Legacy: Considering the Kennedy-Andropov gambit

Much worse than Chappaquiddick.

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Now that Ted Kennedy has been eulogized and buried, no one can complain about the examination of his life in the public sphere as inappropriate. From the beginning, Kennedy’s critics have discussed his failures and cowardice at Chappaquiddick, and that certainly belongs in any discussion of Kennedy’s life. However, another episode relates much more directly to Kennedy’s public career and should get a great deal more examination now — his effort to enlist Yuri Andropov as an ally of the Democratic Party against Ronald Reagan in 1983. Peter Robinson reviews the incident for Forbes:

“On 9-10 May of this year,” the May 14 memorandum explained, “Sen. Edward Kennedy’s close friend and trusted confidant [John] Tunney was in Moscow.” (Tunney was Kennedy’s law school roommate and a former Democratic senator from California.) “The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov.”

Kennedy’s message was simple. He proposed an unabashed quid pro quo. Kennedy would lend Andropov a hand in dealing with President Reagan. In return, the Soviet leader would lend the Democratic Party a hand in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election. “The only real potential threats to Reagan are problems of war and peace and Soviet-American relations,” the memorandum stated. “These issues, according to the senator, will without a doubt become the most important of the election campaign.” …

Kennedy’s motives? “Like other rational people,” the memorandum explained, “[Kennedy] is very troubled by the current state of Soviet-American relations.” But that high-minded concern represented only one of Kennedy’s motives.

“Tunney remarked that the senator wants to run for president in 1988,” the memorandum continued. “Kennedy does not discount that during the 1984 campaign, the Democratic Party may officially turn to him to lead the fight against the Republicans and elect their candidate president.”

Washington is Seriously Unserious

(By George Will, Newsweek) - In August our ubiquitous president became the nation's elevator music, always out and about, heard but not really listened to, like audible wallpaper. And now, as Congress returns to resume wrestling with health care reform, we shall see if he continues his August project of proving that the idea of an Ivy League Huey Long is not oxymoronic.

Barack Obama in August became a Huey for today, a rabble rouser with a better tailor, an unrumpled and modulated tribune of downtrodden Americans, telling them that opponents of his reform plan—which actually does not yet exist—are fearmongers employing scare tactics. He also told Americans to be afraid, very afraid of health-insurance providers because they are dishonest (and will remain so until there is a "public option" to make them "honest"). And to be afraid, very afraid of pediatricians who unnecessarily extract children's tonsils for monetary rather than medical reasons. And to be afraid, very afraid of doctors generally because so many of them are so rapacious that they prefer lopping off limbs of diabetes patients rather than engaging in lifestyle counseling that for "a pittance" could prevent diabetes.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, the Maine Republican whom Democrats hope will lend a patina of bipartisanship to their health legislation whenever it gets written, says that one thing we learned from the cacophonous town halls of August is "that there are many people who are satisfied with their health insurance." Actually, long before this debate began we knew that a large majority of Americans have insurance, and a large majority of that majority are content with their care. That is why the president has become shrill: There is no underlying discontent commensurate with the scale of the changes he is trying to propel.

Shootout! Liz Cheney Smacks Down Sam Donaldson

Dems Circle the Wagons to Save Rangel

(New York Post) - House Democrats are willing to rally around Rep. Charles Rangel in his latest spate of tax missteps -- but only as long as no more embarrassing revelations come to light, sources told The Post.

The head of the powerful Ways and Means Committee last week amended six years' worth of financial disclosure forms and revealed he'd earned $1.3 million in previously unreported income.

That's on top of ongoing House Ethics Committee probes into four other areas of Rangel's financial past -- including failure to properly report income taxes on a Caribbean villa he owns.

Reid: Kennedy's death "going to help us" on health care

(By Tony Romm, The Hill) - The passing of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) could help Senate Democrats struggling this year to advance health care reform, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said during an interview with the Reno Gazette-Journal, published yesterday.

Kennedy Grandson Prays for ‘Quality Health Care’ for ‘Every American’

“For what my grandpa called the cause of his life, as he said that every American have decent quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege, we pray to the Lord.”

Related Material...

• (Hot Air Pundit) - Playing Politics

• (Hot Air) - It’s come to this: Dems task Teddy’s grandson with leading funeral prayer for ObamaCare

Rush Limbaugh's Morning Update: Rules for Work

From Rush Limbaugh: A new Harris Interactive study, conducted for CareerBuilder.com, reveals that 45 percent of employers examine the stuff job seekers post on social networking websites. Forty-five percent! That is double the percentage of a year ago.

And it's problematic for some of you. Over a third of those employers ultimately decided not to offer a job to someone based on the content they found. (I can only imagine what some of that content is.)

Now, some of you were raised by liberals; some of you attended public schools. So, rules of work may be foreign to you. Aside from cleaning up your web postings, there are a few things you ought to know about job hunting:

•Companies don't hire you so you can make money and have health care. They hire you for the work you produce, so that they can earn profits -- which liberals will try to take away.
•Companies do not hire you in order to provide you free broadband service for you to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, or line up dates. They expect actual productivity from you.
•Likewise, companies do not hire you in order to provide you with a good benefits package. They hire you so you can benefit them.
•And companies do not give you a raise simply because you've shown up. A raise comes after you've proven you can deliver, consistently and over time.

Finally, showing up to work -- punctually, and without attitude -- can be very helpful to your career. Despite what you young liberals have been told, the world doesn't owe you a living. It's up to you to earn one, because we're tired of being taxed to pay for your lazy lifestyles.

Read the Background Material on the Morning Update...
• NY Times: More Employers Use Social Networks to Check Out Applicants

"Obama's new interrogation unit is a disaster in the making..."

After Kennedy's Death: Silence from the Pope

(Yahoo News) - There was a poignant footnote to President Obama's historic July 10 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Behind closed doors in the papal library, Obama handed Benedict a letter that Senator Edward Kennedy had asked him to personally deliver to the pontiff. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs later told reporters that nobody - not even the President - knew the contents of the sealed missive. Obama himself asked Benedict to pray for Kennedy, and called the ailing Senator afterward to fill him in on his encounter with the 82-year-old Pope.

The letter, most likely already re-sealed and tucked away in the Vatican archives, was probably just a dying Catholic's request for a papal blessing. In the eyes of the traditionalist wing of the Church, however, Kennedy should have been asking the Pope for forgiveness. The Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reported Kennedy's death, praising his work on civil rights and fighting poverty, but noted that his record was marred by his stance on abortion. As of yet, unlike some other world leaders, Pope Benedict has not commented or issued an official communique in response to Kennedy's death. One veteran official at the Vatican, of U.S. nationality, expressed the view of many conservatives about the Kennedy clan's rapport with the Catholic Church: "Why would he even write a letter to the Pope? The Kennedys have always been defiantly in opposition to the Roman Catholic magisterium." Magisterium is the formal expression for the authority of Church teaching.

Related Material...

• (NewsBusters) - Time's Amy Sullivan Plays Up Teddy's Catholicism, Utterly Ignores His 100-Percent Record on Abortion, Gays

• (HRC’s YouTube channel) - Ted Kennedy suggesting 'Jesse Helms might be in Hell' at a March 2008 dinner.

LA Congresswoman Praises Cuban Revolution & Castro’s Health Care System

"You can think whatever you want to about Fidel Castro, but he was one of the brightest leaders I have ever met."

LA Rep: ObamaCare Opponents Want to Destroy ‘First President Who Looks Like Me’

"They are spreading fear and they're trying to see that the first president who looks like me -- fails."

Related Material...

• (KABC-AM) - Rep. Diane Watson Raises Race, Praises Fidel Castro in Obamacare Debate

The Improbable Political Existence of Teddy Kennedy

(By Frank J. Fleming, Pajamas Media) - The death of Ted Kennedy is a time to reflect on how utterly insane his political existence was.

He seemed like the type of liberal the older conservatives just made up to scare us — privileged, elite, divorced from reality, amoral, and because he said the right things, it didn’t matter at all to him what his actual deeds or actions were.

But he was real! Liberals actually worshiped him! This is a hundred times more insane than thinking John Edwards was an authentic man of the people.

Hot Pants Weren't Enough as Nixon Searched for Ted Kennedy's Weakness

Tape recordings from the Nixon White House betray a preoccupation with the Kennedy mystique and how that might be used against the Republican president by the last surviving brother, who died Tuesday at age 77.

WASHINGTON (Fox News) - President Richard Nixon was so preoccupied with the Kennedy family and the possibility of another defeat handed to him by another Kennedy -- Ted -- that he ordered aides to recruit Secret Service agents to spill secrets on the senator's behavior.

The president tried to catch Kennedy cheating on his wife, while at the same time finding the couple to be "crude" in their "super-swingin' jet-set" lifestyle.

In a series of stark Oval Office conversations about Kennedy before the 1972 election, Nixon spoke with aides John Erhlichman, H.R. Haldeman and Ron Ziegler.

Nixon wanted to find a way to keep an eye on Kennedy.

Reversal on Senate Succession Stirs Political Storm

Democrats' Push to Let Governor Fill Kennedy's Seat, After Demanding Special Vote in 2004, Draws Accusations of Hypocrisy

BOSTON (The Wall Street Journal) - A Democratic push to appoint a successor to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy is sparking a political tempest in Massachusetts, infuriating Republicans and dividing Democrats who only five years ago passed a law requiring that voters decide on Senate vacancies.

On a day when members of both parties paid their respects to Mr. Kennedy, a Democratic icon who died this week of brain cancer, Republicans accused Democrats of hypocrisy. In 2004, the state's Democrat-controlled legislature changed the law to prevent the governor from appointing an interim successor after a U.S. Senate seat becomes vacant. Instead, the new law requires that a special election be held between 145 and 165 days after the position becomes vacant.

At the time, Democratic Sen. John Kerry was running for president and Massachusetts had a Republican governor, Mitt Romney. Proponents of changing the law argued that a gubernatorial appointment was undemocratic and that only voters should decide on a replacement. Democrats also feared Mr. Romney would appoint a Republican.

Now, with Mr. Kennedy dying three years before his term was up, some Massachusetts Democrats are reversing course, calling for Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick to appoint an interim replacement to hold office until the special election can be held. They now argue the state shouldn't be without full Senate representation for months, especially with pressing issues such as health care before Congress.

Letter Details Kennedy Offer To USSR

(Sweetness & Light) - This letter which details Senator Edward Kennedy’s offer to help the Soviet Union defeat Reagan’s efforts to build up the nuclear deterrent in Europe was unearthed by a Times of London reporter in the 1990s after the KGB files were opened.

It got little or no attention, however, until the publication of Paul Kengor’s book "The Crusader – Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism."

But even then the actual text of the letter (which is in the book’s appendix pp 317-320) has gotten short shrift...

Some Surprised By 'Clunker' Tax

(KELO-TV) - The Cash For Clunkers program is adding to the activity at treasurers' offices all around South Dakota. First, people were asking for proof of ownership, so they could show they owned their vehicle for a full year, allowing them to cash it in. Now, they'll be returning to register their new vehicle. And when they do, new owners need to bring every bit of paperwork provided to them by their dealer.

"That means they need their title, their damage disclosure, their bill of sale and the dealers have 30 days to get that to them," Minnehaha County Treasurer Pam Nelson said.

But many of those cashing in on the clunkers program are surprised when they get to the treasurer's office windows. That's because the government's rebate of up to $4500 dollars for every clunker is taxable.

Fixing the Health-Care System Requires Market Changes, Not a Government Takeover, Major Economists Say

(CNSNews.com) – Fixing the main problems with the health-care system should not take a major overhaul or government-run health insurance, or even a 700-page bill. What is needed is some good old-fashioned competition, according to the authors of a new book on the subject -- two economists whose research is highly regarded in the academic world.

Obama’s ‘Path Toward Fiscal Discipline’ is Paved with Average Annual Deficits of $900 Billion, Says White House Report

(CNSNews.com) - A budget review released by the White House on Tuesday says that President Obama has “reoriented the Nation back to a path toward fiscal discipline” and then reveals that the administration is planning for the federal government to run cumulative deficits over the next decade of $9.05 trillion, meaning the average annual federal deficit will be $905 billion.

Congressional Research Service: ObamaCare will cover illegal immigrants

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Mark Tapscott discovers a nugget in the analysis provided by the Congressional Research Office on HR3200, the House version of ObamaCare coming to the floor. While Barack Obama insists that the idea that ObamaCare will cover illegal immigrants is a “myth,” the CRS points out that the bill does nothing to prevent it. Since HR3200 doesn’t require people to establish citizenship or legal residency before applying to exchanges for health insurance, including the public option, taxpayer money will certainly flow to illegal immigrants:

In what he called the “first myth” being spread by critics of his proposal for a government-run health care system, Obama said they are wrong in claiming illegal immigrants will be covered: “That is not true. Illegal immigrants would not be covered. That idea has not even been on the table.” Obama said.

Well, Mr. President, that idea must have been tucked under a stack of background briefing papers over there in the corner of the table because the Congressional Research Service (CRS) says this about H.R. 3200, the Obamacare bill approved just before the recess by the House Energy and Commerce Committee chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-CA:

“Under H.R. 3200, a ‘Health Insurance Exchange’ would begin operation in 2013 and would offer private plans alongside a public option…H.R. 3200 does not contain any restrictions on noncitzens—whether legally or illegally present, or in the United States temporarily or permanently—participating in the Exchange.”

Surprise! Youth employment rate hits record low

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Since 2007, Democrats have led the charge to increase the minimum wage in the US, claiming that the poor hadn’t gotten a fair shake from employers. Nancy Pelosi and the late Ted Kennedy pushed hardest for mandating increases in wages despite warnings that the net effect would be to lower employment for teens and entry-level workers while creating inflationary pressures on prices, negating the gains through loss of buying power. For the second year in a row, those predictions have come true:

The proportion of people ages 16 to 24 who were employed in July was 51.4 percent, the lowest July rate since records began in 1948 and 4.6 percentage points lower than in July 2008. …

The Labor Department said 4.4 million youths were unemployed in July 2009, or about 1 million more than in July 2008, putting the youth jobless rate at 18.5 percent, about double the overall national percentage.

Fewer young people were even trying to be part of the labor force this year than in recent years, perhaps choosing summer school, odd jobs around the house or idleness instead.

Obamacare: The Only Exit Strategy

(By Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post) - Obamacare Version 1.0 is dead. The 1,000-page monstrosity that emerged in various editions from Congress was done in by widespread national revulsion not just at its expense and intrusiveness but also at the mendacity with which it is being sold. You don't need a PhD to see that the promise to expand coverage and reduce costs is a crude deception, or that cutting $500 billion from Medicare without affecting care is a fiction.

But there is an exit strategy. And a politically clever one, if the Democrats are smart enough to seize it.

Coming back to life: Camp Sertoma is being revived

(By Leslie Bray Evans, The Stokes News) - There is a rumbling of activity at Camp Sertoma in Westfield these days. Vehicles roll in and out of the long dirt driveway from Moore’s Springs Road. Screen doors open and shut. Rockers on the front porch are often occupied. Trails are being forged in the woods.

No, this is not a flashback to the late 1800s and early 1900s when the hotel at the mineral springs was in full operation and tourists from all over the world were coming and going. Instead, this is an August day in 2009.

Camp Sertoma is breathing its first breaths in its resurrection as a tourist attraction in Stokes County. And the air is sweet.

BILL WOULD GIVE OBAMA 'EMERGENCY' CONTROL OF INTERNET

(CNET News) - Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.

The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

“One of his favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself”; Update: Audio added

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - As long as we’re on the subject of humor this morning, what kind of jokes did the late Ted Kennedy like to tell his closest friends? One of Kennedy’s close friends, former editor of Newsweek and New York Times Magazine Ed Klein, tells the Diane Rehm Show that Chappaquiddick jokes were high up on the list:

I don’t know if you know this or not, but one of his favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself. And he would ask people, “have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?” That is just the most amazing thing. It’s not that he didn’t feel remorse about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, but that he still always saw the other side of everything and the ridiculous side of things, too.

Charles Krauthammer: "Trial Lawyers Own The Democrat Party"

Related Material...

• (Hot Air) - Video: Krauthammer says Dean “speaks the truth”

Markey: Medicare will take hit

(BY ROBERT MOORE, coloradoan.com) - Some people, including Medicare recipients, will have to give up some current benefits to truly reform the nation's health-care system, Rep. Betsy Markey told a gathering of constituents in Fort Collins on Wednesday.

Markey has repeatedly said during the August congressional recess that Medicare spending needs to be reined in to help pay for reforming the broader health-care system.

"There's going to be some people who are going to have to give up some things, honestly, for all of this to work," Markey said at a Congress on Your Corner event at CSU. "But we have to do this because we're Americans."

Kidnapped at 11: California Woman Discovered Alive After 18 Years in Captivity

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

(The New York Times) - The woman, Jaycee Dugard, was dragged into a car on her way to a bus stop 18 years ago as her stepfather watched helplessly from the family home in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. The police could find no trace of the car, or Ms. Dugard, a blond, blue-eyed girl last seen wearing a pink windbreaker and stretch pants.

ABC & NBC Refuse to Air This Ad Critical of Obama’s Health Care Plan

(Fox News) - The refusal by ABC and NBC to run a national ad critical of President Obama's health care reform plan is raising questions from the group behind the spot -- particularly in light of ABC's health care special aired in prime time last June and hosted at the White House.

Related Material...

• (Hot Air) - Surprise: ABC, NBC won’t air anti-ObamaCare ad

Liberalism Was Kennedy's Free Pass for Life of Disgusting Acts

From Rush Limbaugh: Liberalism absolves a lifetime of waitress sandwiches.

ARTICLE > Michael Kelly: A Sober Look at Ted Kennedy

Ted Kennedy Never Got Personal?

From Rush Limbaugh: Remember Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas?

ARTICLE > Kennedy '79: "We Can't Do it Piecemeal"

Rush Limbaugh's Morning Update: The Bills

From Rush Limbaugh: Last Sunday, the Washington Post ran a Q & A in their "Money and Ethics" section. A woman, describing her family as being "of modest means", asked if was "fair" that she and her husband ask their teenage kids to contribute some of their earnings toward the family budget.

Knight Kiplinger, editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance, responded: "Yes." Not only is it fair; it's always been expected, historically. He said kids spending all their earnings on themselves is a new phenomenon, born of affluence. But spending only on oneself is "not often enjoyed by their moms and dads." Kiplinger suggested parents help train their kids for their future obligations by coming up with a "reasonable" contribution, taking savings and discretionary spending into account.

For eons, this approach to finances has worked for families and businesses, but somehow, it doesn't work for government. The Obama administration is racking up trillions of dollars in debt with no spending limits. The notion that "everybody" should "contribute" is never even discussed. The bottom third of income tax filers pay no taxes at all, yet Obama vilifies those who pay the bulk of taxes as "greedy", while demanding even more from them -- and now he wants to place the financial burden of socialized medicine on their backs. There's no plan to meet our "future obligations"; we can't even fund our present obligations!

Now, look, folks: this isn't rocket science. Our country is on the road to financial ruin because the teenagers are running the country... while demanding grownups pay all the bills.

Read the Background Material on the Morning Update...
• WaPo: No Reason Teens Shouldn't Help With Expenses

Obama's Health Rationer-in-Chief

White House health-care adviser Ezekiel Emanuel blames the Hippocratic Oath for the 'overuse' of medical care.

(By BETSY MCCAUGHEY, The Wall Street Journal) - Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, health adviser to President Barack Obama, is under scrutiny. As a bioethicist, he has written extensively about who should get medical care, who should decide, and whose life is worth saving. Dr. Emanuel is part of a school of thought that redefines a physician’s duty, insisting that it includes working for the greater good of society instead of focusing only on a patient’s needs. Many physicians find that view dangerous, and most Americans are likely to agree.

The health bills being pushed through Congress put important decisions in the hands of presidential appointees like Dr. Emanuel. They will decide what insurance plans cover, how much leeway your doctor will have, and what seniors get under Medicare. Dr. Emanuel, brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, has already been appointed to two key positions: health-policy adviser at the Office of Management and Budget and a member of the Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research. He clearly will play a role guiding the White House's health initiative.

The Most Consequential Kennedy?

(By George Will, The Washington Post) - At the Democrats' 1960 convention in Los Angeles that nominated John Kennedy, his 28-year-old brother Ted was standing with the Wyoming delegation when it sealed the victory. He was then a sibling for minor missions. He would become the most consequential brother.

His two political brothers were young men in a hurry: John became the youngest elected president at 43; Robert died at 42, seeking the presidency as soon as possible after the murder of his brother. Ted came to embody the patience of politics. Charisma is less potent than the smitten imagine; endurance is not sufficient, but is necessary.

There is the arithmetic of the Constitution and then there is the life of the institution. The Constitution makes a senator 1 percent of one-half of one of the three branches of the federal government. But the intangible and unquantifiable chemistry of personality in a little laboratory like the Senate made Ted Kennedy forceful.

Liberal Lies in National Health Care: Second in a Series

(By Ann Coulter, Townhall.com) - With the Democrats getting slaughtered -- or should I say, "receiving mandatory end-of-life counseling" -- in the debate over national health care, the Obama administration has decided to change the subject by indicting CIA interrogators for talking tough to three of the world's leading Muslim terrorists.

Had I been asked, I would have advised them against reinforcing the idea that Democrats are hysterical bed-wetters who can't be trusted with national defense while also reminding people of the one thing everyone still admires about President George W. Bush.

But I guess the Democrats really want to change the subject. Thus, here is Part 2 in our series of liberal lies about national health care.

FCC Diversity Chief Asked Liberals to Copy FDR, Take on Limbaugh, Murdoch, Supreme Court

(CNSNews.com) – Federal Communications Commission Chief Diversity Officer Mark Lloyd called on fellow liberals to follow the model of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and challenge conservative media moguls and station owners, particularly figures such as Rush Limbaugh, Rupert Murdoch, and “a pro-big business Supreme Court aligned” with them.

Lloyd made the call in a 2007 article for the liberal Center for American Progress while he was a senior fellow there.

Entitled “Media Maneuvers: Why the Rush to Waive Cross-Ownership Bans,” the article ostensibly talks about the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) decision to allow Chicago real estate mogul Sam Zell to purchase the then-failing Chicago Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune newspaper.

Laura Ingraham: Ted Kennedy Defined What We Pretty Much Stood Against

"When Reagan was for cutting taxes, Ted Kennedy was for higher taxes. When Reagan was for taking this tougher, more aggressive stance with the Soviets, Ted Kennedy was for nuclear disarmament."

Former Secretary of State Albright Refers to Lockerbie Bombing as ‘Terrible Accident’

"This issue itself is most unfortunate because so many Americans and other nationals died in that terrible, terrible accident."

Co-ops a federal-subsidy trough

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - With the public plan in ObamaCare attracting enough heat to melt steel girders, some moderates in the Senate have proposed replacing it with health insurance co-operatives. The idea dates back several decades and was instrumental in FDR’s program of modernizing energy distribution in rural areas, and Kent Conrad (D-ND) says that example should light the way for an overhaul of the health-care system as well. However, as the Washington Post reports, the track record of those co-operatives hardly gives confidence that they’ll work as intended or prevent government control of health care as a result:

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), a pivotal lawmaker in the health-care debate, wants to deliver coverage to the uninsured by starting up new cooperatives modeled on rural electric cooperatives that were founded during the Great Depression.

But rural electric cooperatives have a mixed track record, experts say. They brought electricity to millions of rural Americans who lacked it in the 1930s and today serve about 14 percent of Americans. But after 75 years, the rural electric cooperatives still rely heavily on federal credit subsidies, have weak balance sheets and, some studies suggest, operate less efficiently than privately-owned utilities.

Over the past three years, some rural electric cooperatives have also come under criticism for excessive payments to executives and for pushing forward with new coal-fired power plants at a time when many people concerned with climate change want to slow down or halt such plants. Yet they remain politically powerful through the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

CBS report: Mary Mapes knew Bush volunteered for Vietnam

Intellectual dishonesty.

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - This story by Bernard Goldberg certainly takes me back to the early days of my blogging career. Shortly after the 2004 Republican convention, Mary Mapes produced a segment for 60 Minutes II that alleged that George W. Bush had manipulated his enlistment in the Texas Air National Guard to avoid serving in combat in Vietnam. The documents used by CBS, Mapes, and Dan Rather turned out to be clumsy hoaxes, which the blogosphere exposed through careful review of their substance and their form (the latter of which I played a small part in refuting, with my expertise in printing and fonts, among larger efforts from Power Line and LGF).

CBS did an internal investigation that discredited the memos and caused the network to fire Mapes. Buried in the report, however, is an admission that has not been noticed until now — which is that Mapes knew the basis of her story was an outright lie from the beginning (emphases Goldberg’s):

Until now, the controversy over the Rather/Mapes story has centered almost entirely on one issue: the legitimacy of the documents – a very important issue, indeed. But it turns out that there was another very important issue, one that goes to the very heart of what the story was about – and one that has gone virtually unnoticed. This is it: 'Mary Mapes knew before she put the story on the air that George W. Bush, the alleged slacker, had in fact volunteered to go to Vietnam.'

Who says? The outside panel CBS brought into to get to the bottom of the so-called “Rathergate” mess says. I recently re-examined the panel’s report after a source, Deep Throat style, told me to “Go to page 130.” When I did, here’s the startling piece of information I found:

Mapes had information prior to the airing of the September 8 [2004] Segment that President Bush, while in the TexANG [Texas Air National Guard] did volunteer for service in Vietnam but was turned down in favor of more experienced pilots. For example, a flight instructor who served in the TexANG with Lieutenant Bush advised Mapes in 1999 that Lieutenant Bush “did want to go to Vietnam but others went first.” Similarly, several others advised Mapes in 1999, and again in 2004 before September 8, that Lieutenant Bush had volunteered to go to Vietnam but did not have enough flight hours to qualify.

This information, despite the fact that it has been available since the CBS report came out four years ago, has remained a secret to almost everybody both in and out of the media — one lonely fact in a 234- page report loaded with thousands of facts, and overshadowed by the controversy surrounding the documents.

DoJ drops investigation of Richardson

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - What do Bill Richardson and the New Black Panther Party have in common? Both got let off the hook by Attorney General Eric Holder and the Obama Department of Justice. Holder, who recently announced a push to investigate and potentially prosecute CIA interrogators, will not prosecute the governor of New Mexico for his pay-for-play activities, which scotched his nomination for Secretary of Commerce:

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former high-ranking members of his administration won’t be criminally charged in a yearlong federal investigation into pay-to-play allegations involving one of the Democratic governor’s large political donors, someone familiar with the case said.

The decision not to pursue indictments was made by top Justice Department officials, according to a person familiar with the investigation, who asked not to be identified because federal officials had not disclosed results of the probe.

“It’s over. There’s nothing. It was killed in Washington,” the person told The Associated Press.

Big winners in Cash for Clunkers: Toyota, Honda, and Nissan; Update: Parts business big losers?

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - The Obama administration spent three 'billion' dollars subsidizing the destruction of 700,000 vehicles in order to boost car sales. Which auto makers actually benefited from these American tax subsidies? Reuters reports that foreign car manufacturers gained market share, while the two bailed-out American automakers lost significant portions of theirs in the big summer sale. Only Ford managed to hold its own:

Transportation Department figures on the “clunkers” incentive, which offered consumers up to $4,500 when they traded in their older vehicles for more fuel efficient new models, showed on Wednesday that total sales amounted to just under 700,000 with $2.87 billion in rebates. …

According to the figures, Toyota’s “clunkers” market share was 19.4 percent, compared with its year-to-date U.S. share through July of 17 percent. Honda captured 13 percent of the “clunkers” market compared with 11 percent for the first seven months of the year.

Nissan accounted for nearly 9 percent of “clunkers” sales compared with a January-July share of 7 percent. Hyundai was the biggest winner with a 7 percent share compared with 3 percent for the year through July.

Ford’s “clunkers” sales topped 14 percent, compared with a 15 percent share for the year through July. GM reported 17 percent of “clunkers” business compared with 21 percent from January to July. Chrysler’s “clunkers” share was 6.6 percent, compared with 11 percent otherwise.

UK HEALTH SYSTEM: 'Cruel and neglectful' care of one million patients exposed...

One million NHS patients have been the victims of appalling care in hospitals across Britain, according to a major report released today.

(U.K. Telegraph) - In the last six years, the Patients Association claims hundreds of thousands have suffered from poor standards of nursing, often with 'neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel' treatment.

The charity has disclosed a horrifying catalog of elderly people left in pain, in soiled bed clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffering from repeatedly canceled operations, missed diagnoses and dismissive staff.

The Patients Association said the dossier proves that while the scale of the scandal at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust - where up to 1,200 people died through failings in urgent care - was a one off, there are repeated examples they have uncovered of the same appalling standards throughout the NHS.

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• (INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY) - Vive Le French Care?...

Dem Health Care Bill Divulges IRS Tax Data...

(CBS News) - One of the problems with any proposed law that's over 1,000 pages long and constantly changing is that much deviltry can lie in the details. Take the Democrats' proposal to rewrite health care policy, better known as H.R. 3200 or by opponents as "Obamacare."

Section 431(a) of the bill says that the IRS must divulge taxpayer identity information, including the filing status, the modified adjusted gross income, the number of dependents, and "other information as is prescribed by" regulation. That information will be provided to the new Health Choices Commissioner and state health programs and used to determine who qualifies for "affordability credits."

Section 245(b)(2)(A) says the IRS must divulge tax return details -- there's no specified limit on what's available or unavailable -- to the Health Choices Commissioner. The purpose, again, is to verify "affordability credits."

Related Material...

• (Hot Air) - ObamaCare: Divulging tax records to health-care bureaucrats

Howard Dean: Democrats Left Tort Reform Out of Health Care Bill Because They Feared 'Taking On' Trial Lawyers

(CNSNews.com) - Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, a medical doctor who served as governor of Vermont, said at a town hall meeting on Tuesday night that Democrats in Congress did not include tort reform in the health care bill because they were fearful of “taking on” the trial lawyers.

“This is the answer from a doctor and a politician,” said Dean. “Here is why tort reform is not in the bill. When you go to pass a really enormous bill like that the more stuff you put in, the more enemies you make, right? And the reason why tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everybody else they were taking on, and that is the plain and simple truth. Now, that’s the truth.”

Congressman Demands to See Constituent’s ID Before Allowing Town Hall Question

"You're the imposter!"

Related Material...

• (National Review) - More Photo-ID Hypocrisy

Farmer Uses Crop Circle to Speak Out Against ObamaCare

(Washington Examiner) - One Texas farmer is going to the extreme to protest President Barack Obama, creating a sign that spans several acres — but you’ll have to be in the sky to see it. Sam Bates, of Lubbock, took out his aggression on his farm’s weeds, spelling out in the ground with his plow, “Say no to Obama.

Howard Dean: ‘There’s Gonna Be a Public Option in the Bill’

"The vast majority of Democrats in the Democratic Caucus want a public option, the vast majority of the Democrats in the House want a public option, and there's gonna be a public option in the bill."

Federal Agency: Stimulus Checks Mistakenly Sent to 1,700 Inmates

(Fox News) - The federal government mistakenly sent out stimulus checks to 1,700 inmates, the Social Security Administration said Tuesday -- a $425,000 error. Social Security spokesman Dan Moraski told FOXNews.com in a written statement that the money went out because official records "did not accurately reflect that they were in prison."

Canadian Health Services Send Patients to U.S. Hospitals

"Doctors and nurses will put a call in to Homeland Security. They'll fax over all of the patient's paperwork and that allowed the ambulance basically to skip the customs line - go straight into the United States."

Video: Beck interviews Limbaugh on the threat to free speech

Rush Limbaugh's Morning Update: CIA

From Rush Limbaugh: Two weeks after 9/11, Bob Torricelli, "The Torch", took to the Senate floor to denounce the CIA. The New Jersey Democrat demanded a board of inquiry into what he called a "stunning failure" of US intelligence. One year later, with his corrupt financial dealings exposed, Torricelli left the Senate in disgrace.

But the damage was done. During his tenure, Bob Torricelli leaked the identity of CIA agents and led Democrats' attacks on the CIA, severely hampering it. Democrats curtailed the human assets the agency had on the ground, and limited contact with sources who could have provided key intelligence.

It wasn't the first time. In 1975, Democrat Senator Frank Church of Idaho spearheaded policies that handicapped the CIA, which weakened our intelligence during the Cold War.

Ever since the failed Bay of Pigs operation under Jack Kennedy, the Democrat Party has waged a relentless war on the CIA. The State-Controlled Media has helped, spreading false allegations like the 1996 lie that the CIA was complicit in US drug trafficking to aid the Nicaraguan Contras. And now Obama and his attorney general, Eric Holder, seek to punish the CIA agents who saved America from additional terror attacks -- and who quickly got us up to speed in the days after 9/11.

My friends, I don't know if it will ever come, but I long for the day when Democrats fight our enemies with the same zealousness they use to destroy the lives of true American heroes who protect us from harm.

Read the Background Material on the Morning Update...
• CNN: Torricelli wants probe into 'stunning' intelligence failure
• Newsmax.com: Sen. Torricelli Played Key Role in Closing Down CIA Ops
• CIA: Evidence Does Not Support Allegations of CIA Participation in Drug Trafficking
• WaPo: Prosecutor to Probe CIA Interrogations

Democrats for Reagan (1980 Political Commercial)

Here's a good commercial produced by the 1980 Reagan campaign using the words of Ted Kennedy against Jimmy Carter:

Matthews: Obama Not Getting Enough Love for Economic 'Comeback'

(By Jeff Poor, NewsBusters) - Try to keep a straight face when you hear this: President Barack Obama isn't getting enough media love.

That's the world view of MSNBC "Hardball" host Chris Matthews - at least when it comes to the economy. According to Matthews, there has been a plethora of positive economic news - from a stock market that has shrugged off the threat of bad liberal policy, i.e. cap-and-trade or ObamaCare, to the actions of newly reappointed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke of pumping liquidity into the economy.

Boston radio stations yank conservative talkers for the day

BANNED IN BEANTOWN

Stations Respond To Death By Yanking Conservative Talk

(The Radio Equalizer) - Boston's two largest talk radio stations have responded to Ted Kennedy's passing by dumping their usual conservative programming and replacing it with local liberal supporters of the late senator.

WRKO-AM withheld its standard midmorning and early afternoon lineup of Laura Ingraham and Rush Limbaugh, replacing it with a special show hosted by convicted felon / former House Speaker Tom Finneran, a Democrat best known for circumventing a voter-approved cut in the state income tax.

Known as "Tommy Taxes" for that legislative maneuver, Finneran is normally heard in morning drive.

Chris Matthews on Kennedy Lineage: ‘Barack’s Now the Last Brother’

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

"He turned that torch over last year to Barack Obama."

Related Material...

• (Hot Air) - Videos: Chris Matthews, not politicizing Kennedy’s death

Audio: Shea-Porter says “Constitution didn’t cover everything”

(By Ed Morrissey, Hot Air) - Perhaps it’s too much for elected officials in Washington to understand the document to which they swear an oath of loyalty. It certainly proves too much for Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, who responds to an inartfully posed question about the constitutionality of ObamaCare by offering a very odd response. Shea-Porter says that ObamaCare is constitutional because … er … the Constitution doesn’t cover everything … or something:

Caller Dennis from Manchester asked Shea-Porter during a broadcast on WGIR radio, “I just wanted to know where it says in the Constitution that the Democratic Party, and the Republican Party for that matter, can pretty much do what they’re trying to do?”

“I would point out to you that in the Constitution it also does not say the government can build roads or should build roads,” Shea-Porter replied. “It also doesn’t say the government should make sure the drugs are safe. It doesn’t say the government should look at airplanes to make sure they are safe to get on. It doesn’t say we should have a police force in Manchester.”

“So, the Constitution did not cover everything,” Shea-Porter concluded.

Democrats Invoke Kennedy's Death in Calling for Health Care Reform

With the push for health care reform hitting a rough patch, Democrats are trying, however delicately, to use Sen. Ted Kennedy's passing as a rallying cry for the legislation, reminding voters that the package idling on Capitol Hill was "the cause" of Kennedy's life.

(Fox News) - Do it for Teddy.

In statements that came steadily streaming out of Capitol Hill Wednesday morning within hours after Sen. Ted Kennedy's death, Democratic lawmakers tried to embed that message in the health care reform debate.

With the push for legislation hitting a rough patch, Democrats are trying, however delicately, to use Kennedy's passing as a rallying cry for the legislation, reminding voters that the package idling on the Hill was "the cause" of Kennedy's life.

UK HEALTH SYSTEM: Babies born in hospital corridors: Bed shortage forces 4,000 mothers to give birth in lifts, offices and hospital toilets...

(U.K. Daily Mail) - Thousands of women are having to give birth outside maternity wards because of a lack of midwives and hospital beds.

The lives of mothers and babies are being put at risk as births in locations ranging from lifts to toilets - even a caravan - went up 15 per cent last year to almost 4,000.

Health chiefs admit a lack of maternity beds is partly to blame for the crisis, with hundreds of women in labor being turned away from hospitals because they are full.

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• (U.K. Daily Mail) - Man collapses with ruptured appendix... three weeks after NHS doctors 'took it out'...

Update: Democrat Official Very Wrong About Who Vandalized Colorado Party HQ

The Colorado Democratic Party chairwoman had blamed the vandalism on the "contentious" health care debate saying, ""Clearly there's been an effort on the other side to stir up hate. I think this is the consequence of it."

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• (KCNC-TV) - Vandals Smash Windows At Democratic Party Office

• (Gateway Pundit) - Busted!... Dem Headquarters Vandalized By SEIU Activist!!... Dems Blamed GOP

Flashback: NY Times Columnist – ‘Public Option’ Will Kill Private Insurance

"It is a route to universal health care."

Editor's note: The Verum Serum blog has updated the discovery of this the first video (from 2007) with a clip of Paul Krugman (a Nobel Prize winner) on ABC News last week calling arguments against the public option "sheer nonsense."

Related Material...

• (Verum Serum) - Krugman: Public Option Will Kill Private Insurance

• (Hot Air) - Paul Krugman 2007: ObamaCare can “evolve” into single-payer

Obama on Ted Kennedy’s Passing: ‘Greatest United States Senator of Our Time’

"Even though we knew this day was coming, we awaited it with no small amout of dread. For his family, he was a guardian. For America, he was a defender of a dream."

Rangel “forgot” to disclose that he’s worth twice what he claimed he was

Rangel’s Wealth Jumps After Disclosure

(CQ Politics) - House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel , already beset by a series of ethics investigations, has disclosed more than $500,000 in previously unreported assets.

Among the new items on Rangel’s amended 2007 financial disclosure report were an account at the Congressional Federal Credit Union worth at least $250,000, an investment account with at least $250,000, land in southern New Jersey and stock in PepsiCo and fast food conglomerate Yum! Brands. None of those investments appeared on the original report, which was filled out by hand and filed in May 2008.

According to the original report, Rangel’s net worth was between $516,015 and $1,316,000, while the amended report showed his net worth, as of Dec. 31, 2007, roughly double that amount — at least $1,028,024 and as much as $2,495,000.

Mountain Wind Power Dispute Based on State Mandates

JLF analyst urges end of Senate Bill 3’s renewable energy requirements

RALEIGH (Carolina Journal Online) — North Carolina would feel no more pressure to build commercial wind turbines along its mountain ridgelines if lawmakers scrapped their two-year-old renewable energy mandates. That's the assessment a John Locke Foundation expert makes in a new Spotlight report.

The report urges repeal of both the energy mandates and a state Ridge Law that limits mountain construction. "Some opponents of massive wind turbines have relied on the Ridge Law to block construction of those turbines in the North Carolina mountains," said report author Daren Bakst, JLF Legal and Regulatory Policy Analyst. "But that Ridge Law violates the rights of individuals to use their property."

"The real problem is renewable energy mandates lawmakers adopted in 2007 in Senate Bill 3," Bakst added. "Get rid of those energy mandates, and you won't see any commercial wind turbines along the mountain ridgelines."

VA Rep Boots Anti-Abortion Activist From Chaotic Town Hall Featuring Howard Dean

(Wall Street Journal) - Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Moran faced a storm at a town hall meeting in his Northern Virginia district Tuesday night, with thousands of shouting activists packed into a high school gymnasium to argue for and against a health care overhaul, flanked by dozens of police officers, television cameras and Washington reporters.

Mass. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy dies at age 77

BOSTON (Yahoo News) – Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the last surviving brother in a political dynasty and one of the most influential senators in history, died Tuesday night at his home on Cape Cod after a year-long struggle with brain cancer. He was 77.

In nearly 50 years in the Senate, Kennedy, a liberal Democrat, served alongside 10 presidents — his brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy among them — compiling an impressive list of legislative achievements on health care, civil rights, education, immigration and more.

His only run for the White House ended in defeat in 1980. More than a quarter-century later, he handed then-Sen. Barack Obama an endorsement at a critical point in the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, explicitly likening the young contender to President Kennedy.

Related Material...

• (Yahoo News) - Republicans join Democrats in mourning Kennedy

Rush Limbaugh's Morning Update: Trust

From Rush Limbaugh: A disclaimer: I know and I like Howard Kurtz. But on Monday, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post complained that journalists have been "left out" of the health care debate. He lamented that the "facts" about Democrat proposals aren't getting through to Americans -- even though reporters haven't been "neutral" like they usually are.

"For once," says Kurtz, journalists actually made an effort to kill an opposing argument. As Kurtz put it: "They tried to perform last rites on the ludicrous claim about President Obama's death panels, telling Sarah Palin, in effect, you've got to quit making things up." But despite the efforts of the normally "neutral" mainstream journalists, the story just won't die. Kurtz complains: "Even when they report the facts," journalists "have had trouble influencing public opinion."

Howard, can we dispense with the absurd notion that those of you in the State-Controlled Media are normally "neutral"? It doesn't play in Peoria or anywhere else.

As for the "death panels." We all know there's a provision in the House bill for "end-of-life" counseling, and now we're learning that under Obama, the VA is pushing a "death book" on veterans that was banned by Bush; it attempts to steer veterans in difficult circumstances to conclude that life just isn't worth living.

When it comes to who to believe on the "death panels," it's all about trust. People understand exactly what it means when smiling Democrats offer end-of-life "counseling" -- they don't trust 'em! And for the record, they don't trust journalists who are trying to shape public opinion. Just report, for once! Please!

Read the Background Material on the Morning Update...
• WaPo: Journalists, Left Out of The Debate

David Boaz on Democrats and Taxes

(Cato Institute) - At Cato University in 2009, Cato Institute Executive Vice President David Boaz discussed what top Democrats in Washington have to teach us about taxes.

White House projects bigger deficits, bigger debt

WASHINGTON (Yahoo News) – The federal government faces exploding deficits and mounting debt over the next decade, White House officials predicted Tuesday in a fiscal assessment far bleaker than what the Obama administration had estimated just a few months ago.

Figures released by the White House budget office foresee a cumulative $9 trillion deficit from 2010-2019, $2 trillion more than the administration estimated in May. Moreover, the figures show the public debt doubling by 2019 and reaching three-quarters the size of the entire national economy.

Obama economic adviser Christina Romer predicted unemployment could reach 10 percent this year and begin a slow decline next year. Still, she said, the average unemployment will be 9.3 in 2009 and 9.8 percent in 2010.

Can the Economy be Restored by Destroying Perfectly Good Cars? Obama Thinks So. Cash For Clunkers in Action

(By Brad Smith, RedState) - Thanks to the glories of YouTube, we can watch as the government mandates the destruction of perfectly good automobiles to “help the economy.” Here is a very nice 1990s Dodge Dakota 4X4 being destroyed. It is a much better vehicle than my pick up truck.

This is a Corvette that looks to be in pretty good condition. Black, pretty sharp car. I’m sure there are a lot of young men crammed into 2001 Nissans who would have liked this car.

In this video, a ‘98 Cadillac DeVille with less than 80,000 miles meets its end. Just 68,000 miles on this Chevy Caprice wagon.

A nice looking 2001 Mazda light truck with 75,000 miles bites the dust here. Here’s a good looking Volvo prematurely destroyed. This SUV would look at home in any tony U.S. suburb.

Really, you ought to look at at least a couple of these videos, and the hundreds more like them on YouTube. Are these “clunkers?” Can it really help the economy to destroy perfectly good assets? Are the people running the government the most economically illiterate bunch since FDR ruled the roost? Or are they dumber?

Did Dems ‘FLAG’ Constituents by Turning in Concerned Voter E-Mails to White House?

"I have NEVER emailed the White House."

‘Ties to a Terrorist’: Fox News to Expose Obama Czar Van Jones as ‘Avowed Communist’

"These people are revolutionaries."

Burr, Hagan disagree on health care

RALEIGH (AP) - North Carolina's senators preached gloom yesterday about the future of U.S. health care while offering different tactics on how to prevent their grim predictions from coming true.

Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan and Republican Sen. Richard Burr appeared on the same stage in Raleigh, pitching to an audience of agriculture leaders their thoughts on health care.

They differ on what has become a major flashpoint in the health-care debate. Hagan supports a government-backed insurance option that would allow the uninsured access to care, but Burr opposes such government involvement.

Hagan cited the rising cost of insurance and the millions who don't have access to care, saying that North Carolina is a glaring example of the need for urgent reform.

"The exploding costs of health care have put our nation's economic security at risk -- not just in the long term, but in the short term," Hagan said. "Simply put, I don't think we can afford inaction."

Though Hagan vowed that she would oppose any health-care bill that would add to the nation's deficit, Burr questioned why legislators were considering spending more on health care when the nation spends so much on care already.

"Kay and I agree on one thing: It's unsustainable in its current fashion," Burr said. "We've got to do health-care reform. But I want to warn you tonight: Doing the wrong thing will mean that our children and our grandchildren will spend a generation trying to figure out how to reverse what we've done."

Burr suggested taking the health-care debate slowly, saying "it's too important an issue to jam through before the American people fully understand it."

New in Town: Binky's Burgers & Fries, Goober's 52, Last Resort club, all on Deacon Boulevard

(By Mary Giunca, Winston-Salem Journal) - Floorboards from an old bowling alley are being turned into tables at Goober's 52 restaurant and old family photos grace the walls of Binky's Burgers & Fries.

Developer David Parks said he hopes that his funky, eclectic vision for two restaurants and a club will have Deacon Boulevard humming with Wake Forest University students and a cross section of fun-loving adults from across the city by mid-September.

Parks, the owner of Goober's 52 restaurant in Mount Airy, has been working with Wake Forest University to renovate three vacant buildings along Deacon Boulevard.

Congresswoman Calls Senate Dems Who Oppose Public Option ‘Neanderthals’

Not only are we going to do everything we can to organize and put pressure on the senators -- some of whom are Neanderthals -- we're going to say to the president, 'We want you to use every weapon in your basket in order to get those senators to do what they should be doing,' " U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) said.

Related Material...

• (CNN) - Congresswoman says some senators 'Neanderthals'

• (LA Times) - Rep. Maxine Waters a hard-liner for public healthcare option

Dick Morris: Democrats Could Lose 100 Seats in 2010

"The real thing that's going on here is this unbelievable public groundswell."

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• (Gateway Pundit) - Dick Morris Warns Democrats Could Lose 100 Seats in 2010

Ingraham Insight: What Do You Find When You Remove Clothes From Obama Doll?

"Actually, what happens when you take the clothes off Barack Obama - the shirt - it's actually..."

‘Rowdy Black Nationalist’: Glenn Beck Targets Obama’s Green Czar Van Jones

"Why is it that such a committed revolutionary has made it so high into the Obama administration as one of his chief advisers?"

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• (Los Angeles Times) - UPDATED: Glenn Beck goes after Color of Change co-founder Van Jones

Rush Limbaugh's Morning Update: Meltdown

From Rush Limbaugh: Last Friday, New York Governor David Paterson, heir to the scandal-infested seat of Eliot Spitzer, lashed out at the media, accusing them of "orchestrating" a racist campaign to discourage him from seeking a full term of office.

In an interview with a liberal radio station, Paterson disagreed with the idea that racial bridges have been crossed with Obama in office. "We're not in the post-racial period," Paterson said. He went on to claim that Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts suffers from racist media coverage, and that "the next victim on the list" will be Obama -- because he's trying to reform health care.

And apparently, the racism isn't only coming from state-controlled honky reporters. Paterson went after black reporters, too. He said: "Even our own reporters from our own community buy the public line, which is, 'We're going to get rid of David Paterson.'"

But a funny thing happened after the Governor's meltdown. Black politicians in New York did not jump on the bandwagon. Gov. Patrick didn't even bother to comment. And the Obama White House sent a sharp message via a New York consigliere, wanting to know "why Paterson was dragging the president into" his troubles.

Mr. Paterson, this isn't personal. It's not racist. Even your allies in the Democrat Party -- who are experts at playing the race card -- realize what an abysmal failure you've turned out to be, and they want no part of you. I mean, they're facing big election problems of their own because of Obama; they don't need you dragging them down along with him!

Read the Background Material on the Morning Update...
• NYTimes: Critics Driven by Racial Bias, Paterson Says
• NYPost: Peeved Obama Trumps Paterson's Race Card