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Thinking squarely outside the box for solutions to heal the economy, a college student had a rather innovative and unorthodox idea idea for the president at his Friday jobs speech in Allentown, PA.

Following the speech, a second-year student asked Obama: “I was wondering if, maybe if, you checked out some of the statistics about legalizing prostitution, gambling, drugs and non-violent crime in order to stimulate some of the economy?”

The crowd chuckled and Obama smiled. “I have to say this, I appreciate the boldness of your question,” he replied.

Not leaving anyone hanging, he quickly declared: “That will not be my job strategy,” to laughs and applause from the attendees at Lehigh Carbon Community College.

“Part of what you’re supposed to do in college  is question conventional wisdom,” the president jested. “And so you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing, which is thinking in new ways about things.”

Reports today revealed that November job-losses were the lowest in over a year at 11,000 — unemployment fell for first time in the Obama presidency, albeit marginally, from 10.2 to 10 percent. Obama deemed it a “hopeful sign” Friday.

Later in the session, Obama expressed frustration at Congress’ often-sluggish pace on legislation, and slammed the GOP for what he deemed its over-usage of the filibuster.

“Congress works incredibly hard, but moves, well, deliberately,” he said, to laughter. “It takes time to get things done… The public thinks, What are these folks doing? Sometimes it gives you a headache, but that’s democracy. It’s not easy to get anything done, but it keeps us stable. But it’s frustrating.”

Hitting Senate Republicans for frequently using traditionally rare moves to slow down his agenda, he said: “You need 60 votes for everything, because now the opposition evokes the filibuster for everything.”

Watch the video of Obama’s exchange with the college student:

Download video via RawReplay.com

Additional reporting by David Edwards

Thinking squarely outside the box for solutions to heal the economy, a college student had a rather innovative and unorthodox idea idea for the president at his Friday jobs speech in Allentown, PA.

Following the speech, a second-year student asked Obama: “I was wondering if, maybe if, you checked out some of the statistics about legalizing prostitution, gambling, drugs and non-violent crime in order to stimulate some of the economy?”

The crowd chuckled and Obama smiled. “I have to say this, I appreciate the boldness of your question,” he replied.

Not leaving anyone hanging, he quickly declared: “That will not be my job strategy,” to laughs and applause from the attendees at Lehigh Carbon Community College.

“Part of what you’re supposed to do in college  is question conventional wisdom,” the president jested. “And so you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing, which is thinking in new ways about things.”

Reports today revealed that November job-losses were the lowest in over a year at 11,000 — unemployment fell for first time in the Obama presidency, albeit marginally, from 10.2 to 10 percent. Obama deemed it a “hopeful sign” Friday.

Later in the session, Obama expressed frustration at Congress’ often-sluggish pace on legislation, and slammed the GOP for what he deemed its over-usage of the filibuster.

“Congress works incredibly hard, but moves, well, deliberately,” he said, to laughter. “It takes time to get things done… The public thinks, What are these folks doing? Sometimes it gives you a headache, but that’s democracy. It’s not easy to get anything done, but it keeps us stable. But it’s frustrating.”

Hitting Senate Republicans for frequently using traditionally rare moves to slow down his agenda, he said: “You need 60 votes for everything, because now the opposition evokes the filibuster for everything.”

Watch the video of Obama’s exchange with the college student:

Download video via RawReplay.com

Additional reporting by David Edwards

Never one to miss an opportunity to jump on a conservative bandwagon, Sarah Palin has called on President Barack Obama to boycott the worldwide climate conference in Copenhagen this month, citing the recent “Climategate” emails incident as proof that global warming is based on “junk science.”

Palin has again taken to the social networking website Facebook to voice her opinion, this time declaring that anthropogenic climate change is an “unscientific” excuse for a “cap and tax” plan based on “snake oil” and a “scare tactic” pushed by “dogmatic environmentalists.”

In the incident she refers to, hackers exposed a series of email exchanges between scientists that has further polarized the climate change debate in the United States. Various conservatives, particularly in the United States, have touted it as proof of a global conspiracy.

Palin wrote that “the leaked e-mails involved in Climategate expose the unscientific behavior of leading climate scientists who deliberately destroyed records to block information requests, manipulated data to ‘hide the decline’ in global temperatures, and conspired to silence the critics of man-made global warming.”

Scientists on the blog RealClimate disputed these claims, saying: “There is no evidence of any worldwide conspiracy, no mention of George Soros nefariously funding climate research, no grand plan to ‘get rid of the MWP’, no admission that global warming is a hoax, no evidence of the falsifying of data, and no ‘marching orders’ from our socialist/communist/vegetarian overlords.”

Palin opined that “Policy decisions require real science and real solutions, not junk science and doomsday scare tactics pushed by an environmental priesthood… Saying no to Copenhagen and cap and tax are first steps in “restoring science to its rightful place.”

But her doubts on evolution, a virtually undisputed concept among experts, bring into question her scientific credibility. Only six percent of modern scientists are Republicans, a Pew survey found this summer.

Palin’s conclusions on climate change run contrary to the research of the world’s most lauded scientists, who have discovered that since 1997, “climate change has worsened and accelerated — beyond some of the grimmest of warnings made back then,” the Associated Press reported weeks ago.

Republican Sen. James Inhofe (OK), who has long said that global warming is a “hoax,” recently called for an investigation into the leaked emails. He alleged that the IPCC “cooked the science to make this thing look as if the science was settled, when all the time of course we knew it was not.”

This week, two prominent conservative writers announced they were officially leaving the American right, disillusioned by — among other things –  the frequent denial of climate science among leaders. Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs noted “Support for anti-science bad craziness” as one of his quips, specifically naming Sarah Palin and “climate change denialism” as prime culprits. Andrew Sullivan wrote that he “cannot support a movement that sees climate change as a hoax.”

Documents long classified but scheduled to be released at the end of 2009 will not see the light of day just yet thanks to the Obama administration, according to a published report.

Under pressure to grant an extension to intelligence agencies that have reviewed only a fraction of the “millions of pages,” the administration is allowing an undetermined amount of time for additional consideration of the materials, a report in The Boston Globe notes.

“The documents in question - all more than 25 years old - were scheduled to be declassified on Dec. 31 under an order originally signed by President Bill Clinton and amended by President George W. Bush,” wrote reporter Bryan Bender. Both presidents Clinton and Bush also granted the agencies extensions, in 2000 and 2003.

However, Bender added, “because [the Obama] administration has been unable to prod spy agencies into conformance,” no such release is scheduled any time soon and it may be years before they are disclosed.

This, in spite of the president’s repeated assurances of increased transparency. The decision to extend declassification deadlines for the agencies “would run counter to the Obama administration’s push for more openness in the federal government, including the declassification process,” noted ProPublica. “In May, the Globe points out, Obama ‘ordered a 90-day review by the National Security Council” of the classification process.”

In a memorandum to the heads of executive agencies, President Obama wrote that his administration will “take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use.”

The president has said he wants to establish a National Declassification Center that would review documents scheduled for release. The White House position has been that no government information should remain classified forever, with the president seeking to establish timelines of 25-75 years for the disclosure of secret documents.

According to the Globe, over 400 million pages of declassified, historical U.S. government documents are still waiting to be indexed in the National Archives for public viewing.

Ultra right-wing radio talk show host Hal Turner provided intelligence to the FBI that agents considered “irreplaceable,” according to emails reviewed for a lengthy investigative report published Sunday.

Writing for NorthJersey.com, reporters Mike Kelly and Peter J. Sampson reveal that the bureau once even used Turner as an undercover intelligence operative in Brazil, where he informed on white supremacist group American National Alliance and met with a representative of the Brazilian Arab Society who sought to provide support to Iraqi fighters.

According to documents reviewed for the report, Turner’s FBI codename was “Valhalla,” which he sometimes wrote on the memo line of the checks the agency sent him.

Turner’s famously vile, racist broadcasts began in 2002, though the one-time Pat Buchanan campaign coordinator did not begin his relationship with the FBI until 2003, when he was recruited to attend a National Alliance meeting in West Virginia. When he finally stopped broadcasting in 2008, he was being investigated for making death threats against judges he disagreed with.

Turner’s laywer, Michael Orozco, gave a different timeline than the North Jersey report, claiming in August that Turner’s relationship with the FBI began in 2002.

At least several times during his status as an FBI informant, agents admonished Turner for his increasingly dangerous, threatening rhetoric. While Turner even once severed his relationship with the bureau in 2007, he was back on payroll within months. Once finally arrested, allegedly by the very agents who recruited him, the right-wing talker expressed dismay and surprise at being reeled in.

“I was not some street snitch,” he said during a jail interview, according to the North Jersey report. “I was a deep undercover intelligence operative.”

Indeed, according to an e-mail disclosed by the North Jersey report, Special Agent Stephen Haug wrote that “[Turner's] value outweighs the discomfort associated with source’s rhetoric. Source’s unique access provides important intelligence which, if lost, would be irreplaceable.”

An FBI memo cited by the reporters added that Turner “has proven highly reliable and is in a unique position to provide vital information on multiple subversive domestic organizations,” elaborating that he identified over 100 possible extremists and prevented “over 10 acts of violence”. Though it does not specify how many people saw the inside of a jail cell because of Turner, it does note that “multiple subjects” were arrested.

Turner’s trial for making threats against three judges begins this week. In an surprising twist, Orozco reportedly plans to subpoena New Jersey Governor-elect Chris Christie. He hopes to find out if Christie advised the FBI about Turner as a U.S. Attorney in Newark.

Turner was first outed as an FBI informant in July, 2008, when unknown hackers broke into the racist agent provocateur’s e-mail and discovered a message to a bureau handler discussing an alleged plot to kill Sen. Russ Feingold.

Orozco has moved for the court to dismiss the case against Turner on the grounds that the government engaged in “outrageous conduct” by sponsoring Turner’s racist rhetoric, then arresting him for going too far.