To a liberal, their axiom on free speech is, "You're free to speak your mind ... as long as you agree with me."
Not surprisingly the Obama administration is seeking to cut off lobbying from everyone when it comes to the stim bill. This piece by Mark Tapscott in the Washington Examiner is an eye opener:
Check out this passage from a post on the White House blog by Norm Eisen, Special Counsel to the President on Ethics and Government Reform (emphasis added):
"First, we will expand the restriction on oral communications to cover all persons, not just federally registered lobbyists. For the first time, we will reach contacts not only by registered lobbyists but also by unregistered ones, as well as anyone else exerting influence on the process. We concluded this was necessary under the unique circumstances of the stimulus program.
"Second, we will focus the restriction on oral communications to target the scenario where concerns about merit-based decision-making are greatest -after competitive grant applications are submitted and before awards are made. Once such applications are on file, the competition should be strictly on the merits. To that end, comments (unless initiated by an agency official) must be in writing and will be posted on the Internet for every American to see.
"Third, we will continue to require immediate internet disclosure of all other communications with registered lobbyists. If registered lobbyists have conversations or meetings before an application is filed, a form must be completed and posted to each agency's website documenting the contact."
[...]
This is the Camel's nose under the tent, being poked because of special circumstances. Let government restrict political expression - i.e. lobbying of government officials regarding policy - in one small, supposedly specialized area and not long after the specialized area starts expanding. Eventually, political expression regarding all policy will become subject to government regulation.
This guy is in charge of "Ethics and government reform?" Maybe we should send the guy a copy of the Constitution and highlight the part about freedom of speech and assembly. Not that it would do any good. It is evident this mini-Mussolini has allowed his pissant power to go to his head and fancies himself some kind of overlord.
MIAMI — We expected broken promises. But the gap between the soaring expectations that accompanied Barack Obama’s inauguration and his wretched performance is the broadest such chasm in recent historical memory. This guy makes Bill Clinton look like a paragon of integrity and follow-through.
From health care to torture to the economy to war, Obama has reneged on pledges real and implied. So timid and so owned is he that he trembles in fear of offending, of all things, the government of Turkey. Obama has officially reneged on his campaign promise to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. When a president doesn’t have the nerve to annoy the Turks, why does he bother to show up for work in the morning?
Obama is useless. Worse than that, he’s dangerous. Which is why, if he has any patriotism left after the thousands of meetings he has sat through with corporate contributors, blood-sucking lobbyists and corrupt politicians, he ought to step down now — before he drags us further into the abyss.
I refer here to Obama’s plan for “preventive detentions.” If a cop or other government official thinks you might want to commit a crime someday, you could be held in “prolonged detention.” Reports in U.S. state-controlled media imply that Obama’s shocking new policy would only apply to Islamic terrorists (or, in this case, wannabe Islamic terrorists, and also kinda-sorta-maybe-thinking-about-terrorism dudes). As if that made it OK.
In practice, Obama wants to let government goons snatch you, me and anyone else they deem annoying off the street.
Preventive detention is the classic defining characteristic of a military dictatorship. Because dictatorial regimes rely on fear rather than consensus, their priority is self-preservation rather than improving their people’s lives. They worry obsessively over the one thing they can’t control, what George Orwell called “thoughtcrime” — contempt for rulers that might someday translate to direct action.
Locking up people who haven’t done anything wrong is worse than un-American and a violent attack on the most basic principles of Western jurisprudence. It is contrary to the most essential notion of human decency. That anyone has ever been subjected to “preventive detention” is an outrage. That the president of the United States, a man who won an election because he promised to elevate our moral and political discourse, would even entertain such a revolting idea offends the idea of civilization itself.
Obama is cute. He is charming. But there is something rotten inside him. Unlike the Republicans who backed George W. Bush, I won’t follow a terrible leader just because I voted for him. Obama has revealed himself. He is a monster, and he should remove himself from power.
“Prolonged detention,” reported The New York Times, would be inflicted upon “terrorism suspects who cannot be tried.”
“Cannot be tried.” Interesting choice of words.
Any “terrorism suspect” (can you be a suspect if you haven’t been charged with a crime?) can be tried. Anyone can be tried for anything. At this writing, a Somali child is sitting in a prison in New York, charged with piracy in the Indian Ocean, where the U.S. has no jurisdiction. Anyone can be tried.
What they mean, of course, is that the hundreds of men and boys languishing at Guantánamo and the thousands of “detainees” the Obama administration anticipates kidnapping in the future cannot be convicted. As in the old Soviet Union, putting enemies of the state on trial isn’t enough. The game has to be fixed. Conviction has to be a foregone conclusion.
Why is it, exactly, that some prisoners “cannot be tried”?
The Old Grey Lady explains why Obama wants this “entirely new chapter in American law” in a boring little sentence buried a couple of paragraphs past the jump and a couple of hundred words down page A16: “Yet another question is what to do with the most problematic group of Guantánamo detainees: those who pose a national security threat but cannot be prosecuted, either for lack of evidence or because evidence is tainted.”
In democracies with functioning legal systems, it is assumed that people against whom there is a “lack of evidence” are innocent. They walk free. In countries where the rule of law prevails, in places blessedly free of fearful leaders whose only concern is staying in power, “tainted evidence” is no evidence at all. If you can’t prove that a defendant committed a crime — an actual crime, not a thoughtcrime — in a fair trial, you release him and apologize to the judge and jury for wasting their time.
It is amazing and incredible, after eight years of Bush’s lawless behavior, to have to still have to explain these things. For that reason alone, Obama should resign.
Ted Rall is a columnist for Universal Press Syndicate.
Holy f***ing s***. Watch this video - with excerpts from a speech by Obama, who has the unmitigated GALL to suggest that the Bush administration was wrong about Gitmo and violating the Constitution - and tell me you aren't creeped out by the complete disregard he has for the Constitution...while making said speech in front of the ACTUAL Constitution at the National Archives...
Where in the hell are Connecticut,Jazzman,Neptune or any other blind jolly Liberals. I would so much like to read their input on how this is all such wonderfulness coming from their messiah.
Originally posted by pokeyfiero: Where in the hell are Connecticut,Jazzman,Neptune or any other blind jolly Liberals. I would so much like to read their input on how this is all such wonderfulness coming from their messiah.
They are either too embarrassed to comment, because they realize that Obama doesn't know what the f*** he's doing and talks out of both sides of his mouth in the SAME GODDAMN SPEECH, or they just haven't come up with a lame enough excuse for Obama yet.
Imagine what the president would learn at an Italian restaurant.
Ben Smith at Politico:
On his trip to get a burger with Brian Williams at Five Guys this afternoon, the President appears to have learned of the existence of a Defense Department intelligence arm, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, from an agency employee also at the burger restaurant.
"So explain to me exactly what this National Geospatial..." Obama said, after the worker mentioned his employer, according to a video of the event.
So here's the president, paling around with one of his buds from the National 'Bama Network (NBC), and he strikes up a conversation with a patron who works in a top secret agency of the government our "smart power" president never heard of.
Here's part of the transcript, courtesy of the Smith article:
Obama: What do you do Walter? Walter: I work at, uh, NGA, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Obama: Outstanding, how long you been doing that? Walter: About six years Obama: Yea? Walter: Yes. Obama: You like it? Walter: I do, keeps me... Obama: So explain to me exactly what this National Geospatial...uh... Walter: Uh, we work with, uh, satellite imagery.. Obama: Right Walter: [unintelligible] ...support systems, so... Obama: Sounds like good work. Walter: Enjoy the weekend. Obama: Appreciate it.
Just what do these particular spooks do? The Defense Department says:
NGA provides timely, relevant and accurate geospatial intelligence in support of national security objectives. The term "geospatial intelligence" means the exploitation and analysis of imagery and geospatial information to describe, assess and visually depict physical features and geographically referenced activities on the Earth. Geospatial intelligence consists of imagery, imagery intelligence and geospatial (e.g., mapping, charting and geodesy) information.
Sounds to me as if the NGA could be supplying our boys in the field with highly detailed maps of the battlefield in real time. Is this something a president of the United States should know? More to the point; is this something a president of the United States should be learning in a burger joint?
Stay tuned. It's anybody's guess where our clueless chief executive will learn more about the government next. Maybe he'll find something out by watching a movie.
Wow. No comments on the President declaring that people will be held indefinitely, and that they will be held for the possibility that they MIGHT commit a crime, that persons can be held even if there is tainted or lacking evidence? So all those lefties, who protested Bush for "throwing out habeas corpus" have nothing to say when Obama does it? Or when Obama goes back on his promises? Or when he directly contradicts himself in the SAME SPEECH?
There was an embarrassing editorial (embarrassing for Americans, at least) on a recent online edition of Pravda – the Russian newspaper. When the leading publication of the former Soviet Union starts to editorialize the downfall of the United States, maybe someone, somewhere, should pay attention.
Here are some excerpts from the opinion piece:
It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.
First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a Burger King burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blind the foolish.
Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another.
The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.
Here is a good one. The Treasury Secretary is a laughing stock in China. Even the Communist Chinese know what a joke this administration's economic plan is:
In his first official visit to China since becoming Treasury Secretary, Mr Geithner told politicians and academics in Beijing that he still supports a strong US dollar, and insisted that the trillions of dollars of Chinese investments would not be unduly damaged by the economic crisis. Speaking at Peking University, Mr Geithner said: "Chinese assets are very safe."
The comment provoked loud laughter from the audience of students. There are growing fears over the size and sustainability of the US budget deficit, which is set to rise to almost 13pc of GDP this year as the world's biggest economy fights off recession. The US is reliant on China to buy many of the government bonds it is planning to issue but Beijing's policymakers have expressed concern about the strength of the dollar and the value of their investments.
However Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan said that the two countries were working closely together to fight the economic crisis.
Here is a good one. The Treasury Secretary is a laughing stock in China. Even the Communist Chinese know what a joke this administration's economic plan is:
Must have been something lost in the translation, or he is just as funny over there as he is here. I am off to China tomorrow for three weeks. A little work and a lot of fun, or should I say vacation. See you guys then. Keep up the good work.
Must have been something lost in the translation, or he is just as funny over there as he is here. I am off to China tomorrow for three weeks. A little work and a lot of fun, or should I say vacation. See you guys then. Keep up the good work.
Hey, see if you can get the pulse of the Chinese's attitude. Let us know what they think.
Must have been something lost in the translation, or he is just as funny over there as he is here. I am off to China tomorrow for three weeks. A little work and a lot of fun, or should I say vacation. See you guys then. Keep up the good work.
Neat! Going to China! If you get downtown Beijing, take a deep breath of what fierobear calls air.
Neat! Going to China! If you get downtown Beijing, take a deep breath of what fierobear calls air.
Won't be close to Beijing, going to Guangzhou. Who would have ever thought that the Cartwrights because of their liberal spending habits would have to borrow money from Hop Sing to save the Ponderosa. There was never an episode about that, proving once again that life is stranger than fiction. This has been my favorite topic here so far, thanks Bear! I will be thinking about you guys while I am getting my daily massage from the beautiful Chinese girls, wishing you could be there. Will take allot of pictures.
[This message has been edited by partfiero (edited 06-02-2009).]
Barack Obama's political magic is based on an ever-growing bag of tricks, relying on illusion, misdirection, and the media's willingness to believe. Behind the stage presence of openness, bipartisanship, sincerity, transparency, and geniality are tricks learned from the hardball politics of Chicago.
Every magician needs his stage assistants. Barack Obama has two key people helping to smooth his way: Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod. Each knows plenty of tricks of his own.
Rahm Emanuel was chosen by the chosen one to be his Chief of Staff -- a very astute pick indeed. Few realize that Emanuel was one of the chief fundraisers for the Democratic Party. He is an experienced operator, who not only knows how to raise millions of dollars, but on whom to bestow them. He earned his reputation as hard-nosed and effective magician at raising money the hard way in his hometown of Chicago.
Clearly, someone with Emanuel's skills can remind recalcitrant members of his own party (such as Blue Dog Democrats) that their future campaigns may just need the money that he and the President can raise faster than one can say Maurice Stans. Better to have the Rahmbo on your side than on the other guy's side.
Lyndon Johnson used his mastery of Texas money men to power his career and to ensure that his legislation passed. Rahm can use those same talents to conjure up the same power. He is a consiglieri and a bag man of sorts -- all perfectly legal, of course. No need to violate campaign finance laws when you reward your hedge fund supporters (who supported Obama so generously during the campaign) with taxpayer dollars. Just shake the money tree and the dollars will flow. Pay-to-play: one of the oldest tricks in the books and the unofficial motto of Chicago.
A message was sent when Rahm was installed in the White House. The next campaign was already launched -- and it would be a no holds barred race to the finish line. Again.
If that were not enough proof that Barack Obama is in permanent campaign mode, the man whose office is but a few yards away from the Oval Office might do the trick: David Axelrod. He was Barack Obama's campaign manager, whose skills also were honed in the battleground of Chicago politics. Axelrod was a master of setting up astroturf groups: ostensibly citizen's groups formed to promote this or that project. In reality, they were funded by corporate groups.
Proximity to power says it all about a man's standing in our nation's capital. How come David Axelrod was transformed into the Senior Adviser to President Obama -- showing up on television talk shows and meeting with foreign leaders, one of the go-to guys to present Obama's plans to the public? What happened to Paul Volcker and Larry Summer, and the other grand old and not so old men that lent gravitas to the administration during the campaign? Like props from a completed magic trick, they have been sent backstage.
Axelrod is The Man. He crafts plans and their rollout to maximize the popularity of Barack Obama -- the popularity that he plans to ride for a return to the White House in four years. Bill Clinton had his Dick Morris, George Bush had his Karl Rove, and Barack Obama has his David Axelrod. At least George Bush waited until his second term to bring Rove on board in an official capacity. Axelrod was placed next to the throne on Day One, of the First Year of the Age of Obama.
But the tricks take a dark turn when you dip below the surface. Things get ugly down there. A magician is stealth, and Barack Obama is very stealthy. He may be gutting the Defense Department but, if there are any weapons he would seek to emulate they would be stealth fighters and bombers. They do the most damage (see Senator Stealth, Stanley Kurtz's superb article about the legislative tricks Barack Obama used as a state senator).
In just the first hundred plus days, Barack Obama seems to focusing with laser-like intensity not on the budget deficit but on what he wants most of all. No, it's not the end of global warming, not the leveling of Americans' incomes and wealth, not the weakening of America and the empowering of our adversaries. That will all come, to be sure. What he wants most of all is vindication and more adulation. Those are his hungers and they cannot ever be satiated. At least not in four years.
In the immediate future, he wants what every first term President wants: a second term and will do whatever it takes to win one. How delectable it must have been to boast "I won" before GOP Congressional leaders (the bipartisanship campaign slogan -- find that in the props department, too). How fun it must have been to stand before executives and say that his administration was the only one standing between them and the pitchforks (how proud Saul Alinksy would be!). One cannot get the same thrill after leaving the Oval Office. Never. You cannot buy such power. And it is all about power.
Instead he has focused attention on his next campaign and done so using methods that reflect where he did his true learning: not Occidental College, not Columbia University, not Harvard Law, but the precincts of Chicago. Street smarts count there, not book learning. That is for the sissies you hire to run things under you.
Counting the ways
Barack Obama has sought to bring the census process into the White House and under the control of Rahm Emanuel. This could provide a very effective way to sway elections. Census figures are used to determine electoral votes. If the process is manipulated (say, by using a method of counting people called statistical sampling) then the totals can be manipulated. These can be used to redraw Congressional districts to disadvantage Republicans, for example (such the gerrymandering Obama himself engaged in during his Chicago days). They can also be used to determine the number of representatives a state can have (think blue states, which are losing people, might get a reprieve from losing Congressional seats?; electoral votes for each state are determined by the census. In other words, the voting process can be corrupted in a myriad of ways. That is a native Chicago art form.
Barack Obama also has taken steps to increase the number of voters who will likely vote for him. Expanding citizenship to illegal aliens? Check. Empowering groups such as ACORN and ensuring they receive taxpayer funds? Check. Working with so-called 527 groups, funded by sugar daddy George Soros, to increase Democratic ranks? Check. Over cocktails at the White House, coordinate with these groups to pressure congressmen to ensure you have passed legislation that will help win the next election? Check. Smiling as the Democracy Alliance -- a group of billionaires and Democratic activists allied to you - fund candidates to take over secretary of state offices in more state capitals, so they can control the integrity of the voting process? Check. Appointing a labor ally -- an officer of the Service Employees International Union, a group that spent tens of millions electing you -- to a key post at the Federal Election Committee that monitors the legality of fundraising and spending? Check. Rollback rules requiring unions and their leaders to report information about their finances and compensation? Check.
Transparency promises? That is for the business people he threatens with disclosure of their names if they oppose his destruction of their investments. He had his Justice Department drop charges of voter intimidation against the New Black Panther Party group after that group brandished weapons and threats at a polling station during Election Day -- a clear cut case that would have otherwise resulted in victory. The dropping of those charges is a clear message that voter intimidation -- as long as it is for the right (by which I mean the left) party -- is okay when Attorney General Holder is leading the troops.
Explore the possibility of cooling the hot voices on talk radio by bringing up the prospect of a renewal of the Fairness Doctrine or requiring more community input in what messages are broadcast? Check (after all, his supporters had no problem chilling the exercise of free speech when they attacked a highly regarded radio talk show that dared, dared to have two critics of Barack Obama on the show). Free speech is only free when not engaging in the sacrilege of scrutinizing Barack Obama.
Make sure not to quell the people's anger, but channel it. Has there ever been such an un-Presidential bit of oratory as when he stated that bit of agitprop over the AIG bonuses? Have your people work with the adoring media to coordinate your message for maximum political effect-even if it bends ethics out of shape? Who's watching, so who cares? Check. Reward labor allies with bailout money and help Michigan, an electorally vital state for Democrats, with taxpayer money. Check. Taunt people with the possibility of a tax audit while you expand the ranks of the Internal Revenue Service by tens of thousands of new workers? Check-Tricky Dick would especially enjoy that one.
Should it shock our sensibilities that a President would countenance, if not plan, such an assault on the integrity of our democracy -- especially when he bamboozled us with an image of being a different kind of politician, an honest one who would be above all clean of the corruption that tends to stick to all those who troll in Chicago politics? No-not at all. This is a man, despite the presumptions of his Harvard Law and University of Chicago sojourns, has no problem disregarding the contracts clause of the Constitution. Why stoop to play by the Marquess of Queensbury rules when victory is the goal?
These tricks of the trade are more befitting a Chicago alderman -- who keep dropping like flies in the wake of Federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's probe into the netherworld of Chicago politics -- than that of a President.
Barack Obama doesn't mind outsourcing most of his own job. Domestic policy? Send that along to Nancy and Harry and Soros's boys at the Center for American Progress. Foreign Policy? Forget Foggy Bottom -- where is that anyway? Send that stuff up to Turtle Bay and give the rest of the portfolio to Russia, China, George Soros and the mad mullahs of Tehran. That stuff is hard work and no fun at all. The clearest sign that he cares very little for the nitty-gritty of governing of our nation and focuses on running his own campaign is that he convened his only Cabinet meeting only after having served for months in office -- and then only to respond to the tea parties on April 15th that posed the prospect of causing him political trouble.
Backed by this supporting cast, Barack Obama, the magician, hopes to continue to amaze his public and bewilder his opponents with his political magic. He is hoping the house lights do not come on and reveal the wires, pulleys and trap doors before the curtain is closed on his presidency.
President Obama misses the "rhythm of life" that he enjoyed with his family before entering the White House where every walk with his dog, ice cream outing with his children and date with his wife draws the attention of the world. From the New York Post:
"It's Saturday morning. I'm gonna walk my dog, I'm going to run some errands, I'm gonna do some things that'll make my wife happy," Obama reminisced in a interview with NBC News anchor Brian Williams.
Obama was reminiscing to Brian Williams about being free on Saturday mornings in Chicago to go walk the dog they didn't get until they had been in the White House for a couple of months. A made-up past.
President Obama misses the "rhythm of life" that he enjoyed with his family before entering the White House where every walk with his dog, ice cream outing with his children and date with his wife draws the attention of the world. From the New York Post:
"It's Saturday morning. I'm gonna walk my dog, I'm going to run some errands, I'm gonna do some things that'll make my wife happy," Obama reminisced in a interview with NBC News anchor Brian Williams.
Obama was reminiscing to Brian Williams about being free on Saturday mornings in Chicago to go walk the dog they didn't get until they had been in the White House for a couple of months. A made-up past.
PRESIDENT Obama's "ad dress to the Muslim world" was a masterwork of equivocation and political naiveté.
Let's start with a sentence buried within his text -- possibly in hopes that few might notice. With it, Obama effectively accepts Iran's nuclear ambitions.
"No single nation should pick and choose which nations should hold nuclear weapons," he said.
He wasn't prepared to go further than warning that an Iranian bomb could mark the start of a Middle East nuclear arms race.
Unlike his previous statements, the Cairo speech didn't include the threat of any action -- not even further sanctions -- against the Islamic Republic. The message was clear: America was distancing itself from United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Obama also abandoned President Bush's freedom agenda in support of Middle East democratic movements, saying: "No system of government can or should be imposed on one nation by another."
Of course, America didn't "impose" any system of government on Afghanistan or Iraq. All it did was to remove impediments to democracy in those countries. A majority of Afghans and Iraqis, and perhaps even "Muslims around the world," don't regret the demise of Mullah Omar, a fanatical cleric, or Saddam Hussein, a brutal secular despot.
Obama said he was seeking "a new beginning between the US and Muslims around the world" -- implying that "Muslims around the world" (including Muslim Americans) represent a monolithic bloc, as Osama bin Laden and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claim.
Is the president unaware that there are 57 countries with Muslim majorities and a further 60 countries where Muslims represent substantial minorities? Trying to press almost a quarter of humanity into a single ghetto based on religious apartheid is the fruit of either woeful ignorance or dangerous provocation.
Obama's mea culpa vis-à-vis Islam extended beyond the short span of US history. He appropriated the guilt for the Crusades, Western colonialism and support for despotic regimes during the Cold War, and countered that with a flattering narrative about Islam's role in history, featuring outlandish claims that would astonish many Muslims.
Ignoring the role of ancient Greece, pre-Islamic Persia, China and India, he credited Islam with having invented modern medicine, algebra, navigation and even the use of pen and printing. He went so far as to trace the genesis of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment to Cairo's medieval Al Azhar theological school.
Noting that Thomas Jefferson had a copy of the Koran, Obama stated that "Islam has always been a part of American history." He also exaggerated the number of Muslim Americans at 7 million, a figure designed to promote Islam as the second-largest religious community in America after Christianity.
Obama promised to help change the US taxation system to allow Muslims to pay zakat, an Islamic tax, and threatened to prosecute those who don't allow US Muslim women to cover their hair.
Despite his anxiety about being "respectful of the values of others," Obama had nothing to say about the abominable treatment of women in many Muslim-majority countries. The best he could do was this platitude: "Our daughters can contribute just as much to society as our sons."
Emphasizing the Islamic aspect of his identity, Obama said: "I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed."
He then committed America's support to the Saudi initiative known as Interfaith Dialogue and the Turkish-sponsored Dialogue of Civilizations, both of which divide the world on the basis of religious creed.
Obama voiced no support for "Muslims around the world" who are fighting for democracy and human rights, making no mention of the tens of thousands of political prisoners in the 57 Muslim-majority countries. He had no warm words for those fighting for women's rights and equal rights for ethnic and religious minorities.
The president may not know it, but his "Muslim world" is experiencing a historic civil war of ideas in which growing movements for freedom and human rights are fighting a variety of despotic, fanatical terrorist groups that use Islam as a fascist ideology.
Obama refused to acknowledge the existence of the two camps, let alone take sides. So it wasn't surprising that the Muslim Brotherhood, which wasn't invited to hear Obama's speech, praised him for "acknowledging the justice of our case."
Meanwhile, Egypt's democratic movement Kifayah! (Enough!), officially invited, refused to show up. "We cannot endorse a policy of support for despots in the name of fostering stability," a spokesman said in Cairo.
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama promised Monday to deliver more than 600,000 jobs through his $787 billion stimulus plan this summer, with federal agencies pumping billions into public works projects, schools and summer youth programs.
Obama is ramping up his stimulus program this week even as his advisers are ramping down expectations about when the spending plan will affect a continuing rise in the nation's unemployment.
Many of the stimulus plans that Obama announced Monday already were in the works, including hundreds of maintenance projects at military bases, about 1,600 state road and airport improvements, and federal money states budgeted for 135,000 teachers, principals and school support staff.
The administration had always viewed the summer as a peak for stimulus spending, as better weather permitted more public works construction and federal agencies had processed requests from states and others.
But Obama now promises an accelerated pace of federal spending over the next few months to boost the economy and produce jobs. "We have a long way to go on our road to recovery but we are going the right way," Obama said in a written statement prepared for his public announcement of the additional summer stimulus activity. "Our measure of progress is the progress the American people see in their own lives. And until that progress is steady and solid, we're going to keep moving forward. We will not grow complacent or rest. Surely and steadily, we will turn this economy around," the statement said. The announcement comes days after the government reported that the number of unemployed continues to rise; the unemployment rate now sits at 9.4 percent, the highest in more than 25 years. Hundreds of thousands of Americans continue to lose jobs each month, although fewer jobs were lost last month than expected. Just how much of an impact Obama's recovery program had on the pace of job losses is up for debate. Obama has claimed as many as 150,000 jobs saved or created by his stimulus plan so far, even as government reports have shown the economy has lost more than 1.6 million jobs since Congress approved funding for the program in February.
Republicans remain critical of the stimulus spending, slamming it as a big government program that ultimately will do little for recovery. With only a fraction of the federal money actually spent thus far, it's premature to give the stimulus plan credit for economic trends, congressional Republicans said last week. "I think the economy is just as likely to begin to recover on its own, wholly aside from this, before much of this has an impact. So I'm very skeptical that this massive sort of spending binge that we've engaged in is going to have much of an impact," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Obama initially offered his stimulus plan as a way to put people back to work, a promise that 3.5 million jobs would be saved or created. The administration's predictions that unemployment would rise no higher than 8 percent already have been shattered, leaving Obama's advisers to caution that job growth takes time, even as recovery spending intensifies. Federal agencies will release billions of stimulus dollars to states in the coming months. Health and Human Services will provide funding for 1,129 health centers to provide expanded service for 300,000 patients; Interior will begin improvements on 107 national parks; Veterans Affairs will start work on 90 medical centers in 38 states; the Justice Department will fund 5,000 law enforcement jobs; the Agriculture Department will begin 200 new rural waste and water system projects; and the Environmental Protection Agency will begin or accelerate the cleanup of 20 Superfund sites. At the same time federal money for these projects is released, the nation's unemployment rate likely will continue to increase, said Austan Goolsbee, a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
"I don't think there's any question it's going to be a rough patch not just in the immediate term, but for a little bit of time," Goolsbee said Sunday, "because you've got to turn the economy around, and jobs and job growth tend to come after you turn the economy around. So it's likely going to be a little higher." Obama senior adviser David Axelrod argues that the stimulus program is working and points to fewer jobs lost in May than the month before as a hopeful sign of economic recovery. Improvements in unemployment numbers naturally come later, he said. "It's going to take some time for these unemployment numbers to turn around, for the momentum to completely stop and turn in the other direction," Axelrod said. "It feels as if we're moving and the stimulus package now is not nearly done, it's just really at its beginnings."
1. At least the administration is smart enough to lower people's expectations of the success of this stimulus. 2. Obama has NO PROOF of his claim that 150,000 jobs were saved. Sure doesn't look like it in the face of 1.6 million jobs lost. 3. On CNN yesterday, there are rumors they are already talking about a second stimulus. Boy, it's gonna get really interesting when the bills come due on all this stimulus.
In a PR stunt designed to assure the nation that he knows his policies have failed and its time to alter the narrative, President Obama will announce later today an "increase" in spending of the $787 billion stimulus bill that will "save or create" 600,000 jobs.
That last is a knee slapper. As senate minority leader Mitch McConnel says in a Mike Allen story from Politico:
Obama also will face increasing questions not only about the deficit explosion, but uncertainty about the effectiveness of the $787 billion stimulus bill. Republicans say the "save or create" metric for jobs is meaningless, since it's impossible to prove or disprove.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a quote provided to POLITICO:
"I'm very skeptical that the spending binge that we're on is going to produce much good and, even if it does, anytime soon."
Ed Lasky adds:
Is this administration anything other than in permanent campaign mode-relying on imagery, false promises, straw men, promises, the teleprompter?
And this from House minority leader John Boehner's website about the effects of stimulus spending in those first 100 days:
Today [May 27], the Administration is releasing yet another report on its trillion-dollar "stimulus" spending bill - one that Democrats claim will produce only half the jobs at twice the cost of the House GOP's better stimulus solution. It's been a full 100 days since the bill became law, and the Administration is pulling out all the stops to put a positive spin on the legislation, which has been increasingly panned by media and state and local officials as wasteful and inefficient - basically, anything but the "timely, targeted, and temporary" bill Washington Democrats promised earlier this year. As the Administration marks the 100th day of the "stimulus" spending bill, let's take a closer look at some of the claims Democrats made about the legislation earlier this year - and how those claims stack 100 days later:
Claim: The President claimed that the stimulus "...will save or create 3 million to 4 million jobs over the next two years." (Remarks by the President in Elkhart, Indiana, WhiteHouse.gov)
Fact Check: "State officials have complained about the difficulty of obtaining grants for construction projects, while economists question administration claims that the effort already has saved or created 150,000 jobs." (Adriel Bettelheim, "Tinkerbell Effect, Part 3: Obama's Job Creation Efforts," CQ Politics, May 27, 2009) The Associated Press reported that: "The early trend seen in the AP analysis runs counter to expectations raised by Obama, that road and infrastructure money from the historic $787 billion stimulus plan would create jobs in areas most devastated by layoffs." (Matt Apuzzo and Brett Blackledge, "Stimulus Watch: Jobs, But Not Where Needed Most," Associated Press, May 11, 2009)
Given these facts, what can the president do to "speed up" stim spending?
Not too darn much. From that same Politico story:
Here are the projects to be spotlighted by the administration:
-Enable 1,129 Health Centers inn 50 States and 8 Territories to Provide Expanded Service to Approximately 300,000 Patients - Department of Health and Human Services
-Begin Work on 107 National Parks - Department of the Interior
-Begin Work on Rehabilitation and Improvement Projects at 98 Airports and Over 1,500 Highway Locations throughout the Country - Department of Transportation
-Fund 135,000 Education Jobs Including Teachers, Principals and Support Staff - Department of Education
-Begin Improvements at 90 Veterans Medical Centers across 38 States - Department of Veterans Affairs
-Hire or Keep on the Job Approximately 5,000 Law Enforcement Officers - Department of Justice
-Start 200 New Waste and Water Systems in Rural America - United States Department of Agriculture
It appears that in order to salvage the lie of the stim bill, the president is doubling down and going for a bigger lie that this "speed up" will "save or create" 600,000 jobs.
I see a lot of "begin work" and "begin improvements" on this list but no dates. With all the trouble states and local governments are having in even getting contracts to spend the money, one wonders how many "make work" boondoggles will result from this ratcheting up of spending.
1. At least the administration is smart enough to lower people's expectations of the success of this stimulus. 2. Obama has NO PROOF of his claim that 150,000 jobs were saved. Sure doesn't look like it in the face of 1.6 million jobs lost. 3. On CNN yesterday, there are rumors they are already talking about a second stimulus. Boy, it's gonna get really interesting when the bills come due on all this stimulus.
1. The 2010 elections are getting closer, and you can bet they're worried about the outcome. If their projections aren't showing much recovery in 12-18 months, they need to start downplaying the stimulus now. Otherwise, it's going to be something they get hammered on during the elections.
2. When has reality ever mattered to Obama, or his supporters? All you need is hope
3. There were rumors of another stimulus shortly after the first was passed. What I wonder about is how they're going to work up the frenzy for it. Last time, they pulled out the crisis label, and made it seem like the economy was going to implode in 5 minutes if the porkulous wasn't passed. If they're trying to convince people that the economy is doing better, going back into crisis mode won't play very well.
You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me..
You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.
You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.
You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.
You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.
You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core.
You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.
You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.
You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America ' crowd and deliver this message abroad.
You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector. You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.
You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.
You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.
You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics against certain banks and corporations.
You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.
You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.
You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.
You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.
You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O'Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.
You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.
Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.
Quite a few commentators are noting that the latest Gallup poll showing that by a wafer slim margin, the majority disapprove of the burgeoning federal deficit.
Perhaps of greater significance, Gallup also notes
Obama's job approval rating for his handling of the economy has dropped from 59% in February to 55% today, while his disapproval rating has risen by 12 points, from 30% to 42%. The fact that Obama's approval on the economy has become more negative over this time period is of interest, given that Gallup's measure of consumer mood has become more positive between March and the current time.
When analyzing these results, few have referenced Gallup's use of the lowest common denominator of political polling. Gallup did not question likely voters, the group that best predicts future political outcomes, or even registered voters, those interested enough in the process to qualify themselves for participation.
Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,015 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted May 29-31, 2009.
Polls of adults are known to favor Democrats more than polls of likely voters, the method Rasmussen uses for its Daily Presidential Tracking poll. (Gallup did not release the weighting between Democrats, Republicans and Independents used in this poll.) A nationwide poll of adults is likely to capture the opinions of a significant number of people who have little interest in the political process and current events: People whose sole source of information is catching headlines in newspapers in passing, glancing at cover stories while in the checkout line and the listening to the first five seconds of the nightly news as they reach for their remote controls.
For Obama's approval on economic issues to be dropping among adults even as Gallup's measure of the consumer's mood has picked up seem to suggest that Americans increasingly see this as Obama's economy and that the continued efforts of the administration and the media to blame everything on George W. Bush is losing traction.
And some commentary "here is the new number for May: 9.4% I expected the numbers to flatten out like it looked like they were going to a few days ago. This trend is terrible – the unemployment rate change was 60% higher than what was predicted, and is a larger increase than from March to April.
Maybe we’d better just keep focusing on those jobless claims.
*As always, this chart was constructed by overlaying the actual economic data on top of the chart made by Obama’s economic team to market his stimulus plan."
Maybe we’d better just keep focusing on those jobless claims.
Nope, can't do that either. The anti-Bush crowd told us that the jobless numbers were bullshit under Bush because people would stop looking for work, and would skew the numbers downward. The same must apply under Obama, so no good news there, hopey-dopey fans.
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is promising some exciting coming attractions for his stimulus plan. But it turns out they're just summer reruns. Obama promised Monday to ramp up spending from the $787 billion stimulus fund and create or save 600,000 jobs by the end of the summer. It was an effort to shift the focus away from persistently rising unemployment and beat back criticism that the money isn't flowing quickly enough. Those promises aren't new. Stimulus spending had always been expected to rise sharply this summer, and the White House has been predicting that 600,000 job total for about a month. Obama faces souring public opinion over his handling of the economy, which has shed 1.6 million jobs since the stimulus was signed in February. That total has far overshadowed White House announcements estimating the effort has saved 150,000 jobs, a figure that is so murky it can never be verified. Monday's announcement sought to reposition Obama in the driver's seat of America's recovery. It portrayed the president as revving up the engine of the stimulus, but it was something federal agencies were already planning to do anyway. Obama spoke about "modest progress" in the economy, citing fewer jobs lost last month than expected. He said he hopes to build on that in the months ahead with stimulus programs. "We've done more than ever, faster than ever, more responsibly than ever, to get the gears of the economy moving again," he said. But he acknowledged: "I'm not satisfied. We've got more work to do." And for the first time, the administration admitted the economic forecasts it used to sell the stimulus were overly optimistic. "At the time, our forecast seemed reasonable," said Vice President Joe Biden's top economic adviser, Jared Bernstein, explaining that the White House underestimated the scope of the recession. "Now, looking back, it was clearly too optimistic." By this point, according to earlier White House economic models, the nation's unemployment rate should be on the decline. The forecasts White House advisers used to drum up support for the plan projected today's unemployment rate would be about 8 percent. Instead, it sits at 9.4 percent, the highest in more than 25 years. By any measure, spending $44 billion in four months — and with unprecedented transparency — is an uncharacteristic feat in Washington. But the expectations have been even higher, and restoring the economy has proven tougher than the administration expected. Several economists said Monday the economy is unlikely to see any boost from the stimulus before next year. "It takes time to organize projects, to get the bids in, the funds out and the work started," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight. Obama's disapproval rating on the economy has risen from 30 percent in February to 42 percent, according to a Gallup poll completed May 31. Sensing weakness on a signature issue of Obama's presidency, congressional Republicans are renewing their criticisms that the stimulus plan has not shown results, only mounting debt. "This is President Obama's economy, and his administration must provide results and specifics rather than vague descriptions of success that seem to change by the week," said House Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia. "The administration looks dramatically out of touch as they highlight the creation of temporary summer employment in the face of job losses unseen in decades, record unemployment and massive deficits." Obama shot back at skeptics during Monday's Cabinet meeting. "Now, I know that there's some who, despite all evidence to the contrary, still don't believe in the necessity and promise of this recovery act," he said. "And I would suggest to them that they talk to the companies who, because of this plan, scrapped the idea of laying off employees and, in fact, decided to hire employees. Tell that to the Americans who received that unexpected call saying, 'Come back to work.'"
[This message has been edited by fierobear (edited 06-09-2009).]
http://money.cnn.com/2009/06/09/news/economy/manpower_survey/ NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Employers are still jittery about hiring but the pace of job loss is stabilizing, according to a staffing firm survey released Tuesday.
Sixty-seven percent of employers said they plan to hold staff levels steady for the third quarter of 2009, unchanged from the last two quarters, according to the Manpower's quarterly employment outlook survey.
"Employer attitudes about hiring remain essentially unchanged compared to the previous quarter," Jeffrey Joerres, chairman and CEO of Manpower, said in a statement.
June 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. employers’ hiring plans for the third quarter held at a record low, signaling fired workers will have to wait many more months to find a job, a survey showed.
Manpower Inc., the world’s second-largest provider of temporary workers, said its employment gauge for July through September was minus 2 after adjusting for seasonal variations, matching the second quarter’s reading as the lowest since data began in 1989.
Originally posted by fierobear: On CNN yesterday, there are rumors they are already talking about a second stimulus.
I heard that also from a different source. Along with the facts that only 5% of the first stimulus monies have been spent. Imagine that. We had to pass the stimulus bill without reading it and they can not even get the money to where it can be used.
Doesn't apply to the past--or the White House's own projected $1.84 trillion budget deficit. Ungodly amt of undebated spending since January and now wants fiscal responsibility? That train left the station in Feb. Said one Rep: "Obama had undertaken "historic spending" during his first five months in office. So for us to sit here and listen to the White House say that 'We ought to be responsible, we ought to pay for what we're doing' I think lacks just a little bit of credibility,"
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