From the Business & Media Institute:

Kerry: ‘Al-Qaida Leadership is More Capable of Attacking Today’ than on 9/11

Senator proposes $7.5 billion in ‘non-military’ aid; says ‘winning the war of ideas’ against al-Qaida important to climate change, AIDS.

By Jeff Poor
7/31/2008

Al-Qaida poses a bigger threat to the United States today than it did on Sept. 11, 2001, and the only way to prevent more attacks is to spend money on non-military international aid, according a July 31 speech by one-time presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

“[T]he statistics tell the story. And as John Adams reminded us, facts are stubborn things. Today, terrorist attacks are at historic highs. The al-Qaida leadership is reconstituting along the Afghan-Pakistan border,” said Kerry at the Center for American Progress. “The al-Qaida leadership is more capable of attacking today than they were on September 11 of 2001. The Taliban is resurgent. Hamas is tightening its grip on Gaza and Hezbollah is running a state within a state.” …

Kerry used the Washington, D.C. speech to unveil what he called a “new approach” to fighting terrorism. The approach amounted to $7.5 billion in expenditures on non-military aid over five years to support Pakistan, a U.S. ally in the war on terror.

“[W]e must make better use of our foreign aid to improve our standing with the Pakistani people,” Kerry said. “We’ve tried to do this now with a bill that we just passed out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday. And it is a bill to provide a sustained commitment to dramatically increase non-military assistance – $7.5 billion over five years. And we want to ensure that it goes directly to the people, while ensuring that we get what we pay for in terms of military assistance.”

The end result of winning the “war of ideas,” as Kerry labeled it, would improve the United States’ standing in the world and put the country in a better position to solve problems ranging from global climate change to the AIDS epidemic.

“So looking at all these conflicts, the big picture is this – focusing on winning a war of ideas as opposed to just killing terrorists, will not only enable us to defeat our enemies, it will restore our ability to have a positive impact on change in other areas,” Kerry said.

“All of these things are connected,” according to Kerry. “[G]lobal climate change, AIDS, the efforts with respect to failed states, counter-narcotics efforts, consistency on human rights and understanding and defining the real relationship with the nation of Islam (sic) and our leadership role with respect to our values.” …

Before anyone dismisses this as the ravings of a demented loser, bear in mind that this man was a hair’s breadth from being elected President.

And, worse yet, an even more dangerously deluded man is poised to win the Presidency in November.

For Mr. Obama has often suggested that this is also his approach.

Except that he would probably quadruple the amount of “aid” we would send the terrorists. Since, after all, terrorism is a direct result of all of the poverty in the Middle East.

Just ask the billionaire Bin Laden.

From an outraged Associated Press:

Govt loves its cars, all 642,233 of ‘em

By JENNIFER C. KERR, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Americans love their cars, and so apparently does Uncle Sam. He’s got 642,233 of them.

Operating those vehicles — maintenance, leases and fuel — cost taxpayers a whopping $3.4 billion last year, according to General Services Administration data obtained and analyzed by The Associated Press…

• At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, fuel consumption and inventory are down, yet overall costs have increased significantly. Officials there can’t figure out why.

• The Interior Department was told by its own watchdog that it should cut its inventory, but it’s added hundreds of vehicles.

• The VA has some cars that are barely driven. One just disappeared.

Add to that the cost of drivers, a perk given to high-level government officials.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters has two drivers. Their salaries totaled more than $128,000 last year.

The driver for Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt earns about $90,000 a year. That’s more than double the average salary of an office manager or accountant, and about $35,000 more than a registered nurse earns, according to a salary calculator provided by CareerBuilder.com.

The government owns or leases sedans, SUVs, trucks, limousines and ambulances for more than three dozen agencies, the U.S. military and the Postal Service…

The Department of Housing and Urban Development admits problems with its fleet of about 450 vehicles.

According to an AP analysis, fleet costs at HUD have soared nearly 70 percent since 2004, to more than $2.1 million last year. But during the same period, the agency trimmed its fleet and overall fuel consumption. While gas prices have increased since 2004, the period AP analyzed came well before today’s record-high prices.

“Where that spike in overall costs came from, I have no idea,” said Bradley Jewitt, director of HUD’s facilities management division. Agency spokesman Jerry Brown added, “We can’t explain it.” …

HUD has cars for employees who conduct fair housing and mortgage fraud investigations and housing inspections across the country. At the Interior Department, cars and trucks are used by workers who help manage some 500 million acres of public lands. The Agriculture Department has tens of thousands of vehicles for conservationists, scientists, farm loan specialists and the Forest Service.

Federal agencies also have dedicated cars and drivers for senior officials.

In addition to the salaries for the two drivers for Transportation Secretary Peters, her car, fuel and maintenance cost $11,500 last year. Most agency chiefs have one driver.

The department says Peters needs two because the “cost of paying one driver overtime to cover both weekday shifts and weekends would be prohibitive.” A spokesman said a driver has to be on duty or available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for Peters.

The Veterans Affairs Department has five sedans assigned to Secretary James Peake, the deputy secretary and the three top officials for the health office, benefits office and national cemetery administration. Total cost for the five cars and drivers: $353,470 a year.

Salaries for government drivers ranged from $46,000 for the driver for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Chair Naomi Earp to about $90,000 for Leavitt’s driver at HHS…

All agencies are supposed to report their annual fleet numbers to the General Services Administration. However, the cost and inventory estimates in the GSA’s annual report do not include Congress, which isn’t required to report to GSA on its fleet.

In the bad old days of the Soviet Union the only cars that you would see on the roads were those belonging to government officials and mobsters. (But we repeat ourselves.)

It looks like the US is headed in that direction.

Why do government officials even need cars, let alone drivers? Is there no public transportation?

However, the cost and inventory estimates in the GSA’s annual report do not include Congress, which isn’t required to report to GSA on its fleet.

Gosh, that’s a shock.

Still, isn’t it bizarre how our watchdog media pretends to be outraged by such retched access, while endlessly campaigning for even bigger government?

From a despondent Reuters:

[Reuters caption:] Expansion accelerated modestly in the second quarter as government stimulus payments helped consumers add more buying punch to the economy, a Commerce Department report on Thursday showed.

Economy grows at soft pace

Thu Jul 31, 2008

By Glenn Somerville

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An emergency dose of government stimulus helped the U.S. economy grow at a 1.9 percent annual rate in the second quarter, a soft pace but enough to take it off a path perilously close to recession.

Revised data from the Commerce Department released with the second-quarter figures on Thursday showed national output shrank in the final quarter of 2007 before barely edging up at the start of this year.

“With the boost from the tax rebates now fading, lower interest rates having little positive impact and signs emerging that overseas demand is weakening, we expect the economy to contract outright in the second half of this year,” said Paul Ashworth, senior U.S. economist for Capital Economics of London.

With little more than three months to go before the November 4 presidential elections, Bush administration officials insisted the economy was strong enough to keep growing.

The second-quarter advance in gross domestic product, or GDP, followed a slim revised growth rate of 0.9 percent rate in the first quarter that previously was reported as 1 percent.

That followed a 0.2 percent contraction in GDP during the final quarter of last year and skirted the popular definition of recession as back-to-back quarters of declining output but provided no comfort to financial markets.

U.S. stock prices were weaker and Treasury debt prices gained as investors sought safer haven. The dollar held steady against other major currencies.

Adding to a sense of foreboding about the economy, new claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly jumped by 44,000 last week. Though Labor Department officials said special factors were at play, the jump on claims just ahead of Friday’s unemployment report for July reinforced worry about a deeper downturn if consumers retrench on spending for fear of losing their jobs.

Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected GDP to advance by a slightly more robust 2.0 percent in the second quarter…

You see, 2% growth is perilously close to a recession when there is a Republican in the White House. At least in the minds of the Democrats’ lickspittle slaveys in the media.

That followed a 0.2 percent contraction in GDP during the final quarter of last year and skirted the popular definition of recession as back-to-back quarters of declining output…

Of course that is not the “popular definition” of a recession. That is the media’s definition of a recession — when there is a Republican in the White House.

Also, since the DNC’s media unanimously agree that the tax rebates caused this growth, just think what permanent tax cuts would do.

Economists surveyed by Reuters had expected GDP to advance by a slightly more robust 2.0 percent in the second quarter.

Then why is it all we have heard from Reuters and the rest of the Democrat media is that we were headed for a recession — if we weren’t in one already?

We breathless await Ms. Jeannine Aversa’s explanation of all of this.

 Update!

Ah, and here is the Associated Press’s little Ms. Sunshine now:

Economic rebound not as energetic as hoped for

31 July, 2008

By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON - The country didn’t get the energetic rebound in economic growth hoped for from the government‘s tax rebates in the second quarter, and the economy jolted into reverse at the end of 2007, raising new recession fears…

But she isn’t predictable.

Not at all.

From those champions of the faith at the Agence France-Presse:

Saudi ‘vice’ policeman arrested for six wives

Thursday, 31 July 2008

RIYADH (AFP) - Police in Saudi Arabia have arrested a man working for the country’s vice squad who is accused of having six wives, two more than allowed under sharia law, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

The 56-year-old Saudi, detained in the southwestern province of Jazan near the border with Yemen, is being questioned over charges that he is married to three Saudi and three Yemeni women, Al-Watan newspaper said.

The man is an employee with the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or religious police commonly known as the Muttawa, which is in charge of enforcing an Islamic moral code in Saudi Arabia.

He has denied the charge, claiming he has divorced two of his spouses, the newspaper said.

The province’s governor has ordered the formation of a committee to look into the case, Al-Watan said.

Muslim men can keep up to four wives at a time under sharia law, which is based on Islamic principles, and is applied in Saudi Arabia.

What’s worse, this gentleman probably met these extra wives while he was out walking his dog.

Thank Allah they are cracking down somewhere.

From the Agence France-Presse:

Saudi religious police ban pet cats and dogs

RIYADH (AFP) - Saudi Arabia’s religious police have announced a ban on selling cats and dogs as pets, or walking them in public in the Saudi capital, because of men using them as a means of making passes at women, an official said on Wednesday.

Othman al-Othman, head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Riyadh, known as the Muttawa, told the Saudi edition of al-Hayat daily that the commission has started enforcing an old religious edict.

He said the commission was implementing a decision taken a month ago by the acting governor of the capital, Prince Sattam bin Abdul Aziz, adding that it follows an old edict issued by the supreme council of Saudi scholars.

The reason behind reinforcing the edict now was a rising fashion among some men using pets in public “to make passes on women and disturb families,” he said, without giving more details.

Othman said that the commission has instructed its offices in the capital to tell pet shops “to stop selling cats and dogs”…

Ah, yes. This makes perfect sense on so many levels.

All of them Islamic.

From the (Denver) Rocky Mountain News:

Anarchists offer DNC deal to Denver

They’ll go away if $50 million goes to community

By Daniel J. Chacon

A group of self-described anarchists threatening to disrupt the Democratic National Convention is promising to go away if the $50 million federal grant that Denver received to pay for convention security is invested in the community instead.

“As anarchists, we feel the greatest problem with government is how its primary interest is to protect the profits of those in power, even when it comes at the expense of the general public,” Clayton Dewey, an organizer with Unconventional Denver, said in a statement.

“Spending $50 million on weaponry to attack people voicing their opinion and flooding the streets with riot police while schools close down, children go without health care and people lose their homes is exactly the problem with the corrupt two-party system we’re opposing this August,” he said.

Lindy Eichenbaum Lent, a senior adviser to Mayor John Hickenlooper, said the grant is needed to protect the public, including protesters.

“Congress appropriated these security-designated funds to both convention host cities because, in a post- 9/11 world, planning for major national events like this requires heightened security preparations,” she said. “It is in the interest of local residents, businesses and visitors, including those participating in demonstrations, to have a safe and secure event.”

Denver officials said last week they expect to spend more than $18 million on police equipment for the DNC, but the purchases won’t include high-tech weapons that use sonic waves to incapacitate protesters or “goo” guns to immobilize them.

Unconventional Denver is the local organizing body of a national network of anarchists mobilizing against the DNC, said Tim Simons, another organizer.

Simons said the group’s offer to sit out the convention if the city, the federal government and the DNC all agree to “redirect” the $50 million to things such as health care, education and housing is not a publicity stunt.

“We understand that it’s far-fetched, but it’s a sincere offer,” he said…

This is different from terrorism how? Or from a mafia shakedown?

Just imagine the outrage from our media if rightwingers ever tried something like this? (Of course you first have to imagine that the rightwing would even have militants.)

But something tells me these heroes are putting out these feelers because they are afraid they aren’t going to get the turnout they had hoped for.

(Thanks to the ever watchful BillK for the heads up.)

From an approving Reuters:

IOC admits Internet censorship deal with China

By Nick Mulvenney

BEIJING (Reuters) - Some International Olympic Committee officials cut a deal to let China block sensitive websites despite promises of unrestricted access, a senior IOC official admitted on Wednesday…

China had committed to providing media with the same freedom to report on the Games as they enjoyed at previous Olympics, but journalists have this week complained of finding access to sites deemed sensitive to its communist leadership blocked.

“I regret that it now appears BOCOG has announced that there will be limitations on website access during Games time,” IOC press chief Kevan Gosper said, referring to Beijing’s Olympic organizers.

“I also now understand that some IOC officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered Games related,” he said.

Attempts at the main press centre to access the website of Amnesty International, which released a report on Monday slamming China for failing to honor its Olympic human rights pledges, continued to prove fruitless by mid-week.

Other websites, including those relating to the banned spiritual group Falun Gong, are also inaccessible.

Beijing organizers said censorship would not stop journalists doing their jobs in reporting the Games.

“We are going to do our best to facilitate the foreign media to do their reporting work through the Internet,” BOCOG spokesman Sun Weide told a news conference.

“I would remind you that Falun Gong is an evil, fake religion which has been banned by the Chinese government.”

Reporters without Borders, a Paris-based media watchdog, said it was increasingly concerned that there would be many cases of censorship during the Olympics.

“We condemn the IOC’s failure to do anything about this, and we are more skeptical about its ability to ensure that the media are able to report freely,” the group said in a statement…

One suspects this news is the real reason the bravos of the IOC decided that maybe they shouldn’t ban the Iraqi team after all.

Still, there is quite a disparity in treatment.

From a dismayed Associated Press:

IOC gives Iraq OK to take part in Beijing Games

The reversal comes after Baghdad pledges to ensure the independence of its national Olympics panel.

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND — The International Olympic Committee agreed Tuesday to allow Iraq to participate in the Beijing Games, reversing itself after Baghdad pledged to ensure the independence of its national Olympics panel.

The decision followed last-minute talks between Iraqi officials and the IOC before today’s deadline to submit competitors’ names for track and field events. The Olympics begin Aug. 8.

Iraq is expected to send two athletes to Beijing to compete in track and field. The decision came too late for five other hopefuls in archery, judo, rowing and weightlifting. The deadline to submit names for those sports was last week.

Iraq’s National Olympic Committee was dissolved by the Baghdad government in May, prompting the IOC to suspend the country from the Games for political interference.

The IOC had insisted that the old committee be reinstated, even though four members were kidnapped two years ago. Their fates remain unknown.

The agreement worked out Tuesday calls for Iraq to hold free elections for its National Olympic Committee under international observation.

“The National Olympic Committee will have fair elections before the end of November,” said Pere Miro, head of the IOC’s department for relations with national Olympic committees…

The IOC was forcing Iraq to have members on their Olympic committee who have not been seen for two years?

And how many other countries are being made to have “free elections” for their Olympic Committees under international observation?

Is that how it’s being done in Cuba? China?

What makes Iraq so different?

(Thanks to BillK for the heads up.)

A very moving tribute from one of the foremost thinkers of our times:

I’m back on it like I just signed my record deal
yeah the best is here, the Bentley Coup paint is dripping wet, it got sex appeal
never should have hated
you never should’ve doubted him
with a slot in the president’s iPod Obama shattered ‘em
Said I handled his biz and I’m one of his favorite rappers
Well give Luda a special pardon if I’m ever in the slammer
Better yet put him in office, make me your vice president
Hillary hated on you, so that bitch is irrelevant
Jesse talking slick and apologizing for what?
if you said it then you meant it how you want it have a gut!
and all you other politicians trying to hate on my man,
watch us win a majority vote in every state on my man
you can’t stop what’s bout to happen, we bout to make history
the first black president is destined and it’s meant to be
the threats ain’t fazing us, the nooses or the jokes
so get off your ass, black people, it’s time to get out and vote!
paint the White House black and I’m sure that’s got ‘em terrified
McCain don’t belong in ANY chair unless he’s paralyzed
Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped
Ball up all of his speeches and I throw em like candy wrap
cause what you talking I hear nothing even relevant
and you the worst of all 43 presidents
get out and vote or the end will be near
the world is ready for change because Obama is here!
cause Obama is here
The world is ready for change because Obama is here!

Must see TV!

[AP caption:] Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and rapper Ludacris met in the senator’s Chicago office. The rapper said talking to the politician was like meeting with a relative.

Indeed.

From The Hill:

Obama vows to review Bush’s executive orders

By Mike Soraghan and Jared Allen
Posted: 07/29/08

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told House members Tuesday that, if he wins the presidency, one of his first acts will be to review every executive order signed by President Bush.

It was one of the few specifics the Illinois senator offered to the House Democratic Caucus in a policy and politics pep rally Tuesday night intended to fire up fellow Democrats for the convention and the fall campaign.

Speaking in the Cannon Caucus Room, Obama stuck with the party’s position on energy that the country “can’t drill [its] way out” of high gasoline prices, and promised a commitment to fiscal responsibility. The response from fellow Democrats was overwhelmingly positive…

He also asked members in safe districts to travel and stump for him in battleground states and even Republican states.

“He said if you’re in a solid blue state, go to a red state or a purple state,” said Rep. Shelley Berkeley (D-Nev.).

Obama addressed the microphones afterward, talking of Democratic desires to expand the party’s majority in Congress.

“Every member of Congress understands what an extraordinary challenge and opportunity this election is,” Obama said.

Inside the caucus room, there was also lot of discussion about how to get the economy out of its slump. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) said Obama talked of how the Midwest is being “battered” and stressed the need to work with the auto industry on more fuel efficient cars.

“He talked a lot about infrastructure as a means to put people to work,” said Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.)

Obama discussed reviewing the executive orders in response to a question from Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) on how Vice President Dick Cheney has dealt with civil liberties…

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) asked whether he would keep on Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Cooper said Obama said he would consider it…

Pressed on more details about an Obama administration, the candidate said he was “superstitious” and didn’t want to “jinx” himself…

This is not the first time that Mr. Obama has pledged to investigate the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Bush regime.

At first we hoped he was merely playing to his kook base. But we are beginning to suspect Mr. Obama is himself a kook.

And one with a penchant for reliving failed policies of the past.

“He talked a lot about infrastructure as a means to put people to work,” said Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.)

Ah yes, a new WPA.

That and show trials are just what the country needs.

From the (generally laughable) Palm Beach Post:

Wexler bows to residency pressure

By George Bennett | Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Stung by claims that he doesn’t really live in Florida, Democratic U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler said today that he will lease an apartment in his congressional district rather than declaring residency at the West Delray home of his in-laws.

Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly last week accused Wexler of being a bogus Floridian. The O’Reilly Report, acting on research by Wexler’s Republican challenger, noted that Wexler owns a home in Potomac, Md., and enrolls his children in school there. Wexler is registered to vote at the Delray Beach address of his wife’s parents in a 55-and-older community.

Shortly after he was elected in 1996, Wexler sold his Palm Beach County home and moved his family to the Washington, D.C., area, saying that was the best way for him to spend time with his children.

In a statement released by his office this afternoon, Wexler again defended his Florida residency, but said he didn’t want the issue to be a distraction.

“My wife, Laurie, and I have decided to lease a residence of our own in Palm Beach County,” Wexler’s statement says.

“Although I am confident that I have represented my district as well anybody possibly could, I have heard the concerns of some of my constituents and do not want this issue to distract from my advocacy of the important issues facing our community and country.”

Wexler chief of staff Eric Johnson said the congressman is looking at a three-bedroom apartment in the Boynton Beach-Delray Beach area and could sign a lease as soon as next week.

Republican Ed Lynch brought the residency issue to O’Reilly’s attention. Former Broward County Commissioner Ben Graber, a longtime Democrat running for Wexler’s seat with no party affiliation, has also slammed the incumbent’s residency status.

So this is all Mr. Wexler has to do to make amends? Decide to rent an apartment in Florida?

Isn’t this the same state that wanted Ann Coulter put behind bars for accidentally voting in the wrong precinct?

From the Republican National Committee, via YouTube:

Obama TV Ad in Berlin Parody

The Republican National Committee (RNC) today announced a new Web video, titled “Obama TV Ad In Berlin.” In the aftermath of Obama’s European campaign swing, the Web video provides a parody of what an Obama TV ad in Berlin, Germany might look like, with video commentary from Obama’s international fan base.

Cute.

From those wizened meteorologists at Reuters:

U.S. blacks face harsher climate change impact

Tue Jul 29, 2008

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American blacks are likely to suffer disproportionately from climate change and they are willing to pay to combat it, a commission aimed at raising awareness about global warming said on Tuesday.

“There is a fierce urgency regarding climate change effects on the African-American community,” said Ralph Everett, the co-chair of the Commission to Engage African-Americans on Climate Change said. “People need to understand what is at stake — our very health and well-being.”

Blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to live in cities where the so-called heat island effect is expected to make temperature increases more severe, the newly formed group said at a briefing.

More blacks also will be “fuel poor” as energy demand rises due to higher air-conditioning loads, population growth and urbanization, commission said.

In a survey of 750 U.S. black adults released by the commission, 81 percent said the U.S. government should take strong action to deal with global warming, and seven in 10 said it was very important for the 2008 presidential candidates to do something about it.

A solid majority, 64 percent, of those surveyed by telephone between June 20 and July 3 said they would be willing to pay an additional $10 a month to fight global warming. Twenty-eight percent were willing to pay an added $25 a month and only 14 percent were willing to pay an extra $50.

As expected, poorer respondents were willing to pay less, said David Bositis, who supervised the survey for the non-profit Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which launched the commission’s effort.

When asked an open-ended question about what they considered to be the most important problem facing the United States, 5 percent of respondents answered global warming.

This has never been mentioned before as the top problem by any black respondents in surveys in 2000, 2004 and 2007. In this survey, 42 percent listed the economy as the most important problem, followed by 17 percent answering energy.

The 5 percent who considered global warming paramount compared with 8 percent who said the Iraq war and 3 percent who answered education. Bositis said most U.S. surveys and polls have such a small number of black participants that it is difficult to separate out black attitudes.

The commission aims to draw African-Americans into the climate change debate and to involve the black community in economic opportunities of the green economy.

Mind you, not just any blacks — but blacks living in the US.

From the DNC’s lickspittle minions at CNN:

AFL-CIO launches campaign to dispel Obama rumors

July 29, 2008

(CNN) — The nation’s largest labor conglomerate says it’s set to launch a major effort Tuesday to dispel ongoing rumors surrounding Barack Obama that continue to percolate more than 18 months after the Illinois senator launched his White House bid.

The organization is set to send out mailers to more than 600,000 union homes in crucial battleground states — including Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — that directly address the false rumors that he is not a Christian, refuses to wear a flag pin on his lapel, and was not sworn into the Senate on the Bible.

It also beats back claims the Democratic presidential candidate was not born in America and refuses to put his hand on his heart during the National Anthem…

And so the DNC’s army of union thugs swings into action.

Knocking down those straw men that no sane person ever took seriously.

Thank goodness for campaign finance reform, eh?

Those with strong constitutions can view this propaganda paid for by coerced union dues informative pamphlet (a pdf file) here.

From an approving Associated Press:

Los Angeles wants to take bite out of fast food

By CHRISTINA HOAG [sic], Associated Press Writer Tue Jul 29

LOS ANGELES - In the impoverished neighborhood of South Los Angeles, fast food is the easiest cuisine to find — and that’s a problem for elected officials who see it as an unhealthy source of calories and cholesterol.

The City Council was poised to vote Tuesday on a moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a swath of the city where a proliferation of such eateries goes hand-in-hand with obesity.

“Our communities have an extreme shortage of quality foods,” City Councilman Bernard Parks said.

The aim of the yearlong moratorium, which was approved last week in committee, is to give the city time to try to attract restaurants that serve healthier food…

The proposed ban comes at a time when governments of all levels are increasingly viewing menus as a matter of public health. Last Friday, California became the first state in the nation to bar trans fats, which lowers levels of good cholesterol and increases bad cholesterol.

It also comes as the Los Angeles City Council tackles issues beyond safety, schools and streets. The council last week decided to outlaw plastic bags.

Fast-food restaurants have found themselves in the frying pan in a number of cities. Some places, including Carmel-by-the Sea and Calistoga, have barred “formula” restaurants altogether; others have placed a cap on them — Arcata allows a maximum of nine fast-food eateries; others have prohibited the restaurants in certain areas, such as Port Jefferson, N.Y., in its waterfront area…

According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, 30 percent of adults in South Los Angeles area are obese, compared to 19.1 percent for the metropolitan area and 14.1 percent for the affluent westside. Minorities are particularly affected: 28.7 percent of Latinos and 27.7 percent of blacks are obese, compared to 16.6 percent of whites…

Rebeca Torres, a South Los Angeles mother of four, said she would welcome more dining choices, even if she had to pay a little more. “They should have better things for children,” she said. “This fast-food really fattens them up.”

First they came for the cheeseburgers, but because I didn’t eat cheeseburgers…

“They should have better things for children,” she said. “This fast-food really fattens them up.”

“They” meaning the government, of course.

Apparently, parents have no say whatsoever about what their kids eat.