Tea Party Express rallies in Elkhart, IN and Hillsdale, MI

The Tea Party Express continues its reverse manifest destiny with two rallies today. At 12:00pm the freedom caravan graces Elkhart, Indiana, the recreational vehicle capital of the the world. At 5:00pm the TPX puts down stakes in Hillsdale, Michigan, home of the conservative beacon Hillsdale College. My good friend Andrea Shea King is embedded with the TPX, read her latest report here.

Related post:

Green cars a Hoosier brownout: bankruptcy in Elkhart

Technorati tags: politics tea party south bend mishawaka michiana Indiana conservative freedom tea party Michigan

Obama Winter: No new jobs added in August, unemployment remains at 9.1 percent

Recovery Summer II has passed. But Obama Winter endures. The national unemployment rate remains at 9.1 percent. While it's not, to use the Obama administration's onetime favorite word, "unprecedented," but for the first time in 66 years, zero net jobs were added to the economy.

Also, in what has become a disturbing trend, the jobless figures from the previous two months were revised downwards.

Cooking the books?

Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman issued the statement about the bad news:

Two days after I offered a plan with serious solutions that would create jobs and get our economy going, we learn of yet another month with zero job growth. There is no clearer sign that the President has failed and the theatrics around his far-too-late jobs speech demonstrate that he has no real plan to change course. In a country with 307 million people, zero job growth is unfathomable. It's time for America to compete again and it's time for a new President.

Related post:

Huntsman unveils jobs strategy, "Time to Compete: An American Jobs Plan"; NLRB targeted


Technorati tags: business economy government politics democrat news unemployment gop Republican jon huntsman Utah

Valerie Jarrett-managed slum apartments to be torn down with federal cash

Valerie Jarrett, a close friend of the Barack and Michelle Obama is the former CEO of Habitat Company, which managed Grove Parc, a federally subsidized apartment complex on Chicago's South Side that can be accurately described as a slum. Jarrett is now a senior adviser to the president.

On Wednesday with great fanfare the awarding of a $30.5 million federal grant to revitalize Grove Parc--by tearing it down--was announced.

The irony is thick here. Jarrett's Habitat runs Grove Parc into the ground, and now the federal government funding its demolition and the building of its replacement.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, Sen. Dick Durbin, and US Rep. Bobby Rush attended the Grove Parc ceremony. Jarret was not there. In fact, no mention of her role in mismanaging the unhappy homes was mentioned by the Chicago Sun-Times or the Chicago Tribune.

But my good friend Anne Leary noticed.

Technorati tags: Illinois Politics Illinois Democrats Durbin senate business economy news chicago politics Rahm Emanuel valerie jarrett

South Carolina paper enthusiastic about Jon Huntsman

Capitol Reef Nat'l Park, Utah

Political staffers aren't known for their quiescence, which is why it's not really big news that some of them have left Jon Huntsman's presidential campaign, but Politico thinks it's a prominent story--which is why that publication is increasingly irrelevant.

Meanwhile, Huntsman sat down with the editorial board of South Carolina's largest paper and Cindi Ross Scoppe of The State likes what she hears from him:

On the surface, Jon Huntsman's prescription for righting the nation's fiscal woes is standard Republican fare: cut spending, rein in entitlements, reform the tax code and pass a balanced-budget amendment. But dig in a little deeper — ask whether he insists on the balanced-budget amendment that the House passed this summer, the one that goes far beyond what he and nearly all of the nation's other governors have lived with, undermining majority-rule by turning tax policy over to a minority in either house of the Congress — and you hear one of the essential differences between the former Utah governor and U.S. ambassador to China and the rest of the GOP presidential field.

"Listen, this is going to come down to a negotiation," Mr. Huntsman said during a visit with our editorial board on Monday. "During the debt-ceiling debate, we got people in their respective corners kind of firing at each other, not willing to make a deal and move on. At some point you've got to get the work of the nation done. And I bring that perspective from having been a governor.

"People elect you to get things done. You just can't stay in your respective corner, fire rhetorically at the other side and expect the business of the nation to move forward and the marketplace to respond positively. It's not going to happen."

As with most of the things that distinguish Mr. Huntsman from the other Republican presidential candidates, I can easily remember a time when this perspective would have been unremarkable. What serious candidate for president, or for governor, or for the Congress, didn't understand that negotiation is essential to a functioning republic? Or to running a business, or surviving a marriage or raising a family or living anywhere other than alone on a deserted island, for that matter.

Related post:

Huntsman unveils jobs strategy, "Time to Compete: An American Jobs Plan"; NLRB targeted

Technorati tags: news government gop Republican jon huntsman Utah south carolina

Joe Walsh to skip Obama jobs speech, will hold small biz job forum instead

Joe Walsh at 9/12 Tea Party,
Morton Grove, IL

Rep. Joe Walsh has better things to do next Thursday night. Instead of being a "prop" for President Obama's jobs speech, he will head back to his district and hold a small business job forum.

From a Walsh press release:

Rep. Walsh Announces Small Business Job Forum

"Small businesses, not more big government spending and regulations, are the key to pulling America out of this recession."

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Joe Walsh announced plans to hold a small business job forum next Thursday night, September 8, 2011 in his home district in Illinois. Walsh is chair of the House Small Business Committee's Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access and will be flying to Illinois after votes on Thursday night and returning to the Capitol before votes on Friday morning.

I don't see the point in being a prop for another of the president's speeches asking for more failed stimulus spending and more subsidies for his pet projects. Instead, I will fly back to Illinois right after Thursday’s votes to talk to small businessmen and women, the real job creators, about creating real jobs.

Lowering taxes and freeing small businesses from burdensome red tape, not more stimulus packages and government regulations, are the keys to pulling America out of this recession. Small Businesses represent 99 percent of all employer firms and employ about half of all private sector employees. They are the ones that create jobs and generate economic growth.

It's time to stop the same Washington D.C. "politics as usual" that got us into this mess. The President needs to stop the speeches, get out of his office and away from all the White House academics, and start talking to real people out there. They're the ones who are going to create the jobs, not White House paper-pushers and bureaucrats. As chairman of the Small Business Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax, and Capital Access, I have made it my mission to help American small businesses create jobs and put America back to work.

Details and the location of the forum will be released shortly.

Technorati tags: Congress Illinois illinois politics chicago republicans news conservative tea party joe walsh Northwest Chicago Suburbs