† Obama’s Glad-Handing Gesture To Women: With great fanfare, in March 2009 President Barack Hussein Obama created the White House Council on Women and Girls to celebrate National Women's History month. "The purpose of this Council is to ensure that American women and girls are treated fairly in all matters of public policy," said Obama. How ironic, then that the female members of his administration did not feel they were fairly treated, according to a new book by journalist Ron Suskind based on interviews with 200 people inside and outside the White House. The Washington Post reports:

 

A new book claims that the Obama White House is a boys’ club marred by rampant infighting that has hindered the administration’s economic policy and left top female advisers feeling excluded from key conversations.

 

“Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President,” by journalist Ron Suskind due out next Tuesday, details the rivalries among Obama’s top economic advisers, Larry Summers, former chairman of the National Economic Council, and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. It describes constant second-guessing by Summers, now at Harvard, who was seen by others as “imperious and heavy-handed” in his decision-making. …

 

It says that women occupied many of the West Wing’s senior positions, but felt outgunned and outmaneuvered by male colleagues such as former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Summers.

“I felt like a piece of meat,” Christina Romer, former head of the Council of Economic Advisers, said of one meeting in which Suskind writes she was “boxed out” by Summers. …

 

“The president has a real woman problem,” an unnamed high-ranking female official told Suskind. “ The idea of the boys’ club being just Larry and Rahm isn’t really fair. He [Obama] was just as responsible himself.” …

 

Obama, according to the book published by Harper Collins, failed to call on Romer after asking her male colleagues for their opinions. The snub prompted Romer to pass a note to Summers where she threatened to walk out of the dinner, according to the book.

 

The Obama White House has long been dogged by similar claims of exclusivity – his golf outings have been typically all-male affairs, though Melody Barnes, who heads the Domestic Policy Council was invited on at least one round of golf in October 2009 after much grumbling about Obama’s choice of golf buddies.

 

† Never Mind Marxism. Will An Obama Administration Be Totalitarian?: Part II: Despite ample evidence that Americans have wearied of him, President Barack Hussein Obama still thinks the cult of personality liberals and their MSM army of winged monkeys created will compel voters to pressure their elected representatives to do his bidding out of "love": 
 

And AttackWatch.com will keep an eye on anyone who doesn't help Obama pass the jobs bill "now," and one day he may come a-callin' in his Big Black Bus.

[Hat Tip: RedStateNews]

 

† Affirmative Action Is Antithetical To A True Meritocracy: According to an analysis of admissions by the University of Wisconsin’s undergraduate and law schools, conservative think tank Center for Equal Opportunity found that more black applicants were accepted than whites and Asians with the same or higher academic credentials, The National Law Journal reports:

 

The center analyzed Wisconsin's law school admission data from 2005 and 2006, as well as undergraduate admissions data from 2007 and 2008.

 

"The studies show that literally hundreds of students applying as undergrads or to the law school are rejected in favor of students with lower test scores and grades, and the reason is that they have the wrong skin color or their parents came from the wrong countries," said center chairwoman Linda Chavez. …

 

The center's analysis was based on data provided by the University of Wisconsin. The university initially denied the center's request for the data, citing student privacy concerns, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2002 ordered the data released.

 

The center collected data on each individual's admission and matriculation status, plus his or her race, sex, LSAT scores and grade point averages. The center considered whether prospective students lived in or out-of-state during the 2005 and 2006 application cycles.

 

It concluded that in 2006, the law school admitted 43% of black applicants, 39% of Hispanic applicants, 18% of Asian applicants and 24% of white applicants. That same year, black and Hispanic applicants had lower median LSAT scores and GPAs than did white applicants, the report said.

 

"For law school admissions, the racial discrimination found was also severe, with the weight given to ethnicity much greater than given to, for example, Wisconsin residency," the center said in a formal statement. "Thus, an out-of-state black applicant with grades and LSAT scores at the median for that group would have had a 7 out 10 chance of admission and an out-of-state Hispanic a 1 out of 3 chance – but an in-state Asian with those grades and scores had a 1 out of 6 chance and an in-state white only a 1 out of 10 chance."

 

In a letter to students, Margaret Raymond, the law school's dean, explained:  

 

For the classroom experience at UW to reflect the range of knowledge, experiences, attitudes and aspirations of the world at large, it is necessary to look at everything about a candidate, ranging from veteran status to foreign travel experience to volunteer activities, and everything in between. We do take into account race and ethnicity, and the life experiences those characteristics may denote.

 

Unwittingly validating the implications of the Center for Equal Opportunity’s study, “[s]tudent reaction to the reports has been swift and intense, and a joint statement from a group of student leaders said the reports are an attack on the entire UW campus,” reports “alternative” campus paper The Badger Herald.

 

† Obama Is Just About Every U.S. President All Rolled Into One!: Now, National Journal's Major Garrett is likening President Barack Hussein Obama to Bush 41 -- and not in a good way:

 

Next year’s election looks primed to turn – as no presidential election has since 1992 – on the direction and performance of the U.S. economy. Those who covered that campaign well remember a devastating indictment of 12 years of GOP rule delivered by Bill Clinton’s running mate, Sen. Al Gore Jr., D-Tenn.

 

“Everything that ought to be down is up and everything that should be up is down,” Gore said, piercing the Bush-Quayle record with statistic after statistic of economic torpor. Gore’s favorite stats dealt with unemployment (up); number of jobs (down); trade deficit (up); personal income (down); budget deficit (up); consumer confidence (down); poverty (up); and bankruptcies (up).

 

“Fear up, hope down,” Gore would say.

 

How would Obama’s record stand up to the Gore test? …

 

For both presidents, everything that ought to be down is up, and everything that should be up is down. Then and now, the questions are about the depth of the economic pain and the gap between expectations and performance. That verdict crushed Bush the elder. It is the toughest question Obama faces – no matter what Congress does with his jobs bill.

 

† Obama Creating Green Jobs That Americans Won’t Do: The Washington Post reports that “[a] $38.6 billion loan guarantee program that the Obama administration promised would create or save 65,000 jobs has created just a few thousand jobs two years after it began”:

 

The program – designed to jump-start the nation’s clean technology industry by giving energy companies access to low-cost, government-backed loans – has directly created 3,545 new, permanent jobs after giving out almost half the allocated amount, according to Energy Department tallies.

 

Steve Milloy of Junk Science did the math:

 

Obama has spent almost 47% of the $38.6 billion to create 5.4% of the promised jobs. This works out to $5,077,574 per job created!

 

The Washington Times boldly declares, “The green-jobs revolution may be going up in smoke”:

 

Despite billions of dollars in federal investment and cheerleading from President Obama, even the most ardent supporters of a transformed, job-generating energy sector based largely on wind, solar and other renewable sources acknowledge that their dreams have not translated into reality. The records for other countries chasing green employment opportunities have been equally unimpressive. …

 

Talk of green jobs was conspicuous by its absence from Mr. Obama's jobs speech to a joint session of Congress … He gave the address on the same day that the FBI raided California solar-energy company Solyndra, which filed for bankruptcy and laid off at least 900 full-time employees.

 

Two years ago, Solyndra was awarded a $535 million federal government loan as part of Mr. Obama's stimulus package. It is unclear how – or whether – the company will repay its debt or whether it will leave American taxpayers holding the bag. …

 

Solyndra was the latest in a string of solar bankruptcies this year. Others are New York-based SpectraWatt and Michigan's Evergreen Solar. …

 

Complicating the debate is that there is no universally accepted definition of a "green job." While most consider green jobs to be those in the wind or solar industry, Mr. Kish said, some estimates include garbage collectors, pollution-control engineers and water and sewer workers in the equation.

 

"I'm not aware of any formal definition," said Anastasia V. Shcherbakova, assistant professor of energy economics, risk and policy at Penn State University.

 

The Stiletto isn’t quite as optimistic as The Washington Times, given President Barack Hussein Obama having repeatedly demonstrated his inability to learn from his mistakes. The Daily Caller reports that our tax dollars continue to go up in smoke, because “[d]espite Solyndra’s abrupt closing and bankruptcy announcement last month, the Department of Energy (DOE) is undeterred”:

 

Just this month, the agency made two more loan guarantees worth millions of dollars to alternative energy firms.

 

And, as was the case with Solyndra, officials and investors with the two new companies have strong financial ties to President Barack Obama.

 

To date, thee alternative energy companies taxpayers bankrolled via the 2009 $800 billion economic stimulus package passed in 2009 have declared bankruptcy.

 

† Is Obama Already A Lame Duck?: To The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler (AKA The Fact Checker), President Barack Hussein Obama's jobs speech had a been-there-done-that feel ("From the president’s language, you would never know that Congress already has acted under his watch to save jobs – the $800 billion stimulus plan passed shortly after he took office.").

 

John Podhoretz sneered that "Obama’s fetishistic invocation of the glory of infrastructure projects is directly related to his unyielding certitude – a certitude unaltered despite the failure of his last stimulus – that the federal government needs to take a lead role in the country’s employment crisis by employing people directly itself."

 

And Kessler's often droll but not always original (last item) colleague Dana Milbank noticed that Republicans were laughing at Obama, not with him:

 

President Obama gave one of the most impassioned speeches of his presidency when he addressed a joint session of Congress on Thursday night. Too bad so many in the audience thought it was a big, fat joke.

 

“You should pass this jobs plan right away!” Obama exhorted. Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) chuckled.

“Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary — an outrage he has asked us to fix,” Obama went on. Widespread laughter broke out on the GOP side of the aisle.

 

“This isn’t political grandstanding,” Obama said. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) guffawed.

 

“This isn’t class warfare,” Obama said. More hysterics on the right.

 

“We’ve identified over 500 [regulatory] reforms, which will save billions of dollars,” the president claimed. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) giggled.

 

It was, in a way, more insulting than Joe Wilson’s “you lie” eruption during a previous presidential address to Congress. The lawmakers weren’t particularly hostile toward the president — they just regarded the increasingly unpopular Obama as irrelevant. And the inclination not to take the 43-percent president seriously wasn’t entirely limited to the Republicans. ...

 

Obama spoke quickly, urgently, even angrily. Rep. Jesse Jackson (D-Ill.) stared at the ceiling. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) scanned the gallery. Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) was seen reading a newspaper. And Republicans, when they weren’t giggling, were mostly silent.

 

† Romney: The Sequel: Summing up former Gov. Mitt Romney's (R-MA) candidacy, in February 2008, The Stiletto noted (second item):

 

Voters could never get a fix on the shape-shifting Romney: He is the champion of values voters – no wait! – make that a hardnosed businessman – no wait! – make that a dispenser of government largesse – no wait! – make that the candidate who will “change” everything. The one-time venture capitalist even became a populist. Consequently, Romney did not develop a coherent message and kept reinforcing his image as a flip-flopper and a panderer on every issue that matters – especially to “true” conservatives.

 

This time around, the ultra-establishment Romney is trying to morph into an insurgent Tea Partier. No, really. The Washington Times reports:

 

Already dogged by a reputation for political shifts on the campaign trail, Mitt Romney is once again honing a new sales pitch to voters, with the former Massachusetts governor now casting himself as a real-world "conservative businessman" who is in sync with the tea party while eager to slap sense into the "career politicians" he blames for the nation's problems. …

 

[T] the new pitch is a calculated gamble for Mr. Romney – a bet that he can carve out new territory in the crowded Republican field while battling the stereotype that he lacks core convictions.

 

"He's a politician who would be perfectly comfortable in the 1960s when the media was controlled by a half-a-dozen political reporters and you could say one thing in one place and another thing in another place," said Michael McKenna, a GOP strategist.

 

"But in this era, which is marked by lots of information and a real craving for authenticity, a guy like Romney has real trouble because I'm not really sure that he has any core beliefs except for two: He is mostly a free-market guy and he thinks he should be president of the United States."

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (fifth item, Protected Class Warfare): According to Jay-Z,"there's nothing you can't do, now you're in New York." But he’s wrong. There is one thing you can't do: Use non-union labor to work on the $10 million renovation of your nightclub. The New York Daily News reports:

 

Hip-hop hot shot Jay-Z is getting hammered by carpenters for using nonunion labor for the facelift of his Manhattan club 40/40.

 

But the carpenters union, which erected five inflatable rats outside the Chelsea joint this week, has gone too far by shouting the N-word at management, according to Jay-Z's rep.

 

"The union is trying to bully 40/40 to hire union workers. They were shouting racial slurs. It was really inappropriate protesting," said Lauren Menache, a spokeswoman for the Brooklyn-born singer.

 

The union members used the "N-word" during protests and in phone calls to 40/40 management, said Menache.

 

The New York City District Council of Carpenters did not return calls for comment.

 

The club is in a nonunion building, said Menache, giving the contractors the freedom to hire carpenters. "We confirmed that we have the right to hire a contractor that is not in the union," she said.

 

Never mind where concrete dreams are made of. If Jay-Z isn't careful he might end up wearing concrete overshoes. Or worse, judging by this post from LaborUnionReport via RedStateNews:

 

In Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota, American Crystal, a cooperative that accounts for 38 percent of the nation’s sugar from beets and 15 percent of overall sugar production, locked out 1300 unionized workers over a month ago as their negotiations for a new contract fell apart.

 

American Crystal’s last offer was a 17 percent pay increase over five years, but workers rejected it over job security provisions, health care costs and language in the contract they say will hurt workers in future years. …

 

According to the National Labor Relations Board [PDF]: An employer who is engaged in good-faith bargaining with a union may lock out the represented employees, sometimes even before impasse is reached in the negotiations, if it does so to further its position in bargaining. …

 

Well, apparently, the union workers at American Sugar have taken great insult at being replaced as the some union protesters’ conduct in the lockout has gotten ugly. …

 

Traill County Sheriff Mike Crocker confirmed that “there have been racial statements made to security people” outside the company’s Hillsboro, N.D., plant (emphasis in the original).

 

Crocker also said he recently saw a monkey-like figure hanging from a noose attached to a large inflatable rat outside the plant. …

 

In addition to the monkey hanging by a noose incident, there are unconfirmed reports of some picketers outside the Hillsboro, ND plant were dressed in white sheets.

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (seventh item, There’s Many A Slip ‘Twixt The Cup And Lip): Following ObamaCare litigation is like watching a ping pong match. In June, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati voted 2-1 that the individual mandate is constitutional under the Commerce Clause. Then in August, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta voted 2-1 to strike down ObamaCare’s, individual mandate to purchase health insurance on the grounds that it “represents a wholly novel and potentially unbounded assertion of congressional authority: the ability to compel Americans to purchase an expensive health insurance product they have elected not to buy, and to make them re-purchase that insurance product every month for their entire lives.” Earlier this month, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out VA’s challenge to ObamaCare. And now, U.S. District Judge Christopher C. Conner in Harrisburg has ruled Congressional power to regulate interstate commerce “does not subsume the power to dictate a lifetime financial commitment to health insurance coverage.”

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (fifth item, The Right To Bear Arms Belongs To Us All: Part II): There’s bad news, worse news and potentially good news on the Second Amendment front. The bad news is that the privacy rights of FL gun owners have been subordinated to the free speech rights of physicians in that state to warn them about gun safety, in a ruling by federal judge Marcia Cooke that puts a hold on a new state law that would have banned doctors – some of whom refuse to treat gun owners – from asking whether a patient owns any firearms.

 

The worse news is that Southern District Judge Cathy Seibel ruled against four NYers challenging denial of "concealed carry" gun permits by four state judges (People v. Marin) because regardless of the intent of the person packing heat, "[t]he underlying activity of possessing or transporting an accessible and loaded weapon is itself dangerous and undesirable (emphasis, The Stiletto).

 

With any luck, Congress may offer a small measure of relief to law-abiding citizens with gun permits who travel to states and cities with gun laws that are restrictive enough to nullify the Second Amendment for all practical purposes, reports The Wall Street Journal:

 

Congressional lawmakers yesterday heard testimony on a federal bill that would give Americans who hold permits to carry firearms in their home states the right to carry their weapons across state lines.

 

The sponsors of the legislation, dubbed the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act,, maintain that people’s Second Amendment rights should encompass the right to carry their firearms outside their home states.

 

The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security held a hearing yesterday on the legislation, which is sponsored by Florida Republican Cliff Stearns and North Carolina  Democrat Heath Shuler.  Here’s a report from Fox News on the hearing and click here to read the statements provided by witnesses.

 

Many states voluntarily honor gun permits granted by other states, and this legislation would formalize the agreements. It should come as no surprise that NY does not honor permits or licenses granted by other states.

 

† Updates To Previous Posts(seventh item, Scientists Who Refuse To Toe The Line On Global Warming: Part II): Nobel Laureate Ivar Giaever resigned – via E-mail – from the American Physical Society (APS) to protests its officially stated policy that man-made global warming is occurring because of increased emissions of carbon dioxide, FOX News reports:

 

Giaever was cooled to the statement on warming theory by a line claiming that "the evidence is incontrovertible."

 

"In the APS it is ok to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible?" he wrote in an email to Kate Kirby, executive officer of the physics society.

 

"The claim … is that the temperature has changed from ~288.0 to ~288.8 degree Kelvin in about 150 years, which (if true) means to me is that the temperature has been amazingly stable, and both human health and happiness have definitely improved in this 'warming' period," his email message said. …

 

The use of the word "incontrovertible" had already caused debate within the group, so much so that an addendum was added to the statement discussing its use in April, 2010.

 

"The word 'incontrovertible' ... is rarely used in science because by its very nature, science questions prevailing ideas. The observational data indicate a global surface warming of 0.74 °C (+/- 0.18 °C) since the late 19th century."

 

Giaever was one of more than 100 co-signers of a 2009 letter to President Obama critical of his position on climate change.

 

† Updates To Previous Posts (fifth item, The Day Newt Gingrich’s Candidacy Died): In a recent conference call with potential donors, Newt Gingrich complained that people ask him “on a regular basis” whether he is still running. He blames the MSM for not giving his campaign enough coverage – and he’s in good company: Gary Johnson, Buddy Roemer, and Fred Karger.