If you receive this and you hate it and you don’t want to ever read it no matter what...that is fine; email me back and you will be deleted from my list (which is almost at the maximum anyway).

I attempt to post a new issue each Sunday by 2 or 3 pm central standard time (I sometimes fail at this attempt).

I try to include factual material only, along with my opinions (it should be clear which is which). I make an attempt to include as much of this week’s news as I possibly can. The first set of columns are intentionally designed for a quick read.

I do not accept any advertising nor do I charge for this publication. I write this principally to blow off steam in a nation where its people seemed have collectively lost their minds.

Vice President Joe Biden announces that stimulus package is working and that we are coming out of the recession.

Jobless numbers up; new jobless rate is 9.7%, a 26-year high. The so-called underemployment rate—which includes part-time workers who'd prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking—reached a record 16.8 percent.

The White House reaches out by conference call to specific members of the art community to encourage this community “to speak with the government.” Links and more information under Links.

It turns out that in the UK, many people are essentially being sentenced to a premature death because of their health care system.

Obama-care supporter bites off the finger of a 65 year-old man who does not support Obama’s

health care reform program.

Obama Green Jobs [don’t call him a] Czar, Van Jones, put his name on a 9/11 truther list. 9/11 truthers believe that the 9/11 attacks were somehow caused by or assented to by the Bush administration. Van Jones denies that he placed his name on this list. Mike Berger, a spokesman for www.911Truth.org told the Washington Times over the phone that all of the signers had been verified by their group. Van Jones also claims that he does not agree with this petition now or ever. Jones has publically claimed, however, that white polluters have intentionally targeted minorities as targets of their pollution and toxins. The major networks and many major newspapers are ignoring this story, which may explain why you have not heard of Van Jones.

"Once you open the floodgates, you can no longer tell the water where to go," said Walter E. Williams with respect to giving Congress control over our health care.

“[President Obama] ought to stop making assertions about what the [healthcare] bill will do until he reads it first,” Liz Chaney.

Harry Reid (D-NV) told the advertising director to the Las Vega Review-Journal, "I hope you go out of business."

"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," Van Jones in a statement of resignation from the White House. I should add that these lies and distortions were video clips of Van Jones expressing his opinions to various groups.

“I wonder fi the president doesn’t think that the solution to everything is giving a speech?” Karen Tumulty (this is a 2^nd hand-quote).

Michael Goodwin on Obama’s upcoming address to Congress: “If the president can’t go out there and make a speech which moves the needle at all, I’m not sure what plan B is at all.”

Democrat Congresswoman Diane Watson at a townhall meeting: “It was just mentioned to me by our esteemed speaker, "Did anyone say anything about the Cuban health system?" And lemme tell ya, before you say "Oh, it's a commu-", you need to go down there and see what Fidel Castro put in place. And I want you to know, now, you can think whatever you want to about Fidel Castro, but he was one of the brightest leaders I have ever met. [APPLAUSE] And you know, the Cuban revolution that kicked out the wealthy, Che Guevara did that, and then, after they took over, they went out among the population to find someone who could lead this new nation, and they found.well, just leave it there (laughs), an attorney by the name of Fidel Castro.”

Yosi Sergant, now Director of Communications for the National Endowment for the Arts, speaking to 75 or so in the arts community on a conference call, to encourage them to do some pro-Obama art: "This is just the beginning. This is the first telephone call of a brand new conversation. We are just now learning how to really bring this community together to speak with the government. What that looks like legally, we’re still trying to figure out the laws of putting government website on Face book, and the use of Twitter. This is all being sorted out. We are participating in history as it’s being made. So bear with us as we learn the language so that we can speak to each other safely and we can really work together to move the needle to get stuff done. "

“Obama is addressing school children because they really were born yesterday.” Andrea Tantaros.

When remarking about a recent internet Michael Jackson hoax (that he was still alive), Cal Tomas remarked, “The gullibility of people is unbelievable; look at who we elected president.”

"When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."

"I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity. [To approve the measure] would be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded." -- President Franklin Pierce's 1854 veto of a measure to help the mentally ill. Pierce, by the way, is one of many presidents, beginning with the founding fathers, who took this position.

"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what is will be tomorrow." -- James Madison, Federalist no. 62, February 27, 1788. You would think that he is talking about either our tax code or the House’s health care bill.

North Korea isn’t pretending not to be working on something other than nuclear bombs anymore.

This is quite fantastic about American exceptionalism, but you have to give it a few minutes; hard to logic of Bill Whittle (this is a must-see, particularly if you doubt American exceptionalism):

This is fantastic; a small business owner speaks to Representative Lynn Woolsey (D–CA):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdsYf18y8fs (bear in mind that many of these people that FoxNews brings on air are not professional speakers or pundits, which is obvious when the are interviewed online; this is an indication that these are real people with real concerns with our government)

Whole Foods CEO offers up some creative ideas when it comes to health care insurance, however, since these were not liberal ideas, some liberals have begun to boycott Whole Foods. TEA partiers staged a boycott and filled up the Whole Foods stores with customers. Greta story:

Dick Morris: how Obama is a charisma-politician, but unable to deal with issues:

Guy from Health Care in America Now showing how to disrupt anti-health care types at a townhall meeting:

Van Jones imitates George Bush on crack (2008) to the general Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations.

Van Jones has said a lot of objectionable things which Glenn Beck chronicled last week; however, simply search Van Jones or Beck Van Jones:

Pledging to be better liberals and pledging to be nicer and pledging to help President Obama (this is the video played for many children in schools):

I am not sure how I feel about young children being roped into making political statements, but here, it might be forgivable, as the debt we are running up now will come out of their pockets:

Foxnews had a special on textbooks, which was quite good, even though it attempted to cover too many topics in too short of time. However, only one portion of this is posted on YouTube (the weakest segment, which was on evolution). There is a chance this may be repeated today or tomorrow on FoxNews.

Have you seen Neil Cavuto weave Abbot and Costello’s Who’s on first? bit with Obama-care (it’s excellent):

1) Byron York brought up some interesting points which I have not seen discussed yet when it comes to the House health care bill. Our health care insurance will be linked to the IRS and to our tax forms. We will enter health care information onto our tax forms, and this will be verified and, if we do not have the proper type of health insurance, then we will be fined; and, as you all know, when the IRS wants its money, it will get it. If you think that the IRS forms are confusing now, it will be even more confusing because of the Health Care bill additions (which, I hope does not pass in any form).

2) How did we assume the right to tell Israel where they could and could not build houses?

3) Either Thomas Sowell or Walter Williams stated, the federal government has no right to tell anyone where they can or cannot live; the federal government should not be involved in housing anyone.

4) Many issues ago, I explained how government scholarships and loans drove the price of colleges and universities up. Michael Medved recently spoke of a college president with whom he is friends who admitted that he would lose millions of dollars if he made tuition affordable. When government throws money at something, it becomes more expensive, not less expensive. This is why college tuition continues to skyrocket and this is why we had the housing bubble followed by a severe recession. Yet, even though this housing problem occurred under Bush’s watch, many liberals refuse to believe these simple facts.

5) I am getting a little tired of main stream news and various Democrat strategists claiming that the Republicans have no ideas that they are offering up for health care reform, when these same people are doing everything possible to keep Republican ideas out of the media.

(Remember that GM is now government motors and that Chrysler and GM took bunches of money from the government)

71% of Americans can justify using torture against suspected terrorists at least on occasion (the word torture is used in the survey; not simply waterboarding, which some would not consider torture).

Once you remove all of those who are illegal aliens, can reasonably afford health care insurance but choose not to purchase it, or those who are qualified for a government program, but choose not to participate, you are left with 5–12 million Americans.

Approximately $100 billion is spent on defensive medicine each year, which is more than enough to give those 12 million uninsured gold-plated health insurance policies. They could each get a $2000 credit on their taxes toward a catastrophic insurance policy at 1/50^th the cost.

46% approval rating for Obama by Rasmussen. This means that about 1 out of 5 Obama voters is not experiencing buyer’s remorse and Obama has been president for less than 8 months.

* People under 30 - long a key element of his support - give him no better than break-even ratings, with 41 percent approving and 41 percent disapproving of the job he's doing, according to Zogby.

* Only 75 percent of Democrats, who formerly have supported Obama strongly, now approve of his performance in office. Zogby reports that this represents a slide of more than 10 points over the summer.

* Even among blacks, only 74 percent approve of the job he's doing (also a drop of more than 10 points).

* Hispanics, who voted for him by a margin of more than 40 points, now break even (36-36) when rating his performance.

Although I have not seen any even-handed coverage of the TEA parties or any hint of their vast numbers on MSNBC, they did manage to cover a Texas Succession demonstration of 250 people the other evening.

There was an AP story and picture in the Houston Chronicle this past Friday. It showed one lone anti-Obama care sign in a sea of pro-Obama care signs at a pro-Obama-care rally. The caption indicated that this was occurring all over the United States. In the story, there was not one word about the 1000's of people showing up for TEA parties, who almost always outnumber pro-Obama-care folks by 2 to 1 or more in the townhall meetings.

Byron York has pointed out that coverage of Van Jones on the major news outlets is almost non-existent.

The NY Times suddenly discovered this story and covered it—after Van Jones resigned.

The media has spent more time on the birthers (those who question whether Obama was born in the United States) than it has on Van Jones.

Now, couldn’t you have a field day with President Obama addressing the children of the United States. He could, of course, scare them about dying polar bears and global warming, and how to get the kids’ parents to approve of cap and trade. He could show the corpse of Ted Kennedy in a coffin behind him and tell them that he died because of our terrible health care system, and tell the kids that he was just 32 years old, but he died because our health care is so bad. Then, of course, open up the casket and show the kids.

And the phone call to artists? What comedian could not do a bit on that? Of course, it would work better with Obama on the phone, hiding his voice, and explaining more specifically about what kind of art would be good, and more obvious hinting about a big endowment could be given to the best art. Or, no, make this Rob Blagoivich working the phone, saying, “I’ve got something which is f— golden...all of this endowment money, and I want to funnel it to you. But you gotta f— do something for me”

It appears as though some of the Blue Dog Democrats might hold firm on Obama-care.

Health care reform has now become health care insurance reform, so that insurance companies can be demonized for charging so much (which is a result of government regulation).

Does it make any difference that a majority of Americans are strongly against your vision of health-care reform?

You have touted the public option as increasing competition of health insurance companies. If competition is good, why did you vote against selling insurance across state lines when you were a Senator?”

Do you think releasing all of our CIA interrogation techniques to terrorists was a good idea and will result in Americans being safer?

If you do not realize that the NEA ought not to contact the art community in order to produce pro-Obama art.

Obama-day at school is going to incite the largest walkout/sick-out/absenteeism in the history of our public schools. Most news organizations will not report this, and if you subscribe to or view such organizations, you ought to stop patronizing them for that reason (assuming that I am right about the absenteeism).

When it comes to speaking, Obama will not be able to help himself with these students. His highly partisan slant will not be easily identifiable (particularly not to him or his speech writers), but it will be there in what he says to the kids.

When it comes to Obama’s health care speech to Congress, I cannot imagine it being anything new except perhaps suggesting the two standard substitutions for government-care: a coop (where the government is the bigger half of the coop); or the public-care trigger, when insurance companies are so restricted that this trigger will go, and public-care will be suddenly implemented (Obama will not express it in those terms). What Obama will not talk about are the ideas of torte reform or buying insurance across state lines, or the deregulation of insurance (which is one reason it is expensive). Although Obama will not say anything about him actually compromising, he will disparage Republicans for not working with him. He will not say, I have been listening to many of you who have come out to these townhall meetings, and I think that you have some valid points that we need to consider.

Stuart Varney says that we will hear from all the talking heads that the end of the recession is here and that health care will then be sold as a fix for the economy (or for the lack of jobs).

Walter Williams says that the fed will pour trillions of dollars into the economy, send us into a great inflationary cycle, and that, the talking heads will blame big oil, oil profiteers, Wall Street barons, etc. for the inflation. Remember, this worked for the housing crisis. Congress caused the housing crisis and literally forced lenders to take on unsafe loans, and then demoagogued greedy, predatory mortgage companies for all of it.

Obama is still in campaign mode, giving speeches as if they will solve problems.

Michael Jackson’s death ruled a homicide (which I told you would happen the week he died). Look for his private physician to be made an example of.

If you were to receive all your news from any one of these outlets, or even all of them together, and you heard about some sort of controversy involving President Obama's Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, your response would be, "Huh?" If you heard that that adviser, Van Jones, had apologized for a number of remarks and positions in the recent past, your response would be, "What?" And if you were in the Obama White House monitoring the Jones situation, you would be hoping that the news organizations listed above continue to hold the line -- otherwise, Jones, who is quite well thought of in Obama circles, would be history.

I am reading some contradictory sources online, but it appears as if the writing of the Stimulus Bill was, at least in part, in the hands of the Apollo Alliance.

From the Apollo Alliance and their comparison of the two stimulus bills (before it was passed):

Months and months ago, I said that we needed to know who was writing these bills; what sorts of agendas do they have.

UPDATE! 8/4/09 The Apollo Alliance has now ADMITTED that they wrote the Stimulus Bill AND the Cap and Trade Bill. It will only be a matter of time before America learns THEY wrote the Healthcare Bill too!

The APOLLO ALLIANCE consists of a coalition of UNIONS, like SEIU, Social Justice groups the likes of ACORN and at the helm is Van Jones a Communist that is Obama's "Green Czar" and head of the Green Initiative. So the triad of these groups are writing our Legislation. America, have you had enough yet?

One thing any American attending any townhall meeting this Congressional-recess break should ask your Congressman/woman: WHO WROTE THE HEALTHCARE BILL? WHAT ARE THEIR NAMES? The Apollo Alliance, that is made up of radicals like ACORN, the "green movement" with known Communist Van Jones and the Unions the likes of SEIU, brag THEY wrote the STIMULUS BILL. Can you honestly answer you know exactly WHO wrote the Healthcare Bill; all 1,000+pages of it and within 6 months of Obama taking office? Then ask WHO specifically are the community organizations mentioned on pages 469-472?

Essentially what we have are dozens of government-funded organizations which have figured out ways to get money from the government. They are complex and interrelated, and their founders, in some cases, are former criminals (some of whom have been on the FBI’s most wanted list in the past). Somehow, these people have achieved some legitimacy in life, yet they have this vision for America which has not changed at all from their radical past.

And, to their credit, at least right now, there is a very well-reasoned comment to his story which reads:

[comment by DBlaker]: Having watched both the Beck segment, and read through your web site and this article, I have to say I still think Beck is more on point than Apollo. To outline why I think this way:

1. What is the financial gain to each side in this? Apollo and its supporters stand to gain quite a bit of power and money through your policies.

2. When has a Government job ever produced anything that helps the economy or people of this nation? Never, the government creating jobs means they have to destroy double the private sector jobs to do so. Don't take my word for it go research it for yourself.

3. Which party has a proven track record of being honest? Beck has a long career with many, many of his views proven to be true. Again don't take my word for it go look it up.

4. What does progressive mean? The definition is favoring progress toward better conditions or new policies, ideas, or methods. This country has been the most powerful in the world for one hundred and fifty years relying on innovation and free markets, capitalism. So the idea of throwing all the old ideas away and going to a bigger more inefficient government, more intrusions into my life, more regulations, more union dues paid to a useless group that does nothing for ninety percent of its members. all of these ideas sound like worse conditions, ideas and methods.

I will be actively promoting the boycotting of all business even remotely connected with your organization. Americans do not want to give control of their energy to the Government, the Unions or the flawed science of the global warming crowd.

DBlaker is only of several commentators who are thoughtful and question the motives and function of this government-sponsored organization.

In what appears to be an Apollo Alliance website (but it is not directly tied to them except by linkage), they make the following claims:

We got the New Apollo Program in front of the right people at the right time - and big pieces of that plan made it into the economic stimulus bill making its way through Congress right now.

Apollo's prescriptions for clean energy and green jobs are in the stimulus bill. But some Senators are trying to cut back on these important clean energy investments before the vote - or strip them out altogether.

Tell your Senators that clean energy and good jobs MUST remain a priority in the stimulus.

No matter what conclusions you are drawing, this group will apparently make a lot of money if their initiates are passed (obviously, the Stimulus Bill was already passed):

What happened to President Obama? His wax wings having melted, he is the man who fell to earth. What happened to bring his popularity down further than that of any new president in polling history save Gerald Ford (post-Nixon pardon)?

The conventional wisdom is that Obama made a tactical mistake by farming out his agenda to Congress and allowing himself to be pulled left by the doctrinaire liberals of the Democratic congressional leadership. But the idea of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi pulling Obama left is quite ridiculous. Where do you think he came from, this friend of Chávista ex-terrorist William Ayers, of PLO apologist Rashid Khalidi, of racialist inciter Jeremiah Wright?

But forget the character witnesses. Just look at Obama's behavior as president, beginning with his first address to Congress. Unbidden, unforced and unpushed by the congressional leadership, Obama gave his most deeply felt vision of America, delivering the boldest social democratic manifesto ever issued by a U.S. president. In American politics, you can't get more left than that speech and still be on the playing field.

In a center-right country, that was problem enough. Obama then compounded it by vastly misreading his mandate. He assumed it was personal. This, after winning by a mere seven points in a year of true economic catastrophe, of an extraordinarily unpopular Republican incumbent, and of a politically weak and unsteady opponent. Nonetheless, Obama imagined that, as Fouad Ajami so brilliantly observed, he had won the kind of banana-republic plebiscite that grants caudillo-like authority to remake everything in one's own image.

Accordingly, Obama unveiled his plans for a grand makeover of the American system, animating that vision by enacting measure after measure that greatly enlarged state power, government spending and national debt. Not surprisingly, these measures engendered powerful popular skepticism that burst into tea-party town-hall resistance.

Obama's reaction to that resistance made things worse. Obama fancies himself tribune of the people, spokesman for the grass roots, harbinger of a new kind of politics from below that would upset the established lobbyist special-interest order of Washington. Yet faced with protests from a real grass-roots movement, his party and his supporters called it a mob -- misinformed, misled, irrational, angry, unhinged, bordering on racist. All this while the administration was cutting backroom deals with every manner of special interest -- from drug companies to auto unions to doctors -- in which favors worth billions were quietly and opaquely exchanged.

"Get out of the way" and "don't do a lot of talking," the great bipartisan scolded opponents whom he blamed for creating the "mess" from which he is merely trying to save us. If only they could see. So with boundless confidence in his own persuasiveness, Obama undertook a summer campaign to enlighten the masses by addressing substantive objections to his reforms.

Things got worse still. With answers so slippery and implausible and, well, fishy, he began jeopardizing the most fundamental asset of any new president -- trust. You can't say that the system is totally broken and in need of radical reconstruction, but nothing will change for you; that Medicare is bankrupting the country, but $500 billion in cuts will have no effect on care; that you will expand coverage while reducing deficits -- and not inspire incredulity and mistrust. When ordinary citizens understand they are being played for fools, they bristle.

After a disastrous summer -- mistaking his mandate, believing his press, centralizing power, governing left, disdaining citizens for (of all things) organizing -- Obama is in trouble.

Let's be clear: This is a fall, not a collapse. He's not been repudiated or even defeated. He will likely regroup and pass some version of health insurance reform that will restore some of his clout and popularity.

But what has occurred -- irreversibly -- is this: He's become ordinary. The spell is broken. The charismatic conjurer of 2008 has shed his magic. He's regressed to the mean, tellingly expressed in poll numbers hovering at 50 percent.

For a man who only recently bred a cult, ordinariness is a great burden, and for his acolytes, a crushing disappointment. Obama has become a politician like others. And like other flailing presidents, he will try to salvage a cherished reform -- and his own standing -- with yet another prime-time speech.

But for the first time since election night in Grant Park, he will appear in the most unfamiliar of guises -- mere mortal, a treacherous transformation to which a man of Obama's supreme self-regard may never adapt.

"Little disagreement exists about the need to reform health care. A routine trip to the doctor's office can be surprisingly expensive. Many fear that if they lose their job or switch jobs, they'll be left without health care. Others, who are unemployed, may be wondering how they can afford to see a doctor at all.

"So how can we reform health care so that everyone has access to high-quality care without changing what works for millions of Americans?

"President Obama wants to centralize power in Washington to create a `public option.' This would not be an insurance program run by the public, but one run by the federal government - that is, bureaucrats in Washington.

"It would result in a one-size-fits-all government system that would depend on complex rules and financing schemes, some kind of federal health board, and, of course, higher taxes.

"It would also, inevitably, create waiting lists for treatment and denial of care for many. The federal government's resources are not unlimited, so health care for some will have to be delayed or denied to keep spending in check.

"The plan the senior senator from Massachusetts has put forward would create a `medical advisory council' to determine what treatments people should get and when they should be treated.

"The goal of this medical advisory council, again, would be to keep spending in check - not to ensure that everyone gets care when they need it. It could tell Americans when they can get their treatment and what medications they can and cannot have. The Massachusetts senator's plan would also cover those whose incomes reach 500 percent above the poverty line!

"President Obama has said that if new government-run health care is created you wouldn't have to use it if you prefer your current plan. That's not the way Congress is writing the legislation. Moreover, the government-run care would quickly crowd out other insurers. Someone who has insurance through his or her company could be forced into the government plan if the employer decides it's simpler or cheaper to pay a fine to the federal government and eliminate its coverage. The company might reason, why bother doing the paperwork when we can tell people to get on the government's insurance?

"That's what the health experts say will happen. The Lewin Group has estimated that 119 million people shift from a private plan onto a government-run plan, if it's created. That would affect two-thirds of the 170 million Americans who currently have private insurance, all but ending private insurance in America.

"Republicans believe health-care reform should make health care affordable, portable, and accessible. That last point is too often overlooked. Health care needs to be accessible. Access to health care does not mean access to a waiting list.

"Individuals and families, not the federal government, should control decisions about their health care. The principles of freedom and choice should apply here. The government should not eliminate your choices.

"I'm not sure why some are embracing government-run insurance when those programs have created so many problems in Canada and the United Kingdom. Many people think that Canadians and Europeans get the same quality of health care that Americans get, but pay much less. This is not true.

"The stories you hear from individuals in those countries about months' and years' long waiting lists and denial of care are not cherry-picked scare stories. They are commonplace. People often have to wait months for an MRI or a dental procedure or a hip replacement they urgently need.

"According to a new study by the Fraser Institute, which is a Canadian-based think tank, the average wait time for treatment from a specialist is 18.3 weeks in Canada.

"Well, then some would say at least everyone in Canada has a doctor. Not true. The same study reports that 1.7 million Canadians - out of a country of 33 million - were unable to see a family physician in 2007. And that number does not include those who have a doctor and are on a waiting list. The bottom line is having a government-run plan does not guarantee everyone will have access to a doctor or medical care! It will choke access!

"Some Canadian doctors are taking action. Private hospitals are sprouting up all over Canada. Dr. David Gratzer, a physician, recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal about the story of another physician, Dr. Brian Day of Vancouver.

"Dr. Day, an orthopedic surgeon, grew tired of government cutbacks that reduced his access to an operating room, while at the same time increasing the number of people waiting to see him. So, he opened a private clinic, the Cambie Surgery Center, which employs more than 100 doctors. Public hospitals send him patients they are too busy to treat. The New York Times has reported that a private clinic is opening each week in Canada.

"Opening a private clinic that gives health-care access to more people is a noble thing to do, and I commend Dr. Day. But the success of these clinics also shows that many people who can get out of government-run health care will do so.

"Americans do not deserve or want health care that forces them into a government bureaucracy

that will delay or deny their care and force them to navigate a web of complex rules and regulations. They want access to high-quality care - for their own families and for their neighbors. They want to pick their own doctors, and they don't want Washington to dictate what kind of care they can or cannot get."

President Obama wants to speak directly to American youth while they are in their classrooms.

This has been done before by other presidents, so it is reasonable to ask, what is all the flap about? President Obama has shown himself to be the most ideological, the most far-left and the most divisive president of all time. The materials which were distributed to be a part of Obama’s lesson were very self-serving to a very young, and impressionable audience. If Obama’s intention was to speak to these children and encourage them to stay in school, and that anything is possible in America, there is nothing in that content that anyone could argue with. After all, what could be more influential than a Black President, a mere 50 years from the country’s Civil Rights movement, to tell students about the greatness of America, the importance of hard work and study for all students, so that they might achieve their dreams. It would have been a powerful moment which some students would have remembered for all of their lives.

Hover, the materials distributed by the president indicate more of a political agenda instead; they suggest that Obama is going to influence the philosophy and thinking of this captive audience far more than to encourage them to work and study hard. Obama, more than any previous political candidate, achieved almost a rock-star/messiah status with his followers, many of whom fainted at hearing words come from his mouth. For these reasons, many parents do not want to see Obama overreach to their own children, as he has done in so many other ways already.

What follows is a document for teachers, to suggest discussion which take place before Obama speaks to their students, as well as suggestions of what to do after President Obama has addressed the students of the United States (this document has since been revised).

Produced by Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of Education September 8, 2009

Teachers can build background knowledge about the President of the United States and his speech by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama and motivate students by asking the following questions: Who is the President of the United States? What do you think it takes to be President? To whom do you think the President is going to be speaking? Why do you think he wants to speak to you? What do you think he will say to you?

Teachers can ask students to imagine being the President delivering a speech to all of the students in the United States. What would you tell students? What can students do to help in our schools? Teachers can chart ideas about what they would say.

Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?

As the President speaks, teachers can ask students to write down key ideas or phrases that are important or personally meaningful. Students could use a note-taking graphic organizer such as a Cluster Web, or students could record their thoughts on sticky notes. Younger children can draw pictures and write as appropriate. As students listen to the speech, they could think about the following: What is the President trying to tell me? What is the President asking me to do? What new ideas and actions is the President challenging me to think about?

Students can record important parts of the speech where the President is asking them to do something. Students might think about: What specific job is he asking me to do? Is he asking anything of anyone else? Teachers? Principals? Parents? The American people?

Students can record any questions they have while he is speaking and then discuss them after the speech. Younger children may need to dictate their questions.

Teachers could ask students to share the ideas they recorded, exchange sticky notes or stick notes on a butcher paper poster in the classroom to discuss main ideas from the speech, i.e. citizenship, personal responsibility, civic duty.

Students could discuss their responses to the following questions: What do you think the President wants us to do? Does the speech make you want to do anything? Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us? What would you like to tell the President?

Teachers could encourage students to participate in the Department of Education's "I Am What I Learn" video contest.

On September 8^th the Department will invite K-12 students to submit a 2 video no longer than 2 min, explaining why education is important and how their education will help them achieve their dreams. Teachers are welcome to incorporate the same or a similar video project into an assignment. More details will be released via www.ed.gov

Create posters of their goals. Posters could be formatted in quadrants or puzzle pieces or trails marked with the labels: personal, academic, community, country. Each area could be labeled with three steps for achieving goals in those areas. It might make sense to focus on personal and academic so community and country goals come more readily.

Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals.

Write goals on colored index cards or precut designs to post around the classroom.

Interview and share about their goals with one another to create a supportive community.

Participate in School wide incentive programs or contests for students who achieve their goals.

Write about their goals in a variety of genres, i.e. poems, songs, personal essays.

Grades 7-12 Menu of Classroom Activities: President Obama's Address to Students Across America Produced by Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of Education September 8, 2009

(Students spend a few minutes Thinking and writing about the question; Paired with another student to discuss, then Sharing their ideas with the class as a whole). What do we associate with the words responsibility, persistence, and goals? How would we define each term? A teacher might create a web of student ideas for each of the words.

Quick Write or Brainstorm: What are your strengths? At what are you successful as a person/student? What makes you successful at these efforts? List at least three things you are successful at and why you feel successful with these tasks.

Short readings. Notable quotes excerpted (and posted in large print on board) from

President Obama's speeches about education. Teacher might ask students to think alone, compare ideas with a partner, and share their collaborations with the class (Think/Pair/Share) about the following: What are our interpretations of these excerpts? Based on these excerpts, what can we infer the President believes is important to be successful educationally?

Brainstorm or Concept Web: Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us? How will he challenge us? What might he say?

Brainstorm or Concept Web: What other historic moments do you remember when the President spoke to the nation? What was the impact? Students could create a Cause/Effect graphic organizer.

Listening with a purpose: personal responsibility, goals, persistence. Teachers might ask pairs of students to create a word bank from the web of any one of the terms (personal responsibility, goals, or persistence) at the top of a double-column style notes page. On the right-hand side, students could take notes while President Obama talks about personal responsibility, or goals, or persistence, trying to capture direct quotations. At the end of the speech, students could then write the corresponding terms from the word bank in the left hand column, to increase retention and deepen their understanding of an important aspect of the speech.

Listening with a purpose: Inspiration and Challenges. Using a similar double-column style notes page as the one above, the teacher could focus students on quotations that either propose a specific challenge to them or inspire them in some meaningful way. Students could do this individually, in pairs or groups. Transition/Quick Review: Teachers could ask students to look over the notes and collaborate in pairs or small groups. What more could we add to our notes? Teachers might circulate and ask students questions such as: What are the most important words in the speech? What title would you give it? What's the thesis?

What resonated with you from President Obama's speech? What lines/phrases do you remember?

We heard President Obama mention the importance of personal responsibility. In your life, who exemplifies this kind of personal responsibility? How? Give examples.

Suppose President Obama were to give another speech about being educationally successful. Who could he speak to next? Who should be his next audience? Why? What would he say?

What are the three most important words in the speech? Rank them. What title would you give this speech? What's the thesis?

Teachers could encourage students to participate in the Department of Education's "I Am What I Learn" video contest. On September 8^th the Department will invite K-12 students to submit a video no longer than 2 min, explaining why education is important and how their education will help them achieve their dreams. Teachers are welcome to incorporate the same or a similar video project into an assignment. More details will be released via www.ed.gov

Teachers could introduce goal setting in the following way to make the most of the extension activities.

"When you set a goal, you envision a target you are going to reach over time. Goals are best when they are Challenging, Attainable, and Needed (CAN). For example, a good goal might be "I want to boost my average grade by one letter grade this year so I can show colleges I'm prepared." But, every good goal also needs steps that guide the way. These steps keep you on track toward achieving your goal. For example, my first step might be, to improve by a letter grade in all subjects for each report card. My second step: to complete 100% of my homework for all my classes the first week of school. My third step: to study an extra hour for all my tests each marking period. My fourth step: to attend tutoring or get an adult to help me whenever I don't understand something. My last step might be the most important: to ask an adult in my life to check on me often, to make sure I'm reaching each of my steps. Your steps should add up to your goal. If they don't, that's okay; we fix them until they do add up!

Let's hear another example of an academic goal for the year, and decide what steps would achieve that goal. Now I want you to write your own personal academic goal for this year and steps you will take to achieve it. We can revise our steps each marking period to make sure we are on track."

Create decorated goals and steps on index card sized material. The index cards could be formatted as an inviting graphic organizer with a space for the goal at the top and several steps in the remaining space. Cards could be hung in the room to create classroom culture of goal setting, persistence and success, and for the purpose of periodic review. (See "Example Handouts").

Create posters of their goals. Posters could be formatted in quadrants or puzzle pieces or trails marked as steps. These could also be hung around the room, to be reviewed periodically and to create a classroom culture of goal setting and for the purpose of periodic review.

Interview and share their goals with one another and the class, establishing community support for their goals.

Write about their goals and steps in a variety of genres, i.e. poems, songs, personal essays.

Obama is a very stupid and very egotistical man, and he missed a great opportunity because of this. Okay, maybe he isn’t stupid, but he lacks wisdom and flexibility.

Here’s the problem: Obama’s numbers are sinking like a stone, and what does he do? He wants to address both houses, get art people to make pro-Obama art, and speak to the children. He could have done things so much differently, but he blew it.

First of all, the art thing is just inexcusable. Anyone who came up with that idea should be canned, like the person who thought up the fishy email idea.

Here’s what Obama should have done: he should have asked Clarence Thomas, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, and Sarah Palin to speak to the children with him. Everyone would get the same amount of time. Every one of them could tell what they have done and what their job is in government.

K–4, each of them spends 10 minutes or so telling about themselves, and what their background is, and each one gives their own encouragement or suggestions to the students.

Grades 5–7: they spend 10 minutes telling about themselves, about their backgrounds; and then 15 minutes telling what they do or did in government, and how their jobs affect one another.

8–12: they tell about their backgrounds, their jobs, how they interact with one another, their particular branch of government, and then their general philosophy of what government should do and not do.

The press wants to praise Obama. They love him. They are thrilled by him. They would praise this political move to heavens, about what a great and bipartisan man President Obama is. NBC would sell videos of it on their website. Many stations would broadcast the 8–12 presentation.

Teachers would be praising him to the heavens as well, and for many of the same reasons. However, this never occurs to Obama or to any of his handlers. What Obama is handing down is the gospel. What Obama has to say is magical and can heal the minions and lower the oceans. So, he does not know how to share the stage. Another opportunity squandered. And this is his loss and on of his many weaknesses.

After enduring the CIA's harshest interrogation methods and spending more than a year in the agency's secret prisons, Khalid Sheik Mohammed stood before U.S. intelligence officers in a makeshift lecture hall, leading what they called "terrorist tutorials."

In 2005 and 2006, the bearded, pudgy man who calls himself the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks discussed a wide variety of subjects, including Greek philosophy and al-Qaeda dogma. In one instance, he scolded a listener for poor note-taking and his inability to recall details of an earlier lecture.

Speaking in English, Mohammed "seemed to relish the opportunity, sometimes for hours on end, to discuss the inner workings of al-Qaeda and the group's plans, ideology and operatives," said one of two sources who described the sessions, speaking on the condition of anonymity because much information about detainee confinement remains classified. "He'd even use a chalkboard at times."

These scenes provide previously unpublicized details about the transformation of the man known to U.S. officials as KSM from an avowed and truculent enemy of the United States into what the CIA called its "preeminent source" on al-Qaeda. This reversal occurred after Mohammed was subjected to simulated drowning and prolonged sleep deprivation, among other harsh interrogation techniques.

"KSM, an accomplished resistor, provided only a few intelligence reports prior to the use of the waterboard, and analysis of that information revealed that much of it was outdated, inaccurate or incomplete," according to newly unclassified portions of a 2004 report by the CIA's then-inspector general released Monday by the Justice Department.

The debate over the effectiveness of subjecting detainees to psychological and physical pressure is in some ways irresolvable, because it is impossible to know whether less coercive methods would have achieved the same result. But for defenders of waterboarding, the evidence is clear: Mohammed cooperated, and to an extraordinary extent, only when his spirit was broken in the month after his capture March 1, 2003, as the inspector general's report and other documents released this week indicate.

Over a few weeks, he was subjected to an escalating series of coercive methods, culminating in 7 1/2 days of sleep deprivation, while diapered and shackled, and 183 instances of waterboarding. After the month-long torment, he was never waterboarded again.

"What do you think changed KSM's mind?" one former senior intelligence official said this week after being asked about the effect of waterboarding. "Of course it began with that."

Mohammed, in statements to the International Committee of the Red Cross, said some of the information he provided was untrue.

"During the harshest period of my interrogation I gave a lot of false information in order to satisfy what I believed the interrogators wished to hear in order to make the ill-treatment stop. I later told interrogators that their methods were stupid and counterproductive. I'm sure that the false information I was forced to invent in order to make the ill-treatment stop wasted a lot of their time," he said.

Critics say waterboarding and other harsh methods are unacceptable regardless of their results, and those with detailed knowledge of the CIA's program say the existing assessments offer no scientific basis to draw conclusions about effectiveness.

"Democratic societies don't use torture under any circumstances. It is illegal and immoral," said Tom Parker, policy director for counterterrorism and human rights at Amnesty International. "This is a fool's argument in any event. There is no way to prove or disprove the counterfactual."

John L. Helgerson, the former CIA inspector general who investigated the agency's detention and interrogation program, said his work did not put him in "a position to reach definitive conclusions about the effectiveness of particular interrogation methods."

"Certain of the techniques seemed to have little effect, whereas waterboarding and sleep deprivation were the two most powerful techniques and elicited a lot of information," he said in an interview. "But we didn't have the time or resources to do a careful, systematic analysis of the use of particular techniques with particular individuals and independently confirm the quality of the information that came out."

After his capture, Mohammed first told his captors what he calculated they already knew.

"KSM almost immediately following his capture in March 2003 elaborated on his plan to crash commercial airlines into Heathrow airport," according to a document released by the CIA on Monday that summarizes the intelligence provided by Mohammed. The agency thinks he assumed that Ramzi Binalshibh, a Sept. 11 conspirator captured in September 2002, had already divulged the plan.

One former U.S. official with detailed knowledge of how the interrogations were carried out said Mohammed, like several other detainees, seemed to have decided that it was okay to stop resisting after he had endured a certain amount of pressure.

"Once the harsher techniques were used on [detainees], they could be viewed as having done their duty to Islam or their cause, and their religious principles would ask no more of them," said the former official, who requested anonymity because the events are still classified. "After that point, they became compliant. Obviously, there was also an interest in being able to later say, 'I was tortured into cooperating.' "

Mohammed provided the CIA with an autobiographical statement, describing a rebellious childhood, his decision to join the Muslim Brotherhood as a teenager, and his time in the United States as a student at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, from where he graduated in 1986 with a degree in mechanical engineering.

"KSM's limited and negative experience in the United States -- which included a brief jail stay because of unpaid bills -- almost certainly helped propel him on his path to becoming a terrorist," according to the intelligence summary. "He stated that his contact with Americans, while minimal, confirmed his view that the United States was a debauched and racist country."

Mohammed provided $1,000 to Ramzi Yousef, a nephew, to help him carry out the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. In 1994, he worked in the Philippines with Yousef, now serving a life sentence at the federal "supermax" prison in Colorado, on a failed plot to down 12 U.S. commercial aircraft over the Pacific.

Mohammed told interrogators it was in the Philippines that he first considered using planes as missiles to strike the United States. He took the idea to Osama bin Laden, who "at first demurred but changed his mind in late 1999," according to the summary.

Mohammed described plans to strike targets in Saudi Arabia, East Asia and the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks, including using a network of Pakistanis "to target gas stations, railroad tracks, and the Brooklyn bridge in New York." Cross-referencing material from different detainees, and leveraging information from one to extract more detail from another, the CIA and FBI went on to round up operatives both in the United States and abroad.

"Detainees in mid-2003 helped us build a list of 70 individuals -- many of who we had never heard of before -- that al-Qaeda deemed suitable for Western operations," according to the CIA summary.

Mohammed told interrogators that after the Sept. 11 attacks, his "overriding priority" was to strike the United States, but that he "realized that a follow-on attack would be difficult because of security measures." Most of the plots, as a result, were "opportunistic and limited," according to the summary.

One former agency official recalled that Mohammed was once asked to write a summary of his knowledge about al-Qaeda's efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction. The terrorist group had explored buying either an intact nuclear weapon or key components such as enriched uranium, although there is no evidence of significant progress on that front.

"He wrote us an essay" on al-Qaeda's nuclear ambitions, the official said. "Not all of it was accurate, but it was quite extensive."

Mohammed was an unparalleled source in deciphering al-Qaeda's strategic doctrine, key operatives and likely targets, the summary said, including describing in "considerable detail the traits and profiles" that al-Qaeda sought in Western operatives and how the terrorist organization might conduct surveillance in the United States.

Mohammed was moved to the U.S. military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in September 2006, and his loquaciousness is now largely confined to occasional appearances before a military commission. Back in his 86-square-foot cell at the secret Camp 7 at Guantanamo, he spends most of his waking hours in prayer, according to a source familiar with his confinement who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

But Mohammed has not abandoned his intellectual pursuits. He requested a Bible for study in his cell, according to the source, in order to better understand his enemy.

[this is from an email forward, and Snopes did not have a comment one way or the other]

· A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a year of gasoline.

· So, the average clunker transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year. · They claim 700,000 vehicles – so that’s 224 million gallons / year.

· So, we all contributed to spending $3 billion to save $350 million. How good a deal was that?

Of course, much of the payout in Cash for Clunkers has still not been paid out yet. Seems that there is this matter of correctly filling out government paperwork; and, don’t forget, that the government could end a transaction with any car dealer who did not disable the clunker immediately.

[this is the article which, along with many others, probably set Harry Reid off, telling a advertising director of this paper that he hoped it would go under]

Being the face and voice of an increasingly statist, job-killing liberal agenda has exacted a political toll for Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader.

A new Review-Journal poll finds Nevada voters would go with just about anyone other than Sen. Reid if they were casting ballots in his re-election bid today.

The poll, conducted last week by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, shows 50 percent of Nevada voters have an unfavorable view of Sen. Reid, while just 37 percent hold a favorable view of him. Both figures are devastating for a longtime incumbent.

The poll shows Sen. Reid trailing Danny Tarkanian, a Republican who has lost his only two campaigns for elected office, and GOP Rep. Dean Heller, who has announced he won't seek elevation to the Senate, by double-digit margins. Even state Republican Party Chairwoman Sue Lowden, who hasn't been on a ballot in years, has a 5-percentage-point lead over Sen. Reid, just within the poll's 5-point margin of error.

Of course, Sen. Reid isn't up for re-election this month. His fate will be decided in about 14 months -- an eternity in politics.

Mr. Tarkanian and Ms. Lowden are hardly GOP rock stars. (Is there even one in Nevada these days?) And Sen. Reid knows how to run a campaign. He'll certainly have plenty of money in the bank to attack whichever candidate emerges from June's Republican primary.

But Sen. Reid clearly has problems. The best thing his spokesmen can say about him is he has the power to bring home the pork and protect the state's tourism industry. Yet the "stimulus" bill he backed hasn't done much to help the Nevada economy -- the state ranked last in stimulus dollars per capita -- let alone the national economy. The Las Vegas unemployment rate is 13.1 percent, and a housing market recovery might still be years away despite various federal initiatives.

Perhaps congressional Democrats, seeking to preserve their Washington majorities, will abandon the radical policy goals of President Obama and their far-left base before Christmas. Perhaps Sen. Reid will use his leadership post to recast himself as a moderate in 2010.

However, when half of the state's voters don't like you, you have a lot of work to do to preserve your political career.

We've seen cattle ranches give way to railroads. We chronicled the construction of Hoover Dam. We reported on the first day of legalized gambling. The first hospital. The first school. The first church. We survived the mob, Howard Hughes, the Great Depression, several recessions, two world wars, dozens of news competitors and any number of two-bit politicians who couldn't stand scrutiny, much less criticism.

We're still here doing what we do for the people of Las Vegas and Nevada. So, let me assure you, if we weathered all of that, we can damn sure outlast the bully threats of Sen. Harry Reid.

On Wednesday, before he addressed a Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Reid joined the chamber's board members for a meet-'n'-greet and a photo. One of the last in line was the Review-Journal's director of advertising, Bob Brown, a hard-working Nevadan who toils every day on behalf of advertisers. He has nothing to do with news coverage or the opinion pages of the Review-Journal.

Yet, as Bob shook hands with our senior U.S. senator in what should have been nothing but a gracious business setting, Reid said: "I hope you go out of business."

Later, in his public speech, Reid said he wanted to let everyone know that he wants the Review-Journal to continue selling advertising because the Las Vegas Sun is delivered inside the Review-Journal.

You could call Reid's remark ugly and be right. It certainly was boorish. Asinine? That goes without saying.

But to fully capture the magnitude of Reid's remark (and to stop him from doing the same thing to others) it must be called what it was -- a full-on threat perpetrated by a bully who has forgotten that he was elected to office to protect Nevadans, not sound like he's shaking them down.

No citizen should expect this kind of behavior from a U.S. senator. It is certainly not becoming of a man who is the majority leader in the U.S. Senate. And it absolutely is not what anyone would expect from a man who now asks Nevadans to send him back to the Senate for a fifth term.

If he thinks he can push the state's largest newspaper around by exacting some kind of economic punishment in retaliation for not seeing eye to eye with him on matters of politics, I can only imagine how he pressures businesses and individuals who don't have the wherewithal of the Review-Journal.

For the sake of all who live and work in Nevada, we can't let this bully behavior pass without calling out Sen. Reid. If he'll try it with the Review-Journal, you can bet that he's tried it with others. So today, we serve notice on Sen. Reid that this creepy tactic will not be tolerated.

We won't allow you to bully us. And if you try it with anyone else, count on going through us first.

This is pretty amazing; an arm of the White House has reached out to specific artists on a conference call, potential recipients of NEA endowments, to suggest that art be made to push certain presidential programs (e.g., Obama-care).

This is the Glenn Beck interview with Patrick Courrielche one of the artists on this conference call:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMWsVEZdf4I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCgQbuGXSrA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqYwIPWrvzM

An article by Patrick Courrielche, one of the artists on this conference call, entitled The Artist Formerly Known as Dissident

http://www.reason.com/news/show/135293.html

The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion:

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/pcourrielche/2009/08/25/the-national-endowment-for-the-art-of-persuasion-patrick-courrielche/

The Fox story on this:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/28/nea-allegedly-calls-artists-focus-health-care-energy/

The Boston Globe story on this:

http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2009/09/01/the_art_of_agitprop/

A story on Yosi Sergant from 1 year ago:

http://www.laweekly.com/2008-09-11/columns/yosi-sergant-and-the-art-of-change-the-publicist-behind-shepard-fairey-39-s-obama-hope-posters/

Here is one possible suggestion for some new Obama art:

Low spirits at the CIA. Some of these men are every bit as brave as our soldiers, and the line which they have to walk is a very difficult line.

Keith Olbermann wants everyone to send him information about Glenn Beck so that he can expose Beck. I am guessing that Olbermann would have announced this on his own televsion show, except that no one watches it.

If you do not believe it, watch Congresswoman Diane Watson herself praise the name of Fidel Castro and the Cuban health care system:

Since there are some links you may want to go back to from time-to-time, I am going to begin a list of them here. This will be a list to which I will add links each week.

This is an outstanding website which tells the truth about Obama-care and about what the mainstream media is hiding from you:

Politico.com is a fairly neutral site (or, at the very worst, just a little left of center). They have very good informative videos at:

On Obama (if you have not visited this site, you need to check it out). He is selling a DVD on this site as well called Media Malpractice; I have not viewed it yet, except pieces which I have seen played on tv and on the internet. It looks pretty good to me.

Conservative Review
Issue #91	Kukis Digests and Opines on this Week’s News and Views	September 6, 2009