle us, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that we should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of we the people; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to repair to their former Systems of Government. The history of the present President, his Congress, and our recalcitrant federal government is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

It has abused its role over the law and instituted fiat rules that are detrimental to the common good — welfare, cap and trade, oppressive taxes, onerous regulation on business are recent examples.

It has forbidden governors of states to pass laws useful to local needs and has interfered in state business.

It has refused the right of local government to govern at home and has as a matter of course caused local legislators to carelessly assume they have no power.

It has defacto dissolved the authority of state governments so that the representatives of the people constantly defer to rule from Washington.

It has refused to secure the borders so that all manner of foreigners of the lowest station might flood these shores without hesitation while refusing to allow those foreigners with useful skills and education to enter and apply for citizenship.

It has allowed capricious courts to usurp proper legislative duties and to rule from the bench.

It has seated judges with no opposition or investigation and has not required judicial candidates to express an interest in the true meaning of the law of the land.

It has erected a multitude of new regulatory offices few of which have any basis in the Constitution and has as a form of graft filled them with friends, lobbyists, and placemen.

It has refused to properly fund our armies in times of peace without including graft and monies unconnected to the needs of our armed forces.

It has therefore interfered with the military stopping it from operating at peak efficiency.

It has conspired with powers outside our duly constituted authority to take away our constitutional rights, to subvert our national laws, and has given assent to forces such as the UN to rule us from afar without accountability. These outside forces are hateful of our system and desire it’s end. Therefore we accuse our government of attacking us from inside.

For positing that UN forces are superior in authority to our own:

For signing treaties inimical to our national interests:

For cutting off free trade with worthy countries such as Colombia, yet opening trade with evil countries such as China:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us of our constitutional rights of property, life, and self-protection at every opportunity:

For creating rules that encroach on freedom of religion:

For increasing the size of government to never before seen size and power in a manner against our founding principles and for purposefully creating chaos in business, banking, and every other area of the private sector with never ending regulations that strangle, confuse, and stifle American growth:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

And for corrupting our legislatures with federal largess and assuming unto the federal government all powers to rule from Washington D.C.

It has abdicated its Constitutional role and essentially come to see the people as an enemy and waged philosophical war against us.

It has plundered our businesses with overweening regulations, capriciously outlawed entire fields of business, and burdened the lives of the people with oppressive taxes.

It has created an army of police, taxmen and regulators to fan out across the land to assault and imprison our citizens, to confiscate lands to federal ownership and to lay waste the economy and bring our people into a form of dependency akin to slavery.

It has often sent our armed forces to foreign nations without a proper mission, held back necessary funding, and burdened it with untenable “rules of engagement” which has limited our troop’s ability to fight to win, and has allowed barbarous enemies to gain the upper hand on the battle field.

It has attempted to separate the citizenry into warring factions yet has allowed our enemy to easily enter the country and perpetrate a merciless Muslim warfare which is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, religions and American institutions and intends enslavement of us all.

In every stage of these violations millions of citizens have gathered in the streets to protest these government outrages yet no heed has been paid to the agony of the people in its hallowed halls.

Nor have we been heard by our Democrat brethren. We have warned them of the destruction of the American rule of law, yet they are uninterested in this plight. We have appealed to their love of country and we have reminded them of the glorious history of our great nation to no avail. They have turned a deaf ear to Constitutionality, a cold shoulder to our American character, and our law and we find their sympathies lie with Europeans instead of their fellow Americans. We must, therefore, consider them enemies of our national interests, safety, health, and welfare.

We, therefore, the representatives of the American tradition and character assemble as citizens proud of our history and institutions, and in the tradition of our national power being held in the hands of the people, assert our loyalty to our true American system. We hold this government to be illegitimate by its usurpation of power and its obviation of our laws. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence that has been rejected by our enemies, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

We’ve already had the tea party. Now, let the new revolution begin!

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: The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America...
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July 3, 2010

Wash Post Forgets to Mention that Writer Is Obama Operative

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ron Brynaert has a story over at his The Raw Story blog that reveals yet another denizen of the Old Media that is trying to be both a “journalist” and an official operative of Barack Obama’s White House. She is Patricia McGinnis, an unpaid advisor at the White House and also one of the contributors to the Post’s “On Leadership” blog.

Once again we see the Old Media working hand-in-hand with the Obama administration and putting the lie to the idea of the “independent journalist” in traditional media outlets, this time with the Washington Post. Even worse than this collusion, though, is the fact that the Washington Post somehow forgot to mention that its writer is working for both the White House and the Old Media at the same time.

Brynaert looked over the 2010 West Wing payroll and found that Washington Post writer and blogger Patricia McGinnis was an unpaid advisor on leadership programs for presidential appointees. She is also noted as an unpaid advisor on the 2009 White House payroll records.

While the position is unpaid, her work for Obama certainly would seem to be a pertinent fact that readers might want to know in order to assess the veracity of her work in the pages of the newspaper. Mysteriously, though, her work with Obama is not mentioned in her official bio on the Washington Post’s website. Her short bio mentions her position at Georgetown University but does not mention her work for the White House.

Former President and CEO of The Council for Excellence in Government, Patricia McGinnis teaches leadership and management at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute.

This doesn’t seem to be a lone incident for the Post. The Washington Post has had several problems with its ethics over the last few years. Back in July of 2009, for instance, the Post got in a flap over publisher Katherine Weymouth’s plans to sell lobbyists, Obama officials, and activists special access to the Post’s writers. Just last month the Post’s supposed conservative blogger, Dave Weigel, had to quit when it was revealed his personal politics were extremely leftist when he had presented himself as a conservative to both the readers and the editorial board of the paper.

As to McGinnis, while it is true that she is an unpaid advisor to President Barack Obama, it is also true that she has written fawningly of Obama, his administration, and policies. In January, for instance, McGinnis said that she gave Obama “high marks” for his policy choices. In April of 2009 she approvingly noted, “President Obama reached out beyond the official meetings with world leaders to build trust and good will…” And in March she wrote that Obama had a, “more collaborative, nuanced leadership style than his democratic opponent Hillary Clinton or his predecessor, George W. Bush.”

Yet, with all this fawning over The One, the Washington Post somehow didn’t think that readers needed to know that writer McGinnis is an Obama operative. It is curious that the Post didn’t imagine that readers might need to know that they are reading the words of a White House advisor when they are seeing such adulation for President Obama.

Until today that is — after the Raw Story broke the news of the latest double-agent lurking at the Post, the company issued this statement:

‘On Leadership’ panelists are not employees of The Post, nor are they paid by The Post. They are leadership experts from government, military, corporate and educational fields. Patricia’s bio was last updated before she took on the advisory role to the White House, but it was an oversight on our part not to have updated it. We will be updating it today.

In addition, we will be reaching out to all of our panelists to request they update their bios and disclose any potential conflicts.

So, once again, we see a denizen of the Old Media working as an Obama flak in both the governmental sphere and media. Yet they insist that we take them as independent observers of our political system.

Move along. Nothing to see here.

(Originally posted at BigJournalism.com)

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» Filed Under Bald-face lies, Barack Obama, Democrats, Fraud/misrepresentation, Hypocrisy/Situational Ethics, Journalistic Malpractice, Journalistic Prostitution, Liberal Media/Bias, News, government media, liberalism, political opportunism, transparency/accountability

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Uh Oh. Media Noticing That Democrat Economic Policies Aren’t Working

Of course, they won’t come out and say that, since they vote Democrat mostly, after all. Many of them have seemed to have turned a corner in wondering just what the heck the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats are doing

The economic expansion is sputtering.

It’s been hit or miss ever since the passage of the Generational Theft Act. Don’t misunderstand, I, and most conservatives, want an expansion, we want unemployment to decrease. But, we knew the Stimulus would be worthless.

Private employers added only 83,000 jobs in June, the government said Friday, too few to keep up with growth in the working-age population. The unemployment rate fell to 9.5 percent from 9.7 percent, but only because hundreds of thousands of Americans dropped out of the labor force entirely.

Apparently, there are enough Census and road construction jobs available for all the white collar workers out there, not to mention those graduating from college. Companies are too unsure whether they should hire or not, due to Democrat policies and legislation, so, they opt for caution, and do not hire.

Combined with other recent data, the numbers depict a sluggish economy in which nearly 15 million people are out of work and job growth is mediocre. There is little evidence that a dip back into recession has begun. But the chances of a strong, self-sustaining expansion that can significantly improve the job market — which seemed a real possibility during the spring — are now slim.

Asking Democrats to actually revive a flagging economy is like asking lemmings to drive cars. You know where they will eventually end up.

But, just to show that liberals really shouldn’t write about how to stimulate an economy….

Voters are frustrated both with high unemployment and high budget deficits, but the Obama administration and congressional Democrats face a catch-22: The deficit won’t come down significantly until the jobless rate decreases, while most of the policies that could improve the employment situation would raise the deficit further, at least in the short run.

In Liberal World, yes, a catch-22, because they will not consider what would turn the situation around: stop with the massive spending, stop passing legislation that will cause businesses problems (such as ObamaCare), stop considering legislation that could cause businesses problems (such as cap and tax), and stop throwing around temporary tax credits, whose affects are just that: temporary. Furthermore, they do not have to necessarily lower taxes, simply re-authorize the 2001/2003 tax cuts for, say, 5 years. Another bone of caution is that businesses and business people are unsure what government will do with the tax cuts. Pass them? Not pass them? Pass some? The business world becomes cautious in the face on this type of uncertainty. But, hey, remember, Democrats think wealth comes from the bottom up. You know, from people who have no money.

If Republicans were smart, they would come out with a platform that states that they would immediately re-authorize the 2001/2003 tax cuts as one of their first pieces of legislation.

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» Filed Under Anti-Capitalism, Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats, Dems In Charge: Now What?, Economy, News, Taxes, Unemployment, bailouts, economic stimulus

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Nixon Era Global Warming Documents Send Alarmists Into Orgasm

And by documents, I mean a total of three, only two of which mention CO2, and were asking for serious, real scientific inquiry into the matter, but, they have sent the climate alarmists in the media into orgasm. Both the AP and MSNBC have great spin on these documents, among others. Let’s look at the MSNBC one

Global warming warnings were debated in President Richard Nixon’s administration as early as 1969, according to newly released documents examined by The Orange County Register.

Two memos are a debate? If you read the documents, basically one from Nixon’s Democratic adviser Daniel Patrick Moynihan, with a reply from Hubert Heffner, deputy director of the administration’s Office of Science and Technology, you will see that they were interested in what the effects of CO2 rise could have, which is interesting, considering the world was in the midst of a dip in temperature, which went on long enough for several weekly news magazines to wonder if a new ice age was coming in the mid-1970’s. Anyhow

Moynihan wrote in a September 1969 memo that it was “pretty clearly agreed” that carbon dioxide content would rise 25 percent by 2000,

“This could increase the average temperature near the earth’s surface by 7 degrees Fahrenheit,” he wrote. “This in turn could raise the level of the sea by 10 feet. Goodbye New York. Goodbye Washington, for that matter.”

Yet, the seas did not rise by 10 feet, and the temperatures did not rise by 7 degrees. But, Moynihan was not a science guy, and, he was interested in the actual science, and advised that a world wide monitoring system be established, you know, real science. Heck, I’ll admit that I wrote a paper in grad school on the effects of ocean pollution, which factored in the increase of CO2 due to plankton die off, and a nasty circular increase in temperatures through this process. I won’t bore you with the details.

Moynihan received a response in a Jan. 26, 1970, memo from Hubert Heffner, deputy director of the administration’s Office of Science and Technology. Heffner acknowledged that atmospheric temperature rise was an issue that should be looked at.

“The more I get into this, the more I find two classes of doom-sayers, with, of course, the silent majority in between,” he wrote. “One group says we will turn into snow-tripping mastodons because of the atmospheric dust and the other says we will have to grow gills to survive the increased ocean level due to the temperature rise.”

Heffner wrote that he would ask the Environmental Science Services Administration to look further into the issue.

And that is how scientific inquiry works. A hypothesis, followed by research, and see if the conclusion matches the original reasoning. And, all these years later, we find out that a) atmospheric CO2 is not that simple, and b) the science has become totally perverted and infused by politics, the need for alarmists to keep receiving grant money, status, and personal wealth.

Heffner’s actual second paragraph, which follows the above blockquote middle paragraph

Since the potential consequences are so large, it is important that we find out what the true situation is. I am asking Bob White of ESSA to devote some attention to the problem. I have also been booked for a speech at an environmental session of a large engineering society and am using this as an example of the kind of problem they can tackle.

Looks like he was interested in truth, unlike most of those who have had a vested interest in promoting their pet Belief

The evidence of scientists cutting corners, playing down uncertainties in their calculations and then covering their tracks by being secretive with data and suppressing dissent suggests a systemic problem of scientific sloppiness, collusion and endemic conflicts of interest, but not of outright fraud. (p. 241)

I mean, sheesh, at least one alarmist is blaming Robert Byrd’s death on Globull Warming (couldn’t have anything to do with being 92 and in poor health, God bless his soul, could it?). Why don’t we deal with real pollution, instead of fake?

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach

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» Filed Under AP, Agenda based science, Collapsing Science, Global Warming, MSNBC, News, Science/pseudo-science

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Dems Include Union Bailout in War Funding Bill

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is no other aspect of Washington D.C. that upsets voters more than government spending surreptitiously added on to spending bills and this week Congress indulged its inner drunken sailor once again by adding a $10 billion bailout for teachers unions in the bill that is supposed to fund the war effort.

The teacher union bailout ups the $60 billion expenditure to a $70 billion tab and is causing even some Democrats to balk.

Republicans have demanded that the war funding bill be clean of any tacked on spending and have threatened to withhold support of the bill if the teachers union bailouts and other unrelated spending additions are kept.

Retiring Wisconsin Representative David Obey is insisting on the bailouts and pork spending but claims that he’s fighting the administration over finding budget cuts to offset the spending spree. Who ever believes that Congress intends to actually find such offsets is seriously deluded. I have some Enron stock to sell them if they are that out of touch with reality.

The bill includes $18 billion in energy loan guarantees, $500 million to hire new border patrol agents, along with the teacher union bailouts. Curiously, with all the wild-eyed spending, the Democrats stripped out the $200 million that was supposed to go to fund further building of the fence on our southern border.

So, it’s nothing for the fence but tall cash as a sop to unions. We can see where the Democrat’s priorities are, can’t we?

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» Filed Under Anti-Capitalism, Barack Obama, Border Control/Homeland Security, Congress, Democrats, Education, Fiscal Responsibility, Government malfeasance/misfeasance, News, Taxes, Union Mafias/Thugs, bailouts, liberalism, pork spending, public employee unions

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July 2, 2010

Libs Sneer at Men Who Grieve for Their Aborted Children

Progressives are at their most depraved and nakedly evil when expressing their contempt for human life. The concept of sympathy cards for men who lose children to abortion has induced liberal blogger Amanda Marcotte to cough up this clot of bile:

Anti-choicers [are] pretending that they just discovered they oppose abortion because it violates men’s rights over their uterine property (established by the “poke it/own it” law laid down in beer commercials).

It’s not about a child’s life; it’s about who “owns” a woman’s uterus, according to the left’s bizarre and heartless politics.

The charming Marcotte (formerly John Edwards’s official blogger) sneeringly offers some sympathy cards of her own, like this one.

It doesn’t get any better in the comments section. Here’s a gem:

If a man tried to pull that crap with me, I’d tell him that if he cares about the embryo so much then he should get to work on inventing a way to transfer the pregnancy into his own body. Oh, you don’t really want this thing to leech off your body for several months? Well, I don’t either.

Another:

I think that the special sort of douchebag who would get all butthurt because his sperm was rejected is probably likely to have behaved like a complete and utter c**k before the decision to abort, which may have been a big contributing factor to having the procedure done.

Darwin would be pleased to note that their own ideology mercifully prevents those who frequent blogs like Marcotte’s from reproducing.

More at David Thompson. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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» Filed Under Abortion, Culture of Death, Moral Relativism, News, feminism, liberalism, progressivism

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Former DOJ Attorney: A DOJ Mandate No Prosecuting Blacks with White Victims of Voter Intimidation

By Maggie @ Maggie’s Notebook

Megyn Kelly today aired the second portion of an interview with J. Christian Adams, a former Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney. Adams says a mandate within the DOJ requires no charges will be made against blacks with a white victim accuses them of voter intimidation. The DOJ’s answer to Adams’ charges is simply that Adams is a Conservative. When does voter intimidation hinge on a political persuasion?

Megyn Kelly – America Live

You’ll remember that the New Black Panthers stood outside a Philadelphia polling place in November 2008, one with a nightstick. A poll minder who served as Robert Kennedy’s campaign aide was there and says there was definitely intimidation going on, and others said the same. From Adam’s resignation letter, we learn that these men threatened the attorneys inside DOJ.

King Samir Shabazz (above and below with nightstick)

Adams resigned his position after a DOJ Civil Rights Division head instructed the attorneys on the case to dismiss it, even though a default judgement had been brought. Evidence was strong against the New Black Panther Party members. For five months they refused to answer the court or show up for court, thus the default judgement.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) tried to refile the case. He was denied the opportunity to interview the lead attorneys. Subpoenas were let, one for J. Christian Adams, and the DOJ refused to let him honor it. In Adams resignation letter he noted that he was forced to ignore lawful subpoenas:

…the subpoena is based on an explicit federal statute and seeks answers about why the case was dismissed. I have incurred significant personal expense in retaining a number of separate attorneys and firms regarding this subpoena in order to protect my interests and advise me about my personal legal obligations to comply with the subpoena.

The following is also in his letter of resignation:

As you also know, the defendants in the New Black Panther lawsuit have become increasingly belligerent in their rhetoric toward the attorneys who brought the case…

King Samir Shabazz (L) and Jerry Jackson (R)

So DOJ attorneys were threatened by the New Black Panthers and the answer from the DOJ was, hey we’re not prosecuting any blacks for any voter intimidation crimes against whites.

Here’s some information about the men accused:

Malik Zulu Shabazz is a Howard University Law School grad and a resident of Washington, D.C. Jerry Jackson is credentialed to be at the polling place as he is a 14th Ward Democratic Committee member. “Minister” King Samir Shabazz says he is “about the total destruction of white people.” Attorney Eric Holder is doing his part to help his brother. Is it too far out to believe they are serious in the intensity of whites? I don’t think so, and now the government we put in place has their back.

For the record, Christian Adams says there is a “creeping lawlessness” inside the Department of Justice.

To see Part One of the video, go here. The following is Part 2. Below the video are links to background.