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• U.S. to Accept Iran’s Proposal to Hold Face-to-Face Talks Unconditionally
  The Obama administration said Friday that the United States would accept Iran’s offer to meet, fulfilling President Obama’s pledge to hold unconditional talks despite the Iranian government’s insistence that it would not negotiate over the future of its nuclear program.
  The decision to engage directly with Iran would put a senior representative of the Obama administration at the bargaining table, along with emissaries from five other nations, for the first time since Mr. Obama took office.

  The decision is bound to raise protests from conservatives who contend that unconditional talks are naïve, and from human rights groups that say the United States should not legitimize an Iranian government that appears to have manipulated its presidential election in June and crushed protests after the vote.

  (tags: Iran barack_obama)
• US Shifts Policy, Willing to Meet 1-on-1 With North Korea
  The US shifted its policy today, saying it is now willing to meet one on one with North Korea if that is helpful to bring Pyongyang back to the nuclear negotiations.

  US envoy Stephen Bosworth got the green light from the other members of the 6-party talks, negotiations to rid Pyongyang of its nuclear program, during meetings in the region in recent days.

  North Korea has extended an invitation for Bosworth to visit Pyongyang, but officials say it’s unclear where or when a meeting could take place.

  (tags: north_korea barack_obama)
• California legislators end session without solution to water problems – FAIL
  California lawmakers who began this year's session with a massive budget shortfall ended it on another low note early this morning, unable to agree on a wide-ranging plan to fix the state's water problems.

  Gavels finally pounded in the Capitol shortly before sunrise following an all-night session marked by partisan fighting in the Senate that ultimately shelved about a dozen bills.

  The Senate, after days of holding out for a better package, ultimately accepted an Assembly-passed plan of changes to the parole and prison systems that will save hundreds of millions of dollars this year – but falls short of the package demanded by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
  +++++++
  The California Legislature is terminally broken!

  (tags: california_legislature)

Twitpic via Brooks Bayne

Of course, the New York Times downplays the number of protesters but the crowd is now estimated at 2 million.

The Wall Street Journal has a piece about the conservative protests.

And, the Tea Party Express Blog is here.

Live Video Coverage from Fox News is here.

A Video summary:

Update:

So, how many attended?

However big it was, it was bigger than expected. From the NYT: “Many came on their own and were not part of an organization or group. But the magnitude of the rally took the authorities by surprise, with throngs of people streaming from the White House to Capitol Hill for more than three hours.”

• Rep. Joe Wilson hires professional Tweeter – David All
  Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) has hired a new-media strategist to help with a vigorous defense launched after heckling the president.

  David All, who bills his firm as the first conservative Web 2.0 agency, was retained Thursday afternoon amid the media storm surrounding Wilson’s “You lie!” outburst. Since then, All has been busy writing Twitter updates and reaching out to conservative blogs on Wilson's behalf.
  This is part of a broader defense strategy that Wilson is undertaking after facing strong criticism despite apologizing to President Barack Obama for interrupting his speech.

  Democrats on Friday announced that they would bring forward a “resolution of disapproval” if Wilson does not apologize to his colleagues on the House floor.

  The South Carolina Republican’s defense is focused on social media, including a taped YouTube video message to supporters, a flurry of Twitter messages, numerous interviews with bloggers and an ad on the Drudge Report.

  (tags: David_All Twitter Joe_Wilson)
• Obama Economic Advisor Larry Summers: High unemployment for years to Come = FAIL
  The president’s chief economic adviser warned Friday that the nation’s unemployment rate could stay “unacceptably high” for years to come — a situation that would seriously complicate Barack Obama’s ability to convince Americans that he’s beating back the recession.

  “The level of unemployment is unacceptably high,” National Economic Council Director Larry Summers said Friday. “And will, by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for a number of years.”

  Summers’ comments came in a briefing with reporters ahead of Obama’s speech in New York City on Monday, marking the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, an event widely regarded as having created a panic that caused the global economic meltdown.

  (tags: larry_summers Economy barack_obama)
• Andrew Sullivan: Above the Law – BS
  So Andrew Sullivan gets caught for possession on park service grounds. The penalty is a $125 fine. But because he's Andrew Sullivan, the State quickly decides to drop the charges "in the interest of justice." The interests of justice seem to be that this $125 fine would create a record which would hinder Sullivan's immigration status.

  The unequal treatment prompted Judge Robert Collings to write that fantastic memorandum. But Collings only briefly touches on what looks like the most grotesque part of the episode:

  Sullivan and his attorney claim that paying the $125 fine would create a record of his being charged with possession of a controlled substance. Collings notes that whether or not Sullivan ever paid the fine, "if asked by immigration authorities, [he] would have to answer truthfully that he had been charged with a crime involving controlled substances." So why would it matter whether or not Sullivan just pays the $125? Because if he doesn't pay it, it makes it easier for him

  (tags: Andrew_Sullivan)
• Andrew Sullivan's Federal Pot Favors – Blogger Gets Off
  A Massachusetts legal blog called The Docket carries an odd story: a federal judge wanted to hold Sullivan to account for marijuana possession on a national seashore, which after all is only a misdemeanor and $125 fine, and other people are prosecuted for it all the time in his very court. But the U.S. Attorney's Office insisted on dropping the charges, to keep Sullivan's record clean so his immigration can go through.

  Are bloggers getting VIP treatment at the federal level now? The magistrate hearing the case, Robert Collings, certainly thought Sullivan was:
  +++++++
  Thought Americans had equal treatment under the law. Oh snap – Andrew Sullivan is NOT even an American citizen.

  Deport the bastard

  (tags: Andrew_Sullivan)
• Federal Judge angered by special treatment for Andrew Sullivan
  Political commentator, author and writer for The Atlantic magazine Andrew M. Sullivan won’t have to face charges stemming from a recent pot bust at the Cape Cod National Seashore — but a federal judge isn’t happy about it.

  U. S. Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings says in his decision that the case is an example of how sometimes “small cases raise issues of fundamental importance in our system of justice.”

  While marijuana possession may have been decriminalized, Sullivan, who owns a home in Provincetown, made the mistake of being caught by a park ranger with a controlled substance on National Park Service lands, a federal misdemeanor.

  The ranger issued Sullivan a citation, which required him either to appear in U.S. District Court or, in essence, pay a $125 fine.

  But the U.S. Attorney’s Office sought to dismiss the case.
  Both the federal prosecutor and Sullivan’s attorney said it would have resulted in an “adverse effect” on an unspecified “immigration status”

  (tags: Andrew_Sullivan)
• Defiant Rep Joe Wilson raises more than $200,000 after calling Obama a LIAR
  Less than a day after Rep. Joe Wilson formally apologized to President Obama over his "you lie" outburst, a campaign aide confirms to CNN the South Carolina Republican has raised "more than $200,000″ in the wake of the now-infamous moment.

  News of that cash haul comes after Wilson directly asked in a Web video for campaign cash to fend off attacks from political opponents and said he's standing by his opposition to Democratic efforts at health care reform.

  "On these issues, I will not be muzzled, I will speak up and speak loudly against this risky plan," Wilson said in a YouTube video released Thursday evening. "The supporters of the government takeover of health care and the liberals who want to give health care to illegals are using my opposition as an excuse to distract from the critical questions being raised about this poorly conceived plan."

  (tags: Joe_Wilson barack_obama)
• Shocker: US and Russia diverge over Iran
  The proposals, aimed at ending the impasse over Iran's nuclear ambitions, were submitted to a group of six global powers on Wednesday.

  The US State Department said the proposals fell short of satisfying international demands.

  But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said they contained something to work with.

  "Based on a brief review of the Iranian papers my impression is there is something there to use," Mr Lavrov said in Moscow.

  "The most important thing is (that) Iran is ready for a comprehensive discussion of the situation, what positive role it can play in Iraq, Afghanistan and the region."

  (tags: Iran Russia)
• Tony Blair Endorses Yale's Mohammed Cartoon Censorship
  In an interview with the Yale Daily News, former prime minsiter Tony Blair, who is teaching a course at Yale this year, has come out supporting Yale's censorship of historical depictions of Muhammad as well as the Danish cartoons, in a Yale University Press book about the Danish cartoon controversy:

  Actually, the book is an original piece of research and by Blair's yardstick, all illustrations could therefore be suppressed. It really is troubling that avoiding controversy trumps the principle of free speech in Tony Blair's mind, and in Yale's policy.

  (tags: TonyBlair MohammedCartoons)
• Obamacare for illegal aliens: A brief history
  Here’s my July 22 column on Obamacare for illegal aliens, which spotlights how the S-CHIP expansion’s loosened verification standards open the barn door.

  Here’s my August 17 blog post on how hospitals are buckling under the weight of illegal alien care costs — and why it’s time to ration health care for illegal aliens.

  Here’s my August 26 blog post on the Congressional Research Service report that exposed immigration loopholes in the Democrat health care takeover plan.

  On September 9, GOP Rep. Joe Wilson called out President Obama on his false assertions that illegal aliens will be denied care under the Democrats’ proposals.

  And today? Today, the Democrats squabbled over how to craft language to prevent illegal aliens from taking advantage of a public option program.

  (tags: Obamacare illegalaliens)
• Internal DNC Memo On Health Care Speech Focus Groups – #tcot
  Research conducted with 49 voters in Tempe, Arizona by David Binder, who was Obama's campaign focus group guru, suggests to Democrats that the speech was "effective at alleviating concerns of voters and impressing upon them that the President has a strong plan to reform health care," the memo says. "Even among those voters who held neutral or negative opinions of the President, substantial positive movement was shown as the proportion of these participants supporting the President's plan increased by nearly 40% after the speech.

  According to Binder, the most highly rated section of the speech was Obama's description of new regulations on the insurance industry.

  (tags: Obamacare)
• Texas sends Rangers to Mexico border – Perry accuses federal government of failing to ‘adequately secure’ zone
  Special teams of Texas Rangers will be deployed to the Texas-Mexico border to deal with increasing violence because the federal government has failed to address growing problems there, Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday.

  "It is an expansive effort with the Rangers playing a more high-profile role than they've ever played before," Perry said of the Department of Public Safety's elite investigative unit.

  The forces, dubbed "Ranger recon" teams, are the latest effort "to fill the gap that's been left by the federal government's ongoing failure to adequately secure our international border with Mexico," he said.

  (tags: Rick_Perry Mexico)
• Obama sets stage for using budget maneuver to pass health reform – Reconciliation
  President Barack Obama this week has been laying the foundation for Senate Democrats to use a controversial budget maneuver to pass healthcare reform.

  By offering Republicans olive branches during his address to Congress on Wednesday, Obama has set up a win-win situation. If GOP lawmakers embrace compromise, a healthcare bill would pass Congress easily. But the more likely scenario is that Republicans will continue to oppose Obama’s plan, and the president later this fall will be able to note he tried to strike a deal with the GOP but could not.

  (tags: Obamacare)

On that fateful day in 2001, Rudy Giuliani rose to the ocassion and showed the world what leadership is.