White House Green Jobs Adviser: Republicans Are 'Assholes'

Van Jones, the Obama administration's "green jobs" adviser, is seen in a video from earlier in the year calling out Republicans for stonewalling Democratic legislation.

From Fox News

Van Jones, the Obama administration's "green jobs" adviser, told a group of listeners earlier in the year that the reason Republicans are stonewalling the president is because they're "assholes."

Jones' remarks were recorded in a video from February that was posted to YouTube.

He made the remark during an energy lecture in Berkeley, Calif., after a woman in the audience asked him why President Obama and congressional Democrats were having trouble moving legislation -- even though Republicans, with a smaller majority, didn't have as much trouble earlier in the Bush administration.

"Well, the answer to that is, they're assholes," Jones said, to uproarious laughter. "That's a technical, political science term."

The questioner responded, "I was afraid that that was the answer."

But Jones said that, even though Obama is "not an asshole," others have to step up the fight.

"Now, I will say this. I can be an asshole, and some of us who are not Barack Hussein Obama are going to have to start getting a little bit uppity," he said.

The Indoctrinator-in-Chief to Address Nation's Children

A suggested lesson plan that calls on students to write letters to themselves about what they can do to help President Obama following his address to students nationwide is troubling and establishes the president as a "superintendent-in-chief," education experts told FOXNews.com.

From Fox News
By Joshua Rhett Miller

A suggested lesson plan that calls on school kids to write letters to themselves about what they can do to help President Obama is troubling some education experts, who say it establishes the president as a "superintendent in chief" and may indoctrinate children to support him politically.

Obama will deliver a national address directly to students on Tuesday, which will be the first day of classes for many children across the country. The address, to be broadcast live on the White House's Web site, was announced in a letter to school principals last week by Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Obama intends to "challenge students to work hard, set educational goals and take responsibility for their learning," Duncan wrote. Obama will also call for a "shared responsibility" among students, parents and educators to maximize learning potential.

But in advance of the address, the Department of Education has offered educators "classroom activities" to coincide with Obama's message.

Students in grades pre-K-6, for example, are encouraged to "build background knowledge about the president of the United States by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama."

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EWTN's Arroyo Takes Cardinal McCarrick to Task over Kennedy & Pope Letters

Here at Sunlit Uplands we love our Holy Father and respect most of our bishops; but as we have noted before, there are a few wolves in the sheepfold.

In our view, there is none more corrupt, evil, and destructive than the former Archbishop of Washington, Theodore Cardinal McCarrick. When he was Archbishop of Newark we experienced first-hand the ways in which this dark soul destroys what is orthodox and good, while promoting a dissident, heterodox vision of the Church, fashionable in the 1970's. This notorious deceiver and corrupter of young seminarians, who was caught lying to all of his brother bishops, never misses a media opportunity to sow falsehood and division.

He was at work again during the Kennedy funeral, attempting to distort the Church's teachings by suggesting that those who dedicate a lifetime to promoting the culture of death can also be Catholics in good standing, and indeed, models to be emulated.

Raymond Arroyo exposes this modern-day Judas.

From LifeSiteNews
By John-Henry Westen

EWTN News Director and host of the popular EWTN program 'The World Over,' Raymond Arroyo, has written a compelling commentary on retired Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick's part in Saturday's burial of Senator Ted Kennedy. Arroyo begins by calling McCarrick's reading of portions of Kennedy's letter and a Vatican response a "marvelous bit of political theatre (as so much of Senator Kennedy's funeral was)."

The renowned EWTN show host, who is seen each week in more than 100 million homes around the globe on the Catholic network, then reflects on McCarrick's controversial history.

"First of all, it must be recalled that Cardinal McCarrick has a rather unfortunate history involving the delivery of letters, particularly those from a certain Vatican official by the name of Ratzinger," says Arroyo. "In 2004, when the Bishops of the US were anguishing over whether to allow communion to Catholic politicians who support abortion laws, Cardinal McCarrick concealed a letter from his brother bishops. The missive was from the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then Cardinal (now Pope) Joseph Ratzinger. Had the bishops received the letter intended to help guide their debate, things might have gone very differently. The contents of that letter are still relevant, particularly now when dissenting Catholics have made grandiose pronouncements about what it means to be a Catholic in public life."

Arroyo says that he and other faithful Catholics are "not upset about Chappaquiddick or the huge lapses in the Senator's long and storied life," knowing that forgiveness is possible. "The problem here," he said, "is one of public witness and appearances - the corrupting example."

Arroyo's central thesis is that the story of the Kennedy funeral had less to do with Kennedy than with an attempt to falsely portray what it means to be a Catholic and a Catholic politician. "What most in the media and the public fail to recognize is that this entire spectacle - the Catholic funeral trappings and the wall to wall coverage - was only partially about Ted Kennedy," he wrote. "It was truly about cementing the impression, indeed catechizing the faithful, that one can be a Catholic politician, and so long as you claim to care about the poor, you may licitly ignore the cause of life."

The responsibility of this corrupting example falls not so much with Kennedy as with the prelates who orchestrated the showcase funeral. Says Arroyo: "As a final desperate attempt to stamp the imprimatur of the Pope upon the funereal proceedings, Cardinal McCarrick read what he called the 'Pope's response' to Senator Kennedy. Actually it was a note, very likely from the Secretariat of State. This is the sort of thing any member of laity receives when they send a prayer request or a Christmas card to the Pope. Cardinal McCarrick made it seem as if it had the weight of a new encyclical."

The Seventieth Anniversary of the Invasion of Poland and the Start of World War II

September 1, 1939, began as a peaceful Sunday that left the world shocked and changed forever, when German troops blitzkrieged their way through the Polish countryside. This 1943 War Department film contains footage of artillery and infantry attacks which resulted in the siege and capture of Warsaw on September 27, 1939. Much of the footage was shot by German troops and was later captured by Allied Forces. Over six million Poles were eventually murdered.

Sen. Harry Reid Gets Thumped by 11 Points in Newest Poll

From Newsmax.com
By Sean Lengell, The Washington Times

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, one of the nation's most powerful Democrats, is in danger of losing his seat to either a former Miss America runner-up or the son of a famous basketball coach who never has held high public office.

At least that what a recent poll says.

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Health-Care Anger Has Deeper Roots

From The Wall Street Journal
By Janet Adamy and Jonathan Weisman

Recent town-hall uproars weren't just about health care. They were also eruptions of concern that the government is taking on too much at once.

That suggests trouble for the president and his party, and fears of losses in next year's midterm election are likely to shape the Democrats' fall agenda.

At August's town-hall meetings, voters often started with complaints about health care, only to shift to frustrations about all the other things President Barack Obama and the Democrats have done or tried to do since January. The $787 billion economic-stimulus package, the government-led rescue of General Motors Corp. and climate-change legislation all came in for criticism.

"A lot of the anxiety we face here has less to do with health care and everything to do with the overall state of the economy and government," said Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat.

"I have seen a level of dissatisfaction and even anger that I haven't experienced in the years that I've been a member of Congress," Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, told an audience at a health-care meeting in Kansas City on Monday.

Although the election is still far off, political forecasters predict that Democrats could run into trouble in the 2010 midterm vote.

"What we're seeing now, both in terms of numbers and the feel out there, this is how big waves feel early on," said Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs dismissed any talk of political doom hanging over the president and his party.

"It would be like me predicting who's going to win the World Series, not in a few months but in a year and a few months," he said Monday, adding that he will leave "extremely smart prognosticators" to "their stately craft."

August, typically a sleepy month, dealt Democrats a tough hand this year.

Snafus in the federal "cash for clunkers" program -- which gave people rebates to trade in gas-guzzling cars for more fuel-efficient new vehicles -- highlighted how disorganization can hamper government plans. It was the bloodiest month for U.S. troops so far in the war in Afghanistan. Attorney General Eric Holder poked a potential hornets' nest by appointing a prosecutor to investigate Central Intelligence Agency interrogators. And White House budget forecasters said they now project $9 trillion of additional federal debt over the next decade, adding $2 trillion to an earlier estimate.

Last year's election gave Democrats a mandate for big changes that they feel still applies. They won seats by arguing that Republicans had failed to act to keep the housing market and financial system from crumbling.

Mr. Obama also inherited a large budget deficit and expanded it further with economic-stimulus spending.

Many town-hall attendees cite the deficit as a reason for holding off on health care, even though Mr. Obama and other Democrats say they won't pass a plan that adds to the national debt.

Current proposals would cost about $1 trillion over 10 years, mostly to expand coverage to the nation's uninsured. All proposals aim to be deficit-neutral, offsetting new spending with cuts and some new taxes.

Anger over financial bailouts, including the Troubled Asset Relief Program begun under the administration of former President George W. Bush, has been especially strong. At a meeting in Wheeling, W.Va., Democratic Rep. Alan B. Mollohan said a health-care bill was needed to help "folks in terrible situations." A member of the audience yelled out: "Use TARP funds!"

In South Sioux City, Neb., last week, Van Phillips took the microphone to ask Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson how America can pay for a health overhaul with all the other programs going on.

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At town-hall meetings in August, such as this one in Reston, Va., voters often started with complaints about health care, only to shift to broader frustrations about actions by Democrats.

"We've got a pretty good chunk out there already in the stimulus. We just came back with the cash for clunkers," said Mr. Phillips, a retired superintendent of schools. "I guess I'm concerned -- how do we make all of this flow?"

Democrats concede they are fighting the perception that government is overstretched, though they say the economic stresses actually make a health-care overhaul more important because Democratic plans would help people who lose employer-provided health insurance.

Mr. Weiner said the crowded legislative calendar and a bruising battle in June over a climate bill narrowly approved by the House is wearing down Democrats, particularly those in the fiscally conservative Blue Dog coalition.

"We had a lot of House members who cast a tough vote on energy, and thought they could catch their breath, only to have health care bear down on them," he said.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D., Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said, "I've warned our colleagues from day one back in January, this is going to be a very challenging cycle. You just have to look historically....We're pleased people are being shaken out of their complacency."

Other analysts think any forecast this early is overblown.

"A year is an eternity, maybe two eternities, in politics," said Nathan L. Gonzales, political editor of the Rothenberg Political Report.

But Mr. Gonzales agreed that skepticism about too much action in Washington can drive voters. Anger about the government led to broad Democratic gains in 2006 and 2008, and now that Democrats are running the government, activism has only increased, he said.

"What we're seeing here is this larger debate about what the role of government is," said William McInturff, a Republican pollster who conducts The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. "The health-care debate is at that fault line.

Louise Radnofsky and Neil King Jr. contributed to this article.

South Carolina Political Skeletons Emerge

We expected that with the Governor fighting for his job, and his enemies in the legislature fighting to preserve the "good ol' boy" status quo with the place-holder they would like to install in that job, some dirt would begin to fly.

This story about Andre Bauer is probably only the beginning. Look for rumors about a certain Lexington Senator to be "fleshed out" in the days ahead, too.

In our view, the Governor has nothing left to lose, should finish his term, and while South Carolina will probably take a drubbing from late-night comedians, what is beginning to unfold may lead to a much needed house cleaning in the General Assembly.