The Gang Rape of Google and of America



One of the great myths is that business wants a free market.  The opposite is true with hundreds of millions being spent by different industries in campaign "donation" bribes to rig the system in favor of their group. 


FACT:  The Pharmaceutical industry has "donated" over $211,000,000 to Congressmen of both parties in order to prevent a free market in drugs.   (Open Secrets)     


In violation of the Bill of Rights, Google is fined one-half billion dollars for daring to run advertising that allowed the average person to buy drugs at an 85% discount price.  The corruption that prevents a free market in the drug industry is bi-partisan going back many years during which both parties have controlled Congress.

Google Inc. has agreed to pay $500 million for carrying advertisements by online Canadian pharmacies targeting consumers in the United States, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The ads resulted in the illegal importation of prescription drugs, the Justice Department said. 

But it is only "illegal" because Congress, paid off with bribe money, made it illegal.  The same as when Congress made beer and wine illegal in the 1920s.

The $500 million represents the money Google made from selling the drug ads, plus the revenue earned by Canadian pharmacies from sales to American customers.


The Bi-Partisan Rape of America.
Both parties are neck deep in corrupt
campaign money.


A government investigation found that Google knew as early as 2003 that many online Canadian pharmacies were selling medicine to Americans without valid prescriptions, the Justice Department said. As part of the settlement, Google must follow a number of "compliance and reporting measures" to ensure tighter control of its advertising arm, the federal agency said.

"This settlement ensures that Google will reform its improper advertising practices with regard to these pharmacies while paying one of the largest financial forfeiture penalties in history," said Deputy Atty. Gen. James M. Cole in a statement Wednesday.

The temptation for foreign pharmacies to advertise online may be especially high as many Americans turn to the Internet to buy drugs discounted as much as 85% compared with drugstore prices in the United States.

The import of prescription drugs is almost always illegal, the Food and Drug Administration said.

The Bi-Partisan Rape of America

Pharmaceutical / Health Product Campaign Donations

Top 20 Members of Congress (all election cycles)

Candidate	Amount
Obama, Barack (D)	$2,478,032
Hatch, Orrin G (R-UT)	$1,655,848
Specter, Arlen (D-PA)	$1,140,816
Kerry, John (D-MA)	$1,005,838
Ferguson, Mike (R-NJ)	$1,003,301
McCain, John (R-AZ)	$1,001,165
Burr, Richard (R-NC)	$995,973
Clinton, Hillary (D-NY)	$971,957
Eshoo, Anna (D-CA)	$900,333
Barton, Joe (R-TX)	$848,738
Dingell, John D (D-MI)	$833,534
Baucus, Max (D-MT)	$829,905
Johnson, Nancy L (R-CT)	$827,380
Harkin, Tom (D-IA)	$821,041
Santorum, Rick (R-PA)	$754,898
Dodd, Chris (D-CT)	$656,478
Lieberman, Joe (I-CT)	$650,040
Grassley, Chuck (R-IA)	$626,030
Blunt, Roy (R-MO)	$624,472
Kirk, Mark (R-IL)	$610,937

The numbers on this page are based on contributions from PACs and individuals giving $200 or more.



Google   -   Guilty of Freedom of Speech
The Government   -   Guilty of Bribary
Peter Neronha, U.S. attorney for the district of Rhode Island, announces a $500 million settlement with Internet giant Google over Canadian drug advertisements.  What part of "Congress shall make no law . . . " does Congress not understand.  Google was fined $500 million for the crime of running advertising. 


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Global Warming does not exist . . . but the ice is melting

Conservatives say Global Warming Does not Exist: 
But as the ice melts Canada is staking its claim to Arctic waterways and mineral resources - as are Russia, the US, Norway and other regional powers.


DISCLAIMER
LEFTIST - COMMIE SCUM:  I hate phony brain-dead Liberals, Socialists, Greens, Modern Luddites and Marxists.  They are fools of the highest order and are to be crushed by all means possible.  In the case of Global Warming the Leftists have taken over the subject as their own.  Not to stop Global Warming, but to crush Capitalism, build a Worker's Paradise of "Fairness", advance Marxism and to make money.

With that out of the way we can move on.

2 + 2 = 4

Simple math.  2 + 2 = 4.  Math and science do not care about your religion or your politics.  Commie, Royalist, Republican or Fascist it does not matter. 

There is a warming of the planet.  The fact that Leftists are whores and want to use the Science to advance Marxism should not make Conservatives reject Science itself.  Leftists use all subjects to advance Marxism.
 
Weather is a complex mix of vulcanism, sun spots, ocean temps, deforestation, and gasses in the atmosphere.  Personally I believe there is Global Warming.  How much of it is due to the activity of man is hard to say.  20%  -  30%  -  40% ????   We don't know.  Scientists will argue over this for years.

But while the politics goes on there is a mad Gold Rush by clear thinking people for the minerals of the North Pole and control of ice free shipping lanes.

It's Melting

Two major Arctic shipping routes have opened as summer sea ice melts, European satellites have found.

Data recorded by the European Space Agency's (Esa) Envisat shows both Canada's Northwest Passage and Russia's Northern Sea Route open simultaneously.

This summer's melt could break the 2007 record for the smallest area of sea ice since the satellite era began in 1979, reports the BBC.

Last year, the Peter 1 yacht sailed around the
Arctic using both passages.

Shipping companies are already eyeing the benefits these routes may bring if they remain open regularly.
The two lanes have been used by a number of small craft several times in recent years.

But the Northern Sea Route has been free enough of ice this month for a succession of tankers carrying natural gas condensate from the northern port of Murmansk to sail along the Siberian coast en route for Thailand.

"They're often open at the same time in the sense that with some ingenuity you can get through them," observed Peter Wadhams, an Arctic ice expert from the University of Cambridge.

"But this time they've really been open, with a proper Suez-size tanker going through the Northern Sea Route with a full cargo - that's a real step forward," he told BBC News.

A number of major shipping companies are looking to the opening of these routes to shorten journey times and make their businesses more efficient.

But environmental groups are concerned that the progressive ice loss will lead to increased exploration for oil and gas.

This, they argue, presents major safety hazards in the often inclement Arctic, as well as strengthening the world's reliance on fossil fuels and so ensuring the progression of man-made global warming - and the disintegration of summer sea ice cover.


BBC science and environment correspondent David Shukman joined the Canadian Coast Guard research vessel, the Amundsen, made a trip through the now ice free Northwest Passage.  (See BBC)


The Northwest Passage

In the far north, ice is permanent. At lower latitudes it is seasonal. And as the earth warms up, polar ice is melting more quickly and over a greater area. In fact latest surveys recorded the amount of summer polar ice at the third lowest level on record.

The result is that in the summer, stretches of sea that are normally blocked are now opening up to shipping.

"Global warming is going to change the face of the north," Captain Richard Lambert told me on the bridge of the Hudson Bay Explorer. He has nearly 40 years experience in this business, and he predicts upheaval.

"The tug and barge industry will be reduced because larger ships can come and they will bring more cargo in bulk," he said, "Ships are going to be able to leave Atlantic Canada and go to the Pacific coast through the north, which they could never do before. The Northwest Passage was open last year. A couple of tugs did get through."

The Northwest Passage is the holy grail for shipping.

For centuries sailors searched in vain for an Arctic shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It would slash weeks off journey times and millions off costs; this was commercially valuable and strategically important.

The Arctic sea ice has been melting fast this year, and for a while it appeared set to break the 2007 record for the smallest minimum area in the satellite record.

However, in recent weeks it has been running a narrow second to 2007.


The two Arctic passages combine to form a route
 right around the region


"The minimum ice extent is still three to four weeks away, and a lot depends on the weather conditions over the Arctic during those weeks," said Leif Toudal Pedersen, senior scientist at the Danish Meteorological Institute.

"Whether we reach an absolute minimum or not, this year again confirms that we are in a new regime with substantially less summer ice than before.

"The last five summers are the five minimum ice extent summers on record."

The volume of sea ice continues to decline annually.

Professor Wadhams believes the advent of summers where the two sea routes are routinely open is not far away.

"The Northwest Passage is probably the less reliable because you've got so many small passages in it where chance variations in wind will pile ice up and block it," he said.

"But so long as the ice retreats from the coast of Siberia, you'll have a route there."

Some computer models forecast that the Arctic could be completely clear of summer sea ice within a decade, though others recently published say there may be high years and low years en route to the final disappearance.

Canada and Russia are among the governments jockeying for position as new areas of the seabed open up for exploitation.


Global warming does not exist say Conservatives.  Meanwhile the Arctic nations are taking
advantage of the melting ice to lay claims to mineral rights and now ice free shipping lanes.

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GRAPHIC VIDEO: Nigerian police execute Islamic terrorists in street justice

BBC VIDEO:   Islamic Militant Group Boko Haram blows up Nigerian police station 


The terrorists bomb and murder without a trial for the victims.  Now the government fights back with swift street justice.

A shadowy Islamist insurgency that has haunted northern Nigeria — surviving repeated, bloody efforts to eliminate it — appears to be branching out and collaborating with Al Qaeda’s affiliates, alarming Western officials and analysts who had previously viewed the militants here as a largely isolated, if deadly, menace.

Just two years ago, the Islamist group stalking police officers in this bustling city seemed on the verge of extinction. In a heavy-handed assault, Nigerian soldiers shelled its headquarters and killed its leader, leaving a grisly tableau of charred ruins, hundreds dead and outmatched members of the group, known as Boko Haram, struggling to fight back, sometimes with little more than bows and arrows, reports the New York Times.

Now, insurgents strike at the Nigerian military, the police and opponents of Islamic law in near-daily assaults and bombings, using improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that can be detonated remotely and bear the hallmarks of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Western officials and analysts say. Beyond the immediate devastation, the fear is that extremists bent on jihad are spreading their reach across the continent and planting roots in a major, Western-allied state that had not been seen as a hotbed of global terrorism.

In the past two years, Boko Haram has met and trained with Qaeda affiliates outside the country, American and Nigerian officials and analysts say, and the group has begun waging a propaganda campaign that includes conference calls with reporters — another sign of its growing sophistication.

“Where are they getting this knowledge of I.E.D.’s?” said Kashim Shettima, the new governor here. “Some of them went as far as Sudan. Why? I believe they are making efforts to reach out to the global terrorism network.”

About 140 people have died in the violence since January, according to Amnesty International, including dozens of civilians killed by the military. Most of Boko Haram’s attacks have occurred here in this city at the edge of the Sahara, but there have also been blasts farther south in Kaduna and outside the national police headquarters in the capital, Abuja.


Islamic terrorism in Nigeria targets Christians.


Several dozen civilians were killed in June when bombs were hurled into the rudimentary outdoor beer parlors that exist furtively on the Christian-minority fringes here.

Shariah law exists in this overwhelmingly Muslim region, but in a relatively loose form. Not all women are veiled, and beer and wine can be obtained — apparently an affront, the authorities here say, to the group’s goal of imposing strict Islamic law.

Boko Haram, however, is rapidly evolving. It has a virulent Web site taunting the security services, promising “more attacks on the way!!!” all “in the name of Allah,” and inviting e-mails to “nigjihadist” — additional signs of outside influence, analysts say.


WARNING  -  GRAPHIC:
Nigerian Police Publicly Execute Suspected Islamic Terrorists 

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Is Obama losing American defense industry jobs too?



A Swedish Air Force JAS-39 Gripen fighter aircraft arrives at the Graf Ignatievo Air Base in Bulgaria in this file photo. Turkey is considering to design, develop and produce a new fighter plane with Sweden’s Saab.


Long time ally Turkey is now looking to buy their military equipment from nations like Sweden and South Korea


Is the Socialist administration of Comrade Obama throwing American defense industry jobs under the bus?

Turkey, our long time American ally and friend, is looking to leave America behind and make new defense industry friends with South Korea and Sweden.  The United States would not only lose important good paying jobs to other nations, but would lose influence with an important NATO ally in a key region of the world.

The Obama Administration appears to not understand the serious economic and diplomatic issues involved with Turkey.



The Islamist leaning government of
Turkey is looking to move away from
the United States.

 Besides an ongoing plan to develop a fighter jet program with the US or Europe, Turkey is seeking to broaden its fleet with a second option. South Korea’s KAI and Sweden’s Saab are the two possible partners, according to a Turkish procurement official. Turkey is supposed to take part in the design of the possible project.

Turkey recently had held separate talks with aeronautical officials from South Korea and Sweden for possible cooperation in the design, development and production of a new fighter aircraft in the next decade, a senior procurement official said at the weekend, says the Hürriyet Daily News.

“The companies are South Korea’s Korea Aerospace Industries [KAI] and Sweden’s Saab,” the official said.

KAI is the manufacturer of several military and civilian aircraft and satellites and is planning to produce the fighter aircraft KF-X. Saab is the maker of the multi-role fighter JAS 39 Gripen.
 
Turkey, whose present fighter fleet is made up of U.S.-made aircraft, also plans to buy the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Lightning II planes, a next-generation, multinational program also led by the United States.

But Turkish officials privately say they want another future jet fighter to be developed with a country or countries other than the United States, in an effort to reduce the country’s dependence on Washington.

Most of Turkey’s present fleet of F-16 fighters, being modernized by U.S. firm Lockheed Martin, and the planned future F-35s are open to U.S. influence. Only its older F-4 aircraft, modernized by Israel, and its oldest F-16s, being modernized by Turkey itself, technologically are free from this influence, the officials said. But these older aircraft are expected to be decommissioned around 2020.

“Turkey wants part of its fighter aircraft fleet to remain outside the technological and other influence of the United States. It believes this scheme would better fit its national interests,” said one Turkish defense analyst.

The country last year held an initial round of talks with South Korea’s KAI on the matter. But the South Koreans then offered only a 20 percent share of the project to Turkey, with another 20 percent going to Indonesia, opting for 60 percent of the program for themselves. Turkey wants an equal share in the development of a new plane and was quick to reject the offer.

The Turkish Air Force.  Is Obama dropping the ball and letting American defense
industry jobs slip away to other nations?

“Now the South Koreans are coming much closer to the idea of equal ownership, and this is positive,” said the Turkish procurement official. “But there are still many more things to be discussed with them.”

In the meantime, Turkey continues to be interested in rival programs, and the recent talks with Saab officials reflect this situation, the procurement official said. “Sweden also is a potential partner for us.”
 
In addition to KAI and Saab, a consortium of European companies, also continues efforts to include Turkey in its program for the Eurofighter Typhoon project. This consortium is Eurofighter, whose members include Italian, German, British and Spanish firms.

Italy’s deputy defense minister said in May that the pan-European Eurofighter Typhoon fighter aircraft was the only viable alternative to U.S. planes in this category, urging Turkey to join the ambitious European-led defense program.


National borders are not written in stone.
The map above was distributed "accidentally" to students by the Turkish Department of Education.  The map shows an enhanced Greater Turkey absorbing the nation of Cypress, along with parts of Iraq, Iran, Georgia, Armenia, Bulgaria and Greece.  (for more)

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The Martin Luther King statue sucks

The Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Someone has to say it, but everyone is too scared shit-less to open their mouths.  So it is up to me.

The statue of Martin Luther King Jr. sucks. 

No.  Worse than sucks.  The biggest suck in history.  It should be broken into little chunks and dropped into the Atlantic Ocean's deepest trench.


#1   -   The Statue is Butt-Ugly

I cannot remember that last time I saw such an ugly likeness of an American historical figure.


#2   -   Made in China

What a slap in the face to every American . . . and a nasty kick in the balls to all African Americans.  Are we are so pathetic that we cannot make our own statues anymore?  That we need to hire Communists to make our art?  The sculptor, Lei Yixin, carved two statues of Mao Tse-tung. 

Why was an African American artist not hired?

The nation is being run by idiots and morons.  By the Three Stooges.  By Beavis and Butt-Head.

If this is what the USA is about then we are truly doomed.

The Co-Chairmen of the Martin Luther King statue committee.



Members of the Martin Luther King statue committee.

Massive public school dropout rate in California - Government monopoly schools fail

The Socialist Elite takes your hard earned tax money from you and then tells you that you MUST send your children to sub-standard public schools and like it.  Freedom of school choice is an alien thought to the Liberal Statist.


18.2% public school dropout rate for California

"What’s wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology. No amount of technology will make a dent. It’s a political problem. . . . I’m one of those people who believe the best thing we could ever do is go to the full voucher system."   

- - - - Steve Jobs, Co-founder, Apple Computers

_______________________________________________________________________

(This article was posted on our sister site The People's Republic.   Feel free to check it out now and then to see the Socialist insanity that is the People's Republic of California.)        

New student dropout numbers from the Department of Education show a total and massive breakdown of the public school system in the People's Republic of California.

The Government Monopoly school system is seeing student dropouts at an alarming rate.  Add in the dumbing down of the quality of a high school diploma.  Many, many students are simply passed through the schools to keep the system "churning".  

Huge numbers of freshmen at the California State University schools are enrolled in so-called "dumb-bell" classes in order to get them up to grade level.

The failed public schools are graduating generations of functional illiterates.

BI-PARTISAN STUPIDITY:   The People's Republic is ruled by a bi-partisan Socialist Elite.  If a real democracy existed then a true opposition party would fight the status quo.  They would introduce bills to promote School Freedom of Choice or put an initiative on the ballot that might even grow their political party.

But nothing happens.  California is a Socialist one-party dictatorship. 

About a quarter of California counties have high school dropout rates of 20 percent or more.

The new figures released by the California Department of Education last week are based on information collected about individual students from their freshman year in 2006 through graduation in 2010.

Statewide, the study found nearly three out of four students graduated and 18.2 percent dropped out. The remainder of the students are either still in school, earned their GED or are in alternative programs, according to the department's press release.

The counties with a dropout rate of 20 percent or more are split between predominantly white, rural counties and more diverse counties of 100,000 residents or more.

Some of the worst dropout rates were in:

• Inyo County (46.3 percent) 
• Nevada County (46.1 percent)
• Los Angeles County (20.3 percent)
• San Bernardino County (21.2 percent).

Seven counties had a dropout rate of less than 10 percent – San Luis Obispo (9.7 percent), Mariposa (9.4 percent), Sierra (8.9 percent), Placer (8.7 percent), Amador (7.9 percent), Marin (7.3 percent) and Calaveras (6.5 percent).

The study also found "that there is still a significant gap that persists between Hispanic and African American students and their peers," with 67.7 percent of Hispanic students making it to graduation and 59 percent of African Americans earning a high school diploma.

Translation . . . .

32.3%    -    dropout rate for Hispanics
41%       -    dropout rate for African Americans

These figures represent the first time dropout rates are derived from following individual students and should more accurately represent the number of students leaving school before graduating.


Sorry little girl.  The politicians are bought and paid for by Public School Teacher Union campaign money.  Your education comes second to feathering the nest of union workers and the private contractors who service the Government School Monopoly.


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SHOCK: Socialist Spain cuts taxes to grow the economy

With Spanish elections looming the Socialists panic and cut taxes to stimulate the economy


The Socialist Spanish government will temporarily halve the sales tax on new homes to 4% to try to stimulate its construction sector.

What is interesting is the Socialists are only interested in TEMPORARILY cutting taxes to stimulate the economy.  Heaven forbid you might permanently lower taxes and create jobs and wealth for decades and decades.  But if you did that then you prove the lie that is Socialism and Marxism.

Spain's economy was plunged into recession following the collapse of its once-buoyant property sector.

The government is also hoping that building projects will help create jobs and cut the unemployment rate, which is one of the highest in the eurozone, reports the BBC.

The collapse of the Spanish property market left
many homes unsold or unfinished

Cut taxes to increase tax revenue

The sales tax cut is one of a number of measures that was agreed at a cabinet meeting. The measures are designed to boost Spain's weak economic growth rate and generate revenue to help it cut its deficit.

The reduction in tax, designed to stimulate the construction sector, would last until the end of the year, a government spokesman said.

"This is a temporary and exceptional measure," he added.

There are also new measures to bring forward corporate tax payments and cut health spending on brand-name drugs.

It is hoped the move to cut drug costs for regional government via the introduction of a new generic medicines bill will save 2.4 billion euros.

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SHARIA LAW: interest free loans required for Muslim students

The Socialist Elite Media Complex tells you to ignore Netherlands leaders Geert Wilders' warnings about radical Islam and immigration.  Meanwhile more and more Muslims are demanding special treatment and Sharia Law is undermining Western society. 

"I'm Muslim and loans are against my religion"


United Kingdom Muslim groups are calling for a separate student loan system for Muslims.  Because the charging of interest will conflict with Sharia law.

Let's see . . . . Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and atheists will have to pay interest on their student loans.  But Muslims are "special" and should get their student loans for free.

Right.

The changes to UK tuition fees, which come into force next year, will see students charged higher rates of interest on the loans they take out to pay for university.

Until now they have paid the market rate of inflation but the reforms mean students who go on to earn more than £21,000 will have to pay interest of up to 3 per cent.

But in some interpretations of Sharia law, which is Islam's legal system and governs every aspect of Muslim life, loans are forbidden.

The National Union of Students has said it could be two years before an alternative system is worked out, leaving some Muslims fearing they cannot go on to further education.

The Federation of Student Islamic Societies told The Independent that the rate increase was a 'pressing issue'.

A spokesman said: 'Because the rate of interest is above the rate of inflation, it is quite blatant usury.'

Usury means the practice of lending money and charging the borrower interest, possibly at a very high rate.


Charging Muslims interest on student loans could break Sharia law.  Give us interest "free" loans.


Mohammed Ahmed-Sheikh, 17, says the changes will discourage him from applying to university next year.

'The fees are the reason I'm having doubts. I'm Muslim and loans are against my religion,' he told The UK Independent.

Ahmad Mitoubsi, 21, who graduated this year, added: 'We've just had to adapt to the British system or else I couldn't have gone to uni.'

The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills says discussions are ongoing with student groups about a solution.

But it is thought an alternative, such as already happens with mortgages in which education could be 'rented' instead, may not be agreed until the 2013/14 academic year.

Sharia law is Islam's legal system. It was derived from the Koran, as the word of God, the example of the life of the prophet Muhammad and fatwas - the rulings of Islamic scholars.

It is different to the legal traditions of the Western world because it governs - or informs - everything about how a Muslim lives.

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Libertarian Party donates $50,000 to re-elect Indianapolis Councilman

The National Libertarian Party is backing with $50,000 a Libertarian incumbent
on the Indianapolis, Indiana City Council.

Free elections with real choices . . . what a radical concept


The United States is the only democratic nation on earth with only two political parties.  Every other nation has free multi-party elections.  Voters have many viable political parties to choose from to represent them in government. 

But in the United States the election laws are written by the two parties to do everything humanly possible to PREVENT free elections and limit any choices for the voters.  So it is refreshing to see an upcoming election where the voters will have a real choice on the ballot between an incumbent Libertarian Party city councilman and a Republican challenger. 

Libertarian Party of Indiana

The Libertarian Party national committee voted to donate $50,000 to the campaign of Ed Coleman, who is running for re-election to the Indianapolis city council in a partisan election on November 8, 2011. Coleman was last elected as a Republican in 2007, but shortly afterwards he switched to the Libertarian Party.

Coleman serves as the Libertarian Party Minority Leader on the Indianapolis City-County Council.

Councilman Coleman was elected to one of the four at-large seats in 2007, in 2011 he is running to represent the 25th district, in the southeast corner of the city.

Indianapolis has 25 city council districts plus its four at-large members.

The 25th district race will be between Coleman and a Republican. Democrats are not running anyone for that seat.

Indianapolis Council by Party

Affiliation		Members
	Republican Party	15
	Democratic Party	13
	Libertarian Party	1
Total		29
Republican Majority		2

Ballot Access News

Obama to propose more "Shovel Ready" spending

Next it's "Think of the Children" in new shovel ready projects


In new spending many think Obama will target helping the children . . . and indirectly the education establishment that funds the Democratic Party at election time.

The jobs package that Comrade Obama plans to unveil shortly after Labor Day could include tens of billions of dollars in additional spending on "shovel ready" building projects to renovate thousands of  public schools.

Obama pushed the idea Wednesday during a stop in Alpha, Ill. "Yes, some of these things cost money," he said. "The way we pay for it is by doing more on deficit reduction," reports the Los Angeles Times.

The two-phase plan would probably require Obama to argue for spending more money in the short term while reducing the federal deficit over a longer period.

Comrade Obama does not say where these billions in special "magic" money will come from to pay for these new shovel ready projects.  I suspect it will come from the Fed's printing press.

The elements of Obama's plan remain under debate. But backers of the school renovation plan and the tax credit for hiring new workers think the proposals could attract Republican support. At the same time, they think that if the debate becomes a public confrontation, the ideas would give Obama the upper hand in a battle for voters.

"I like the optics of it," said Jared Bernstein, a former administration economics advisor and a proponent of the school rehab program. "It's the public school in your community, not a bunch of folks on a distant highway."

Supporters estimate that each $1 billion in school construction work would generate up to 10,000 jobs. A $50-billion program, for example, would underwrite half a million jobs by that calculation.

The average U.S. school building is 40 years old, and many are suffering from neglect — poor ventilation, energy inefficiencies and mold. A report by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2009 gave the nation's public school facilities a D grade.

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