Washington Post’s Aaron Blake tweeted this earlier today:

Newsbusters has the story.

I’m noticing a trend here, everything Obama embraces turns into an epic failure.

(USA Today) — General Motors is contacting every owner of a Chevrolet Volt to assure them the extended-range electric car is safe to allay fears it could catch fire after a crash.

In addition, GM is going to give any owner who still has concerns another GM car while the federal investigation of Volt is underway.The offer came on a conference call with reporters this morning.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced Friday that it has opened a formal investigation into the Volt fires. It said it was taking the action after several tests. In each, the car’s lithium-ion battery heated up or caught fire after a severe crash. But the fire didn’t break out immediately. In some cases, it took weeks, leading to warnings for tow truck operators and storage yards to make sure the cars are parked away from buildings or other vehicles. No injuries or fires in customers’ vehicles have been reported.

“We are contacting all Volt owners to assure them and reassure them the car is safe to drive,” said Mark Reuss, head of General Motors’ North America. “The Volt is our pride and joy and we will do all we can to make Volt owners as happy with it as we can.” Reuss says letters to 5,329 owners with the offer are going out starting today.

Keep reading…

Even though the KKK was a Democratic organization from top to bottom.

(NY Times) — Imagine a political movement created in a moment of terrible anxiety, its origins shrouded in a peculiar combination of manipulation and grass-roots mobilization, its ranks dominated by Christian conservatives and self-proclaimed patriots, its agenda driven by its members’ fervent embrace of nationalism, nativism and moral regeneration, with more than a whiff of racism wafting through it.

No, not that movement. The one from the 1920s, with the sheets and the flaming crosses and the ludicrous name meant to evoke a heroic past. The Invisible Empire of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, they called it. And for a few years it burned across the nation, a fearsome thing to behold.

In “One Hundred Percent American,” Thomas R. Pegram, a professor of history at Loyola University Maryland, traces the Invisible Empire’s meteoric rise and equally precipitous fall. The ’20s Klan was born, he explains — or more precisely was reborn — on Thanksgiving evening 1915, when 16 Southerners trooped up Stone Mountain, in Georgia, for a bit of ritual bunkum inspired by D. W. Griffith’s incendiary film “The Birth of a Nation.” The group’s leader, a one-time Methodist minister named William Simmons, hoped to turn the men into a fraternal organization that night: sort of a Rotary for white supremacists. But he had no idea how to do it. So for five years the Klan stagnated, until Simmons handed the operation over to a couple of publicity agents, Elizabeth Tyler and Edward Young Clarke, who knew a thing or two about the dark art of marketing.

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I guess that’s why was the 1924 Democratic National Convention was nicknamed the “Klanbake” . . . no, wait?

The 1924 Democratic National Convention, also called the Klanbake, held at the Madison Square Garden in New York City from June 24 to July 9, took a record 103 ballots to nominate a presidential candidate. It was the longest continuously running convention in United States political history. It was the first major party national convention that saw the name of a woman, Lena Springs, placed in nomination for the office of Vice President. It was also known for the strong influence of the Ku Klux Klan.

HT: NRO

And just as bad is the pro-amnesty groups rushing to capitalize on the tragedy.

(Washington Times) — An illegal-immigrant student in Texas who committed suicide the day after Thanksgiving left letters saying he felt trapped by his lack of opportunities and, according to his family, he “decided to sacrifice himself for the cause.”

High school senior Joaquin Luna, 18, dressed in a suit, kissed family members, went into the bathroom and shot himself, according to his brother, Diyer Mendoza. In the letters he said he had lost hope in the chances for the Dream Act, which is legislation that would have legalized illegal-immigrant students and young adults but which was blocked inCongress last year.

“He was actually doing this for the cause, mainly the Dream Act,” Mr. Mendoza said. “He was doing this to show politicians, to show that something had to be done because there are a lot of kids out there in the same situation.”

Immigrant-rights advocates said politicians in Washington should take notice.

“His death is an indictment on the failure of this administration to move an inch forward on fixing a broken immigration system,” said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, communications director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, which has planned a Friday commemoration for Luna.

Keep reading…

Supporters Pakistani religious party Jamatud Dawa burn representation of the U. S. flag and posters of US President Obama and NATO’s general during a protest rally to condemn NATO strikes on Pakistani posts, in Multan, Pakistan, on Monday, Nov 28, 2011. (AP Photo/Khalid Tanveer)

Here’s the link to yesterday’s effigy burning.

Here’s something that will keep you up at night, if the Dems retake the House Maxine Waters will be the chairwoman.

(The Hill) — Wall Street executives are bracing for the possibility that Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) will take over as the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee after Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) retires.

Waters is in line for Frank’s spot and could become chairwoman of the panel if Democrats retake the House. Frank announced Monday that he will not seek another term in the House.

The California liberal is considered left of Frank, an architect of 2010’s Wall Street reform bill, on financial issues.

While banks and other financial institutions often battled Frank, he was seen as someone they could work with. Wall Street views Waters as more of an opponent.

“She’s not a good face of the issues,” one financial executive said. “She’s too much of a bomb thrower.”

Bawney Fwank is witty? Now I’ve heard it all.

(The Hill) — President Obama said Congress won’t be the same without Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

“This country has never had a Congressman like Barney Frank, and the House of Representatives will not be the same without him. For over 30 years, Barney has been a fierce advocate for the people of Massachusetts and Americans everywhere who needed a voice,” Obama said in a statement on Monday, shortly after Frank formally announced his retirement at a press conference.

“He has worked tirelessly on behalf of families and businesses and helped make housing more affordable. He has stood up for the rights of LGBT Americans and fought to end discrimination against them,” Obama continued. “And it is only thanks to his leadership that we were able to pass the most sweeping financial reform in history designed to protect consumers and prevent the kind of excessive risk-taking that led to the financial crisis from ever happening again.”

“Barney’s passion and his quick wit will be missed in the halls of Congress, and Michelle and I join the people of the Bay State in thanking him for his years of service.”

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Da Joooos?

(Haaretz) — A explosion rocked the western Iranian city of Isfahan on Monday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, adding that the blast was heard in several parts of the city.

The reported incident occurred about two weeks after Gen. Hasan Tehrani Moghaddam was killed together with 20 other Guard members Nov. 12 at a military site outside Bidganeh village, 40 kilometers southwest of Tehran.

The deputy governor of Iran’s Isfahan province on Monday said however he had no reports of an explosion in his region. “So far no report of a major explosion has been heard from any government body in Isfahan,” he was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

It should be noted that Iran operates a uranium conversion plant near Isfahan, one with an important function in the chain of Iran’s nuclear program.

It first went into operation in 2004, taking uranium from mines and producing uranium fluoride gas, which then feeds the centrifuges that enrich the uranium.

Since 2004, thousands of kilograms of uranium flouride gas were stockpiled at Isfahan and subsequently sent to the enrichment plant in Natanz.

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If you were to say four years ago the leader of the al-Qaeda-linked Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and the American government would both back the same government I would have called you crazy.

(Almasry Alyoum) — The Islamist who commands one of Libya’s most powerful militias, Abdel Hakim Belhadj, said on Monday he will back the interim national government despite his supporters being overlooked for top posts.

But he would not commit to a date for the forces under his control to hand over their weapons to the government, a crucial test of whether Libya after the fall of dictator Muammar Qadhafi can form a cohesive state.

Some analysts had warned that caretaker Prime Minister Abdurrahim al-Keib risked sparking a confrontation with Belhadj’s Islamists after he handed the defense minister’s post in the new government to the head of a rival militia.

Belhadj is a former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which waged an insurgency against Qadhafi in the 1990s. He spent time with Islamist militants in Afghanistan, though he said he was not allied with Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda.

He was captured, detained by British and U.S. intelligence services, and sent to Libya in 2004, where he was jailed. He was given an amnesty last year after renouncing violence.

Belhadj heads the Tripoli Military Council, a heavily-armed force of about 25,000 men. It is one of dozens of competing groups which Western states backing Libya’s new leaders want to see brought under one command.

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Keep telling yourself that, Chuck.

Via WaPo lefty blogger Greg Sargent:

It’s become an article of faith among Republicans, and even some neutral commentators: By embracing the larger message of Occupy Wall Street, and by pushing issues of income inequality and tax fairness to the fore, Democrats risk alienating swing voters who will be turned off by angry populism and “class warfare.”

Dem messaging chief Chuck Schumer is having none of it.

In an interview with me today, Schumer vowed that inequality would be a central issue in the campaign that Dems would focus on “like a laser.” Schumer rejected the GOP idea that Occupy Wall Street would be a liability for Dems, claiming that Republicans who believe ads tying Dems to the protests would be effective are “inside their own bubble” and that whatever their view of the protesters themselves, middle class Americans feel like “part of the 99 percent.” [...]

“Occupy Wall Street has resonance far beyond the protests,” Schumer said. “Whether middle class people agree with the protests or not, the vast majority believes that they’re part of the 99 percent and that something should be done to help them.” Republicans who think this tactic will work with “swing voters,” Schumer said, are “inside their own bubble.”

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I propose this guy be their first candidate.

Via OWS Exposed:

In a press release issued on Saturday, a group of occupiers from Cincinnati announced the formation of a new political party called “The Occupation Party.” Here’s a link to their press release and a link to their website.

Warren Buffet and celebrities like Alicia Keys, James Taylor and Melanie Griffith are also pimping themselves out for the cause.

Via Politico Playbook:

“The Obama campaign has launched what it calls a ‘Speakers Series’ — for $5,000 a year, or $1,000 an event, supporters can meet with cabinet secretaries, top administration officials, celebrities and Democratic political stars. Campaign officials provided more than 40 names of participants, including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, billionaire investor Warren Buffett, feminist icon Gloria Steinem, singers Alicia Keys and James Taylor, and actresses Melanie Griffith and Eva Longoria. Republicans have complained about the appearance of government officials at the events. . . . White House and campaign aides say administration officials have obeyed laws separating campaign and governing duties.”