Dinesh D’Souza’s ‘America’ warns Hillary Clinton will ‘finish off’ the country

In his highly anticipated new book and movie “America,” conservative author Dinesh D’Souza is warning that Hillary Clinton won’t be a clone of her moderate husband, but will instead take the baton from President Obama to continue radicalizing the country and “undo the nation’s founding ideals.”

“America — Imagine a World Without Her,” published by Regnery and set for release Monday, charges that as students of radical organizer Saul Alinsky, Obama and Clinton could have enough time to “unmake and then remake America” into a nation the founding fathers wouldn’t recognize.

“They may not be responsible for the suicide of America, but they certainly will have helped to finish off a certain way of life in America, and they will leave us with a country unrecognizable not only to Washington and Jefferson but also to those of us who grew up in the 20th century,” wrote D’Souza.

“If they succeed, there may be no going back. Then it will be their America, not ours, and we will be a people bereft of a country, with no place to go,” he adds on page 87.

“America” is D’Souza’s latest book and movie on how he sees progressive politics hurting the nation. He also created the movie “2016: Obama’s America,” which was the second highest-grossing political documentary.

An advance copy of the book provided to Secrets suggests that progressives aim to remake the nation into one that is less powerful, less wealthy and less influential. If that happens, he warns, “We have committed national suicide.”

He focuses on Obama’s and Clinton’s links to Alinsky in a chapter titled “The Plan.” He claims the two followed the radical’s master plan that they hide their views and ideas until they get into power.

“If you see early pictures and video of Hillary, she looks and sounds like a former hippie. Overtime, however, Hillary started dressing like a respectable middle-class mother and speaking in a clipped, moderate sounding voice. Young Barack Obama, too, looked like a bit of a street thug — in his own words, he could have been Trayvon Martin. Over time, however, Obama started dressing impeccably and even practiced modulating his voice,” the popular author writes.

“Hillary and Obama have both learned the Alinsky lesson that your should aggressively pursue power while pretending to be motivated by altruism,” he added.

“More importantly, Hillary and Obama both adopted Alinsky’s strategic counsel to sound mainstream, even when you aren’t,” wrote D’Souza. “These are the ways in which our two Alinskyites make themselves palatable to the American middle class, which to this day has no idea how hostile Hillary and Obama are to middle-class values.

“If Hillary Clinton is elected in 2016, the baton will have passed from one Alinskyite to another. In this case, Alinsky’s influence will have taken on a massive, almost unimaginable, importance. Obama will have had eight years to remake America, and Hillary will have another four or perhaps eight to complete the job,” he wrote.

[H/T Washington Examiner]

HBO’s Dreadful Reagan Lie

It’s been ten years since Ronald Reagan passed away, but one horrible myth about him will not die.  When he passed, The Advocate magazine published an essay by radical gay playwright Larry Kramer titled “Adolf Reagan.” The rant began: “Our murderer is dead. The man who murdered more gay people than anyone in the entire history of the world, is dead. More people than Hitler even.”

In Kramer’s fever swamp of a brain, Reagan caused AIDS. He reveled in its fatalities. Now HBO is honoring Kramer’s unceasing hatred by making a TV movie out of his hate-filled 1985 play/jeremiad “The Normal Heart.” The movie ends with a “historic” note bashing Reagan some more:

“President Ronald Reagan mentioned AIDS publicly for the first time Sept. 17, 1985, vowing in a news conference to make AIDS research a ‘top priority.’ Reagan’s proposed budget for 1986 actually called for an 11 percent reduction in AIDS spending. By the end of 1986, there were 24,559 reported deaths.” (Which is higher than all the Jews murdered by the Nazis?)

This is the stuff of nuttiness. It’s bad enough that a magazine would publish this bile; it’s unconscionable that a TV network produce a movie “based on real events” furthering it.

The real Reagan record on AIDS is different than the seemingly never-ending mud-slinging. His HHS Secretary called it a “top priority” in 1983, when the disease was so new that few people even understood what was happening.  AIDS funding skyrocketed in the 1980s, almost doubling each year beginning in 1983 — when the media started blaring headlines — from $44 million to $103 million, $205 million, $508 million, $922 million, and then $1.6 billion in 1988.

Now, try finding Walter Mondale “mentioning AIDS publicly” when he ran against Reagan in 1984. It didn’t come up in the presidential debates. It’s nowhere to be found in his 1984 convention speech. A Nexis search of The Washington Post and The New York Times in 1984 doesn’t locate a Mondale quote on AIDS.

Does that mean he’s “Adolf,” too?

Kramer’s enough of a lunatic that in 2011, he was recklessly blaming every president from Reagan to Obama for AIDS in a letter he passed out to people attending a revival of “The Normal Heart.” It said “Please know that beginning with Ronald Reagan (who would not say the word ‘AIDS’ publicly for seven years), every single president has said nothing and done nothing, or in the case of the current president, says the right things and then doesn’t do them.”

Those in the press giving oxygen to this character assassin deserve the highest possible condemnation.

In 2006, as The New York Times honored Kramer by putting him in a panel discussion on the 25th anniversary of the first Times article on AIDS, he distributed typically crazy remarks in advance, calling for “Nuremberg trials” to hold not only Reagan, but the owners and editors of — how’s this for gratitude?– The New York Times to be tried like Nazi war criminals for the AIDS holocaust.

They remember none of this at the Times. A few days ago, reporter Patrick Healy honored him in an article titled “A Lion Still Roars, With Gratitude.” Healy warmly recalled Kramer as “the most strident, scolding voice in New York City (in the world, really) on behalf of gay men infected with HIV” in the 1980s.

Healy actually portrayed Kramer as some sort of prophet. He reported that at a special screening at the HBO film at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York, the film’s director, “Glee” creator Ryan Murphy, led “a thousand-member audience” in a standing ovation for Kramer. “Larry, before we begin this film, I only have one thing to say. You were right.”

Larry Kramer has been not only wrong, but factually unglued. But none of this apparently matters. One might argue that in the 1980s, when the death toll was climbing and the hopelessness was deepening, that Kramer’s rants of “You’re killing us” spurred action. But you can’t be a newspaper or a movie channel that claims to care about facts and history (and civility) and refuse to acknowledge how deeply wrong Kramer was and continues to be, screaming that Ronald Reagan is worse than Hitler.

Ends don’t justify means. But it’s worse than that. This is pure hatred.

[H/T NewsBusters]

Carney to step down as White House press secretary

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney is stepping down, ending a lengthy term in what is considered one of Washington’s toughest jobs.

Carney has served as President Obama’s lead spokesman since 2011. The president interrupted Carney’s daily press briefing on Friday to announce his departure, calling him one of his “closest friends” and a trusted adviser.

Noting Carney’s background as a reporter, Obama said: “I actually think he will miss hanging out with all of you.”

Obama said he has chosen Carney’s deputy, Josh Earnest, to replace him.

“Today the flak jacket is officially passed to a new generation,” Obama joked, announcing Earnest as Carney’s successor.

The announcement, which followed speculation in the media that Carney was preparing to leave this year, came on a tumultuous day in Washington. Hours earlier, Obama announced that he had accepted Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki’s resignation amid the scandal at that agency over veterans’ health care.

Carney, as the de facto voice of the White House, has dealt with a barrage of scandals since the start of Obama’s second term. He has defended Obama from the briefing room podium on everything from the botched launch of HealthCare.gov to the VA scandal to lingering questions about the Benghazi terror attack.

Obama said Carney plans to take the summer off before getting a new job, indicating the press secretary role has been a “strain” on his family.

“It’s been a privilege,” Carney said of his job after the president left, before continuing with the daily briefing.

Carney said the transition will be complete around mid-June, but that Earnest will take his place traveling next week on a trip that Obama has scheduled to Europe.

Carney brought rare but practical experience to the job as a former reporter who once covered the White House for Time magazine. He left journalism to join the White House as communications director for Vice President Joe Biden, and subsequently moved over to serve as Obama’s press secretary in 2011.

The affable Earnest is well-liked within the White House press corps, and reporters applauded the announcement.

“As you know, his name describes his demeanor,” Obama said. “Josh is an earnest guy and you can’t find just a nicer individual even outside of Washington.”

Carney said he’s made no decision yet on his next step, but is excited about some of the possibilities he’s begun to explore. He ruled out rumors that he would serve as ambassador to Russia, after having covered the collapse of the Soviet Empire for Time, saying his wife and two children wouldn’t welcome such a move.

[H/T Fox News]

Shinseki resigns over growing VA scandal

President Obama announced Friday that embattled Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki would take the fall for the rapidly growing scandal over veterans’ health care, accepting his resignation under pressure from members of both parties.

The president announced that Shinseki would resign after they met at the White House and he received an update on an internal review of the problems at the VA. The review showed the problems were not limited to just a few facilities, Obama said, adding: “It’s totally unacceptable. Our veterans deserve the best.”

On the heels of those and other findings, Obama said, “Secretary Shinseki offered me his own resignation — with considerable regret, I accepted.”

He said Shinseki told him he did not want to be a distraction. “I agree,” Obama said. “We don’t have time for distractions. We need to fix the problem.”

The president had faced mounting calls from members of both parties to remove Shinseki; those calls accelerated after a damning inspector general report on Wednesday. Shinseki suffered another blow on Friday when Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a former top VA official, called for her former boss’ resignation.

Shinseki’s departure is likely to calm the political storm, but only briefly. Congressional critics of VA leadership voiced support for the decision on Friday, but urged the administration to quickly get to the root of the problems with VA workers lying about patient wait times.

“VA’s problems are deadly serious, and whomever the next secretary may be, they will receive no grace period from America’s veterans, American taxpayers and Congress,” Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said in a statement.

House Speaker John Boehner said the resignation “does not absolve the president.” The resignation also has not muted calls for the Justice Department to launch a criminal probe.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said in a joint statement that they would continue to push a bill providing resources for such a probe. “This scandal has dragged on over a decade. We believe the Department of Justice should begin investigations right away,” they said.

The president, who for weeks stood by Shinseki as the allegations of wrongdoing mounted, said it was Shinseki’s own judgment that he’d be a distraction that changed his mind. The president said Sloan Gibson, deputy VA secretary, would be named acting VA secretary while the administration seeks a permanent replacement.

In his farewell message to staff, Shinseki touted “significant and lasting progress in expanding access” for veterans over the last several years, while acknowledging “there is more work to be done.”

Earlier Friday morning, Shinseki publicly apologized for the failures in the VA system. Responding to an interim inspector general report which found “systemic” problems with clinics misrepresenting patient wait times, Shinseki also announced he would oust senior leaders at the Phoenix VA, where allegations of improper scheduling practices first surfaced.

Shinseki, speaking to advocates for homeless veterans, said he initially believed the problems were “limited and isolated.”

“I no longer believe that. It is systemic,” Shinseki said. “I will not defend it, because it is indefensible.”

Even before his meeting with the president, the secretary’s tone shifted dramatically compared with his testimony before a congressional committee earlier this month, when he continued to defend the VA system. On Friday, citing the IG report, he lamented a “totally unacceptable lack of integrity” at numerous VA facilities — where reviews have found workers were manipulating wait times to make their internal figures look good.

Shinseki said the “lack of integrity” is something he has “rarely encountered.” He announced several steps to address the situation, including directing that patient wait times no longer be used as a measure of success in employee evaluations.

The internal audit reviewed by Obama on Friday outlined additional problems, including findings that VA staff were pressured to use improper practices. The report said in some cases, “pressures were placed on schedulers to utilize inappropriate practices in order to make Waiting Times appear more favorable.”

The report said the practices were “pervasive” enough to “require VA re-examine its entire Performance Management system.”

[H/T Fox News]

NBC and CBS Praise Hillary Clinton Being ‘On Offense’ Over Benghazi

On Friday, both NBC’s Today and CBS This Morning dutifully promoted quotes from Hillary Clinton’s new memoir leaked to Politico of the former Secretary of State blasting critics of her mishandling of the Benghazi terrorist attack. Today co-host Savannah Guthrie proclaimed: “If there was any doubt Hillary Clinton’s clearly ready to go on offense on this.” Political director Chuck Todd agreed: “There’s no doubt at all. In fact, there’s a concerted campaign effort.”

On CBS This Morning, correspondent Nancy Cordes declared: “…the former Secretary of State strikes a defiant tone about the attack and all the investigations into it…” Moments later, Cordes observed: “Democrats are going to see this as a kind of template for how to talk about the Benghazi attacks. In fact, the Clinton team is reportedly meeting with Democratic groups to explain her tone in the book so that everyone is on the same page.”

http://www.mrctv.org/embed/127365

Todd similarly noted on Today: “I know of Hillary Clinton advisers have been meeting with Democratic strategists around town here in Washington to go back and forth, let them know what’s in this Benghazi chapter. Now, of course, the public knows.”

Todd also applauded Clinton’s “strategy” in pushing the memoir: “She’s sitting down with Fox News – which has been one of the news organizations that’s been riding this Benghazi story more than anybody – because they [Clinton’s team] want to get this out of the way now….They don’t want Benghazi hanging over her head and these questions and the investigations during when the campaign actually begins.”

Both Guthrie and Cordes recited Clinton’s talking points from the book:

I will not be a part of a political slugfest on the backs of dead Americans. It’s just plain wrong and it’s unworthy of our great country. Those who insist on politicizing the tragedy will have to do so without me….Many of these same people are a broken record about unanswered questions. But there is a difference between unanswered questions and unlistened to answers.

Following the report from Cordes, This Morning co-host Charlie Rose made sure to squeeze in one more bit of spin: “You should note…that the Secretary says that some people that night were motivated by the video and others were not. They were motivated by two different things.”

Cordes briefly summarized the GOP response: “Republicans are gonna say that she’s trying to get out of discussing this issue, both before Congress and on the campaign trail.” Guthrie and Todd didn’t bother with such criticism. Neither broadcast featured a quote from a single Republican.

ABC’s Good Morning America skipped Clinton’s Benghazi commentary completely, but did find time to tout a “secret off-the-books meeting between Hillary Clinton and President Obama at the White House” that “prompts new talk of [a] presidential run.”

[H/T News Busters]

If They Think There’s A Wimp In The White House

You don’t have to worry about Barack Obama destroying America.

I know that many people truly believe that Barack Obama is the vanguard of a movement to consciously destroy America as we know it.

I know that those people truly imbue he and his handlers with super powers to wreck our way of life.

And I know that Obama himself has blathered about “fundamentally transforming” our country.

But, folks, this clown has been in office for a little over five years; and all he has proven is that he and his minions will call you a racist if you point out how truly incompetent they are. Well, so be it because here we go.

If you want several examples, let’s look at how he has handled recent brushes with the crazy people in the rest of the world.

Leon Panetta—former Clinton Chief of Staff, Obama CIA director, and Secretary of Defense—suggested on a national TV show back when Obama was still running for the Senate that a President must be feared.

After his Obama service, at the CIA and Defense, at a late 2013 session on the budget sponsored by the Wall Street Journal, he said, “We govern either by leadership or crisis. . . . If leadership is not there, then we govern by crisis…Clearly, this town has been governing by crisis after crisis after crisis.

“You have to engage in the process. This is a town where it’s not enough to feel you have the right answers. You’ve got to roll up your sleeves and you’ve got to really engage in the process . . . that’s what governing is all about.” He was, of course, referring to the President.

While Panetta was talking about the budget fight that led to a kind-of-sort-of shutdown–which then morphed into the Obamacare launch debacle–the fact is that everybody watches the news coming out of Washington. They watch it on CNN and Al Jazeera all over the world. Maybe even on Fox.

When those in places like Gaza, Nigeria, China, North Korea, and a host of places where stupid things happen in the names of so called leaders see a preoccupied President who is diffident towards our role in the rest of the world to begin with, things happen.

Things like a group on nobody’s radar snatching 300 Nigerian Christian girls and selling them into slavery.

Michelle Obama is furious.

But the best she can do is a photo with a twitter hashtag (whatever that is).

Because the odds of using Seal Team Six to go get them are pretty low—especially at this point. Delta Force is now reserved for things that won’t offend any foreign, sovereign governments which would rather we not embarrass them by using the best special operators in the world to go get those girls. Especially nations like that that are run by a guy named Goodluck Jonathan.

When some clown sharia judge in the Sudan sentences the pregnant wife of an American to have the baby, nurse the baby, take 100 lashes, and then be killed for refusing to renounce Christianity without taking into account that we might send some Navy Seals to break her out, that’s because he assumes this President won’t. And he’s probably right.

We’ll allow the NBA to take Donald Sterling’s team away from him because he’s a douchebag, but we won’t do anything about the Sultan of Brunei’s ownership of property in the United States like the Beverly Hills Hotel–even though he’s a much bigger douchebag than Sterling. After all, Sterling just didn’t want his skank girlfriend bringing Magic Johnson to Clippers games. The Sultan wants to stone gay folks to death inside his borders. We would call that a terrorist state in most administrations, and there would be sanctions against them doing business here. Not today.

What’s Barack’s wife’s hashtag for that? #Shariahsucksinbeverlyhills?

Presidents are supposed to lead. Sometimes they lead from a bully pulpit, and sometimes they lead with the United States Marine Corps. But they have to lead.

This President not only doesn’t want to lead domestically; he projects the opposite of what America has always been overseas. We cannot police everything; but we should stand for freedom, democracy, and human rights.

This is why Vladimir Putin can invade Crimea with impunity. He did that while a Federal agency our President had probably never heard of (the Bureau of Land Management) was busy bungling an invasion of Nevada.

If the guy in the White House thinks supporting freedom and democracy and human rights around the world is passé, then what do you think the penny ante tinhorn dictators are going to do when given an opportunity? Where does it end? With a nuclear weapon being exploded by some Sudanese national in Tulsa?

In words everybody can understand, a wimp in the White House puts us all in danger, as well as people like those 300 girls and the American’s Sudanese wife.

Do you really think either of those things would have happened if George W. Bush or Bill Clinton were in the White House?

Incompetence and indecision are worse for the nation than any particular brand of politics.

You don’t have to worry about Barack Obama destroying America. You need to worry about him ignoring America.

[H/T Western Journalism]

Lunch With Bill And Hillary Clinton Auctioned Off For Over $300,000

How much would someone pay to have lunch with Bill and Hillary Clinton? Apparently more than $300,000.

Less than three hours is left on the CharityBuzz.com auction for lunch with the political power couple, and the bidding stands at $305,000.

“Bid now on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a private lunch with President Bill Clinton and Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton at the Clinton Foundation’s headquarters in New York City,” the description of the auction item reads. The money will go to support the Clinton Foundation.

Lunch with the Clintons

 

At the time of this writing, the current leading bidder goes by the name moatisthekey — as in Moat Is The Key. And it’s true, medieval monarchs all agree: having a moat is the key to protecting your castle.

It’s not too late to bid if you have a special dictator in your life who would just love to lobby the Clintons for a personal favor or two, or a rich relative in prison you would like Hillary to pardon if she ever makes it to the White House.

But be forewarned: the auction doesn’t specify who picks up the lunch tab.

[H/T The Daily Caller]

Montel Williams Delivers Emotional Speech to Military Heroes

Television personality Montel Williams was overcome with emotion and became visibly choked up while delivering a speech addressing the ongoing Veterans Affairs scandal at a Memorial Day picnic in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Discussing the backlog of treatment for wounded warriors, Williams — a 22-year veteran of the military — briefly mentioned that he makes frequent visits to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

“I have done over 30 visits to Walter Reed, sitting bedside, for almost a three-year period of time, almost every single month, trying to see every single soldier, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines,” he said during the Saturday event.

Soldiers started applauding to Williams’ dismay.

“Please, no!” he said, fighting back tears. “That’s expected of me!”

Williams told TheBlaze that he had been the Grand Marshall at the Myrtle Beach Veteran’s Day parade. He received a “quilt of valor” and afterward was attending a picnic with some of the local veterans.

In what appeared to be an impromptu address, the former Marine and Navy Lt. Commander spoke from his heart about the VA problem.

Williams shared his observations about what he viewed as a declining interest from “celebrities” who he claims are no longer showing up at VA hospitals and supporting the wounded soldiers as they had in the past.

“We’re at war,” Williams said, “Guys are still dying. How dare this nation treat us this way.”

In his speech, the television personality went on to propose that the administration push for a “surge” in medical care like the military surge that the president pushed for in Afghanistan five years ago.

The video, posted on YouTube by the local paper, has obvious jump cuts and an unedited version is not yet available. However, it does show an impassioned plea from Montel Williams to the president and Congress.

“Whether you agree with me politically or not, I know you agree with me on this, ” he said. “We can argue about whether we like football or basketball as soldiers or sailors, airmen, marine or coast guardsmen … when it comes time, we never leave a soldier on the battlefield.”

Williams also penned an Op-Ed piece about the crisis. Over the course of more than 1,000 words, Williams further defines his thoughts on how the administration should proceed with his proposed “surge” in medical care for the troops:

“Consider this thought – what if the President were to order the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, whomever it be, in collaboration with the Secretaries of Defense and HHS, to within thirty days report back with plans to execute a 90 day ‘surge’ using the existing healthcare resources of the various Departments and such civilian support as may be necessary to entirely clear the backlog and establish a baseline such that we can accurately judge the resources needed to provide timely care to every veteran and honor the commitment that seems sadly to have been broken.”

According to Williams, the cost of the added care could be more than paid for by eliminating wasteful spending on “airplanes that the military doesn’t want and funneling taxpayer dollars into any number of other ridiculously inflated and unnecessary programs.”

Click here to read Williams’ entire Op-Ed here.

[H/T The Blaze]

EPA To Unilaterally Push Cap And Trade On Carbon Emissions

Despite being soundly rejected a few years ago, cap-and-trade will soon get its U.S. encore — but not in Congress. The Obama administration will likely use its executive power to unilaterally impose carbon dioxide emissions trading systems.

The Environmental Protection Agency will unveil regulations for existing U.S. power plants early next month. For months, onlookers have been speculating about what could be included in the EPA’s rule for existing power plants.

But over the past few days it has become clear that the Obama administration will use the EPA to push cap-and-trade systems and other anti-fossil fuel policies on U.S. states. Administration insiders have told news outlets that cap-and-trade will likely be one of the options the EPA gives states to cut their carbon dioxide emissions.

The Wall Street Journal reported the EPA’s proposal will “include a cap-and-trade component where a limit is set on emissions and companies can trade allowances or credits for emissions” to meet new federal rules. The Journal added that power plant “operators could trade emissions credits or use other offsets in the power sector, such as renewable energy or energy-efficiency programs, to meet the target.”

The plan is being sold as a “flexible” one. By allowing states a menu of policy options to meet federal mandates, the standards will ostensibly meet the unique needs of each individual state. But the stark reality behind the proposal is that it will be a boon for states that have already imposed cap-and-trade systems — which are overwhelmingly Democratic states.

The Washington Post reported last week that “the measure will spur regional carbon-trading programs on the East and West coasts” according to “several individuals briefed on the matter”.

The Democratic governors of California, Oregon, Washington have all signed executive agreements to tax on carbon dioxide. California already operates a cap-and-trade system that went into effect in 2012. Washington’s Democratic governor Jay Inslee recently signed an executive order to impose cap-and-trade and phase out coal power.

“This is the right time to act, the right place to act and we are the right people to act,” Inslee said last month. “We will engage the right people, consider the right options, ask the right questions and come to the right answers — answers that work for Washington.”

Several eastern U.S. states and Canadian provinces have already started their own regional cap-and-trade system called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Currently nine states participate in RGGI — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Only one of the nine states is led by a Republican.

News reports say that the EPA will require states to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by a whopping 25 percent in the coming decades. The new rules are set to be unveiled next week by President Obama himself, underpinning the significance of the new rules.

The EPA’s emissions limits for existing power plants will put new burdens on coal-reliant states and raise electricity prices as more coal plants are retired. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is set to release a study on the economic costs of the EPA’s carbon dioxide regulations, which will likely be staggering.

“We anticipate it to be unprecedented in complexity and cost,” Dan Byers, senior director for policy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s energy arm, told an audience last week.

Environmentalists have argued that emissions limits for existing power plants would not only prove environmentally beneficial, but would also be a boon to the economy.

“This is a magic moment for the President — a chance to write his name into the record books,” Frank O’Donnell, director of Clean Air Watch, told the Post. “But history will ultimately judge this less by an excellent speech than by the final contents and outcome of this initiative.”

The Natural Resources Defense Council, like the Chamber, is preparing to release its own study this week on the economic benefits of carbon dioxide regulations.

NRDC argues that mandating emissions limits would spur jobs in energy efficiency and green energy and lower power bills and pollution levels.

But the coal industry disagrees. They have already seen the Obama administration effectively ban the building of new coal-fired power plants unless they use costly clean coal technology.

“The impact will not only be to greatly increase electricity rates, putting U.S. manufacturing at a competitive disadvantage, but [also to] jeopardize reliability of the nation’s electric grid,” said Hal Quinn, president of the National Mining Association.

Coal currently generates about 40 percent of the country’s electricity — a share which has declined in recent years because of stricter environmental regulations and increased competition from natural gas.

Hundreds of coal plants have already been slated for early retirement across the country, according to industry data. And many more are sure to follow once the Obama administration cracks down on emissions from existing power plants.

Retiring coal plants are already set to help increase power prices by 4 percent this year, according to the Energy Information Administration. By 2020, power prices are predicted to rise another 13 percent — not including the cost impacts of the EPA’s upcoming power plant rules.

“While President Obama continues to pedal around his climate agenda in the hopes of solidifying a presidential legacy, concerns about how American businesses and consumers will actually meet these costly rules have been met with only silence,” said Laura Sheehan, spokeswoman for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electrcity.

“Given the current path we’re on, the administration is gambling with the livelihoods of hardworking Americans and is threatening to tip our country over the edge in costly and unreliable energy policies,” Sheehan said. “And once we go over that ledge, there’s no coming back up.”

[H/T The Daily Caller]

Author Maya Angelou dies at 86 in North Carolina

Award-winning author, renowned poet and civil rights activist Dr. Maya Angelou was found dead in her Winston-Salem, N.C., home Wednesday morning. She was 86.

Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Jones confirmed Angelou’s death to Fox News. Police reportedly were at her home investigating. A press conference is scheduled for 11:45 a.m. ET.

Angelou, who rose from poverty as a child raised in St. Louis and Stamps, Ark., to become a cultural icon, gained widespread acclaim for her first book, her autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” making her one of the first African-American women to write a best-seller.

In 1998, she directed the film “Down in the Delta” about a drug-addicted woman who returns to the home of her ancestors in the Mississippi Delta. She was the poet chosen to read at President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration in 1993. She wrote and read an original composition, “On the Pulse of Morning,” which became a million-seller.

Major League Baseball announced last week that Angelou would not attend its 2014 Beacon Awards Luncheon, where she was to be honored, due to health concerns. Angelou also canceled an event in April in Fayetteville, Ark., because of an “unexpected ailment” that sent her to the hospital.

“Dr. Angelou was a national treasure whose life and teachings inspired millions around the world, including countless students, faculty and staff at Wake Forest, where she served as Reynolds Professor of American Studies since 1982,” Wake Forest University said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Dr. Angelou’s family and friends during this difficult time.”

Born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis on April 4, 1928, Angelou was raised in Stamps, Ark., and San Francisco, moving back and forth between her parents and grandmother. She was reportedly sent to California after sassing a white store clerk in Arkansas and, at other times, did not speak at all. She was raped by her mother’s boyfriend at age 7 and did not speak for years afterward, instead learning by reading and listening.

“I loved the poetry that was sung in the black church: ‘Go down Moses, way down in Egypt’s land,'” Angelou told The Associated Press. “It just seemed to me the most wonderful way of talking. And ‘Deep River.’ Ooh! Even now it can catch me. And then I started reading, really reading, at about 7 ½, because a woman in my town took me to the library, a black school library. … And I read every book, even if I didn’t understand it.”

By age 9, Angelou was writing poetry, and by 17 she was a single mother. In her early 20s, she danced at a strip club, ran a brothel and married Enistasious Tosh Angelos (the first of her three husbands) before divorcing. By her mid-20s, she performed alongside another future star — Phyllis Diller — at the Purple Onion in San Francisco. She also spent a few days with Billie Holiday, who was astute enough to tell her: “You’re going to be famous. But it won’t be for singing.”

Angelou later renamed herself for the stage, choosing her childhood nickname before touring in “Porgy and Bess” and Jean Genet’s “The Blacks” and dancing alongside Alvin Ailey. She also worked for years in Egypt and Ghana, where she met Malcolm X and remained close to him until his assassination in 1965. Three years later, Angelou helped the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., organize a march in Memphis, Tenn., where the civil rights leader was killed on Angelou’s 40th birthday.

Angelou was little known outside of the theatrical community until “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” which was published in 1969. The memoir was occasionally attacked as “manipulative” melodrama and her passages on rape and teen pregnancy have made it a mainstay on the American Library Association’s list of works that draw complaints from parents and educators.

“‘I thought that it was a mild book. There’s no profanity,” Angelou told the AP. “It speaks about surviving, and it really doesn’t make ogres of many people. I was shocked to find there were people who really wanted it banned, and I still believe people who are against the book have never read the book.”

Angelou would later appear on several television programs, including the groundbreaking 1977 miniseries “Roots.” She was also nominated for a Tony Award in 1973, won three Grammys her spoken-word albums and received an honorary National Book Award in 2013 for her contributions.

“Maya Angelou will always remain an Arkansas and American treasure,” Gov. Mike Beebe said in a statement. “She drew from a troubled and painful childhood to write books and poems that have inspired countless others.  From Stamps, Arkansas, to the steps of the U.S. Capitol for President Clinton’s inauguration, Maya Angelou showed how strength, determination and honesty can take us all to the heights of greatness.”

[H/T Fox News]