Libya needs food: The challenges of humanitarian aid

TARP head Barofsky submits resignation

The $700 billion TARP program is in its waning years, but one man who was expected to stay the course is out, reports Reuters. Neil Barofsky, the top auditor and overseer of Troubled Asset Relief Program, has thrown in the proverbial towel. Barofsky, who will leave his post March 30, didn't give a reason for his resignation. Chances are that he didn't resign just to take out pay day loans to live off of .

Inspector General Barofsky gets put in position by President George W. Bush

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's top adviser suggested to The Huffington Post late Wednesday that the administration is ready to accept an across-the-board, temporary
continuation of steep Bush-era tax cuts, including those for the
wealthiest taxpayers.

That appears to be the only way, said David Axelrod, that middle-class taxpayers can keep their tax cuts, given the legislative and political realities facing Obama in the aftermath of last week's electoral defeat.

"We have to deal with the world as we find it," Axelrod said during an unusually candid and reflective 90-minute interview in his office, steps away from the Oval Office. "The world of what it takes to get this
done."

"There are concerns," he added, that Congress will continue to kick the can down the road in the future by passing temporary extensions for the wealthy time and time again. "But I don't want to trade away
security for the middle class in order to make that point."

It has been widely assumed that the president would have to accept an across-the-board deal of some kind, but Axelrod's remarks were the first public confirmation of that fact -- and by a figure regarded as
closer to Obama than any other White House staffer.

Also dealing "with the world as we find it," Axelrod declined repeatedly to comment on any of the controversial debt-reduction measures suggested by the chairs of the president's own commission --
even those, such as raising the Social Security retirement age, that go
against Obama campaign pledges and strike at the heart of Democratic
constituencies.

By Jim McElhatton
-
The Washington Times
7:30 p.m., Wednesday, October 20, 2010 ----- Nides raised Clinton cash

President Obama's nominee for deputy secretary of state has earned more than $8 million in salary and bonuses since January 2009 as an executive at a Wall Street bank that received a federal bailout.

Thomas R. Nides, a six-figure fundraiser for Hillary Rodham Clinton during her 2008 presidential run, disclosed his compensation from Morgan Stanley in a recent filing with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

In an effort to counter the massive momentum of the Tea Party movement, the NAACP is renewing attacks that the Tea Party Groups are Racist. We reject these charges outright, and suggest they examine their own organization, whose very name invokes the advancement of a very specific group of Americans. Not all Americans. Resistnet and the Tea Party movement has not, and never will, exclude any American on the basis of their race. It is a movement for all Americans who are concerned about the direction of their country.

.Feel Free to post and to forward to others. ALSO PLEASE VISIT THE PHOTOBLOG AND LEAVE A MESSAGE IN THE COMMENT SECTION.

Thank you!
James Cheng / msnbc.com

Emery McClendon, 59, speaks at the "Stand Up Indiana - Stop Obamacare" rally in Indianapolis, Ind. on Oct. 16, 2010. McClendon, a veteran and a Fed-Ex driver was a key speaker at the rally.
Faces of the Tea Party - 'We are not the KKK'Kari Huus says: Emery McClendon is a husband, father, Air Force retiree, Christian, a FedEx driver, amateur radio guy and photographer. In general, his race is beside the point.

But this series is about the Tea Party, a movement that struggles to convince some observers that it is not merely a racist reaction to a black president. McClendon, as can clearly be seen in James Cheng’s photo, is a black man. He is also a prominent voice in the Tea Party movement.

McClendon was among the highlighted speakers at a recent rally in administration against the health-care package, adding his voice to the chorus with this message: the Tea Party movement has nothing to do with race.

“We are not the KKK,” he boomed with rhetorical flourish. “We are patriots.”

McClendon was raised at a time when the black population was overwhelmingly Democratic. It wasn’t easy to “come out” as a conservative Republican.

“I grew up in a household where they would break your neck if you voted any other way,” says McClendon. “But they were very conservative. My parents really didn’t know how conservative they were.”

The Fort Wayne native served in the Air Force for four years then joined the Indiana Air Guard. His 23 years as a FedEx driver paid the bills while he and his wife, Queenie, raised their three sons.

Over time McClendon decided that his views on abortion, limited government and taxation - principles he says he learned from his parents - just didn’t match liberal views.

“I ended up thinking I wasn’t a Democrat or a Republican, but more of a Reagan conservative,” he says, and he has voted accordingly since the election of George H.W. Bush.

Three van loads of Hughes High students were taken last week – during school hours – to vote and given sample ballots only for Democratic candidates and then taken for ice cream, a Monday lawsuit alleges.

The complaint was made by Thomas Brinkman Jr., a Republican candidate for Hamilton County auditor, and the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending & Taxes against Cincinnati Public Schools.

“They plan to bring four more high schools (to vote) this week,” Christopher Finney, COAST attorney, said Monday after filing the suit.

It seeks a temporary restraining order to prevent school officials from participating or helping students participate in partisan politics during school hours or with school property or employees involved.

But the school district’s lawyer denies any school connection.

“No CPS personnel engaged in the promotion of candidates or any political party,” CPS attorney Mark Stepaniak noted in a written release.

CPS spokeswoman Janet Walsh said taking students on school time to vote has been done before. “It has to be scrupulously nonpartisan,” Walsh said.

Stepaniak said church vans were volunteered to drive students to vote.

The suit alleges three van loads of Hughes High students arrived at the Downtown Board of Elections offices at 1 p.m. Wednesday, supervised by a school employee. School lets out at 3:15 p.m.

When they got out of the vans, the students, the suit alleges, also were accompanied by adults who appeared to be campaign workers or supporters for U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus, D-West Price Hill, the congressman being challenged this fall by Steve Chabot. When the students got out of the vans, the suit alleges they were given sample ballots containing only Democratic candidates.

“We want these kids to vote,” Finney said. “I’m not sure them being bussed during the school day is a good thing, but that’s not the thrust of the suit.

“If they had fair sample ballots or no sample ballots it would be different.”

The suit alleges those actions violated a 2002 agreement between CPS and COAST where the school agreed it wouldn’t allow school property or employees to be used for “advocating the election or defeat of candidates for public office.”

On Monday, Finney asked Common Pleas Court Judge Beth Myers to hear his request for a temporary restraining order that was put on hold after the attorneys for the two sides met in court briefly, talked and then left.

Finney said if the issue isn’t resolved, he’ll go back to court.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars PAC, which endorsed an unbelievable slate of left-wing candidates this month (including Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barbara Boxer), has been shut down by the VFW leadership, according to the Wall Street Journal.

This doesn’t appear to be anything meaningless or mealy-mouthed either. On Friday, the VFW Commander-in-Chief removed all 11 members of the VFW-PAC board after they refused to rescind their endorsements. He
also issued a memo stating that he will move to dissolve the PAC at the
annual VFW convention in August.

With Election Day 2010 now just days away, the Obama Democrats and their radical leftist cronies are mounting an unprecedented last-ditch effort to derail the American people's revolutionary reclamation of their government!

Conservative, patriotic men and women are campaigning nationwide to win seats in Congress and fire Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House.

The Obama administration is on a spending spree unlike anything we've seen in the past. His reckless borrow and spend strategies are not only fiscally irresponsible, but are also sealing the fate of our young people. Already in just two years Congress has increased spending by 18 percent -- at a time when our economy teeters on the brink of collapse. Grassfire is outraged, and asking all members of our team to take immediate action by signing our national "Stop the Spending" petition.
Sign our Stop the Spending Petition

http://www.grassfire.com/129/petition.asp

Nearly 105,000 Petitions Saying "NO!" To The Islamic "Victory" Mosque at Ground Zero Delivered -- More Signers Needed!

Grassfire Nation and ResistNet.com delivered nearly 105,000 petitions to New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and then took part in a rally opposing the Ground Zero "victory" mosque. Placement of this mosque near Ground Zero is an abomination to the memories of the innocent Americans murdered by Islamic radicals, and Grassfire Nation is urging citizens from around the nation to take action and sign our petition. Future deliveries planned until the mosque project is put on hold. Click below an sign today.
Sign our petition opposing the Ground Zero

http://www.grassfire.com/136/petition.asp

In just over two short weeks, voters across the country will head to voting booths to make their voices heard. And if the current mood of the country is any indication of what to expect, you and I will be celebrating the end of Nancy Pelosi’s reign as Speaker of the House on election night.

After nearly two years of Barack Obama's presidency, it's clear to me that the American people have become deeply disillusioned with leftist business-as-usual masking itself as "change you can believe in."

Now think about what President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Democrats in Congress actually did with their $787 billion "stimulus":
Shipped jobs overseas to places like China and El Salvador instead of creating them here;
Dramatically expanded the size of government; and
Piled more debt on the backs of our kids and grandkids.
Do you feel like you got your money's worth?

First let me say that I am under no illusion that corruption is new to the hollowed halls of Washington DC. The fact is that at many times in our nations political history corruption has raised its ugly head, nor has it been confined to Washington, corruption can and has been found in all levels of our government.