Palin Comes to Tea Party's Defense After NAACP Passes Racism Resolution

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin came to the defense of the Tea Party on Tuesday night, saying that the NAACP was wrong to pass a resolution condemning what it says are racist elements of the conservative movement.

"I am saddened by the NAACP's claim that patriotic Americans who stand up for the United States of America's Constitutional rights are somehow 'racists,'" Palin wrote in a Facebook note. "The charge that Tea Party Americans judge people by the color of their skin is false, appalling, and is a regressive and diversionary tactic to change the subject at hand."

Delegates at the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Kansas City yesterday passed the resolution calling on the Tea Party to expel its racist elements, but the group will reportedly not release the final version of the resolution until its board passes it in October.

Palin, the former Republican vice presidential nominee who is now seen as a leader of the Tea Party movement, quoted conservative icon Ronald Reagan, who called America's past racism "a legacy of evil." She said that with the election of the first black president, the United States has become "a new 'post-racial' society."

Vote on Kagan delayed on Republican request

A committee vote on the Supreme Court nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan will be put off at least another week to give Republican lawmakers more time to review her record.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, requested that the committee's vote on the nomination, which had been scheduled for Tuesday, be delayed for one week.

Mr. Sessions said he had "serious questions" about Ms. Kagan, particularly relating to her views on the military, partial-birth abortion and gun rights.

"Fundamentally, the nominee lacks the experience and the intellectual vigor you develop from full-time practice of the law and serving as a judge," Mr. Sessions said.

Ms. Kagan, who spent most of her career in academia as dean of Harvard Law School and previously worked in the Clinton White House, had testified two weeks ago before the committee. Republicans criticized her for dodging questions during her three days of testimony.

But the committee's chairman, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, said Ms. Kagan answered the 500 questions she faced more thoroughly than recent nominees, and he praised her intellect and wit.

Mr. Leahy agreed to grant the request for a one-week delay, which any member of the committee has a right to request, though he did say he suspects all members of the committee have already decided how they will vote on Ms. Kagan's nomination.

President Obama nominated Ms. Kagan to replace Justice John Paul Stevens, who is retiring after more than three decades on the bench. If Ms. Kagan is confirmed, it will mark the first time that three women will sit on the high court at the same time.

Even with the delay, Ms. Kagan's nomination is not expected to face serious opposition and her confirmation is likely to take place before the court's next session begins in October.

On Economy, White House Message Not Sticking

Now, 40 percent of Americans polled approve of President Obama's handling of the economy; 54 percent disapprove. That's down from 45 percent approval last month.

Seventy-one percent of those polled say that their local job market is bad and 70 percent say it's going to stay the same or get worse. Only 28 percent of respondents think the job market will improve.

The White House has consistently said that the economic mess was inherited, that the Recovery Act/stimulus package has worked, and that it's going to take time for the country to get back on track. Republicans and some business allies have countered that the health care law and other legislative priorities, like the proposed energy legislation, have cost the business community and make job creation difficult.

The poll numbers show that the White House's message of success, not so much in curing the economy, but success in doing what's right, doesn't seem to be sticking.

Last week at fundraiser in Missouri, the president acknowledged the difficulty he's had in convincing Americans that his administration has the right prescription to fix the economy. "You wouldn't know it from listening to folks, but we cut taxes for working families and for small business owners all across American to help them weather the storm," he said.

With a few months to go to November's midterm elections, the White House has big hill to climb to turn the economic numbers around. So they've begun to change the message.

NAACP Proposing Resolution Condemning “Racism of the Tea Party

(Kansas City Star) — The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will propose a resolution this week condemning racism within the tea party movement.

The resolution, scheduled for a vote as early as Tuesday by delegates attending the annual NAACP convention in Kansas City, calls upon “all people of good will to repudiate the racism of the Tea Parties, and to stand in opposition to its drive to push our country back to the pre-civil rights era.”
NAACP leaders said the resolution was necessary to make people aware of what they believe is a racist element within the tea party movement.

Tea party leaders deny that the movement is racist and said the resolution is unfair.

“I just don’t see racism in the tea party movement,” said Brendan Steinhauser, director of campaigns for FreedomWorks, which organizes tea party groups. “Racism is something we’re absolutely opposed to.”

“The NAACP has more of a political agenda now, but I would hope that they would appreciate the fact that the tea party movement has a lot in common with the civil rights movement. I’m personally inspired by what the civil rights movement did, and I want them to know that.”

Among the charges lodged against the tea party in the resolution:

• Tea party supporters have engaged in “explicitly racist behavior” and “displayed signs and posters intended to degrade people of color generally and President Barack Obama specifically.”
• * Tea party activists have used racial epithets, have verbally and physically abused black members of Congress and others, and have been charged with threatening public officials.

House passes campaign bill backed by Democrats

WASHINGTON -- Four months before midterm elections, the Democratic-controlled House approved new limitations on the political activity of outside interest groups Thursday after carving out exemptions that benefit the National Rifle Association as well as labor unions and numerous federal contractors.

The vote was 219-206 on the legislation that Democrats trumpeted as a move to bring fuller disclosure to shadowy campaign ads and Republicans attacked as an unconstitutional restriction on free speech.

In a statement, President Barack Obama praised the bill, although he said, "I would have preferred that it include no exemptions." He urged quick action in the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid has pledged to seek a vote but strong Republican opposition make its prospects uncertain.

At the juncture of the First Amendment and partisan politics, the measure produced an unlikely alignment among the very groups it was intended to regulate.

Organizations as diverse as the American Civil Liberties Union and Sierra Club on the left to the Chamber of Commerce and the National Right to Life Committee on the right opposed it. The NRA was officially neutral - and drew a jab from House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio because of that.

Judge Blocks Deep-Water Drilling Moratorium

WASHINGTON — A federal judge in New Orleans on Tuesday blocked a six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling projects that the Obama administration had imposed in response to the vast oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.The White House swiftly said the administration would appeal the decision.

In a 22-page ruling, Judge Martin L. C. Feldman of Federal District Court issued a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of a May 28 order halting all floating offshore drilling projects in more than 500 feet of water and preventing the government from issuing new permits for such projects.

Citing the economic harm to businesses and workers in the gulf caused by the moratorium, Judge Feldman — a 1983 appointee of President Ronald Reagan — wrote that the Obama administration had failed to justify the need for the sweeping suspension, which he characterized as “generic, indeed punitive.”

He wrote that “the blanket moratorium, with no parameters, seems to assume that because one rig failed and although no one yet fully knows why, all companies and rigs drilling new wells over 500 feet also universally present an imminent danger.”

President invites discussions for energy legislation

US President Barack Obama has asked key Republican and Democratic senators to meet him at the White House on June 23rd to discuss his currently stalled energy bill.

The meeting, which will take ideas from both sides of politics, will involve conversations on the oil tragedy in the Gulf, oil and gas drilling oversights, pollution at coal-burning factories and incentives for the expansion of nuclear energy for power.

The president will be looking to find votes for comprehensive energy legislation at the meeting, to which he has invited Republican Lindsey Graham, who was one of three original authors of the bill in the Senate. Senator Graham later dropped his support for the bill.

It is believed the president will ask the assembled lawmakers to consider a bill to change US dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuels, while also requiring US industries and utilities to cut their output of carbon dioxide pollution.

Obama heading back to Gulf Coast

President Barack Obama will make another visit to the Gulf Coast next week to review efforts to contain and clean up the worst oil spill in U.S. history, the White House announced Tuesday.

Obama's Monday and Tuesday itineraries will include stops in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, three of the four states affected by the 50-day-old disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the White House announced. It will be his fourth trip to the region since the spill erupted in late April.

On Friday, Obama was in Grand Isle, Louisiana, where he met with local business leaders directly affected by the undersea gusher and huddled with regional officials involved in the response effort.

Tuesday's announcement followed Obama's blunt defense of his administration's handling of the disaster in an interview on NBC's "Today" show. Asked about complaints that his public appearances have been too cerebral and reserved, Obama said, "This is not theater."

"I don't sit around talking to experts because this is a college seminar," he said. "We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick."

Obama said that his administration's response is the largest mobilization against an environmental catastrophe in the history of the federal government and that officials understood "from day one" that the spill would be a major disaster. He said it is "tough" to see images of oil-smeared birds or meet fishermen "who are on the verge of tears," but "we just got to keep on moving."

Obama Says US Will Bounce Back From Oil Crisis

Obama Pledges Tough Inquiry Into Oil Spill

WASHINGTON — President Obama vowed Tuesday to pursue criminal inquiries into the cause of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, as the crisis he called “the greatest environmental disaster of its kind in our history” threatened to engulf his second year in office.

“We have an obligation to determine what went wrong,” Mr. Obama said, appearing in the Rose Garden after meeting with the two men he has appointed to lead an inquiry into the cause of the spill, former Senator Bob Graham of Florida and William K. Reilly, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

“If laws were broken, leading to death and destruction,” Mr. Obama said, “my solemn pledge is, we will bring those responsible to justice.”

Mr. Obama’s heightened rhetoric reflected deepening frustration within the administration at the inability of BP to stop the spill, along with wide concern that the government and Mr. Obama are appearing increasingly impotent as oil laps at the Louisiana shoreline with no end in near sight.

Mr. Obama said the commission will examine the disaster and its causes, and will make sure that the country never has to face anything like this again. A full investigation will occur, Mr. Obama said, before he allows any expansion of offshore oil drilling.

“Mr. Graham and Mr. Reilly,” Mr. Obama said, “have my full support to follow the facts wherever they may lead without fear or favor.”