Proving once again, the economy is a complete disaster thanks to Captain Kickass’ pseudo-Marxist policies.

(Bloomberg) — McDonald’s Corp., the world’s biggest restaurant chain, said it hired 24 percent more people than planned during an employment event this month.

McDonald’s and its franchisees hired 62,000 people in the U.S. after receiving more than one million applications, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. Previously, it said it planned to hire 50,000.

The April 19 national hiring day was the company’s first, said Danya Proud, a McDonald’s spokeswoman. She declined to disclose how many of the jobs were full- versus part-time. McDonald’s employed 400,000 workers worldwide at company-owned stores at the end of 2010, according to a company filing.

Earlier this month, McDonald’s said sales at stores open at least 13 months climbed 2.9 percent in the U.S. after it attracted more diners with items such as beverages and the Chipotle BBQ Bacon Angus burger. The fast-food chain has about 14,000 stores in the U.S. and more than 18,000 abroad. About 80 percent of all McDonald’s stores are franchised.

Astrofail!

Via Washington Examiner:

USA Today exposes the fraud that is activist-organized protest at Republican town halls this recess. Their story opens with Paul Ryan calling on a man in the front row before recognizing him, “You changed clothes!” USA Today reports that the man had been at a separate event six hours earlier. Politico reports that “Citizens Action of Wisconsin and the Milwaukee Labor Council have enlisted a traveling band of seniors to follow Paul Ryan’s every move.” But the leftist activists have been unable to match genuine support for Ryan. The Weekly Standard’s John McCormack posts video of constituents giving Ryan a standing ovation after a town hall near Milwaukee.

Is a serial adulterer (and ratings flop) really the one to be lecturing people on morality?

Via Mediaite:

David Letterman and his guest Dr. Phil discussed Donald Trump’s recent allegations that Barack Obama was admitted into Ivy League schools despite being a very poor student. Letterman joined many other media personalities who have criticized Trump’s suggestion as being racist, though Dr. Phil defended Trump, saying that he’s “not a racist.” Letterman made then, perhaps the deepest cut, when he openly considered not inviting Trump back on his show until he apologizes.

Because actresses Eva Longoria, America Ferrera and “Sabado Gigante” host Don Francisco are more important on the flood of illegals pouring over the southern border than Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

(LA Times) — The White House on Thursday is calling on an eclectic mix of Latino entertainers, media personalities and activists for another meeting with President Obama to discuss his goal of enacting immigration reform.

Among those expected to attend the meeting are influential figures including actresses Eva Longoria and America Ferrera, radio host Eddie “Piolin” Sotelo, “Sabado Gigante” host Don Francisco and Voto Latino Executive Director Maria Teresa Kumar.

The meeting is listed by the White House as “closed press,” but curiously the guest list includes several working journalists as well, such as Jose Diaz-Balart of Telemundo and Maria Elena Salinas of Univision.

August 2010:

DALLAS — President Barack Obama is refusing to meet Gov. Rick Perry (R.-Tx.) during his scheduled visit to Fort Bliss, Texas on Tuesday, as disclosed by the governor’s spokeswoman.

The Houston Chronicle reports that, “Perry spokewoman Katherine Cessinger says the Republican governor had asked to meet with the president on Tuesday to discuss border security. Cessinger said Monday that White House aides said the president would not be available for such a meeting.”

On Monday evening, the White House would not immediately respond to a request for comment.

June 2010:

(AP) — President Obama has turned down Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s request to meet while she’s in Washington next week as tensions mount between his administration and Arizona over the state’s new law cracking down on illegal immigrants.

Brewer will be in Washington to meet with other governors. She said Friday that she had asked to meet with Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to discuss border security and immigration. But Obama’s schedule “doesn’t allow for a meeting” with her, White House spokesman Adam Abrams said, adding that the president “does intend to sit down with the governor in the future.”

Soros must have something to do with this, the stench of sulfur is overpowering.

(The Hill) — Former White House officials launched a new group on Friday intended to fend off conservative attacks on President Obama’s reelection with unlimited campaign cash.

Former Obama deputy press secretary Bill Burton announced the long-expected formation of Priorities USA and Priorities USA Action, twin groups that will take advantage of campaign finance loopholes President Obama had previously decried.

The groups opened up shop on Friday with a website and video attacking the “extreme right,” showcasing examples of some Republican presidential candidates’ harsh rhetoric toward Obama, as well as the deep-pocketed conservatives who support them.

The groups in many ways mirror their counterparts on the right, American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, the two GOP-boosting groups founded by Bush political guru Karl Rove and another senior Bush aide and longtime Republican figure, Ed Gillespie.

Crossroads GPS took advantage of elements of the tax code to collect unlimited donations from individuals and corporations to spend tens of millions of dollars against Democratic candidates in the 2010 election.

Priorities USA Action will take advantage of the same part of election law, opened by the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, to raise and spend millions in similar unlimited donations, to defend Obama and go on the attack against the GOP.

The group’s opening salvo, posted to YouTube, takes on a number of Republican presidential candidates; it features clips of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (implying she’s “ill-informed”), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) and Donald Trump.

Same Czar who’s recommended reading list to students includes books detailing gay sex in graphic detail.

(CNS News) — Kevin Jennings, assistant deputy secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, spoke to Maryland high school students on Thursday about discrimination against homosexuals, drawing parallels to slavery in America and racial segregation.

Jennings told the students in the auditorium and those watching on TV monitors in classrooms at the Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda, Md., that he was going to offer them a “history lesson.”

Jennings — who before being appointed to the post by President Barack Obama was a well-known known gay rights activist, including founding the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) — began the “history lesson” by explaining the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that ruled segregating blacks and whites in public schools was unconstitutional. . . .

He then used a chart of U.S. presidents to show the students which men were in office when slavery was legal, which ones were president when segregation was legal, and that homosexuals have never had equality under any president, including Obama.

“Even under Obama, we have not reached a period where it is completely safe for a gay person to tell the truth about who they are and not fear that they might lose their job,” Jennings said.

Keep reading…

Stooping so low as to accuse America of “human rights violations” for not giving the North Koreans food wasn’t enough to sway Dear Leader into meeting with the Worst President in History Part I.

(Politico) — Wrapping up his visit this week to Pyongyang, former President Jimmy Carter says relations between North Korea and South Korea are “currently at rock bottom.” Nonetheless, he said he believes the North is committed to getting talks underway.

Carter was joined on the three-day trip by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and former Irish President Mary Robinson.

Though the group did not meet with Kim Jong Il, as they’d hoped, the North Korean leader did send them a message, saying he is willing to “negotiate with South Korea or with the United States or with the six powers on any subject any time and without any preconditions.”

Rush is right: this is the formula to beat Obama’s in 2012 — no-bullshit straight talk. (more…)

Chalk this up to those wise Latin-Americans.

(CNSNews.com) — President Barack Obama’s approval rating remained at an all-time low among Hispanic Americans last week, according to the Gallup poll.

For the second week in a row only 47 percent of Hispanics said they approved of the job Obama was doing as president.

Obama’s approval rating among Hispanics first dropped to 47 percent in the week of April 11–17, 2011, according to Gallup. It then stayed at that level for the week of April 18–24.

Prior to this month, there were only two other weeks when Obama’s approval rating dropped below 50 percent among Hispanics. In the week of Sept. 20–26, 2010, his approval dropped to 49 percent among Hispanics and in the week of July 26–Aug.1, 2010, it dropped to 48 percent.

Obama’s approval among Hispanic Americans has declined dramatically since early in his presidency. In the week April 20-26, 2009 and May 11–17, 2009, his approval rating among Hispanics hit 85 percent, its all-time high.

Gallup typically asks more than 3,500 people per week whether they approve or disapprove of the job the president is doing.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center’s analysis of the 2008 presidential election exit polls, then-Sen. Barack Obama defeated Sen. John McCain 67 percent to 31 percent among Hispanic voters.

How convenient.

LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. — Harvard University officials are speaking out on the release of the immigration file on Barack Hussein Obama, Sr.

Documents uncovered through a Freedom of Information Act request to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, formerly known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service, show that Harvard University officials worked with the INS to deny Obama’s student visa extension.

An INS investigator, M.F. McKeon, wrote on June 8, 1964: “They (Harvard officials) weren’t very impressed with him and asked us to hold up action on his application until they decided what action they could take in order to get rid of him. They were apparently having difficulty with his financial arrangements and couldn’t seem to figure out how many wives he had.”

Another memo by McKeon, dated May 19, 1964, says: “OBAMA has passed his general exams, which indicates on academic grounds he is entitled to stay around here and write his thesis; however, they are going to try to cook something up to ease him out. All three will have to agree to this, however. They are planning on telling him that they will not give him any money, and that he’d better return to Kenya and prepare his thesis at home.”

Jeff Neal, a spokesman for Harvard University, disputed those allegations.

“While we cannot verify accounts of conversations that occurred nearly 50 years ago, a review of our existing files did not find any support for either the language or the implied intent described by the U.S. government official in the government documents,” Neal said.

Neal said that university documents predating the INS file, which was compiled between 1961 and 1965, indicate “the University’s Center for International Affairs faced serious constraints in providing financial support for research by international graduate students in Cambridge, and that these students were required to secure and demonstrate independent and sufficient sources of funding in order to remain on campus.”

And Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has the juice to cut off the funds, she chairs the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee.

(Fox News) — Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are calling for the U.S. government to cut off aid to the Palestinians after the government in the West Bank reached a tentative unity agreement with Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group.

The calls from top-ranking members of Congress were laced with warnings that the U.S. risks financing terrorist operatives if aid continues. Significantly, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., noted that a 2006 law conditions U.S. aid on the requirement that its Palestinian recipients renounce violence and recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Those requirements were fulfilled when aid was going to the Palestinian Authority, controlled by the West Bank-based Fatah. But rocket-firing Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, does not abide by those conditions.

Ros-Lehtinen and others said a sudden partnership between the two halves of the divided Palestinian government would mean U.S. assistance must cease.

“U.S. taxpayer funds should not and must not be used to support those who threaten U.S. security, our interests and our vital ally, Israel,” she said in a written statement. “According to existing U.S. law, such a hybrid government cannot be a recipient of U.S. taxpayer funds because the law stipulates that the PA government must recognize the Jewish state of Israel’s right to exist, among other things.

“Therefore, in order to implement existing law, the U.S. must end assistance to the Palestinian Authority,” she said.

That’s not a small amount of money. The president’s 2012 budget request calls for $513 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority, an increase over past years.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is a true friend to the Jewish state.

TRUMP: When was the last time — if you go to China, as an example — bridges being built, massive bridges. When is the last time we built a bridge in this country, other than a little toy.

LES TRENT: Isn’t that what President Obama tried to do with his stimulus package?

TRUMP: The President . . . look I know you are a big Obama fan.The president doesn’t know what he’s doing.

LES TRENT: Why do you say that?

TRUMP: Because of your question. The President doesn’t know what he is doing.

I don’t think the Soros-funded tools at ThinkProgress did this CNN reporter any favors by goading him into accusing Trump of racism.

In an interview with ThinkProgress about the exchange, Trent said, “I think race was a factor. . . . I’m just assuming, I mean I have no way of knowing that. But I just don’t understand why he said that to me and not anyone else.”

Obama definitely inherited the “slippery character” gene from dear old dad.

(Daily Mail) — With a father like this, it is little wonder President Obama did not want to release his full birth certificate.

Though the proof that he was actually born in Hawaii may silence some critics, a new, rather more interesting side of his life has emerged – that his father Barack Obama senior was a serial womaniser and polygamist who government and university officials were trying to force out of the country.

Obama senior married Stanley Ann Dunham, a white student from Kansas, not only when he was said to have already been married to a woman in Kenya, but at a time when interracial marriages were still illegal in many parts of the U.S.

Documents obtained from the U.S. immigration service paint a picture of a man who ‘had an eye for the ladies’ and, according to his file, had to be warned several times to stay away from girls at the university.

Heather Smathers, a investigative journalist with the Arizona Independent, obtained the files through a Freedom of Information request.

A memo from a University of Hawaii foreign student advisor said that Obama senior had ‘been running around with several girls since he first arrived here and last summer she cautioned him about his playboy ways. Subject replied that he would “try” to stay away from the girls.’

It also considered his earlier Kenya marriage as a grounds to deny him a visa extension but concluded that ‘polygamy was not an excludable or deportation charge’.

He is further described as ‘a slippery character’, and his relationships with ‘several women’ are discussed and investigated, while questions about his ‘marital problems’ are repeatedly raised.

Another immigration memo, from June 1964, records that Harvard officials were trying ‘to get rid of him’ and ‘couldn’t seem to figure out how many wives he had’.

Keep reading…

Well, he did bow so how can they say no?

(E2 Wire) — President Obama on Tuesday said the administration is pushing Saudi Arabia and other countries to boost their oil production.

“We are in a lot of conversations with the major oil producers like Saudi Arabia to let them know that it’s not going to be good for them if our economy is hobbled because of high oil prices,” Obama told a Detroit TV station, according to The Associated Press.

The Wall Street Journal reports that oil markets are watching Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Hey kids, eat less, workout more and you too can wear hot pants!

(Daily Mail) — Beyonce has recorded a work out song in an attempt to get American children off the sofa for Michelle Obama’s Get Moving campaign.

The official video sees the star leading a whole school canteen through the routine — though few would recommend anyone follow Beyonce’s lead by attempting the dance in multi-coloured stilettos.

The Single Ladies singer however looks stunning in the promo, which also sees her sporting wild curly locks, an off-the-shoulder white top, high-waisted denim hotpants, knee-high bright green socks and a necklace featuring Keith Haring designs.

With the message ‘a little sweat ain’t never hurt nobody’, the hugely-catchy song and energetic dance routine could see it being played out in playgrounds across the world.

Called Move Your Body, the 4min 10 song features a host of instructions for different dance moves to an irrestible beat with shades at times of dancehall and latin.

The promo and song were made to promote Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative which aims to get America’s children engaged in physical exercise and eating healthily.

Keep reading…

Look on the bright side, at least it’s not Michelle wearing the skin tight short-shorts.

I’ll go out on a limb and say liberal academia will whitewash the true nature of Sharia law.

MONTANA — Earlier this semester, Jeff Renz, a law professor at The University of Montana, appeared on a conservative radio show to discuss the myths and realities of Islamic law. Accompanying him to Missoula’s KVGO studio were UM professor Mehrdad Kia and Robert Seidenschwarz, president of the World Affairs Council of Montana.

According to Renz, the talk stirred up a fair amount of debate.

“It was an interesting conversation,” he said. “A lot of the myths were repeated and we talked about those as well as a lot of the accuracies that are negative.”

The appearance was a launching pad for Renz, who plans to expand the conversation this fall semester by teaching an Islamic law class at UM.

This development adds UM to the growing number of American universities offering classes on Islamic law, ranging from the University of Minnesota to Yale. Islamic law, also known as Shariah law, guides the daily behavior and actions of Muslims while influencing the legal code of Islamic countries.

The three-credit class, ANTY 491, will meet three times a week and is open to UM undergraduate, graduate and law students. Renz said the course will examine the development of Islam along with the four principles of Islamic jurisprudence and will address the challenges of applying Sharia law in the 21st century.

Renz said Shariah law is not monolithic and that legal codes vary from one Muslim country to another and are often intertwined with tribal law.

“The most important thing they’ll learn is that what people perceive to be Islamic law is really local and national law rationalized, and falsely rationalized, by reference to the Quran,” he said.

HT: Daniel D.

(CNSNews.com) — President Barack Obama’s weekly approval rating remained at its all-time low for the second straight week, according to the Gallup poll.

In the week of April 11–17 and again in the week of April 18–24, 43 percent of the Americans polled by Gallup said they approved of the job Obama was doing as president.

That matched the all-time low for Obama’s weekly approval in the Gallup poll. Previously, Obama had earned a 43 percent approval rating in the back-to-back weeks of Aug. 16–22, 2010 and Aug. 23–29, 2010.

Back in 2001 the UN was screeching about “global warming” ravaging Africa. Apparently their predictions didn’t come true so guess where the story went: Down the memory hole. And in the UN’s typical incompetent fashion they forgot to scrub it from Google cache. Here’s a screen shot.

Nairobi, 22 February 2001 — Rising levels of disease, famine and poverty are forecast for Africa by scientists studying the impacts of global warming.

A report, published today (MON) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says heavy, monsoon-like, rains and higher temperatures will favour the breeding of disease-carrying mosquitoes, allowing them to thrive at higher altitudes.

“Higher temperatures, heavier rainfall and changes in climate variability would encourage insect carriers of some infectious diseases to multiply and move further afield,” says the report by the IPCC’s Working

Group II.

The report cites how malaria cases in the highland area of Rwanda have increased by 337 per cent in recent years with 80 per cent of the climb linked with changes in temperature and rainfall which improved breeding conditions for malaria-carrying mosquitoes. A similar link has been reported in Zimbabwe.

Here’s the original link:

http://www.unep.org/Documents.multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=192&ArticleID=2776&l=en

Which takes you to this default page:

Via Anthony Watts, who also notes the UN scrubbed a similar embarassing post last week on 50 million “climate refugees” that never materialized.

Don’t even go there, Al.

WASHINGTON — US meteorologists warned Thursday it would be a mistake to blame climate change for a seeming increase in tornadoes in the wake of deadly storms that have ripped through the US south.

“If you look at the past 60 years of data, the number of tornadoes is increasing significantly, but it’s agreed upon by the tornado community that it’s not a real increase,” said Grady Dixon, assistant professor of meteorology and climatology at Mississippi State University.

“It’s having to do with better (weather tracking) technology, more population, the fact that the population is better educated and more aware. So we’re seeing them more often,” Dixon said.

But he said it would be “a terrible mistake” to relate the up-tick to climate change.

Insensitive prick.

NEW YORK — President Barack Obama plunged into donor-rich New York on Wednesday, his first fundraising sweep of the city since announcing his re-election bid this month, with a lament that he has not seen his wish for less-polarizing politics realized. . . .

“Today was a fun day,” Obama said at his first fundraising event at Corzine’s apartment. “Nobody checked my ID at the door. But it was also a serious day because part of what happened this morning was me trying to remind the press and trying to remind both parties that what we do in politics is not a reality show. It’s serious.”

While Obama took in millions from his rich liberal buddies in NYC, the South suffered the worst tornado outbreak since April 3, 1974.

(WaPo) — A scar of destruction and death runs across the Deep South after the nation’s worst tornado outbreak in 37 years killed at least 250 people in six states from Mississippi to Virginia.

Hundreds of thousands of people are without power, as is a nuclear power plant that operators said was shut down safely. . . .

“The outbreak is the biggest in terms of tornadoes and in terms of impact since ’74 and it’s possible that its actually bigger than ’74,” said Harold Brooks, research meteorologist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla.

The April 3, 1974, outbreak sparked twisters across the eastern United States, claiming 310 lives, Brooks said. Wednesday’s outbreak may be most similar to the tornado outbreak of March 21, 1932, when 332 people were killed, including 268 in Alabama, he said. Nothing, however, comes close to the destruction of March 18, 1925, when 747 people died, most of them along the path of a single twister, after the so-called Tri-State Tornado tore up Missouri, Indiana and Illinois.