Rangel Urged to Step Down...

House Minority Leader Boehner today called on House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel to surrender his gavel while the House Ethics Committee investigates conflict-of-interest allegations against him. Boehner made the request in a letter to Rangel, a copy of which was obtained by CongressDaily. Boehner's request came one day after the Washington Post, in an editorial headlined "Sorry, Charlie," called on Rangel to resign as chairman of the powerful tax-writing committee.

Green Jobs and 9/11 Truthers: A Match Made in the Obama White House

This April President Barack Obama said he wanted to rebuild the entire United States economy based on a foundation of “five pillars that will grow our economy and make this new century another American century.” One of those pillars was government “investments” in renewable energy and technology that will create “green jobs” for millions of Americans. To oversee the planning for all these green jobs, President Obama tapped Van Jones, author of the 2008 New York Times best-seller The Green Collar Economy, to be his Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

Of course green jobs are complete fiction. For starters, nobody, including the Obama administration, even has a definition for what a green job is. Furthermore, research both here in the U.S., and abroad, has repeatedly demonstrated that subsidizing high cost renewable energies destroys more jobs than it creates.

But that is what makes Jones such a perfect fit to be Obama’s green jobs czar. It turns out that Jones is no stranger to crazy. The Washington Times Amanda Carpenter reports that along with comedienne Janeane Garofalo, ex-Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin, and Howard Zinn, Jones has signed 911Truth.org’s 9/11 Truth Statement which calls for an investigation by then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer into whether the Bush administration may have had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks.

That’s right, Obama’s hand picked Green Jobs Czar doesn’t believe al Qaeda is responsible for 9/11, instead he accusses President George Bush. Crazy is as crazy does.

(Source: Heritage Foundation)

U.S. unemployment rate jumps to 26-year high of 9.7%

The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to a 26-year high of 9.7% in August as nonfarm payrolls fell by 216,000, the 20th consecutive monthly decline, the Labor Department estimated Friday.

U.S. payrolls have dropped by 6.9 million to a total of 131.2 million since the recession began in December 2007, the government data showed. Unemployment has increased by 7.4 million during the recession to stand at 14.9 million.

The 216,000 decline in payrolls was close to market expectations of a 233,000 drop, but the unemployment rate rose higher than the 9.5% level expected. The unemployment rate was 9.4% in July.

Details of the August report were generally weak, however.

Payrolls fell in most sectors of the economy except for health care. Total hours worked in the economy dropped by 0.3%, long-term unemployment worsened, and the number of people working just part time who want full-time work reached 9.1 million, up 278,000.

The number of people who've been out of work longer than six months nudged up to 5 million, representing about one-third of the unemployed.

An alternative measure of unemployment that includes discouraged workers and those forced to resort to part-time work rose to 16.8% from 16.3%, marking the highest on record dating back to 1995.

Average hourly earnings on the month rose 6 cents, or 0.3%, to $18.65 an hour. In the past year, average hourly earnings are up 2.6%.