“On the spending side, we could and should consider a higher retirement age, or one pegged to lifespan; more progressive Social Security and Medicare benefits;” – Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, speech at Third Way, June 22, 2010Discuss.
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has indirectly re-entered the picture at the Blagojevich corruption trial. Government witness John Harris, Blagojevich’s onetime chief of staff, said he received a call from an intermediary for Emanuel on Nov. 10, 2008, six days after the presidential election.
The intermediary was John Wyma, a lobbyist pal of Blagojevich and Emanuel. And the message Harris said Wyma was asked to deliver was that President-elect Barack Obama “would be thankful and appreciative” if Blagojevich would appoint Obama’s friend Valerie Jarrett as Illinois’ new U.S. Senator.
On a wiretapped phone call with Blagojevich the next day, Harris related details of his talk with Wyma. Blagojevich was at home and said he had babysitting duties. Cartoons on TV could be heard in the background.
"They're not willing to give me anything but appreciation, (expletive) them," Blagojevich said of Wyma’s message.
Blagojevich also wondered out loud whether he could use the Senate appointment to induce Obama to lean on Obama’s friend, billionaire Warren Buffett, to bankroll an issue-advocacy group to be run by Blagojevich that would give the governor a way to make some money and remain on the public stage.
Then he floated more ideas. Maybe he would appoint deputy governor Louanner Peters to the Senate seat and have her keep it warm for him in case he was facing impeachment. In that event, she would resign and he would appoint himself to fill the new vacancy.
In light of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s (D-MD) announcement this morning that House Democrats will not pass a budget this year – failing to fulfill what he has called “the most basic responsibility” of governing – the following important fiscal health warning has been issued:
THE BUDGET HAS BEEN
CANCELLED
WE REGRET TO INFORM YOU THAT
THE CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET
PLANNED FOR FISCAL YEAR 2011 HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO WASHINGTON DEMOCRATS’ OUT-OF-CONTROL SPENDING SPREE.
AN APOLOGY FOR THIS BETRAYAL OF AMERICAN TAXPAYERS DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE FORTHCOMING AT THIS TIME.
BE ADVISED THAT THE FOLLOWING SERVICES WILL BE INTERRUPTED:
Imposing the fiscal discipline economists say is needed to create jobs and boost our economy
Reining in the out-of-control spending spree that is killing American jobs
Carrying out the “most basic responsibility of governing”
Stopping middle-class tax hikes that will sock family budgets at the worst possible time
Providing the leadership on jobs and the economy that Americans say is sorely lacking
Protecting our kids and grandkids from the enormous debt burden Washington has placed on them
We reserve the right to notify you of additional consequences that may arise in light of this budget failure, which is unprecedented in the modern era. In the interim, please brace for more spending, more debt, more tax hikes, more broken promises.
For families and small businesses looking for a government that listens to the people it serves and respects their hard-earned money, House Republicans are offering better solutions to cut spending now and help small businesses put people back to work.
Just in time for the upcoming three month anniversary of the signing of President Obama’s new health care law, the state of Ohio has determined that taxpayers will be forced to foot the bill for millions of dollars in additional costs to expand Medicaid under the new law. The Columbus Dispatch reports:
The sharp Medicaid expansion under the new federal health-care law will cost Ohio taxpayers $1.45 billion from 2014 through 2019, according to projections released to The Dispatch yesterday by the state.
Job and Family Services spokesman Benjamin Johnson said the agency estimates that Ohio's cost in 2014 will be $190 million and $267 million the next year. By 2019, the state cost will reach an estimated $332 million.
As Ohio prepares to face an estimated $8 billion budget deficit in an already difficult economy, this additional burden is the last thing the state needs. Throughout the debate over health care, Congressman Boehner and fellow Ohio members of Congress repeatedly warned Governor Ted Strickland (D) about the unfunded mandates that could be forced on Ohio under the president’s plan. On October 20, 2009 the members wrote:
Many other governors, Democratic and Republican, have gone on the record with their clear opposition to this plan due to the harmful effect it will have on the people of their states. As Dennis Smith of the Heritage Foundation wrote recently: 'One day perhaps, Congress will realize that expanding Medicaid comes at the expense of other state and federal priorities including education and the child welfare system. As Medicaid grows, funding for other programs shrink, which in turn, increases demand for Medicaid to become the source of funding for those other programs. Only the governors have the clout to push back and break the vicious cycle that. . .threatens to bankrupt the states.'
For this reason, we respectfully ask that you express clear opposition on behalf of our state to the legislation moving through Congress.
Despite these warnings, Gov. Strickland refused to stand up for Ohio taxpayers, and instead enthusiastically endorsed the president’s proposal. Now taxpayers will be forced to pick up the tab.
The more that Ohioans learn about all the mandates, tax hikes, and Medicare cuts in the president’s new health care law, the more they want nothing to do with it. Recent surveys have found that 59 percent of Ohioans want the president’s costly new health care law repealed.
Earlier this week, House Republicans adopted an idea from Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) on AmericaSpeakingOut.com that would have repealed the unconstitutional individual mandate at the core of the president’s health care law and offered it for an up or down vote in Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) rallied her members to defeat the measure 187-230.
When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics.
Such people were a valuable addition to his political base, since they were particularly susceptible to Hitler's rhetoric and had far less basis for questioning his assumptions or his conclusions.
"Useful idiots" was the term supposedly coined by V.I. Lenin to describe similarly unthinking supporters of his dictatorship in the Soviet Union.
Put differently, a democracy needs informed citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive.
In our times, American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington, and few people seem to be concerned about it.
The president's poll numbers are going down because increasing numbers of people disagree with particular policies of his, but the damage being done to the fundamental structure of this nation goes far beyond particular counterproductive policies.
Just where in the Constitution of the United States does it say that a president has the authority to extract vast sums of money from a private enterprise and distribute it as he sees fit to whomever he deems worthy of compensation? Nowhere.
And yet that is precisely what is happening with a $20 billion fund to be provided by BP to compensate people harmed by their oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Many among the public and in the media may think that the issue is simply whether BP's oil spill has damaged many people, who ought to be compensated.
But our government is supposed to be "a government of laws and not of men."
If you believe that the end justifies the means, then you don't believe in constitutional government.And, without constitutional government, freedom cannot endure. There will always be a "crisis" — which, as the president's chief of staff has said, cannot be allowed to "go to waste" as an opportunity to expand the government's power.
That power will of course not be confined to BP or to the particular period of crisis that gave rise to the use of that power, much less to the particular issues.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt arbitrarily took the United States off the gold standard, he cited a law passed during the First World War to prevent trading with the country's wartime enemies. But there was no war when FDR ended the gold standard's restrictions on the printing of money.
At about the same time, during the worldwide Great Depression, the German Reichstag passed a law "for the relief of the German people."
That law gave Hitler dictatorial powers that were used for things going far beyond the relief of the German people — indeed, powers that ultimately brought a rain of destruction down on the German people and on others.
Those who cannot see beyond the immediate events to the issues of arbitrary power — vs. the rule of law and the preservation of freedom — are the "useful idiots" of our time. But useful to whom?
Chancellor Angela Merkel championed German export strength as “the right thing” for her country, spurning President Barack Obama’s call to boost private spending as both leaders prepare for Group of 20 talks.
Merkel, addressing a business audience in Berlin today, said she told Obama in a phone call that cutting government debt is “absolutely important for us,” exposing a second point of contention ahead of the June 26-27 G-20 summit in Canada.
Reducing the budget deficit by 10 billion euros ($12 billion) per year “won’t put a brake on the world’s economic growth,” Merkel said, relating what she told Obama yesterday. Germans are more likely to spend money if they feel the government “is taking precautions” to ensure solid finances, she said.
Four days before world leaders meet in Toronto, Germany is heading for conflict with the rest of the G-20 over tighter financial regulation, a banking levy and U.S. calls to boost growth rather than cut debt.
A U.S. judge refused on Thursday to put on hold his decision blocking the federal government from enforcing its six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans rejected the Obama administration's request to stay his decision that allowed deepwater drilling to resume. The Interior Department suspended drilling after the ruptured BP Plc (BP.L) (BP.N) well began gushing oil into the Gulf more than two months ago.
Fifteen hours after the Justice Department appealed Feldman's ruling and requested a stay pending that appeal, Feldman issued a brief order denying the request for the same reasons he gave in his Tuesday decision.
In that opinion, Feldman strongly criticized the Obama administration's moratorium, saying that it was "indeed punitive" because it was too broad, arbitrary and was not adequately justified given the impact on thousands of oil industry workers and on local communities.
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, declaring his candidacy for governor of New York, could not have been clearer. “The influence of lobbyists and their special interests must be drastically reduced with new contribution limits,” Mr. Cuomo said last month. “We will be taking on very powerful special interests which have much to lose. We must change systems and cultures long in the making.”
But as he delivered his announcement, Mr. Cuomo was sitting on millions in campaign cash from the very special interests whose influence he said he wanted to limit.
An analysis by The New York Times shows that of the estimated $7.1 million that the Cuomo campaign has received from political action committees, associations, limited liability corporations and other entities, more than half has come from the biggest players in Albany: organized labor, the real estate and related industries like construction, the health care sector and lobbying firms.
In the spirit of reform, Mr. Cuomo pledged in 2007 not to accept donations over $10,000 from most categories of contributors during an election cycle. But he did not stick to that vow and has at times received amounts five times as great.
The donations underscore the awkwardness of Mr. Cuomo’s effort to run against Albany and its insiders at the same time he is benefiting from their largess and, in some cases, his long relationships with them. He drew a similar proportion of his campaign money from special interests in his failed 2002 campaign for governor and his 2006 bid for attorney general.
Vice President Al Gore was accused of repeated, unwanted sexual contact with a massage therapist at a Portland hotel room in 2006, according to police reports.
The woman told police she was "repeatedly subjected to unwanted sexual touching" in Gore's hotel room at the Hotel Lucia, according to the police report.
Gore was in town to campaign for Governor Ted Kulongoski in October, 2006. Neither Gore nor his representatives could be reached for comment Wednesday. He and his wife Tipper recently announced plans to divorce.
No criminal charges were brought against Gore.
The Multnomah County District Attorney's Office confirmed on Wednesday that the DA's office was briefed by Portland Police in late 2006 and January 2007 on allegations brought by an attorney representing the woman in the alleged abuse incident. At that time, her attorney indicated that the woman did not want to pursue criminal charges. Details: Initial 2006 police report
The woman herself came forward in 2009 and provided Portland Police with a detailed report on the alleged incident.
The masseuse told investigators about an evening massage session during which Gore allegedly became enraged at times and tried to gain sexual favors from the woman.
"I was shocked and I did not massage beyond what is considered a safe, nonsexual area of the abdomen," she said. "He further insisted and acted angry, becoming verbally sharp and loud."
"I went into much deeper shock as I realized it appeared he was demanding sexual favors or sexual behaviors." The woman said Gore grabbed her hand and shoved it toward his pubic area.
She alleged he later tried to have sex with her and began caressing her before she squirmed out of his grasp.
Nearly half of American Adults see the government today as a threat to individual rights rather than a protector of those rights.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Adults see the government today as a threat to rights. Thirty-seven percent (37%) hold the opposite view. Fifteen percent (15%) are undecided.
Most Republicans (74%) and unaffiliateds (51%) consider the government to be a threat to individual rights. Most Democrats (64%) regard the government as a protector of rights.
Barack Obama, who has in recent days turned haplessness into an art form, played a masterstroke today, making perhaps the canniest, wiliest, even wisest decision of his generally rudderless presidency. I refer, of course, to his appointment of David Petraeus to the Afghan war command, in place of the Rolling-Stoned Stanley McChrystal. In doing so, Obama has, at a stroke, taken Petraeus out of the 2012 presidential race. There has been a buzz about Petraeus and the presidency since about the fall of last year, and to many in the Republican Party—a party bereft of ideas and credible leaders—the general has increasingly taken on the aspect of a possible messiah. His impeccable military credentials, his undoubted intelligence, his mastery of personal and professional politics (you wouldn’t catch him talking to Rolling Stone in a million years), plus his undoubted (if carefully tailored) conservatism have led many to see in him a man who can take on Obama in 2012, and beat him. He is even the sort of guy who’d allow the GOP to broaden its tent, drawing in “undecideds” and independents.This can no longer happen. And Obama’s brilliant move also preserves his own Afghan war strategy (which is effectively a Petraeus-McChrystal strategy). So, in throwing out the “McChrystal bathwater,” he has been careful not to jettison the “policy baby."
To those tempted to argue that Obama has now elevated Petraeus to Eisenhower-like status, I’d point out that Eisenhower never ran for office against a president who raised him up to the military apex. I have met Petraeus, and had the chance to talk to him in an informal way, and I would be flabbergasted if he would now contemplate a political run against a man who has entrusted him with America’s most sensitive theater of war. Besides, the job Petraeus is taking would normally be a two-year stint.
So Obama has reason to be delighted with himself right now: He has sacked a recalcitrant big-mouth; he has entrusted said big-mouth’s job to a certified hero and military star; and he’s taken that star out of contention for 2012, making his own re-election that much more likely, given the headless turkey that is currently the GOP
There is a reasonably high chance that BP could file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the next few years, or even months, and the result would be an “absolute horror” for the government, according to a bankruptcy expert.
Peter S. Kaufman, the President of investment bank Gordian Group and head of the firm’s Restructuring and Distressed M&A practice, told me that if he had BP’s ear, “I’d advise them to explore the option of bankruptcy.” If he had the government’s ear, he’d tell them to stop berating the company to the point where BP would find it appealing to use bankruptcy to limit its liabilities.
"The president understands that the governor would be willing to make the appointment of Valerie Jarrett as long as he gets what he's asked for. . . . The governor gets the Cabinet appointment he's asked for," Harris said, explaining a recorded call.
Harris said Blagojevich came away believing Obama knew what he wanted after having a conversation with a local union representative, who in turn spoke with labor leader Tom Balanoff, with whom Blagojevich met to discuss a Jarrett appointment. Jarrett, now a White House adviser, was seeking the appointment to Obama's Senate seat.
Defense lawyers say Harris' testimony contradicts the government's previous public statements that Obama knew nothing about deal-making involving the Senate seat appointment.
The defense on Wednesday moved to force the prosecution to turn over FBI reports of Obama's interview with federal agents in December of 2008. Obama is not accused of wrongdoing.
"Testimony elicited by the government from John Harris and wiretaps played in court raise the issue of President Obama's direct knowledge and communication with emissaries and others regarding the appointment to his Senate seat," lawyers wrote in the filing.
The filing came on the trial's third day of the extensive playback of recordings in which Blagojevich is heard repeatedly discussing ways to personally capitalize on his Senate seat appointment power. Blagojevich could be heard plotting to try to head up a charity; swearing and snapping at his wife, Patti, and dismissing the possibility of a federal position that pays $190,000 a year.
"I make $170 . . . So Fred, that has no appeal to me . . . I want to make money," Blagojevich tells national Democratic consultant Fred Yang. "I might as well go out and find a way to make money."
Obama's 2008 internal report about his staff's contacts with Blagojevich at the time indicates that Balanoff relayed to Jarrett that Blagojevich was interested in a Health and Human Services Cabinet post.
"The fact that Justices O'Connor and Lanzinger clearly made endorsements under the guise of not endorsing makes their behavior particularly reprehensible," Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern wrote in the complaint.What a maroon, as Bugs would say...
Serving in the United States Armed Forces is one of the noblest sacrifices a person can make for our country, and those who have fought for our nation deserve our upmost respect and gratitude. When these individuals return from overseas, many face hurdles that will haunt them for the rest of their lives, including physical disabilities or emotional scars. As they attempt to assimilate back into everyday life, it is the duty of Ohio’s leaders to give them as many opportunities as possible to succeed.In light of the controversial election of West Ohio Conference CFO, Bill Brownson, at Annual Conference last week, we are reminded this from the book entitled, "Three Simple Rules: A Weslyan Way of Living", by Reuben Job: Do No Harm, Do Good, Stay in Love with God.
Pastors and one representative from each church in the Shawnee Valley District are invited and encouraged to a District-wide Leadership Team Meeting to discuss the election. District Superintendant, Jospeh Bishman will lead a discussion and would like to gain a sense of response within the district so he can best represent you in Cabinet and to the Bishop.
The meeting is scheduled for Monday, June 28th from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Grace UMC's Family Life Center in Waverly. Please contact the District Office if you have questions.
The case filed by Brown County Clerk of Courts Tina Meranda against Common Pleas Judge Scott Gusweiler is over. Retired Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Nurre upheld a motion by Gusweilers attorneys to dismiss the case on June 17. Nurre agreed with the defense motion that Gusweiler had the authority to order Meranda to give him a set of keys to her office last February and also had the authority to threaten her with jail on contempt charges if she did not comply. Nurre also agreed that Gusweiler had absolute immunity from lawsuits or prosecution while discharging his duties as judge.
Nurre also has some parting words for both parties. In the final paragraph of the ruling, Nurre wrote "It has come to the Court's attention that since this law suit has been filed there has been a bit more congeniality between the parties...It is the courts hope that the actions of the parties will reflect greater consideration of one another in an effort to afford the citizens of their community the best possible service."
Meranda herself noted that, in her opinion, the atmosphere of the courthouse has changed. "It's remarkable how I've been treated with respect lately", she said. "My girls and I have not had any problems at all since the suit was filed." Meranda added that it is apparent that Gusweiler "has the right to order arrests and has immunity whether it's right or wrong."
Eric Deters, Meranda's attorney, said that his client will not appeal the ruling. "We disagree with the decision, but we accept it", Deters said.
Nurre's order states "Since Plaintiff (Meranda) is seeking damages against Defendant (Gusweiler) for actions he took in his capacity as a Judge, he is absolutely immune from monetary damages". The opinion continues that as Administrative Judge, Gusweiler "is qualifiedly immune from legal action for making a discretionary decision as Administrative Judge as it relates to his access to the Clerk's office. A Judge's access to the Clerk's office and the Court's files is absolute."
Regarding Meranda's claim of intimidation by Gusweiler, Nurre writes "She must allege that defendant threatened her in an unlawful way-she' didn't; she must demonstrate that she was injured; she wasn't." Finally, regarding Meranda's complaint of Gusweilers "pattern and practice of abusive, overbearing and inappropriate behavior", Nurre writes "the plaintiff fails to allege how he (Gusweiler) exceeded his duties or interfered with her duties".
COLUMBUS—Five short months after Gov. Ted Strickland vowed to "move heaven and earth" to right Ohio's economy from the crippled state's finances and stomped-out job development, he has failed to address the fact that Ohio has now faced more than 14 months of double-digit unemployment.
“Never before have I seen such blatant disregard for the current economic woes by the majority or administration,” said House Republican Asst. Leader Louis W. Blessing, Jr., (R-Cincinnati). “They’re out of touch with reality. With 10.7 percent of Ohioans unemployed, now is not a time to raise taxes like they did with House Bill 318. Nor is it a time to place costly unfunded mandates onto schools at a time when they can least afford it, like they did in Strickland’s biennial budget as passed by his Democratic colleagues in the Statehouse.”
Conversely, House Republicans have worked diligently to get Ohio back to work. The “Future of Ohio” government reform package is a collection of 10 bills to get government spending under control, reduce government waste and improve Ohio’s business climate. However, since its introduction in February 2009, this legislation has only received one committee hearing. The House Republican Caucus remains hopeful that this and other cost-saving, job-creation measures will receive further committee hearings after an open, bipartisan discussion.
Now, if people know tax rates will be higher next year than they are this year, what will those people do this year? They will shift production and income out of next year into this year to the extent possible. As a result, income this year has already been inflated above where it otherwise should be and next year, 2011, income will be lower than it otherwise should be.
Also, the prospect of rising prices, higher interest rates and more regulations next year will further entice demand and supply to be shifted from 2011 into 2010. In my view, this shift of income and demand is a major reason that the economy in 2010 has appeared as strong as it has. When we pass the tax boundary of Jan. 1, 2011, my best guess is that the train goes off the tracks and we get our worst nightmare of a severe "double dip" recession.
In 1981, Ronald Reagan—with bipartisan support—began the first phase in a series of tax cuts passed under the Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA), whereby the bulk of the tax cuts didn't take effect until Jan. 1, 1983. Reagan's delayed tax cuts were the mirror image of President Barack Obama's delayed tax rate increases. For 1981 and 1982 people deferred so much economic activity that real GDP was basically flat (i.e., no growth), and the unemployment rate rose to well over 10%.
But at the tax boundary of Jan. 1, 1983 the economy took off like a rocket, with average real growth reaching 7.5% in 1983 and 5.5% in 1984. It has always amazed me how tax cuts don't work until they take effect. Mr. Obama's experience with deferred tax rate increases will be the reverse. The economy will collapse in 2011.
Consider corporate profits as a share of GDP. Today, corporate profits as a share of GDP are way too high given the state of the U.S. economy. These high profits reflect the shift in income into 2010 from 2011. These profits will tumble in 2011, preceded most likely by the stock market.
In 2010, without any prepayment penalties, people can cash in their Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), Keough deferred income accounts and 401(k) deferred income accounts. After paying their taxes, these deferred income accounts can be rolled into Roth IRAs that provide after-tax income to their owners into the future. Given what's going to happen to tax rates, this conversion seems like a no-brainer.
The result will be a crash in tax receipts once the surge is past. If you thought deficits and unemployment have been bad lately, you ain't seen nothing yet.
Under new rules, your employer can't change insurers without losing your health plan's exemptions from ObamaCare regulations.
That is, unless a union negotiated your coverage. The administration has granted a special exception to those — and apparently only those — health care plans.
A health plan is deemed "grandfathered" if it was purchased before March 23, 2010, and no major changes are made later. Such plans are exempt from most ObamaCare requirements.
But new rules, officially announced Monday, make it hard to keep that status. IBD previously reported that the Obama administration estimates that 51% of all employers — 66% of small firms — would have to relinquish their current coverage by Jan. 1, 2014.
Hail The Collective
But the rules that limit grandfathering are less stringent for unions. Under the regulations, if "an employer or employee organization enters into a new policy, certificate, or contract of insurance after March 23, 2010 ... then that policy, certificate, or contract of insurance is not a grandfathered health plan."
However, that rule does not apply to health care plans that are part of collective bargaining agreements negotiated by unions and set up by March 23, 2010. As long as the collective bargaining agreement is in force, the health plan retains its grandfathered status even if the employers and unions agree to change insurance carriers.
The regulations include an example of a union-negotiated plan that enters into a new group policy "with Issuer Y for the plan year starting on January 1, 2011." In this case, "the group health plan, and the group health insurance policy provided by Y, remains a grandfathered health plan."
Kasich, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1982 to 2001, voted in favor of the Clinton assault weapons ban in 1994 and supported bills containing restrictions on gun shows and handgun sales. That voting record led to the NRA to give Kasich an 'F' grade during his tenure in Congress.
In reaction to the endorsement, the Ohio Republican Party has begun highlighting the inconsistencies of Strickland's voting record on gun laws.
It's time to think about raising that sales tax to address the cash-strapped county's budget woes, says Greg Jolivette, lame duck Butler County commissioner whose failed primary campaign focused, in part, on what a great thing that low sales tax was.That is rather petty of you, sir, and clearly you are not the man I thought you were. I am deeply disappointed... Go out with some dignity, Greg, don't go out like this...
"I thought it should put a little feather in our cap that we did maintain that. But I wasn't successful with that argument," he said of the May primary he lost to Cindy Carpenter.
"I don't hear people saying "I think I'll shop in Butler County because it will save me a quarter percent,' " Jolivette saidThose of us who actually work for a living are pinching our pennies, Commissioner. If you weren't so out of touch, maybe you'd have won re-election.
I think everybody, people in Israel, people in Turkey, people within the Palestinian territories, certainly people here in the United States, want to know the facts of this tragedy -- what led to it, how can we prevent it in the future.
And I think -- I've said to the Israelis directly and certainly my team has communicated the fact that it is in Israel's interest to make sure that everybody knows exactly how this happened so that we don't see these kinds of events occurring again. And we expect that -- the standard that was called for in the U.N. Security Council to be met.
The FBI thought it was closing in on Joran Van der Sloot in the notorious Natalee Holloway missing-teenager case, and he was videotaped and paid $25,000 in a sting operation. But when the agency delayed his arrest to help build a criminal case, he took the money and headed for Peru, where authorities say he now has confessed to killing a different young woman.
The investigation of van der Sloot in the Alabama teenager's case simply was not far enough along to have him arrested, the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office in Birmingham said Wednesday.
When the operators of Southern Seaplane in Belle Chasse, La., called the local Coast Guard-Federal Aviation Administration command center for permission to fly over restricted airspace in Gulf of Mexico, they made what they thought was a simple and routine request. A pilot wanted to take a photographer from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans to snap photographs of the oil slicks blackening the water. Journalists struggling to document the impact of the oil rig explosion have repeatedly found themselves turned away from public areas affected by the spill, and not only by BP and its contractors, but by local law enforcement, the Coast Guard and government officials.
To some critics of the response effort by BP and the government, instances of news media being kept at bay are just another example of a broader problem of officials’ filtering what images of the spill the public sees.
Scientists, too, have complained about the trickle of information that has emerged from BP and government sources. Three weeks passed, for instance, from the time the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20 and the first images of oil gushing from an underwater pipe were released by BP. But the incident with Southern Seaplane is not the only example of journalists being told they cannot go somewhere simply because they are journalists. CBS News reported last month that one of its news crews was threatened with arrest for trying to film a public beach where oil had washed ashore. The Coast Guard said later that it was disappointed to learn of the incident.
Only in the Obama administration would a public official sanctioned for a form of malfeasance be honored as a speaker by the same organization that sanctioned him. It helps, of course, when he is a self-proclaimed Friend of the First Couple. It also doesn't hurt that the administration already found it politically convenient to fire the inspector general, Gerald Walpin, who blew the whistle on his misdeeds.
Still, the public should consider it a brazen affront for this administration to feature Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson as a key speaker at a major conference sponsored later this month by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). Common decency should disallow such a scandal.
On the grounds of image alone, Mr. Johnson sends the wrong message, considering that four different young women or teenage girls have accused Mr. Johnson of inappropriate sexual conduct. Three of the four were actually affiliated with the very institution, the St. Hope Academy, that was sponsored through CNCS grants. (CNCS is the parent body for the AmeriCorps national "volunteering" program.) In none of the cases were charges ever pressed, but one of the students said she was offered $1,000 per month in exchange for her silence, and two staff members resigned from St. Hope to protest how the academy tried (in the words of one of them) to "intimidate the student*." And in the first instance, in the summer of 1995, Mr. Johnson at one point agreed to pay the girl $230,000, according to the Sacramento Bee, after protesting that he "didn't recall us being a hundred percent naked" during the incident.
The sordid sex allegations weren't even what caused Mr. Johnson, a former National Basketball Association star, to be sanctioned. Instead, he was found responsible for multiple financial misdeeds and ordered personally to help St. Hope repay nearly half a million dollars to AmeriCorps. Specifically, investigators found that Mr. Johnson and St. Hope misused federal funds to assign political projects to AmeriCorps workers; to have them run personal errands for Mr. Johnson, wash his car and drive him to personal appointments; to pay staff salaries at St. Hope from funds meant for AmeriCorps grantees; and several other similar improprieties.
Despite such flagrant abuse of CNCS programs, CNCS has invited this man to be a featured speaker at the June 28-30 National Conference on Volunteering and Service, which is advertised as "the world's largest gathering of volunteer and service leaders from the nonprofit, government and corporate sectors." Such an over-the-top level of inappropriateness is flabbergasting even for the O Force.
In 2004, St. HOPE received a three-year grant from AmeriCorps totaling $847,673. The money was to help St. HOPE “revitalize inner-city communities through public education, civic leadership, economic development and the arts,” according to the group’s mission statement. But in 2008, the inspector general of AmeriCorps found that Johnson used large portions of the grant for, among other things, “driving [Johnson] to personal appointments, washing his car, and running personal errands.”
After an investigation by federal prosecutors, Johnson and St. HOPE were required to repay AmeriCorps $423,836 — half the original grant. At the same time, officials at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), which oversees AmeriCorps, banned Johnson from receiving any more federal dollars. Johnson was not charged with any crime, and the funding ban was lifted in 2009 when Sacramento officials expressed the fear that it might prevent the city from receiving millions of dollars in federal stimulus money. But the fact remains: Kevin Johnson misused hundreds of thousands of dollars in AmeriCorps money.
A spokeswoman for the Corporation for National and Community Service says CNCS had nothing to do with selecting Johnson and that the Sacramento mayor will appear at the request of a group called “Cities of Service.” “He was invited by Cities of Service, which is working to harness the power of volunteers in cities across America,” says CNCS press secretary Ashley Etienne. “He’s participating in a panel organized by Cities of Service, and we were not involved.”
“Cities of Service” is an organization founded last year by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as part of President Obama’s “United We Serve” initiative. According to the White House website, Cities of Service was created “in partnership with CNCS.”
“This is a CNCS/AmeriCorps conference,” he says. “I can’t believe that CNCS doesn’t control who is invited and who speaks at a CNCS national conference.” And even if Bloomberg’s group wanted to include Johnson, Walpin says, what was CNCS’s reaction? “Assuming that the invitation was tendered to Johnson by Cities of Service (hard to believe without CNCS approval), when CNCS learned about it, what did it do?” asks Walpin. “Did it, as it clearly could, being the host, tell the supposed independent inviting entity that CNCS would not allow it?”
Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that new U.N. sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme do not oblige Moscow to scrap a controversial deal to deliver surface-to-air missiles to Iran.
Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko spoke after the Interfax news agency cited a Russian arms industry source as saying Russia would freeze its unfulfilled contract to sell S-300 missiles to Iran because of the sactions.
Senior Tories today warned Barack Obama to back off as billions of pounds were wiped off BP shares in the row over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Mayor Boris Johnson demanded an end to “anti-British rhetoric, buck-passing and name-calling” after days of scathing criticism directed at BP by the President and other US politicians.
Former Conservative Party chairman Lord Tebbit branded Mr Obama's conduct “despicable”. And with the dispute threatening to escalate into a diplomatic row, Mr Johnson also appeared to suggest that David Cameron should step in to defend BP.
He spoke as the US onslaught against the firm became a “matter of national concern” — especially given its importance to British pensions, which lost much of their value today as BP shares plunged to a 13-year low.
Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today whether he thought the Prime Minister should intervene, Mr Johnson said: “Well I do think there is something slightly worrying about the anti-British rhetoric that seems to be permeating from America. Yes I suppose that's right.
I would like to see cool heads and a bit of calm reflection about how to deal with this problem rather than endlessly buck-passing and name-calling.
“When you consider the huge exposure of British pension funds to BP and its share price, and the vital importance of BP, then I do think it starts to become a matter of national concern if a great UK company is being continually beaten up on the international airwaves.
“OK, it has presided over a catastrophic accident which it is trying to remedy but ultimately it cannot be faulted because it was an accident that took place. BP, I think is paying a very, very heavy price indeed.”
Five weeks ago Escambia County officials requested permission from the Mobile Unified Command Center to use a sand skimmer, a device pulled behind a tractor that removes oil and tar from the top three feet of sand, to help clean up Pensacola’s beaches. County officials still haven’t heard anything back. Santa Rosa Island Authority Buck Lee told The Daily Caller why: “Escambia County sends a request to the Mobile, Ala., Unified Command Center. Then, it’s reviewed by BP, the federal government, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard. If they don’t like it, they don’t tell us anything.”
Keeping local governments in the dark is just one reason why the frustration of residents in the Gulf is so palpable. State and local governments know their geography, people, economic impacts and needs far better than the federal government does. Contrary to popular belief, the federal government has actually been playing a bigger and bigger role in running natural disaster responses. And as Heritage fellow Matt Mayer has documented, the results have gotten worse, not better.
And when the federal government isn’t sapping the initiative and expertise of local governments, it has been preventing foreign governments from helping. Just three days after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, the Dutch government offered to provide ships outfitted with oil-skimming booms and proposed a plan for building sand barriers to protect sensitive marshlands. LA Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) supported the idea, but the Obama administration refused the help. All told, thirteen countries have offered to help us clean up the Gulf, and the Obama administration has turned them all down.
According to one Dutch newspaper, European firms could complete the oil spill clean up by themselves in just four months, and three months if they work with the United States, which is much faster than the estimated nine months it would take the Obama administration to go it alone. The major stumbling block is a protectionist piece of legislation called the Jones Act which requires that all goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried in U.S.-flag ships, constructed in the United States, owned by U.S. citizens, and crewed by U.S. citizens. But in an emergency this law can be temporarily waived as DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff did after Katrina. Each day our European allies are prevented from helping us speed up the clean up is another day that Gulf fishing and tourism jobs die.
And then there are the energy jobs that the Obama administration is killing with its over-expansive ban on offshore energy development. Experts–who were consulted by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar before he issued his May 27 report recommending a six-month moratorium on all ongoing drilling in waters deeper than 500 feet–now tell The New Orleans Times-Picayune that they only supported a six-month ban on new drilling in waters deeper than 1,000 feet. A letter from the experts protesting the use of their names to support a ban they actually oppose reads: “A blanket moratorium is not the answer. It will not measurably reduce risk further and it will have a lasting impact on the nation’s economy which may be greater than that of the oil spill. We do not believe punishing the innocent is the right thing to do.”
And just how many innocent jobs is Obama’s oil ban killing? An earlier Times-Picayune report estimated the moratorium could cost Louisiana $2.97 billion in revenue and 7,590 jobs directly related to the oil industry. President Obama still has the power to save many of the jobs. He could reverse his decision and lift the ban. But political considerations make that impossible. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the President was the largest single recipient of campaign contributions from BP and its employees over the past twenty years. Therefore, the President has to put distance between himself and BP, which may be why President Obama has not spoken with BP CEO Tony Hayward one single time since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April. The problem is, vilifying BP’s corporate leadership does nothing to stop the spill or quicken the cleanup.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) brought along a statement signed by 100 economists underscoring GOP policies to a meeting with President Barack Obama Thursday morning.
Boehner presented Obama with a letter from himself, accompanied by a statement signed by more than 100 American economists calling for immediate action to rein in federal spending to boost the economy and create more private sector jobs.
In his letter to the president, Boehner said that “failing to pass such legislation — and failing to pass a budget in the House this year for first time since at least 1974 — means squandering an opportunity to begin to provide the discipline economists say is needed.”
The top House Republican joined with his Senate counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), as well as Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to discuss coming legislative priorities with the preisdent.
Boehner noted that though he and Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) have written to the president “on several occasions this year” to request House votes on the administration's spending cut legislation, noting that none of those proposals have passed.
The statement worried that too many of the jobs created in May were temporary government jobs, calling these figures “a source of disappointment and alarm.”
The economists claimed to be “disturbed” by reports that for “the first time in modern history” the U.S. House of Representatives could fail to propose a budget this year, mirroring a GOP talking point in recent weeks as well.
Today I gave the President a statement signed by more than 100 economists urging both parties to cut spending now to boost private sector job creation. The need is clear. The May jobs report showed only 41,000 new private-sector jobs. The national debt is now more than $13 trillion. Congress’ failure to pass a budget means we’re missing an opportunity to cut spending and provide the fiscal discipline that economists say is needed to create jobs and grow the economy.
"If the president won’t push his own party in Congress to produce a budget and cut spending, then who’s in charge? This is a failure of leadership – the kind of leadership the president promised to provide. Every American family knows that in tough times, a budget is even more important — not less important. It’s time for the President to lead and the Congress to stop the out-of-control spending right now.”
Dear Mr. President,
Enclosed please find a statement signed by more than 100 American economists urging that bipartisan action be taken immediately to rein in federal spending in order to boost our economy and create much-needed private-sector jobs.
Republicans have offered and continue to offer ideas on ways to immediately eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars in unnecessary spending by the federal government. In addition, Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) and I have written to you on several occasions recently to say we stand ready to work with you in a good faith manner to force immediate votes in the House on spending cut legislation you send to Congress using the rescissions authority you already have as president. But to date, such legislation has been neither passed by the Democratic leadership nor offered by the administration.
Failing to pass such legislation – and failing to pass a budget in the House this year for first time since at least 1974 – means squandering an opportunity to begin to provide the discipline economists say is needed.
Republicans stand ready to work with you to take immediate action to rein in federal spending so we can begin to boost private sector job creation and end the legacy of debt being passed on to our children and grandchildren.
Respectfully,
John Boehner (R-OH)
House Republican Leader
June 10, 2010
ECONOMISTS TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: REIN IN SPENDING NOW TO CREATE AMERICAN JOBS
The jobs report released last Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor was a source of disappointment and alarm. Of the 431,000 new jobs in May, 95% were temporary government jobs created by the Census Bureau. Only 41,000 private-sector jobs were generated, and the civilian labor force shrank by 322,000. In addition, 46% of those out of work have been jobless for six months or longer – the first time in history that such a dire statistic has been recorded for the American economy. Efforts to spark private-sector job creation through government ‘stimulus’ spending have been unsuccessful. Small businesses face an array of new challenges imposed on them by the federal government, including the threat of tax hikes and the newly-enacted health law, which will discourage hiring, increase the deficit, and raise health care costs, according to the chief actuary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
As economists deeply concerned about our nation's future, we urge a change in direction. To support real economic growth and provide the spark needed to support creation of private-sector jobs, immediate action is needed to rein in federal spending, prevent job-killing tax hikes through the expiration of current tax rates, and reverse the harmful effects of the health care law on small businesses, the engine of job creation in our economy.
We are disturbed by reports that rather than taking such action, Congress will not even propose a budget this year – the first time in modern history that the U.S. House of Representatives has failed to even pass a budget. Such a failure will mark a massive missed opportunity to help our economy grow and create private-sector jobs. Failing to restrict spending growth will further balloon the national debt, impede economic growth, and threaten our nation's long-term economic health.
This issue cannot simply be deferred to a presidential commission. As last week's jobs report illustrates, action is needed now to begin to slow government spending and support the creation of new private-sector jobs. For the sake of millions of Americans who remain out of work – and future generations of Americans, who will carry the debt burden we are accumulating today – we respectfully urge that the leaders of both parties take action immediately to eliminate unnecessary federal spending, prevent tax hikes, stop regulatory threats to job creation, and enact reforms to put our nation back on a true path to prosperity.
President Obama is caught in the wickedest of political binds: the hypocrisy trap.
Obama says he's sick and tired of the Washington blame game, but still can't resist doling out piles of blame himself.
His compulsive, reflexive finger-pointing at Republicans, George W. Bush and vague villains on the right is not only unbecoming, it also reinforces the gathering public verdict that Obama is a weakling.
Victims do not make good leaders.
In one day in Kalamazoo, Mich., he managed to preach responsibility and try to avoid it.
In a speech to high schoolers he said: "Don't make excuses. Take responsibility not just for your successes. Take responsibility where you fall short as well."
While still in Kalamazoo, Obama sat down with NBC's Matt Lauer for the journalistic equivalent of heavy petting and blamed everybody but himself.
The interview is already famous for Obama's line about relying on experts to tell him whose "ass to kick." The line is funny because what was supposed to be proof of his red-blooded American anger came off as clueless. What kind of leader needs advice on ass kicking?
But it was also notable that Obama declined to take any responsibility whatsoever for the disaster or the damage. He abandoned even his partial blame-taking lines from the May 28 press conference about failing to understand the depth of the problems at the Minerals Management Service.
The message in Kalamazoo: Do as I say, not as I do.
That tripped America's hair-trigger hypocrisy alarm.
Bloodthirsty reporters and cynical citizens roar their approval when family-values Republicans get caught trysting with their aides or Democrats who rail against the evils of Wall Street and Big Oil rake in campaign contributions from Goldman Sachs and BP.
Until now, Obama has avoided the hypocrisy trap by doing little and talking carefully. Most of what he's said contains more rhetorical escape hatches than a magician's box.
The president is facing frustrated liberals who see George W. Bush's wars still being fought, Gitmo open for business and Wall Street getting off the hook.
Environmentalists fume that he authorized more offshore drilling without checking to see if federal regulators were doing their jobs.
Fiscal conservatives who divined a streak of moderation in Obama's rhetoric feel like fools after watching him take a $9 trillion detour on his way to fiscal responsibility.
Pragmatists have turned their backs on the president after finding that the last, best argument that Democrats made in 2008 -- Obama's competency under pressure -- was actually decision-making paralysis masquerading as coolness.
Polls show that Americans have noticed. While his overall approval ratings have held during the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, we've seen a telling drop in the number of Americans who think Obama relates to them and their concerns.
Obama's preacher's cadence and promise of a better tomorrow now reinforces his image as a talker and not a doer.
