If, like me, you were unplugged for most of the weekend then you're coming back to big news. In a letter released just after midnight Saturday, Van Jones, President Obama’s Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the Council on Environmental Quality resigned.

When President Barack Obama sold his $787 billion stimulus package to the American people, he set one metric for success: jobs. In fact it was during his weekly radio address on Jan. 10, 2009 Barack Obama said the No. 1 goal of his stimulus plan was to create NEW JOBS.

Specifically, President Obama promised the American people he would create 4.1 million jobs by the end of 2010. According to the President’s plan, the stimulus should have lowered the nation’s unemployment rate below 8% by this August. That is the objective standard the President set for himself.

And according to objective data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning, President Obama’s policies, and his stimulus package, have been complete failures. BLS reports that the number of unemployed persons increased by 466,000 in August raising the nation’s unemployment to 9.7% … the highest it has been in 26 years.

Since the signing of the largest spending bill in the history of the world, more than two million more Americans have actually lost their jobs. Now government officials from the president on down have warned that unemployment could reach 10 percent before making a comeback.

So now the Obama Administration is conducting a multi-day campaign to promote the successes of the stimulus package. Officials are being dispatched through the country trumpeting various projects. Yesterday the administration brought out Vice President Joe Biden to defend the stimulus in a speech to the Brookings Institute.

Biden claimed that the stimulus bill created or saved between 500,000 and 750,000 jobs. This is demonstrably false. Job creation has fallen since the stimulus became law. When Congress passed the stimulus in February the new hire rate had fallen to 3.2%. The most recent data, from June 2009, shows that after the stimulus passed, job creation fell even further to 2.9%. Employers are creating fewer jobs than they did before the stimulus was passed.

Other data also shows that job creation has fallen sharply. Gallup surveys show that far fewer Americans report that their companies are hiring than a year ago. Last August 37% of Americans reported their companies were hiring. That figure has now fallen to 24%. Lower job creation accounts for roughly two-thirds of the increase in unemployment since the recession began.

The Heritage Foundation states it perfectly when they ask and answer the following question: Who creates jobs? Employers with profitable businesses, investing and creating wealth. The stimulus bill was a grab bag of traditional liberal priorities that did nothing to encourage private sector employers to invest or create jobs. If anything the stimulus discourages investment and job creation. The enormous increase in federal spending that President Obama has undertaken raise the prospects of vastly higher taxes or rapidly rising inflation.

He held off on talking about it until halfway through the show in order to give the White House a chance to respond. They didn’t — so he fired away.

GB starts slow here and remains relatively restrained throughout, but his question near the end is a good one. If you believe Bush was responsible for mass murder of American civilians, why didn’t you flee the country or organize an armed revolt? How casual do you have to be about high treason to prioritize lefty crap like “green jobs” or lowering carbon emissions above seeking justice against the government for killing your countrymen? The answer, I suspect: Most Truthers may not really believe it. It’s a pseudo-intellectual pose, just like Jones’s fondness for communism is. At best, then, he’s a poseur fool who didn’t have the good sense not to sign his name to a petition at 9/11 Truth. At worst, he’s an even bigger fool who actually believes the “Loose Change” version of history. Either way, time to go.

The latest numbers from Rasmussen Reports shows that Fifty-two percent (52%) of Americans now disapprove of President Obama's performance.

In the light of the continuing decline of his favorability numbers Real Clear Politics posts an exceedingly cogent deconstruction as to how "The One" turned into a pumpkin. Written by Charles Krauthammer, the article is well worth the read.

Over at National Review's The Corner, Reason columnist Veronique de Rugy takes note of a new and immensely foolish bit of legislation being pushed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). It's called the Travel Promotion Act of 2009 and is designed to give foreign visitors a positive impression of the good ol' U.S. of A the minute they hit Customs. From de Rugy's gloss:

[Reid's] Travel Promotion Act of 2009 would create a private company to advertise the United States as a tourist destination to foreigners. For instance, one of the objectives of the bill is, literally, to create a welcoming first impression upon arrival into the U.S....

Should that really be a priority of the U.S. right now? Obviously, Congress thinks so, since this is the first bill that it will consider once senators come back from their summer recess.

But here is the best part: The primary funding source for the bill is a $10 fee (tax) on foreign visitors that use the Visa Waiver Program (primarily European countries). It's a horrible policy that makes for a horrible bill.

Got that? Make a good first impression on tourists by picking their pockets for an extra sawbuck. Caution in the Senate: Genius at work.

The great site Washington Watch, which tracks federal spending, estimates this idiotic bill costs only about $22 per family, making it a relative bargain. And if it keeps the Senate from passing cap and trade, health care "reform, or a slew of pernicious financial regs for a couple of weeks, hell, maybe it's a net benefit.

The unraveling of US Representative Charlie Rangle (D-N.Y.) has taken another fascinating turn this morning that is worth noting.

This morning CBS went after Charlie Rangel in a big way by probing the embattled House Ways and Means chair over his connections to the very people evaluating his ethics. The House committee is currently investigating Rangel for a series of false disclosures and tax evasions, but Rangel acts as though he has nothing to fear. What does he know that we don’t? CBS follows the money:

CBS 2 HD has learned of more alleged back-door dealings and political power peddling by Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel.

The reigning member of Congress’ top tax committee is apparently “wrangling” other politicos to get him out of his own financial and tax troubles. …

CBS 2 HD has discovered that since ethics probes began last year the 79-year-old congressman has given campaign donations to 119 members of Congress, including three of the five Democrats on the House Ethics Committee who are charged with investigating him.

Charlie’s “angels” on the committee include Congressmen Ben Chandler of Kentucky, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Peter Welch of Vermont. All have received donations from Rangel.

According to reports only Representative Peter Welch realized the perception of the gift and proceeded to return the nearly $20,000 donation.

Unfortunately Speaker Pelosi continues to make a mockery of her self proclaimed “most open Congress in history” by assuring Mr. Rangel that he can keep his powerful chair on Ways and Means while the ethical probe continues.

Apparently the Washington Post editorial board has heard enough.

In the California Legislature, anything worth doing is worth doing at the last minute. So with only eight days left in the 2009 Legislative year, lawmakers have decided now is the time to solve a water crisis that has been bubbling up since the 1970's.and 80's.

Our friends at the Sacramento Citizen provide some of the details...

With only a matter of days left in the 2009 legislative year, lawmakers have formed a Legislative Conference Committee on Water. The conference committee is charged with creating a series of reforms that help reform and shape California’s antiquated water system and lead to a reliable supply of water for the state's water users...

While some local water agencies have built regional projects to increase local water supply and storage, California’s state and federal water systems have not seen any major upgrades since the State Water Project was completed in 1973, despite the addition of nearly 14 million residents.

According to population projections, the state’s total population will increase to 60 million people by the year 2050, an increase of over 56% from the 2000 census numbers. As the state’s population continues to grow, this is putting strain on our existing water supplies, as well as bringing into question the ability to accommodate this expected future growth.

At the same time, a historic drought has reduced the snowpack California depends on to fill its reservoirs, and the Delta, critical hub of California’s water system, faces multiple risk factors to its fragile levees. In other words, the Conference Committee has a lot of issues to resolve and little time to do it in.

The Committee will meet every day this week and through the Labor Day weekend. The Committee has until Tuesday, September 8 to bring a final conference report to the floor of both houses. A conference report can only be brought to the floor if eight conferees (four from the Senate and four from the Assembly) sign the conference report.

The California Senate Republican Caucus Conferees have created a blog page where people can follow related stories and issues taking place as the Conference Committee works towards a comprehensive solution.

With the country busy talking about cap-and-trade, illegal immigration and health care, Congressmen Bobby Rush of Illinois has quietly ushered into committee legislation to curb American’s Second Amendment rights.

Remember this little dity about Green Czar Van Jones? Well now there is more Hope and Change from the Socialist Community Organizer Van Jones.

Via Gatewaypundit, at a question and answer session on why Barack Obama was not ramming through enough socialist bills fast enough, Barack Obama's communist Green Czar Van Jones answers,Because Republicans "are a$$holes." The audience loved it:


From the video: Van Jones, Special Advisor for Green Jobs, the White House Council on Environmental Quality. February 11, 2009, Berkeley, CA. From a lecture Jones gave at the 2nd Annual Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative (BERC) event. I know, I know... It's just a distraction.

So, what are they talking about anyway?Barack Obama and the Pelosi-Reid Congress have rammed through every piece of far left legislation they wanted to without a single GOP vote or input.

Side Note: This video was taken right before the Dems rammed the $787 billion Porkulus through Congress.

UPDATE: Gateway Pundit does the Googling that Obama refuses to do and finds out that Van Jones is also a " 9-11 Truther."

The latest Zogby Interactive poll conducted from August 28-31 found that 48% disapprove and 42% approve of the job Obama is doing. Perhaps most interesting is that the decline in approval from Democrats is the leading factor.

Only 17% give Obama an excellent job rating, 25% rate him good, 16% fair and 41% poor. Combining the two highest and lowest rankings shows 42% rating Obama positively and 57% negatively. (This is the standard Zogby International has used for many years in measuring job performance.) Disclosure - I was a part of the August 28-31 Zogby poll.

You can read more from Zoby here.