The south is still realizing the full extent of the damage caused by this week’s storms. Nearly 300 people are dead. The country is rallying in support of the devatated areas, and President Obama (who must have learned something from ignoring Nashville’s flood last year) is set break character to visit the very red state today.

Anyone with a soul feels pain for those affected. Thousands have lost everything. Lives were destroyed. Think Progress (via Da Tech Guy) has instead chosen to adopt the Pat Robertson model and claim Divine Justice for those redneck Republican climate change deniers in the south.

“Given that global warming is unequivocal,” climate scientist Kevin Trenberth cautioned the American Meteorological Society in January of this year, “the null hypothesis should be that all weather events are affected by global warming rather than the inane statements along the lines of ‘of course we cannot attribute any particular weather event to global warming.’”

The congressional delegations of these states — Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Virginia, and Kentucky — overwhelmingly voted to reject the science that polluting the climate is dangerous. They are deliberately ignoring the warnings from scientists.

You’re reading that right. To paraphrase Brad Johnson’s post: Since the south has rejected the climate change hysteria, clearly they’re just asking for the wrath of Gaia, and should expect to be demolished.

If, unlike Johnson, you are interested in assisting those impacted by this disaster, you can help in the following ways:

• Red Cross, or text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to relief efforts
• Samaritan’s Purse
• Text “Give” to 80888 to give $10 to Salvation Army relief efforts.

President Obama enjoys presenting himself as a shining example of maturity, wisdom, and levelheaded leadership. Indeed, at yesterday’s birth certificate press conference, he told the pesky “carnival barkers” that it was time to “get serious.” Then, he boarded a plane to Chicago to film Oprah. To talk some more about getting serious, I imagine. He later put the birth certificate issue to rest once and for all by mentioning it at three fundraisers last night.

Today, he’s chosen to prove that he’s serious about reforming immigration by inviting renowned immigration policy experts Eva Longoria, Rosario Dawson and friends to the White House to talk about immigration reform. Yes, that Eva Longoria. Via The Hill:

The White House said Obama would meet with “influential Hispanics from across the country to discuss the importance of fixing the broken immigration system.” It said the discussion would focus on fostering “a constructive national conversation on this important issue as we work to build a bipartisan consensus in Congress.”

Besides Longoria, the star of “Desperate Housewives,” others invited to the gathering include actresses Rosario Dawson and America Ferrera, Univision hosts Don Francisco and Maria Elena Salinas and Telemundo anchors Vanessa Hauc and Jose Diaz-Balart.

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The Powershift conference came to DC last weekend. Thousands of students were bussed in to discuss the perils of our climate situation – because apparently, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi are “counting on them” to save the world… by taking off their pants and leaving earth to colonize other planets?

It’s funny at first, until you realize that there were 10,000 American youth listening to this and applauding it. They are blurring the lines between environmental and social “justice.” Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, made the environmental conversation a modern day Civil Rights speech, addressing the imbalances between the upper and lower class in America. For example, via Eyeblast (definitely click to watch the video):

“Environmental justice at its root is a recogniction that there is unfinished business from the last 40 years and much of that unfinished business is concentrated in low income and minority neighborhoods.”

For the left,  this is about wrapping environmental rights into civil rights. Jackson goes on to say “If their air is not clean, then my air is not clean. If they can’t drink their water, you can’t drink your water either.” For them, this isn’t about science. It isn’t about the environment. It’s about equalization and “justice” and it’s entirely dishonest. After all, their job is much easier when they can put everything in a neat little box, demonize the wealthy, and propose solutions that invariably involve taking things from someone to give to someone else.

Cloaking redistribution in green and “justice” is disingenuous at best, evil and manipulative at worst. They’re losing ground on the scientific front and tapping in to what they know.

The EPA has admitted that they don’t even consider jobs when they do their economic analysis. No really. They don’t even think about the potential impact on unemployment. This is appalling, coming from an administration that has said over and over and over again that jobs are the top priority.

To recap:

White House Briefing, 1/19/2010

“The top priority is to continue to work hard on getting this economy back on track and creating jobs,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told a news briefing.

State of the Union, 1/27/2010

“Jobs must be our number one focus in 2010,” the president said. His call for a new jobs bill drew bipartisan support from the Members of Congress seated before him in the House chamber.

Weekly Presidential Address last month:

While remarking on the fall of the unemployment rate, he singled out “creating jobs and opportunities in a fiercely competitive world” as a top priority because “we have a lot more work to do…for the millions more who still don’t have the right job or all the work they need to live out the American Dream.”

New Year’s Resolution! Weekly Address, 1/1/11:

“And our most important task now is to keep that recovery going… As president, that’s my commitment to you: to do everything I can to make sure our economy is growing, creating jobs and strengthening our middle class. That’s my resolution for the coming year.”

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Via Twitter:

You can click here to watch the entire 5:32 minute video, if you think you can make it through.

Planned Parenthood is not in the business of helping women, and has a knack of constantly reminding us. We can rehash exposé after exposé, and discuss the list of horrors and deception that seems to grow with every investigation. Most of us have seen them by now.

The Democrat impulse to justify these things for the “health” of women across America is horrifying. The amount of damage that they have inflicted on young girls and women is incalculable, and to apply public funds to an institution that hides domestic abuse and statutory rape is unconscionable. Where is the outrage for the young women that will never have their abuse cases brought to light because Planned Parenthood didn’t feel like filing the proper paperwork?

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Steny Hoyer once said that the most basic responsibility of governing was to enact a budget. Which is why in the past two years, when Democrats could have done anything they wanted to (and in many cases did), they could not pass one? Democrats have done a good job pretending that the shut down is all because the Republicans won’t play around and are tossing out “extreme” cuts. The reality is that the ball is in their court and has BEEN in their court for two years.

Steny Hoyer stood on the House floor yesterday and blasted the GOP for not “compromising” when they released their first CR with $100 billion in cuts. Then, when that wasn’t good enough, they dropped it to $60 billion in cuts. Not we’re down to $22 billion in cuts. And the Republicans are the ones unwilling to compromise?

This old Bankrupting America video reminds us that this time last year, Democrats were too “busy” to get something passed, despite control of both houses of Congress and the White House. They failed then, and they are failing now.

Consider this an open thread.

The unions have long been unparalleled in their ability to organize and get the vote out during election time. The Tea Party has provided them with a new challenge, and they’re rising to the occasion as best they know how: Astroturfing. They believe, according to Alexander Bolton in The Hill, that their “Tea Party” moment has come.

The first question that should be asked is what has changed to swing things in their favor? Do they believe that there is enough momentum behind the union supporters? What do they believe will be the galvanizing force? The reality is that there isn’t any issue to unite the left right now.

Additionally, these union leaders and Democrat strategists don’t understand the true nature of a grassroots groundswell. The major catalyst for Tea Party activists was ObamaCare – they flooded the health care Town Halls. This didn’t take marching orders from anyone. Many were doctors who were legitimately concerned. There was a basic level of self organization through local Tea Party groups, but as much as the left hates to believe this, there was no coordination nationally. There was no GOP affiliation – in fact, the GOP was often the target of the Tea Party ire.

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Today, union thugs descended on the FreedomWorks office. It was the middle of the day, and there was some excitement outside as all the buses pulled up and people started to fill the courtyard. We decided to go out and show our support for freedom. Intern Steve was quickly suited up.

We wandered around talking to people, and saw the buses lined up on the street. NEA, AFT, SEIU, and CWA signs dominated – a veritable “who’s who” of union thuggery, to be sure. They all had on matching tee shirts and printed signs, as is to be expected.

I was taking pictures and video with my phone, and I heard my coworker getting into a heated exchange with one of the protesters. I turned on my iPhone camera and headed over to film it. They were going back and forth, the protester called my colleague a “little sh*t” just as I walked up, which is where the video starts. Then he noticed I was filming. Here’s what happened:

" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm_Fl3AszuU[/youtube]

Basically, it’s ridiculous. I’m a 5’1 female in a dress, and he was standing up on a garden wall above me in the courtyard. He hardly felt threatened. I was stunned, because generally protesters are there to, you know, get their message out. They don’t normally shy away from the camera.

I’m very much okay, and very appreciative of the support from my fellow bloggers and activists today. I am, however, shaken up by the level of sheer hatred I experienced today. The look of fury on his face in the close up is appalling. I had not exchanged a word with him. He didn’t know who I was. He didn’t even know my name, what I do. He had probably surmised that I was with FreedomWorks and that was enough.

This just can’t be tolerated anymore. It’s one thing to be called a violent teabagger. It’s another to be called a violent teabagger while you’re being assaulted. They’ve been comparing themselves to the Egyptians ousting Mubarak. Looks like they’re not too far off, given that they share the tendency to assault women with cameras.

In addition, it’s disgusting to me that the first response I received from the Left was rationalization. “You were too close, respect personal space” and “well he obviously didn’t want to be filmed!” – essentially, it’s the “her skirt was too short” defense. No one deserves to be hit. The concern from a bystander was that “You’ll get on the news, stop it!” Unfortunately for him, he did not know who he was dealing with. I will ensure that this happens.

I was not asking for this. There was no confrontation between the thug and myself prior to this. He had not asked me to put the camera away. I was not as close as the video implies (it was cropped from a vertical iPhone video so it would fit on youtube). I was simply filming a protest, as I have done for the past two years. Amazingly enough, none of those crazy right wing extremists ever hit me.

At this point, I’m grateful we moved to a higher security building last month. For a bunch of violent racists, the Left sure seems to be comfortable threatening and attacking us.

We must really suck as bullies.

Guess who it went to? That’s right. Jeffrey Immelt.

Let’s do a quick recap. As National Review points out, back in 2009, Obama awarded GE $24.9 million in stimulus funds, and “roughly $20 billion more slated for health care record modernization of the kind that GE specializes in — ‘with a direct request to do so from GE’s CEO Jeffrey Immelt.’” Then last month, the President appointed Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, to his Head Council of Competitiveness and Jobs.

This all holds incredibly consistent with Immelt’s notion that for businesses to be successful it must work “in concert” with the government. However, it’s also known as “rent seeking” and is a glaring example of Big Government interfering with Big Business. Which is a problem.Rent seeking not only comes at the expense of American tax payers, but works to the detriment of both competitors and ultimately consumers. Basic economics says that competition drives down prices. Government support eliminates competition. Prices go up. This isn’t hard.

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Illinois Democrats (I repeat myself) have still not figured out that raising income taxes when no one has money will continue to pummel their already struggling economy. In the wee hours of the morning, the state legislature managed to force through a 67% tax increase with a vote of 30-29. Several Democrats joined a the Republicans in voting against the bill.

Illinois is currently ranked 48th nationally in job creation. They are swimming in debt, and rather than figure out what they can cut, they intend to enact a 17% spending increase over the next four years… which should work out well after they drive the businesses (read: employers) out of their state with the 45% corporate tax hike.

This drive Illinois state income tax up to the 4th highest in the nation, according to State Senator Matt Murphy, who vowed on Twitter to file a fight for repeal by the end of the week.

“You may think your [sic] stabilizing this budget but you’re not,” said Republican Sen. Matt Murphy . “You’re bankrupting our state with this bill.”

Dear Illinois: get better representatives.