1) Report: US would make Internet wiretaps easier
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is pushing to make it easier for the government to tap into internet and e-mail communications. But the plan has already drawn condemnation from privacy groups and communications firms may be wary of its costs and scope.
Frustrated by sophisticated and often encrypted phone and e-mail technologies, U.S. officials say that law enforcement needs to improve its ability to eavesdrop on conversations involving terrorism, crimes or other public safety issues.
Critics worry the changes are an unnecessary invasion of privacy and would only make citizens and businesses more vulnerable to identity theft and espionage.
The new regulations that would be sent to Congress next year would affect American and foreign companies that provide communications services inside the U.S. It would require service providers to make the plain text of encrypted conversations — over the phone, computer or e-mail — readily available to law enforcement, according to federal officials and analysts.
The mandate would likely require companies to add backdoors or other changes to the systems that would allow a wiretap to capture an unscrambled version of a conversation.
Those affected by the changes would include online services and networking sites such as Facebook and Skype, as well as phone systems that deliver encrypted e-mail such as BlackBerry.
…The New York Times first reported Monday about White House plans to submit the new bill next year.
…Companies may also balk if the government tries to tell them how to alter their systems. (You’re darn right).
See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100927/ap_on_hi_te/us_internet_wiretaps
1a) US Federal Government Radiating US Citizens While Spying
Puts ZBV Backscatter X-ray Technology On The Streets
…Atlanta - For many living in a terror-spooked country, it might seem like a great government innovation: Use vans equipped with mobile X-ray units to scan vehicles at major sporting events, or even randomly, for bombs or contraband.
But news that the US is buying custom-made vans packed with something called backscatter X-ray capacity has riled privacy advocates and sparked internet worries about "feds radiating Americans."
"This really trips up the creep factor because it's one of those things that you sort of intrinsically think the government shouldn't be doing," says Vermont-based privacy expert Frederick Lane, author of "American Privacy." "But, legally, the issue is the boundary between the government's legitimate security interest and privacy expectations we enjoy in our cars."
…On Tuesday, a counterterror operation snarled truck traffic on I-20 near Atlanta, where Department of Homeland Security teams used mobile X-ray technology to check the contents of truck trailers. Authorities said the inspections weren't prompted by any specific threat.
The mobile X-ray technology works by bouncing narrow X-ray streams off an object like a car and then analyzing the scatter rate of the returning rays. Operators can then locate less-dense objects that could be bodies or bombs. Backscatter X-ray is already part of an ongoing national debate about its use in so-called full body scanners being deployed in many US airports. In that case, US officials have said they will not store or share the images and will use masking technology to avoid revealing details of the human body. Nevertheless, information security advocates have filed suit to stop their deployment, citing concerns about privacy.
…But others worry that radiating Americans without their knowledge is evidence of gradually eroding constitutional protections in the post-9/11 age. "Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum of national security... you have to be realistic that this is another way in which the government is capturing information they may lose control over," says Mr. Lane. "I just have some real problems with the idea of even beginning a campaign of rolling surveillance of American citizens, which is what this essentially is."
See: http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/pages/mark_of_the_beast/feds-radiating-american-citizens.htm
2) Cyberworm targets Iran’s nuclear plants
It is not yet clear whether the "Stuxnet" computer worm has caused any damage to the industrial control systems it has penetrated, but security experts say it still qualifies as a potential cyber-superweapon.
"In the worst case, we would have seen power plants explode or dams burst," says Derek Reveron, a technology specialist at the Naval War College.
Since its discovery earlier this year, the sophisticated Stuxnet worm has infected at least 15 industrial plants in a variety of countries. Security experts who have analyzed the worm say it had the ability to zero in on its computer target and locate the hardware that controls equipment systems at industrial facilities.
…The high number of Stuxnet infections in Iran has prompted speculation that the United States or Israel may have been behind the attack. After several months of research, the security experts at Symantec have concluded that the Stuxnet worm probably could not have been created by a single individual.
"We think anywhere from five to 10 people probably were needed, with a variety of different skills, over as long as a six-month period to try and put this very sophisticated attack together," says Egan. "So that definitely points away from somebody like a typical hacker in their front bedroom or a garage doing this as a hobby toward something that was extremely organized and very well funded."
See: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130162219
3) McDonald's May Drop Health Plan
McDonald's Corp. has warned federal regulators that it could drop its health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 hourly restaurant workers unless regulators waive a new requirement of the U.S. health overhaul.
The move is one of the clearest indications that new rules may disrupt workers' health plans as the law ripples through the real world.
Trade groups representing restaurants and retailers say low-wage employers might halt their coverage if the government doesn't loosen a requirement for "mini-med" plans, which offer limited benefits to some 1.4 million Americans.
The requirement concerns the percentage of premiums that must be spent on benefits.
While many restaurants don't offer health coverage, McDonald's provides mini-med plans for workers at 10,500 U.S. locations, most of them franchised. A single worker can pay $14 a week for a plan that caps annual benefits at $2,000, or about $32 a week to get coverage up to $10,000 a year.
Last week, a senior McDonald's official informed the Department of Health and Human Services that the restaurant chain's insurer won't meet a 2011 requirement to spend at least 80% to 85% of its premium revenue on medical care.
McDonald's and trade groups say the percentage, called a medical loss ratio, is unrealistic for mini-med plans because of high administrative costs owing to frequent worker turnover, combined with relatively low spending on claims.
…McDonald's, in a memo to federal officials, said "it would be economically prohibitive for our carrier to continue offering" the mini-med plan unless it got an exemption from the requirement to spend 80% to 85% of premiums on benefits. Officials said McDonald's would probably have to hit the 85% figure, which applies to larger group plans. Its insurer, BCS Insurance Group of Oak Brook Terrace, Ill., declined to comment.
…"Having to drop our current mini-med offering would represent a huge disruption to our 29,500 participants," said McDonald's memo, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. "It would deny our people this current benefit that positively impacts their lives and protects their health—and would leave many without an affordable, comparably designed alternative until 2014."
“If you like your coverage you can keep it.” RIGHT.
See: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703431604575522413101063070.html
3a) Third Largest Health Insurer in Iowa Leaves the Business
Principal Financial Group said Thursday it will exit the medical insurance business and transfer the renewal rights for its health insurance customers in Iowa and 30 other states to UnitedHealthcare of Minnetonka, Minn., over the next 36 months.
The move will guarantee that all Principal health insurance customers will be able to get a quote for a new policy despite pre-existing conditions, said Iowa Insurance Commissioner Susan Voss.
But it also means that the third largest health insurer in Iowa is leaving the business at a time when a half a dozen other small insurers have told the Iowa Insurance Division that they also plan to quit selling health insurance in Iowa (emphasis mine).
4) Obama: Can’t a fellow just take a Tuscan break? (“It took years to free the slaves.”)
…According to the pool report, Obama thanked Phillips for the work he and his wife have done for Team Obama. Then the president mentioned that Phillips and Douglass have an opulent place in Italy and wondered why there had been no invitation to visit. “I’d appreciate a little break and some Tuscan sun,” the president said, according to the pool report. “Some pasta. I can use it.”
My goodness, of course he does. It’s literally been weeks since his last vacation. Millions of Americans get more vacation time than that.
Well, they call it unemployment, but six of one …
On the other hand, this report from John Podhoretz and Mark Knoller’s Twitter stream from the event just after the fundraiser might make a good argument that the White House needs to get the boss a little more rest (emphasis Morrissey‘s):
“Now’s not the time to quit…it took time to free the slaves…ultimately we’ll make progress.”
“I need you to be fired up.”
“There better not be an enthusiasm gap, people.”
It took time to free the slaves? It took 87 years and a war to free the slaves, and another hundred years to secure the civil rights of their descendants. If Obama wants people to wait that long for him to get his act together, that’s not exactly an effective rallying cry for enthusiasm.
It’s also a weird equivalency. Does Obama really think that spending $787 billion on a failed economic stimulus gives him the stature of a Lincoln? Right now, he’s got the stature of a Carter, who managed the US into malaise and then argued that we should learn to live with it.
Maybe Obama does need some time in the Tuscan sun. It would certainly make the rest of us feel better.
See: http://hotair.com/archives/2010/10/01/obama-cant-a-fellow-just-take-a-tuscan-break/
5) Matthews: Businesses Sitting on Trillions of Dollars to 'Screw' Economy and Obama
Chris Matthews thinks American businesses are refusing to spend money in order to intentionally harm the economy as part of a long-term plot to "screw" President Obama.
Such political paranoia was actually uttered on Monday's "Hardball" as the host chatted with Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post and Charles Mahtesian of Politico.
Readers are strongly advised to prepare themselves for the kind of conspiracy theory normally reserved for the likes of Michael Moore, Oliver Stone, and members of the far-left who actually believe George W. Bush and Dick Cheney had a hand in the 9/11 attacks (video follows with partial transcript and commentary):
Chris Matthews is back. (Remember last week, when I asked what happened to him, when he chastised Obama for not describing lower taxes as a smaller check to the government, but rather as a check FROM the government).
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: You know, a great question, Charles, that wasn't on my list to ask but I'm going to ask you because you seem like a sophisticated guy of many parts. You think business can sit on those billions and trillions of dollars for two more years after they screw Obama this time? Are they going to keep sitting on their money so they don't invest and help the economy for two long years to get Mr. Excitement Mitt Romney elected president? Will they do that to the country?
Yeah, Chris, business owners and corporate executives across the fruited plain are intentionally undermining their companies and their personal fortunes in order to impact an election that is 25 months away.
Certainly, they're not keeping stockpiles of cash out of fear of: rising taxes, increased healthcare costs, the creation of carbon emissions targets, a double-dip recession, or the next regulatory shoe to drop from the current administration (emphasis mine).
No.
They're just remaining uncharacteristically liquid to harm the man that gives you a thrill up your leg.
6) Dems Will Employ Scorched Earth Strategy in the Lame Duck Session
It's going to be fascinating to watch because they know they're governing against the will of the people, and they're proud of it. They're happy about it. They know, ladies and gentlemen, that they are a ruling minority. You just wait. If this shellacking happens to the extent that the experts are predicting that it will, what'll happen is that they will come back in this lame duck session and they will try to ram all kinds of stuff down everybody's throat, everything in the world. They'll just say, "Okay, you reject us, fine. Try this tax increase; try this, try that," and they'll do everything they can, scorched earth. You watch. They're probably planning that even as we speak.
See: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_093010/content/01125109.guest.html
6a) Jim DeMint vows roadblock (DeMint takes action to prevent Lame Duck Congress from passing laws against the will of the American people)
South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint warned Monday evening that he would block all legislation that has not been cleared by his office in the final days of the pre-election session.
Bret Bernhardt, DeMint's chief of staff, said in an e-mail to GOP and Democratic aides that his boss would place a hold on all legislation that has not been cleared by both parties by the end of the day Tuesday.
Any senator can place a hold to block legislation — and overcoming that would require the Senate to take time-consuming steps to invoke cloture, which would require 60 votes.
With the Senate slated to adjourn Thursday until after the elections, DeMint's stance could mean trouble for Democrats if the two parties don't quickly agree on a stopgap spending measure to keep the government operating past Sept. 30. And that could mean the demise of a slew of other stalled and largely noncontroversial bills that both parties are looking to clear before Election Day.
DeMint told POLITICO Tuesday afternoon that his staff was currently reviewing 40-50 bills that both sides want to clear by unanimous consent before Congress adjourns for the month of October.
“Some of it is easy, and some of it has big price tags – if it’s not paid for and if it doesn’t have a [Congressional Budget Office] score, then it shouldn’t pass without a Senate vote,” he said.
See: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42807.html
7) Obama in The 99th Percentile Of Islamophilia
President Barack Hussein Obama has finally found a book whose ideas he's willing to espouse other than Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. It's The 99, and it's a comic book designed to spread tolerance for Islam. "I have to say perhaps the most innovative response [to my outreach policy] was from Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa," Obama told a recent Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship. "His comic books have captured the imagination of so many young people, they're superheroes who embody the teachings and tolerance of Islam. ..."
Let me say it is precisely because they have "captured" the imagination of so many young people that we have a problem, Houston.
The 99 is produced in Kuwait and is now scheduled to premiere on The Hub (an American television network that is a co-venture between Hasbro, the toy company, and Discovery Communications) as an animated series produced by Endemol. While Obama promotes the comic series as an honest attempt at bridging gaps, the series preview, viewable here, is anything but. Frankly, it's chilling -- in fact, breathtaking -- in its obvious intent to brainwash American children.
The video preview begins by telling the children that a group of 99 young superheroes "hold the future in their hands" but that their "struggle against evil goes back through the ages." The video then tells five-year-olds that the story begins in 13th-century Baghdad, where the "Library of Wisdom" contains a "collection of knowledge second to none" but that it isn't to last because "Mongol hordes" swept in to "destroy the empire." The invaders threw the books in the Tigris River, but Muslim scholars, who had 99 special gemstones, infused the stones with the wisdom and power of the books. Today, 99 youngsters find these stones that were scattered around the world, giving them superpowers, but the question is...who will guide these 99 heroes -- "the forces of light or the forces of darkness?"
The video tells a fictionalized historic tale of Islam, in which tolerant and open Muslim empires stretching as far as Spain were attacked by barbaric hordes ranging from the Mongols to King Ferdinand of Spain (of course, nowhere is there an honest accounting of Islam's warrior quest to invade and then dominate non-Muslim lands -- invasions that invited responses). In the video, we are treated to animated scenes of Islamic buildings and mosques on fire, but nary a mention of beheading non-Muslims for not converting to Islam once their lands were conquered or destroying churches and synagogues or converting them into victory mosques. (Picky, picky, I know, but a few facts wouldn't have hurt this venture.)
See: http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/10/obama_in_the_99th_percentile_o.html
8) Obama's 'Rolling Stone' interview: Thinks Fox News is “Destructive“, Next Battles: Immigration and Climate Change
1. Obama thinks Fox News is "destructive"
When asked if Fox News is "a good institution for America and for democracy," Obama unsurprisingly says no: He thinks Fox News' "undeniable point of view... is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world." At the same time, he considers Fox part of a long tradition of "opinionated" journalism, including "folks like Hearst who used their newspapers very intentionally to promote their viewpoints." The "golden age of an objective press," Obama points out, "was a pretty narrow span of time in our history."
2. His next battles: Immigration and climate change
In a move Republicans could easily jump on, Obama commits to throwing "the whole weight of the presidency" behind policies to address climate change and immigration, as he ultimately did with health-care reform. The energy/climate-change legislation might have to be passed "in chunks," Obama says, unlike this year's failed push for more sweeping change, but "we're going to stay on this because it is good for our economy, it's good for our national security, and, ultimately, it's good for our environment."
See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20100929/cm_theweek/207580_1;_ylt=A9j8eDnyWKVMcVQBZwerpph4
And: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/209395
9) Dems Worried GOP House Will Subpoena Birth Certificate
Obama, beware.
That’s the warning from the House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC). In an interview with TheGrio.com, Clyburn said that should Republicans retake the House this fall, Congress will be “gridlocked” and the White House will be busy responding to subpoenas from Republicans.
Clyburn is refering to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking Republican on the House Oversight panel, and his statement that he will issue “subpoenas everywhere” should Republicans prevail. But Clyburn goes a step further and speculates on the content of those subpoenas:
The White House will be full-time responding to subpoenas about where the president may or may not have been born, whether his mother and father were ever married, and whether his wife’s family is from Georgetown or Sampit.
The question of Obama’s citizenship is usually referred to as the “birther” argument. The Hill reports that Issa‘s office calls Clyburn’s hypothesis “ridiculous.”
“The Democratic Caucus doesn’t take Jim Clyburn seriously — Americans shouldn’t take his ridiculous claims seriously either,” said Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella in an e-mail to the Washington-based paper.
A call to the Majority Whip’s office seeking comment about what Clyburn is basing his claim off of was not immediately returned.
In his interview, Clyburn insists that the birthers are a creation of Conservative media personalities who refuse to repudiate such ideas. He adds that if the Fairness Doctrine was still in place, requiring broadcasters to give both sides equal time on political programs, there wouldn’t be an issue.
Yeah, that’s a good excuse to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. Here’s a newsflash: “equal time” equals CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, ABC, etc. etc. How much more “equal” time do you need?
10) The “Myth” of the American Founding
You should think twice the next time you invoke the Constitution or argue that the federal government is overreaching its power. According to The Economist, you may well have succumbed to “The Perils of Constitution Worship.”
Lexington, who writes about American politics for The Economist, attacks the Tea Partiers and our own First Principles Initiative, amongst others, for buying into what he calls the “myth” of the American Founding: “there is something infantile in the belief of the constitution-worshipers that the complex political arguments of today can be settled by simple fidelity to a document written in the 18th century.”
The Framers, Lexington explains, were but “creatures of their time” and their writings can therefore offer no guidance when it comes to tackling today’s problems. And, as he generously reminds us, that is for the best since the Constitution they gave us was resolutely at odds with conservative aims to restore limited government. The Constitution in fact sought to “bolster the centre and weaken the power the states had briefly enjoyed under the new republic’s Articles of Confederation.” It turns out that we defenders of the Constitution don’t even understand the document that we purport to defend.
What Lexington gives us, in short, is the typical progressive narrative. His facile dismissal of the Founders as outdated aristocrats however prevents him from grasping the truly revolutionary nature of the teaching they put forward. The Declaration of Independence articulates a new grounding for government which, far from being the common practice for the times, marked a radical departure from all existing forms of government. All men are created equal and as such have natural inalienable rights that governments are instituted to protect. If a government fails to protect these rights, then the people may abolish and replace it.
These principles—equality, natural rights, consent—are the permanent principles and standards by which governments are instituted and judged. They apply today, just as well as they did in the 18th century and will continue to apply no matter what progress we achieve in the sciences.
As such, our attachment to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution stems from our dedication to these principles. We venerate the principles—not the documents. And we are dedicated to the principles of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution not simply because they are old, or distinctly American, or because we have a particular affinity for Jefferson, Madison, or Washington. We uphold these principles—and honor the documents that embody them—because they are final, true, and, in the words of Calvin Coolidge, “no advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.”
See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/30/the-myth-of-the-american-founding
11) Landrieu Begs Obama to Stop Killing Jobs and End the Moratorium
The White House would like nothing better than for Americans to forget their incompetent handling of the Gulf oil spill. And if a complicit national media had anything to do with it, they would get their wish. Not once since the spill occurred, have any serious questions been leveled at the White House about their bungled response to it.
Not once did a national reporter ask the president why he blocked permits to protect a fragile coastline. Not once did the president address why he needlessly delayed skimmers and clean-up efforts. To this day Obama has never addressed that scientists have found vast amounts of oil still floating beneath the water’s surface. The president has not addressed the inaction on his part that led to the crisis getting worse, or the BP “settlement” that may include taxpayer dollars.
But above all, the president is not being appropriately pressed to end his reckless and economy-crushing drilling moratorium. One Democratic Senator is not as accepting of the White House’s malfeasance. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) has placed a hold on President Obama’s OMB nominee, Jack Lew, until the White House lifts the moratorium. Landrieu told POLITICO:
“The president’s policies right now are doing much more harm than the [BP] spill itself to the economy of the South coast. … It’s just gotten to a point where people in Louisiana ask, ‘Do they even understand what is going on down here?’ They have the entire offshore industry virtually shut down.”
See: http://blog.heritage.org/2010/09/30/landrieu-begs-obama-to-stop-killing-jobs-and-end-the-moratorium
12) One Nation Working Together Rally Smaller than Beck’s
Maybe Ed Schultz was right about being able to attract more people than Glenn Beck: organizers of today’s “One Nation Together Rally” are claiming that, based on a “satellite image,” there are definitively more people on the Washington Mall today than there were on the 29th of August. Congratulations, liberals! Except “Restoring Honor” was on the 28th.
It was bound to happen that the organizers of this rally, the goal of which was decidedly to undermine the strength in numbers of the Tea Party, would claim to have brought together a larger number of people than Glenn Beck’s crew. Given the lack of evidence on this count, it’s certainly remotely possible, but claiming that it’s absolutely true based on one satellite image that no one was yet seen is a little, shall we say, premature. That said, it is a near certainty that there are more people congregated on the Mall today than there were on August 29th, given that there was no event scheduled to occur in the Mall on that date.
Update: The AP claims there is definitely no way there were more people here than during Restoring Honor:
More than 400 organizations — ranging from labor unions to faith, environmental and gay rights groups — partnered for the event, which comes one month after Beck packed the same space with conservatives and tea party-style activists.
Organizers claimed they had as many participants as Beck’s rally. But Saturday’s crowds were less dense and didn’t reach as far to the edges as they did during Beck’s rally. The National Park Service stopped providing official crowd estimates in the 1990s.
13) Our Folks are Stupid? How'd YOU Look After a Media Anal Exam?
…All of you -- and I don't know how many it is, but you know who you are -- all of you who sit out there acting holier-than-thou, saying that these Tea Party people are kooks, how would you do if suddenly your life was uncovered and plastered all over television? How would you do if cameras were following you and the express purpose was to catch you in embarrassing moments? How would you do if the media was giving you an anal exam for the express purpose of making you look like an idiot? How many of you would look like Albert Einstein? How many of you would look like Winston Churchill? How many of you would look like paragons of virtue? How many of you would look like brilliant Mensa members? How would you feel if an army of motivated people looking to destroy you was following you every moment of the day examining everything you've ever done, trying to find every event in your life, from junior high to the present? How many of you could withstand what these people are having done to them? And then when it was happening to you, how many of you would say to yourself, "Well, I hope people understand everybody's got skeletons in their closet? I hope people understand the media is trying to make us look bad."
How many of you would be hoping and praying that normal people would understand that what's going on is not quite fair? How about you? You've had a couple divorces. Do you want Katie Couric talking about that on TV? Do you want Katie Couric going to your ex-spouses, finding out why your ex-spouses don't like you? You want it all over People magazine? You want it all over the New York Times; the New York Post; the Washington Post? How about all the speeding tickets you got? You ever knocked anybody up? You got any illegitimate kids running around that you know of or don't know of? What's going to happen if you don't but some woman pops up and says that you do and the media following you around can't wait to put that out there as a possibility? What if you happen to be somebody who had to get married 30 years ago, you're living in a loveless marriage, you had to get married because you had some little accident take place, what happens if the media following you around found out about it and everybody in your neighborhood and everybody in your town and everybody in your church found out about it? Would you not be saying, "Come on, that's a long time ago, doesn't say who I am today, and look, I did the right thing back then anyway."
…How many of you would even have the guts to run for office? How many of you would have the guts to go do what they're doing rather than sit on the sideline and complain about how those who are doing it aren't doing it the right way (emphasis mine)? You can tell I'm getting a little ticked off more and more each time I describe it because I run into these people. I don't know what they expect my reaction to be when they tell me this. I'm supposed to agree, yeah, privately, "I know they're a little kooky but they're all we've got." I mean I don't like arrogance wherever I find it. Is it not the professional politician that has created this mess? Is it not the people who look good on TV and who sound good on TV and sound smart on TV and look like Ken dolls and buy hair spray and Botox by the case, is it not those people that have created the problems that we're in? So when average, ordinary life happens people decide they don't want to put up with the pros anymore and they want to roll their sleeves up and get involved and try to fix it, why do we demand of them standards that we do not demand of even Obama or Dingy Harry or Robert Byrd? I mean can somebody tell me what Ku Klux Klan group Carl Paladino ever belonged to? Can somebody tell me what shifty land deal Harry Reid made gazillions of dollars on exists in the Republican Party? Somebody give one.
See: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_100110/content/01125108.guest.html
14) Rahm's gone: New day, new tone for the White House
WASHINGTON – Reshaping the tone and tenor of the White House, President Barack Obama on Friday replaced the colorful and caustic Rahm Emanuel with the private Pete Rouse as his chief of staff, shifting to a new phase of his presidency with a drastically different aide as trusted gatekeeper.
Emanuel's decision to quit the White House and run for Chicago mayor had been so well known that even Obama mocked the lack of suspense. But it still felt like the most important transition to date for the Obama operation, which has been fueled for nearly two years by Emanuel's demands, drive and discipline.
…Ever the political operative, Emanuel got a reminder of his own ways earlier Friday.
Before a smiling collection of senior staff members in the Roosevelt Room, economic adviser Austan Goolsbee gave Emanuel a dead fish wrapped in Chicago newspapers. An angry Emanuel had once famously done the same thing to a Democratic pollster with whom he was less than pleased.
Kind of like a horse’s head in your bed…glad I don’t live in downtown Chicago (since this man is likely to win). I’ve got to get out of this state…
See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101001/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_chief_of_staff
15) In a “funny” mini-movie, Eco-fascists depict killing those who disagree with them
I predicted this morning that No Pressure – Richard Curtis’s spectacularly ill-judged eco-propaganda movie for the 10:10 campaign – would prove a disastrous own goal for the green movement.
But what I could never have imagined was how quickly public disgust – even among greenies – would reach such a pitch that the campaigners would be compelled to withdraw it from the internet.
That, at any rate, is what they keep trying to do – cancelling it whenever it appears on You Tube, pulling it from their campaign website and so on.
Unfortunately their efforts are being frustrated by people on the sceptical side of the climate debate, who keep peskily insisting on reposting the video where everyone can view it. And rightly so. With No Pressure, the environmental movement has revealed the snarling, wicked, homicidal misanthropy beneath its cloak of gentle, bunny-hugging righteousness.
I don’t think any of us will ever be able to look at another Richard Curtis movie in quite the same way ever again. It may even be that we will now never, ever be able to enjoy another episode of the Vicar of Dibley, because all we’ll be able to think about is Dawn French with a Panzerfaust beneath her cassock ready to blast off the heads of any members of her congregation who don’t believe in Man Made Global Warming. What a sad day this is for us all.
Wow, I've never seen something quite so disturbing.
They have taken the video down from 1010global.org. As of right now, the website says, "At 10:10 we're all about trying new and creative ways of getting people to take action on climate change. Unfortunately in this instance we missed the mark. Oh well, we live and learn."
Who could possibly think this is funny? I've an idea; how about if YOU'D like to cut down on carbon emissions, silly 1010 liberal, we give YOU a big red button to push that's wired to YOURSELF. That way you can put an end to the hot carbon dioxide proceeding from your mouth.
16) Grayson Under Fire for 'Taliban Dan' Ad
CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE DANIEL WEBSTER, R-FLA.: So write a journal. Second, find a verse. I have a verse for my wife. I have verses for my wife. Don't pick the ones that say she should submit to me. That's in the Bible. But pick the ones that you're supposed to do. So instead, love your wife even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. As opposed to wives submit yourself to your own husband. She can pray that if she wants to, but don't you pray it.
HANNITY: Look at how Grayson's campaign is twisting what Webster said.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Religious fanatics try to take away our freedom in Afghanistan, in Iran and right here in Central Florida.
WEBSTER: Wives submit yourself to your own husband.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Daniel Webster wants to impose his radical fundamentalism on us.
WEBSTER: She should submit to me. That's in the Bible.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Webster tried to deny battered women medical care and the right to divorce their abusers.
WEBSTER: Submit to me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He wants to force raped women to bear the child.
WEBSTER: Submit to me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Taliban Dan Webster. Hands off our bodies.
See: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/transcript/grayson-under-fire-039taliban-dan039-ad
17) Whitman did not do enough to verify the status of her Latino housekeeper?
Allred dropped a late-September surprise on Meg Whitman based on the allegation that Whitman did not do enough to verify the status of her Latino housekeeper. Whitman, by all accounts, obtained the usual required documentation when she hired the housekeeper.
The thrust of Allred's attack is that after Whitman or her husband received a letter from the IRS alerting them to a possible discrepancy in the housekeeper's social security number, Whitman did not do enough to follow up. Instead, according to Allred, Whitman's husband gave the letter to the housekeeper and left it to the housekeeper to clear it up. (Note: This is Allred's account, it is not yet clear that this account will be verified.)
Allred may be right that the employer (in this case Whitman and her husband) should not have left it up to the housekeeper to clear up the problem, and should have been more suspicious. Had Whitman or her husband followed up, the housekeeper would have been fired several years ago.
Call Allred a strict constructionist when it comes to the immigration laws, just like the people who are excoriated by the left as racists for seeking enforcement of federal immigration laws.
The message Allred is sending is that if you are going to hire an immigrant, not only must you dot every federal immigration law "i" and cross every federal immigration law "t", you also must not trust the immigrant if a problem arises. At least not if you want to run for public office.
So why isn't the left excoriating Allred? Why isn't Allred being called the most vile names usually reserved for Tea Party supporters or Republicans?
See: http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2010/09/why-isnt-left-screaming-at-gloria.html
18) Indianapolis Bakery Declines Order for Rainbow Cupcakes, Sparking City Inquiry
Officials in Indianapolis are turning up the heat on a bakery that refused to take an order from a student group seeking rainbow-colored cupcakes for next month's National Coming Out Day.
A spokesman for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said city officials are conducting an inquiry into the bakery, Just Cookies, which declined to take the order last week from a diversity group at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), which ordered the cupcakes for Oct. 11.
"The city's position is, it's the city's market, it's a public place," mayoral spokesman Robert Vane told FoxNews.com. "There is no litmus test for buying services or products at the City Market."
Just Cookies owner Lilly Stockon defended her bakery's decision last week, first telling Fox 59 that the shop doesn't make cupcakes, and then telling a reporter that she didn't have sufficient materials to make the rainbow colors.
But her co-owner husband, David Stockton, said he had a different reason for refusing to take the order.
"I explained we're a family-run business, we have two young, impressionable daughters and we thought maybe it was best not to do that," he told Fox 59.
Enter the city officials.
"Whatever this gentleman's personal views are, it cannot interfere with the providing of a service or allowing someone to buy their goods," Vane said.
NO! YOU CANNOT COMPEL HIM TO PROVIDE HIS SERVICE TO ANYONE! THAT IS SLAVERY!
See: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/09/29/city-officials-launch-inquiry-cupcake-denial-gay-student-group/
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