Before the payoff, here’s a brief set-up:

Florida’s poor can use food stamps to buy staples like milk, vegetables, fruits and meat. But they can also use them to buy sweets like cakes, cookies and Jell-O and snack foods like chips, something a state senator wants stopped.

Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, also wants to limit other welfare funds, known as Temporary Assistance For Needy Families, from being used at ATMs in casinos and strip clubs and anywhere out of state. The bill comes after reports that the debit cards welfare recipients now receive were used in those places, as well as locations in Las Vegas and the Virgin Islands in a small percentage of cases, but the state does not track what items were purchased.

The bill recently passed a committee. A companion bill in the state House companion is being considered by a subcommittee.

You’d think the food police would be thrilled. If there’s anything they should get behind, it’s an initiative designed to encourage lower income people to avoid unhealthy eats… right?

But instead, one Democrat gives us our chuckle of the day by denouncing (albeit selectively) the notion of food police — and maybe even things like health care mandates. Get a load of this:

But critics say the government shouldn’t dictate what people eat.

“What I choose to ingest even though I may be on food stamps, that’s at my discretion. I don’t need government telling me what I can and cannot purchase,” said Rep. Gwyndolen Clarke-Reed, a Pompano Beach Democrat who voted in committee against the bill (SB 1658). She said the bill is demeaning and invasive and she worries the education campaign would imply to “minorities and low-income folks that they’re not intelligent enough to make selections on the foods they want.”

How many calories are burned by doubling over in laughter for several minutes? Maybe this is part of the “Let’s Move” program and people are being tricked into exercising. It wouldn’t be the first time.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

So, it turns out that the cool cat billed as “No Drama Obama” by his sycophants is actually quite the drama queen. While the White House publicly pretends to ignore conservative detractors of his administration, Chief Touchy-Touchy seems to be personally consumed by our critiques. Yes, mine included.

On Wednesday, the president had himself a mini-”Toddlers and Tiaras”-style meltdown with Arizona GOP Gov. Jan Brewer after landing in Phoenix for a post-State of the Union dog-and-pony show. As Brewer told pool reporters on the scene, Obama took umbrage at Brewer’s recent memoir. She minced no words on the cover: “Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media, and Cynical Politicos to Secure America’s Border.”

And she minced no words describing her impressions of Obama as they sparred over her state’s tough immigration enforcement law, which is now the subject of a Justice Department witch-hunt. Brewer called Obama “patronizing” and “condescending.” I’d say she was excruciatingly polite.

According to Brewer, “He was a little disturbed about my book. … I said to him that I have all the respect in the world for the office of the president. The book is what the book is. I asked him if he read the book. He said he read (an) excerpt.” In the shadow of Air Force One, Obama complained that Brewer hadn’t “treated him cordially” and then stalked off while she was responding mid-sentence.

Photogs captured the fracas on film. The civility police gasped at Brewer’s “disrespectful” finger-pointing. On cue, one progressive commentator insinuated the gesture was a “racist” jab tantamount to lynching.

The president was singing a more laid-back tune last summer. As debate on Capitol Hill over the debt ceiling and spending sizzled, Obama bragged to reporters: “I’m not trying to poke at you guys. … I generally don’t watch what is said about me on cable. I generally don’t read what’s said about me even in The Hill (newspaper), so part of this job is having a thick skin and understanding that a lot of this stuff is not personal.”

Uh-huh. At least two other Republican governors — Rick Perry of Texas and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana — have recounted similar presidential snit fits on the tarmac. He sulked over a letter Jindal wrote to the administration about food stamps for Gulf oil spill victims; he bolted after a half-minute meeting with Perry at an Austin airport over border security issues.

You know those “petty grievances” of “Washington politics” that Obama has long condemned? Now it can be told: He knows whereof he squawks.

As New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor’s new book, “The Obamas,” reveals, the president and his inner circle spent even more time carping about conservative influence on public opinion. “He wanted the media to be more of a referee; to put unfair Republican charges to rest,” Kantor discovered. “He could brush off the wildest, most baseless attacks themselves, he told (senior adviser and Chicago pal) Valerie Jarrett, along with (campaign finance bundler and treasurer) Marty Nesbitt and (bundler and finance mogul) John Rogers, at lunch in the little dining room next to the Oval Office.”

But what “galled him,” the book observed, “was when they gained mainstream credibility despite distortions of truth.”

Kantor then dutifully served as a pro-Obama referee:

“Rogers had just noticed a new book by the conservative columnist Michelle Malkin called ‘Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks and Cronies.’ Among many other allegations, Malkin wrote that Michelle Obama — the president’s ‘bitter half’ — was secretly running the country in Lady Macbeth-like fashion. Malkin even took a hatchet to long-dead Fraser Robinson (Mrs. Obama’s father), arguing with no evidence that his job at a water plant made him part of the ‘Chicago political corruptocracy.’ The book debuted at number one on The New York Times nonfiction bestseller list and stayed there for weeks.”

The facts? It was a former alderman in Chicago, Leon Depres, who provided evidence that Robinson’s job in the city water department was a reward for loyalty to the Daley political faction.

It was Washington Post writer Liza Mundy who reported that the department was “a renowned repository of patronage jobs.”

It’s the Illinois press that has long documented Mrs. Obama’s ties to the Chicago machine. It’s Kantor herself who spotlighted the first lady’s internecine warfare with her husband’s Cabinet. And from her meddling in everything from the AmeriCorps inspector general firing case to her aggressive, Big Labor-backed push for a publicly subsidized food police corps, Michelle Obama has been openly expanding her East Wing fiefdom in Marie Antoinette-like fashion.

How long before we see a FLOTUS tarmac tantrum? We did get two divas for the price of one. As longtime observers of the royal Obamas have long observed: Mr. and Mrs. Cranky Pants’ problem has never been the color of their skin. It’s the thinness.

In spite of the fact that even Warren Buffett is unsure what the “Buffett Rule” is, President Obama, fully aware that the US tax code is in dire need of more ambiguity, will push for it in his State of the Union speech tonight. Just to hammer home the point, Buffett’s Executive Assistant (the word “secretary” sounds incredibly non-progressive) will sit with First Lady tonight:

Billionaire Warren Buffett’s longtime secretary will be joining first lady Michelle Obama in her box at tonight’s State of the Union, White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer announced on Twitter.

Debbie Bosanek, who has worked for Buffett for nearly two decades, has become a symbol in the White House’s fight over the tax code and economic fairness. Obama is expected to renew his push for the so-called “Buffett rule” that would bring investment taxation levels into line with income taxation levels — and ensure that upper income earners pay rates as high as middle-class Americans.

In his Republican Response, maybe Mitch Daniels can use this as an opportunity to point out the need to lower the tax burden on folks like Ms. Bosanek — as well as talk about how one of her boss’s companies stands to benefit from Obama’s Keystone Pipeline rejection.

Rumor is that after the SOTU Buffett may generously offer to lower his secretary’s salary so as to drop her down into a tax bracket that more closely resembles the percentage he pays on his capital gains and dividends income, but if that happens she’ll probably decline.

(h/t Weasel Zippers)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Michelle Obama’s Unsavory School Lunch Flop
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2011

The road to gastric hell is paved with first lady Michelle Obama’s Nanny State intentions. Don’t take my word for it. School kids in Los Angeles have blown the whistle on the east wing chef-in-chief’s healthy lunch diktats. Get your Pepto Bismol ready. The taste of government waste is indigestion-inducing.

According to a weekend report by the Los Angeles Times, the city’s “trailblazing introduction of healthful school lunches has been a flop.” In response to the public hectoring and financial inducement of Mrs. Obama’s federally subsidized anti-obesity campaign, the district dropped chicken nuggets, corn dogs and flavored milk from the menu for “beef jambalaya, vegetable curry, pad Thai, lentil and brown rice cutlets, and quinoa and black-eyed pea salads.”

Sounds delectable in theory. But in practice, the initiative has been what L.A. Unified’s food services director Dennis Barrett plainly concludes is a “disaster.” While the Obama administration has showered the nation’s second-largest school district with nutrition awards, thousands of students voted with their upset tummies and abandoned the program. A forbidden-food black market — stoked not just by students, but also by teachers — is now thriving. Moreover, “(p)rincipals report massive waste, with unopened milk cartons and uneaten entrees being thrown away.”

This despite a massive increase in spending on nutritional improvements — from $2 million to $20 million alone in the last five years on fresh produce.

This despite a nearly half-billion-dollar budget shortfall and 3,000 layoffs earlier this year.

Earlier this spring, L.A. school officials acknowledged that the sprawling district is left with a whopping 21,000 uneaten meals a day, in part because the federal school lunch program “sometimes requires more food to be served than a child wants to eat.” The leftovers will now be donated to nonprofit agencies. But after the recipients hear about students’ reports of moldy noodles, undercooked meat and hard rice, one wonders how much of the “free” food will go down the hatch — or down the drain. Ahhh, savor the flavor of one-size-fits-all mandates.

There’s nothing wrong with encouraging our children to eat healthier, of course. There’s nothing wrong with well-run, locally based and parent-driven efforts. But as I’ve noted before, the federal foodie cops care much less about students’ waistlines than they do about boosting government and public union payrolls.

In a little-noticed announcement several months ago, Obama health officials declared their intention to use school lunch applications to boost government health care rolls. Never mind the privacy concerns of parents.

Big Government programs “for the children” are never about the children. If they were, you wouldn’t see Chicago public school officials banning students from bringing home-packed meals made by their own parents. In April, The Chicago Tribune reported that “unless they have a medical excuse, they must eat the food served in the cafeteria.” The bottom line? Banning homemade lunches means a fatter payday for the school and its food provider.

Remember: The unwritten mantra driving Mrs. Obama’s federal school lunch meddling and expansion is: “Cede the children, feed the state.” And the biggest beneficiaries of her efforts over the past three years have been her husband’s deep-pocketed pals at the Service Employees International Union. There are 400,000 workers who prepare and serve lunch to American schoolchildren. SEIU represents tens of thousands of those workers and is trying to unionize many more at all costs.

In L.A., the district’s cafeteria fund is $20 million in the hole thanks to political finagling by SEIU Local 99. The union’s left-wing allies on the school board and in the mayor’s office pressured the district to adopt reckless fiscal policies awarding gold-plated health benefits to part-time cafeteria workers in the name of “social justice.” As one school board member who opposed the budget-busting entitlements said: “Everyone in this country deserves health benefits. But it was a very expensive proposal. And it wasn’t done at the bargaining table, which is where health benefits are usually negotiated. And no one had any idea where the money was going to come from.”

Early next year, Mrs. Obama will use the “success” of her child nutrition campaign to hawk a new tome and lobby for more money and power in concert with her husband’s re-election campaign. It’s a recipe for more half-baked progressivism served with a side order of bitter arugula.

So this just arrived in my e-mail box tonight from the other Michelle:

Michelle –

Michelle

Guess Mrs. Obama missed out on the brouhaha raised by Obama’s women in the White House who don’t believe they got a “fair shake.”

Flashback:

Now, some of the actual women who served in the White House are bemoaning the “hostile workplace” at 1600 Pennsylvania:

Friction about the roles of women in the Obama White House grew so intense during the first two years of the president’s tenure that he was forced to take steps to reassure senior women on his staff that he valued their presence and their input.

At a dinner in November 2009, several senior female aides complained directly to the president that men enjoyed greater access to him and often muscled them out of key policy discussions.

Those tensions prompted Obama, urged on by senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, to elevate more women into senior White House positions, recognize them more during staff meetings and increase the female presence in the upper ranks of the reelection campaign. “There were some issues early on with women feeling as though they hadn’t figured out what their role was going to be on the senior team at the White House,” Jarrett said in an interview Monday. “Most of the women hadn’t worked on the campaign, and so they didn’t have a personal relationship with the president.”

…One of the most striking quotes in the book came from former White House communications director Anita Dunn , who was quoted as saying that, “this place would be in court for a hostile workplace. . . . Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women.”

Dunn says she was quoted out of context and told The Post on Friday that she told Suskind “point blank” that the White House was not a hostile work environment.

Except that, er, she did say that:

On Monday, Suskind allowed a Post reporter to review a recorded excerpt of the original interview, which took place over the telephone in April. In that conversation, Dunn is heard telling Suskind about a conversation she had with Jarrett.

“I remember once I told Valerie that, I said if it weren’t for the president, this place would be in court for a hostile workplace,” Dunn is heard telling Suskind. “Because it actually fit all of the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace to women.”

Oops.

Two weeks ago I received this email signed by the President:

Doug –

Supporters like you are the reason I’m here, and the values we share have always made our organization more than just a political campaign.

So whenever I can, I want to take the opportunity to meet you. Last month, that meant I got to talk to folks in Iowa about small-business opportunities, and sit down with a group of volunteers from around the country who helped build this campaign in their communities this summer.

Today, I want to ask if you’ll join me and three other supporters for a meal and conversation sometime soon.

Please donate $5 or more to be automatically entered for a chance to join me for dinner.
[...]
That’s why I’m asking for your donation today. I hope you’ll take a minute to help build this campaign. When you do, you’ll have a chance to join me for dinner:

https://donate.barackobama.com/Dinner

Maybe I’ll get to thank you in person.

Barack

Just about an hour ago, I got this email signed by the First Lady:

Doug –

Not everyone knows how to prepare for a dinner like this. As someone who’s eaten countless meals with my husband, I want to tell you the one thing to do if you’re selected to join him…

Just relax. Barack wants this dinner to be fun, and he really loves getting to know supporters like you.

I hope you’ll take him up on it before Friday’s deadline.

Will you donate $3 or more today and be entered to have dinner with Barack?
[...]
Don’t miss the opportunity to be there. Donate $3 today, before the September 30th deadline:

https://donate.barackobama.com/Dinner

Thanks,

Michelle

I know President Obama isn’t polling well these days, but now even his wife is marking him down?

If it keeps going in that direction, before too long I’m hoping the administration ends up offering to send me money — but I might have to start a solar company first.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

In her latest flexing of federal “Let’s Move” muscle, First Lady Michelle Obama has strong-armed several major restaurant chains into re-designing their menus to her exacting healthy standards.

Move it or lose it!

Michelle Obama said Thursday that a pledge by the Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants and their sister chains to serve healthier meals is a “breakthrough moment” for the industry.

Darden Restaurants Inc. is pledging to cut calories and sodium in its meals by 10 percent by 2016, and 20 percent over a decade. Among promised changes for children: no more french fries. A fruit or vegetable side will become standard with kids’ meals. One percent milk also will be served, including free refills, unless an alternative drink is ordered.

“With this new commitment, Darden is doing what no restaurant company has done before,” said the first lady, who joined executives of Orlando, Fla.-based Darden for the announcement at an Olive Garden restaurant in Hyattsville, Md., just outside Washington.

…The kids’ menu changes have begun and are to be in place by July at Darden’s 1,900 restaurants in 49 states. Its other brands are LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze and Seasons 52. The Capital Grille and Seasons 52 do not have children’s menus. The children’s menu will also include at least one 600-calorie or less option with reduced fat and sodium.

“We want to ensure that those who dine with us find the choices that they desire,” said Clarence Otis Jr., Darden’s chief executive officer.

In a normal, free-market environment, of course, business executives take their cue from customers — not from the East Wing.

But this is no normal, free-market environment.

And, I might add, Darden Restaurants is no normal restaurant chain.

At a time when most food service providers are struggling under the weight of increased taxes, health care mandates, and regulations, Darden Restaurants just happens to be one of the few and fortunate businesses to obtain one of those coveted Obamacare waivers.

Remember? I do. Flashback November 2010:

In early October, the Obama administration announced it had granted waivers not only to McDonald’s, but also to several other firms and labor unions.

Now comes word that Torquemada HHS Secretay Kathleen Sebelius has approved a whopping 111 waivers for businesses of all sizes, along with more unions and other providers of health insurance. The escapees include employers of many low-wage and part-time workers whose health insurance plans would otherwise be dropped, including Darden Restaurants — the parent company of the Olive Garden and Red Lobster and other chains, which employ some 34,000 people.

Among the waivers recently granted were for employers like Darden Restaurants, which operates the Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurants, for 34,000 of its workers. Federal officials have granted 111 waivers to employers, insurers and union plans, who are responsible for covering about 1.2 million people.

Darden said the waiver would allow it to offer employees access to affordable coverage as the health care law is started.

Quid pro quo: It’s what’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

With the approval of First Nutritionist Michelle Obama, McDonald’s is getting rid of caramel apple dip, reducing the French fries portion, and adding more apples to its Happy Meals offerings.

Mrs. Obama expects more:

“McDonald’s is making continued progress today by providing more fruit and reducing the calories in its Happy Meals.

McDonald’s has continued to evolve its menu, and I look forward to hearing about the progress of today’s commitments, as well as efforts in the years to come.”

They won’t rest until the Happy Meal has undergone the total Berkeley makeover.

Next up: Goodbye, hamburgers. Hello, tofu burgers.

Goodbye, fruit juice boxes. Hello, kale/wheatgrass boxes.

I’m running out to Sonic before right now before they get their grubby Nanny State hands on my cheesy tots and cherry limeade.

***

Okay, all my wonderful Photoshop friends and readers. I know you can come up with better designs than mine. Send me your best Unhappy Meal makeover images and I’ll post the best! Winner of the contest gets a Sonic gift card.

***

Update…The first batch of Unhappy Meal makeover entries are in. You guys work fast! Keep ‘em coming. I’m lovin’ it!

1) Mack Swaringen went all out (click for full-size image)…

2) Matthias Reynolds drew inspiration from Mr. Yuck…

3) Frank M. Palermo in Toronto, Canada sent this note along with his entry: “McComrade, The new (un)Happy Meal is now First Lady approved with 100% less taste and 100% more wheatgrass!”(Click for full-size image)

4) From Bucktown Dusty…

5) Logan Thompson went for simplicity…

6) Glenn W. introduces the “Hope-y Meal:”

7) Steve at Grandpa John’s blog serves one up:

Because of Michelle Obama’s Shake Shack order last Monday, among other food stops, more people are buying burgers, fries and milk shakes. FLOTUS visits are mini-stimulus for restaurants — except these stimulus actually seem to work.

Washington Post:

Obama Foodarama is reporting that Shake Shack and Eatonville are reporting a “Michelle Obama Effect” — a spike in visitors after the first lady racked up the calories during visits last week. Apparently, you can now order “The Michelle Obama Special” at Shake Shack, and you’ll get a burger, french fries, a shake and a Diet Coke, just like Mrs. O.

If you order the “FLOTUS Happy Meal” you’ll get all of the above, plus a toy: plastic BMI calipers imprinted with the “Let’s Move” logo.

Remember, that meal was in no way in violation of current healthy living guidelines, because nutritionists defended it. The Diet Coke must somehow act as an offset. The USDA was going to include it on their new “Dinner Plate,” but there wasn’t room.

(h/t Weasel Zippers)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

***

AmeriCorps’s favorite scandal-plagued mayor
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2011

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, FOTO (Friend of the Obamas)

A prominent Democratic politician who had been banned from receiving federal aid three years ago over fraud charges is once again raking in government funds from the very same program he abused. It pays to be a FOTO — Friend of the Obamas.

Our publicly-subsidized con artist is Sacramento mayor and former NBA star Kevin Johnson. He donated the maximum individual amount to Obama for America, campaigned across the country for Obama in 2008, and bragged to California media during his mayoral run about his friendship and access to both Barack and Michelle Obama. The Obama administration’s Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) recently bestowed Johnson’s city with an AmeriCorps grant worth more than $650,000.

The money will flow into Sacramento’s “Get Fit Now! Initiative,” which will hire 124 AmeriCorps members “to teach fitness and nutrition education to children and offer adult fitness classes for their parents. They will also set up school-based gardens where children will learn how to grow fresh vegetables.”

That’s a lot of fertilizer-shovelers employed in the name of “public service.” If the award smells funny, it should. For Johnson, AmeriCorps has indeed been all about service – self-service, that is.

In 2008, the independent Inspector General overseeing AmeriCorps, Gerald Walpin, concluded that Johnson and aide Dana Gonzalez had squandered hundreds of thousands of a nearly-million-dollar grant earmarked for his non-profit youth organization, St. HOPE. Based on Walpin’s investigation, AmeriCorps’ parent organization (the aforementioned CNCS) suspended Johnson and Gonzalez’s access to federal funds. Here’s a refresher on their fraud and abuse that led to the ban:

*Using AmeriCorps members to “recruit students for St. HOPE Academy;”

*Improperly using AmeriCorps “members to perform non-AmeriCorps clerical and other services” that “were outside the scope of the grant and therefore were impermissible” for “the benefit of St. HOPE.”

Johnson didn’t get jail time. Instead, the Democratic U.S. Attorney in Sacramento cut a cozy settlement deal so Johnson could avoid criminal prosecution. The deal also allowed Johnson to re-pay just a fraction of the money he siphoned from AmeriCorps coffers for personal gain – and it freed Johnson to receive federal Obama stimulus money for Sacramento. (My most recent check of the Recovery.gov website shows the city has taken in at least $32 million in stimulus cash.)

In keeping with this administration’s brutal war on whistleblowers, Inspector General Walpin was unceremoniously fired and smeared by Team Obama. The White House baselessly questioned the veteran watchdog’s mental health and accused him of political interference. The First Lady then installed her former chief of staff, Jackie Norris, in AmeriCorps’ top management to ensure – in Mrs. Obama’s own words – that they remained the program’s “No. 1 cheerleaders.”

Even more troubling, Johnson continues to reap government tax dollars for youth programs while he remains dogged by questions about his predatory behavior with teenage girls. A little-noticed section of the joint November 2009 report by GOP Sen. Charles Grassley and GOP Rep. Darrell Issa on Walpin’s firing revealed that the AmeriCorps inspector general’s investigator “became aware of allegations of inappropriate contact between Johnson and three female St. HOPE students.” Their stories mirror a similar incident involving Johnson (then 29 and playing for the Phoenix Suns) and a 16-year-old girl dating back to 1995.

Johnson’s attorney, Kevin Hiestand, approached at least one of the St. HOPE students describing himself only as ‘a friend of Johnson’s,’ and ‘basically asked me to keep quiet,’” according to the student. She had complained to St. HOPE officials that Johnson groped her sexually after instructing her to grade papers with him in her apartment. The report also highlighted what clearly looks like a hush-money and witness-tampering attempt: “According to her interview with OIG investigators, about one week later, Kevin Johnson offered her $1,000 a month until the end of the program, which she refused to accept.”

Erik Jones, a teacher at St. HOPE, reported to the police that one of his students told him Johnson “started massaging her shoulders and then reached over and touched her breasts.” Jones quit his job in protest over the seeming cover-up of Johnson’s harassment and wrote in his resignation letter that “St. HOPE sought to intimidate the student through an illegal interrogation and even had the audacity to ask me to change my story.”

Another student recounted for investigators how Johnson “kissed her cheek, brushed up against her,” and touched her thigh on various occasions – as well as flipping up her skirt on a St. HOPE-sponsored trip to Harlem. She didn’t report the incidents to AmeriCorps officials at the time because she “feared she would be terminated.”

Another St. HOPE official, Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez, also left Johnson’s non-profit over the whitewash. Michelle Rhee, Johnson’s fiancé and former D.C. schools chief, was a St. HOPE board member at the time. The Grassley-Issa report noted that “According to Wong-Hernandez, Rhee learned of the allegations and played the role of a fixer, doing ‘damage control’” and vouching for Johnson’s character.

He’s a “good guy,” Rhee told Walpin.

Taxpayers — and especially parents of teenage girls and AmeriCorps workers in Sacramento schools — should beg to differ.

Today, a relatively useless government chart will be replaced by a similarly useless but easier to understand chart:

(CNN) — Remember the food pyramid, the old symbol that showed us what a healthy diet looked like?

Well, forget it.

First lady Michelle Obama and several other officials will unveil a new plate-shaped food icon Thursday that “will serve as a reminder to help consumers make healthier food choices,” the White House said. .

Obama will be joined by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Surgeon General Regina Benjamin during the event at the auditorium in the Department of Agriculture.

A Department of Agriculture statement, without describing the new icon, said it will be “an easy-to-understand visual cue to help consumers adopt healthy eating habits.”

Here’s the food pyramid’s replacement, the “Dinner Plate”:

In some circles the new chart is also referred to as “Michelle O’s Hierarchy of Feeds.”

When it comes to getting our minds focused on healthy food, nothing does the trick as well as a pie chart (though to me it looks as if the USDA has put fruits, vegetables, protein and grains in the crosshairs).

The cost? I knew you were going to ask that:

Dr. Post said the U.S.D.A. had spent about $2 million to develop and promote the logo, including conducting research and focus groups and creating a Web site. Some of that money will also be used for the first year of a campaign to publicize the image. He said the agency would use the plate to get across several basic nutritional messages, including urging consumers to eat smaller portions, switch to low-fat or fat-free milk and drink water instead of sugary drinks.

So it’s pretty much a “Let’s Move” redundancy. When money is no object you can’t have too many backup systems.

If they really want to do kids a favor they’ll come up with an instructive chart on how the government’s wasting money and bankrupting their future.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

One of the members of the rap group that came up with the 2010 one-hit wonder “Teach Me How to Dougie” died in a drive-by shooting this weekend.

He went by the moniker “M-Bone.”

The First Lady Michelle Obama was recently seen doing the Dougie at a “Let’s Move” event with kids (starts at :32 in the video) — a fact being mentioned in every one of M-Bone’s obits:

To mark M-Bone’s passing, let’s all reflect on his profound contribution to the arts and culture, most recently popularized by the First Lady. Without further ado, the uncensored lyrics to “Teach Me How to Dougie:”

Aye! aye
Teach me how to dougie (aye!)

Back of the party ion really like to boogie
I’m just tryna get bent and meet a thick redbone
(Mmm) she do her dougie and everyboy hatin but I’m bout
To ecsape with a bitch and head home(fuck it)
She bout to dougie and hit wit 2 hands
And I run it run it even if her legs long yaaah
She like you my hubby and I think she love me but,
I change then subject and I do my dougie
But, ion give a fuck, blow trees, get money
Leave 2 heifers feinin like sum playboy bunnies
Dey gon make us do da dougie in da middle of da dance
And when I asked for some head da bitch looked at me funny
Bye! bitch you can’t tell me nothin starr baked da beat
And I just took it out the oven, I just hit the dougie when everybody
Clubbin and I hate skinny jeans cuz da burner keep rubbin! (oh! )

***

Fellow rapper “Twista” pays tribute:

“#RIP to the homie M-bone from cali swag,your family is in my prayers. you got the whole world doin a dance thats what you call a #legacy”

A small, local news outlet with a name like “Pleasanton Weekly” doesn’t sound very threatening, but according to an email sent to the Daily Caller, the publication has some journalistic teeth that the White House thought needed to be filed down — specifically, the choppers that made Michelle Obama come across as snooty:

A small weekly paper in California claims that a White House official asked it to remove a sentence from a “benign” feature about Marine One because it reflected poorly on first lady Michelle Obama.
[...]
The story in question was a soft feature about Marine One titled, “Inside Marine One, President Obama’s helicopter,” that ran in the paper on April 20. Pleasanton staffer Amory Gutierrez “didn’t get to ride in ‘Marine One,’” she wrote in her story, “but I did get the VIP tour and took photographs of the otherwise unseen aircraft.”

She also wrote a sentence that the White House thought made FLOTUS look snooty.

“Basically the reporter said that the First Lady didn’t speak to the pilots but acknowledged them by making eye contact,” Allen wrote in her email.

Allen says she “complied” with the White House’s request “because it was not worth making a fuss over.”

This little band of California rabble-rousers might just be a small operation, but the White House can never be too careful in keeping them in check. One day it’s the Pleasanton Weekly, but the next thing they know it’s ballooned into the San Francisco Chronicle.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

The busybody hand of Michelle Obama looms large. New target: Jell-O, Fruit Loops, and that evil of evils…Minute Maid Lemonade. Via the NYTimes, meet the war (or rather, kinetic action — h/t chap) on dyed foods:

After staunchly defending the safety of artificial food colorings, the federal government is for the first time publicly reassessing whether foods like Jell-O, Lucky Charms cereal and Minute Maid Lemonade should carry warnings that the bright artificial colorings in them worsen behavior problems like hyperactivity in some children.

The Food and Drug Administration concluded long ago that there was no definitive link between the colorings and behavior or health problems, and the agency is unlikely to change its mind any time soon. But on Wednesday and Thursday, the F.D.A. will ask a panel of experts to review the evidence and advise on possible policy changes, which could include warning labels on food.

The hearings signal that the growing list of studies suggesting a link between artificial colorings and behavioral changes in children has at least gotten regulators’ attention — and, for consumer advocates, that in itself is a victory.

In a concluding report, staff scientists from the F.D.A. wrote that while typical children might be unaffected by the dyes, those with behavioral disorders might have their conditions “exacerbated by exposure to a number of substances in food, including, but not limited to, synthetic color additives.”

Renee Shutters, a mother of two from Jamestown, N.Y., said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that two years ago, her son Trenton, then 5, was having serious behavioral problems at school until she eliminated artificial food colorings from his diet. “I know for sure I found the root cause of this one because you can turn it on and off like a switch,” Ms. Shutters said.

But Dr. Lawrence Diller, a behavioral pediatrician in Walnut Creek, Calif., said evidence that diet plays a significant role in most childhood behavioral disorders was minimal to nonexistent. “These are urban legends that won’t die,” Dr. Diller said.

The food police’s regulatory solution: More government-imposed labels, of course.

Can someone please slap a health hazard warning label on junk science queen Michelle Obama?

How do you say “Let’s Move” in Spanish?

President Hugo Chavez urged Venezuelans on Sunday to cut their calories to avoid obesity — the latest lifestyle recommendation by the self-proclaimed socialist crusader.

Chavez has lobbied in recent weeks against what he calls the evils of capitalism, including alcoholism, breast implants and violent television programs.

“Be careful with weight gain!” warned Chavez on Sunday, speaking during his weekly television and radio program. “We are eating better, that’s been proven. We’re leaving malnutrition behind. It no longer exists in the country, but be careful with obesity.”

Chavez — who often dispenses advice to supporters during his marathon speeches — said he’d start a campaign to urge Venezuelans to consume less fatty foods and eat in a healthier fashion.

Venezuelans who would like to get rid of any fatty foods in their pantries and refrigerators are being encouraged to donate them to Michael Moore the next time he visits.

(h/t Weasel Zippers)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe