What’s her superpower? — Destroying companies with a single bound?

From the press release:

Writer and author Arianna Huffington has been a fixture in politics since the 1990s and thanks, to the Huffington Post, she has become an Internet fixture as well. Now Bluewater Comics is telling the story of how a woman from Greece has become one of the most talked about media personalities in the world in “Female Force: Arianna Huffington” due out in Autumn of 2011.

Written by longtime comic book writer Martin Pierro and drawn by artist Nick Justus, the female empowerment comic book series, “Female Force: Arianna Huffington” talks about her time studying in England, her marriage to a congressman, her run as governor of California and how her website was sold to AOL for $315 million.

HT: Mark Hemingway

It’s almost like the Obama regime doesn’t want to remind people what motivated the hijackers.

(Fox) — Top spokesmen for the Obama administration on Tuesday defended the White House’s issuance of “talking points” designed to shape how federal officials in this country and American diplomats serving abroad frame the upcoming 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The guidelines, which were first reported by The New York Times, encompassed two sets of instructions: one drawn up chiefly for domestic consumption, the other geared primarily toward foreign audiences and disseminated to U.S. Embassy officers throughout the world.

“This is not unusual,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, adding that the Bush administration had issued press guidance for federal officials on the occasions of the second and fifth anniversaries of Sept. 11 — which Nuland repeatedly referred to in her briefing from the State Department podium as “nine-one-one.”

Nuland said the advisory to overseas ambassadors and their consular staff was motivated “primarily to ensure that embassies are marking the event, that they are having joint events in their host country to stand together against terrorism, and ensure that the day is marked appropriately internationally.”

Still, the documents, as reported in the Times, contained some unusual elements.

One set of guidelines urged U.S. officials to “minimize references to Al-Qaeda.” The documents cited the killing of Usama bin Laden as evidence that the terror network that plotted and executed the Sept. 11 attacks is becoming “increasingly irrelevant.”

Another talking point instructed American officials overseas to seek to universalize the commemorative day by noting: “We honor all victims of terrorism, in every nation . . . whether in New York or Nairobi, Bali or Belfast, Mumbai or Manila, or Lahore or London.”

But don’t worry, Carson says he wasn’t talking about the entire Tea Party, just the bitter clingers.

LOS ANGELES (CNN) — As members of the Congressional Black Caucus converged in Los Angeles for its final national job fair series, one of its ranking members responded to his own previous inflammatory comments in Miami about the tea party, comparing their movement to Jim Crow laws that segregated and marginalized African Americans in society.

A video surfaced Tuesday on TheBlaze.com, a website run by conservative host Glenn Beck, that shows Rep. Andre Carson, D- Indiana, who holds a leadership role in the CBC, at an August 22 event in Florida.

“Some of these folks in Congress would love to see us as second-class citizens. Some of them in Congress right now of this tea party movement would love to see you and me . . . hanging on a tree,” Carson said, according to the audio.

On Wednesday, Carson told CNN he stood by those remarks.

“Well, I wasn’t talking about the entire tea party. I think the tea party is absolutely right when they call for increased transparency in government, when they call for a cutback on excessive government spending. I am deeply concerned about some elements of the tea party who are extremist and who have reflected a mentality going back to the John Birch society, going back to George Wallace’s Dixiecrats,” Carson said.

Tea party officials have previously renounced characterizations that their movement is racist. Carson said he believes the vitriolic political environment has encouraged increased attacks on minority groups. . . .

“I stand on the truth of what I spoke,” he said. My intentions weren’t to hurt anyone or any group. I wanted to speak to the issues that concern me and the philosophical issues that concern me as it relates to certain leadership within the tea party organization, not the entire tea party, but certain elements that have concerned me deeply and for quite some time that I think should really re-evaluate what it means to be an American and we shouldn’t go along the path of taking America back to the ‘good old days’ because those days were not good for everyone.”

This is the second time today Carson has defended the indefensible.

Excellent.

Soylent Green?

(BBC) — A Glasgow-based company has installed its first commercial “alkaline hydrolysis” unit at a Florida funeral home.

The unit by Resomation Ltd is billed as a green alternative to cremation and works by dissolving the body in heated alkaline water.

The facility has been installed at the Anderson-McQueen funeral home in St Petersburg, and will be used for the first time in the coming weeks. It is hoped other units will follow in the US, Canada and Europe.

The makers claim the process produces a third less greenhouse gas than cremation, uses a seventh of the energy, and allows for the complete separation of dental amalgam for safe disposal.

Mercury from amalgam vaporised in crematoria is blamed for up to 16% of UK airborne mercury emissions, and many UK crematoria are currently fitting mercury filtration systems to meet reduced emission targets.

“Resomation was developed in response to the public’s increasing environmental concerns,” company founder Sandy Sullivan told BBC News. “It gives them that working third choice, which allows them to express those concerns in a very positive and I think personal way.”

And he could easily do it, only takes one Senator to jam the Senate up and prevent the resolution that is needed for Obama to speak from passing.

(Politico) — Sen. Jim DeMint vowed Wednesday to try to block President Barack Obama from addressing a joint session of Congress on the same day as a Republican presidential debate next week.

Obama could learn something from the GOP, DeMint reasoned, in adding his voice — and his vote — to a growing chorus of Republican objections.

“The president should pick another night. I’m planning to watch the Republican primary debate . . . and the president should watch it, too,”

The iconic South Carolina conservative said. “If he has a jobs proposal, put it in writing, give us a cost estimate, and send it over. I want to read the bill, not listen to talking points off a TelePrompter. If he insists on playing politics by picking the night of the GOP debate, I will object to the session.”

A lone determined senator can tie the chamber in knots for days, and the House and Senate must both pass a concurrent resolution to allow for the president to speak to a joint session.

To the surprise of Republican officials, Obama announced Wednesday that he wanted to give a jobs-focused speech to Congress on Sept. 7 — at the same time as the NBC News- and POLITICO-sponsored Republican debate in Simi Valley, Calif.

Keep reading…

Pot, meet kettle.

Via Mediaite:

Joe Scarborough showed off his best Texan accent this morning while accusing Rick Perry of being a liberal who had traded teams just to gain power on today’s Morning Joe.

Scarborough calls Perry a “dime store conservative” while taking note of his chairing role on Al Gore’s campaign and what he call’s Perry’s 1993 “love letter” to Hillary Clinton — “we have a lot of these in the south,” he says. “He’s not a real conservative.”

Ditto that.

(The Hill) — A Republican member of the House Tea Party Caucus on Wednesday countered recent inflammatory remarks by members of the Congressional Black Caucus against the Tea Party.

“I’m a TEA Party caucus member and have spoken at two tea party rallies. I am also NOT a racist. Maxine & Andre — get a grip,” Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) tweeted.

Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) both directed harsh remarks at the Tea Party movement last week.

Carson accused the Tea Party members in Congress of wanting to see blacks “hanging from a tree.”

Waters said at an event in California, “The Tea Party can go straight to hell.”

From yesterday but too good to pass up.

(Politico) — White House spokesman Jay Carney on Tuesday brushed off griping from prominent black leaders that President Barack Obama is taking African-Americans for granted while focusing on reaching out to white independent voters.

Responding to a question about a POLITICO story in which members of the Congressional Black Caucus took shots at Obama, Carney framed the issue as one that impacts all job-seeking Americans and said the issue of race is old news.

“A lot of people have suffered through this great recession . . . this is not a political issue,” Carney said. “The American economy is the primary focus of this president and he’s very committed to assisting African-Americans and all Americans.”

He added: “The expressions of frustration that people have over the need to create jobs. We feel obviously as well. But the political analysis you are making is one I remember as a journalist being made when Sen. Obama was running for president. It certainly did not bear out then and it doesn’t bear out now.”

Mega-FAIL.

(US News) — To show her support for American workers, President Obama’s labor secretary, Hilda Solis, has junked the standard black limo and purchased a new Chevrolet Equinox to ride around Washington in. The problem: the crossover SUV is built and assembled in Canada from parts also made in Canada.

Solis proudly arrived at a media breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor today in the shiny silver vehicle, which she has dubbed the “bullet.” She was asked about why she traded the standard-issue limo for the SUV. “What better example could I set if I encouraged my staff to go and purchase and seek how we could acquire a vehicle that would for me would send a signal that we’re for supporting our American workers, American-made products, fuel efficient as well,” she told the Monitor’s Dave Cook, who provided this video of her answer.

Solis added that she was inspired to buy the Chevy because of the pride she saw in American auto workers during trips to U.S. car and truck plants. She said that she was wowed by “the pride that they take making our automobiles here in America.”

The car is made at two Canadian plants and has been so popular that General Motors has been hiring more workers in Canada to keep up with demand.

Naturally, the Soros-funded toolbags on ThinkProgress are cheering him on.

(ThinkProgress) — Former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel (NE) can’t muster any praise for his Republican colleagues’ behavior in Congress over the past few months. In an interview with the Financial Times, Hagel blasted GOP leadership for their “irresponsible actions” during the debt ceiling debacle, noting that “I think about some of the presidents we’ve had on my side of the aisle — Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr., go right through them, Eisenhower — they would be stunned.”

“Disgusted” with the debt ceiling negotiations, Hagel called it “an astounding lack of responsible leadership by many in the Republican party, and I say that as a Republican.” “Does anyone not believe what’s happened here the last couple weeks in the market was not a complete, direct result of the lack of confidence that came out of that folly, that embarrassment?”

Asked about Tea Party influence, Hagel said the Republican party is too captive to a movement that is “very ideological” and “very narrow.” “I’ve never seen so much intolerance as I’ve seen today,” he said. Later surveying the GOP 2012 field, Hagel said the party may need to rebuild, agreeing that Republicans are now “too far to the right.”

Death fatwa in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1.

(CNN) — Iran’s Organization of the Holy Quran is scolding Iranian publishers who’ve outsourced production of the holy book to Chinese printers.

Apparently, their copies of the Quran are riddled with typos, according to the Tehran Times.

“These tableaus are made quite cheaply in China but are sold for much more than they are really worth to make that much more profit,” said an official with the organization who monitors and evaluates Qurans available in Iran.

The official even urged importers to halt future Quran shipments from China, the Times reported.

If you’re keeping score at home, China is accused of shipping out seafood laden with putrefying bacteria, toys laden with lead, totally fake eggs and, now, tainted Qurans.

Stopping a baby’s heartbeat is “morally wrong”? That’s crazy talk.*

(New American) — A new national survey has found that a majority of Americans think that abortion is wrong. While 48 percent of 1,000 likely U.S. voters queried in the late August Rasmussen Reports phone survey said they considered themselves pro-choice, with 43 percent identifying themselves as pro-life, 55 percent said they think abortion is morally wrong most of the time. Another 30 percent said they think abortion is morally acceptable in the majority of cases, with 15 remaining undecided on the issue.

Predictably, the poll found that 70 percent of Democrats identify themselves as pro-choice, while 62 percent of Republicans and 47 percent of voters affiliated with neither party identified themselves as pro-life.

When asked about the morality of the procedure, 72 percent of Republicans and 60 percent of unaffiliated voters said they thought abortion is wrong most of the time, with 46 percent of Democrats disagreeing and saying abortion is not wrong in most instances.

“When it comes to the next congressional election,” the Rasmussen report noted, “54% of voters say the issue of abortion is at least somewhat important in terms of how they will vote, including 31% who say it’s ‘Very Important.’”

The survey also found that 41 percent of all voters think it’s too easy to get an abortion in the U.S., with only 16 percent saying they think it’s too difficult to obtain the procedure, and another 29 percent saying they think the level of accessibility is just about right. Republicans are nearly three times as likely as Democrats to say it’s too easy to get an abortion in America today.

Keep reading…

*The official position of the Democratic Party.

Nice.

Via National Journal:

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is rebuffing President Obama’s request to appear before a Joint Session of Congress on Sept. 7, instead “respectfully” inviting him to address a Joint Session on Sept. 8. Boehner cites logistical and security concerns.

Then again, Clooney rolls with the brain-dead lefty Hollywood crowd so pretty much anyone with an IQ over 50 is considered “smarter” than the people he knows.

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Idealism loses out to cynicism in George Clooney’s political drama “The Ides of March,” which opens the Venice Film Festival.

Clooney directs and acts in the political drama that features Ryan Gosling as a gung-ho press secretary swept into a sex scandal in the final days of a Democratic presidential primary in Ohio. Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti are rival campaign managers who use loyalty as a weapon in their epic battle for victory.

Clooney plays the presidential candidate, but told reporters at the festival Wednesday he is not looking to be one in real life.

“As for running for president, look, there’s a guy in office right now who is smarter than almost anyone you know, who’s nicer and who has more compassion than almost anyone you know. And he’s having an almost impossible time governing. Why would anybody volunteer for that job?” Clooney told a news conference.

Skanky hag.

Washington, D.C. — Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on President Obama’s remarks urging Congress to pass clean extensions of the Surface Transportation Bill and the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization and create jobs rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure. Later, the White House announced that the President will roll out his jobs agenda before a Joint Session of Congress:

“President Obama made a clear, strong statement today about America’s top priorities: creating jobs and strengthening our economy. And with an address before a Joint Session of Congress next week, the President will give renewed urgency to the jobs crisis facing our nation.

“Democrats have heard the concerns and demands of the American people, and that is why we have offered plan after plan for putting people back to work. But after 239 days, the Republicans who are running the House have yet to offer any serious jobs legislation, while opposing every Democratic effort to create jobs.

“We will work with President Obama to create jobs rebuilding America’s roads, bridges, rail lines, and airports, and to establish an infrastructure bank to finance these projects. We call upon Speaker Boehner, Leader Eric Cantor and the Republican majority to end the rhetoric and get to work getting America back to work. We can start by passing clean extensions of the FAA and highway bills, protecting nearly one million jobs. And we stand with the President in urging federal agencies to expedite infrastructure projects already funded by Congress.”

(more…)

Heartache.

(CNSNews) — Barack Obama defeated Sen. John McCain 56 percent to 43 percent among female voters in the 2008 presidential election, according to the network exit poll, and Obama’s job performance as president won the support of 70 percent of women early in his tenure.

But Gallup polling last week showed that only 41 percent of women now say they approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president. That is an all-time low — down from the previous low of 43 percent, which is what Obama’s approval had been among women in each of the previous three weeks.

Obama’s approval has dropped 11 points among women over the past three months. In the last week of May, according to the Gallup poll, the president’s approval among females was at 52 percent.

Hmmm, what could her motivations possibly be?

Via Big Journalism:

Why would a journalist for MSNBC sit on an explosive story for over a week and allow her company’s competitors to report on it first? It’s hard to believe that the answer to that question is anything but political bias.

By now we’ve all heard the inflammatory and divisive rhetoric Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) spewed at an August 22nd “Job’s Fair” sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus. . . .

The statement was featured at Breitbart.tv and has been reported by ABC News, Fox News, Washington Post, NY Times, Huffington Post, CNN, USA Today, NY Daily News and many local news outlets. Yet a search of “Andre Carson” on MSNBC.com turns up nothing about this story. And that’s curious considering one of MSNBC’s daytime anchors was sitting only a few feet away from Carson when he made the statement.

Tamron Hall, host of MSNBC’s “NewsNation” was the moderator for the “For the People” Jobs Initiative event in Miami on August 22nd. In fact, you can hear Rep. Carson refer to Hall when he makes his statement. He says: “I’m sorry Tamron” right before he accuses his fellow congressman of wanting to lynch the people in the room.

Keep reading…

Via Commentary:

This is yet another example of why it’s tough to calculate the actual job-stimulating benefits of the stimulus plan. The Recovery Act’s success is typically measured by looking at how many jobs have been created. But there’s also job “shifting,” which happens when a business uses stimulus funds to hire someone who was already employed at another company. And according to a new study from George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, that’s been the case with nearly half of the workers hired under the Recovery Act:

Hiring isn’t the same as net job creation. In our survey, just 42.1 percent of the workers hired at ARRA-receiving organizations after January 31, 2009, were unemployed at the time they were hired (Appendix C). More were hired directly from other organizations (47.3 percent of post-ARRA workers), while a handful came from school (6.5 percent) or from outside the labor force (4.1 percent)(Figure 2). Thus, there was an almost even split between “job creating” and “job switching.” This suggests just how hard it is for Keynesian job creation to work in a modern, expertise-based economy: even in a weak economy, organizations hired the employed about as often as the unemployed.

Keep reading…

Crony capitalism.

(NBC News) — President Obama faces political catastrophe in the form of Solyndra — a San Francisco Bay area solar company that he touted as a gleaming example of green technology. It has announced it will declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy. More than 1,100 people will lose their jobs.

During a visit to the Fremont facility in spring of 2010, the President said the factory “is just a testament to American ingenuity and dynamism and the fact that we continue to have the best universities in the world, the best technology in the world, and most importantly the best workers in the world. ”

It’s not his statements the administration will regret; it’s the loan guarantees. The President was celebrating $535 million in federal promises from the Department of Energy to the solar startup. The administration didn’t do its due diligence, says the Government Accountability Office. “There’s a consequence if you don’t follow a rigorous process that’s transparent,” Franklin Rusco of GAO told the website iWatch News.

The President touted the federally back money as a way to create jobs. The President’s opponents immediately jumped on the deal as Solyndra made its first layoffs.