image toon - 1st mny = Oby's speech re: we're all rich

Double Standard on Radical Obama Advisor Van Jones

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On Thursday's Special Report with Bret Baier, FNC host Baier ran a report by correspondent James Rosen describing a "troubling pattern of behavior" by President Obama's Green Jobs Czar, Van Jones.

The report noted some of the controversial statements and connections of Jones, who has not only described himself in the past with such words as "Marxist" and "radical," but has also been linked to 9/11 Truthers and radical groups such as one organization whose manifesto "equated those killed on 9/11 with, quote, 'the victims of U.S. imperialism around the world.'"

The report also showed a clip of Jones from last year accusing "white polluters" of "steering poison" into minority communities.

Rosen ran a soundbite of University of Virginia Politics Professor Larry Sabato -- known for his willingness to criticize politicians of both parties -- who noted what would have happened

"If a Bush official had made anything comparable to what Mr. Jones has said and done, no doubt there would have been a national hurrah of magnificent proportions."

Proof, if any were needed, was quickly provided in that none of the three network morning shows made any reference whatsoever to Van Jones, his radical statements or association with 9/11 'Truther' deniers.

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Jones blames 'smears' for ouster

[HT:BN].
Spoken like a true member of the Obama administration:

"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," ... "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."

I guess liberals believe it's a "smear" when someone reveals the facts about their past.

He won't have to worry about joining the ranks of the unemployed though, as he'll be a triumphant trophy hire for numerous environmental or other organizations, where as a victim of the vast right wing conspiracy he'll enjoy martyr status.

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Nets Portray Van Jones as Victim of Conservatives

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Instead of focusing on how the Obama administration found it appropriate to hire a man who added his name to a petition asserting the Bush administration deliberately allowed the 9/11 attacks to occur -- or the incompetence displayed in not knowing about it -- ABC and NBC on Sunday night painted Van Jones as a victim...

With “Under Fire” on screen by a picture of Jones, as if he's the aggrieved party, World News anchor Dan Harris stressed how Jones' remarks on various topics

“were all made before he joined the Obama administration, but made him an easy target for conservatives.” [?]

and repeated Jones' own lame defense

“he said he is the victim of a 'vicious smear campaign of lies and distortion.'”

and put the final spin squarely at Republicans feet with

“Democrats worry that Van Jones is only the first of Mr. Obama's so-called policy czars...that will be targeted by Republicans.”

Inadvertently, presumably, NBC anchor Lester Holt conceded the mainstream media's malfeasance:

“I don't think most Americans had heard of him before this.”

Holt then asked John Harwood:

“Can the Republican Right claim its first scalp in this administration?”

Harwood proceeded to adopt a different tact by then down playing the significance of the entire affair by insisting

“Jones was not an especially important figure within the administration. His job wasn't that big.”

Sunday night, the CBS Evening News limited Jones coverage to a short update by anchor Russ Mitchell. On Friday, CBS was the only broadcast network evening newscast to have run any story on Jones...

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Jones was recruited not in spite of his beliefs but because of them

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Just how comfortable was the Obama team with the far left, radical statements and beliefs of Van Jones?

Obviously, they believed he fit right in. Somewhat lost in the controversy over Jones Trutherism, his conspiracy mongering about whites trying to kill black people through environmental degradation, his anti-Semitic statements on Israel, his support for the cop killer Mumia, and other beyond the pale beliefs is the fact that, as Paul Mirengoff of Powerline points out, Obama had his eye on the "former" communist for years:

Having watched the rise of Van Jones, why did Team Obama nonetheless "recruit" him into the White house? Because what Jones says and believes is well within the range of what Obama believes, and thus not jarrring to him and his crew... [snip]

One of Paul's friends is quoted as saying, "Van Jones is simply Jeremiah Wright behind a White House desk." How true, indeed.

Obama's radical associations may not have prevented him from winning the White House. But I have a gut feeling that his links to these nutcases won't get quite the free pass he received in 2008. A few more Van Joneses coupled with Obama's attempt to restructure our economy and the voter won't need the MSM to tell them that something is terribly wrong with the president and the company he keeps.

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Van Jones;
The Only Yale Lawyer Who
“Didn’t Know What He Was Signing”

..

Obama's Orders Requireth Haste

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A country that prides itself on its virtuous tendency to reserve judgment until all the facts are in is probably now wondering, if Obama's Healthcare plan is so wonderful, why does he appear reluctant to allow more time to have people carefully delve into it, and is instead engaged in a frenzied public relations campaign which chief goal is to achieve a political victory?

In fact the more the bill is scrutinized, the more that major flaws emerge, and the more resistance Obama encounters, even from some of his own constituents. This makes all the insistence to muscle it through Congress as quickly as possible all the more suspicious. Especially when reports continue to surface that real crises are being visited upon other countries that have for some time operated under one form of socialized medicine or another, bearing some rather sobering accounts of their own experiences which are nothing short of horrific.

Against manifest evidence to the contrary, virtually every Obama policy to date has tried to sidestep the fact that the best societies thrive when the doors of free private enterprise are flung open, and that countries that flirt with government enforced parity swiftly devolve into drudging autocracies.

The biggest irony of course, is that those who are asking for a little more time to responsibly examine the subtle machinations of Obama's grand designs are the ones being portrayed as enemies of progress...

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image toon gwot nsec reps libs hcare = Axis of evil, then and now Bush v Reid

NYT: Democrats Should Pass ObamaCare With No GOP Support

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Candidate Barack Obama promised a new era of bipartisanship in Washington if Americans put him in the White House.

Less than eight months after Inauguration Day, the New York Times has advised the President to ignore such idealism and ram through Congress a widely unpopular healthcare reform package without the support of even one Republican.

Irrespective of the dangerous precedent and the long-term political ramifications, the Times editorial board recommended the Democrats use a parliamentary manipulation to avoid a Senate filibuster...

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ObamaCare -- Or Else

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Is there something disquieting about a president who only wants to spread love and compassion to all Americans -- or else? Or else he'll hate us forever? Or else he'll put us in jail? Or do it despite a greater that two to one majority explicitly telling him we don't want it?

That's the feeling I'm getting. He is so intent on doing us all a big favor. ObamaCare is Just and Right and Compassionate --- and it has nothing to do with empowering the Left for the next generation and turning everybody else into Russian serfs. Nothing at all. There's no self-interest in this man and his benevolent friends from Chicago. They do whatever they do purely out of love for all of humanity.

If some used car salesman keeps ringing your doorbell and phoning you at home and spamming your email, and just will not stop trying to sell you the same old lousy clunker -- after a while you might start to think that he's not that interested in serving your needs.

Something other than trying to do you the favor of a lifetime must be at play here...

[Its never been about improving health care.]

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image toon - 1st hcare = Trojan Donkey re hcare

Afghanistan Matters

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As a soldier who was in Afghanistan for most of 2008 I say unequivocally George Will is wrong; Afghanistan matters.

George Will’s imagined scenario of special-forces and airpower serving in place of boots on the ground in Afghanistan surely sounds good to deskbound policy wonks. But they would do well to remember that policy failed us through the Clinton era. At that time Pakistan was under the more stable hand of Musharraf.

If we abandon our foothold in Afghanistan, we abandon our contacts on the ground. In order for predators, cruise missiles, and SF operators to succeed repeatedly against al-Qaeda, or any other enemies, our forces need human intelligence. This is why al-Qaeda and the Taliban high command retreated to and continue to hide in the inaccessible reaches of Pakistan. It’s why al-Qaeda chose the then closed state of Afghanistan as a base in the first place.

A premature withdrawal from Afghanistan will also present a tremendous propaganda victory to the Taliban. This would be a truly strategic weapon for all of our Islamist enemies in the current struggle. George Will has stepped up his campaign, and now wants to quit Iraq early as well. He cites the ties that Shiite Iran has established with Shiite Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki as a reason to end our commitment there.

If we were to follow Mr. Will’s prescription, by 2011 we could be facing a hostile band of powers stretching from the India-Pakistan border through Syria, to the Mediterranean. This would be the worst middle-eastern scenario the US ever faced, as bad as the Soviet dominated region envisioned by Carter and Reagan circa 1980.

We could face two Islamic, hostile, nuclear powers. Such an outcome would represent the beginning of the end for Israel. It would signify the end of American hegemony, and the start of a truly new world order; one that would be highly unfavorable to our interests...

[Highly Recommended > ]

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Gates: AP decision 'appalling'

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.Defense Secretary Robert Gates is objecting “in the strongest terms” to an Associated Press decision to transmit a photograph showing a mortally wounded 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life, calling the decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency.”

The AP reported that the Marine’s father had asked that the image not be published.

The photo shows Lance Cpl. Joshua M. Bernard of New Portland, Maine, who was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade in a Taliban ambush Aug. 14 in Helmand province of southern Afghanistan.

Gates wrote to Thomas Curley, AP’s president and chief executive officer.

“Out of respect for his family’s wishes, I ask you in the strongest of terms to reconsider your decision. I cannot imagine the pain and suffering Lance Corporal Bernard’s death has caused his family.

"Why your organization would purposefully defy the family’s wishes knowing full well that it will lead to yet more anguish is beyond me. Your lack of compassion and common sense in choosing to put this image of their maimed and stricken child on the front page of multiple American newspapers is appalling. The issue here is not law, policy or constitutional right – but judgment and common decency.

I am begging you to defer to the wishes of the family. This will cause them great pain.”

The Associated Press reported in a story about deliberations about that photo that “after a period of reflection” the news service decided to make public the image.

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The 9/11 Tear Drop Memorial

Something at once beautiful, powerful, provocative and meaningful that the media prefers to ignore

This column is composed to illuminate a beau geste given to honor our brothers and sisters lost on 9/11. This is written three years after the consecration of an august gesture that I had not heard of and it seems many others as well -- the Tear Drop Memorial, Russia's gift to the United States on the fifth anniversary of 9/11. The source of this ignorance will be dealt with in a moment.

The link to the 9/11 monument site is provided above so there will be only a brief comment on the Memorial itself and its artist. The Tear Drop Memorial was created by Georgian/Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli and is officially titled "To the Struggle Against World Terrorism" or "The Memorial at Harbor View Park". The monument is located at The Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor, New Jersey, and is lined up to look upon the Statue of Liberty. The persons most likely to see it would be those coming into the harbor by boat.





















The monolithic block of vertical, earth-colored stone is over 100 feet high. It appears rent in the center from top to bottom and in the gap is a 40 foot, four ton nickel-plated tear drop. The base of the monument is a multi-faceted onyx pedestal inscribed with the names of all of those that perished on 9-11-01, from Flight 93 in Pennsylvania to the Pentagon to the twin Trade Towers.

The symbolisms of this touching and costly gesture are as profound as those of our adopted First Lady, the Statue of Liberty. The Tear Drop and the Russian people deserve, in spite of whatever else they are, a commensurate acknowledgment of this moving symbol of sympathy. It's a crime that even three years later the Russian's simpatico for our losses has not been widely recognized by America and her leaders.

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If you have tears, prepare to shed them now

- William Shakespeare

[link]

Israel, Taiwan, and the UN

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Nixon's Republican administration abandoned the Republic of China on Taiwan and the world followed. Every year since 1992, the Chinese on Taiwan have petitioned for UN membership and their request has been denied. Similarly, the UN has singled out Israel for more criticism than any other nation.

Taiwan lost membership in all UN organizations. Taiwan's population of over 23 million has no representation at the UN.

The Palestinian National Authority's population was estimated in 2008 to be 4.1 million. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was established in 1948 and is devoted exclusively to Palestinian Arabs.

UNRWA is the only UN agency dedicated to working for refugees in a specific conflict. UNRWA's cash budget for 2008 was over $540 million. It must be made clear that UNRWA has never assisted Jewish refugees who were victimized in Islamic nations and fled for their safety to Israel.

Israel and her supporters should -- at every opportunity -- expose the UN for the fraud that it is. This includes the unjust exclusion of Taiwan.

In the Obama era especially, Israel should seek to strengthen ties with those nations like Taiwan -- history may record Nixon's abandonment of Taiwan as minor compared to Obama's desertion of Israel...

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How Obama Stopped the Peace Process

[HT:SS]
On Monday's Special Report with Bret Baier, as FNC aired a special episode with host Baier stationed in Jerusalem to focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Charles Krauthammer noted that the President has pressed Israel further on the issue of construction within existing Jewish settlements than Palestinians previously had.

After observing that the "delay in the peace process is a self-inflicted wound on the Obama administration," and after noting that the issue of settlements had previously "been in consensus," he continued:

"The U.S. and Israelis had agreed, no new settlements, no new expansion of territory in settlements and dismantling of existing settlements. And the Palestinians had accepted that, had never refused negotiations for anything else.

"But then Obama adds a condition of no thickening of settlements, i.e., you don't construct a kindergarten if children are born, which the Israelis have rejected. And all of a sudden, the Palestinians and Arabs have said no negotiations until Israel jumps through this higher hoop.

"So the Arabs and Palestinians have said we are not going to move, we're going to let Obama extract unilateral concessions out of the Israelis, and that is why the process has stopped."

Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Monday's transcript...

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image toon - israel = Oby = Netanyahu; tear down settlements

Recession Proof Industry

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Stable employment is increasingly hard to find these days. But there is one industry that, despite a sharp decrease in revenue, is on a hiring binge. This from bizjournals.com:

Federal agencies will add more than 270,000 employees during the next three years, according to a report from the Partnership for Public Service.

The total projected hiring for “mission-critical jobs” is expected to jump more than 40 percent during fiscal 2010 to 2012 from the previous three years.

I’m always curious to know what federal bureaucrats consider “mission critical” (their own jobs top the list I suppose).

The Cash for Clunkers program provides a clue. The program forced the Transportation Department to triple the staffers designated for paperwork.

As all of private America tightens its belt to make it through difficult times, the federal government will roll on, merrily oblivious to the world around it.

Oh, and did I mention federal employees average double the wage of private workers?

[and the gap is widening...]

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Bursting the Government Bubble

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In the last decade, we have witnessed the bursting of two bubbles, the stock market bubble driven by internet stocks with unsustainable business models and valuations, and more recently, the private debt bubble that has resulted in the destruction of credit along with real estate values.

America is now engaged in the unprecedented growth in government accompanied with unprecedented debt at the federal level.

The Federal Reserve in cooperation with both the Bush Administration in its final days and now the Obama administration is propping up the credit markets with over $1.0T including the TARP funds, and open market purchases of the US debt obligations. Can the too big to fail hypothesis for the big banks also be applied to the Federal government?

The Obama agenda is driving secular growth in government size and services as seen in the Stimulus bill, the March budget resolution, cash for clunkers, cash for insurance companies, cash for banks, cash for GM, and potentially a government option for health care. All of these costs for expanded government need to be paid, and so far, this administration has not articulated how to pay for these bills.

Eventually, all bubbles will burst, and there will be a reversion to the mean, that is, the level of government size and services that existed before the bubble. One possible objective of this Administration is to successfully change the nature of America and government in a way such there can be no reversion to the mean. This is the change that Obama hopes to achieve.

The Obama administration, and Rahm Emmanuel's claim that the financial crisis is not to be wasted has set the stage that will either result in a permanent change in the size and power of the federal government, or it will result in an abrupt end of the growth of government services.

In either case, this administration has created an unstable relationship between government and its constituents.

Either way, there will be change.

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image toon - 1st mny msm reps libs = Angry mob organized - nothing re 10T$ Gov expansion

The Science of Global Warming: Saving the World or Hunting for Ghosts?

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Veterinarians know about cows and cow diseases. Vets can back up their knowledge with thousands of experiments and the accumulation of mountains of incontrovertible data.[i]

On the other hand, there are people who pretend to be scientists and pretend to have explanations for how certain things work -- things that either don't exist or aren't anything like the phenomena that the pretend scientist claims that the things are.

Take "ghost hunters" as an example. What is their science? Does it have a name?[ii] How does one become a ghost-hunting scientist? What evidence qualifies for proving that ghosts exists? How do ghost hunters cure us of the ghosts? (By mumbling some words and then telling their gullible clients that the ghost is gone?)

Doesn't the "science" of ghost hunting presume, without any credible evidence, the existence of ghosts? How do these ghost scientists even look for something that probably doesn't exist? Notice that veterinarians don't assume that cows are sick and that there is only one cow sickness. They study the cow for symptoms and then render a diagnosis.

Now to our topic: What about the science of global warming? Is it more like the science of healing cows or the "science" of ghost hunting?

[Recommended > ]

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Time to End the Hyphenated American Thing

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The announcer introduces me to the audiences of thousands, “Singer/songwriter of the national America Tea Party Anthem, Mr. Lloyd Marcus!”

I enthusiastically enter the stage, “Hello my fellow patriots! I am not an African American ... I am Lloyd Marcus ... AMERICAN!” The mostly white crowds go wild with applause and cheers of approval. I feel their relief and gratitude of a black man who loves his country and is not hostile or resentful toward them.

I am traveling across America on the Tea Party Express Tour. We began August 28th in Sacramento, CA. Our 34 city tour will end September 12th in Washington DC.

[snip]

The audience's emotional response to my, I am not a hyphenated American proclamation has been a big surprise to me. After each rally many approach me to thank me. They tell me, “I can not begin to tell you how much I appreciate what you said. I'm Irish (or I am Italian), and I would never hyphenate. America doesn't need things to divide us”

This cross-country tour has opened my eyes to the reality that Americans have been held hostage by political correctness. [Most] Americans want to be united. They hate hyphenating. In New Mexico, a young man thanked me, “I tell all my friends I am American ... not Mexican-American!"

But it's these same Americans who want to be united without hyphenations that are called racists by the Obama administration for disagreeing with his radical agenda...

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The Point of the Dagger

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A dagger is pointed at the heart of America. Its point is the deliberate misuse of the English language for the purpose of influencing how Americans speak and think. If the dagger is driven home, reason itself will be the principal victim.

Reason is the human faculty concerned with forming good conclusions and making sound judgments.[1] It is the power of intelligent thought, and it takes us step by step on a journey to knowledge. We use words to take that journey because, as the English philosopher Francis Bacon once observed, words are the "footsteps of reason."

But, as Bacon understood quite well, words are a form of code. It is what they stand for that carries meaning, not the words themselves. Thus, to be meaningful, words must be faithful to what they describe. When words lack fidelity, they cease to convey authentic meaning and become an obstacle in the path to knowledge.

In America today, it isn't difficult to find linguistic infidelity. A few conspicuous examples suffice to illustrate the point:

• Undocumented immigrants for illegal aliens
• English plus for Spanish language education
• Economic justice for criminally confiscatory tax policies
• Tax rebates for government handouts to people who pay no taxes
• Tax loopholes for legal ways that people can try to keep their own money
• Affirmative action for legally mandated racism
• Equal employment opportunity for legally required ethnic and gender quotas
• Reproductive health services for abortion clinics

Each of these linguistic deceits is an individual affront to reason, as are thousands of others just like them. But what is more important is that they are part of a deliberate campaign to manipulate our language in order to control how Americans speak and think...

[Highly Recommended > ]

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California Politicians Break Fast with Hamas Front

CALIFORNIA

Dozens of California lawmakers are expected to gather in the state Capitol this evening for an Iftar dinner – the meal breaking the daily fast for Muslims during the month of Ramadan.

In doing so, the politicians are partnering with a group that federal law enforcement officials say is a Hamas-front.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) California chapter issued a news release Monday boasting that the dinner is co-hosted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and 35 other lawmakers.

Public use of the Capitol's Eureka Room requires a member of the California Assembly's sponsorship. Assembly Member Dave Jones, who has spoken at numerous CAIR functions, helped reserve the room, records at the Joint Rules Committee show. [snip]

Among the disclosures:

The FBI last year cut off communication with the group, pointing to exhibits in evidence in the Hamas-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). Five former HLF officials were convicted last fall of illegally funneling more than $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group.

The FBI's case agent testified that CAIR was a Hamas front in the United States, with other exhibits showing it was part of a network of groups and individuals called the "Palestine Committee," which aimed to help Hamas financially and politically. Prosecutors say CAIR's very birth in 1994 is a part of that effort. [snip]

According to the CAIR release, the Assembly co-hosts of the dinner include:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Board of Equalization Chairwoman Betty Yee

Senate President pro Tem Darrel Steinberg
Senator Alex Padilla
Senator Carol Liu
Senator Elaine Alquist
Senator Fran Pavley
Senator Jenny Oropeza
Senator Loni Hancock
Senator Lou Correa
Senator Mark Leno
Senator Pat Wiggins
Senator Denise Ducheny
Senator Leland Yee
Senator Lois Wolk

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass
Assemblymember Dave Jones
Assemblymember Fiona Ma
Assemblymember Jared Huffman
Assemblymember Alyson Huber
Assemblymember Anthony Adams
Assemblymember Bonnie Lowenthal
Assemblymember Hector De La Torre
Assemblymember Ira Ruskin
Assemblymember Isadore Hall
Assemblymember Jose Solorio
Assemblymember Lori Saldaña
Assemblymember Mariko Yamada
Assemblymember Mike Eng
Assemblymember Paul Fong
Assemblymember Pedro Nava
Assemblymember Anthony Portantino
Assemblymember Tom Ammiano
Assemblymember Tom Torlakson
Assemblymember Tony Mendoza
Assemblymember Warren Furutani
Assemblymember Alberto Torrico
Assemblymember Mary Hayashi
Assemblymember Paul Krekorian

**Update: A Schwarzenegger spokesman said the governor did not attend the dinner but agreed to be listed as a co-host because he "supports elevating the holiday."



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G, B, F...

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Complaint Against Former Top Palin Aide Dismissed

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- An ethics complaint against a top aide of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been dismissed as lacking merit.

The complaint was dismissed last week by Alaska's deputy attorney general, Craig Tillery. It alleged that former press secretary Bill McAllister worked on state time to benefit Palin's interest during and after her quest as the GOP vice presidential candidate.

A report from the state Department of Law recommending dismissal of the complaint concluded that no evidence was found that state ethics law was violated.

The grievance was among six filed against Palin or her staff by Anchorage resident Andree McLeod. Five have been dismissed, and one is pending.

[Expect front page headline in the NYT 'soon'...]

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NEA put to work for Obama

The National Endowment for the Arts is supposed to be an apolitical government agency that does nothing more than decide on worthy artistic projects and fund them.

They are a grant agency - and little else. Write to them about your latest idea for a one man show involving cow manure sculptures and you'll probably get approved.

Just one thing though. It would help if one of your cow manure statues was of President Obama, as Abbey Schachter of the New York Post explains:

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Thief thanks cops for rescuing him

An Italian thief thanked police officers for arresting him and putting an end to a beating from Korean tourists whom he had robbed in Rome, police say. ''I must thank you; they were massacring me,''' the 48-year-old criminal told police after he was arrested near the Theatre of Marcellus...

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