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Forbes to Newsmax: Obama in a 'Bubble' as US 'Crumbles' Under Obamacare

Forbes magazine editor and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes tells Newsmax that Obamacare is "ridiculous and destructive" and is imploding because it wasn't workable in the first place.

But President Barack Obama is in a "bubble" regarding the healthcare reform bill while the "rest of the country crumbles," Forbes asserts.

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He also says the immigration reform bill passed in the Senate won't fly in the House, and he favors a piecemeal approach instead.

Story continues below the video.





Forbes is president and CEO of Forbes Inc. He ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000, urging the adoption of a flat income tax with a single tax rate.

His latest book is "Freedom Manifesto: Why Free Markets Are Moral and Big Government Isn't."

The White House clearly sees the negative impact Obamacare's employer mandate would have had on the economy and that is why it is being delayed, many employers and healthcare experts are saying. But some employers are still saying they want to hold back on hiring and maybe cut back on hours.

In an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV on Monday, Forbes offers his take on the healthcare bill.

"In terms of implementation, Obamacare is imploding because it's unworkable in the first place: the idea that people with spreadsheets in Washington can run 20 percent of the economy," he declares.

"Bad ideas or destructive ideas die a very hard death, so they still have this illusion in healthcare," Forbes said. "It's going to get worse, it's not going to get better. They're doing real harm to the medical device industry, which has been critical for improvements in the standard of healthcare in this country.

"They are hoping that maybe putting implementation off a year on the employer mandate would somehow get businesses to hire. In the real world, if you think something is going to hit you hard a year from now or a month from now, you're not going to hire when you see bad things coming down the road. So it has distorted patterns in terms of hiring, which is why in these jobs reports you see more part-time jobs being created than full-time jobs.

"It's ridiculous and destructive," Forbes said.

According to an article from Forbes.com, the union representing IRS employees is very concerned about having to join the Obamacare healthcare insurance exchanges — and the IRS is the agency in charge of running Obamacare.

"These unions worked so hard to get Obamacare passed and somehow thought they'd be exempt from it. It's quite a delight to see — if it wasn't so destructive for the rest of us in terms of healthcare.

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"You're going to see more and more union complaints. But unfortunately, the president is in such a bubble right now he ignores the whole thing and just figures somehow it's all going to work out at the end of the day and he'll have his place on Mount Rushmore.

"The details are for underlings, and he thinks grand thoughts and makes speeches while the rest of the country crumbles. So you're going to see much more carping by the unions, but it's about three years too late. They should have been concerned when this thing was being formulated in the first place."

Asked if Republicans are missing an opportunity by not providing an alternative to Obamacare, Forbes observes: "They should continue passing bills such as allowing nationwide shopping for health insurance. I don't know why they don't dust that off and pass it in the House and let Harry Reid kill it in the Senate.

"At least set the foundations on positive reforms on healthcare. That would be a major one. Equalize tax treatment in terms of healthcare. They will get something on that by year's end. Remove some of the obstacles in terms of health savings accounts and the like," he said.

"They should be putting [these changes] out there piece by piece, having votes on them so the Democrats get on the right side of these positive issues, and have the mantra [that] patients should control healthcare, not third parties and certainly not government bureaucracies."

Forbes agrees that Republicans seem more reactive instead of proactive on this issue.
"Republicans are still recovering from the debacle of November of 2012, but you're seeing, certainly on the governors' side, some governors doing very innovative things," he said.

"Just on the tax front, North Carolina, with a Republican governor, Pat McCrory, passed a fantastic tax bill — major cuts in the state income tax, cutting the corporate tax significantly. So North Carolina, which had one of the worst tax systems in the Southeast, in fact the whole East Coast, now has one of the best systems.

"So you're seeing on the governors' level some real reforms. That's where I'm looking, not to Washington."

Turning to immigration, Forbes offers his view of reform from a business perspective.
"We do need immigrants in the economy to meet the certain needs of the workforce," he says.

"Remember they had amnesty back in 1986, but they did not put in policies that allowed for work programs to meet the needs of the economy. So now, instead of 3 million illegals, we have 11 million. Just from a security viewpoint, we should know who those folks are.

"What you'll eventually see in the House, instead of trying to vote on a comprehensive bill — which will not pass — you're going to see a piece-by-piece approach and have those pieces go in conference with the Senate.

"One of the key things is to reform the current system so those who played by the rules get quick justice instead of the huge arbitrary bureaucratic delays you get today. Don't punish those who play by the rules.

"You're going to see more of a move to meet the legitimate needs of the U.S. economy. For example, this thing called H-1B visas for high technology, they're raising that from about 60,000 visas to 110,000. The industry will tell you, if you want real research done in this country and technological advances, we need 200,000 to 300,000 of these visas a year, so let's raise that number in the House ... so we meet the needs of the economy and be a place of opportunity, but know who these folks are," he said.

Instead of trying to pass one comprehensive bill, "parse it out and do it piece by piece," Forbes insists. "For example, have a green card in your diploma if you get an advanced degree in this country. We helped develop your brain power and your sense of innovation, and we'd like to have it used in this country instead of a country and a company overseas.

"Basic reforms like that would pass pretty quickly. And on contentious issues, let it have an up-and-down vote and send it to conference and if the White House is interested in getting a reform bill, one that may not be totally to its liking but one that deals with most of the problems, they'll get one."

Forbes also addresses the recent bankruptcy filing by Detroit — the largest American city ever to file.

"It's already having an effect on the [municipal] bond market, as everyone scrambles to see who actually might be in trouble," he tells Newsmax.

Alert: End of America's Middle Class a Startling Reality. Read More Here.

"As they go through the hard process of redoing these pensions, redoing these healthcare plans, you're going to see other unions be able to say in other cities, hey we don't like to do this, look what happened in Detroit. Bond-holders got wiped out, pensioners got hit hard, healthcare benefits got slashed. Let's try to avoid that here, and you might get some serious negotiation."

"There are very positive things that can be done, especially in healthcare in the area of health-savings accounts, which would save these funds huge amounts of money, but also give patients control over healthcare. And at the end of the day, the beneficiaries would be better off," Forbes says.

"But that kind of innovative thinking is not seen yet. And in terms of a restructuring, one of the things I hope they do in Detroit, and they will with the agent appointed by [Michigan] Gov. Snyder, is put in a low tax regime. When you have a low tax regime, you get people moving [and] small business starting up — and these areas can come back to life again."

In his Newsmax interview, Forbes also says Obama is favoring "medieval technologies" over oil, gas, and coal.

And he maintains that reforms to America's "silly" corporate tax code could bring in billions of dollars of "free money."

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Representative Steve King vs. the Republican Leadership’s message on Illegal Immigration

The left doesn’t like to hear the truth about illegal immigration and apparently the Republican Leadership doesn’t either. Republican so called leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor, as well as a few others in the Republican Party, are quick to criticize negative comments by Representative Steve King of Iowa on Illegal Aliens and then they fail to even attempt to paint an accurate picture of the reality of Illegal Immigration. They are the problem with the Republican Leadership and the Republican message on Illegal immigration, not Representative Steve King who at least tries to paint an accurate picture of reality!

The left likes to portray all Illegal Aliens as hard working people who are just trying to feed their poor starving families and all Dreamers as Valedictorians in school. All too many on the right are all to happy to let the left paint that deceptive picture perfect portrait of Illegal Immigration without even attempting paint an accurate picture of how it effects Americans. Then many politicians in the Republican party hide from the issue and have a hard time defending the Republican Party’s no amnesty position. Well da, if the picture of illegals is they're all wonderful and never done anything wrong, instead of based on reality, of course it's harder to defend!

The fact is some illegals are hard working families and or Valedictorians and some are drug runners and or have committed horrendous crimes like murder and rape but most are in-between. The reality is Illegal Aliens are all here illegally in violation of the Rule of Law and a huge majority of the Illegal Alien population cost the American Taxpayer billions of dollars every year and negatively effects and destroys the American job market by lowering wages and taking jobs American's desperately need. Hey Republican criticizers, what about really defending the American people’s position instead of aiding the Left in defending their deceitful destructive position of reality? How about painting a portrait of reality and when the left paints a picture of all Valedictorians point out, as Steve King did, that yes there are some but there is this sad other side of the story that pro amnesty proponents don’t like to talk about. Then tell the truly sad story of a horrendous crime committed by an illegal alien that destroyed an American Family's life. A 100% truly preventable crime on American Society by somebody who shouldn't even be here. That's the sad, mind-blowing reality and those factual based stories are just as easy to find and ALMOST NOBODY IN POLITICS speaks out about how many American Family's Lives are totally destroyed by the acts of Illegal Aliens and a Government that chooses to look the other way. Almost nobody in politics speaks out EXCEPT, people like Representative Steve King of Iowa, who at least tries!

The fact is the overall effects of Illegal Immigration have been and will continue to be a very destructive force on American lives and American families. Amnesty will not change that fact, it will only solidify the continuing destruction. Enforcement is the only thing that will stop the destruction and preserve America’s right as a Sovereign nation! Immigration is a wonderful natural resource to this nation but like so many other natural resources humans and politicians have a habit of abusing and destroying the worth, our current immigration system is no exception. Immigration must be controlled and at a level that compliments American Society where Immigrants integrate and melt into American Society not become a dominate flood of Open Borders; as the current system is dangerously close to and not as the Senate Bill S.744 (or anything close to it ) would do by it’s destructive Guest Worker and total Amnesty provisions that will add a minimum of 33 million new legal immigrants in the first decade alone, a flood by any measure.

I have now called Representatives Steve King's office and told him "Thanks for speaking for the American people" and then I called the supposed to be leaders of the Republican Party Boehner and Cantor who don't know how to paint a picture of reality, and I left them my message above. Hope you will do the same!

Laura Ingraham said it well on the O’Reilly Factor, thanks for the link Kathryn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jyk5c1UWtXo&feature=player_embedded

Four in 5 Americans Face Near-poverty, No Work Under Obama

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.
Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend.
The findings come as President Barack Obama tries to renew his administration's emphasis on the economy, saying in recent speeches that his highest priority is to "rebuild ladders of opportunity" and reverse income inequality.

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As nonwhites approach a numerical majority in the U.S., one question is how public programs to lift the disadvantaged should be best focused — on the affirmative action that historically has tried to eliminate the racial barriers seen as the major impediment to economic equality, or simply on improving socioeconomic status for all, regardless of race.
Hardship is particularly growing among whites, based on several measures. Pessimism among that racial group about their families' economic futures has climbed to the highest point since at least 1987. In the most recent AP-GfK poll, 63 percent of whites called the economy "poor."
"I think it's going to get worse," said Irene Salyers, 52, of Buchanan County, Va., a declining coal region in Appalachia. Married and divorced three times, Salyers now helps run a fruit and vegetable stand with her boyfriend but it doesn't generate much income. They live mostly off government disability checks.
"If you do try to go apply for a job, they're not hiring people, and they're not paying that much to even go to work," she said. Children, she said, have "nothing better to do than to get on drugs."
While racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to live in poverty, race disparities in the poverty rate have narrowed substantially since the 1970s, census data show. Economic insecurity among whites also is more pervasive than is shown in the government's poverty data, engulfing more than 76 percent of white adults by the time they turn 60, according to a new economic gauge being published next year by the Oxford University Press.
The gauge defines "economic insecurity" as a year or more of periodic joblessness, reliance on government aid such as food stamps or income below 150 percent of the poverty line. Measured across all races, the risk of economic insecurity rises to 79 percent.
Marriage rates are in decline across all races, and the number of white mother-headed households living in poverty has risen to the level of black ones.
"It's time that America comes to understand that many of the nation's biggest disparities, from education and life expectancy to poverty, are increasingly due to economic class position," said William Julius Wilson, a Harvard professor who specializes in race and poverty. He noted that despite continuing economic difficulties, minorities have more optimism about the future after Obama's election, while struggling whites do not.
"There is the real possibility that white alienation will increase if steps are not taken to highlight and address inequality on a broad front," Wilson said.
Nationwide, the count of America's poor remains stuck at a record number: 46.2 million, or 15 percent of the population, due in part to lingering high unemployment following the recession. While poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics are nearly three times higher, by absolute numbers the predominant face of the poor is white.
More than 19 million whites fall below the poverty line of $23,021 for a family of four, accounting for more than 41 percent of the nation's destitute, nearly double the number of poor blacks.
Sometimes termed "the invisible poor" by demographers, lower-income whites generally are dispersed in suburbs as well as small rural towns, where more than 60 percent of the poor are white. Concentrated in Appalachia in the East, they are numerous in the industrial Midwest and spread across America's heartland, from Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma up through the Great Plains.
Buchanan County, in southwest Virginia, is among the nation's most destitute based on median income, with poverty hovering at 24 percent. The county is mostly white, as are 99 percent of its poor.
More than 90 percent of Buchanan County's inhabitants are working-class whites who lack a college degree. Higher education long has been seen there as nonessential to land a job because well-paying mining and related jobs were once in plentiful supply. These days many residents get by on odd jobs and government checks.
Salyers' daughter, Renee Adams, 28, who grew up in the region, has two children. A jobless single mother, she relies on her live-in boyfriend's disability checks to get by. Salyers says it was tough raising her own children as it is for her daughter now, and doesn't even try to speculate what awaits her grandchildren, ages 4 and 5.
Smoking a cigarette in front of the produce stand, Adams later expresses a wish that employers will look past her conviction a few years ago for distributing prescription painkillers, so she can get a job and have money to "buy the kids everything they need."
"It's pretty hard," she said. "Once the bills are paid, we might have $10 to our name."
___
Census figures provide an official measure of poverty, but they're only a temporary snapshot that doesn't capture the makeup of those who cycle in and out of poverty at different points in their lives. They may be suburbanites, for example, or the working poor or the laid off.
In 2011 that snapshot showed 12.6 percent of adults in their prime working-age years of 25-60 lived in poverty. But measured in terms of a person's lifetime risk, a much higher number — 4 in 10 adults — falls into poverty for at least a year of their lives.
The risks of poverty also have been increasing in recent decades, particularly among people ages 35-55, coinciding with widening income inequality. For instance, people ages 35-45 had a 17 percent risk of encountering poverty during the 1969-1989 time period; that risk increased to 23 percent during the 1989-2009 period. For those ages 45-55, the risk of poverty jumped from 11.8 percent to 17.7 percent.

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Higher recent rates of unemployment mean the lifetime risk of experiencing economic insecurity now runs even higher: 79 percent, or 4 in 5 adults, by the time they turn 60.
By race, nonwhites still have a higher risk of being economically insecure, at 90 percent. But compared with the official poverty rate, some of the biggest jumps under the newer measure are among whites, with more than 76 percent enduring periods of joblessness, life on welfare or near-poverty.
By 2030, based on the current trend of widening income inequality, close to 85 percent of all working-age adults in the U.S. will experience bouts of economic insecurity.
"Poverty is no longer an issue of 'them', it's an issue of 'us'," says Mark Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who calculated the numbers. "Only when poverty is thought of as a mainstream event, rather than a fringe experience that just affects blacks and Hispanics, can we really begin to build broader support for programs that lift people in need."
The numbers come from Rank's analysis being published by the Oxford University Press. They are supplemented with interviews and figures provided to the AP by Tom Hirschl, a professor at Cornell University; John Iceland, a sociology professor at Penn State University; the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute; the Census Bureau; and the Population Reference Bureau.
Among the findings:
—For the first time since 1975, the number of white single-mother households living in poverty with children surpassed or equaled black ones in the past decade, spurred by job losses and faster rates of out-of-wedlock births among whites. White single-mother families in poverty stood at nearly 1.5 million in 2011, comparable to the number for blacks. Hispanic single-mother families in poverty trailed at 1.2 million.
—Since 2000, the poverty rate among working-class whites has grown faster than among working-class nonwhites, rising 3 percentage points to 11 percent as the recession took a bigger toll among lower-wage workers. Still, poverty among working-class nonwhites remains higher, at 23 percent.
—The share of children living in high-poverty neighborhoods — those with poverty rates of 30 percent or more — has increased to 1 in 10, putting them at higher risk of teenage pregnancy or dropping out of school. Non-Hispanic whites accounted for 17 percent of the child population in such neighborhoods, compared with 13 percent in 2000, even though the overall proportion of white children in the U.S. has been declining.
The share of black children in high-poverty neighborhoods dropped from 43 percent to 37 percent, while the share of Latino children went from 38 percent to 39 percent.
—Race disparities in health and education have narrowed generally since the 1960s. While residential segregation remains high, a typical black person now lives in a nonmajority black neighborhood for the first time. Previous studies have shown that wealth is a greater predictor of standardized test scores than race; the test-score gap between rich and low-income students is now nearly double the gap between blacks and whites.
Going back to the 1980s, never have whites been so pessimistic about their futures, according to the General Social Survey, a biannual survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago. Just 45 percent say their family will have a good chance of improving their economic position based on the way things are in America.
The divide is especially evident among those whites who self-identify as working class. Forty-nine percent say they think their children will do better than them, compared with 67 percent of nonwhites who consider themselves working class, even though the economic plight of minorities tends to be worse.
Although they are a shrinking group, working-class whites — defined as those lacking a college degree — remain the biggest demographic bloc of the working-age population. In 2012, Election Day exit polls conducted for the AP and the television networks showed working-class whites made up 36 percent of the electorate, even with a notable drop in white voter turnout.

Editor's Note: ObamaCare Is About to Strike Are You Prepared
Last November, Obama won the votes of just 36 percent of those noncollege whites, the worst performance of any Democratic nominee among that group since Republican Ronald Reagan's 1984 landslide victory over Walter Mondale.
Some Democratic analysts have urged renewed efforts to bring working-class whites into the political fold, calling them a potential "decisive swing voter group" if minority and youth turnout level off in future elections. "In 2016 GOP messaging will be far more focused on expressing concern for 'the middle class' and 'average Americans,'" Andrew Levison and Ruy Teixeira wrote recently in The New Republic.
"They don't trust big government, but it doesn't mean they want no government," says Republican pollster Ed Goeas, who agrees that working-class whites will remain an important electoral group. His research found that many of them would support anti-poverty programs if focused broadly on job training and infrastructure investment. This past week, Obama pledged anew to help manufacturers bring jobs back to America and to create jobs in the energy sectors of wind, solar and natural gas.
"They feel that politicians are giving attention to other people and not them," Goeas said.

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White House Press Secretary Hasn't Known the Answer 1,905 Times

Jay Carney — former Time reporter, current White House Press Secretary, and weekly punching bag — has spoken for President Obama and his staff during the most fraught period of Obama's presidency. He was installed in February 2011, less than a month after a fresh class of Tea Party politicians settled into office, and stayed on through the following summer's debt-ceiling crisis; the attacks in Benghazi, Libya; the overheated 2012 election; the Democratic push for increased gun control; and, most recently a spate of scandals involving the IRS, the NSA, and the Department of Justice. That might explain why, in the 444 press briefings Carney had held since, he has so often deflected questions from reporters. To place one number on his frequent prevarications, Yahoo News determined that Carney indicated he "did not have the answer" to journalists' questions exactly 1,905 times since he began flacking for the President, a subset of nearly 10,000 instances when Carney declined to answer, passed off the question to a subordinate, or claimed ignorance about the subject matter. The entire report forms a brutal dossier of Carney's tenure.
The compilation certainly delivers a sting, in part because Carney is sui generis among his contemporary predecessors. Unlike, say, Robert Gibbs (who recently opened PR firm) or Ari Fleischer (now a sports publicist), or even George Stephanopoulos (who became an ABC News anchor), Carney worked as a journalist at Time for twenty years before becoming the mouthpiece of powerful politicians. (He served as spokesman for for Joe Biden during the 2008 election before Obama tapped him to deal with reporters.) The only recent predecessor who followed a similar career track, Tony Snow, edited opinion pieces for a series of newspapers before joining the first Bush White House as a speech writer, and later the second Bush White House as a press secretary in 2006. Unlike Snow, Carney was perpetually concerned with seeking out the factual truth, especially from those in power. It must at least slightly pain him, then, to inform his former cohort, over and over and over again — literally thousands of times — that he, and by extension the President himself, doesn't know the answer to this or that question. At the same time, he must know how it feels to be told the same.

Are media buying into ‘phony scandal’ claim?

Conservative leaders allege the media are trying to ignore the once high-profile scandals overshadowing the Obama administration, as President Obama and his aides aggressively push the claim that these controversies are "phony."
The "phony scandal" line was the unofficial talking point of the week in Washington. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney made it his fallback retort from the podium -- when asked about the president's new wave of speeches on the economy, Carney explained Obama was trying to refocus Washington away from "fake" controversies.
For three speeches in a row, Obama hammered this refrain: "With this endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball."
But, at least on the IRS targeting scandal, both the Obama administration and the mainstream media took that controversy quite seriously when it broke in May. MSNBC's Chris Hayes called the selective screening of conservative groups a "genuine abuse of power" at the time.
Fast forward two months. As Obama hit the trail to talk economy, two CNN anchors this week described the controversies that had dogged him as "so-called scandals."
The conservative Media Research Center also calculates that on the Big Three network news channels -- NBC, CBS, and ABC -- the number of stories on the IRS scandal has plummeted.
The evening and morning shows did 96 stories in the first two weeks, according to MRC. The coverage steadily disappeared, and between June 28 and July 24, the center recorded "zero stories" on the matter.
When a major development broke last week -- testimony by a retired IRS worker that an Obama appointee was involved in the screening process -- only CBS Evening News gave the issue a mention.
Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center, and other conservative leaders issued a statement Thursday decrying the alleged blackout.
"No fair, objective journalist can look at the facts of this flagrant abuse of power and not conclude that it is a massive political scandal deserving of constant, merciless scrutiny," they said in a statement.
Even before Obama and his team began pushing the "phony scandal" line, a few media outlets and personalities were making that case. Salon published an article on the IRS issue earlier this month asserting that, in the end, "the entire scandal narrative was a fiction."
MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell made the same argument.
But given the attention their own networks gave the IRS and other scandals just a few weeks earlier, a number of journalists and media personalities refused to go easy on the president this week.
On MSNBC, host Joe Scarborough ripped into Carney on Wednesday after the press secretary claimed the attention on "phony scandals" had all "come to naught."
"Do you think the IRS scandal is a phony scandal?" Scarborough asked.
Carney described it as "inappropriate activity," claiming that the press got "extremely excited" about the potential for scandal only to drop it when the "facts came out."
Scarborough, getting heated, pointed out new allegations that the controversy went all the way up to the IRS counsel's office, led by a political appointee. After Carney accused the host of pushing a GOP talking point, Scarborough said: "Stop your games with me. ... I'm not playing your games. I'm not somebody you talk ... down to from your podium."
Carney closed by asserting the IRS controversy was not a scandal because the White House was not involved.
Congressional Democrats have tried to downplay the IRS scandal lately by pointing to emerging evidence that liberal groups may have been singled out in IRS criteria as well. The matter is still being investigated. However, as Republicans note, liberal groups have not come forward to say they actually were targeted -- as conservative and Tea Party groups have done, by the dozens.
And the other so-called "phony scandals" continue to churn in Washington.
After the Obama administration took heat for seizing phone and email records from journalists, the Department of Justice earlier this month released new guidelines for investigations involving reporters -- in response to the outcry. The administration continues to battle with Congress over the surveillance power of the National Security Agency -- narrowly defeating a House bill this past week that would have reined in the NSA.
And on the Benghazi terror attack, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and others continue to raise serious questions about what happened that night and why lawmakers have not been provided access to the survivors.
Becky Gerritson, a Tea Party activist whose group was stalled by the IRS and who testified about it on Capitol Hill, took umbrage at the administration's "phony scandal" line.
"I think it's like the captain of the Titanic calling the icebergs phony," she said. "I think the only phony thing going on is the narrative that the White House is trying to push off on the American people."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/27/are-media-buying-into-phony-scandal-claim/#ixzz2aLFEO85E

Welfare

Welfare: SNAP, the U.S. food stamp program, has become a conduit for redistributing wealth and fundamentally transforming America, as welfare recipients now send food overseas and the White House markets to illegals.

While the administration laments the distraction of "phony" scandals like Benghazi and Fast and Furious that leave real Americans dead, it trots out phony statistics about how well the economy is doing.
"And what is absolutely true is that we have come a long way since the depths of the Great Recession," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said at a recent press briefing. "We've created over 7.2 million private-sector jobs." How many of those jobs are part-time is one of the many things Carney left out.
Since February 2009, the first full month of Obama's presidency, 9.5 million Americans have dropped out of the labor force. Nearly 90 million working-age Americans are not working today. Doing the math, 1.3 Americans have dropped out of the labor force for every job the administration claims to have created.
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Excuse me, Mr. President

680,000 Workers to Pay the Price for this Bloated Government

12 July 2013 / 33 Comments

It’s not like you haven’t read many other stories just like this one, since the mention of ‘sequester’.   But, it does highlight the complete audacity of a government spinning out of control.
680,000 civilian Defense Department employees are going to be furloughed.    The word ‘employees’ means that these people actually have jobs.  They’re not sitting at home on the government dole.  They earn a salary, and they pay exorbitant taxes to fund this ridiculous, monstrosity of a government.   How does the administration show appreciation for their efforts?   Furlough!
Just who does pay the price for bloated government, out of control spending, billions in objectionable foreign aid, and a ‘President’ who thinks he’s royalty?  Well, 680,000 civilian Defense Department employees are going to be feeling it in their pocket books…

The Pentagon began furloughing the vast majority of its civilian employees as part of an effort to generate billions in savings required to address budgetary constraints.

To meet the mandates of the so-called sequestration, 680,000 Defense Department employees will be forced to take a day of unpaid leave each week over the next 11 weeks. The move is expected to save about $1.8 billion, but it’s frustrating many of those affected.

“This is exactly the wrong way to balance the budget, to arbitrarily furlough everybody,” said Professional Services Council President Stan Soloway, whose organization represents government contractors whose work will be disrupted when large numbers of their government counterparts are forced into mandatory leave. “It’s unfortunate and unfair.”

As badly as the lost income will sting those who are furloughed, the Pentagon had originally expected it to be much worse. The current plan is a reduction from the 22 furlough days the department thought would be necessary.

Read More:  http://washingtonexaminer.com

Read more: http://MinutemenNews.com/2013/07/as-if-paying-taxes-wasnt-enough-680000-workers-to-feel-the-cost-of-this-bloated-government/#ixzz2aFAiWCOz

Enough of Trayvon

David Lawrence

Enough of Trayvon

On the cover of the “Daily News” we have the usual protestors—Beyonce, Jay Z, and AL Sharpton.  Add the really aggrieved, Trayvon Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton.

It’s not my party.   It’s not my death.  But I don’t like long faced grievers trying to publicize, glamorize and get ego satisfaction out of misfortune. 

The court said Zimmerman was innocent.  Let it die.  Let Trayvon die peacefully rather than be tossed up in the air as a political cause. 

I didn’t know Trayvon.  I wouldn’t have wanted to know him.  Not because he’s black.  But because he’s an uneducated kid.  And those thousands of demonstrators who act like Trayvon was their best friend didn’t know him either. Jay Z is not a poor kid from the streets; he’s worth millions.

If you really need to breathe in the sadness of the dead, go up to Chicago and mourn some of the nameless murders of black on black crime.  Don’t pick and choose your wailing according to Presidential whim.  As the rappers say, stop biting out of Trayvon’s lyrics.

When my mother died I didn’t even invite any guests.  I’m not a wake person.  I don’t like parties over the dead.  I think it’s disrespectful and digressive. 

If Trayvon is to rest in peace he should not have 101 demonstrations around the country shaking up his bones.  Let him go with dignity, not with anger and vituperation.

Let the Jay Z’s of the world wipe those blank mindless expressions from their faces and mourn their own previous contributions to crime and the drug culture. Let them look for solutions rather than to wail, cry and complain. 

Benghazi

What Democrats and unions have done to Detroit

Light years seem to have passed between Detroit's June 17, 2013, bankruptcy filing and the warning issued by the city's newly elected Mayor Coleman Young in his 1974 inaugural address.
"It is time to leave Detroit. Hit Eight Mile Road. And I don't give a damn if they are black or white, if they wear Superfly suits or blue uniforms with silver badges. Hit the road," he said.
To the first African-American mayor of a major U.S. city, equating the police with criminals was a way of telling his overwhelmingly black constituency that he understood their concerns about police brutality and civil rights.
To the city's white residents, it was a message that he placed those concerns above public safety and civil order. White flight, which began in the late '60s, accelerated.
In 1970, Detroit's population was 1.5 million. Forty-four percent was African-American, 54 percent was white. By 1990, the city's population had fallen to slightly more than 1 million, with African-Americans accounting for 78 percent and whites only 20 percent.
The population shift under Young cemented the Democratic Party's lock on the city. The labor organizer-turned-Democratic lawmaker would serve five terms, stepping down in 1993 at age 74 as his health worsened.
Under him, Detroit became a one-party big city machine. The last Republican mayor, Louis Miriani, was elected in 1957. Since 1970, only one Republican, Keith Butler, was elected to the city council.
As a result, Detroit exemplifies what happens when one political party - and it doesn't matter if it's the Democrats or the Republicans - keeps an iron grip on political power for decade after decade.
Young used the power to reward his base. The police force became 50 percent minority under his watch. Efforts to steer city business to a black-owned company resulted in two federal corruption probes in the early 1980s. Young himself was never charged.
Other corruption scandals followed. Young's police chief, William Hart, was convicted of embezzling $2.4 million in police funds in 1992.
Young's successor, Kwame Kilpatrick, resigned amid a "pay to play" and sex scandal in 2008. In March, he was convicted on 24 counts including racketeering and bribery.

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/07/22/how-democrats-and-unions-destroyed-detroit#ixzz2a0bGNQVf

Cockroaches are infesting the whole government.

IRS Cartoon

Cop-Wannabes Cartoon

Are you living in a fantasy world?

Make believe fantasy Guy!

  Welcome to the real life.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is worth $26.4 million.

For all of you poor Democrats that think your party is looking out for you, your favorite one is worth 26.4 million dollars. Maybe she can spare you a little change?

Detroit's Beautiful, Horrible Decline

Remains of a City
On their website, the photographers write, "Ruins are the visible symbols and landmarks of our societies and their changes ... the volatile result of the change of eras and the fall of empires. This fragility leads us to watch them one very last time: to be dismayed, or to admire, it makes us wonder about the permanence of things."

• To see more work by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre, visit their website, marchandmeffre.com

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1882089,00.html#ixzz2ZXnqjfYF

Chicago whistle-blower implicates top state Democrat

A former Chicago-area executive is blowing the whistle in the latest case to showcase what is derisively known as the "Illinois way" -- politicians' practice of doing business by dishing out favors to friends who contribute generously to their campaigns.
This time, a top-ranking Democrat has been implicated. The case involves Illinois' most powerful Democratic leader -- state House Speaker Michael Madigan -- and the former head of the Chicago area's commuter rail service, Metra. In a rare move earlier this week, Metra's ex-CEO Alex Clifford came forward publicly to reveal specific details about how he says he was forced out of his lucrative job after refusing to cave to political pressure.
Clifford, who was hired from California in 2001, testified during a recent Regional Transportation Authority board meeting in Chicago. For two hours he spoke openly about what he calls serious "ethical and moral character flaws" from people who practice the "Illinois way" of doing business, including Madigan.
Clifford claims Madigan specifically wanted a pay raise for a Metra employee, Patrick Ward, who has been a generous contributor to Madigan's campaign, according to state records. Clifford testified: "What is it that he (Ward) was doing so great and so different than other employees at Metra who have gone three years without a pay raise that would make this person special?"
Clifford ultimately rejected the request. In a statement, Madigan acknowledged sending a "recommendation to Metra senior staff that Mr. Ward be considered for a salary adjustment. ... When notified Mr. Clifford had concerns about the appearance of the recommendation coming from my office, I withdrew the request."
During a trip to the state Capitol in Springfield, Clifford says he was asked by Democratic state lawmaker Rep. Luis Arroyo to consider hiring somebody  the Latino caucus sends him. Clifford says he told Arroyo "we have a process. Times are different today at Metra than they were under my predecessor. Every applicant, every employee will come in through the front door."
Clifford went on to point fingers at those who intentionally "railroaded" him into a poor performance evaluation which led to the end of his contract -- specifically Metra Chairman Brad O'Hallaron and another Metra board member. When Clifford approached O'Hallaron about his upcoming contract he claims O'Hallaron responded, "but we're just dating." Then said, "I need to get a meeting with Mr. Madigan and I need to find out what kind of damage you've caused to our potential for future funding."
When it was his turn to testify, O'Hallaron denied Clifford's accusations. O'Hallaron told the RTA board: "If as alleged by Clifford I was seeking to protect Speaker Madigan, why would I take his allegations immediately over to the OEIG (Office of Executive Inspector General) if I thought there was pressure from Speaker Madigan? It just doesn't make sense."
Clifford did not get the necessary votes to renew his contract earlier this year, but he left Metra with a $700,000 severance deal that some have characterized as "hush money" to keep Clifford quiet after threatening a lawsuit. Clifford denies that claim and says the money was "100 percent about my ability to get a job and how I've been damaged."
Metra announced on Friday that it plans to hire a well-known former federal prosecutor in Chicago to perform an independent investigation into Clifford's allegations and make recommendations concerning Metra's hiring and contract policies. Metra's board of directors must approve the hiring at a special meeting on Monday.
The man who oversees Illinois' government watchdog group says even though there was no illegal activity involved with the Metra scandal, the case has lawmakers squirming a bit more than usual.
"This is a very big deal, this is the first time in anyone's memory that Speaker Madigan has been implicated so directly in the workings of a public agency," Better Government Association President Andy Shaw said. "Madigan and hundreds if not thousands (of politicians) do this every day. We just don't hear about it very often, because it happens behind closed doors."
Shaw admits any hope for changing this type of behavior has to come from voters. "This is only going to change in one of two ways. People coming out to vote and deciding who represents them. And secondly when a groundswell of public outrage forces public officials to impose higher ethics standards upon themselves."
Illinois' history with questionable political ethics is rich. The state practically became the poster child for corruption during the criminal trial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Blagojevich attempted to sell off Barack Obama's coveted U.S. Senate seat in return for hefty campaign donations referencing it in the now infamous phone call saying, "I've got this thing and it's f------ golden and I'm not giving it up for f------ nothing."
Blagojevich is currently serving out his 14-year sentence in federal prison in Colorado.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/19/chicago-whistle-blower-implicates-top-state-democrat/?test=latestnews#ixzz2ZXlSkaPi

Detroit Now, America Later.

Detroit filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history Thursday after steep population and tax base declines sent it tumbling toward insolvency.
The filing by a state-appointed emergency manager means that if the bankruptcy filing is approved, city assets could be liquidated to satisfy demands for payment.
Kevin Orr, a bankruptcy expert, was hired by the state in March to lead Detroit out of a fiscal free-fall, and made the filing Thursday in federal bankruptcy court.
"Only one feasible path offers a way out," Gov. Rick Snyder said in a letter to Orr and state Treasurer Andy Dillon approving the bankruptcy. The letter was attached to the bankruptcy filing.
"The citizens of Detroit need and deserve a clear road out of the cycle of ever-decreasing services," Snyder wrote. "The city's creditors, as well as its many dedicated public servants, deserve to know what promises the city can and will keep. The only way to do those things is to radically restructure the city and allow it to reinvent itself without the burden of impossible obligations."
Snyder had determined earlier this year that Detroit was in a financial emergency and without a plan to improve things. Snyder hired Orr in March, and he released a plan to restructure the city's debt and obligations that would leave many creditors with much less than they are owed.
Orr was unable to convince a host of creditors, including the city's union and pension boards, to take pennies on the dollar to help facilitate the city's massive financial restructuring.
Some creditors were asked to take about 10 cents on the dollar of what the city owed them. Underfunded pension claims would have received less than 10 cents on the dollar under that plan.
A team of financial experts put together by Orr said that proposal was Detroit's one shot to permanently fix its fiscal problems.
The filing leads to a 30 to 90 day period that will determine whether or not the city of Detroit is eligible for Chapter 9 protection, and define the number of claimants who may compete for Detroit’s limited settlement resources. The petition seeks protection from unions and creditors who are renegotiating $18.5 billion in debt and liabilities, according to the Detroit Free Press.
“The President and members of the President’s senior team continue to closely monitor the situation in Detroit,” White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said in a statement Thursday.
“While leaders on the ground in Michigan and the city’s creditors understand that they must find a solution to Detroit’s serious financial challenge, we remain committed to continuing our strong partnership with Detroit as it works to recover and revitalize and maintain its status as one of America's great cities,” the statement read.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., remained positive about Detroit’s outlook in spite of the major blow that bankruptcy delivered:
“I know firsthand, because I live in Detroit, that our city is on the rebound in some key ways, and I know deep in my heart that the people of Detroit will face this latest challenge with the same determination that we have always shown,” the Senator said in a statement released Thursday.
A number of factors -- most notably steep population and tax base falls -- have been blamed on Detroit's descent toward insolvency.
Detroit was once synonymous with U.S. manufacturing prowess. Its automotive giants switched production to planes, tanks and munitions during World War II, earning the city the nickname “Arsenal of Democracy.”
Detroit lost a quarter-million residents between 2000 and 2010. A population that in the 1950s reached 1.8 million is struggling to stay above 700,000. Much of the middle-class and scores of businesses also have fled Detroit, taking their tax dollars with them.
Detroit's budget deficit is believed to be more than $380 million. Orr has said long-term debt was more than $14 billion and could be between $17 billion and $20 billion. Bailey Comment: This is what is going to happen to all of America unless we kick Obama and all of the crooks out of the government.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/18/detroit-files-for-largest-municipal-bankruptcy-in-us-history/#ixzz2ZRSmvtYQ

Sharpton Cartoon

Fall of the Roman Empire (America?)

Decline in Morals and Values
Even during PaxRomana (A long period from Augstus to Marcus Aurelius when the Roman empire was stable and relativly peaceful) there were 32,000 prostitutes in Rome. Emperors like Caligula and Nero became infamous for wasting money on lavish parties (or 100 million dollar trips) where guests drank and ate until they became sick. The most popular amusement was watching the gladiatorial combats in the Colosseum.(Smack down)

Political Corruption
One of the most difficult problems was choosing a new emperor. (or Presidents) Unlike Greece where transition may not have been smooth but was at least consistent, the Romans never created an effective system to determine how new emperors would be selected. The choice was always open to debate between the old emperor, the Senate, the Praetorian Guard (the emperor's's private army), and the army. Gradually, the Praetorian Guard gained complete authority to choose the new emperor, who rewarded the guard who then became more influential, perpetuating the cycle. Then in 186 A. D. the army strangled the new emperor, the practice began of selling the throne to the highest bidder. During the next 100 years, Rome had 37 different emperors - 25 of whom were removed from office by assassination. This contributed to the overall weaknesses, decline and fall of the empire.

 Unemployment
During the latter years of the empire farming was done on large estates called latifundia that were owned by wealthy men who used slave labor. (like illegals) A farmer who had to pay workmen could not produce goods as cheaply. (like China) Many farmers could not compete with these low prices and lost or sold their farms. This not only undermined the citizen farmer who passed his values to his family, but also filled the cities with unemployed people. At one time, the emperor was importing grain to feed more than 100,000 people in Rome alone. These people were not only a burden but also had little to do but cause trouble and contribute to an ever increasing crime rate.


Inflation
The roman economy suffered from inflation (an increase in prices) beginning after the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Once the Romans stopped conquering new lands, the flow of gold into the Roman economy decreased. Yet much gold was being spent by the romans to pay for luxury items. This meant that there was less gold to use in coins. (the amount of silver in a quarter or dime) As the amount of gold used in coins decreased, the coins became less valuable. To make up for this loss in value, merchants raised the prices on the goods they sold. Many people stopped using coins and began to barter to get what they needed. Eventually, salaries had to be paid in food and clothing, and taxes were collected in fruits and vegetables.

 Urban decay
Wealthy Romans lived in a domus, or house, with marble walls, floors with intricate colored tiles, and windows made of small panes of glass. Most Romans, however, were not rich, They lived in small smelly rooms in apartment houses with six or more stories called islands. Each island covered an entire block. At one time there were 44,000 apartment houses within the city walls of Rome. First-floor apartments were not occupied by the poor since these living quarters rented for about $00 a year. The more shaky wooden stairs a family had to climb, the cheaper the rent became. The upper apartments that the poor rented for $40 a year were hot, dirty, crowed, and dangerous. (low cost housing)Anyone who could not pay the rent was forced to move out and live on the crime-infested streets. Because of this cities began to decay.

And on and on and on!

This is for Trayvon.

For the last two nights, riots have occurred in Oakland and Los Angeles.  In those areas, people have been injured, concrete blocks thrown at the police and property damaged or destroyed.
 
In other parts of the country, there were isolated incidents of violence.  In Baltimore, a man was beaten by a group of “black youths” shouting, “This is for Trayvon.”

The Trayvon Martin memorial riots are in full swing.

Why are we having riots now and what can we do about it?

The riots should be a wakeup call for America. 

While we are seeing the worst of the riots in California, the violence is not confined there.  In a Memphis suburb, Senatobia Mississippi, three black men in a car stopped a white jogger and beat him, saying, “This is for Trayvon.”

In Oakland, where the police were reportedly told to stand down, members of the media were attacked, as were drivers on the Interstate.

This should be a wakeup call for America because liberalisms’ chickens are coming home to roost in America.

For decades liberalism has worked against the one underpinning that made America a great nation.  One hundred years ago, we were told that America was the great melting pot.  It did not matter where you came from, when you got to America, you became an American.

That unified America and erased old divisions that had caused wars in other nations.  In America, people of differing religions lived in peace as neighbors.  People from different nations, often nations that had been at war, would live in peace as Americans.

The left’s constant chants about diversity have nothing to do with us celebrating our differences.  It is a mantra to keep us divided.  Twenty years ago, it became popular to call blacks, “African Americans.” 

That is garbage.  Either you are an American or you are not. 

There is no qualifying of your American heritage.

Unfortunately, the Racial Grievance Industry thrives on this type of division and that is what we see in America today.

In 2004, then Democrat Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards gave his famous “Two Americas” speech.  Edwards was wrong about how he described the two Americas but he was right, there are two Americas.

We have an America that is divided by race.  And we can thank the hucksters for it.

Where would Jesse Jackson be today without the Racial Grievance Industry?  He never wants America to get over its racial problems.  If America suddenly had not more racial problems, how would Jesse make his living?  If America no longer had racial issues, the NAACP would have to disband.  They wouldn’t want Ben Jealous unemployed would they?

As we watch the riots in California and violence in other places, it is time we place the blame for the violence where it belongs.  It is racism.  It is the racism of the Racial Grievance Industry.  It is time we called out the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons of the world and made them take the blame for what they have done.

And it is time we change the way we do things in America.  We are all Americans.  There are not subsets of Americas.  For too long we have let the left divide us along racial lines for their power and profit.

What is the result of what the left has done?

It is the Trayvon Martin memorial riots.

Holder wades deeper into Zimmerman battle, calls for review of ‘stand-your-ground’

Attorney General Eric Holder waded deeper into the controversy over the George Zimmerman case and verdict on Tuesday, suggesting a national review of "stand-your-ground" laws during a speech before the annual NAACP convention in Orlando.
The NAACP is at the forefront of the effort to pressure the Justice Department to bring federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman. Holder confirmed on Monday that his department is reviewing that possibility, citing his personal concerns about the case.
He went a step further on Tuesday, weighing in for the first time on controversial state-level laws on self-defense.
"Separate and apart from the case that has drawn the nation's attention, it's time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods," Holder said.
The comments were a reference to so-called "stand-your-ground" laws, which in Florida and other states allow people to use deadly force if they think their life is being threatened.
The role that law played in the Zimmerman shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin is a matter of dispute.
But Holder suggested the laws encourage confrontation, saying there "has always been" a legal defense for using deadly force when retreat is not an option.    
"But we must examine laws that take this further by eliminating the common sense and age-old requirement that people who feel threatened have a duty to retreat, outside their home, if they can do so safely," Holder said. "By allowing -- and perhaps encouraging -- violent situations to escalate in public, such laws undermine public safety."
He called for a "hard look" at the laws. The crowd applauded as he said "we must stand our ground."
The "stand-your-ground" laws have been a popular target ever since the Martin shooting, and the pressure has intensified after Zimmerman was acquitted on Saturday.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, though, told Fox News that officials should not politicize the case.
"We shouldn't turn this into politics. This was a tragedy," he told Fox News on Monday.
Scott noted that he already put together a bipartisan commission to examine Florida's "stand-your-ground" law.
"Their recommendation is we not make any changes, that it is working the way it was intended," Scott said.
A confluence of pressure campaigns, though, are weighing on Congress and the Obama administration.
Despite warnings from analysts and attorneys that the Justice Department would face an uphill climb in prosecuting Zimmerman on civil rights charges, an NAACP-led petition demanding such a case has apparently hit one million signatures.
Singer Stevie Wonder is also the latest celebrity to criticize Florida's self-defense law.
He declared that he would not perform in Florida until the law is abolished. Bailey Comment: Holder is Black, now whose side do you think he is going to be on when he addresses the NAACP??

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/16/holder-wades-deeper-into-zimmerman-battle-calls-for-review-stand-your-ground/#ixzz2ZFI4ihpj

Race Baiting

Students should get loans from banks.

Project 21 black leadership network

Washington, D.C. – Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are analyzing the legal aspects of the George Zimmerman verdict and commenting on the implications:

Horace Cooper
“While I’m thrilled with this outcome, it should never have come to this. This case should never have been brought forward. The grand jury should never have been bypassed and Judge Nelson should never have allowed this case to get this far. There’s a reason the investigating officer refused to support an arrest, there’s a reason the state’s attorney refused to prosecute and there’s a reason the grand jury was bypassed. There was no substantial evidence corroborating the state’s case and a whole heck of evidence supporting Mr. Zimmerman. The rush to arrest and indict Zimmerman merely to appease the media or race-based interest groups not only jeopardized Mr. Zimmerman’s rights and liberty, but the precedent suggests that all of our rights could be infringed.”
-Cooper, the co-chairman of Project 21, is a former law professor and former congressional leadership staff member.

Darryn “Dutch” Martin
“It goes without saying that a 17-year-old child is dead, and this verdict – though just and correct in my view – will not bring him back. My heart goes out to his family and loved ones. But it needs to be understood that the case against George Zimmerman for the death of Trayvon Martin was not supposed to be about race. It was always about self-defense. Zimmerman’s defense team proved this and the jury concurred. Justice has been served. Now, let’s pray that cooler heads prevail.”
-Martin, a member of Project 21, is a former member of the American diplomatic corps.

Lisa Fritsch
“Despite a not guilty verdict, we must remember that George Zimmerman is not truly free. This trial will forever remain in his mind for his remaining days. Our hope should be that this trial and verdict will unite the Florida community and this country and be a healing testimony to what happens when we think the worst of one another first. In this case, it felt as if our very country were on trial for racial prejudice. The not guilty verdict should make us reflect on what it means to give the benefit of the doubt before judging harshly and deciding one’s actions are racially motivated. The final question for every community is how we can protect our youth from a system of violence and a lifestyle that nearly guarantees they will find trouble. Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin’s family and more urban Americans will hopefully use this case and verdict as an opportunity to correct that system.”
-Fritsch is a member of Project 21 as well as a tea party activist, author and talk radio host.

Hughey Newsome
“Everything about the verdict can be wrapped up by considering the post-verdict comments of Zimmerman attorney Mark O’Mara. While many may feel that O’Mara’s comment about charges not being filed against Zimmerman if Zimmerman were black may seem insensitive and oblivious, his subsequent comments about the need for a civil rights discussion in regards to African-American males are timely despite his feeling it is irrelevant to this case. Those saying the value placed on an African-American male is diminished in today’s society must now ask themselves, if this is believed to be true, what is causing this phenomenon? So many in the media and entertainment industries seem to profit off perpetuating the image of the African-American male as violent and sexual animals, but this is then ignored in order to complain about overt racism that is mostly marginalized in today’s society. This gets us no closer to solving the problem at hand.”
-Newsome, a Project 21 member, is a financial expert and also the Washington representative for the Move-On-Up.Org black political organization.


Emery McClendon
“We must stop looking at issues from a racial context and stand together as one America – with God as our strength. To use a familiar phrase these days, let’s not stay ‘stuck on stupid’ and move on to heal our land. We have so much to be thankful for. For too long, people such as the NAACP’s Ben Jealous and Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have spoke out in hate and ignorance and found placement in the media. It’s time to stop the madness. We must turn the tide. If we put as much time into restoring our Constitution as we did into the Zimmerman trial, America would be a better place for all of us.”
-McClendon is a Project 21 member and tea party activist.
Project 21 was formed in 1992 when the riots following the verdict in the Rodney King case revealed a need to highlight the diversity of opinion within the black community. For over 20 years, the volunteer members of the Project 21 black leadership network have provided conservative and free-market perspectives that, until that time, were largely unknown or ignored by the establishment media.
During the course of the Zimmerman trial, which was heard in the Seminole County (Florida) Circuit Court, Project 21 members provided commentary and continue to be available for interviews about the case and the issues surrounding it. Project 21 regularly issued press releases featuring quotes from its members on the breaking news about the trial and the controversies surrounding it.
Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives since 1992, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research (http://www.nationalcenter.org).

Obama Cartoon

White House Escalates War of Words With Fox News * Refreshing your Memory.

Published October 12, 2009

FoxNews.com

Calling Fox News "a wing of the Republican Party," the Obama administration on Sunday escalated its war of words against the channel, even as observers questioned the wisdom of a White House war on a news organization.
"What I think is fair to say about Fox -- and certainly it's the way we view it -- is that it really is more a wing of the Republican Party," said Anita Dunn, White House communications director, on CNN. "They take their talking points, put them on the air; take their opposition research, put them on the air. And that's fine. But let's not pretend they're a news network the way CNN is."
Fox News senior vice president Michael Clemente, who likens the channel to a newspaper with separate sections on straight news and commentary, suggested White House officials were intentionally conflating opinion show hosts like Glenn Beck with news reporters like Major Garrett.
"It's astounding the White House cannot distinguish between news and opinion programming," Clemente said. "It seems self-serving on their part."
In recent weeks, the White House has begun using its government blog to directly attack what it called "Fox lies." David Gergen, who has worked for President Bill Clinton and three Republican presidents, questioned the propriety of the White House declaring war on a news organization.
"It's a very risky strategy. It's not one that I would advocate," Gergen said on CNN. "If you're going to get very personal against the media, you're going to find that the animosities are just going to deepen. And you're going to find that you sort of almost draw viewers and readers to the people you're attacking. You build them up in some ways, you give them stature."
He added: "The press always has the last barrel of ink."
Gergen's sentiments were echoed by Tony Blankley, who once served as press secretary to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
"Going after a news organization, in my experience, is always a loser," Blankley said on CNN. "They have a big audience. And Fox has an audience of not just conservatives -- they've got liberals and moderates who watch too. They've got Obama supporters who are watching. So it's a temptation for a politician, but it needs to be resisted."
Nia Malika Henderson, White House correspondent for the Politico newspaper, also questioned the White House offensive against Fox.
"Obama's only been a boon to their ratings and I don't understand how this kind of escalation of rhetoric and kind of taking them on, one on one, would do anything other than escalate their ratings even more," she said.
Dunn used an appearance on CNN's "Reliable Sources" over the weekend to complain about Fox News' coverage of the Obama presidential campaign a year ago.
"It was a time this country was in two wars," she recalled. "We'd had a financial collapse probably more significant than any financial collapse since the Great Depression. If you were a Fox News viewer in the fall election, what you would have seen would have been that the biggest stories and biggest threats facing America were a guy named Bill Ayers and something called ACORN."
Ayers was co-founder of the Weather Underground, a communist terrorist group that bombed the Pentagon and other buildings in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1995, Ayers hosted Obama at his home for a political function and the two men later served together on the board of an anti-poverty group known as the Woods Fund.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which once had close ties to Obama, has been accused by a variety of law enforcement agencies of voter fraud. In recent weeks, the Democrat-controlled Congress moved to sever funding to ACORN after Fox News aired undercover videotapes of ACORN employees giving advice on how to break the law to a pair of journalists disguised as a pimp and prostitute.
As for Dunn's complaint about Fox News' coverage of the Obama campaign, a study by the Pew Research Center showed that 40 percent of Fox News stories on Obama in the last six weeks of the campaign were negative. Similarly, 40 percent of Fox News' stories on Obama's Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain, were negative.
On CNN, by contrast, there was a 22-point disparity in the percentage of negative stories on Obama (39 percent) and McCain (61 percent). The disparity was even greater at MSNBC, according to Pew, where just 14 percent of Obama stories were negative, compared to a whopping 73 percent of McCain stories -- a spread of 59 points.
Although Dunn accused Fox News of being a "wing of the Republican Party," she said the network does not champion conservatism.
"It's not ideological," she acknowledged. "I mean, obviously, there are many commentators who are conservative, liberal, centrist -- and everybody understands that."
Still, Obama refused to appear on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace on Sept. 20, the day he appeared on five other Sunday shows. At the time, the White House characterized the snub as payback for the Fox Broadcast Network's decision not to air an Obama prime time appearance. But last weekend, Dunn blamed Fox News Channel's coverage of the administration for Obama's snub of Fox News Sunday.
"Is this why he did not appear?" Dunn said. "The answer is yes."
Wallace has called White House officials "the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington."
Dunn was asked by CNN's Howard Kurtz whether Obama would grant an interview to Fox News by the end of the year.
"Obviously, he'll go on Fox, because he engages with ideological opponents and he has done that before, he will do it again," Dunn replied. "I can't give you a date, because frankly I can't give you dates for anybody else right now."
But last week, Fox News was informed by the White House that Obama would grant no interviews to the channel until at least 2010. The edict was relayed to Fox News by a White House official after Dunn discussed the channel at a meeting with presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs and other Obama advisers.
"What I will say is that when he (Obama) goes on Fox, he understands he's not going on it really as a news network, at this point," Dunn said on CNN. "He's going on to debate the opposition. And that's fine. He never minds doing that."
Dunn also strongly implied that Fox had failed to follow up on a New York Times story about a scandal swirling around GOP Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, although Fox News broadcast the stories on numerous shows, including Special Report with Bret Baier.
Clemente questioned the motives of the White House attack, which comes in the wake of an informal coffee last month between Fox chairman Roger Ailes and Obama adviser David Axelrod.
"Instead of governing, the White House continues to be in campaign mode, and Fox News is the target of their attack mentality," he said. "Perhaps the energy would be better spent on the critical issues that voters are worried about."
Blankley suggested the war on Fox News is unpresidential.
"It lowers the prestige," he said. "If you're president or speaker, at a certain level, you don't want to be seen to be engaging that kind of petty bickering. If you're just a congressman, maybe you can do it."
In an interview over the summer, Obama made clear that Fox News has gotten under his skin.
"I've got one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration," he told CNBC's John Harwood. "You'd be hard pressed if you watched the entire day to find a positive story about me on that front."
At the White House Correspondents Dinner in May, Obama even mocked the media for supporting him.
"Most of you covered me; all of you voted for me," Obama said, spurring laughter and applause from the assembled journalists. "Apologies to the Fox table."
Gergen said the White House should delegate its attacks to outside support groups.
"Why don't they take this over to the DNC, over to the Democratic National Committee, and have their struggles like that fought out over there and not out of the White House?" Gergen said. "I have real questions about that strategy."
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