Politician Honest? Yeah Right...

President Barack Obama Celebrates Birthday Today

2010-08-04T08:12:00.000-07:00

It'll be a lonely birthday for President Barack Obama as his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha, are away on different trips. Especially with no Marilyn Monroe to jump out of a cake for him.The First Lady and Sasha are in Spain's luxurious Marbella and Malia is at summer camp.

President Obama will still have to adhere to a schedule on his birthday. Duty calls. He is traveling to his home in Chicago where he will visit a Ford car factory. Sources say he plans to later have dinner with close friends as well.

Age doesn't seem to be taking too much of a toll on Obama. He admits to having more gray hairs and a slower metabolism.

Maybe he will settle to give ol' Monica a call.

Matt Lauer to Interview former President Bush

2010-08-03T06:46:00.000-07:00

Matt Lauer has been granted a sit down interview with former president George W. Bush for Bush's first one-on-one television interview since leaving the Oval Office, NBC said. The interview is to air in prime time Nov. 8 as a special "Matt Lauer Reports," the network said.

Bush, who was president from 2001-2009, will then join Lauer live on "Today" Nov. 10, the network said.

"Since leaving office, President Bush has granted no one-on-one television interviews about his presidency," NBC noted in a news release. "President Bush will talk to Lauer about the details of his upcoming book, 'Decision Points,' to be released by Crown Publishers on Nov. 9, and he will discuss the defining decisions he has made in his personal and political life."

Best 4th of July quotes from Lincoln, Napoleon, Gandhi, Kennedy, Obama and others

2009-07-02T08:16:00.001-07:00

The 4th of July: America’s Independence Day is normally filled with the 3 F’s – food, friends (and/or family) and fireworks. It’s also a great day for parents to slip in a little education and help our children understand what it is we are celebrating. Here are some great quotes about freedom and liberty to get you started.
“The greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself.” ~ Saul Alinsky
“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves” ~ Abraham Lincoln

“Liberty is the breath of life to nations” ~ Bernard Shaw

“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide” ~ Napoleon Bonaparte
“Where liberty dwells, there is my country” ~ Benjamin Franklin
“We stand for freedom. That is our conviction for ourselves; that is our only commitment to others. ”
~ John F Kennedy

“Freedom is the oxygen of the soul” ~ Moshe Dayan
“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope”. ~Winston Churchill

“Better to starve free than be a fat slave” ~ Aesop
“Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?” ~ Gandhi

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed” ~.Martin Luther King, Jr.

“That’s why I stand here tonight. Because for two hundred and thirty two years, at each moment when that promise was in jeopardy, ordinary men and women – students and soldiers, farmers and teachers, nurses and janitors — found the courage to keep it alive.” ~ President Barrack Obama

Helen Thomas: Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama

2009-07-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

By Penny Starr and Fred Lucas

(CNSNews.com) - Following a testy exchange during Wednesday’s briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control the press the way President Obama is trying to control the press.

“Nixon didn’t try to do that,” Thomas said. “They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try.

“What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”

Thomas said she was especially concerned about the arrangement between the Obama Administration and a writer from the liberal Huffington Post Web site. The writer was invited by the White House to President Obama’s press conference last week on the understanding that he would ask Obama a question about Iran from among questions that had been sent to him by people in Iran.

“When you call the reporter the night before you know damn well what they are going to ask to control you,” Thomas said.

“I’m not saying there has never been managed news before, but this is carried to fare-thee-well--for the town halls, for the press conferences,” she said. “It’s blatant. They don’t give a damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their heads in shame.”

During today’s briefing, Thomas interrupted a back-and-forth between Gibbs and Chip Reid, the White House correspondent for CBS News, when Reid was questioning Gibbs about who was going to decide what questions would be asked of President Obama in a townhall meeting that was scheduled to take place in Annandale, Va., today.

Gibbs then had an exchange involving Reid and Thomas that went as follows:

Gibbs: “… But, again, let's--How about we do this? I promise we will interrupt the AP's tradition of asking the first question. I will let you [Chip Reid] ask me a question tomorrow as to whether you thought the questions at the town hall meeting that the President conducted in Annandale—“

Chip Reid: “I'm perfectly happy to—”

Helen Thomas: “That's not his point. The point is the control--”

Reid: “Exactly.”

Thomas: “We have never had that in the White House. And we have had some, but not-- This White House.”

Gibbs: “Yes, I was going to say, I'll let you amend her question.”

Thomas: “I'm amazed. I'm amazed at you people who call for openness and transparency and—”

Gibbs: “Helen, you haven't even heard the questions.”

Reid: “It doesn't matter. It's the process.”

Thomas: “You have left open—”

Reid: “Even if there's a tough question, it's a question coming from somebody who was invited or was screened, or the question was screened.”

Thomas: “It's shocking. It's really shocking.”

Gibbs: “Chip, let's have this discussion at the conclusion of the town hall meeting. How about that?”

Reid: “Okay.”

Gibbs: “I think—“

Thomas: “No, no, no, we're having it now--”

Gibbs: “Well, I'd be happy to have it now.”

Thomas: “It's a pattern.”

Gibbs: “Which question did you object to at the town hall meeting, Helen?”

Thomas: “It's a pattern. It isn't the question—”

Gibbs: “What's a pattern?”

Thomas: “It's a pattern of controlling the press.”

Gibbs: “How so? Is there any evidence currently going on that I'm controlling the press--poorly, I might add.”

Thomas: “Your formal engagements are pre-packaged.”

Gibbs: “How so?”

Reid: “Well, and controlling the public—”

Thomas: “How so? By calling reporters the night before to tell them they're going to be called on. That is shocking.”

Gibbs: “We had this discussion ad nauseam and—”

Thomas: “Of course you would, because you don't have any answers.”

Gibbs: “Well, because I didn't know you were going to ask a question, Helen.
Go ahead.”

Thomas: “Well, you should have.”

Reporter: Thank you for your support.

Gibbs: “That's good. Have you e-mailed your question today?”

Thomas: “I don't have to e-mail it. I can tell you right now what I want to ask.”

Gibbs: “I don't doubt that at all, Helen. I don't doubt that at all.”

Thomas, 89, has covered the White House during every presidency since John F. Kennedy’s.

U of Del: four students with “probable” swine flu

2009-04-29T09:50:00.001-07:00

By Susan Snyder
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Four students at the University of Delaware have been identified with "probable" cases of swine flu, the University of Delaware announced in a special health alert to staff and in a notice on its web site tonight.

The students, who were experiencing mild flu like symptoms, were treated at the university's health services center on Monday, and the Division of Public Health received preliminary test results confirming the probable cases on Tuesday, the university said.

None of the four students have traveled to Mexico recently, said Jay Lynch, health and social services department spokesman. One had been to New Jersey, one to Florida and one to Chicago over spring break, however. Officials are unsure how the students may have come in contact with the illness, he said.

Lynch noted that a new definition of "probable" swine flu cases was issued at 3 p.m. yesterday by the Centers for Disease Control and that under that definition, the University of Delaware cases qualified. The day before they would not have.

"This is really evolving," he said.

He said it made sense for the university, a sprawling campus of 20,000 students and many buildings, to remain open, as opposed to the school in New York, which shut down after many cases were reported.

"The University of Delaware is not just one building," he said.

What's important is that students with symptoms stay away from others as they would if they had other illnesses.

He's not sure when the CDC will have the results of the tests which are needed to confirm whether the students have swine flu.

Delaware Gov. Jack Markell will hold a news conference at 11 this morning in his office in Wilmington to provide details on the cases.

The university and the public health division plan to conduct clinics on campus this morning to assess and treat other students with symptoms. The location of the clinic was to be announced this morning.

But classes will continue as usual, officials said, although some large campus activities may be rescheduled.

About 9 p.m. tonight, shortly after the university began sending out emergency messages by text and email to staff and students, more students showed up at the health center for medical help, said Andrea Boyle, a university spokeswoman.

The campus community is in a state of "concern" about the probable swine flu cases, she said.

Toddler in Texas becomes 1st swine flu death in US

2009-04-29T07:42:00.000-07:00

HOUSTON (AP) — A 23-month-old toddler in Texas became the first confirmed swine flu death outside of Mexico as authorities around the world struggled to contain a growing global health menace that has also swept Germany onto the roster of afflicted nations. Officials say the death was in Houston.
Kathy Barton, a spokeswoman for the Houston Health and Human Services Department, said Wednesday that the child had traveled with family from Mexico to Brownsville in South Texas. The child became ill in Brownsville and was taken to a Houston hospital and died Monday night, she said.
"Even though we've been expecting this, it is very, very sad," Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday of the infant's death. "As a pediatrician and a parent, my heart goes out to the family."
President Barack Obama said this morning that Americans should know the government is doing all it can to control virus. Obama also says schools should consider closing if the spread of the swine flu virus worsens.
Canada, Austria, New Zealand, Israel, Spain, Britain and Germany also have reported cases of swine flu sickness. Deaths reported so far have been limited to Mexico, and now the U.S.
As the United States grappled with this widening health crisis, Besser went from network to network Wednesday morning to give an update on what the Obama administration is doing. He said authorities essentially are still "trying to learn more about this strain of the flu." His appearances as Germany reported its first cases of swine flu infection, with three victims.
"It's very important that people take their concern and channel it into action," Besser said, adding that "it is crucial that people understand what they need to do if symptoms appear.
"I don't think it (the reported death in Texas) indicates any change in the strain," he said. "We see with any flu virus a spectrum of disease symptoms."
Asked why the problem seems so much more severe in Mexico, Besser said U.S. officials "have teams on the ground, a tri-national team in Mexico, working with Canada and Mexico, to try and understand those differences, because they can be helpful as we plan and implement our control strategies."
Sixty-six infections had been reported in the United States before the report of the toddler's death in Texas.
The world has no vaccine to prevent infection but U.S. health officials aim to have a key ingredient for one ready in early May, the big step that vaccine manufacturers are awaiting. But even if the World Health Organization ordered up emergency vaccine supplies — and that decision hasn't been made yet — it would take at least two more months to produce the initial shots needed for human safety testing.
"We're working together at 100 miles an hour to get material that will be useful," Dr. Jesse Goodman, who oversees the Food and Drug Administration's swine flu work, told The Associated Press.
The U.S. is shipping to states not only enough anti-flu medication for 11 million people, but also masks, hospital supplies and flu test kits. President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to help build more drug stockpiles and monitor future cases, as well as help international efforts to avoid a full-fledged pandemic.
"It's a very serious possibility, but it is still too early to say that this is inevitable," the WHO's flu chief, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, told a telephone news conference.
Cuba and Argentina banned flights to Mexico, where swine flu is suspected of killing more than 150 people and sickening well over 2,000. In a bit of good news, Mexico's health secretary, Jose Cordova, late Tuesday called the death toll there "more or less stable."
Mexico City, one of the world's largest cities, has taken drastic steps to curb the virus' spread, starting with shutting down schools and on Tuesday expanding closures to gyms and swimming pools and even telling restaurants to limit service to takeout. People who venture out tend to wear masks in hopes of protection.
The number of confirmed swine flu cases in the United States rose to 66 in six states, with 45 in New York, 11 in California, six in Texas, two in Kansas and one each in Indiana and Ohio, but cities and states suspected more. In New York, the city's health commissioner said "many hundreds" of schoolchildren were ill at a school where some students had confirmed cases.
The WHO argues against closing borders to stem the spread, and the U.S. — although checking arriving travelers for the ill who may need care — agrees it's too late for that tactic.
"Sealing a border as an approach to containment is something that has been discussed and it was our planning assumption should an outbreak of a new strain of influenza occur overseas. We had plans for trying to swoop in and knockout or quench an outbreak if it were occurring far from our borders. That's not the case here," Besser told a telephone briefing of Nevada-based health providers and reporters. "The idea of trying to limit the spread to Mexico is not realistic or at all possible."
"Border controls do not work. Travel restrictions do not work," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said in Geneva, recalling the SARS epidemic earlier in the decade that killed 774 people, mostly in Asia, and slowed the global economy.
Authorities sought to keep the crisis in context: Flu deaths are common around the world. In the U.S. alone, the CDC says about 36,000 people a year die of flu-related causes. Still, the CDC calls the new strain a combination of pig, bird and human viruses for which people may have limited natural immunity.
Hence the need for a vaccine. Using samples of the flu taken from people who fell ill in Mexico and the U.S., scientists are engineering a strain that could trigger the immune system without causing illness. The hope is to get that ingredient — called a "reference strain" in vaccine jargon — to manufacturers around the second week of May, so they can begin their own laborious production work, said CDC's Dr. Ruben Donis, who is leading that effort.
Vaccine manufacturers are just beginning production for next winter's regular influenza vaccine, which protects against three human flu strains. The WHO wants them to stay with that course for now — it won't call for mass production of a swine flu vaccine unless the outbreak worsens globally. But sometimes new flu strains pop up briefly at the end of one flu season and go away only to re-emerge the next fall, and at the very least there should be a vaccine in time for next winter's flu season, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institutes of Health's infectious diseases chief, said Tuesday.
"Right now it's moving very rapidly," he said of the vaccine development.
Besser appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press," CNN and CBS's "The Early Show."

Portuguese water dog Obama girls name their new puppy 'Bo'

2009-04-13T07:38:00.000-07:00

By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Bo? No jest. The first family has settled on a first pet — a 6-month-old Portuguese water dog that the Obama girls are naming Bo.

The selection was one of the White House's most tightly kept secrets.

President Barack Obama's daughters, 10-year-old Malia and 7-year-old Sasha, picked a black and white pup, a White House official speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Associated Press Saturday night.

The dog is a gift from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who owns several Portuguese water dogs himself.

"We couldnt be happier to see the joy that Bo is bringing to Malia and Sasha," Kennedy said in a statement. "We love our Portuguese water dogs and know that the girls — and their parents — will love theirs, too."

The Washington Post reported in its online editions Saturday night that Obama's daughters chose the name Bo for the pup because first lady Michelle Obama's father was nicknamed Diddley. The name for the dog was an apparent reference to the singer "Bo" Diddley.

White House aides told the AP that the office of the first lady arranged an exclusive deal on the dog story with the Post. The officials, who demanded anonymity because of the deal with the Post on exclusive details, said the dog was not in the White House as of Saturday evening.

Throughout the day Saturday, celebrity Web sites and bloggers were abuzz with rumors of the first family's selection of a Portuguese water dog; one site even claimed it had pictures of the future first pet.

The president had embraced the frenzy: "Oh, man, now, that's top secret," Obama joked Friday to reporters.

Obama promised his daughters a puppy during the campaign.

"This is Washington. That was a campaign promise," Obama said when he appeared on Jay Leno's talk show last month, as the audience roared with laughter. "No, I'm teasing. The dog will be there shortly."

The president and first lady had said their choice was down to either a Portuguese water dog or a Labradoodle because they were considered good pets for children who have allergies, as Malia does.

Is America on The Road to Fascism?

2009-04-02T08:23:00.000-07:00

By John Wallace

Mr. G. Richard Wagoner, the chairman and chief executive officer of General Motors, was recently forced to resign his position because of pressure from the Obama administration. He was told that if he didn't leave, the Obama administration would not give General Motors any more federal bailout money. President Obama also told General Motors and the Chrysler Corporation that if they wanted more federal bailout money, they would have to shrink and refocus their businesses according to his (the federal government's) wishes.

In our country's history, there have been some limited instances of the federal government exercising some sort of control over private industry, but that was during wartime. The current assault on American capitalism by the Obama administration is unprecedented in both its scope and speed and should raise the red flag of alarm for all freedom-loving Americans.

World history has shown us that the implementation of strict government controls over private industries has been one of the first steps in the introduction of various forms of Fascism to formerly free countries. The practice of a government taking control of private industries was refined by Benito Mussolini in Italy in the 1920's and it is called 'corporatism.'

According to Wikipedia, political scientists use the term 'corporatism' to describe "a practice whereby a state, through the process of licensing and regulating officially-incorporated social, religious, economic, or popular organizations, effectively co-opts their leadership or circumscribes their ability to challenge state authority by establishing the state as the source of their legitimacy, as well as sometimes running them, either directly or indirectly." Mussolini described it more simply when he said, "Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."

Some corporatist-style regimes of the 20th century included those of Benito Mussolini of Italy (1922-1945), Adolph Hitler of Germany (1933 to 1945); Francisco Franco of Spain (1936 to 1973); Juan Peron of Argentina (1943 to 1955) and even our own President Franklin Roosevelt (1933 to 1945) during the 'New Deal.' The Mussolini, Hitler, Franco and Peron regimes were brutal, totalitarian, Fascist dictatorships, but not all the regimes that had a corporatist foundation were fascist. The Roosevelt administration, despite its many faults, could not be described as fascist, but the 'New Deal' program was definitely corporatist.

Corporatism boils down to this: The government tells industry (and eventually labor unions) what to do and that they must do it for the supposed good of the country, or else their individual leaders will pay a price. Does this sound similar to what is happening to the auto industry today?

Where in the U.S. Constitution does it authorize the President of the United States to fire the head of a major private corporation just because he disagrees with his management policies? Where in the U.S. Constitution does it authorize the President of the United States to decide what kind of cars a private company will build? or what kind of car I will drive? President Barack 'Mussolini' Obama is taking this country down a very dangerous road and a road that America has never taken before.

Confucius said "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Are the 'corporatist' policies of President Obama and his administration just the first steps of many in a move towards a government takeover of our major industries? Are these policies much different than those that Mussolini and Hitler initiated in the early stages of their rise to power?

With the Politburo in our expanding federal government now having the power to hire and fire the leaders of major private corporations and to tell the auto makers what cars they can produce, will they soon be telling Americans what kind of cars they can drive; how much money they can earn; where they can go to school, what sodas they can drink, what foods they can't eat, where they can travel, what national ID card they must carry at all times and it will impose any number of other restrictions on them. Look at California, where the state legislature is currently considering banning black cars by 2012, for some bogus global warming reason.

Thomas Jefferson said: "A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have." Americans must remember that we cannot fully enjoy our freedoms and liberties in America unless we keep our government limited. As our government grows and becomes more intrusive, as it is today, it is our freedoms and liberties that are becoming limited.

Welcome to the United Socialist States of America!

If we continue on President Obama's road to socialism, the American people will no longer be free. The question is: "Will we learn to accept our captivity at the hands of our new masters or will we be willing to do something about it?"

John Wallace
"For Freedom, Liberty and Sovereignty"
New York Campaign for Liberty
Chatham, New York
www.NYCampaignForLiberty.com

Michelle Obama's Still Recessionista Chic in J.Crew

2009-04-01T18:50:00.001-07:00

by CRISTINA GIBSON

Michelle Obama may be the first lady now, but she's still got love for affordable fashion from J.Crew.

While across the pond in London for Thursday's G-20 summit, she wore J.Crew head to toe on Wednesday, including a pencil skirt, tank and cardigan ensemble from the store.
Total cost for her outfit? Under 500 bucks...$474 to be exact.
Granted, it's still fairly expensive for the average soccer mom, but for a first lady and celebrity with loads of pricey couture to choose from, it's dirt cheap.

U.S. Seeks to Drop Case Against Former Sen. Stevens

2009-04-01T07:27:00.000-07:00

By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer

The Justice Department filed court papers this morning asking a federal judge to toss out the conviction of former senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) on corruption charges.

The move comes as a federal judge was preparing to conduct hearings to probe allegations of prosecutorial misconduct by the team that tried one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress. Stevens, 85, was convicted in October on seven counts of making false statements on financial disclosure forms to hide about $250,000 in gifts and free renovations to his Alaska home. Stevens's attorneys have urged U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan to drop the case and prevent prosecutors from seeking to retry the former senator, who lost a reelection bid about a week after his guilty verdict.

They have argued that prosecutors with the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section withheld key pieces of evidence and mishandled witnesses.

During the trial, Sullivan chastised prosecutors several times for such errors. More recently, the Justice Department was forced to disclose a memo written by an FBI agent who complained of the same things. Sullivan recently held several prosecutors in contempt for failing to comply with a court order. Six members of that prosecution team then withdrew from the case in matters dealing with allegations of misconduct.

In a statement, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said he and other Justice lawyers had reviewed the case and "concluded that certain information should have been provided to the defense for use at trial."

"In light of this conclusion, and in consideration of the totality of the circumstances of this particular case, I have determined that it is in the interest of justice to dismiss the indictment and not proceed with a new trial," Holder said.

"The Department's Office of Professional Responsibility will conduct a thorough review of the prosecution of this matter," he added. "This does not mean or imply that any determination has been made about the conduct of those attorneys who handled the investigation and trial of this case."

Brendan Sullivan, Stevens's lead attorney, has a meeting scheduled at the Justice Department for 10 a.m. He could not be reached for comment, but Stevens's attorneys issued a statement this morning that said they were "grateful" to learn about the department's decision. "That decision is justified by the extraordinary evidence of government corruption in the prosecution of Senator Stevens," they said in the three-page statement. They said the alleged misconduct "was stunning."

Stevens also could not be reached. Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), who beat Stevens in November, issued a statement saying that "the decision by President Obama's Justice Department to end the prosecution of Senator Ted Stevens is reasonable. I always said I didn't think Senator Stevens should serve time in jail and hopefully this decision ensures that is the case."

In a three-page memo filed this morning in U.S. District Court, Justice Department lawyer Paul M. O'Brien, who was brought on to review the case, said he discovered evidence that prosecutors did not turn over notes from an interview in April 2008 with the case's key witness, Bill Allen.

Allen is the former head of Veco, a now defunct oil services company, and a close friend of Stevens who allegedly gave the former senator many of the gifts and funded most of the home renovations.

At that interview, Allen said he did not recall talking to a friend of Stevens's about giving a bill to the former senator for work done on the house, O'Brien wrote.

Two prosecutors took notes on that interview with Allen but did not turn them over to the defense, according to O'Brien.

At trial, Allen testified that he was told by a close friend of Stevens to ignore a note the former senator sent the Veco executive seeking a bill for the home remodeling work. "Bill, don't worry about getting a bill" for Stevens, Allen said the friend told him. "Ted is just covering his [expletive]."

The prosecutors' notes also indicated that Allen estimated the work done on Stevens's house to be about $80,000. Veco billing records, assailed as inaccurate by defense lawyers, estimated the work to have cost $188,000.

"The information could have been used by the defendant to cross-examine Bill Allen and in arguments to the jury," O'Brien wrote.

O'Brien added that granting a new trial "is in the interest of justice." But, "based on the totality of circumstances," the Justice Department would not seek a new trial and would instead ask the judge to "set aside the verdict and dismiss the indictment with prejudice."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters this morning that the Justice Department's actions cost Republicans a Senate seat.

"No question, had this decision been made last year, he'd still be in the Senate," McConnell said.

McConnell said, on a personal note, that the Stevens family no longer has a cloud of potential jail time hanging over the 85-year-old's head. "He and his family must be relieved," McConnell said.

Staff writer Paul Kane contributed to this report.

G-20 protesters break into Royal Bank of Scotland

2009-04-01T06:20:00.000-07:00

I think it will be a year or two maybe even less before America will follow England as rejecting these banksters. Hopefully we will get the peoples out there and it will say "stop handing out our money to your friends" The banks who knew they were screwing people over in the long run with bad debts.

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER

LONDON – G-20 protesters in downtown London have smashed windows and entered the Royal Bank of Scotland building. They have also tried to storm the Bank of England.
At least 4,000 protesters have jammed into London's financial district for demonstrations Wednesday. Protesters broke windows and scrawled the word "thieves" on the side of the Royal Bank of Scotland building.
Protesters were also pelting riot police with eggs and fruit and confronting them at barricades.
Earlier Wednesday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama held a news conference in London ahead of the Group of 20 summit being held Thursday. World leaders are gathering with hopes of resolving the global financial crisis.
Eight people have been arrested in the G-20 demonstrations so far. There have been no reports of injuries.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
LONDON (AP) — Thousands of G-20 protesters jammed downtown London on Wednesday and some tried to storm the Bank of England, pelting police with eggs and fruit and rocking the barricades designed to control them.
Demonstrators shouted "Abolish Money!" and clogged streets in the financial district known as "The City" even as Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama held a news conference elsewhere in the British capital.
Protesters had branded the day "Financial Fool's Day" ahead of Thursday's summit of world leaders who are gathering in hopes of resolving the global financial crisis that has lashed nations and workers worldwide.
"Every job I apply for there's already 150 people who have also applied," said protester Nathan Dean, 35, who lost his information technology job three weeks ago. "I have had to sign on to the dole (welfare) for the first time in my life. You end up having to pay your mortgage on your credit card and you fall into debt twice over."
Demonstrators hoisted effigies of the "four horsemen of the apocalypse," representing war, climate chaos, financial crimes and homelessness.
"The greed that is driving people is tearing us apart," said Steve Lamont, 45, flanked by his family and protesters who were banging on bells, playing drums and blowing whistles.
At least eight people were reportedly arrested for having police uniforms. One police officer lost his helmet and demonstrators tossed it around like a trophy and chanted slogans.
Helicopters hovered above the protests and some buildings were boarded up in case the protests turned ugly. Many banks had extra security and hundreds of police officers lined the streets.
Despite the pushing and shoving along the police barricades, there were no reported injuries.
Fearing they would be targeted by protesters, some bankers swapped their pinstripe suits for casual wear and others stayed home. Bolder financial workers leaned out their office windows Wednesday, taunting demonstrators and waving 10 pound notes at them.
Especially in Britain, bankers have been lambasted as being greedy and blamed for the recession that is making jobless ranks soar.
"It seems like everything is in a mess," said protester Steve Johnson, 49, an unemployed construction worker. "You get bankers getting massive bonuses, and the MPs (British lawmakers) are lining their own pockets."
Musician and political activist Billy Bragg said the time was now to make a difference.
"It's better than sitting down shouting at the television at these bankers," he said. "We cannot go back to the way things were before to the million-dollar bonus culture."
Protesters included anarchists, anti-capitalists, environmentalists, students, unionized workers, unemployed workers and others hurt by the global financial crisis.
One protester dressed as the Easter bunny managed to hop through the police cordon but was stopped before he could reach the Bank of England. Another black-clad demonstrator waved a fake light saber at officers.

New York Special Election Is Special Case

2009-03-31T19:15:00.000-07:00

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

WASHINGTON — Voters in a House district in New York will elect a replacement on Tuesday for Kirsten E. Gillibrand, the Democrat who replaced Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Senate after Mrs. Clinton became secretary of state.

Even before a vote was cast, the contest was freighted with all kinds of political significance — an early test of President Obama’s political strength, a verdict on the stimulus package, a do-or-die moment for a new Republican national chairman, an early sign of how the 2010 midterm elections are going to go (never mind that they are 20 months way).

To a certain extent, all this is understandable. The new president has invested some political capital in the Democratic candidate, Scott Murphy. Mr. Obama’s image appears in an advertisement that the Democratic National Committee ran in the upstate district — albeit not often — and Mr. Obama’s name is affixed to thousands of e-mail messages that the national committee sent out urging voters to support Mr. Murphy. And Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has taped a radio advertisement on Mr. Murphy’s behalf.

Michael Steele, the new Republican chairman who is trying to get beyond a rocky start, has identified this race as a top target for the Republican National Committee. He has campaigned in the district twice on behalf of the Republican candidate, James N. Tedisco, a state assemblyman. Mr. Steele has directed money and resources toward winning the seat, which was solidly Republican until Ms. Gillibrand snatched it away from a troubled incumbent in 2006.

It is also the first special election since Mr. Obama took office — “It’s the only game in D.C. for people to talk about,” said David Wasserman, House editor of the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan newsletter — and the contest is being fought against the backdrop of the sharp partisan division over Mr. Obama’s economic plan.

“It’s going to be seen as a referendum on President Obama and the stimulus package, and a referendum on Albany’s popularity, and a referendum on Gillibrand’s popularity,” said Howard Wolfson, a Democratic consultant who advised Ms. Gillibrand in her 2006 campaign.

In truth, special elections tend to get more attention and analysis than they deserve (guilty, your honor), and while they might briefly raise or lower the political temperature, they tend not to be predictive of much at all. And in this case, there are many extraneous factors at play, and there is enough conflicting data about the political dynamics of the race to permit either side to make at least a plausible argument that it will win.

“The first thing you can count on is this thing is going to be way overspun,” said Tom Davis, a former Virginia congressman and onetime head of the Republican campaign committee in the House. “I don’t think it portends a thing for the midterms. But it emboldens whoever wins.”

That said, a few lessons will certainly be drawn from the race.

The decision by the Democratic National Committee to feature Mr. Obama — understandable, given his popularity — could carry some small risk to the president. Should Mr. Murphy lose, the result will be seized on by Republicans as evidence that Mr. Obama’s power is fading, though how far this line of thought will travel is an open question.

“I think that’s why he only put a toe in,” Mr. Davis said. “The tradition on this is, in special elections, the president’s candidate typically loses.”

Potentially more interesting, though, is what the vote will say about the political potency of the battle over the stimulus package — whether House Republicans, who voted unanimously against it, made a mistake in putting up a unified front.

Mr. Murphy supported the package; Mr. Tedisco equivocated until, after being taunted by Democrats, he finally said he would have voted against it. By every account, Mr. Tedisco’s awkward handling of the issue helped to transform the race.

“Here’s what I think you do know here: when the Democrats stood strong — when Murphy said, ‘I support the stimulus plan’ — he closed the gap 30 points,” said Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Obama’s chief of staff. “You know and I know this should not be dead even.”

Mr. Wasserman, of the Cook Report, said: “The race is pretty even right now. But it didn’t start out that way. Republicans started with a known figure. Democrats started off with someone who isn’t known.”

In the closing stage of the campaign, Republicans attempted to focus attention on the Democratic Congress’s deletion of a clause in the stimulus bill that might have prevented the payment of some bonuses to executives of American Insurance Group. Mr. Tedisco used the move to link Mr. Murphy, a venture capitalist, to the bonuses issue, a flash point for many voters.

Until Ms. Gillibrand’s victory in 2006, the 20th Congressional District was solidly Republican; it was one of just six districts in the state that voted for George W. Bush in 2000.

In 2004, the Republican incumbent, John E. Sweeney, was re-elected with 66 percent of the vote; two years later, he narrowly lost to Ms. Gillibrand after his campaign became embroiled in a series of embarrassing episodes. Still, Republicans enjoy a 75,000 edge in voter registration in the district.

“The fact this race is close at all is a big deal,’” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, the executive director of the Democratic National Committee. “It’s a tough, tough district.”

Trevor Francis, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said much the same thing, as both sides gave a preview of what they might be saying Tuesday night.

“This is going to be a tough one,” Mr. Francis said. “Obama won the district and has a 65-percent approval rating there.”

Ashley Biden Cocaine Video: VP's Daughter Caught Snorting Coke On Tape?

2009-03-31T19:06:00.000-07:00

by Mike Baron

Ashley Biden snorting coke on video?. Ashley Biden is the daughter of Vice-President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden.
A friend of the daughter of veep is attempting to hawk a videotape that he claims shows Ashley Biden snorting cocaine at a house party this month in Delaware.

Ashley, 27, is now caught up in a cocaine video scandal and there is no doubt that this is particularly distressful considering her father has been crusader against drugs. In fact, he is the one who coined the phrase 'drug czar' in 1982 while campaigning for the 'war on drugs'.

An anonymous male "friend" of Biden took the video, according to Thomas Dunlap, a lawyer representing the seller. Dunlap and another man claiming to be a lawyer showed The New York Post 90 seconds of a 43-minute tape, saying it was legally obtained and that Biden was aware she was being filmed. The Post turned down the opportunity to pay for the video.

The fact that the New York Post won't pay for the video doesn't mean there won't be a bidding war for it. Read more here.

If and when the video is leaked we will post it here.

Ria Ramkissoon and 1 Mind Ministries: a Failure of the Court System

2009-03-31T17:19:00.000-07:00

Wow words can not describe my dismay on how someone could get away with this. This crap about being brainwashed and stuff is total BS in my opinion and makes me madder that people can get away with that kind of thing.

by Gary Davis

Ria Ramkissoon played a definitive role in killing her son. Ria Ramkissoon was -- or is, take your choice -- part of the "1 Mind Ministries" cult. All Ria Ramkissoon has to do is testify against other cult members who took part in the murder by starvation of her son Javon Thompson. Ria

Ramkissoon must serve five years probation. Oh, one other thing. Ria Ramkissoon will await the resurrection of her son. Amazingly, so will the court system. Of course they made it harder by saying it doesn't count if he comes back as a fig or butterfly. It has to be a person.

This story comes from Dan Morse, a Washington Post Staff Writer, in his article "Plea Deal Includes Resurrection Clause."

I'm stunned, absolutely stunned.

You see the implications here are staggering in so many ways and the ignorance is so voluminous that it is shocking.

First, people are calling 1 Mind Ministries a "Christianity-based" cult. 1 Mind Ministries is no more "Christian-based" than the mafia is based on the Vatican. No church teaches killing toddlers for a rebellious spirit. Anybody who has a toddler knows most of them have them.

The reason Jesus could (and did) rise was that He was God. He showed that by being perfect. By all accounts poor little Javon wasn't God therefore, I'm afraid he's sunk.

Since Ria Ramkissoon was brainwashed she was allegedly too robotic to be held accountable for her actions.

However, the arbitrary number of hours of de-programming chosen by the court, taking away what should be a medical decision in the first place, apparently is going to make her okey-dokey.

It gets better. Ria can't stand trial because she wasn't at fault due to her mental state however, this mental state is acceptable to possibly give someone life in prison; it is an acceptable mental state to remember what was going on just not strong enough to make any valuations on the morality of her acts? Is that about it?

And, of course it only makes sense to let her go free until the "resurrection" occurs, not vice-versa.

The press and commentators as usual are speaking authoritatively about things they know nothing about.

This is not a "Christian-based" cult; they are not looking for a "Jesus-like" resurrection; Javon is not capable of coming back by resurrection any more than the rest of us. Ria should be dealt with. If nothing else she should have to go through the normal insanity process.

You do understand don't you that if the Manson Family back in the 1960's would have had this prosecutor, they wouldn't be in jail

Beyond all the ignorance and idiocy I ask you: "Doesn't this set a trend where people can claim their victim will "rise?" Can't murderers claim their victims aren't "really dead?"

This seems to be erroneous law and, this seems to be dangerous law.

I am stunned, absolutely stunned.

Reference:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/30/AR2009033002931.html

Progress Report: Obama's Top 10 Promises

2009-03-23T07:20:00.000-07:00

This is from Politifact.com. It keeps track of politician honesty. More so Obama's campaign promises. Which the top 10 are listed below.

By Angie Drobnic Holan

Two months into his presidency, Barack Obama has made progress on most of the campaign promises that made our Obameter Top 10 list.

We created the list before he took office to show the most significant promises of the 513 in our database. Seven of the 10 show some sort of action. We've rated one Promise Kept, one Compromise, and five In the Works.

Of the three promises that are still rated No Action, Obama has said publicly he intends to pursue them.

Here's a look at our Top 10 and where they stand:

• No. 15: Create a foreclosure prevention fund for homeowners Obama proposed a $10 billion foreclosure fund to help struggling homeowners hold onto their homes. He kept his promise and then some, proposing a $75 billion fund. By providing incentives to both lenders and borrowers, the plan allows some homeowners to refinance loans. Obama's plan excludes investors, speculators and people who fraudulently obtained loans, just as he said on the campaign trail. Promise Kept.

• No. 32: Create a tax credit of $500 for workers Obama wanted a Making Work Pay tax credit would yield a maximum credit of $500 for most workers as a rebate on payroll taxes. Congress scaled back the credit to $400 in the economic stimulus legislation passed in Feburary 2009, which Obama signed. Obama put the lower number into his 2010 budget proposal, which has yet to be taken up by Congress. Because of the reduction, we rated this Compromise.

• No. 38: Repeal the Bush tax cuts for higher incomes Obama wants to raise taxes on roughly the top 3 percent of taxpayers in order to help pay for his health care plan. That translates to increases for single people making more than $200,000 or couples making more than $250,000. His 2010 budget includes the rate increases on the two highest income tax brackets, raising the 33 percent bracket to 36 percent and the 35 percent bracket to 39.6 percent. We'll see whether Congress agrees with this one or not. The Obameter says In The Works.

• No. 126: Begin removing combat brigades from Iraq Obama said he would work with military commanders to bring troops home, with combat troops out in 16 months. On Feb. 27, 2009, Obama gave a major speech outlining plans to withdraw from Iraq, and extended the timeline to 18 months. We want to see how the withdrawal actually unfolds, so for now we rate this promise In the Works.

• No. 177: Close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center On his second full day in office, Obama issued an executive order to review the disposition of prisoners being held at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He also ordered that the detention facility be closed within a year. The order establishes a review process with the goal of disposing of the detainees before closing the facility. We rated this In the Works.

• No. 456: Create cap and trade system with interim goals to reduce global warming This is a regulatory plan to curb carbon emissions that contribute to global warming. Under the plan, polluters have to pay according to what they emit. Obama hopes that money can help pay for some of his other initiatives, like health care and education spending. His budget says that cap and trade could generate about $150 billion over 10 years. Cap and trade is sure to see a lively debate in Congress. The Obameter says In the Works.

• No. 439: Create 5 million "green" jobs Changing the country's orientation from foreign oil to renewable energy should invigorate the "green" energy sector. That means 5 million jobs, Obama said. We found billions in the economic stimulus bill and in Obama's proposed budget for job creation in the renewable energy sector. We'll be looking for hard evidence to quantify this one before a possible move to Promise Kept. For now, it's In the Works.

• No. 52: Create a National Health Insurance Exchange This is part of Obama's comprehensive health care reform, which includes many other health promises. Under Obama's plan, the creation of a National Health Insurance Exchange would allow all Americans to select a private plan or enroll in a new public one. Obama has said he intends to address comprehensive health care this year, but he hasn't done it yet. We rate this promise No Action.

• No. 422: Create new financial regulations Obama said he wants "common-sense regulations and rules" to "restore accountability and responsibility in our corporate boardrooms." The campaign promise has become even more pressing given the unfolding financial crisis. Obama has said new financial regulations are on his agenda, even discussing the need for them on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. When he unveils his proposal, the Obameter will move, but currently it's No Action.

• No. 441: Reduce oil consumption by 35 percent by 2030 The time frame is long — more than 20 years — but Obama said he hopes his policies will cut U.S. oil consumption by more than a third. He's discussed the need for the country to do this many times since taking office, but the Obameter needs to see some more definitive changes in the nation's energy habits before we change our ruling from No Action.

Chicago Man Arrested for Allegedly Targeting Obama With HIV-Infected Blood

2009-02-27T07:22:00.000-08:00

By Mike Levine
FOXNews.com

A man from President Obama's hometown of Chicago has been arrested for allegedly sending Obama and his staff envelopes containing HIV-infected blood, in the hopes of killing or harming them.

It's only the second time ever that HIV-infected blood has been sent with malicious intent through the U.S. mail system, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service said.

In the weeks leading up to Obama's inauguration, Saad Hussein, an Ethiopian refugee in his late 20's, sent an envelope addressed to "Barack Obama" to offices of the Illinois government in Springfield, Ill., according to court documents. The envelope contained a series of unusual items, including a letter with reddish stains and an admission ticket for Obama's election-night celebration in Chicago's Grant Park. Court documents said Hussein, who takes drugs to treat a mental illness, later told FBI agents he is "very sick with HIV" and cut his fingers with a razor so he could bleed on the letter.

Hazmat teams were called in after the envelope was opened, and offices of the Illinois Department on Aging and the Department of Revenue were locked down for nearly two hours, locking 300 staffers in their offices, court documents said.

Hussein, with his brother acting as an interpreter, told FBI agents he was actually "an admirer" of Obama and was "seeking help from the government," according to court documents. He also told them he was hoping to obtain tickets to the inaugural ceremonies in Washington, the documents said.

Days after sending the letter to Obama, Hussein allegedly placed two more letters in the mail, one addressed to "Emanuel," an apparent reference to Obama's current chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. The two letters contained what appeared to be dried blood, the court documents said.

Hussein, who has never held a job in the three years he's been in the United States, was arrested last month. An affidavit filed at the time accused Hussein of "knowingly" mailing letters "containing HIV-infected blood, with the intent to kill or injure another," in violation of federal law.

The affidavit does not address whether the letters could have actually killed or injured anyone. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV is spread only through sexual contact with an infected person, through sharing needles with an infected person, or through blood transfusions of infected blood.

The spokesman for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Peter Rendina, expressed confidence that the U.S. mail system is safe.

"To me the U.S. Postal Service is the most secure form of communication in the world," he said. "In no way are we seeing a trend."

After Hussein's arrest, he was placed in a Chicago correctional facility. He has yet to be formally charged. A judge ordered he receive a mental examination to see if he's fit for trial, but as of two weeks ago the court couldn't locate a translator to conduct the examination, according to court documents.

A publicly-appointed attorney representing Hussein declined comment, saying he was "not at liberty to discuss pending criminal matters."

This is not the first time law enforcement officials have had to take Hussein into custody. He was arrested by police in 2006 after starting a fire in the middle of a crowded Chicago intersection. When officers arrived on the scene, he was waiving the Koran in the air and yelling "Allah Akbar," or "God is Great" in Arabic. Court documents said he was transported to a hospital, where he called President Bush a terrorist and criticized American foreign policy. He was not formally charged, but he did spend time in the mental health unit of the hospital.

The latest case marks the second time HIV-infected blood has been sent through the U.S. mail. In 2006 a "disturbed individual" placed a plastic vial of HIV-infected blood in the mail, according to Rendina. The unidentified individual was arrested and charged, and is now receiving psychiatric treatment at a federal medical detention center, Rendina said.

Sarah Palin's daughter, Bristol Palin, says abstinence is unrealistic in interview on Fox News

2009-02-17T09:58:00.000-08:00

I wonder how this is going to affect Palins run for the presidency for the future. Especially in the republican party which is supposed to be VERY conservative.

Teen pregnancy? Not really a good idea.

Stopping teen sex? Ain't gonna happen.

So says Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's 18-year-old daughter, Bristol, who told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren Monday night that the abstinence her mom preaches is "not realistic at all."
Bristol Palin's pregnancy, revealed shortly after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) chose Sarah Palin to be his running mate, shook up the last presidential campaign.
Bristol Palin, who gave birth in late December, described the rigors of being a teen mom, and while she wouldn't go into detail why it isn't realistic for guys and gals her age not to have sex, she did say it isn't smart to get knocked up.
"Everyone should wait 10 years," Palin said. "I hope people learn from my story.
"It's so much easier if you're married, have a house and career. It's not a situation you want to strive for."
She denied that her mother's anti-abortion views were the reason she went ahead with the pregnancy.
"It was my choice to have the baby," she said. "It doesn't matter what my mom's views are on it. It was my decision."
But telling her mom that she and her hockey hunk boyfriend, Levi Johnston, were to be parents was tough, she admitted.
"Harder than labor," she said.

Obama at White House - Inauguration day 2009

2009-01-20T07:32:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Barack and Michelle Obama were at the White House on Tuesday to meet with President Bush, as hundreds of thousands gathered at the Capitol for Obama's inauguration.

The Obamas attended a prayer service at St. John's Episcopal Church on Tuesday morning and then headed to the nearby White House for a meeting with the outgoing president and first lady Laura Bush.

Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, arrived at the White House shortly before the Obamas. The Obamas, Bushes and Bidens were expected to have coffee at the before heading to the Capitol.

The 9 a.m. church service kicked off a day of events for the man who will become the nation's 44th president at noon ET.

As many as 2 million people are expected to crowd into the area between the Capitol, the White House and the Lincoln Memorial as Obama takes the oath of office.

Gerrard Coles of Norwalk, Connecticut, had staked out a position in front of St. John's.

"Everyone's down here -- hopefully to catch a glimpse of Barack, just for a split second," he said. "I think this was a beautiful thing. It's something I always wanted to do. It's not every day that you get to be a part of history. Rather than just watch it on TV, you actually get to partake in it and you have a story to tell your kids."

A crowd gathered at a barricade near the church was letting children and shorter onlookers move to the front of the crowd so they could get a better view.

Some spectators will be more than a mile from the swearing-in ceremony, watching on giant TV screens erected along the National Mall.

Thousands arrived before daylight Tuesday in standing-room-only trains. They carried blankets and wore Obama scarves to ward off the wind chills of minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

Suburban Washington train stations were jammed. A four-story parking deck at the Springfield, Virginia, station was filled at 5 a.m. Trains rolling into the stop about 15 miles south of the Capitol had no room for the hundreds on the platform.

The Metro rail system's Red Line was shut down about 9 a.m. after a pedestrian was hit by a train, further snarling the already overloaded train service, fire officials said.

On Monday night, visitors wandered around the Mall, snapping pictures and shooting video of the Capitol and monuments.

The scene around Lafayette Square was almost chaotic, with cars turning around in the street as they were confronted with barriers to closed-off areas and clots of pedestrians crossing streets against the light.

The visitors' excitement rubbed off on some of the jaded locals, one of whom said D.C. residents were "cynical of government."

"The energy on the streets is something I've never seen before," said Nancy Wigal, a 45-year-old technical writer who lives in the Mount Vernon Square area. "People are walking lighter, standing taller and are reaching out to one another. It feels like hope. It feels like shared happiness."

The morning began at 4 a.m. for many as those without tickets made a land grab on the Mall, rushing to stake out positions for the ceremony.

After Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden take their oaths of office on the western front of the Capitol, Obama will deliver his inaugural address, which Obama aides say will emphasize that America is entering a new era of responsibility.

In the approximately 20-minute speech, Obama will say America has been hurt by a "me-first" mentality that contributed to the current economic crisis, aides say, and he will call on individuals -- as well as corporations and businesses -- to take responsibility for their actions.

After a formal farewell to President George W. Bush and lunch with congressional leaders, Obama will head up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, where he and his family will watch the inauguration parade from a reviewing stand. The parade begins at 3:45 p.m. ET.

The new president and first lady will then close the night by attending 10 official inaugural balls.

Officials say they really don't know how many will show up, but estimates range from 1 million to 2 million.

Organizers have said about 280,000 people can fit into the secure zones around the Capitol and roughly 300,000 into the area around the parade. A mere 28,000 seats are available on Capitol grounds.

Those with tickets to the inauguration will undergo tight screening, including passing through magnetometers, when they enter the seating area in front of the Capitol.

Spectators without tickets will be routed to the Mall, which for the first time will be open from end to end for an inauguration. Security there will be less stringent.

Jeri Pickett of Rochester, New York, was one of the few who got a ticket.

"I'd just like to see the inspiration of America," said Pickett, when asked what he was expecting from Inauguration Day. "There's so much warmth here now, and excitement -- rejuvenation."

Transportation officials say they will run subway trains on rush-hour schedules starting at 4 a.m. as well as extra buses. The Metro expects more than 1 million riders.

Inauguration events have already drawn record crowds. A crowd attending an inauguration concert Sunday was estimated between 300,000 and 400,000 and stretched from the Lincoln Memorial all the way to the Washington Monument, which stands at the midpoint of the Mall.

While Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan said Monday there was "no credible threat" to the inauguration events, a security cordon has been put in place around the city's core, turning much of downtown Washington into a pedestrian-only zone.

In addition to Secret Service, the security effort will involve 8,000 police officers from the District of Columbia and other jurisdictions, 10,000 National Guard troops, about 1,000 FBI personnel, and hundreds of others from the Department of Homeland Security, the National Park Service and U.S. Capitol Police.

Another 20,000 members of the National Guard are ready to respond if there is an emergency, according to outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Inauguration Day 2009 - Barack Obama

2009-01-20T06:47:00.001-08:00

By ALAN FRAM,

WASHINGTON – The streets of the nation's capital pulsed with expectation Tuesday as crowds determined to witness the swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama overwhelmed mass transit lines and clogged security checkpoints.

Energized by the historic moment, tens of thousands of people turned this city's orderly grid of streets into a festive party scene. Ready to endure below-freezing temperatures, they streamed up from subway stations and thronged past parked buses, emergency vehicles and street vendors, bound for Pennsylvania Avenue and the National Mall for the inauguration.

"This is the culmination of two years of work," said Obama activist Akin Salawu, 34, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who helped the candidate as a community organizer and Web producer. "We got on board when Obama was the little engine who could. He's like a child you've held onto. Now he's going out into the world."

By 4 a.m., lines of riders formed in suburban parking lots for the Metro transit system, which opened early and put on extra trains for the expected rush. Many parking lots filled up and had to be closed.

Streets around the Capitol quickly filled with people, and security checkpoints were mobbed. The cold registered at 21 degrees Fahrenheit at 7:45 a.m.

Warming tents and other facilities on the Mall were late opening because traffic and crowds delayed staffers from reaching them. Ticket holders approaching the Inaugural site on Capitol Hill awaited security sweeps in a line estimated at thousands.

Connie Grant of Birmingham, Alabama, said she got up at 3:30 a.m. after coming to Washington with a group. Three hours later she was still on 7th street waiting for police to clear the way into the Mall.

She said the wait didn't matter. "I sacrificed and came here. To me, this is very historic. I just wanted to be here."

Christian Alderson of Berryville, Va., went to Memphis, Tenn., in 1968 to support the sanitation workers strike and said he was there when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

"That day was sorrowful," Alderson, 73, said as he stood near the mall. "This is a dream come true for me."

At the opposite end of town, Georgetown University students chanted "Obama!" and "Fired up Ready to Go!" as they walked down M Street toward the Mall.

A flea-market atmosphere prevailed on downtown streets, with white tents set up to sell Obama T-shirts and mugs as well as food, bottled water, snacks, scarves and footwarmers. The scent of grilled coiled sausages and steaming Chinese food greeted those who walked toward the parade route, more than six hours before Obama would pass by.

As the first waves of people began moving through security screenings, they scrambled for prime viewing spots along Pennsylvania Avenue — sitting on the curb, staking out plots of grass, or clambering on to cold metal benches.

Suburban subway riders also seemed to be in a jubilant mood, despite the early hour. In Fredericksburg, Va., an hour south of Washington, chants of "Obama! Obama!" rang out at a commuter rail station when the line started moving at 5 a.m. for the first trip into Washington.

World history teacher Calvin Adams of Arlington, Va., said he got up extra early so he could witness history being made first-hand and teach it to his classes.

"Eventually I'll teach American history," said Adams, 23. "I'll say, 'This is how it works because I've been there, I've seen it.'"

The joyous mood was tempered only by delays and by the dashed expectations of revelers eager to get an up-close look at history.

Alice Williams, a 51-year-old teacher of gifted children from Kansas City, Mo., had the coveted purple ticket that would placed her in front of the Capitol, but she got caught in the crowd bottleneck and instead was stuck a half mile away.

"We got blocked off; there was too much traffic and no guidance," she said forlornly. "I've been walking for an hour and a half. All I want to do is see my president sworn in"

One parade entrance was supposed to open at 7 a.m. The crowd, which was one-block deep, counted down at 7 a.m. The gate did not open. The chants got louder at 7:30 a.m., but the gates remain closed.

D.C. police have projected inaugural crowds between 1 million and 2 million. Planners say attendance could easily top the 1.2 million people who were at Lyndon B. Johnson's 1965 inauguration, the largest crowd the National Park Service has on record.

Obama speech issues dire warning on economy

2009-01-08T10:15:00.000-08:00

Hopefully something will be done to bring us out of this recession before we head into a full blown depression. Which is what I think it going to happen. This just isn't one presidents fault either. Sure some added more than others, but this is a trend that has been going on for awhlie now. Both sides of the aisle are responsible for this too.

By Michael McAuliff

Barack Obama gave his most dire warning yet on the economy, saying if we don't act now, things will get much worse. He spoke Thurs. at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

Barack Obama is warning in his starkest language yet that America is headed for an economic disaster if the country doesn't act quickly.

In a speech set for early this afternoon, Obama is warning that the nation risks spawning an entire generation of despair in an abysmal depression that lingers for years with double-digit unemployment and plummeting family incomes.

"I don't believe it's too late to change course, but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible," Obama warns in excerpts of his speech.

"If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years," he says. "A bad situation could become dramatically worse."

The dire forecast is at least in part a sales job that seems aimed at priming the nation to accept one of the largest government interventions in the country's history, as Obama and Democrats in Congress craft a massive economic recovery plan that will cost $770 billion at a minimum, and could reach $1.3 trillion in tax breaks and spending.

That means blasting an even larger hole in the already massive deficit — and getting Congress and the public to go along with it.

"There is no doubt that the cost of this plan will be considerable," Obama says. "It will certainly add to the budget deficit in the short-term. But equally certain are the consequences of doing too little or nothing at all, for that will lead to an even greater deficit of jobs, incomes, and confidence in our economy."

Private businesses will be vital to the effort, Obama says, but only Uncle Sam can haul them out of the ditch first.

"At this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe," he says. "Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy - where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending; where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit."

Obama's prescription is to spend lavishly on things like alternative energy and infrastructure to create private sector jobs, while funneling cash to states and cities to keep teachers, cops and firefighters on the job.

On top of that he wants to renovate regulations governing Wall Street and craft fixes for the "bubble or bust" mortgage markets.

And if folks don't listen, Obama warns: "More families will lose their savings. More dreams will be deferred and denied. And our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse."

Putting the case that starkly throws a sharp challenge to Republicans and conservatives who don't like the growing intervention or the ballooning price tag, and leaves them in the tough spot of either trying to downplay the severity of the crisis, or arguing that using the government so comprehensively will actually hurt.

Excerpts of the speech (to be given at George Mason University in Virginia) are after the jump.

Obama names Nancy Killefer 'chief performance officer'

2009-01-07T12:31:00.000-08:00

What kind of perfoming will she be doing? Another Monica in the wings it may seem. Another member has been added to the much anticipated preident elect Obama's Cabinet. Only time will tell if he has surrounded himself with the right people in order to be successful.

Killefer, a former Treasury official, will be in charge of eliminating unnecessary government spending and curbing inefficiency. Obama concedes that his stimulus plan will add to deficit. By Peter Nicholas

Reporting from Washington -- President-elect Barack Obama announced Wednesday that he is creating a new high-level position to wring waste and inefficiencies out of government, as part of a broader push to bring more discipline to federal spending.

At a news conference, Obama introduced a "chief performance officer" -- Nancy Killefer, a partner at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. and a former Treasury Department official in President Bill Clinton's administration from 1997 to 2000.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As a candidate, Barack Obama promoted hybrid cars.

Auto enthusiasts have panned the design of the new presidential limo, which will be painted all black.

As president, he'll be handed the keys to one. Sort of.

Shortly after taking the oath of office, Obama will climb into the Mother of All Hybrids -- part car, part truck and, from the looks of it, part tank.

In keeping with recent tradition, the Secret Service will place a brand-new presidential limousine into service January 20 to drive the new president on the 2-mile jaunt down Pennsylvania Avenue during the inaugural parade.

Already, spy photos of the limo -- with patches of gray primer -- have leaked out. And already, the reviews:

"Ugly as sin," says one car enthusiast on an auto Web site. "Can't we make a hotter ride for our pres?"

"Sheesh," says another, "why don't they just transport the president around in an Abrams tank."

One news agency, noting its 8-inch-thick doors, says the limo can withstand a "direct hit from an asteroid." But GM spokeswoman Joanne K. Krell laughed off the comments.

"And it will fix you a latte if you ask," she jokes.

In truth, the new presidential limo is a Cadillac, Krell said, although it is "not a direct extension of any single model."

"The presidential vehicle is built to precise and special specifications, undergoes extreme testing and development, and also incorporates many of the top aspects of Cadillac's 'regular' cars -- such as signature design, hand-cut-and-sewn interiors, etc.," Krell told CNN.

"Cadillac is honored to serve and renew this great tradition," she said. "And it is entirely appropriate that an American president has at his service a great American vehicle."

For much of the country's history, the Secret Service didn't even drive the president, evidently oblivious to the dangers of asteroids.

In the post-Lincoln horse-and-buggy era, it was customary for a security detail to closely trail the president, according to a Secret Service history.

With the advent of automobiles, the Secret Service acquired a 1907 H. White Steamer to follow Theodore Roosevelt's horse-drawn carriage.

White House chauffeurs drove later presidents, until the Secret Service assumed many of the driving responsibilities after Franklin Roosevelt's death in 1945.

In 1965, Lyndon Johnson was the first president to ride in a bulletproof limo in an inaugural parade, less than two years after his predecessor, John F. Kennedy, was shot and killed while riding in an open car.

Cut off from the world

Obama should expect two seemingly contradictory feelings when riding in the presidential limousine, said Joe Funk, a retired Secret Service agent who was President Bill Clinton's driver during part of his career.

"I think he will be surprised about how when he's in the limo, it's a cocoon," Funk said. "The everyday noises will be gone, and he will be totally isolated in this protective envelope."

"At the same time, I think he will be surprised at the communication capabilities, how the phones, the satellites, the Internet -- everything is at his fingertips," he said. "So at one end, you are totally removed from society. The other side of the coin is that he can have any communications worldwide at a moment's touch."

Funk says presidents sometimes chat with the agents, and sometimes don't.

"Every day is different, just like every person," he said. "Sometimes they get in the car and they have a lot on their mind. They're involved in reading material, they're involved in the newspaper, they're talking to local dignitaries or they are talking to Cabinet-level.

"Other times, they are interested in sporting events, in doing the crossword puzzle, interested in the feedback they get from talking to the agents -- primarily the supervisor that sits in the front seat," Funk said.

While the government spares no expense for the presidential limo, the weight of the car makes it less maneuverable and more sluggish than comparable sport utility vehicles, Funk said. And the door and window frames, which accommodate thick ballistic glass, create large blind spots, he said.

Funk's own experience driving Clinton was uneventful, he says, which is a good thing, considering his line of business.

"I was very lucky. We didn't have any close calls," he says. "Everything was very smooth."

But he still considers the experience a career highlight.

"At the end of the day, if you had a good driving day, you do kind of sit back with a certain amount of pride and say, 'I had the president of the United States in the car with me for an hour, two hours, and I got him from point A to point B safely in conjunction with all the other team members,' " he said. "When it's done, you can sit back and take some pride in knowing that you pulled it off."

Available in any color, as long as it's black

One Internet wag, adding to the rampant speculation about the new car, made this prediction: It will be painted black. But environmentalists may ask, will it be green?

Not likely. Car enthusiasts believe the overweight vehicle burns diesel and will have low mileage. And with diesel costing about $2.40 a gallon Monday, versus $1.67 for gasoline, this new limo can't be called an economy vehicle.

"The limousines of yesteryear were designed just well enough to provide protection to get the president out of the situation," says Ken Lucci, CEO of Ambassador Limousine Inc. and owner of two Reagan-era limos. "In today's case, they [the Secret Service] expect a prolonged attack, and they expect an attack that is a lot more violent than [with] a weapon you can hold in you hand."

"It literally is a rolling bunker," he says. "It just happens to have wheels on it."

And it's not a bad vehicle for someone whose job is to fix the economy, even if it won't brew coffee on command.

Israeli missile strike hits near U.N. school in northern Gaza, killing several people

2009-01-06T07:40:00.000-08:00

The Israeli military stepped up its offensive in Gaza Tuesday, surrounding densely populated Gaza City with its ground forces after at least 50 air strikes pounded the region overnight.

The United Nations said one Israeli air attack struck an elementary school in Gaza City where hundreds of Palestinians had taken shelter, killing three men.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency said Asma Elementary school was clearly marked as a U.N. installation. It said over 400 people had been given shelter at the school when it was hit Monday night.

"Well before the current fighting, UNRWA had given to the Israeli authorities the GPS (global positioning system) co-ordinates of all its installations in Gaza, including Asma Elementary School," the agency said in a news release.

"UNRWA is strongly protesting these killings to the Israeli authorities and is calling for an immediate and impartial investigation," it added.

Other air strikes hit the homes of people linked to Hamas, including the Wadi family in Jabalya, Hamas security sources said. Eight people were killed in that strike. An overnight air strike hit the Jabalya home of Imad Siam, one of the leaders of Hamas' military wing. Another attack hit the home of a Hamas-affiliated family in Gaza City, killing at least three, according to an eyewitnesses.

Israel claimed Tuesday to have killed 130 Hamas fighters since beginning a ground offensive at the weekend.

As its forces continued to encircle Gaza City -- which has a population of about half a million people -- European diplomats swarmed into the region trying to pull together the elements for a cease-fire. But neither Israel or Hamas has showed any real interest in international calls for a truce.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told French President Nicholas Sarkozy Monday that Israel wanted a "full solution" to the conflict, not just a cease-fire that allowed Hamas to fortify itself, Mark Regev, Olmert's spokesman said.

"Before the last cease-fire with Hamas began, Hamas had missiles with a range of 20 kilometers," Regev said Tuesday. "By the end of the cease-fire, the range of the missiles grew to 40 kilometers. Israel does not want the next cease-fire to allow them to get missiles with a range of 60 kilometers."

A Hamas rocket penetrated farther than ever before into Israel on Tuesday, landing in the town of Gadera, about 36 kilometers (23 miles) north of the Gaza border, the Israeli military said. On Monday, a rocket hit a kindergarten in Ashdod, about 26 kilometers (16 miles) north of Gaza.

Hamas had fired 30 rockets at Israel by Tuesday afternoon, the Israeli military said. Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida warned Israel that the militants would continue rocket attacks "for many months" and vowed to strike deeper into Israeli territory.

Three Israeli soldiers were killed in northern Gaza late Monday in a "friendly fire" incident involving an explosion from a tank shell that hit a building the troops were in, bringing the Israeli troop deaths from the Gaza ground operation to five, the military said. Two dozen troops were wounded in the explosion -- one critical, three severely.

With no end in sight to the conflict, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated. Hundreds of wounded people swarmed into Gaza's largest hospital and scores of Gazans headed for the morgues -- where two bodies are crammed into each drawer.

"Everybody here is terrorized by the situation," John Ging, the director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza told CNN, from Gaza City. "There's no place that you can be safe if you're a civilian here. It's not safe in your home.

The Israeli military said another 80 trucks with humanitarian aid would be allowed to pass into Gaza on Tuesday at the Kerem Shalom crossing

According to Palestinian medical sources, at least 23 people were killed in Gaza on Tuesday, bringing the Palestinian death toll to 555 since Israel launched its operation on December 27. Most of the deaths are militants, but include at least 100 civilians, the sources said. Another 2,750 Palestinians have been injured, most of them civilians, the sources said.

The Israeli ground assault was launched Saturday night. Israel says it is the second phase of an operation to stop militants from firing rockets and mortars into southern Israel.

The incursion followed eight days of air strikes on the territory to stop the rocket attacks, which have killed four Israelis since the military operation began.

Plans for Inauguration Day 2009

2009-01-05T09:00:00.001-08:00

Security is surely going to be very tight at this Inauguration day more so than it has been in the past. That would be the last thing this country would need right now too. Hopefully everyone who goes will be able to see history take place. In a good way. They will see the first African American sworn in as President of the United States.

Is the Grey Lady is preparing for another sell-out at the newsstands this January 21st? Following Barack Obama's win on November 4th, the paper was practically saved by sales of its print edition on November 5th, when a line even formed outside of their HQ that afternoon. Eventually the paper ended up offering up commemorative prints of the front page for $15. Now MediaBistro points out that the paper has their own ad campaign running which will put the fear in you (you do not want to miss out on the Malia and Sasha get a puppy cover story!); they say: "Seems that the Times wants you to subscribe to the paper based on the idea that every day of the next eight years will be as historic as November 4." Well, maybe not every day, but expect another record day in sales after Obama's inauguration on January 20th—the site notes that whoever designs that front page "will be sure that it looks good in a frame."

Here are Metro's parking rules for Jan. 20, and no matter how bad it sounds, I still think that Metrorail is the best bet for getting to the inaugural or just getting to work on that busy day:

Car's won't be allowed to park at the Greenbelt, Morgan Boulevard, Van Dorn Street and Minnesota Avenue stations. They'll be reserved for charter bus parking, and these will be the only stations where the charters can park.

To prepare for Inauguration Day, all Metrorail parking facilities will close at midnight on Monday and will be cleared of vehicles in preparation for Inauguration Day. Cars parked in those spots after midnight will be ticketed and towed.

All the Metrorail parking areas will open at 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 20. Cars will be charged $4 for all-day parking on the way in. It's cash only. No SmarTrip cards or credit cards. At the end of your day, just go. The gates will be up.

For Charter Buses
Charter buses that want to park at one of those six Metrorail stations must register at www.clickandpark.com. If a bus arrives without the necessary registration, it will be turned away from the station.

For Car Drivers
Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. had originally planned for the Jan. 20 parking to be free for drivers. It would have been a real hassle for everyone at the end of the day when some visitors figured out right at the exit gate that they needed a SmarTrip card to get out.

But Catoe changed his mind on the charge last month when it became clear that Metro would need to get a contractor in to manage parking on Inauguration Day. The $4 -- the most that Metro can charge for parking without holding a public hearing -- will help defray the cost of the parking management, Catoe said.

Metrorail Riders
In the weeks leading up to Inauguration Day, Metro is testing the ability of its power supply and its operators to handle more eight-car trains. It started last month on the Green and Yellow lines.

Today and Tuesday, there will be more eight car trains on the Blue and Orange lines during the peak periods. Then during the off peak times, all the trains will be eight cars long. On Wednesday and Thursday, Metro will do the same thing on the Red Line.

On the test days, all the trains -- no matter how long -- will stop at the ends of the platforms. An eight-car train fills the entire platform, so if the electronic message board on the platform is telling you an eight-car train is coming, remember that it's easier to get a seat if you're at waiting at one end or the other. (Many people haven't made the adjustment to the longer trains and tend to cluster in the middle of the platform.)

But if the electronic signs says a six-car train is coming on those days, that means it will stop farther up the platform than usual. So if you tend to wait toward the rear of the platform, you'll want to walk up a bit.

G.O.P. Receives Obama Parody "Obama the Magic Negro" had Mixed Reviews

2008-12-28T08:03:00.000-08:00

I think this was a bit odd myself. I think these people would be trying to figure out how to fix their broken party. And quit trying to poke fun at the person who beat them. It is pretty bad when you could put anyone in the democratic nomination and they were guaranteed to beat you. I think Obama will be great don't get me wrong. I just think they really messed up a great opportunity to make this country even greater. Now it is the democrats turn.

By JASON DePARLE

WASHINGTON — To the issues that divide the Republican Party, there comes one more. Some Republicans find humor in the song “Barack the Magic Negro.” Some most definitely do not.

The debate was joined last week after a candidate for party chairman from Tennessee, Chip Saltsman, distributed the parody, which was broadcast on the Rush Limbaugh radio show last year and questions President-elect Barack Obama’s racial authenticity.

Speaking to The Hill newspaper on Friday, Mr. Saltsman, a longtime Republican operative, described it as a “light-hearted” gift that would be received in “good humor” by members of the Republican National Committee.

In a party that had big losses this year among minority voters, not everyone took it that way.

“I am shocked and appalled,” Mike Duncan, the current party chairman, said in a statement released Saturday. Mr. Duncan is competing for a second term against Mr. Saltsman and four others.

“This is so inappropriate that it should disqualify any Republican National Committee candidate who would use it,” Newt Gingrich, a Republican former House speaker, said in an e-mail message. Referring to Mr. Obama, Mr. Gingrich said, “There are no grounds for demeaning him or for using racist descriptions.”

Saul Anuzis, the chairman of the Michigan Republican Party and another candidate for party chairman, said, “This isn’t funny, and it’s in bad taste.”

There are two black candidates for the post, J. Kenneth Blackwell, a former Ohio secretary of state, and Michael Steele, a former lieutenant governor of Maryland. On Saturday, Mr. Blackwell dismissed the fuss as “hypersensitivity.”

“All competitors for this leadership position are fine people,” he said in an e-mail message.

The dispute illustrates a larger Republican challenge in the months ahead: how to oppose the first black president without seeming antiblack. There are no black Republicans in Congress, and a party spokesman could name only 2 blacks among the 168 members of the national committee. Katon Dawson, the chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, resigned from an all-white country club in preparing for his campaign to be party chairman.

The parody is sung to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon” by a character meant to be the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights advocate and sometime political candidate. The character laments that white liberals vote for Mr. Obama while shunning his brand of more confrontational racial politics.

“Barack the Magic Negro,” the character says, “made guilty whites feel good/They’ll vote for him and not for me/Cause he’s not from the ’hood.”

The song was written by a parodist, Paul Shanklin, whose work frequently airs on Mr. Limbaugh’s show, and Mr. Limbaugh has defended it against critics who called it racist. Mr. Limbaugh said that it was inspired by an opinion column in The Los Angeles Times by a black writer, David Ehrenstein, who likened Mr. Obama to “warm and unthreatening” black figures like the actors Sidney Poitier and Morgan Freeman.

Mr. Saltsman distributed the song in a compilation of works by Mr. Shanklin, whom he described to The Hill as “a longtime friend.” Mr. Saltsman did not return phone calls on Saturday.

President Bush: Automakers to get $17.4B

2008-12-19T07:00:00.001-08:00

I can't believe this thing passed even though Congress turned them down. I guess we don't live in a democrazy anymore.

By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Citing danger to the national economy, the Bush administration came to the rescue of the U.S. auto industry Friday, offering $17.4 billion in emergency loans in exchange for concessions from the deeply troubled carmakers and their workers.

At the same time, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Congress should authorize the use of the second $350 billion from the financial rescue fund that it approved in October to rescue huge financial institutions. Tapping the fund for the auto industry basically exhausts the first half of the $700 billion total, he said.

President Bush said, "Allowing the auto companies to collapse is not a responsible course of action." Bankruptcy, he said, would deal "an unacceptably painful blow to hardworking Americans" across the economy.

One official said $13.4 billion of the money would be available this month and next, $9.4 billion for General Motors Corp. and $4 billion for Chrysler LLC. Both companies have said they soon might be unable to pay their bills without federal help. Ford Motor Co. has said it does not need immediate help.

Bush said the rescue package demanded concessions similar to those outlined in a bailout plan that was approved by the House but rejected by the Senate a week ago. It would give the automakers three months to come up with restructuring plans to become viable companies.

If they fail to produce a plan by March 31, the automakers will be required to repay the loans, which they would find very difficult.

"The time to make hard decisions to become viable is now, or the only option will be bankruptcy," Bush said. "The automakers and unions must understand what is at stake and make hard decisions necessary to reform."

He said the companies' workers should agree to wage and work rules that are competitive with foreign automakers by the end of next year.

And he called for elimination of a "jobs bank" program — negotiated by the United Auto Workers and the companies — under which laid-off workers receive unemployment benefits and supplemental pay from their companies for 48 weeks. If they remain laid off beyond that, they move to a jobs bank in which the company provides about 95% of their pay and benefits. Until the most recent contract, people could remain in the jobs bank for years. Early this month, the UAW agreed to suspend the program.

Bush's plan is designed to keep the auto industry running in the short term, passing the longer-range problem on to the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama.

Paulson said that with the help for the carmakers, the government will have allocated the first half of the largest government bailout program in history.

He said he was confident that the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have the resources to address a significant market crisis if one should occur before Congress approves the use of the second half of the rescue fund.

Paulson said he would discuss the process with congressional leaders and Obama's transition team "in the near future."

The White House package is the lifeline desperately sought by U.S. automakers, who warned they were running out of money as the economy fell deeper into recession, car loans became scarce and consumers stopped shopping for cars.

The carmakers have announced extended holiday shutdowns. Chrysler is closing all 30 of its North American manufacturing plants for four weeks because of slumping sales; Ford will shut 10 North American assembly plants for an extra week in January, and General Motors will temporarily close 20 factories — many for the entire month of January — to cut vehicle production.

Bush said the auto manufactures have faced serious challenges for many years: burdensome costs, a shrinking share of the market and plunging profits. "In recent months, the global financial crisis has made these challenges even more severe," he said.

The president said that on the one hand, the government has a responsibility not to undermine the private enterprise system, yet on the other hand, it must safeguard the broader health and stability of the U.S. economy.

"If we were to allow the free market to take its course now, it would almost certainly lead to disorderly bankruptcy and liquidation for the automakers," he said.

"Under ordinary economic circumstances, I would say this is the price that failed companies must pay," the president said. "And I would not favor intervening to prevent the automakers from going out of business. But these are not ordinary circumstances.

"In the midst of a financial crisis and a recession, allowing the U.S. auto industry to collapse is not a responsible course of action."

Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli thanked the administration for its help.

In a statement Friday morning, Nardelli said the initial injection of capital will help the company get through its cash crisis and help eventually return to profitability. He said Chrysler was committed to meeting the conditions set by Bush in exchange for the money.

Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally said his company would not seek the short-term financial assistance but predicted the aid would stabilize the industry.

"The U.S. auto industry is highly interdependent, and a failure of one of our competitors would have a ripple effect that could jeopardize millions of jobs and further damage the already weakened U.S. economy," Mulally said.

General Motors said the short-term loans would help preserve jobs and "lead to a leaner, stronger General Motors."

"We know we have much work in front of us to accomplish our plan. It is our intention to continue to be transparent as we execute our plan, and we will provide regular updates on our progress," the automaker said.

Bush considering "orderly" auto bankruptcy

2008-12-18T14:56:00.001-08:00

What an Idiot. No wonder all the stocks plummeted right after he talks.

By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration is looking at "orderly" bankruptcy as a possible way to deal with the desperately ailing U.S. auto industry, the White House said Thursday as carmakers readied more plant closings and a half million new jobless claims underscored the deteriorating national economy.

With General Motors, Chrysler and the rest of Detroit anxiously awaiting a White House decision on billions of dollars in emergency federal loans, press secretary Dana Perino said it wasn't simply a choice between government rescue and the disastrous collapse of a major industry.

"There's an orderly way to do bankruptcies that provides for more of a soft landing," she said. "I think that's what we would be talking about."

President George W. Bush, asked about an auto bailout, said he hadn't decided what he would do but didn't want to leave a mess for Barack Obama who takes office a month from Saturday. A White House decision on helping the troubled automakers could come as early as Friday.

Bush, like Perino, spoke of the idea of bankruptcies orchestrated by the federal government as a possible way to go — without committing to it.

"Under normal circumstances, no question bankruptcy court is the best way to work through credit and debt and restructuring," he said during a speech and question-and-answer session at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank. "These aren't normal circumstances. That's the problem."

Perino emphasized there were still several possible approaches to assisting the automakers, including short-term loans from the Treasury Department's $700 billion Wall Street bailout program.

The Big Three automakers said anew that bankruptcy wasn't the answer, as did an official of the United Auto Workers who called the idea unworkable and even dangerous. GM said a report that it and Chrysler had restarted talks to combine was untrue.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Capitol Hill that grim new unemployment data heightened the urgency for the administration "to prevent the imminent insolvency of the domestic auto industry."

The California Democrat said Bush has the legal authority to act now, and should attach the accountability standards that were included in a $14 billion House-passed and Bush-supported carmaker bailout that died in the Senate last week. That plan would have given the government, through a Bush-appointed "car czar," veto power over major business decisions at any auto company that received federal loans.

Pelosi spoke after the government announced that initial claims for unemployment benefits totaled a seasonally adjusted 554,000 last week.

The comments in Washington came a day after Chrysler LLC announced it was closing all its North American manufacturing plants for at least a month as it, General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. await word on government action. General Motors also has been closing plants, and it and Chrysler have said they might not have enough money to pay their bills in a matter of weeks.

Separately, there were worries that GMAC LLC, which provides financing for GM vehicle and dealer loans along with home mortgages, could be forced to file for bankruptcy itself. GMAC was having trouble finding adequate support from its bondholders for a debt transaction that would allow it to become a bank holding company and gain eligibility for the $700 billion rescue package.

Prices of GM and Ford stocks fell sharply Thursday after the remarks out of the White House. Ford, unlike General Motors and Chrysler, is not seeking billions in federal bailout loans, but a collapse of the other two could hurt Ford as well.

Alan Reuther, the United Auto Workers' legislative director, said the union urged the administration during a meeting this week to follow the provisions included in the House-passed auto aid bill.

Congressional aides in both parties who have been closely following the discussions suggested the talk of bankruptcy could be a tactic to extract more hefty concessions from the companies and union in exchange for granting short-term loans from Treasury's financial industry rescue fund.

Perino said one factor preventing an announcement of action by the administration is that discussions continue with the various sides that would have to sign on to a managed bankruptcy — entities such as labor and equity holders in addition to the companies themselves.

A senior administration official said the talks between Bush officials and the Big Three and their stakeholders amount to information-gathering, not negotiating.

The White House has repeatedly emphasized its opposition to "disorderly bankruptcy" — presumably a Chapter 7 filing that would effectively shut down a company and require liquidation of assets. That has left on the table the possibility of forcing one or more automakers into a Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which allows a firm to keep operating while under a court's purview.

Harlan Platt, who teaches corporate turnarounds at Northeastern University in Boston, said the government may be waiting for an offer of an ownership stake in the companies, much as it received in return for capital plowed into banks. "You really have to ask the question: If this is good enough for Wall Street, why isn't it good enough for Detroit?" he said.

On Thursday, spokesmen for Chrysler, GM and Ford generally referred to their previous comments that bankruptcy was not a workable solution. The car companies argue that no one would buy a vehicle from a bankrupt company for fear that the company might not be around to honor warranties.

"We continue to work with the administration to find a solution to this liquidity crisis," said GM spokesman Tony Cervone.

Chrysler spokeswoman Shawn Morgan noted previous statements against bankruptcy by CEO Robert Nardelli. Financing for even a prepackaged bankruptcy would be difficult to get in the current tight credit market, Chrysler has said.

The National Automobile Dealers Association also spoke out against bankruptcy for car companies "in any way shape or form, orderly or disorderly, prepackaged or unpackaged, managed or unmanaged," said spokesman Bailey Wood.

Bush said the auto industry is "obviously very fragile" and he is worried about what an out-and-out collapse without Washington involvement "would do to the psychology" of the markets.

"There still is a lot of uncertainty," he said.

At the same time, the president said anew that he is worried about "putting good money after bad," meaning taxpayer dollars shouldn't be used to prop up companies that can't survive the long term.

He revealed one other consideration — that Obama will become president in just over a month.

"I thought about what it would be like for me to become president during this period. I believe that good policy is not to dump him a major catastrophe on his first day in office," Bush said.

___

Associated Press writers Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Ken Thomas in Washington, Tom Krisher in Detroit and Bree Fowler in New York contributed to this story.

IG report says Blackwater may lose license in Iraq

2008-12-17T18:43:00.000-08:00

I think Blackwater should have lost their license a long time ago. They must have some friends in high places or we don't have a better alternative. Which I find hard to believe. I think these people care even less about helping the people in Iraq more than the politicians that put us there.

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer Matthew Lee, Associated Press Writer –

WASHINGTON – An internal State Department report says Blackwater Worldwide may lose its license to work in Iraq and recommends that the agency prepare alternative means to protect its diplomats there.

The 42-page draft report by the State Department's Inspector General says the department faces "numerous challenges" in dealing with the security situation in Iraq, including the prospect that Blackwater may be barred from the country. The department would have turn to other security arrangements to replace Blackwater, officials said.

The State Department had no immediate comment on the report itself, but deputy spokesman Robert Wood said that after the probe is done, officials would look at "whether the continued use of Blackwater in Iraq is consistent with the U.S. government's goals and objectives."

It is not clear how the State Department would replace Blackwater. It relies heavily on private contractors to protect its diplomats in Iraq, as its own security service does not have the manpower or equipment to do so. The report suggests that one way to fill the void would be for the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service to beef up its presence in Iraq.

"The department faces the real possibility that one of its primary Worldwide Personal Protective Services contractors in Iraq — Blackwater (Worldwide) — will not receive a license to continue operating in Iraq," says the recently completely report.

The report is labeled "sensitive but unclassified."

An official familiar with the report said initially that it would recommend that department not renew Blackwater's contract when it expires next year. But that specific language is not included in the document, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

The official said later that such a recommendation would not be made until after an investigation of last September's incident in Baghdad's Nisoor Square in which Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqis is complete. Five guards have been indicted on manslaughter and other charges stemming from that incident. The company was not implicated.

A decision on how U.S. diplomats in Iraq are to be protected will be left to the Obama administration, which will be in place when Blackwater's contract comes up for renewal in the spring.

Terminating the North Carolina-based company's Iraq contract will be difficult for incoming Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton because no other private security contractor has its range of resources, particularly its fleet of helicopters and planes.

Current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered a review of the department's use of private security firms after the Nisoor Square incident. The Inspector General's report is an analysis of how recommendations in that review have been implemented and includes several key findings, including that the department plan for the possibility that it may no longer be able to rely on private contractors like Blackwater.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrell declined to comment, saying the company has not yet seen the report. The company has said in the past, though, that it plans to largely get out of the security contracting business to concentrate on training and other projects.

Blackwater has won more than $1 billion in government contracts under the Bush administration, a large portion of which has been for work in Iraq, where among its duties is protecting diplomats based at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

State Department officials have praised Blackwater's work in Iraq, noting that no personnel under the company's protection has been killed. However, after Nisoor Square incident, the firm came under heavy criticism for the actions of its employees, which were immune from Iraqi law under legal protections dating from the U.S.-led occupation of the country.

Immediately after that incident, the State Department stepped up its supervision of Blackwater employees in Iraq, including posting a Diplomatic Security agent in every convoy the company escorts and installing video cameras in its vehicles.

And, the immunity enjoyed by Blackwater employees and other private security guards who protect civilians in Iraq will soon come to an end under a new U.S.-Iraqi security pact that will take effect on Jan. 1.

U.S. investigators have linked Blackwater guards to 70 shooting incidents involving civilians before Nisoor Square and only two since then.

___

Associated Press writer Matt Apuzzo contributed to this report.

Obama named Times Person of the Year 2008

2008-12-17T07:24:00.000-08:00

I was wondering what it was taking them so long. Obama is the very easy choice for the person of the year. I only have one problem with it though. It is that he hasn't even done anything yet. I would wait to see if he can fix the problems with the country before I would say he is a great man. They jumped the gun with Bush when they named him person of the year. I would have to say the same thing about Hitler and Stalin when they named those two person of the year back in the day. Of course they thought those two people were going to be great. And in some respects they were.

Posted by Jason Tuohey

It may come as no shock that Time magazine named Barack Obama its "Person of the Year," but the magazine's online package does offer one surprise -- previously unseen photos of the president-elect from his formative years at Occidental College.

Time's managing editor Richard Stengel said the magazine picked Obama for his constant presence in news coverage throughout the year, and for being elected president at a "periolous" and "critical" time in American history.

Obama "energized Americans in a way that we haven't seen in a long time," Stengel said on CNN today.

Time's online package provides previously unpublished photos of Obama at Occidental College, which he attended from 1979 to 1981. The black-and-white photos were taken in 1980 by Lisa Jack, an aspiring photographer at the time, and show Obama wearing a hat and striking a variety of poses. Take a look at the photos.

Obama's time at Occidental College is a largely overlooked period of his biography, but one where he began to lay the seeds for his future in public service and politics.

The Globe's Scott Helman chronicled Obama's maturation this August in an article and video on the president-elect's years at Occidental. Here's a taste:

"Much has been made in this presidential campaign, both good and bad, of Obama's Ivy League pedigree - his bachelor's degree from Columbia University, and his law degree from Harvard, where he led the prestigious Law Review. But it is during the two years Obama spent at Occidental, a small liberal arts school in Los Angeles, that he started on the path that has led to the Democratic presidential nomination."

Obama Picks Arne Duncan for Education Post

2008-12-15T17:28:00.001-08:00

By Sam Dillon

Arne Duncan (Photo: Charles Bennett/Associated Press)

President-elect Barack Obama will name Arne Duncan, the superintendent of schools in Chicago, to be his Secretary of Education, a senior Democratic official and a second person close to the decision said.

Mr. Duncan is a Harvard graduate whose friendship with Mr. Obama began on the basketball court and flowered into frequent discussions of education policy.

He has seven years’ experience as chief executive of the Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s third-largest school district, where he has earned a solid reputation for confronting pressing issues in public education, like how to raise teacher quality, how to transform weak schools and when to shutter those that are irredeemably failing.

Word of the selection comes as Mr. Obama’s transition team said Monday that he would make an important announcement on Tuesday morning at the Dodge Renaissance Academy, an elementary school that Mr. Duncan and Mr. Obama visited together in October 2005.

Bush thrown shoe - Iraqi shoe-throwing reporter becomes the talk of Iraq

2008-12-15T12:07:00.000-08:00

I have to say that this was awesome. I only have one thing to say to the guy. AIM LOWER NEXT TIME. It would of been so great because they were talking about how Bush was a liberator, but yet when he is around the people they throw whatever they have at him. I am surprised though that this made it to the news in America.

By Waleed Ibrahim Waleed Ibrahim –

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush has become the talk of Iraq, hailed by marchers as a national hero but blasted by the government as a barbarian.

The little-known Shi'ite reporter, said to have harbored anger against Bush for the thousands of Iraqis who died after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, had previously made headlines only once, when he was briefly kidnapped by gunmen in 2007.

TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi remained in detention on Monday, accused by the Iraqi government of a "barbaric act." He would be sent for trial on charges of insulting the Iraqi state, said the prime minister's media adviser, Yasin Majeed.

His employer, independent al-Baghdadiya television, demanded his release and demonstrators rallied for him in Baghdad's Sadr City, in the southern Shi'ite stronghold of Basra and in the holy city of Najaf, where some threw shoes at a U.S. convoy.

"Thanks be to God, Muntazer's act fills Iraqi hearts with pride," his brother, Udai al-Zaidi, told Reuters Television.

"I'm sure many Iraqis want to do what Muntazer did. Muntazer used to say all the orphans whose fathers were killed are because of Bush."

Zaidi shouted "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog," at Bush in a news conference he held with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during a farewell visit to Baghdad on Sunday.

The journalist then flung one shoe at Bush, forcing him to duck, followed by another, which sailed over Bush's head and slammed into the wall behind him. Throwing shoes at someone is the worst possible insult in the Arab world.

Zaidi was dragged struggling and screaming from the room by security guards and could be heard shouting outside while the news conference continued after momentary mayhem.

'BARBARIC'

The government said Zaidi had carried out "a barbaric and ignominious act" that was not fitting of the media's role and demanded an apology from his television station.

Al-Baghdadiya television played endless patriotic music, with Zaidi's face plastered across the screen.

A newscaster solemnly read out a statement calling for his release, "in accordance with the democratic era and the freedom of expression that Iraqis were promised by U.S. authorities."

It said that any harsh measures taken against the reporter would be reminders of the "dictatorial era."

The Iraqi Journalists' Syndicate said Zaidi's "far from professional" and irresponsible conduct had placed it in an "embarrassing and critical" situation. Nevertheless, it called on Maliki to release him for humanitarian reasons.

"It was the throw of the century. I believe Bush deserves what happened to him because he has not kept his promises to Iraqis," said Baghdad resident Abu Hussein, 48.

Parliamentary reaction was mixed, with some saying Zaidi chose the wrong venue for his protest. Others cheered.

"Al-Zaidi's shoe is the most famous shoe in the whole world," said Fawzi Akram, a Turkman lawmaker loyal to anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

A Libyan charity group chaired by leader Muammar Gaddafi's daughter, Aicha Gaddafi, gave Zaidi an award for bravery.

Zaidi, now in his late 20s, spent more than two days blindfolded, after armed men kidnapped him in November 2007. He said at the time that the kidnappers had beaten him until he lost consciousness, and used his necktie to blindfold him.

He never learned the identity of the kidnappers, who questioned him about his work but did not demand a ransom.

Colleagues say Zaidi resented Bush, blaming him for the bloodshed that ravaged Iraq. It did not appear that he had lost any close family members during the sectarian killings and insurgency, which in recent months have finally begun to wane.

(Additional reporting by Haidar Kadhim and Wissam Mohammed; Writing by Michael Christie; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Joe Biden gets New Puppy, Beats Obama

2008-12-12T06:47:00.000-08:00

Malia and Sasha Obama apparently aren’t the only ones who were promised a puppy if they stuck it out through the presidential election.

Vice President-elect Joe Biden picked out a German shepherd pup last weekend from a breeder near his Delaware home, according to a local newspaper report.

Biden was reportedly promised the post-election dog by his wife, Jill, who would tape pictures of different dogs on the back of the seat in front of Biden on his campaign plane.

The vice president-elect picked out a month-old male German shepherd from a breeder in Chester County, Pa., according to the Daily Local News. The breeder told the paper Biden wanted a family dog that was social and obedient and said Biden's granddaughters will name him.

The puppy will be delivered to the Bidens at the vice presidential residence after the Inauguration and after the breeder trains him, the paper reports.

Nancy Sutley to Head White House Council on Environmental

2008-12-10T11:39:00.000-08:00

This looks like it is a solid addition to the future presidents cabinet. But if anyone can tell me why it isn't then please feel free to comment. Maybe you will be able to change my mind or the mind of other readers. I think it is cool though that Nancy Sutley is Openly Gay.

By LIZ SIDOTI –

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Barack Obama has selected a deputy mayor of Los Angeles to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality, transition officials said Wednesday. Nancy Sutley is the first prominent member of the gay and lesbian community to earn a senior role in the Democrat's new administration.

With many of his top White House and Cabinet posts filled, Obama now is focusing on fleshing out his natural resources and environment team, and could formally introduce his choices for interior secretary, energy secretary and environmental protection agency chief within weeks if not days.

Two transition officials disclosed Sutley's selection on the condition of anonymity because Obama had not yet made the announcement.

Sutley supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton during the Democratic primary and was a member of her Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender steering committee.

The deputy mayor for energy and environment in Los Angeles and the mayor's representative on the Board of Directors for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Sutley has a long record of working on environmental and natural resources policy.

She previously served on the California State Water Resources Control Board, which is responsible for protecting water quality and resources throughout the state, and was the energy adviser to former Gov. Gray Davis. During President Bill Clinton's administration, Sutley was an EPA official, including being a special assistant to the EPA administrator in Washington.

Obama has chosen much of his Cabinet, with the most prominent positions — treasury, justice, state and defense — already filled, and he is now turning to other posts. He is expected to officially name former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle as his secretary of health and human services as early as this week.

Officials close to Obama's transition say former New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection commissioner Lisa Jackson and Mary Nichols, who heads the California Air Resources Board, are in the running for the EPA administrator post. Both women worked at the EPA under Clinton EPA chief Carol Browner, who is leading the energy and environmental policy team for Obama's transition.

Browner, who ran the agency for 8 years, is expected to be named to a new position in the Obama White House overseeing energy, environment and climate matters. But officials say there was still some discussion over whether Browner would share her duties with Sutley or another adviser on energy and environmental matters.

The position of interior secretary is still in flux.

Support for John Berry, the director of the National Zoo and a former assistant secretary at the department, was growing, officials said. Gay and lesbian advocacy groups backing Berry, who is gay, were expected to meet with the transition team in Washington on Wednesday.

But officials said Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva and California Rep. Mike Thompson were still in the running to lead the agency, depending on how other positions shake out.

Associated Press Writer Dina Cappiello contributed to this report.

Report: Rod Blagojevich, Illinois Governor Arrested

2008-12-09T09:37:00.000-08:00

Well there is always something going on behind closed doors of the political machine. This is one of those few times that it gets aired out and the American People get to witness it. And some of these politicians like Blagojevich think they can get away with anything. Like most politicians do I guess.

CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on Tuesday on charges that he brazenly conspired to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder.

Blagojevich also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field, according to a federal criminal complaint. In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper's editorial board who had been critical of him fired.

A 76-page FBI affidavit said the 51-year-old Democratic governor was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps over the last month conspiring to sell or trade the vacant Senate seat for personal benefits for himself and his wife, Patti.

Otherwise, Blagojevich considered appointing himself. The affidavit said that as late as Nov. 3, he told his deputy governor that if "they're not going to offer me anything of value I might as well take it."

"I'm going to keep this Senate option for me a real possibility, you know, and therefore I can drive a hard bargain," Blagojevich allegedly said later that day, according to the affidavit, which also quoted him as saying in a remark punctuated by profanity that the seat was "a valuable thing — you just don't give it away for nothing."

The affidavit said Blagojevich also discussed getting a substantial salary for himself at a nonprofit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions.

It said Blagojevich also talked about getting his wife placed on corporate boards where she might get $150,000 a year in director's fees.

He also allegedly discussed getting campaign funds for himself or possibly a post in the president's cabinet or an ambassadorship once he left the governor's office. He noted becoming a U.S. senator might remake his image for a possible presidential run in 2016, according to the affidavit. And he allegedly said a Senate seat would also provide him with corporate contacts if he needed a job and present an opportunity for his wife to work as a lobbyist.

"I want to make money," the affidavit quotes him as saying in one conversation.

The affidavit said Blagojevich expressed frustration at being "stuck" as governor and that he would have access to greater resources if he were indicted while in the U.S. Senate than while sitting as governor.

U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in a statement that "the breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering."

"They allege that Blagojevich put a for sale sign on the naming of a United States senator," Fitzgerald said."

Messages left for Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero and at the governor's press office were not immediately returned Tuesday morning.

Among those being considered for the Senate post include U.S. Reps. Danny Davis and Jesse Jackson Jr.

The affidavit outlined a Nov. 10 call between Blagojevich, his wife, his chief of staff — John Harris, who also was arrested Tuesday — and a group of advisers in which Harris allegedly suggested working out an agreement with the Service Employees International Union.

Under the plan, Blagojevich would appoint a new senator who would be helpful to the president-elect and in turn get a job as head of Change to Win, a group formed by the union. The union would get an unspecified favor from Obama later.

Nothing in the court papers suggested Obama had any part in the discussion. In fact, Blagojevich allegedly said in the same conversation that Obama most likely would not appoint him as secretary of health and human services or to an ambassadorship because of the negative publicity that has surrounded the governor for three years.

One day later, according to the affidavit, Blagojevich allegedly told an associate he knew Obama wanted a specific Senate candidate but "they're not going to give me anything except appreciation." He finished the remark with an expletive.

Blagojevich also was charged with using his authority as governor in an attempt to squeeze out campaign contributions.

Corruption in the Blagojevich administration has been the focus of a federal investigation involving an alleged $7 million scheme aimed at squeezing kickbacks out of companies seeking business from the state. Federal prosecutors have acknowledged they're also investigating "serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud" under Blagojevich, who has a $177,412 salary, though it's unclear whether he accepts the total.

Political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko who raised money for the campaigns of both Blagojevich and Obama is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of fraud and other charges. Blagojevich's chief fundraiser, Christopher G. Kelly, is due to stand trial early next year on charges of obstructing the Internal Revenue Service.

According to Tuesday's complaint, Blagojevich schemed with Rezko, millionaire-fundraiser turned federal witness Stuart Levine and others to get financial benefits for himself and his campaign committee.

Federal prosecutors said Blagojevich and the chairman of his campaign committee have been speeding up corrupt fundraising activities in the last month to get as much money as possible before the end of the year when a new law would curtail his ability to raise contributions from companies with state contracts worth more than $50,000.

According to the affidavit, agents learned Blagojevich was seeking $2.5 million in campaign contributions by the end of the year, with a large part allegedly to come from companies and individuals who have gotten state contracts or appointments.

The affidavit also outlines Blagojevich conversations related to Tribune Co., which has been hoping to sell Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs which the publishing giant also owns.

Blagojevich was quoted in court papers as telling Harris in a profanity laced Nov. 4 conversation that his recommendation to Tribune executives was to fire the editorial writers "and get us some editorial support."

Harris is quoted as telling the governor Nov. 11 that an unnamed Tribune Owner, presumably CEO Sam Zell, "got the message and is very sensitive to the issue."

The affidavit said Harris quoted a Tribune financial adviser as saying cuts were coming at the newspaper and "reading between the lines he's going after that section," apparently meaning editorial writers. Blagojevich is quoted as saying: "Oh, that's fantastic."

"Wow," Blagojevich allegedly replied. "Keep our fingers crossed. You're the man. Good job, John."

Harris allegedly told Blagojevich in his conversation with the financial adviser he had singled out deputy editorial page editor John McCormick as "somebody who was the most biased and unfair."

After hearing that, Blagojevich allegedly stressed to the head of a Chicago sports consulting firm that it was important to provide state aid for a Wrigley Field sale.

Blagojevich took the chief executive's office in 2003 as a reformer promising to clean up former Gov. George Ryan's mess.

Ryan, a Republican, is serving a 6-year prison sentence after being convicted on racketeering and fraud charges. A decade-long investigation began with the sale of driver's licenses for bribes and led to the conviction of dozens of people who worked for Ryan when he was secretary of state and governor.

FBI spokesman Frank Bochte said federal agents arrested the governor and Harris simultaneously at their homes at 6:15 a.m. and took them to the Chicago FBI headquarters.

He did not have any details about Blagojevich's arrest, only that he was cooperative with federal agents.

"It was a very calm setting," he said.

The governor was to appear later Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan to answer the charges. The time was not immediately set.

___

Associated Press Writer Don Babwin contributed to this report.

Barack Obama says he won't smoke cigarettes in the White House

2008-12-08T08:12:00.000-08:00

Rob Manker

December 8, 2008

While the burning question of whether he smokes still rages, Barack Obama says he definitely won't be lighting up in the smoke-free White House.

The president-elect addressed the subject during a television interview aired Sunday, acknowledging that he has sneaked a few puffs.

"There are times where I've fallen off the wagon," Obama said on NBC's " Meet the Press."

The does-he-or-doesn't-he question has been the butt of ongoing speculation.

Obama told the Tribune in February 2007 that he had quit at his wife's urging, but his comments this year have been somewhat hazy. He said in February that he was chewing stop-smoking gum Nicorette, in June that it had been months since his last cigarette, and in a November interview with Men's Health magazine that he was indeed smoking again—occasionally.

"But I figure, seeing as I'm running for president, I need to cut myself a little slack," he told the magazine, adding that he sometimes bummed a smoke along the campaign trail.

Obama's comments Sunday didn't really clear the air.

"I've done a terrific job, under the circumstances, of making myself much healthier," the president-to-be said. "And I think that you will not see any violations of these rules in the White House."

He said in the White House. That doesn't mean he might not sneak a few drags out in the Rose Garden.

Early results favor opposition in Ghana election

2008-12-08T06:45:00.000-08:00

It is always good to see democracy working in other countries. Especially when they are one of the few stable ones such as Ghana. Hopefully they can continue to grow and become a glowing star for all of Africa to look on and want the same thing and work towards it. And get rid of all the war lords and pirates around that continent.

By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI - Associated Press Writer

ACCRA, Ghana -- Ghanaians walked the streets holding radios to their ears and congregated next to TV sets Monday as early results in one of Africa's few stable democracies showed the opposition leading by a sliver.

With only a quarter of the precincts counted, there is plenty of room for change. But early results showed opposition candidate John Atta Mills leading the ruling party's Nana Akufo-Addo by some 10,000 votes.

The opposition's base is the urban poor concentrated in the capital, who live in areas that have largely been left untouched by Ghana's stunning economic growth. Results are expected to begin trickling in from the countryside, where the ruling party has traditionally led.

Rebecca Blackwell

AP Photo - People sit under signs explaining the voting process as they wait for polls to open in Accra, Ghana, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2008. An estimated 12.4 million registered voters, roughly half the country's population of 23 million, will choose from one of eight candidates to succeed President John Kufuor, who is stepping down after two terms as required by law.

According to a statement released by the country's Electoral Commission, Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress, or NDC, has 48.98 percent of the vote with 63 out of 230 precincts reporting.

Akufo-Addo, whose New Patriotic Party, or NPP, has been in power for the past eight years, is close behind with 48.55 percent of the vote.

In a year that has seen disputed elections in both Kenya and Zimbabwe, voters here are keenly aware that they are viewed as a role model for the rest of the continent.

"I am proud that my country is a democracy," said Salomey Tackie, who along with several hundred neighbors waited for results outside her polling station late Sunday in one of the capital's crowded shantytowns.

People crowded to watch the votes being count, even standing on boxes to get a view. The onlookers were overwhelmingly pro-opposition and they whooped loudly each time they saw the NDC stack get higher.

When all the ballots had been put in their proper piles, the monitor began counting them - holding up each individual ballot so that the people could see. They chanted with him, "One, two, three ... ." They erupted into celebration when the NDC finished the tally with 517 to the NPP's 125 votes.

Like its neighbors, Ghana has a history of coups and one-party rule, but since the 1990s when coup leader Jerry Rawlings agreed to hold elections, it has been on a fast track to democracy. It has held four elections since 1992, first bringing Rawlings to power, then current President John Kufuor, who is stepping down after two terms in office.

When he does, it will mark the country's second successive transfer of power from one democratically elected leader to another, a litmus test of a mature democracy that only a handful of African nations have passed.

Bill Gates presses Obama on stimulus package, foreign aid

2008-12-04T07:15:00.000-08:00

Isn't it interesting that someone who has nothing to do with politics is now trying to get into the game in an effort to try and sell more Microsoft product. He might be seeing that the ipods are kicking his butt and Gates is trying to get into the news to do whatever he can to get his company in the news.

(CNN) -- Microsoft founder Bill Gates told CNN on Wednesday that he hopes President-elect Barack Obama and Congress immediately craft a wide-ranging stimulus package, to help jump-start the nation's sputtering economy, and double the United States' commitment to foreign aid.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates spoke exclusively Wednesday with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

"Clearly we need a stimulus that doesn't undermine the incentive for businesses to be careful about their spending and making those correct investments," Gates told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in an exclusive interview airing on The Situation Room on Wednesday and Thursday.

Gates, one of the world's richest men and founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is also calling on Obama to increase investments in the nation's education system and spur technological advances to improve agriculture, prevent disease, and promote economic growth in the world's poorest nations.

"The key point I'd make is that in addition to that stimulus, you've got to fund the kind of scientific work and educational investments that could really have us be a much better country as we emerge from the recession," he said. Watch Gates discuss economy »

On his Web site, Obama has pledged to double the United States' annual investment in foreign aid to $50 billion by the end of his first term, with the goal of fully funding debt cancellation for poor nations and fighting AIDS and global poverty.

In the interview with CNN, Gates said he thinks Obama will live up to that commitment.

"Obviously it's the Congress that gets to actually vote the final decision for how the money is spent, but I do think he will get to that commitment," Gates said. "I am thrilled to be able to see that people are responding to the success stories. Aid from the United States did go up in the last eight years."

The interview came shortly before the Microsoft founder delivered a wide-ranging speech at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., during which he reiterated his call for a major new stimulus package to spur job growth.

"Spending is the only way we'll ever come out of this downturn, and with businesses, state governments and consumers pulling back, the federal government must step forward," Gates told the crowd.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has distributed more than $17 billion in grant commitments in all 50 states and 100 countries. In his interview with CNN, Gates said he had personally given more than $30 billion to the foundation.

Deccan Mujahideen claims responsibility

2008-11-26T17:42:00.000-08:00

MUMBAI, India (AP) — A media report says a little-known group, the Deccan Mujahideen, has claimed responsibility for the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

The Press Trust of India news agency said Thursday the group sent emails to several media outlets.

Teams of heavily armed gunmen attacked a crowded train station in southern Mumbai and Leopold's restaurant, a well-known Mumbai landmark, along with the two hotels and a police station.

Officials say at least 78 people were killed and another 200 wounded. In addition, the attackers were holding hostages Thursday morning.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

MUMBAI, India (AP) — A top police official says gunmen are holding hostages at two luxury Mumbai hotels after opening fire on a crowded Mumbai train station, hotels and a restaurant popular with tourists.

A.N. Roy, a senior police officer in Mumbai, says the hostages are being held at the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels.

Teams of heavily armed gunmen attacked a crowded train station in southern Mumbai and Leopold's restaurant, a well-known Mumbai landmark, along with the two hotels and a police station.

Washingtonienne Jessica Cutler Engaged

2008-11-25T16:37:00.001-08:00

Remember Washingtonienne Jessica Cutler? She was the young oversharing blogger who got fired from Capitol Hill because she blogged up a storm about her after-work sexual exploits—much of it with older, well-known politicos, some of it paid. Sample blog excerpts: "W = a sugar daddy who wants nothing but anal. Keep trying to end it with him, but the money is too good." She got famous on Wonkette and outed. She turned the debacle into a respectable-selling novel, The Washingtonienne, posed for Playboy, went broke, and inked an HBO deal. Then there were a bunch of rumors that she was working as an escort—or at the very least, was buddies with a madam who provided girls to Eliot Spitzer. But love is to make an honest woman out of her—she's engaged now, reports Wonkette via Reliable Source, to a dude named Charles Rubio. He's a lawyer! Let's learn more about him.

Here he is! He's 28 and an associate at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in New York. It says here that Charlie got his JD in 2007 from NYU, and got his BBA and BS at the University of Texas. A nice Southern boy. Cutler, 30, told Reliable Source that they met "randomly in a bar."

Update from Jessica: We e-mailed Charles, but she responded:

"Charles is working and I'm about to go do my Thxgiving shopping, [but] I want to respond! We met in March of this year. We sort of did everything backwards: He asked me if I wanted to have kids with him before he proposed. After asking my Dad for his blessing, we went to Cartier and he bought me a Love bracelet instead of a ring (because I tend to lose things). On the way home from the store, he formally proposed in Grand Central about a month ago.

Most Important Election in Venezuela

2008-11-24T07:46:00.000-08:00

On Nov. 23 in Venezuela will be the most important vote of its political history.

The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) wants, with the support of President Chavez, to introduce to Venezuela a neo-communist regime that is called "Socialism of the 21st Century." Opposition groups are united with the aim of fighting for a political system known as the Social Democracy.

This is the only opportunity open to Venezuela to introduce a multiparty political with the goal of seeking a balance of power in a country where supporters of President Chavez have all the powers (executive, legislative and judicial branches) and control in 20 States Country and in most municipalities.

With only one day for these important election. The national newspapers and TV are reporting on their political predictions.

The Venezuelan political system is fully automated and these elections are more complex than the previous ones, because everyone has to vote for five or seven choices at a time limit of three minutes.

Venezuelans are hoping that this activity is transparent and there is no fraud as in previous ballots. The Electoral Council has invited 170 people to observe this political process.

Then I will report forecasts for this important election.

Forecasts of journalists are very different. For example, the editor of Las Truths of Miguel believes that the ruling party would win six governorates safe and the opposition would win five governorates safe. Miguel believes that the governorates that could earn the government are: Vargas, Anzoategui, Apure, Cojedes, Falcon and Monagas and the governorates that could win the opposition are: Nueva Esparta, Zulia, Portuguesa, Sucre and Guarico. And immediately pointed out that in the remaining 11 governorates there is a technical tie.

The Journal Fifth Day 52 journalists from around the country have predicted the election this way:

In the CENTRAL REGION: Caracas, Miranda, Carabobo, Aragua and Guarico, the forecasts are:

CARACAS: The specialist's El Universal that the Mayor of Caracas may have a final "picture" between Antonio Ledezma and Aristobulo Isturiz. And the thought that in the Liberator municipality win Jorge Rodriguez to beat the opposition Stalin Gonzales.

The specialist of VEA Journal said that Aristobulo Isturiz and Jorge Rodriguez is the winner with 8 percent over their contenders from the opposition (Ledezma and Gonzalez).

The specialist for the newspaper El Nacional predicts: Aristobulo win in the Mayor and the municipality of Chacao the opposition win with Emilio Grateron and in the Libertador municipality win Jorge Rodriguez. In the municipality of Sucre there is a technical tie between Carlos Ocariz and Jesse Chacon.

MIRANDA: The El Universal believes that will win Governor Diosdado Cabello as though it has a high percentage of rejection he can win with a 36 percent. But Miguel said that there exists a technical tie. In contrast, the editor of the Journal Progress also says he believes that there is a technical tie. El Nacional said that the fighting is tough and may win Governor Diosdado Cabello of PSUV.

CARABOBO: In this state Henrique Salas Feo he has tops polls as Mario Silva (PSUV) does not have a high convening power and Acosta Carles want to repeat with his excellent publicity "we are together, so good ". The Daily Evening News said that polls taken for a winner Salas Feo, but Acosta Carles could win. The editor of La Costa believes that Salas Feo win and Mario Silva has a lot of rejection in Carabobo. Miguel also believes that Salas Feo win.

ARAGUA: The newspaper the Aragueno believes that there is a technical tie between Rafael Isea (PSUV) and Henry Rosales (which would be continuity of the Current Governor Didalco Bolivar). While it appears that ISEA is the first choice as candidate of the PSUV with 37 percent against 32 percent for Rosales. It's a very tough fight.

GUARICO: The editor of the newspaper Antenna thinks Lenny Mannuit should win and the loser would be William Lara (PSUV). It's a tough choice but Mannuit has many chances of winning said Miguel.

In the western region, comprising by states: Falcon, Lara, Cojedes, Barinas, Apure and Yaracuy, the forecasts are as follows:

FALCON: The candidate of the opposition Goyo Graterol has the potential to 5 percent on Stella Montilla. Miguel said that Stella's ruling coalition would win the governorship.
LARA: It seems that the candidate's PSUV Henry Falcon could win. Miguel says the same thing.

COJEDES: The choice is tough but the PSUV Teodoro Bolivar could win in front of Alberto Galindo. Miguel also believes that Bolivar will win.
BARINAS: it seems that Julio Cesar Reyes can win and Rafael Simon Jimenez may lose (unitary candidate of the opposition), but Adam Chavez's brother President Chavez will not win.

APURE: It is possible to win Jesus Aguilarte ( PSUV) and Miriam Montilla may lose. It's the same prognosis of Miguel.

YARACUY: seems to win Julio Leon Heredia (PSUV) and opposite Edward Capdevielle may lose.

In the Zulia Region: Gian Carlos Di Martino's PSUV lose in front of Pablo Perez that would be the Governor of Zulia.

In the Andean: consisting of the States Tachira, Trujillo and Merida forecasts are:

TACHIRA: Everything points to the possible candidacy of unitary Cesar Perez Vivas, although Leonaldo Salcedo appears to have the first option that is the candidate of the PSUV.

MERIDA: There is a technical tie between William Davila of the opposition and Marcos Diaz Oreland's PSUV, but Davila has a better chance.

TRUJILLO: A hard-fought contest between the PSUV Hugo Cabezas and Octaviano Mejias (Patriotic Alliance) and Enrique Catalan of the Opposition has no strength.

In EASTERN REGION: consisting of the States Anzoategui, Monagas, Nueva Esparta, Bolivar, Delta Amacuro and Sucre, the forecasts are:

ANZOATEGUI: Tarek William Saab's PSUV, has a chance to repeat as governor, with 30 percent on Gustavo Marcano of the opposition.

MONAGAS: It is possible that the PSUV Jose Briceno is the new governor of that state. A front Moncho Fuentes.

NUEVA ESPARTA: Can repeat Morel Rodriguez the current governor of the opposition and William Farinas (PSUV) will lose.
BOLIVAR: A very confusing choice but Rangel Gomez is leading the polls in front of Andres Velasquez, who has sounded much.

SUCRE: it seems that won the independent Eduardo Morales Gil.

DELTA AMACURO: Pedro Santaella of PSUV will win.

ABSTRACT:

WELL THIS IS THE SUBJECT OF ELECTIONS. IN SUMMARY, according to those forecasts:

The governing would win with the official party PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela):

Vargas, Yaracuy, Bolivar, Monagas, Anzoategui, Tachira, Caracas, Miranda, Falcon, Lara, Cojedes, Apure, Barinas, Delta Amacuro (14 states and Caracas)

The Opposition win: Trujillo, Merida, Carabobo, Guarico, Zulia, Sucre, Nueva Esparta, Portuguesa (eight States), and losing in Caracas.

This is the start of searching for a better political balance in the country and to combat intolerance and unacceptable fact of political prisoners and waste the money of the people in political campaigning in the country and in other countries such as Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua.

Desiree Rogers named special assistant to the president

2008-11-24T07:18:00.000-08:00

Hopefully this isn't another Monica in the making. At least if it is then she Desiree Rogers is better looking than Monica. So that at least would mean that he has higher standards.

Chicagoan Desiree Rogers is expected to be named special assistant to the president.

White House social secretary, sources said.

In her new job, Chicagoan Desiree Rogers would be in charge of social functions at the White House for Barack Obama. She would be the first black to hold that job.

Will Obama's plan pay off? Obama to name Geithner to economic post Richardson to be commerce secretary Read Lynn Sweet's blog Special section: 44 | Barack Obama

Rogers is currently president of social networking for Allstate Financial, a unit of the Northbrook-based insurance firm.

In her new job, Rogers would be in charge of social functions at the White House for Barack Obama.

She would be the first black to hold that job.

In her current position, Rogers is to build a social network to help Allstate's middle-income customers gain more insight into investing and saving for retirement. She started that job this summer.

Rogers, a longtime Obama supporter, previously had been the first female African-American president of Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas.

Obama Appoints Christina Romer to Chair Council of Economic Advisers

2008-11-24T07:07:00.000-08:00

Another one for the cabinet. Looks like it is a good choice too, since Romer wrote for the Encyclopedia Britannica On the Great Depression. Of course times have change, but as the old saying goes, those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. Hopefully she knows what not to do and can help us get out of the economic decline.

Christina Romer, of UC Berkeley, has been appointed to Chair President Elect Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. Romer wrote, if not the book, at least the chapter for Encyclopedia Britannica, The Great Depression. News of her appointment should make liberals and women who opposed the appointment of Lawrence Summers, who many predicted (including today's Wall Street Journal) would get this job, somewhat happy, though it looks like Summers will be named White House economic director.

Professor Romer and her husband David were both advisers to the Obama campaign and they hold two seats on the committee which decides when the U.S is officially in a recession.

The Romers are macroeconomists, who study the big picture in economics. They've also studied the way tax cuts affect the economy and government spending. A UC Berkeley article reported,

What they found about both issues surprised them. Tax cuts provide powerful short-run stimulus to the economy, but there is little evidence that tax cuts restrain government spending.

"It turns out," Christina explains, "that tax cuts have led, eventually, to tax increases. Basically, something has to give. What we thought gave when you cut taxes was spending, but we seem to find that in postwar U.S. history what actually gives is the tax cut itself. A substantial fraction of a tax cut is typically undone in the subsequent five years."

The appointment may telegraph Obama's intentions regarding Fed Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke. Romers wrote a paper, Choosing the Federal Reserve Chair: Lessons from History. Like Bernanke, she has a history of a connection to Princeton University, where she was an assistant professor from 1985-1988.

Romer graduated from College of William and Mary in 1981 and from M.I.T., with a Ph.D., in 1985. In 1994, she co-authored, with her husband, a paper, "What Ends Recessions?"

It's clear, Obama is appointing someone smart, with strong academic credentials. Unlike Treasury Secretary appointee Geither, who is overflowing with experience, Romer is an academic who's specialized in "getting" the big picture.

Obama Names Pro-Choice Ellen Moran Communications Director

2008-11-22T17:41:00.000-08:00

President Elect Obama sure is choosing his cabinet to suit his agenda. I have not paid attention to the other presidents, but it looks like Obama really is getting to rev up to try and change this country. Now that change could be for the better or worse. It remains to be seen, but obviously I hope it is for the better because it would make the country stronger if he made it better duh.

President elect Barack Obama has named abortion activist Ellen Moran as communications director. Moran is currently the executive director of the Washington group EMILY’s List – the group that backs female candidates that support abortion rights.

Ellen Moran has a long history of strategic organizational direction. Previously she was with the AFL-CIO where she put together Wal-Mart’s corporate accountability functions and served in the Political Department. As an abortion activist, surely Obama will take heat from the left on this appointment.

Her curriculum vitae includes: taking a leave of absence in 2004 from the AFL-CIO to manage independent expenditures for the Democratic National Committee. The abortion activist maintained the placement of presidential advertising and directed TV, radio, mail and telephone efforts in 20 states. As communications director for Obama she will have at her disposal Dan Pfeiffer, who is currently the communications director for Obama’s presidential transition team. Dan Pfeiffer will become deputy communications director under Ellen Moran.

Dan Pfeiffer began working with the Obama presidential campaign in January 2007 as the traveling press secretary. Pfeiffer later went on to manage the press operation as Communications Director. Before working with Obama, Pfeiffer worked as Sen. Evan Bayh’s Communications Director as well as Tom Daschle’s Deputy Campaign Manager in 2004. Dan Pfeiffer has also worked for the Democratic Governors Association and the Gore-Lieberman campaign bringing years of experience with him.

Today Obama also named Robert Gibbs as his press secretary. Gibbs began working for President-Elect Obama in April 2004 in the role of Communications Director for the Illinois Senator during the senate race there. He remained in that capacity until Obama tapped him to become Senior Strategist for Communications and Message during the general election. In addition Robert Gibbs has served as press secretary for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and worked for Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign.

Obama Picks Tim Geithner to Head Treasury

2008-11-21T17:12:00.001-08:00

This is one of those things that is going to turn out to be really really good or really really bad move. It will surely be interesting to see what Tim Geithner's first move will be once he is active in his role to turn around the stumbling economy. After watching what the market has been doing for the past few weeks, he will surely have one of the toughest jobs in the country. But if he can turn it around he can probably be elected president after Obama has had his term.

U.S. stocks rallied and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rebounded from an 11-year low after President-elect Barack Obama picked New York Federal Reserve Bank chief Timothy Geithner to head the Treasury.

“This news could really give the stock market a badly needed shot in the arm,” Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York, wrote in an e-mail to clients. Geithner is a “fantastic choice to help lead the financial markets out of the wilderness.”

Citigroup Inc. pared a 35 percent slide and JPMorgan Chase & Co. trimmed a 16 percent tumble in the final hour as a Democratic aide said Obama will name Geithner to replace Henry Paulson. National-Oilwell Varco Inc. and Chesapeake Energy jumped more than 20 percent as oil rose for the first time in six days. The rally came after this week’s rout dragged the S&P 500’s price-to-earnings valuation to the cheapest since 1995.

The S&P 500, which capped a third-straight weekly decline, surged 6.3 percent to 800.03. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 494.13 points, or 6.5 percent, to 8,046.42, while the Nasdaq Composite Index added 5.2 percent to 1,384.35. Almost five stocks gained for each that fell on the New York Stock Exchange.

Benchmark indexes swung between gains and losses earlier as growing concern over the survival of Citigroup, the second- largest U.S. bank by assets, offset a rally in commodities producers. Some 2.4 billion shares changed hands on the floor of the NYSE in the busiest trading session since Oct. 10. Citigroup accounted for about 11 percent of all trading volume of NYSE- listed stocks.

2008 Slump

The S&P 500 extended its 2008 slide to 49 percent yesterday and was poised for the worst annual decline in its 80-year history after economic reports depicted a deepening recession and lawmakers postponed a vote on a plan to salvage the auto industry. Citigroup, which has about $2 trillion of assets, has fallen for nine of the last 10 days on concern more companies and consumers will default as the economy worsens.

The benchmark index for U.S. equities trimmed its yearly loss to less than 46 percent today, which would still make 2008 the worst year since 1931. The S&P 500 tumbled 8.4 percent this week. The Dow average declined 5.3 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 8.7 percent.

Chesapeake, a producer of oil and natural gas, jumped $2.99 to $16.97. National-Oilwell, which makes crude production equipment, added $3.66 to $21.52.

Energy Rally

Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest U.S. oil company, climbed $7.30, or 11 percent, to $75.81. Crude oil rose as OPEC members cut production and governments stepped up efforts to revive economic growth. Gasoline futures climbed for the first time this week as U.S. buyers took advantage of low prices and a weaker U.S. dollar increased the lure of dollar-denominated commodities. Oil for January delivery rose 46 cents, or 0.9 percent, to $49.88 a barrel.

S&P 500 energy companies rose 12 percent collectively for the top gain among the index’s 10 main industries. The advance came after the group’s valuation slid to 5.6 times reported earnings, the cheapest since Bloomberg began tracking the data.

Citigroup pared declines, falling 94 cents to $3.77 after sinking as low as $3.05, and the S&P 500 Financials Index erased a 7.5 percent tumble to climb 3.4 percent on word of Obama’s pick for Treasury secretary.

Geithner has helped lead U.S. efforts to combat the deepest financial crisis in seven decades, helping oversee the decisions this year to intervene in American International Group Inc., rescue Bear Stearns Cos. and leave Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. to fail.

‘Fresh Face’

“The market is relieved that it’s Geithner,” said Tim Hartzell, managing director and chief investment office at Sequent Asset Management in Houston. “It’s important to have a fresh face come in who has also been in the mix and has been at the pinnacle of everything that has been going on.”

Citigroup’s earlier slide came as Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit said he won’t break up the company after the stock market rout erased more than 80 percent of its value this year. Pandit and Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden, speaking on a worldwide conference call, also said they don’t expect to sell the Smith Barney brokerage unit, according to two people who listened to the call and declined to be identified because it wasn’t open to the public.

Citigroup will probably get rescued by the U.S. government after a crisis in confidence erased half its stock-market value in three days, investors and analysts said. The stock climbed 6.1 percent to $4 in trading after the close of U.S. exchanges.

JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank by market value, pared a drop of $3.69 to close down 66 cents at $22.72.

Gap Surges

Gap Inc. rallied $2.59, or 27 percent, to $12.10. The largest U.S. clothing retailer said third-quarter profit climbed 3.4 percent as the company reduced markdowns of sweaters, jeans and khaki pants. The owner of the Old Navy and Banana Republic chains reiterated its forecast for profit of $1.30 to $1.35 a share for the year ending Jan. 31.

Sprint Nextel Corp. climbed 25 percent to $1.71 and earlier soared 36 percent, the most since at least 1980. Barry West, chief technology officer of the third-largest U.S. mobile phone company, bought 50,000 Sprint shares, marking the biggest investment at the company in the past five years, Barron’s reported.

Microsoft Corp. jumped $2.15, or 12 percent, to $19.68 after Oppenheimer & Co. raised the world’s largest software maker to “outperform” and said the stock has fallen too far. The shares trimmed their yearly decline to 45 percent.

Alcoa Jumps

Alcoa Inc., the biggest U.S. aluminum producer, surged 23 percent, the most since at least 1980, to $8.44. Newmont Mining Corp. jumped 25 percent to $28.79. Copper and aluminum rebounded from three-year lows on speculation mine shutdowns will help erode supply surpluses caused by reduced demand.

All 10 industries in the S&P 500 advanced at least 3.3 percent and 28 of 30 stocks in the Dow average rose.

Autodesk Inc. fell $2.45, or 15 percent, to $14.37. The largest maker of engineering-design software said fourth-quarter earnings excluding some items will be as much as 34 cents a share. That missed the 54-cent average estimate by analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

This year’s tumble in the S&P 500 dragged down 97 percent of its stocks and all 64 of its so-called level-three industries, groups such as “distributors” and “leisure equipment,” as of yesterday’s close. More stocks decreased in the current bear market than in the 49 percent rout after the technology bubble burst in 2000.

‘Irrational Exuberance’

Alan Greenspan can stop worrying about “irrational exuberance” in the U.S. stock market, 12 years after he warned investors that share prices were rising too fast. The S&P 500 fell below 744.38 today, its closing level on Dec. 5, 1996, the day then-Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan used the phrase in a speech on “The Challenge of Central Banking in a Democratic Society.”

The S&P 500 was trading for 20.7 times earnings when Greenspan gave his warning and its valuation climbed to as high as 62.9 in March 2002, according to Bloomberg data. The index was valued at 16.3 times reported profits of its companies at yesterday’s closing level, the cheapest since 1995.

Sarah Palin pardons turkey

2008-11-21T10:22:00.000-08:00

You can find the videos of this by searching it up on youtube. It is kinda weird that Palin is doing this since the old photos of her holding the rifle. So Palin will kill a moose, but save a turkey that has been so genetically modified that their life span is less that 3 years anyways.hmm

by Frank James

Gov. Sarah Palin's turkey-pardoning photo op was not the kind you'd see at the White House, to say the least. Here in Washington, the idea of these annual events is to leave everyone feeling warm and fuzzy.

But we're talking Alaska here. And we're talking Palin, so you expect things to be a little different. And they were. This may be the only turkey-pardoning photo-op where you actually see turkeys slaughtered.

MSNBC had video of the actual pardoning ceremony on its Countdown show last night.

This photo op is so bizarre it makes you wonder if it's a hoax, if two videos were actually edited together.

How any politician's staff would allow their boss to do an "availability" against a backdrop of turkeys shuddering as their necks are snapped is really about as mind-boggling as it gets.

There's something to be said for keeping it real, for showing people the way turkeys get to Thanksgiving tables.

But politicians' availabilities are meant for getting their message out. It's hard to do that when people are distracted by turkeys doing death kicks in the background.

Obama's Mug on D.C. Subway Cards for Inauguration

2008-11-20T16:35:00.000-08:00

Well this can go a few ways. It kind of scares me too. If it is for only one day then it might not be so bad, but if it stays up for awhile there is a few things that can happen. One of the more obvious ones is that people graffiti the sign and put racial slurs all over the sign. But in a more conspiracy theorist view, which I actually thought of which is weird was that all the past dictators of the world had their photo plastered all over the place. Could this be the beginning of that?

The subway system in Washington, D.C., is making fare cards featuring President-elect Barack Obama's image to commemorate his inauguration as the 44th president.

SmarTrip cards with Obama's smiling face will be available in January, Metro spokesman Stephen Taubenkibel told DCist. Regular fare cards marking the Jan. 20 inauguration will be available in late December.

Images of the Obama card were shown at a recent Metro Board of Directors meeting.

Waxman Defeats Dingell in Race for House Energy Committee Chair

2008-11-20T11:59:00.000-08:00

Well change is always good. Especially when the person in charge hasn't been noted on doing anything of real value. We will see what happens. It might be more of the same or they might get someone in there who actually cares about this country and does something about it.

By Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 20, 2008; 12:36 PM

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) today won the backing of the Democratic caucus to become the new head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, defeating longtime chairman Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) in a vote Waxman's backers said would signal strong support for the agenda of President-elect Barack Obama.

On a 137-122 vote, Waxman dethroned Dingell from a post he has held as either chairman or ranking Democrat since 1981. He is the most prominent supporter of his home state's auto industry and has feuded with junior committee members, including Waxman, over efforts to impose fuel efficiency standards on cars.

"Seniority is important, but it should not be a grant of property rights to be chairman for three decades or more," Waxman told reporters after the vote.

The powerful committee, which has jurisdiction over health care, energy issues and telecommunications policy, will play a significant role in Obama's agenda in the 111th Congress, a point that Waxman's campaign drove home in the last two weeks. He argued that Dingell would be an impediment to all kind of legislation the new White House wants to push.
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"It's the mantra of the Obama election. People want change," said Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who rallied support for Waxman. "He'll work best with the new administration."

Obama made energy independence and building the next generation of hybrid cars a hallmark of his campaign, often saying during the campaign that he went to Detroit to deliver this message. Obama's top liaison to Congress is Waxman's former top aide.

Senior Democrats were stunned by the Waxman victory, which seemingly dealt a blow to the party's long-held principle of seniority. "It's just been buried," Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said of seniority.

Despite House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's public neutrality in the race, Rangel accused her of tacitly supporting Waxman because her closest allies in the House ran his campaign and she did not intervene to stop Waxman, a home-state colleague, from running a campaign that exposed ideological fissures among Democrats.

"I assume that not playing a role is playing a role," Rangel said.

Moderate to conservative Democrats viewed the vote as a rebuke by the caucus's liberal wing, which has accused Dingell of not supporting global warming legislation.

"I cannot believe we did what we just did," said Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.), incoming chairman of the Blue Dog caucus of fiscally conservative Democrats. She disputed the notion that Dingell would not support Obama's legislative agenda.

"Mr. Dingell's always worked for change, starting before some of us were born," said Herseth, who is 37.

Dingell, 82, who was first elected in 1954, will become the longest-serving House member in history in February. His battles with Waxman date back to the 1980s, but they eventually worked together to help pass the Clean Air Act of 1990. Dingell also helped congressional Democrats pass mandatory fuel efficiency improvements on the auto industry last year.

He has often clashed publicly with Pelosi, who made an end-run around Dingell last year by creating a temporary committee chaired by Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), a close Pelosi ally, to oversee global warming issues.

Dingell, who recently had knee-replacement surgery and has been in a wheelchair, did not speak to reporters after losing the vote. Pelosi named him chairman emeritus, an undefined title. It is unclear what actual authority he will have.

Waxman, who represents Beverly Hills and other parts of Los Angeles, hails from the party's liberal wing.

The chairman's contest comes as Detroit's Big Three automakers are pleading with Congress to approve a $25 billion rescue package. Dingell's wife, Debbie, is an executive at cash-strapped General Motors.

Georgia and Tennessee Senators oppose Auto Bailout

2008-11-20T08:31:00.000-08:00

I have to agree with them, and this is my main points. What did the banks do with their bailout? They gave it to their ceo's and presidents as bonuses and thing like that. Also how did the auto makers come to Washington to beg for a bailout. They flew in on their private jets that belonged to their respective companies. You think they could of saved some money. Yeah they are really hurting for money.

WASHINGTON, With Democrats pushing a bailout of the automobile industry, Tennessee and Georgia Republican senators appear unlikely to support such a measure, though they said they would wait to see what specific proposals are unveiled today.

"This economic crunch is difficult for the auto industry, just as it is for most Americans, and the auto industry is especially important to Tennessee," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. "I am closely monitoring proposals that affect auto jobs and will be ready to work on those proposals this week as the Senate reconvenes."

Democrats have proposed taking $25 billion from the $700 billion Wall Street rescue package that passed last month as aid for struggling domestic automakers. Democrats say the funds, which automakers could tap as a short-term loan, could help save millions of jobs. A vote is expected Wednesday.

"We are seeing a potential meltdown in the auto industry, with consequences that could directly impact millions of American workers and cause further devastation to our economy," said Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "If ever there were a time for bipartisan solutions, this is it."

Many Republicans instead want automakers to tap into a $25 billion loan program that was part of last year's energy bill. That money has been designated to help car manufacturers improve their auto mileage standards, and Democrats say the money should not be used for any other purpose.

All four Tennessee and Georgia senators voted for the bill to raise auto mileage standards.

Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said he opposes using the Wall Street rescue package to help automakers. Once the $700 billion plan is given time to unlock credit markets, all industries will benefit, he said.

"I would oppose giving the auto industry or any other manufacturer funds from the economic stabilization bill," he said. "I believe easing the credit markets will allow the markets to work and that consumers will regain confidence."

Representatives from General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, along with the head of the United Auto Workers Union, are scheduled to testify today before the Senate Banking Committee.

"Generally speaking today, I do not believe an equity infusion into these companies is an appropriate course of action," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a member of the committee.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., locked in a runoff election against Democrat Jim Martin, has said he is opposed to an automaker bailout and that the industry's woes cannot be patched by an infusion of money.

"To just provide funding for the auto industry without significant restructuring on their part, that's not going to solve their problem," Sen. Chambliss said.

Mr. Martin, through a spokeswoman, said some help for automakers is needed, but any bailout should include measures that hold company executives accountable.

"The auto industry is in crisis and some action is necessary," said Kate Hansen, Martin campaign spokeswoman. "Jim does not, however, believe we should simply hand a blank check to auto executives without addressing the root causes of this crisis and ensuring that this won't happen again."

Tom Daschle Accepts Obama's Offer

2008-11-19T14:29:00.000-08:00

I wonder how much the guy gets paid. That's what I really want to know. If Obama tried to do with healthcare as what he is saying he wants to do then this guy has his job cut out for him. Everyone is going to be looking at him expecially if all the promises go unfulfilled. He will take all of the heat for it. Which he should be since he is going to be head of the department. Obama's cabinet keeps on growing.

Daschle, a former Senate majority leader, would head the agency that will handle the incoming administration's efforts to expand health insurance coverage, a Democratic source says.

By Janet Hook and Noam N. Levey
11:34 AM PST, November 19, 2008
Reporting from Washington -- President-elect Barack Obama has asked former Sen. Tom Daschle to serve as secretary of Health and Human Services, and the South Dakota Democrat has accepted the offer.

Daschle, if confirmed, would head the agency that will handle the new administration's signature initiative to expand health insurance coverage, a Democrat familiar with the process said.

The source said that Obama was expected to officially name Daschle and other Cabinet nominees early next week, although that timetable may be accelerated.

Daschle, who this year published a book on the healthcare system, was an early supporter of Obama's bid for the presidency. Obama's campaign and transition teams have been heavily staffed by former Daschle aides.

Daschle won election to the Senate in 1986 after eight years in the House of Representatives. He was Senate majority leader in 2001-03 while Democrats controlled the chamber. But he was defeated in his 2004 bid for reelection after Republicans ran a bitter campaign targeting him as a national Democrat out of step with his home state.

But Daschle remains popular among his former colleagues and would be likely to face little challenge to his qualifications and character. However, Daschle had expressed some concern about going through the confirmation process because of questions likely to be raised about his wife, who is a registered lobbyist.

Hook and Levey are writers in our Washington bureau.

janet.hook@latimes.com

noam.levey@latimes.com

Dick Cheney indictment

2008-11-19T06:26:00.000-08:00

I think this is a great thing. Sure there is something to be said for all sides, but I personally believe that this guy is pure evil. If we didn't have him or any oil powered lobbyist politicians do you think oil prices would be what they are today? NO of course they wouldn't, but that is what makes the world go round i guess.

A Texas grand jury has thrown the book at Vice President Dick Cheney. And for good measure, they are stomping the boot on Alberto Gonzales as well. The ambitious prosecutor for this charade is District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra of Willacy County, Texas, who’s good character is betrayed by a felony arrest in 2007 for evidence tampering, theft, and abuse of power. Abuse of power? This honorable public servant has served jail time twice.

The dubious charges will unfortunately not satisfy the Obama partisans however. No mention of Guantanamo. No illegal wiretapping. No blood for oil, Haliburton, Iraq conspiracies, or grassy knolls.

Rather, this indictment is about the mundane topic of prisoners in Willacy County’s federal detention centers, which are located in South Texas. Cheney abused them, don’t you see. Gonzales too. Cheney’s connection is that he has a mutual fund investment in the popular public investment fund, Vanguard Group, the world’s largest mutual fund holdings owned by millions of us. Vanguard, in turn, bought common stock in the prison companies operating the jails along with thousands of other companys’ stocks. Scandal!

Folks, this is nothing new and is just the beginning of a wave of political prosecutions. Obama has already signaled an intention to investigate the former government, stating in August that he would “immediately review” wrongdoing as one of his first priorities in office. Which is something that I think needs to happen. But I also think it should happen after every president to make sure that our rights as citizens weren't undermined without us knowing about it.

Obama Wants Eric Holder

2008-11-18T19:20:00.001-08:00

Looks like Obamas presidential cabinet continues to grow. It looks like Obama wants to choose eric holder as his attorney general. What is kinda weird about this is that he is a republican. Which is also another person he chose for his cabinet. I always thought that the two parties are growing to be the same anyways, but maybe this is a step to make it one. Or he just wants all sides of an argument when it comes to national matters so he can make a better informed decision. Only time will tell.

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama would like to nominate former top Justice Department official Eric Holder Jr. to be his attorney general, and his transition team is now trying to gauge whether there is sufficient bipartisan support for him in the Senate, sources close to the transition confirmed Tuesday.

Those sources said that the internal vetting process for Holder is still being completed and that top transition team members and Democratic allies of Obama are working to make sure that he would not face any significant obstacles during the Senate confirmation process. One source close to the transition team said Holder has been offered the job ``conditionally."

Holder, a well-regarded prosecutor-turned corporate lawyer in private practice, would be the nation's first African-American attorney general. He did not respond to calls and e-mails seeking comment, and the Obama transition team declined to discuss the matter, except to say that he had neither been offered the job nor accepted it.

Holder, 57, has been a trailblazer through much of his career. He became the first African-American to serve as deputy attorney general in 1997, in the Clinton administration, and as acting attorney general, in the first few weeks of the Bush administration. He has also been a Superior Court Judge in Washington, D.C. and the top prosecutor in the high-profile U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C.

In recent years, Holder has been a litigation partner in the Washington office of the law firm Covington & Burling LLP, handling, among other matters, complex civil and criminal cases, domestic and international advisory matters and internal corporate investigations. He has been an Obama campaign supporter, and was a leader of Obama's vice presidential search committee.

He also has one very unusual family qualification. Holder's wife, an obstetrician, delivered incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel's daughter, the Associated Press reported.

The biggest issue in any confirmation hearing, Holder's supporters and critics say, would be that as deputy attorney general he failed to oppose a presidential pardon for then-fugitive financier Marc Rich on the last day of the Clinton administration. Rich's wife, Denise, was a top campaign contributor to Democratic causes.

On Tuesday, some Democrats on Capitol Hill said that the pardon issue might cause Holder some trouble among certain Republicans, but that his role in it was far outweighed by his many positive attributes and accomplishments. Holder, they said, enjoys a broad level of support among senior political leaders and law enforcement officials in both parties.

Holder was described by supporters as someone capable of engineering the kind of swift and significant course corrections that Obama has pledged to make at the Justice Department, which has been beset in recent years by one political controversy after another.

``He wanted the next attorney general to make broad reforms at DOJ, someone that has a broad enough basis of support that they can do it," said the source close to the transition team, speaking on the condition on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for Obama. ``It's pretty damn close to a deal. They've done the sounding out and gotten good response back."

Several Senate Republican leadership aides, however, said that neither they nor their senators had been contacted yet, and some expressed surprise that Holder would have been chosen without their input.

``Some will have concerns with his involvement in the Marc Rich pardon. It seems to me odd that they would want to go through something like that with the first nomination," said one of the Republican leadership aides. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) told reporters that he had not been consulted.

Asked if he would support Holder, he said, ``Too soon for me to say. I'd have to take a much closer look at his record and talk to him and think about it."

Specter said the Rich pardon ``would be a factor to consider. I wouldn't want to articulate it among the top items but it's worthwhile to look at."

The Justice Department's inspector general, Glenn Fine, noted in a report recently that restoring confidence in the Justice Department should be a top priority, given all of the controversies under the leadership of former attorneys general John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales, including politically motivated hirings and firings of prosecutors and other Justice Department officials.

The new Attorney General will also have to help execute Obama's pledge to shut down the war crimes tribunals currently underway at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and try accused terrorists elsewhere, as well as deal with other politically contentious issues such as warrantless wiretapping and what constitutes torture in the interrogations of terror suspects.

Holder is perhaps best known as an aggressive prosecutor while in the U.S. Attorney's office who tackled political corruption cases, including one that led to the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski of Chicago's Northwest Side.

Following a lengthy investigation, in which Rostenkowski lost his longtime House seat, the former Democratic congressman agreed in 1996 to plead guilty to two counts of mail fraud and spend 17 months in prison as an outgrowth of an investigation into misappropriation of tax dollars.

Frances Fragos Townsend, a former top Bush administration counter-terrorism official, worked closely with Holder in the Clinton administration Justice Department, and said Tuesday that he has been criticized unfairly for what was a minor role in the pardoning of Rich, whose wife's significant campaign contributions to Democratic campaigns raised questions of political influence-peddling.

Townsend praised Obama's selection of Holder, which she said she confirmed in a conversation with a top transition team official. ``I really think he is a tremendous, tremendous start for the new administration. In a time of war with these difficult legal issues, he is going to have many, many tough issues to face. But they couldn't have picked a person better suited or more qualified to address them."

The Washington Bureau's Janet Hook and Tribune reporter Rick Pearson in Chicago contributed to this report.

How obama got elected

2008-11-18T06:59:00.000-08:00

I found this article, and I have to disagree with it. I do understand though after someone is elected everyone who didn't vote for them say that someone went wrong with the election. I know I did when Bush won the election. I said the voting was rigged in Florida in 200 and Ohio in 2004. But I wanted to put this up because I don't beleive in only covering one side to any story. I think every story should be covered that way.

Now I know that our liberal bloggers in South Dakota are more informed than the folks in this video (our lib bloggers at least know who most of the players are), so don't think I'm poking fun at you, liberal bloggers.

But you know as well as I do that this is almost certainly all-too-typical of the Obama voter profile.

The website How Obama Got Elected put together this video and their website features some interesting information gathered by Zogby polling on Obama voters:

97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates

Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions

57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)

81.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)

82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)

88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)

56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).

You might recall that I wrote a few weeks ago about the Case Against Clueless Voting. You probably thought I was being mean and unfair. This video proves I was not; I was probably being overly gracious.

A vote is a sacred thing, not to be exercised lightly. It is also a potentially dangerous thing when used indiscriminately, and in concert with other indiscriminate and poorly-aimed votes.

Note where most of these mindless zombies got their vast ocean of political information: NPR, PBS, CNN, Bill Maher, New York Times, BBC (which, incidentally, for you fellow zombies out there, is the liberal British Broadcasting Company), MSNBC, Jon Stewart. All Leftist propaganda mouthpieces, most of which try to pass themselves off as "objective." However, I think the only folks they're fooling into believing that are the type in this video.

I wish they had asked these Obama voters their number one reason for voting for Obama. Given the level of ignorance here, I think it would be a pretty safe bet to guess it would be something like "Because he's gonna stick it to the rich!" or maybe "He'll pay for my health care" or some such envy-driven drivel.

You know, if I ran for office and had this many complete ignoramuses vote for me, I think there's a good chance my sense of integrity would compel me to step down for the good of the country.

By the way, I suppose these Obama voters at least deserve credit for recognizing there are not 58 states in the United States (as Obama said).

www.HowObamaGotElected.com looks at how media coverage of the 2008 election impacted what Obama voters knew (or thought they knew) about the campaign.

http://www.dakotavoice.com/2008/11/how-obama-got-elected-zombie-voters.html

Obama, on '60 Minutes'

2008-11-17T10:13:00.000-08:00

I didn't watch the episode myself. I probably should have though since Obama is going to be the most important president that I can remember since Obama has one of the toughest jobs in recent memory with trying to turn around the economy and bring home the troops in Iraq. It will definetly be interesting what happens after Jan 20 when Obama is sworn in as the new commander and chief of the United Stated of America to say the least. I hope everyone who watched the episode of 60 Minutes can give some insight.

Article Below.

By John McCormick
November 17, 2008

Reporting from Chicago -- President-elect Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he was assembling his national security team as quickly as possible because there potentially could be "times of vulnerability" to terrorist attacks during White House transition periods.

In a wide-ranging interview on the CBS News program "60 Minutes," Obama also said that capturing or killing Osama bin Laden remained a "critical aspect" of the war on terrorism.

"He is not just a symbol," Obama said. "He's also the operational leader of an organization that is planning attacks against U.S. targets."

Barack and Michelle Obama also reveled in achieving some level of normalcy again after the election, even as the president-elect confessed feeling a little overwhelmed as he prepared for the enormous challenges ahead.

"There are times, during the course of a given a day, where you think, 'Where do I start?' " he said during a session taped Friday in Chicago at the Ritz-Carlton hotel.

He said he had already felt, like other presidents before him, that "there is a certain loneliness to the job."

Obama and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) are scheduled to meet today in Chicago. They are expected to be joined by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close friend to McCain, and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago Democrat selected to be Obama's chief of staff.

Obama refused to be pinned down about when he would make his first Cabinet appointments, responding "soon." He also said there would be Republicans in the Cabinet but declined to say whether he would appoint more than one.

On Sunday, Obama also formally resigned his Senate seat, sending a one-sentence letter to Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, who will select a replacement to serve through the 2010 election.

The president-elect's transition team also announced several new appointments.

Pete Rouse, a Capitol Hill veteran who ran Obama's Senate office and helped craft the foundation for his White House bid, was named a senior advisor, and Mona Sutphen and Jim Messina were selected as deputy chiefs of staff.

The Associated Press reported that Obama was also expected to name Greg Craig, who was President Clinton's impeachment lawyer, as White House counsel. In Obama's debate practice sessions, Craig played the role of McCain.

Asked by CBS' Steve Kroft whether he planned to put political enemies in his Cabinet, as Abraham Lincoln did, Obama responded by saying the first president from Illinois was a "very wise man."

With the economy struggling, the president-elect said the nation had little choice but to boost government spending, something he said conservative and liberal economists agreed on.

"We have to do whatever it takes to get this economy moving again," he said. "We're going to have to spend money now to stimulate the economy."

Besides Lincoln, Obama said he had been reading about the Great Depression and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first 100 days in office. He said he hoped his team could emulate that administration's confidence and willingness to experiment.

The Obamas said the full realization of their new roles had yet to sink in. The president-elect, however, said he felt the historical significance on election night when his mother-in-law grabbed his hand and squeezed it.

"You had this sense of, well, what's she thinking? For a black woman who grew up in the '50s, you know, in a segregated Chicago, to watch her daughter become first lady of the United States," he said. "There was that sense across the country."

Obama said he thought his victory revealed that race had been overcome as a stumbling block for most.

"It was a sign of the enormous progress that we've made in the core decency and generosity of the American people," he said. "That felt good."

The Obamas described a personal life that seemed more normal after the election than during the campaign.

"There seem to be more people hovering around me," the president-elect said. "On the other hand, I'm sleeping in my own bed."

Michelle Obama said she was looking forward to her husband having a "big office at home" at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

"Now we get to be together under the one roof, having dinners together," she said. "I envision the kids coming home from school and being able to run across the way to the Oval Office and see their dad before they start their homework. . . . And he'll be there to tuck them in at night."

She said the future first dog would not be part of the White House until late winter or early spring.

The interview ended on a question about creating a college football playoff system for the national championship, with Obama calling for three rounds and potentially three more weeks to the season.

"I don't know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this," he said. "I'm going to throw my weight around a little bit. I think it's the right thing to do."

McCormick writes for the Chicago Tribune.

Presidential Records Act - Lose the Blackberry Obama

2008-11-16T15:48:00.000-08:00

Well this sucks. You can't even have a blackberry now if your the president because there are so many hackers out there, they can potentially compromise the entire nation. I have an idea if hackers are better than the current people you are employing, then I think you are employing the wrong people. We should have the smartest people in the white house working for the people of this great nation. Instead we have those people working on it's destruction everywhere you turn. And if they keep doing this then we are going to continue to lose our rights as a citizen of the USA. Sure I am sure they are freedoms that we really didn't need anyways.

Advisers are afraid the hand-held device could be compromised by hackers and will also put him at the mercy of public scrutiny rules.

During his campaign, Mr Obama made unprecedented use of the internet to organise his network of grassroots supporters, raise money and communicate with his staff.

He was seldom without his BlackBerry, often strapped to his waist, which he would tap away on in his limousine or at the front of his plane.

But concerns about email security and the Presidential Records Act, which requires all his correspondence to be put on the official record, mean the first truly computer-literate president might have to log off.

According to The New York Times, Mr Obama has not changed his email address in years. On election night, he replied to a friend's congratulatory email with: "How about that?". On other occasions he would send messages like "Sox!" when the Chicago White Sox won a game. His emails were generally brief, correctly spelt and punctuated and unadorned by abbreviations such as "LOL" or smiley-faced emoticons.

David Axelrod, Mr Obama's campaign chief strategist, told the newspaper: "His BlackBerry was constantly crackling with emails.

"People were generous with their advice – much of it conflicting."

Eight years ago, George W Bush sent a sad farewell email to 42 "dear friends" and relatives, telling them: "My lawyers tell me all correspondence by email is subject to open record requests.

"Since I do not want my private conversations looked at by those out to embarrass, the only course of action is not to correspond in cyberspace. This saddens me. I have enjoyed conversing with each of you."

Bill Clinton never sent emails during his presidential term, though Vice-President Al Gore used a government email address and a campaign address in his 2000 battle for the White House against Mr Bush.

Mr Obama has made clear, however, that he intends to be the first president to have a lap top on his desk, currently the Resolute desk presented by Queen Victoria in 1880.

He sent fewer and fewer emails as the long campaign wore on. One possibility is that he could keep in touch by receiving read-only emails, to which he could respond by phone.

Anne E. Dunwoody Becomes First Four-Star General in U.S. Military History

2008-11-14T12:14:00.001-08:00

You may not think this has nothing to do with politics, but you can honestly sit there and tell me that the military, especially that high doesn't involve a lot of politics. Not only that if she didn't know how to play the politics that she would of gotten that high. Not to say she didn't deserve it, but she didn't hurt herself knowing what she was doing.

Anne E. Dunwoody has climbed the Army chain of command to become the U.S. military’s first woman to ever achieve the rank of four-star general.

Speaking at a promotion ceremony on Friday Dunwoody reflected on her time in the Army and accomplishment achieved saying, “Thirty-three years after I took the oath as a second lieutenant, I have to tell you this is not exactly how I envisioned my life unfolding. Even as a young kid, all I ever wanted to do was teach physical education and raise a family.”

Dunwoody continued, “It was clear to me that my Army experience was just going to be a two-year detour en route to my fitness profession. So when asked, `Ann, did you ever think you were going to be a general officer, to say nothing about a four-star?' I say, `Not in my wildest dreams.”

The 55-year-old Dunwoody spoke as a standing-room only crowd at the Washington auditorium witnessed history. Among those in attendance were Dunwoody’s father, Hal Dunwoody, who served in WWII, the Korean War and Vietnam and her husband, Criag Brotchie, who spent 26 years in the Air Force.

High-ranking members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines were also in attendance.

Hillary Clinton Secretary of State?

2008-11-14T05:08:00.000-08:00

I don't think so, but crazier things have happened. I wouldn't think so just because of how much mud slinging the two threw at eachother. Also when Obama won the nomination everyone in the party wanted him to choose her for Vice President. We all know he didn't. Why would he now choose Clinton to be apart of his cabinet?

Officials with President-elect Barack Obama's transition team said late Thursday that Sen. Hillary Clinton would be an asset to the new administration, but declined to confirm reports she was under consideration for secretary of state.

Aides to Clinton had little to say about the news reports, including one that said she was in Chicago where Obama is holding daily transition planning meetings. Clinton's office would only say that the New York Democrat had no public schedule on Thursday. Her office said any speculation about appointments is for Obama's transition team to address.

The Associated Press and NBC both reported Clinton was under consideration for secretary of state; NBC also reported Clinton was in Chicago.

But until something is confirmed it is all here say.

Republican Governors Association

2008-11-13T10:47:00.000-08:00

Looks like Palin is refusing to go silent into that Alaskan night. But you can;t blame her. She has to strike while the iron is hot. McCain is done for and the republicans need to find their political footing after getting floored with the last election. I guess that is what you get with Bush and Dick in the White House.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Thursday the Republican Governors Association is committed to returning to the bedrock values in a weakened state across the nation.

Palin states "Let us resolve not to become the negative party, too eager to find fault or unwilling to help in this time of crisis and war," she told the gathering Thursday. "Losing an election does not have to mean losing our way, and for governors, the way forward leads through our own state capitals in reforms we will carry on or begin anew."

Palin, whose vice presidential nomination led to her being cast as one of the GOP's rising stars, told reporters ahead of the group's plenary session that she's not thinking about her personal ambitions but putting the country back on the conservative track.

"I can assure you, she's just getting started," said Texas Gov. Rick Perry who introduced her.

Palin on Ticket in 2012?

2008-11-13T04:42:00.000-08:00

I don't know about this myself, but Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday that a woman would be good for the Republican ticket in 2012, but was coy about whether that woman might be her.

If that were true don't you think that Mrs. Clinton would of been on the democratic ticket in 2008? But I don't think she was on this ticket because of her brains. Then again she might surprise everybody and could be the best president in history if she is elected.

"It would be good for the ticket. It would be good for the party. I would be happy to get to do whatever is asked of me to help progress this nation," Palin told reporters at the Republican Governors Association meeting.

Now, she is indirectly but unmistakably putting her name in play as a potential presidential candidate, saying she'll "plow through that door" if it's God's will and conditions are right.

If Palin were to run for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination she will likely face tough competition from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who failed in his candidacy this year; Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, among others.

Cindy McCain Cheating????

2008-11-12T11:36:00.000-08:00

Wow how the mighty have fallen. A little over a week ago McCain was running to be the oldest president of the United States. And now he might have a cheating wife. Well that sucks. Maybe Palin was more than his running mate.

The National Enquirer is reporting that they've caught Cindy McCain cheating. I wonder if it was with Palin. The proof they have comes in the form of a grainy picture taken at a Music Festival. A witness caught them making out at a Moody Blues concert.

The Enquirer reports, "That's the stunned reaction of an eyewitness who says he watched in shock - and snapped photos - as the former presidential candidate's wife romantically kissed a long-haired man who resembles 'a washed-up '80s rock musician.'" That's awesome...I guess hair does matter. She got tired of looking at the glome dome every morning. But how many of these politicians are married because of love? More likely they are their to advance their careers.

A McCain spokesperson declined comment.

McCain on Leno

2008-11-12T07:32:00.000-08:00

Maybe McCain is now looking to get into the movies with his first interview since losing the presidential election. His interview was with of course Leno.

"'I knew I had a headwind. I can read the polls,' he said, We just got back from the woodshed,' he said." I am surprised he just didn't blame his lose on Bush. Since he is the one who has killed the party.
He defended his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, who some of his own aides, speaking anonymously, have blamed for his defeat.If anything he got more voted because of her. I know one person who voted for him just because she was pretty.

Also: “When Mr. Leno asked Mr. McCain about a run in 2012, when he would be 76, he responded: ‘I wouldn’t think so, my friend." But I thought that he said that last time in 2000 when Bush beat him for the nomination.

More: “Ms. Palin is trying to turn to television to restore her tarnished image,start a 2012 presidential bid, or both.

Presidential Dog Watch

2008-11-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

When president-elect Obama mentioned that his kids are getting a puppy, everyone around the world have been waiting with anticipation to learn what kind of dog will become first dog.

Obama, who described the decision as a "major issue," is on the hunt for an Hypoallergenic dog, since daughter Malia is allergic.Now the Fido frenzy has gone international.

Peru has suggested its native Peruvian hairless dog, a bald, toothless breed, which actually looks cuter than it sounds. Nicknamed "Ears," the four-month-old has been offered formally to the future first family in a letter sent to the U.S. Embassy. If the Obama girls reject the Peruvian pup, Hopefully it won't create an international incident.

But if the Obamas want to go American, there are a lot of allergy-free dogs to choose from. In fact, Yahoo! searches on "list of hypoallergenic dogs" surged over 3,000% as the curious researched on their own. Lookups on "goldendoodle," another low-allergy breed, increased 200%, As Obama mentioned himself, the family's preference is to adopt a dog from a shelter. A dog from a shelter would likely be, as he joked, "a mutt, like me."

updates coming soon

2008-11-10T17:37:00.000-08:00

Updates coming soon

Obama looking for a puppy for daughters

2008-11-07T04:35:00.000-08:00

While US President-elect Barack Obama is still getting his cabinet together, there is another important decision he's working on--choosing that puppy that will accompany the new first family to the White House.

Obama had made this promise to his daughters, Malia and Sasha, during his election victory speech. So what kind of pooch will join the long line of White House pets?

Reports suggest that because daughter Malia has allergies, the Obamas may be considering a "hypoallergenic" breed that sheds less hair.

The options could include a labradoodle, a cross between a Labrador and a poodle; a schnoodle, which is a hybrid of a schnauzer and poodle; a cockapoo (cocker spaniel and poodle).

Malia, however, is rumoured to favour a goldendoodle, a poodle crossed with a golden retriever.