What a week for news. There was far too much to cover and it looks like this is the new trend. Throw it hard and heavy and some is bound to stick. Here’s a recap of the significant stories of the week.

White House to Keep Obama’s ‘Czars’ from Testifying Before Congress

White House Counsel Greg Craig has indicated that he will refuse to allow any of the 18 new “czar” positions created by President Obama to testify before Congress…to ask fundamental questions of the czars about their roles and responsibilities.

Newest Health Bill – Read the Finance Committee Health Care Bill

We now have the full text of the 1,502-page Senate Finance Committee health care bill posted for public review and comment. Dig in:

Administration plans pay cuts at bailout firms

The Obama administration plans to order companies that received huge government bailouts

Obama open to newspaper bailout bill

The president said he is “happy to look at” bills before Congress that would give struggling news organizations tax breaks if they were to restructure as nonprofit businesses.

Bank failures top 100, only part of industry woes

The cascade of bank failures this year surpassed 100 on Friday, the most in nearly two decades.

Crude oil spikes above 81 dollars

World oil prices spiked Wednesday to a one-year peak above 81 dollars, as investors reacted to plunging US gasoline or petrol reserves, and the tumbling greenback, traders said.

Thatcher adviser: Copenhagen goal is 1-world government

A former science adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher says the real purpose of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen on Dec. 7-18 is to use global warming hype as a pretext to lay the foundation for a one-world government.

White House attacks worry moderate Democrats

“There’s no reason to gratuitously piss off all those companies,” added another Democrat, Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia. “The Chamber isn’t an opponent.”

FCC Votes for Net Neutrality

On Thursday, the FCC approved a measure to begin the process of formalizing a set of net neutrality rules that would ban ISPs from selectively filtering or throttling content. Texas Rep. Barton tried to stop the FCC from voting on the measure in the first place by pleading with commissioners to stop the vote from occurring.

Physicians’ Views of the Massachusetts Health Care

In 2006, Massachusetts enacted the country’s first law mandating near-universal health care coverage,1 and the state now has the lowest proportion of uninsured residents in the United States.

Senate to increase national debt to above $13 trillion; Dems looking for political cover

Knowing they will face unyielding GOP attacks for voting to increase the eye-popping debt, Democrats are considering attaching a debt increase provision to a must-pass bill

Dollar hits 14-month low against euro

Hitting a 14-month low against the euro, the sinking dollar renewed concerns Wednesday about higher oil prices and other inflationary threats.

7 Months After Stimulus 49 of 50 States Have Lost Jobs

According to the data, 49 States and the District of Columbia have lost jobs since stimulus was enacted.

HHS Web Site May Be ‘Propaganda

Senate Finance ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is raising concerns that a Department of Health and Human Services Web site that urges visitors to send an e-mail to President Barack Obama praising his health care reform plan may violate rules against government-funded propaganda.

Reid Leads Democrats In Carving Out Favors for States on Health

Harry Reid, put in an $829 billion health-care bill to shield constituents from measures intended to pay for the biggest overhaul of the medical system in four decades.The result is the new policies may be unevenly administered, with some U.S. states getting preferential treatment

Another Harvard elitist to join the ranks of Obama’s house of czars, Ron Bloom, was Steve Rattner’s right-hand man, regarding the take over of Chrysler and GM. Rattner stepped down over escalating charges surrounding the probe of his alleged pay for play scheme involving New York State pension funds. Bloom was elevated to that position and now that the automaker bailout programs are winding down, Obama is looking to upgrade him to Manufacturing Czar, where he would help make all American manufacturing become more globally competitive.

An article written this week titled, Ron Bloom: Car czar in the Labor Zionist tradition, it is noted:

Born in New York City and raised in Swarthmore, a suburb of Philadelphia, much of Bloom’s early life revolved around Habonim (now known as Habonim Dror), a progressive Labor Zionist youth movement that emphasizes cultural Judaism, socialism and social justice.

It’s all part of an upbringing that the man overseeing the country’s bailout of the U.S. auto industry cites among his earliest influences…

Bloom recalled camp as “a fun experience” that afforded him the opportunity to “meet people from different places.” He said he never intended to go into the Labor Zionist movement professionally…He says Habonim infused him with values that influenced the way he views public service.

Bloom’s expertise in both private banking and the labor union movement…helped him land what he says is the job of a lifetime.

Bloom said his decision to join the administration was, in part, the product of a broader sense of engagement and desire to improve the world, which he developed in his Habonim years.

Has Bloom been specifically involved with these type of unions in America?  He was New England Regional Director of the Jewish Labor Committee (JLC).  Who is the JLC? According to www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org

Unlike other community relations agencies, the JLC has its sphere of action clearly delineated: it strives to represent Jewish interests in the American labor movement, and labor interests in the Jewish community. Working with the American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organization since the federation’s formation in 1956, the JLC works with and has the support of a wide range of unions and their associated organizations.

According to JLC,

For 74 years, the JLC has served as the bridge linking the Jewish community and organized labor in a shared commitment to economic and social justice.

You can be a part of this historic tradition of working together to advance the cause of the Jewish people and to help create a better future for all.

Is there a problem with involvement in furthering Zionist causes in America? Well, that’s debatable. However, since the Zionist Labor movement is a socialist movement, there is a cause for concern seeing that he could be in charge of overseeing all major manufacturing activity in America.

In Fall 2006, Bloom wrote an article appearing in the Democratic Socialists of America newsletter, starting on pg. 6, about the steel making industry:

…run the companies and actively participate in the political process on the basis of what is good for your shareholders – and not based on outmoded nostrums about unions, free enterprise, deregulation, free markets and free trade.

In today’s world the blather about free trade, free-markets and the joys of competition is nothing but pablum for the suckers.

He goes on to talk about needed changes in America’s workplace, saying

Today the real impediments to long-term profitability lie largely outside the collective bargaining arena… Health Care Costs… management must support universal single-payer national health care, A universal single-payer system, whether financed through general revenue or even a payroll tax, would result in significantly higher profits for the steel industry… Energy Policy … It is time to support a comprehensive national energy program.

Those are not the words of a free-trade advocate, but that of a social engineer.  Yes, socialism has been a part of his life since he was a child.  Besides, why was he writing for the Democratic Socialist of America Newsletter.

Here is some of Bloom’s related work experience in no particular order:

• Executive Director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Full Employment
• Research and negotiating specialist for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
• The New England Regional Director of the Jewish Labor Committee, a multi-issue organization that acts as a liaison betweenthe labor movement and the Jewish community
• Since 1996, Ron Bloom has served as a Special Assistant to the President of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA)heads the Union’s Corporate Research, Industry Analysis and Pattern Bargaining Department
• Founding Partners of the investment banking firm of Keilin and Bloom.  The firm focused on financial transactions where employees played a role as stakeholders
• Vice President at the investment banking firm of Lazard Freres & Co.
• The PA Business Tax Reform Commission

Lastly, here’s a video of a Bloom speech, where beginning at 2:16, he states:

“Workers want unions. All polls indicate that if union workers, given an unimpeded choice,whether or not to form a union, join a union, they will join a union”…but there’s no question, since 1980, there has been a sustained employer offensive to weaken unions for reasons that are logical from an employers perspective…The political environment we have in this country is not conducive to workers forming unions.”

Bloom is another Obama socialist looking to complete the transformation of America into a socialist state and ultimately, a fascist one.  I guess a good question for all of these Czars, defenders of socialists values and wealth re-distribution, would be: can we re-distribute the massive amount of wealth accumulated by all of Obama’s czars, seeing that most of them are multi-millionaires?  Somehow, I think you guys will exempt yourselves from the crushing reforms you seek to force on America.

Mark Lloyd

It appears as though Mark Lloyd, Obama’s new Diversity Czar, has been given his marching orders. He is charged with a back door effort to bring back the fairness doctrine.

Lloyd is a Senior Fellow from the far left Center for American Progress, which is an organization that already has their finger prints on much of Obama’s agenda.

Lloyd wrote in his book, Prologue to a Farce: Communications and Democracy in America..

“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) must be reformed along democratic lines and funded on a substantial level,”

“Federal and regional broadcast operations and local stations should be funded at levels commensurate with or above those spending levels at which commercial operations are funded,” Lloyd wrote. “This funding should come from license fees charged to commercial broadcasters. Funding should not come from congressional appropriations. Sponsorship should be prohibited at all public broadcasters.”

Along with this money, Lloyd would regulate much of the programming on these stations to make sure they focused on “diverse views” and government activities. link

It’s plainly clear that Lloyd wants government control over all radio content, thus  silencing free speech, specifically ideas with a conservative or libertarian viewpoint. Believe me, if radio was dominated by a progressive point of view from the extreme left, there would be no push to regulate free expression on the airwaves. This is just an attempt to back door the fairness doctrine and shut down dissenting views.

Lloyd, in a 2007 report for Center for American Progress, goes on to say

The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio, which concluded that 91% of talk radio programming is conservative and 9% is “progressive.

The report argued that large corporate broadcasting networks had driven liberals off the radio, and that diversity of ownership would increase diversity of broadcasting voices.

Here Lloyd he suggests it’s the lack of diversity in ownership and not the free market which is to blame for the failure of progressive talk radio. We know this is pure nonsense. Air America was well funded and highly promoted, yet it was a dismal failure. No one wants to hear the kind of hate that is regularly spewed forth by liberal kooks on the radio. Can you say “Randi Rhodes” without throwing up a little in your mouth? I think not.

Lloyd’s past work includes stints at the Center for American Progress (CAP) and vice president of strategic initiatives at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR). CAP is funded by the liberal financier George Soros and LCCR focuses on representing “persons of color, women, children, labor unions, individuals with disabilities, older Americans, major religious groups, gays and lesbians and civil liberties and human rights groups.”

In a blog post, LCCR praised the selection of Lloyd by saying that he will “help the FCC to develop communications policy that will increase media diversity and address the needs of low-income people, women, minorities, people with disabilities.”. link

What is this guy talking about and what concern is it of the government’s as to what kinds of programming a private radio station offers? The type of programming is dictated by the free market, a concept that seems to have escaped many leaders in Washington. Perhaps it’s because free market capitalism has been abandoned by our government, in favor of collectivism.

So, here we have another in a long line of dubious Obama appointees with far left credentials, this one insistent upon silencing free speech and trampling the first amendment.

Would you expect anyone chosen to serve in the Obama administration to not be a raging progressive liberal?  Well, don’t because they are.  Cass Sunstein, chosen by Obama to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), is a progressive “change agent” that prescribes to this outlandish doctrine of “Libertarian Paternalism”.  In other words, while we seem to have the freedom of choice, our choices should be guided by government.  Why?  Because according to Sunstein, humans will generally follow the path of least resistance and, in turn, make bad choices for themselves.  Therefore, the government should make available, as primary choices to its citizens, things they normally wouldn’t choose without some coaxing or nudging.  Sunstein is also an extremist animal activist, who argues animals should have the right to sue humans in a court of law.  To top it off, he also feels that the Internet, as currently designed, leads to extremism, and should be redesigned to incorporate a “fairness doctrine” allowing people to be exposed to a wide cross-section of opposing viewpoints.

In 2008, Sunstein and Richard Thaler wrote the book, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.  It discusses how, through the use of  law, behavioral economics, psychology, political science, private institutions and government can “nudge” people toward choices that will make them healthier, wealthier, and happier.  In other words, the majority of people will take the path of least resistance in making important life choices and make bad choices.  His quote from the book sums it up pretty good:

Every day, we make decisions …Unfortunately, we often choose poorly…we often make bad decisions involving education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, the family, and even the planet itself.

Sunstein sees this nudging effect being beneficial in the areas of environmental regulation and mortgage regulation.  Since he feels most people do not have the capacity to make healthy decisions, the government should guide their hand.

Regarding the Internet, Sunstein contends that it creates too narrow of a focus on particular subject matter, leading to extremism.  This justifies that people should be exposed to opposing viewpoints they would not have sought, in order to consider the validity of those opposing viewpoints.  How does the Regulatory Czar really feel about the Internet?  Here are several quotes from an article Sunstein wrote in the Boston Review titled, The Daily We – Is the Internet really a blessing for democracy?

Group polarization is occurring every day on the Internet. Indeed, it is clear that the Internet is serving, for many, as a breeding ground for extremism, precisely because like-minded people are deliberating with one another, without hearing contrary views. Hate groups are the most obvious example.

It is also clear that the Internet is playing a crucial role in permitting people who would otherwise feel isolated and move on to something else to band together and spread rumors, many of them paranoid and hateful.

With respect to the Internet, the implication is that groups of people, especially if they are like-minded, will end up thinking the same thing that they thought before—but in more extreme form.

I want to raise a note of caution. I do so by emphasizing one of the most striking powers provided by emerging technologies: the growing power of consumers to “filter” what they see. As a result of the Internet and other technological developments, many people are increasingly engaged in a process of “personalization” that limits their exposure to topics and points of view of their own choosing.

Sunstein also feels that a mechanism should be in place to require a “cool-off period” or “time-out” regarding responding to emails involving contentious subject matter.  You know, instead of firing off that email in haste, with possible regret, just wait a day to see if you have changed your mind about sending that email.

If that’s not enough to raise a red flag on this guy, then this should.  He proposes introducing the 2nd Bill of Rights, as advocated by FDR.  Sunstein’s 2004 book titled: The Second Bill of Rights: FDR’s Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need It More than Ever advocates that Americans have a right to an education, a right to a home, a right to health care, and a right to protection against
monopolies.  I don’t remember those items being listed in our current bill of rights.  Seeing the way Obama’s administration has pushed for government control over our lives, it seems they have already initiated this “2nd bill of rights” without being explicit about it.

Anyone who adopts and promotes an idea of marrying the concepts of libertarianism and paternalism is a kook.  The American Heritage Dictionary defines libertarian as:

One who advocates maximizing individual rights and minimizing the role of the state

and paternalism as:

A policy or practice of treating or governing people in a fatherly manner, especially by providing for their needs without giving them rights or responsibilities.

How and the world you reconcile those two as a single definition is beyond me.  This is what you call Frankensteinian behavioral engineering.  He obviously thinks people have a need and desire to be guided and nudged along to make better decisions that will benefit mankind as a whole.  I don’t know about you, but I call this “socialism-lite”.  Help yourself, but I think I’ll pass.

For more reading on Cass Sunstein:

2nd Amendment rights:

Though the Constitution has governed the nation for well over two centuries, its meaning is not stable over time. In 1970, the Constitution did not mean what it meant in 1950. In 2008, the Constitution is quite different from what it was in 1988 – and in 2028, we will probably be in for some major surprises.

Animal Rights:

Why we should celebrate paying taxes:

Compilation of Sunstein quotes here:

Quote from his animal rights activist mentor, Peter Singer:

…killing a newborn baby is never equivalent to killing a person, that is, a being who wants to go on living.  That doesn’t mean that it is not almost always a terrible thing to do.  It is, but that is because most infants are loved and cherished by their parents, and to kill an infant is usually to do a great wrong to its parents.

John Holdren busy life with non-profits, think tanks, speeches, and the like, includes time he spent with a non-profit group Climate Central.  He resigned March 2009 after his Czar post conformation.   Climate Central’s board is staffed by financial experts, policy experts, government relations experts, science experts, and media experts.  Here’s part of their introduction:

Climate Central is an accessible one-stop source for timely, relevant, high-quality climate information through a variety of channels, targeting the media and leaders in business, government, and religion. A nonprofit organization, it operates without partisanship, bias, or lobbying.

This group was formed as a 501c(3), of course.  They formed in 2008 with seed money from The Flora Family Foundation, formed by the Hewlett family, of Hewlett-Packard.   Apparently, they put together this clip for the “Carbon Emissions Counter” grand opening, built and sponsored by Deutsche Bank’s Asset Management Group. LOL.

I don’t watch much TV, so I missed this. This is well produced piece of propaganda.

Carbon Counter L3 from Climate Central on Vimeo.

I thought the counter was actually the deficit counter.  Nope, it’s counting the emissions released into the environment.  What a joke.  Well, it’s not going to be too funny when they are using this to bet on carbon credit-based securities.  Well, your Science Czar was on the board of directors when this was produced.  Enjoy.

Van Jones is the latest Obama Czar appointment with radical roots and a checkered past. He was radicalized in prison, after being arrested during the Rodney King riots in San Francisco.

He is the founder of The Ella Baker Center, as well as a co-founder of STORM (Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement), a “multi-racial activist collective with Marxist influences”, with which Jones was involved.

In an article printed by the East Bay Express, Jones opined…

“I met all these young radical people of color. I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, This is what I need to be a part of. I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary. I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th and then by August, I was a communist.”

“There is a green wave coming, with renewable energy, organic agriculture, cleaner production,” he said in an interview. “Our question is, will the green wave lift all boats? That’s the moral challenge to the people who are the architects of this new, ecologically sound economy. Will we have eco-equity, or will we have eco-apartheid? Right now we have eco-apartheid. Look at Marin; they’ve got solar this, and bio this, and organic the other, and fifteen minutes away by car, you’re in Oakland with cancer clusters, asthma, and pollution.”

“Before, we would fight anybody, any time,” he said. “No concession was good enough; we never said ‘Thank you.’ Now, I put the issues and constituencies first. I’ll work with anybody, I’ll fight anybody if it will push our issues forward. … I’m willing to forgo the cheap satisfaction of the radical pose for the deep satisfaction of radical ends.”

As many of the progressives have done, Jones has attached himself to the so called “Green Movement”, which is actually just a tool for radicals like Jones to use in an effort to further their social and political agendas.

It should come as no surprise to those who are paying attention, that Obama would appoint a “Green Czar” who is schooled in the precepts of Alinski’s “Rules for Radicals“. He is just another in a long line of appointments with “dubious credentials and troubling backgrounds”.