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This should be an SNL skit! Sadly it’s apparently the best Rep Grayson could contribute to the HC debate…

 This is Rep. Alan Grayson discussing the GOP plan for health care. Part one, don’t get sick. Part two, if you do get sick… Part three, die quickly.

• YouTube

An Inconvenient Tax sheds light on one of America’s messiest problems - a fundamentally broken tax code that affects every part of people’s lives. With the U.S. Congress making over 16,000 changes to the tax code in the last two decades alone, many Americans want something better, but few know where to start. This feature-length documentary film reveals the many ways Congress uses the tax code to achieve political goals that have nothing to do with raising revenue. It also tackles the controversial issue of tax reform through a non-partisan presentation of U.S. tax history and current proposals to fix the code. In a time when America faces fiscal crisis, An Inconvenient Tax brings a crucial exploration of the tax code to the big screen.

• Video

Mike Masnick has a nice piece on the crock of journalistic unbiased-ness:

Is It So Wrong To Admit That Journalists Have Opinions Too?
from the hiding-them-doesn’t-change-that dept

There was a big kerfuffle in the journalism world over the weekend, as it was revealed late Friday that the Washington Post had rushed out new “social media guidelines” leading one editor to delete his Twitter account, and another to joke that under the new guidelines, his Twitter account would only discuss “the weather and dessert recipes.” This isn’t the first time news organizations have generated attention for coming up with restrictive social media guidelines. And, of course, one of the more ridiculous aspects of all of this was that the Washington Post didn’t reveal what those guidelines are, leading to a ton of speculation and leaving it to a competing news organization to publish the actual guidelines. A big part of the problem here was the lack of transparency from the Washington Post in the first place…

While we’re on the subject, the whole thing seems based on this platonic ideal of journalism that involves the objective, unbiased reporter. The guidelines basically tell reporters and editors that they shouldn’t say anything that suggests they actually have an opinion on something, and the editor who deleted his Twitterstream did so because it expressed an opinion on certain news events. But, it’s time we got over this. Just because people pretend to be objective, it doesn’t make them objective. Just because reporters claim to be unbiased, it doesn’t make them unbiased…

…it’s bias and opinion that goes into determining what story makes the front page, or the middle page or gets spiked. It’s about how the “facts” of the story are presented. There’s bias everywhere. Asking reporters to bite their tongue and not actually say what they think doesn’t negate the bias, and it doesn’t help readers/viewers/listeners get any closer to what’s real. It’s just a way of avoiding responsibility, avoiding the community, and avoiding doing a good job. In the meantime, as newer publications (mostly online) do away with the ridiculous idea that a party can be fully impartial, the community of people who consume and share and spread and make and comment on the news are going there. Because that’s where “the news” is best presented. - TechDirt.com

According to Gerald Warner Obama could be the first black Russian president as well - how historic is that!

Barack Obama’s chances of re-election in three and a half years’ time may be evaporating at unprecedented speed, but his presidential ambitions could still be realised in another direction. He would be a shoo-in to win the next Russian presidential election, so high is his popularity now running in the land of the bear and the knout. Obama has done more to restore Russia’s hegemonial potential in Eastern and Central Europe than even Vladimir Putin.

His latest achievement has been to restore the former satellite states to dependency on Moscow, by wimping out of the missile defence shield plan. This follows on his surrender last July when he voluntarily sacrificed around a third of America’s nuclear capability for no perceptible benefit beyond a grim smile from Putin. If there is one thing that fans the fires of aggression it is appeasement.

Despite propaganda to the contrary, 58 per cent of Poles were in favour of the missile shield. But small nations must assess the political will of larger powers. Thanks to President Pantywaist’s supine policies, the former satellite states can see that they are fast returning to their former status. The American umbrella cannot be relied upon on a rainy day. They have been here before. Poles remember how a leftist US president sold them out to Russia at Tehran and Yalta. The former Czechoslovakia was betrayed twice: in 1938 and 1945.

If the word is out that America is in retreat, it will soon find it has no friends. The satellites will pragmatically accept their restored subordination, without openly acknowledging it, and co-operate with their dangerous neighbour, ushering in a new generation of Finlandisation.

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The White House is now directing the NEA to use its funding to support Pro-Obama art on hotly debated issues such as health care, education, and the environment. Toward the goal of creating art that inspires the masses in those areas similar to the now famouse Hope Poster did during the campaign.

Debating the role of government is and has been the goal of bringing this conference call to light. The NEA tainted the creative process by encouraging the art community to address highly controversial political issues. ‘How?’ you may ask. The NEA is the largest single funder of the arts in the United States. This government agency has the power and ability to fund arts organizations and recently expressed a desire to return to funding individual artists, bringing more from the group into the pool of potential grantees.

The NEA did encourage a handpicked, pro-Obama arts group to address issues under contentious national debate. That fact is irrefutable.

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Following up on our earlier story: Amid ACORN’s claims of one time occurrences, it’s FOURTH office gladly jumps at the chance to help a Pimp & Hoe break the law.\

A fourth video by an independent filmmaker posing as a pimp along with a purported prostitute has surfaced depicting an ACORN staffer in California assisting the couple in their quest to obtain housing for their illegal sex business.

Much like in their previous undercover stings at the group’s offices in Baltimore, Washington and Brooklyn, N.Y., filmmaker James O’Keefe, 25, and his 20-year-old partner Hannah Giles, who posed as a prostitute named “Eden,” were given assistance on Aug. 17 from a staffer at ACORN’s office in San Bernardino on how to avoid detection by law enforcement. The couple even tell ACORN staffer Tresa Kaelke - who admits on the videotape to previously having sex for money - that they plan on bringing in 12 girls from El Salvador to work in a home they hope to acquire via the community organization.

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If you haven’t seen the videos of Acorn helping pimps and prositutes… we’ll you need to. (glad Obama’s time with Acorn didn’t teach him any of these tatics)

• YouTube Part 1
• YouTube Part 2

A famous community organizer once said, “The only way to upset the power structure in your communities is to goad them, confuse them, irritate them and, most of all, make them live by their own rules. If you make them live by their own rules, you destroy them.”

The scenario we posed the ACORN Housing employees in Baltimore is due to the application of similar power tactics. We gave ACORN a taste of its own medicine. ACORN was alleged to be thug-like, criminal, and nefarious. This criminal behavior was evidenced by a video of Baltimore ACORN community organizers breaking the locks on foreclosed homes. Instead of railing against their radicalism, it is best to bring out this type of radicalism. Hannah Giles and I took advantage of ACORN’s regard for thug criminality by posing the most ridiculous criminal scenario we could think of and seeing if they would comply-which they did without hesitation.

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Uh, God bless America?

To: Department of Health and Human Services Staff

From: Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary

This year, Americans across the country will honor the victims and heroes of the 9/11 tragedy by serving their neighbors and communities as part of the first-ever federally recognized September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance. Service projects marking the eight-year anniversary of September 11, 2001, will take place in all 50 states, ranging from food drives and home repairs to neighborhood cleanups and disaster preparation activities. Attached is the President and First Lady’s Call to Service.

In the spirit of service, we’re asking for your help to stop the spread of the H1N1 virus by forwarding the “5 Things You Need to Know About H1N1 Flu” (attached) to at least 10 of your family members and friends - and ask them to forward the attachment, too. Sending this information to as many people as possible is a simple way you can help prevent illness across the country this fall.

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