Takes some serious chutzpah to make a statement like this.

(Politico) — The White House suggested Wednesday that the hosts of next week’s GOP presidential debate can change the time by an hour so it doesn’t interfere with President Obama’s planned jobs speech to Congress.

POLITICO and NBC are hosting a Republican debate Sept. 7 at 8 p.m., the same time the White House said Obama asked Congress to make an address.

Asked about the timing on Wednesday, press secretary Jay Carney said, “It is coincidental.”

“There are a lot of factors that go into scheduling a speech before Congress, a joint session,” he said. “You can never find a perfect time. . . . There are many channels, there are many opportunities for people to watch the president, and obviously for people to watch the debate.”

Asked later if the interruption is then an “added bonus” for the White House, Carney suggested that isn’t the case. “There’s one president, there’s 20-some-odd debates,” he said.

“There are many opportunities for the American people. There’s a choice they can make to watch the president, to watch the debate,” he said. “A network could make a decision to alter the timing of the debate by an hour.”

Carney later elaborated, saying that if “sponsors chose and the candidates so chose to adjust the timing of their debate . . . that would be completely fine with us, in the spirit of democracy.”

Hilarious that some liberal bedwetter actually thought this was a good idea.

(Kansas City Star) — Kansas State University’s new eco-friendly mascot — with her teased orange hair, purple accessories, and all together unfortunate styling — is blowing up on Twitter.

A search for “EcoKat” yields a handful of recently created Twitter handles (including the hilarious #FakeEcoKat) and no shortage of bad jokes. According to Trendsmap.com, it’s a top Twitter trend in Kansas City.

While a press release from K-State from earlier this month describes EcoKat as “Kansas State University’s crusader of conservation and fanatic of fluorescent lightbulbs,” it’s garnering a mixed reception at best.

For every tweet in defense of EcoKat are dozens more mocking the mousy mascot. A sampling: “#EcoKat makes me want to leave my porch light on 24hours and drive two blocks to the gas station for a pack of gum”; “In honor of #EcoKat, I will separate my plastics, glass and aluminum from one another. . . then put them in the trash anyways”; and “Pretty sure I have my halloween costume figured out this year. Thanks, #ecokat.”

Amazing what a threat to withhold funds can accomplish.

(Wausau Daily) — Organizers of the Labor Day parade in Wausau backtracked on Tuesday night from an earlier decision to bar Republican lawmakers from participating in the event.

In an email statement issued shortly before midnight, Marathon County Labor Council President Randy Radtke said everyone will be permitted to march in the parade “because we don’t want to have community groups and school bands affected.”

“We didn’t start this fight in Wisconsin, but were responding to anti-worker positions and policies supported by local Republican politicians, including those who have complained about not being invited,” Radtke’s statement read. “With the track records that Pam Galloway, Sean Duffy, Scott Walker, and Jerry Petrowski have all put together this year, they should be ashamed to even show their faces at a Labor Day parade.”

On Tuesday afternoon, one day after demanding organizers allow members of all political parties to participate or lose financial support for the event from the city, Wausau Mayor Jim Tipple said the decision was intended to make the parade all inclusive.

Which one should we live-blog, the debate or the address? I’ll put up a poll the day before and let you guys decide.

(National Journal) — President Obama has asked for a joint session of Congress on Sept. 7 to present his plan for jobs.

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, Obama said it is his intention to “lay out a series of bipartisan proposals that the Congress can take immediately to continue to rebuild the American economy.”

The president said the proposals focus on “strengthening small businesses, helping Americans get back to work, and putting more money back in the paychecks of the middle class.”

And here’s Jay Carney’s douchey response:

Obamanomics in action.

Via Zero Hedge:

While the key market moving event from last Friday may have been Bernanke’s Jackson Hole speech which merely left the door open to future QE episodes, the most important event from an economic standpoint was the first GDP revision Q2, which dropped from preliminary 1.3% to a sub stall speed, in real terms, 1.0%. What is just as important is that as the following [above] chart from Bloomberg demonstrates, the YoY change in real GDP, which is now at 1.5%, is a slam dunk indicator of recession: “Since 1948, every time the four-quarter change has fallen below 2 percent, the economy has entered a recession. It’s hard to argue against an indicator with such a long history of accuracy.” Bernanke agreed that “growth has for the most part been at rates insufficient to achieve sustained reductions in unemployment.” And while Bernanke is shifting dangerously into Greenspan territory with the open-ended interpretation of his statement, another thing that is more actionable is the observation that virtually every time real YoY GDP has dropped below 1.5%, this has led to a negative nonfarm payroll number. Granted, the result may not be as shocking as what the Philly Fed implied vis-a-vis this Friday’s NFP, but we believe a subzero print in the August labor report will convince the three Fed holdouts that the time for yet another monetary intervention is here (Arab Spring part deux consequences be damned).

Keep reading…

(Rasmussen) — With hurricane season in full swing, Americans have mixed views on whether global warming is behind extreme weather conditions.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 41% of American Adults believe global warming is creating climate changes that lead to more extreme weather events. Forty-three percent (43%) disagree with that assessment, while 16% are not sure.

Because it’s been such a smashing success up to this point.

LAS VEGAS — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he is “sure” President Obama will offer specific proposals for boosting energy-related jobs in next week’s big speech on job creation.

The Nevada Democrat, speaking to reporters at his annual Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, said he is urging Obama to make the green jobs push as big as possible, and will continue to make the case in meetings with the president before the speech. John Podesta, president of the liberal group Center for American Progress, which has close ties to the White House, said he also is urging Obama to announce new green jobs initiatives.

Reid and Podesta met on Tuesday with Vice President Joe Biden, the event’s keynote speaker, in part to press the administration for a renewable energy jobs agenda.

In an interview with National Journal, Podesta said he is urging Obama to back short-term, politically possible measures, including funding for an Energy Department-run rebate program for investment in energy-efficient retrofits of homes and residential buildings. Advocates of the proposal, known as Home Star and “Cash for Caulkers,” say it would rapidly create construction and manufacturing jobs. Podesta also is pushing for the federal government to retrofit homes and buildings that have been repossessed in foreclosures, and then either rent them or sell them to nonprofit organizations.

Keep reading…

This comes less than a week after Trumka accused Obama of (gasp) working with Tea Party terrorists.

WASHINGTON, DC — AUGUST 31: U.S. President Barack Obama (C) waves goodbye after making a statement demanding that Congress to pass extensions of transportation and avaition bills with U.S. Chamber of Commerce Chief Operating Officer David Chavern (L) and AFL-CIO President and member of the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness Richard Trumka in the Rose Garden August 31, 2011 in Washington, DC. Obama called on Congress to move forward in a bipartisan way to pass a clean extension of the Surface Transportation Bill, which expires at the end of September, and a clean extension of the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization, which expires in mid-September.

Shocker.

Via Beltway Confidential:

With national unemployment figures parked above 9% and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., openly questioning President Obama’s fidelity to the black community, Obama tapped Alan Krueger, a Princeton economist and former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, to chair the White House Council of Economic Advisers, a decision that might subtly figure into Obama’s expansion of outreach to the black community, given Krueger’s expressed interest in “the legacy of racial inequality in academic and economic opportunity.”

Throughout his career, Krueger contributed to multiple studies of race as a factor in educational and economic success. Most recently, Krueger coauthored a 2005 study about affirmative action policies, in which he expressed his belief that vestigial discrimination and the “legacy” of racial discrimination has compromised the opportunity for success among the black community.

In this particular study, Krueger questioned whether universities could suspend affirmative action policies in the foreseeable future without a significant drop in the number of black students at the best schools in the country. Answer: no, because “there will simply be too few high-scoring black students,” Krueger says, to match the numbers of students who currently benefit from racial preferences in admissions policies.

To what does Krueger attribute this bleak forecast for black students’ academic achievements? From the outset, Krueger points to “the legacies of de jure segregation and racial discrimination in the United States” which, in concert with “continuing bias,” results in a “substantial gap in measured academic performance between black children and white children.” The academic gap, of course, derives to a large degree from an income gap between white and black parents. Fortunately, as adult black workers since the civil rights movement earned more money due to “a reduction in discrimination in conjunction with normal market forces,” that academic gap diminished.

Keep reading…

If the shoe fits.

(Politico) — A top tea party organizing group, FreedomWorks, is planning to protest Mitt Romney’s appearance this weekend at a New Hampshire stop of a bus tour intended to encourage tea party sympathizers to participate in the Republican presidential nominating process.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is among the leading candidates for the GOP presidential nomination, but is viewed warily by tea party activists, who believe him to be insufficiently conservative and particularly blame him for Massachusetts state healthcare overhaul he signed into law.

And Romney, for his part, hasn’t focused much energy on appealing to the movement. So it attracted considerable attention — both within the tea party and among the GOP operative class — when it was announced Tuesday that he intended to speak at a Sunday evening rally being staged by the Tea Party Express in Concord, N.H., as part of a cross country bus tour set to culminate in Tampa, Fla., ahead of a Sept. 12 GOP presidential debate co-sponsored by the Tea Party Express and CNN.

FreedomWorks, which had been participating in the Tea Party Express’s tour and had helped turn out activists at rallies during prior stops, decided it could no longer be affiliated with the tour, said Brendan Steinhauser, a lead organizer for FreedomWorks.

Instead, it began working with local New Hampshire tea party groups to organize a counter rally set for about the same time in the same park in Concord as Romney’s speech.

“We have to defend our brand against poseurs,” said Steinhauser.

Proof there is a God.

Via Noel Sheppard:

The debut of Al Sharpton’s new program on MSNBC did not go very well Monday.

As TVNewser reported, “PoliticsNation” actually attracted less viewers than Michael Smerconish did guest-hosting for Chris Matthews on “Hardball.”

I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction, they never wanted him in the first place.

(Washington Times) — After watching several video clips on Wednesday of fellow black lawmakers attack the tea party, Rep. Allen West, Florida Republican, told Fox and Friends host Steve Doocy, “I think I’m re-considering my membership in the Congressional Black Caucus.”

This remark came from Rep. West, a popular lawmaker among tea party activists, happened after a clip was played of Rep. Andre. Carson, Indiana Democrat, told an audience in Miami that tea-party supporting members of Congress look at African Americans as “second-class citizens” and would like to see them “hanging on a tree.”

Congressman West immediately defended the tea party and called Rep. Carson’s statements “reprehensible.” Rep. West is the only Republican who is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Keep reading…

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (AFP) — US President Barack Obama on Tuesday marked the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan by renewing his support for the “Arab Spring” movement against repressive regimes.

“This year, many have observed the month while courageously persevering in their efforts to secure basic necessities and fundamental freedoms,” he said in a statement released during a one-day trip to Minneapolis.

“The United States will continue to stand with them and for the dignity and rights of all people, whether a hungry child in the Horn of Africa or a young person demanding freedom in the Middle East and North Africa,” he said.

Chechnya: Eight killed and 22 wounded in two suicide attacks:

(RIA Novosti) — At least eight people have been killed and 22 injured in two suicide attacks in the Chechen capital Grozny, local officials said on Wednesday.

The attacks took place during celebrations to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan on Tuesday.

It was earlier reported that seven had been killed and 18 injured in the twin blasts.

A sixth policeman died in the hospital overnight, the restive region’s Health Minister Musa Akhmadov said, adding that five of the 22 injured are in critical condition.

A man blew himself up when a police patrol tried to detain him near a local parliament building, and a second blast came just 30 minutes later. There were also reports of a third blast.

Pakistan: 11 Shia Muslims killed and 22 wounded by Sunni suicide bomber.

(DNA) — A suicide car bomber struck Shia worshipers in Pakistan’s southwestern restive Quetta city killing at least 11 people and wounding 22 others turning Eid-ul Fitr festivities into mourning.

The bomber drove a car laden with about 40 kg of explosives intending to hit a Shia mosque at prayers time, but finding the place heavily guarded, detonated the bomb in a nearby parking lot.

At the time of the blast, people were returning home after Eid prayers.

The explosion was so powerful that it destroyed 10 cars and several nearby houses, Capital City Police Officer Quetta (CCPO) Ahsan Mahboob said adding it was a suicide attack.

Otherwise known as mission accomplished in liberal-infested Hollywood.

(Telegraph) — A Kosovo Albanian Islamic extremist has confessed to murdering two American airmen and has blamed a faked jihad video showing US soldiers raping a Muslim girl for inspiring his crime.

In an emotional confession to a Frankfurt court as his murder trial began on Wednesday, Arid Uka said he had become radicalised by online extremist propaganda before carrying out a lone gun attack US Air Force bus in March.

“What I did was wrong, but I cannot undo what I did,” he said.

Uka blamed a video purporting to show American servicemen raping a young Muslim girl for prompting him to try and stop other US soldiers from getting to Afghanistan.

“I thought what I saw in that video, these people would do in Afghanistan,” he told the court.

But the rape footage, billed as an authentic video entitled “what was done to our sisters,” turned out to be a fake using footage scene from the 2007 anti-Iraq war film “Redacted,” directed by Hollywood’s Brian de Palma.

Actually, Obama smoked the economy down to a stub, like a Kool, and then he put it on Obamacare.

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama on Tuesday said that the US economy had suffered a “heart attack” and survived but is not recuperating quickly enough, as he geared up to unveil a major jobs plan.

Obama appeared on the “Tom Joyner Morning Show” in what also appeared to be an effort to reach out to black voters following criticism by African American leaders that he has not sufficient courted their community.

“What we went through, was the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and typically after financial recessions, financial crises like this, it takes a long time for the patient to heal,” Obama said.

“This is a situation where the economy essentially had a heart attack, and the patient lived, and the patient is getting better, but it’s getting better very slowly.”

Obama is preparing a major speech on jobs and deficit cutting next week which is designed to revive his own declining political prospects ahead of the 2012 election and to jolt the stagnant recovery back to life.

Keep reading. . .

(Reuters) — President Barack Obama said on Tuesday there were a range of policy options available that could create up to a million new U.S. jobs, in remarks ahead of a major economic speech that he will deliver next week.

Obama must boost growth and bring down unemployment to be confident of winning another White House term in the November 2012 general election. Economists are skeptical he will get Congress to agree to significant new spending on jobs.

“We don’t have magic bullets, but what we do have, I think, is the capacity to do some things right now that would make a big difference,” Obama said in a interview with popular radio talkshow host Tom Joyner.

The White House says details of the job creation proposals Obama will unveil next week are still being worked out and it has yet to announce an exact date or location for his speech, although Obama hinted at some of the ideas he would put forth.

“There is no doubt that we can take steps that would mean the economywas growing a percent or a percentage and a half faster. That could mean half a million to a million additional jobs,” Obama said.

But . . . but . . . but . . . Perry is unelectable!

(Ballot Box) — Americans are virtually divided over which party they wish to see control both the White House and Congress as a product of the 2012 elections.

A new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday found President Obama in a statistical tie with the two Republican candidates he seems most likely to face next fall, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Obama and Romney would each win 45 percent of the vote if the election were held today, according to the survey of registered voters.

Obama performs slightly better against Perry; the president would best the Texan, 45 to 42 percent.

Massachusetts being for all intents and purposes a sanctuary state he had very little if anything to worry about.

FRAMINGHAM — The uncle of President Obama arrested here last week on drunken driving and other charges has been a fugitive from deportation since 1992, according to two federal law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case.

Onyango Obama, who is from Kenya and is known as the president’s Uncle Omar on his father’s side, had lived a quiet life in Massachusetts until last Wednesday, when police said the car he was driving darted in front of a police cruiser, nearly causing the officer to hit his car.

The federal officials, who spoke about Obama’s immigration status on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak about the case, said Obama had been told to leave in 1992, but he did not go.

Obama is the second relative of the president to have defied a deportation order, reigniting debate over illegal immigration and raising questions about how a man who had lived in the United States illegally for years had managed to secure a job, a Massachusetts driver’s license, and apparently, a federal Social Security number, without being detected by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

“There are hundreds of thousands of people who have been ordered deported and just ran off and nobody’s looking for them,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors strict controls on immigration.

Onyango Obama’s sister, Zeituni Onyango, also faced deportation before a Boston immigration judge granted her asylum last year. She, too, had avoided the spotlight, living in public housing in South Boston despite a deportation order. Her immigration status was leaked to the media days before her nephew’s historic election in 2008.

No surprise, Iran also ranks dead last in mosque attendance in the Muslim world.

TEHRAN, IRAN (ANS) — Authorities say Iranian internet users chalked up more visits to pornographic sites than people from any other country on Ashura Day, a Shiite day of mourning.

Mohabat News, the Iranian Christian News Agency, citing a Radio Zamaneh report from the Fars news agency, reports that Ebrahim Bayani, a senior official of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, told a meeting of IRGC commanders and administrators that the Revolutionary Guards Cyber Army has established that among internet users from 182 countries, Iranians made the highest number of visits to “immoral sites” on Ashura Day.

Bayani added that these “alarming statistics” and the use of satellites mean “we cannot expect the youth of the country to have any motivation to fast or go to mosque.”

New tone!

(Politico) — A top lawmaker in the Congressional Black Caucus says tea partiers on Capitol Hill would like to see African Americans hanging from trees and accuses the movement of wishing for a return to the Jim Crow era.

Rep. Andre Carson, a Democrat from Indiana who serves as the CBC’s chief vote counter, said at a CBC event in Miami that some in Congress would “love to see us as second-class citizens” and “some of them in Congress right now of this tea party movement would love to see you and me . . . hanging on a tree.”

The explosive comments, caught on tape, were uploaded on the internet Tuesday, and Carson’s office stood by the remarks. Jason Tomcsi, Carson’s spokesman, said the comment was “in response to frustration voiced by many in Miami and in his home district in Indianapolis regarding Congress’ inability to bolster the economy.” Tomcsi, in an email, wrote that “the congressman used strong language because the Tea Party agenda jeopardizes our most vulnerable and leaves them without the ability to improve their economic standing.

“The Tea Party is protecting its millionaire and oil company friends while gutting critical services that they know protect the livelihood of African-Americans, as well as Latinos and other disadvantaged minorities,” Tomcsi wrote. “We are talking about child nutrition, job creation, job training, housing assistance, and Head Start, and that is just the beginning. A child without basic nutrition, secure housing, and quality education has no real chance at a meaningful and productive life.”

From yesterday: Congressional Black Caucus Declares “War” On Racist Tea Party, Claims Republicans Want To See Blacks “Hanging From A Tree”