From Obama's Change.gov website:
Yesterday we learned that our economy has lost 2 million jobs since the recession began 11 months ago.
That's why, in today's weekly address, President-elect Barack Obama explains the key parts of his Economic Recovery Plan -- which will save or create 2.5 million jobs in the next two years.
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Obama's 27-year-old speechwriter offers apology to Hillary for facebook photo.
Rawstory:
President-elect Barack Obama's wunderkind speechwriter, 27-year-old Jon Favreau, has some apologizing to do.
For approximately two hours on Dec. 4, a photo of him groping a cardboard cut-out of Sen. Hillary Clinton -- Obama's chief rival for the Democratic nomination and his pick for secretary of state -- as another Obama staffer holds a beer to her lips, sat on his facebook page. Favreau quickly removed the image, along with all but one of his facebook photos.
According to the Washington Post, he has "reached out to Senator Clinton to offer an apology."
"Question No. 58 in the transition team vetting document for the Obama White House asks that applicants: 'Please provide the URL address of any websites that feature you in either a personal or professional capacity (e.g. Facebook, My Space, etc.)'," states the Post.
"Question No. 63 asks that applicants 'please provide any other information ... that could ... be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the President-Elect.'
"For a while there this afternoon, President-elect Barack Obama's immensely talented chief speechwriter, 27-year-old Jon Favreau, might have been pondering how to address that question."
Clinton adviser Philippe Reines, in a less-than-subtle jab, told the Washington Post in an e-mail, "Senator Clinton is pleased to learn of Jon's obvious interest in the State Department, and is currently reviewing his application."
President-elect Barack Obama's wunderkind speechwriter, 27-year-old Jon Favreau, has some apologizing to do.
For approximately two hours on Dec. 4, a photo of him groping a cardboard cut-out of Sen. Hillary Clinton -- Obama's chief rival for the Democratic nomination and his pick for secretary of state -- as another Obama staffer holds a beer to her lips, sat on his facebook page. Favreau quickly removed the image, along with all but one of his facebook photos.
According to the Washington Post, he has "reached out to Senator Clinton to offer an apology."
"Question No. 58 in the transition team vetting document for the Obama White House asks that applicants: 'Please provide the URL address of any websites that feature you in either a personal or professional capacity (e.g. Facebook, My Space, etc.)'," states the Post.
"Question No. 63 asks that applicants 'please provide any other information ... that could ... be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the President-Elect.'
"For a while there this afternoon, President-elect Barack Obama's immensely talented chief speechwriter, 27-year-old Jon Favreau, might have been pondering how to address that question."
Clinton adviser Philippe Reines, in a less-than-subtle jab, told the Washington Post in an e-mail, "Senator Clinton is pleased to learn of Jon's obvious interest in the State Department, and is currently reviewing his application."
Another failed bank; #23
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Regulators on Friday shut down First Georgia Community Bank, the 23rd U.S. bank failure this year.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of the bank, located in Jackson, Ga. It had $237.5 million in assets and $197.4 million in deposits as of Nov. 7.
The FDIC said all the failed bank's deposits will be assumed by United Bank of Zebulon, Ga. Its four branches will reopen Saturday as offices of United Bank. United Bank also will buy about $60.6 million of First Georgia Community Bank's assets; the FDIC will retain the rest for eventual sale.
Read on.
Bush gives Santa Claus a fist-bump
Is January 20th here yet?
Rawstory:
Perhaps taking a cue from his successor, President Bush fist-bumped with Santa during the annual lighting ceremony at the White House on Thursday.
Attending the event for the final time as president, Bush sang along with Santa Claus and thousands of guests as he switched on the lights, The Daily Mail reported.
The 43rd president reminded attendees of U.S. troops fighting in Iraq."Over the past eight years, my greatest honor as president has been serving as commander in chief of the finest military ever known," Bush said.
The fist bump entered campaign lore when President-elect Barack Obama made the gesture with his wife Michelle Obama at the Democratic National Convention.
It was both criticized and elevated by the media.
The Washington Post called it "the fist bump heard 'round the world," while Fox News labeled it a "terrorist" gesture.
Palin pregger-gate
Andrew Sullivan is still on the Palin alert of whether Trig is her son. Here is the latest:
As Dish readers know, there are only three public photographs that I could find of Sarah Palin pregnant with Trig (the McCain campaign insisted there were "loads" and then was forced to retract). But we now have another. The date of this photograph, which turned up on a Flickr account, has been clearly established as March 26, 2008:
As Dish readers know, there are only three public photographs that I could find of Sarah Palin pregnant with Trig (the McCain campaign insisted there were "loads" and then was forced to retract). But we now have another. The date of this photograph, which turned up on a Flickr account, has been clearly established as March 26, 2008:
That's barely three weeks before she gave birth to Trig, a full-term, 6 pound baby. It's also around a week before video footage of Palin, captured here. Since Palin refused throughout the campaign to provide any medical records (although, in classic Palin style, says she has), we only have three photographs of her pregnant and one doctor's letter, released hours before the polls opened November 3. If you're interested in why any sane person would ever doubt a mother's announcement of her own pregnancy, read this.
Maybe this photo has been photo-shopped. Maybe Palin had an anomalous pregnancy that showed far, far less than her previous ones, one that went from close to nothing to a serious bump in two weeks. Maybe the angle in the photo is misleading, and leaning toward us her pregnancy is concealed. Maybe her fifth labor really did take 26 hours combined via a speaking engagement (as amniotic fluid was leaking) and an 11 hour airplane flight (when a birth could have begun at any moment at extreme risk to the child), and maybe the bizarre and, to my mind, incredible stories she has told about the pregnancy and labor are true (there is still a chance they are). But if all these things are true, the Palin camp has had months to provide what would be instantly available records to dismiss all and every "insane" blog speculation about this. And yet none came - on or off the record.
I begged the McCain campaign by private email and in a private meeting to give me something - anything - to kill the story off. I promised to run any evidence that would blow this out of the water. That offer still stands. Please make me look like an idiot for asking these questions. But they didn't offer a thing, asserting that even asking the question was an outrageous reputation-destroying offense. Maybe Michelle Malkin is right that this is truther, tin-foil hat territory. But Malkin's only substantive point rebutting the photographic evidence is:
We’re all obstetricians now!
Actually, the Dish went out and interviewed eight of the leading obstetricians in the country and laid out all the facts of the case and asked the experts for their take. While none would say that this pregnancy could not have happened, and none would comment on a case they hadn't examined personally, all of them said it was one of the strangest and unlikeliest series of events they had ever heard of and found Palin's decision to forgo medical help for more than a day after her water broke and risk the life of her unborn child on a long airplane trip to be reckless beyond measure.
Read on.
Read on.
If Palin's daughter, Bristol, doesn't give birth this month, then the question will be answered.
SPB News for Saturday.
New record high of foreclosed homesMillion+ homes affected; 2.9% rate up dramatically from same time last year.
Palin Won't Make Trooper-Gate Testimony Public
Paul Rieckhoff: Military Divorce Numbers On The Rise
India, Russia ink nuclear deal
Fidel Castro: We'd talk with Obama
Sweden announces $1 billion stimulus
WaPo: Obama Team To Join Treasury In Bailout Talks
Henry Paulson's Treasury reached out to the Obama transition team to attend a meeting to convince lawmakers to release the second $350 billion installment of the bailout, and the Obama team agreed -- but still wants to know how the Treasury would spend the money, the WaPo reports.
Overtime
House to go back to five day work week for 2009.
Ken Blackwell Tosses Hat Into Race For RNC Chair
Two Jurors Lied on Questionnaires, Stevens’ Lawyers Say - Two jurors who were part of the panel that found Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens guilty in October made false statements of their own on jury questionnaires, according...
Justices Take Case on President's Power to Detain --Man arrested December 2001 in Peoria, Ill., has been held without charge in isolation for more than five years The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide the most fundamental question yet concerning executive power in the age of terror: Can the president order the indefinite military detention of people living in the United States? The case concerns Ali al-Marri, the only person on the American mainland being held as an enemy combatant, at the Navy brig in Charleston, S.C. Mr. Marri, a citizen of Qatar, was legally in the United States when he was arrested in December 2001 in Peoria, Ill., where he was living with his family and studying computer science at Bradley University.
Interior Dept. Changes Rule to Remove Congress Veto In another regulatory action in the waning days of the Bush dictatorship, the Interior Department on Thursday unveiled a new rule that challenges Congress’s authority to prevent mining planned on public lands. Congress has emergency power to stop mineral development, and has used it six times in the last 32 years. The most recent was in June, when it put a three-year moratorium on uranium mining on one million acres near the Grand Canyon. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has ignored that Congressional directive, saying it was procedurally flawed. The revision of the rule eliminates all references to Congressional authority.
More polar bears go hungry in the spring Climate change is already starting to bite in the Arctic. Rising temperatures and melting ice shelves are leaving polar bears hungry, a new study shows. Filling up during the spring months is important for polar bears, helping them to survive the leaner summer months, when the sea ice has retreated and seals are harder to catch. However, new research shows that polar bears are now struggling to find enough food during the spring.
A New Attorney Scandal? Bush-Appointed U.S. Attorney Won't Vacate Office Under Obama — Mary Beth Buchanan was appointed by President Bush to serve as U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh in Sept. 2001. Buchanan has held several significant posts within the Bush/Ashcroft/Gonzales Justice Department …
Caroline Kennedy interested in NY Senate seat — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - Caroline Kennedy has spoken to New York's governor about the Senate seat that will come open when Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes secretary of state …
Ted Kennedy gives up his seat on Senate Judiciary Committee — Sen. Ted Kennedy announced that he is stepping down from his position on the Judiciary Committee, according to a statement released from his office, reports Sarah Abruzzese. — “As Chairman of the Senate Health, Education …
Waxman power!
Committee Report Criticizes President’s Assertion of Executive Privilege
The Committee will next Tuesday consider a report supported by Chairman Henry A. Waxman and former Ranking Member Tom Davis finding that President Bush made a “legally unprecedented and an inappropriate use of executive privilege” when he directed Attorney General Mukasey to withhold Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald’s interview of Vice President Cheney from the Committee.
Documents and Links
Draft Report: President Bush's Assertion of Executive Privilege Regarding Attorney General Mukasey
Appendix A to Report on President Bush's Assertion of Executive Privilege Regarding Attorney General Mukasey
Appendix B to Report on President Bush's Assertion of Executive Privilege Regarding Attorney General Mukasey
Draft Report: Additional Views of Chairman Waxman on President Bush's Use of Executive Privilege
DA Guerra could seek re-indictments.
By Emma Perez-Treviño / Brownsville Herald
State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr.'s attorney hopes to preempt any possibility that District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra would attempt to re-indict the senator.
Presiding District Judge J. Manuel Bañales on Monday dismissed the indictment against Lucio and other high-level public officials, including Vice-President Dick Cheney and former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, on procedural grounds and not on their merits or lack thereof. However, Guerra could seek their re-indictment. A Willacy County grand jury is slated to meet Dec. 12.
"I will not comment on what the grand jury might or might not do. The grand jury is independent," Guerra said.
Lucio's attorney Michael R. Cowen plans to beat Guerra with case law established through Guerra's battles last year with former Willacy County special prosecutor Gustavo Garza.
The 13th Court of Appeals last year took action that resulted in the disqualification of Garza from prosecuting Guerra for alleged voter fraud in an election between Garza and Guerra due to the potential conflict that arose, Cowen said.
"Mr. Guerra has a personal vendetta against Senator Lucio and combined with ethical violations, this shows that he is legally and ethically disqualified," Cowen said, maintaining that the DA's animosity toward the senator rises to a potential conflict.
Cowen said Bañales has slated a hearing for 10 a.m. Dec. 10 at the Willacy County Courthouse in Raymondville to determine if Guerra should be disqualified from the Lucio case.
"They are citing a case that does not apply," Guerra said, contending that the circumstances are not similar. "People (defense attorneys) are making up laws as they go along." Guerra said.
The grand jury indicted Lucio Nov. 17 on six Class A misdemeanor counts of receiving fees from contractors for services that he would not have been requested to provide if he were not a senator.
Guerra said Tuesday that he would not be appealing his removal from prosecuting the cases of state District Judge Migdalia Lopez, District Judge Janet L. Leal, former special prosecutors Garza and Mervyn Mosbacker Jr. and Willacy County District Clerk Gilbert Lozano.
"I'm not interested in those five," Guerra said.
On a side note: Guerra said he could also get an outside attorney to present the case to the Grand Jury.
State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr.'s attorney hopes to preempt any possibility that District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra would attempt to re-indict the senator.
Presiding District Judge J. Manuel Bañales on Monday dismissed the indictment against Lucio and other high-level public officials, including Vice-President Dick Cheney and former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, on procedural grounds and not on their merits or lack thereof. However, Guerra could seek their re-indictment. A Willacy County grand jury is slated to meet Dec. 12.
"I will not comment on what the grand jury might or might not do. The grand jury is independent," Guerra said.
Lucio's attorney Michael R. Cowen plans to beat Guerra with case law established through Guerra's battles last year with former Willacy County special prosecutor Gustavo Garza.
The 13th Court of Appeals last year took action that resulted in the disqualification of Garza from prosecuting Guerra for alleged voter fraud in an election between Garza and Guerra due to the potential conflict that arose, Cowen said.
"Mr. Guerra has a personal vendetta against Senator Lucio and combined with ethical violations, this shows that he is legally and ethically disqualified," Cowen said, maintaining that the DA's animosity toward the senator rises to a potential conflict.
Cowen said Bañales has slated a hearing for 10 a.m. Dec. 10 at the Willacy County Courthouse in Raymondville to determine if Guerra should be disqualified from the Lucio case.
"They are citing a case that does not apply," Guerra said, contending that the circumstances are not similar. "People (defense attorneys) are making up laws as they go along." Guerra said.
The grand jury indicted Lucio Nov. 17 on six Class A misdemeanor counts of receiving fees from contractors for services that he would not have been requested to provide if he were not a senator.
Guerra said Tuesday that he would not be appealing his removal from prosecuting the cases of state District Judge Migdalia Lopez, District Judge Janet L. Leal, former special prosecutors Garza and Mervyn Mosbacker Jr. and Willacy County District Clerk Gilbert Lozano.
"I'm not interested in those five," Guerra said.
On a side note: Guerra said he could also get an outside attorney to present the case to the Grand Jury.
Blowhard News for Saturday
Cheney Personally Thanked Chris Wallace For Defending Bush; Promises Him ‘Special Exit Interview’ As Reward — Last Monday, at a screening of Ron Howard's new film “Frost/Nixon,” Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace vociferously defended President Bush against criticism by Howard that Bush …
Gingrich Says Israel Should Set A Deadline For Attack On Iran
Thursday night on Fox News, co-host Alan Colmes asked former House Speaker Newt Gingrich about a Jerusalem Post article yesterday reporting that Israel is preparing options to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. At first Gingrich gave a measured response, saying “I don’t think we’re prepared to sanction an attack on Iran.” Yet just moments later, Gingrich said the Israelis should set a deadline for an attack on Iran:
Thursday night on Fox News, co-host Alan Colmes asked former House Speaker Newt Gingrich about a Jerusalem Post article yesterday reporting that Israel is preparing options to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. At first Gingrich gave a measured response, saying “I don’t think we’re prepared to sanction an attack on Iran.” Yet just moments later, Gingrich said the Israelis should set a deadline for an attack on Iran:
GINGRICH: I think that the Israeli government probably would be best served if they created a deadline of sometime next fall and basically told the new American president that they’re willing to do anything they can to help him achieve a non-nuclear Iran prior, say, to September or October, but that there is a point at which they will not run the risk.
Naturally, Sean Hannity concurred. “I agree with that wholeheartedly, Mr. Speaker.”
O’Reilly: Dangerous ‘Far-Left Loons’ Nixed Torture
From Truthdig.com
The CIA would still be able to keep America safe by using harsh interrogation methods (read: torture) on terrorists if it weren’t for those despicable, meddling “far-left loons”—according to Bill O’Reilly, Fox News pundit and well-known international terrorism expert.
From Truthdig.com
The CIA would still be able to keep America safe by using harsh interrogation methods (read: torture) on terrorists if it weren’t for those despicable, meddling “far-left loons”—according to Bill O’Reilly, Fox News pundit and well-known international terrorism expert.
Is Norm Coleman under federal investigation?
Thinkprogress:
Last month, Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) came under fire in a lawsuit alleging that a donor, Nasser Kazeminy, used an insurance company that employs Coleman’s wife to pass money to Coleman illegally. After a watchdog group requested a federal investigation, Coleman’s office gave an “unequivocal ‘no‘” on whether he was being investigated. But TPM notes that now, Coleman’s office curiously won’t say whether he is under investigation:
Both the FBI and the ethics committee have declined to provide any information about whether they’re looking into Coleman. So we’ve been calling Coleman’s office to ask whether he’s heard from investigators. In fact, in the last few weeks, we’ve left at least ten detailed voicemail messages for Leroy Coleman, the senator’s Washington press secretary (and no relation) asking exactly that question. And we’ve received no response whatsoever.
Last month, Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) came under fire in a lawsuit alleging that a donor, Nasser Kazeminy, used an insurance company that employs Coleman’s wife to pass money to Coleman illegally. After a watchdog group requested a federal investigation, Coleman’s office gave an “unequivocal ‘no‘” on whether he was being investigated. But TPM notes that now, Coleman’s office curiously won’t say whether he is under investigation:
Both the FBI and the ethics committee have declined to provide any information about whether they’re looking into Coleman. So we’ve been calling Coleman’s office to ask whether he’s heard from investigators. In fact, in the last few weeks, we’ve left at least ten detailed voicemail messages for Leroy Coleman, the senator’s Washington press secretary (and no relation) asking exactly that question. And we’ve received no response whatsoever.
White House altered, deleted press releases on 'coalition of the willing'
Rawstory:
The White House altered documents regarding the nations involved in the so-called "Coalition of the Willing" that aided the US invasion of Iraq.
A University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign political science professor says he found that the White House had modified elements of its website dealing with the coalition and in some cases deleted key documents in the public record.
At the onset of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the White House released a list of the nations participating in the coalition, an important part of Bush Administration PR efforts, as the war was not UN-endorsed. Over a period of years, however, the original releases were modified to account for the diminishing number of nations.
Two releases were deleted from the White House website entirely, the professor says."I think that it raises the question of whether or not we can trust the government to maintain public records of things that were said or done that later prove embarrassing," Illinois political science professor Scott Althaus said.
Report: Feds secretly taped Blago
TPM:
Federal agents recently worked with one of Rod Blagojevich's closest former aides to secretly tape the Illinois governor as part of a wide-ranging probe into corruption in his administration, reports the Chicago Tribune.
Says the paper:
The cooperation of John Wyma, 42, one of the state's most influential lobbyists, is the most stunning evidence yet that Blagojevich's once-tight inner circle appears to be collapsing under the pressure of myriad pay-to-play inquiries.
Wyma has made frequent appearnaces in the scandal. Adds the Tribune:
Indeed, Wyma's and the Blagojeviches' relationship has always been both personal and professional. The governor routinely reported exchanging personal gifts and often appeared at Wyma-sponsored fundraisers where Wyma's clients hobnobbed with the governor before turning over checks for his campaign fund.
Federal agents recently worked with one of Rod Blagojevich's closest former aides to secretly tape the Illinois governor as part of a wide-ranging probe into corruption in his administration, reports the Chicago Tribune.
Says the paper:
The cooperation of John Wyma, 42, one of the state's most influential lobbyists, is the most stunning evidence yet that Blagojevich's once-tight inner circle appears to be collapsing under the pressure of myriad pay-to-play inquiries.
Wyma has made frequent appearnaces in the scandal. Adds the Tribune:
Indeed, Wyma's and the Blagojeviches' relationship has always been both personal and professional. The governor routinely reported exchanging personal gifts and often appeared at Wyma-sponsored fundraisers where Wyma's clients hobnobbed with the governor before turning over checks for his campaign fund.
Tiny crowd prays Supreme Court will invalidate Obama presidency
Rawstory:
A small but determined band of conservative protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court Friday morning to pray the justices would invalidate Barack Obama's election. The court was deciding whether it would hear oral arguments in Donofrio v. Wells, which argues that Obama's placement on the New Jersey presidential election ballot was invalid because he is not a natural born citizen.
The justices are expected to dismiss the case. Discussions with several of the 18 demonstrators who gathered despite freezing temperatures revealed disjointed, confusing and increasingly conspiratorial reasons for their presence. Several alleged varying degrees of a coverup to hide the circumstances surrounding Obama's birth; none were willing to accept the much simpler explanation that Obama was in fact a natural-born citizen eligible to be president.
If, as everyone expects, the Supreme Court decides not to hear the case challenging Obama's citizenship, it's unlikely this crowd will be satisfied. The citizenship skeptics may become the 9/11-was-an-inside-job crowd of the Obama era.
The similarities between the skepticism movements should hardly be surprising.
As conspiracy-theory chronicler David Weigle notes in Slate, the Philadelphia lawyer who filed the first lawsuit questioning Obama's citizenship previously went to court on behalf of 9/11 Truthers.The essence of the case being appealed to the Supreme Court, Donofrio v. Wells, is that Obama does not meet the constitution's requirement that the president be a natural-born citizen because his Kenyan father was a British Citizen when Obama was born in 1961. Plaintiffs argue that Obama would have had dual US and British citizen when he was born, making him ineligible.
A small but determined band of conservative protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court Friday morning to pray the justices would invalidate Barack Obama's election. The court was deciding whether it would hear oral arguments in Donofrio v. Wells, which argues that Obama's placement on the New Jersey presidential election ballot was invalid because he is not a natural born citizen.
The justices are expected to dismiss the case. Discussions with several of the 18 demonstrators who gathered despite freezing temperatures revealed disjointed, confusing and increasingly conspiratorial reasons for their presence. Several alleged varying degrees of a coverup to hide the circumstances surrounding Obama's birth; none were willing to accept the much simpler explanation that Obama was in fact a natural-born citizen eligible to be president.
If, as everyone expects, the Supreme Court decides not to hear the case challenging Obama's citizenship, it's unlikely this crowd will be satisfied. The citizenship skeptics may become the 9/11-was-an-inside-job crowd of the Obama era.
The similarities between the skepticism movements should hardly be surprising.
As conspiracy-theory chronicler David Weigle notes in Slate, the Philadelphia lawyer who filed the first lawsuit questioning Obama's citizenship previously went to court on behalf of 9/11 Truthers.The essence of the case being appealed to the Supreme Court, Donofrio v. Wells, is that Obama does not meet the constitution's requirement that the president be a natural-born citizen because his Kenyan father was a British Citizen when Obama was born in 1961. Plaintiffs argue that Obama would have had dual US and British citizen when he was born, making him ineligible.
McCain retaliates against Jackson Browne for lawsuit
Former US Republican presidential candidate John McCain has retaliated against Jackson Browne for filing suit against him for allegedly using his 1977 hit song 'Running On Empty' in his advertising campaign without his permission. McCain claims that the veteran rocker took legal action in a desperate attempt to boost his career, and has filed motions to throw out the suit and recover the legal fees associated with it, reports E! Online.
Read on.
Read on.
Palin’s health plan focuses on ‘outdoor activities’ and consumption of ‘wild game.’
Thinkprogress:
After inexplicably describing the September bailout of Wall Street as a package that would “help those who are concerned about health care reform,” Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) Thursday unveiled a patchwork of health care proposals to “improve Alaska’s health and education.” Palin’s initiatives include a greater emphasis on outdoor activity:
With amazing outdoor activities in fresh clean air and consumption of healthy clean protein in the form of wild game and Alaska’s sea food. We got berries, we’ve got Alaskan-grown produce and those things need to be promoted.
Biden taps progressive economist Jared Bernstein as top adviser
Thinkprogress:
Vice President-elect Joseph Biden has just announced that Jared Bernstein, Director of the Living Standards program at the Economic Policy Institute, will fill the new position of Chief Economist and Economic Policy Advisor to the Vice President. Bernstein is a renowned progressive economist, with expertise on the middle-class squeeze, income inequality and mobility, low-wage labor markets, and poverty. In May, Bernstein wrote on Huffington Post that it’s now time for progressives to govern after years of conservative failures:
Regarding the variables that matter most to working families, the neocon experiment was a particularly dramatic failure. Employment grew one third as fast as the average over the 2000s business cycle and the unemployment rate, though low on average, was higher at the end of the cycle than at the beginning.
Perhaps the most damning indictment is this: for the first time on record, going back to the mid-1940s, the income of the typical, middle-income family was slightly lower last year than at the prior peak in 2000 (see their figure A). […]
The defenders of the status quo will howl in protest: the Democrats blocked us, the terrorist attacks and the war changed everything, we must stay the course to victory! But such rhetoric should be dismissed as what it is: the last, desperate gasps of a dying movement.
They’ve had their turn and they’ve failed. It is our turn now.
Vice President-elect Joseph Biden has just announced that Jared Bernstein, Director of the Living Standards program at the Economic Policy Institute, will fill the new position of Chief Economist and Economic Policy Advisor to the Vice President. Bernstein is a renowned progressive economist, with expertise on the middle-class squeeze, income inequality and mobility, low-wage labor markets, and poverty. In May, Bernstein wrote on Huffington Post that it’s now time for progressives to govern after years of conservative failures:
Regarding the variables that matter most to working families, the neocon experiment was a particularly dramatic failure. Employment grew one third as fast as the average over the 2000s business cycle and the unemployment rate, though low on average, was higher at the end of the cycle than at the beginning.
Perhaps the most damning indictment is this: for the first time on record, going back to the mid-1940s, the income of the typical, middle-income family was slightly lower last year than at the prior peak in 2000 (see their figure A). […]
The defenders of the status quo will howl in protest: the Democrats blocked us, the terrorist attacks and the war changed everything, we must stay the course to victory! But such rhetoric should be dismissed as what it is: the last, desperate gasps of a dying movement.
They’ve had their turn and they’ve failed. It is our turn now.
Supreme Court agrees to hear case of only ‘enemy combatant’ held in America.
Thinkprogress:
The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a Qatari national who is the last person on the American mainland known to be held as an enemy combatant. By taking the case, the court will “decide whether the president may order that people picked up in the United States be detained indefinitely and without criminal charges.” The case will be “an early and high-stakes test for the Obama Administration” as “the case will not be argued before March, meaning that President-elect Barack Obama will be in the White House and decisions about al-Marri will be made by him.” Read more on the al-Marri case here.
The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a Qatari national who is the last person on the American mainland known to be held as an enemy combatant. By taking the case, the court will “decide whether the president may order that people picked up in the United States be detained indefinitely and without criminal charges.” The case will be “an early and high-stakes test for the Obama Administration” as “the case will not be argued before March, meaning that President-elect Barack Obama will be in the White House and decisions about al-Marri will be made by him.” Read more on the al-Marri case here.
Top Homeland Security official arrested for hiring illegals.
TPM:
A top homeland security official has been accused in federal court of hiring multiple illegal immigrants as cleaners for her home, reports the Associated Press.
Lorraine Henderson is the regional director of Homeland Security, Customs, and Border Protection. She is responsible for stopping illegal aliens from entering the U.S. through the port of Boston.
But, reports the AP:
[A]ccording to an affidavit, for several years Henderson employed a Brazilian housekeeper who was an illegal immigrant. She also allegedly hired two other illegal immigrants, even after fellow agents warned her it was against the law.
Henderson was arrested after one of the women wore a wire and recorded Henderson telling the woman to "be careful" because once you're deported, "you will never be back."
A top homeland security official has been accused in federal court of hiring multiple illegal immigrants as cleaners for her home, reports the Associated Press.
Lorraine Henderson is the regional director of Homeland Security, Customs, and Border Protection. She is responsible for stopping illegal aliens from entering the U.S. through the port of Boston.
But, reports the AP:
[A]ccording to an affidavit, for several years Henderson employed a Brazilian housekeeper who was an illegal immigrant. She also allegedly hired two other illegal immigrants, even after fellow agents warned her it was against the law.
Henderson was arrested after one of the women wore a wire and recorded Henderson telling the woman to "be careful" because once you're deported, "you will never be back."
Friday, December 05, 2008
Your Seat at the Table
From Obama's Change.gov website:In a memo released today, Obama-Biden Transition Project Co-chair John D. Podesta announced that all policy documents from official meetings with outside organizations will be publicly available for review and discussion on Change.gov.
This means we're inviting the American public to take a seat at the table and engage in a dialogue about these important issues and ideas -- at the same time members of our team review these documents themselves.
Director of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs Michael Strautmanis spoke with us and gave an overview of this unique program. Watch the video below:
Co-chair Podesta's memo to the Transition staff is a bold move towards opening the doors and ensuring access to government processes. Read the full memo here.
Talking face-to-face with advocates and experts is a vital part of the Transition. But in past transitions, meetings like these took place behind closed doors and lacked the public input and transparency we're working hard to provide.
Documents from meetings with these groups are available now. Check out our new Seat at the Table feature on Change.gov,
Besides Toys R Us, RNC spends $180K on Palin and family.
TPM:
Salons and spas, including $350 at Escape Skin Care and Day Spa in New York, were the latest unusual expenses to appear in the Republican National Committee’s coordinated expenses account with the McCain-Palin campaign, according to November reports released late Thursday. Overall, the RNC has reported spending a total of about $180,000 for clothes and various accessories for the family of vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, Federal Election Commission records show.
As Politico first reported in October, the bulk of that spending, about $150,000, was spent in early September on clothes for the Alaska governor and her family. The RNC’s post-Election Day report documented another $30,000 at outlets that read like a suburban shopping directory.
Dick’s Sporting Goods, The Limited, Foot Locker, Wal-Mart, Toys R Us and Victoria’s Secret are all listed in between the expected payments for media buys, direct mail and polling.
Read on.
Read on.
Gonzo's lawyer bails from civil case.
TPM:
It's looking more and more like prosecutor Nora Dannehy's investigation into the US Attorney firings has Alberto Gonzales in its crosshairs.
Earlier this week we reported that Dannehy had contacted the ex-AG in connection with the probe.
Now, we've been tipped to legal filings showing that Gonzales' lawyer, George Terwilliger Jr. of White & Case, is no longer representing Gonzo in a separate case, a civil suit alleging that law students were denied DOJ jobs thanks to illegal politicization at the department under Gonzales.
The filing, dated November 25, reads:
Please enter the withdrawal of George J. Terwilliger III as counsel in this case for Defendant Alberto R. Gonzales, pursuant to Local Civil Rule 83.6(b).
Beneath that, Gonzales has signed his name, giving his consent to the withdrawal.
The previous day, in a separate filing, Gonzales had officially introduced a new team of attorneys as replacements, it would appear, for Terwilliger.
Please enter the appearance of Vincent H. Cohen, Jr., Peter Taylor, Lisa Fishberg and the law firm of Schertler & Onorato, LLP, on behalf of Defendant Alberto R. Gonzales.
It's looking more and more like prosecutor Nora Dannehy's investigation into the US Attorney firings has Alberto Gonzales in its crosshairs.
Earlier this week we reported that Dannehy had contacted the ex-AG in connection with the probe.
Now, we've been tipped to legal filings showing that Gonzales' lawyer, George Terwilliger Jr. of White & Case, is no longer representing Gonzo in a separate case, a civil suit alleging that law students were denied DOJ jobs thanks to illegal politicization at the department under Gonzales.
The filing, dated November 25, reads:
Please enter the withdrawal of George J. Terwilliger III as counsel in this case for Defendant Alberto R. Gonzales, pursuant to Local Civil Rule 83.6(b).
Beneath that, Gonzales has signed his name, giving his consent to the withdrawal.
The previous day, in a separate filing, Gonzales had officially introduced a new team of attorneys as replacements, it would appear, for Terwilliger.
Please enter the appearance of Vincent H. Cohen, Jr., Peter Taylor, Lisa Fishberg and the law firm of Schertler & Onorato, LLP, on behalf of Defendant Alberto R. Gonzales.
33 15 years for O.J.
Simpson sentenced
O.J. Simpson is sentenced to as much as 33 years in prison for robbery and other charges. » Details
33 years for armed robbery and no criminal record. Unbelievable. Certainly O.J. and his attorney are going to appeal this case. As much as the Goldman want some type of revenge on O.J. for the murders of O.J. ex-wife Nicole Brown and Goldman's son Ron Goldman, O.J. was found not guilty for those murders in a criminal court but found guilty in civil lawsuit. I could care less about this case but for many people who are O.J. fans and remembered O.J.'s criminal case many years, I guess this is news.
Update: Bail pending appeal denied. The sentence:
Count 1: 1 year county jail; Count 2: 12 - 48 mos, concurrent with count1; Count 3: 12 - 48 mos concurrent with counts 1 and 2; Count 4: 26 mos to 120 mos; Count 5: 15 years, parole eligibility after 5 yrs, consecutive 12 - 72 mos; Count 6: 15 years, parole eligibility after 5 yrs, consecutive 12 - 72 mos, concurrent with count 5; Count 7: 60 - 180 mos, consecutive 12-72 months; Count 8: 60 - 180 mos, consecutive 12-72 months, concurrent with count 7; Count 9: 18 - 72 mos, consecutive to ct 8; Count 10: 18 - 72 mos, consecutive to ct 9.
Update 2: Judge sentenced O.J. to 15 years.
O.J. Simpson is sentenced to as much as 33 years in prison for robbery and other charges. » Details
33 years for armed robbery and no criminal record. Unbelievable. Certainly O.J. and his attorney are going to appeal this case. As much as the Goldman want some type of revenge on O.J. for the murders of O.J. ex-wife Nicole Brown and Goldman's son Ron Goldman, O.J. was found not guilty for those murders in a criminal court but found guilty in civil lawsuit. I could care less about this case but for many people who are O.J. fans and remembered O.J.'s criminal case many years, I guess this is news.
Update: Bail pending appeal denied. The sentence:
Count 1: 1 year county jail; Count 2: 12 - 48 mos, concurrent with count1; Count 3: 12 - 48 mos concurrent with counts 1 and 2; Count 4: 26 mos to 120 mos; Count 5: 15 years, parole eligibility after 5 yrs, consecutive 12 - 72 mos; Count 6: 15 years, parole eligibility after 5 yrs, consecutive 12 - 72 mos, concurrent with count 5; Count 7: 60 - 180 mos, consecutive 12-72 months; Count 8: 60 - 180 mos, consecutive 12-72 months, concurrent with count 7; Count 9: 18 - 72 mos, consecutive to ct 8; Count 10: 18 - 72 mos, consecutive to ct 9.
Update 2: Judge sentenced O.J. to 15 years.
Maine's glass ceiling breaks a few more cracks.
AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine’s glass ceiling developed a few more cracks Wednesday as women were sworn in as Senate president and House speaker. And in one of its first acts, the newly seated Legislature elected Maine’s first female attorney general.
“It’s so good to see things moving ahead,” said Janet Mills, a Democrat who won bipartisan support to become the state’s 55th attorney general. “Just because there are a lot of firsts doesn’t mean there can’t be a lot of seconds, thirds and fourths along the way. Maine men and women are sharing responsibilities more than in many other states, most other states.”
Also Wednesday after the formal swearing-in of the Democratic-controlled Legislature, Sen. Elizabeth “Libby” Mitchell of Vassalboro was elected the chamber’s president and Rep. Hannah Pingree of North Haven was elected House speaker.
Both were elected unanimously after minority Republicans, in a gesture of bipartisanship at the start of what’s expected to be a difficult session, threw their support behind the two Democrats. It’s the first time both of Maine’s legislative chambers are being headed by women at the same time.
And Mitchell is the first woman to have served as presiding officer in both the
Maine House and Senate.
Read on.
“It’s so good to see things moving ahead,” said Janet Mills, a Democrat who won bipartisan support to become the state’s 55th attorney general. “Just because there are a lot of firsts doesn’t mean there can’t be a lot of seconds, thirds and fourths along the way. Maine men and women are sharing responsibilities more than in many other states, most other states.”
Also Wednesday after the formal swearing-in of the Democratic-controlled Legislature, Sen. Elizabeth “Libby” Mitchell of Vassalboro was elected the chamber’s president and Rep. Hannah Pingree of North Haven was elected House speaker.
Both were elected unanimously after minority Republicans, in a gesture of bipartisanship at the start of what’s expected to be a difficult session, threw their support behind the two Democrats. It’s the first time both of Maine’s legislative chambers are being headed by women at the same time.
And Mitchell is the first woman to have served as presiding officer in both the
Maine House and Senate.
Read on.
SPB News for Friday.
Suit contesting Barack Obama's citizenship heads to U.S. Supreme Court Friday — Justices will decide whether to consider the case — The U.S. Supreme Court will consider Friday whether to take up a lawsuit challenging President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship …
House and Senate leaders are taking up legislation to cut the pay of Sen. Hillary Clinton and other members of Congress nominated by President-elect Barack Obama. The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution prohibits new appointees from “serving in a confirmable position within the executive branch if that position has had its pay increased while they were serving in Congress.”
House and Senate leaders are taking up legislation to cut the pay of Sen. Hillary Clinton and other members of Congress nominated by President-elect Barack Obama. The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution prohibits new appointees from “serving in a confirmable position within the executive branch if that position has had its pay increased while they were serving in Congress.”
Chris Matthews is being advised to resign his post at MSNBC as soon as possible if he is serious about running for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. Despite the fact that Matthews is currently looking for a house in the state, some at NBC believe Matthews’s potential candidacy is simply a “negotiating ploy to jack up his contract.”
Ted Stevens' New Trial Motion to Land with a Thud
When government prosecutors get their copy of the motion for a new trial in Sen. Ted Stevens’ case this week, the printed document will be slightly heavier than first anticipated.
Bush’s new ‘ranch’: A $2 million estate in Dallas.
The Bush family has purchased a new home in Dallas, TX, a White House spokesperson said today. While they will still own and “spend time” at their ranch in Crawford, TX, the new home fulfills the First Lady’s reported desire to return to Dallas where the family lived prior to her husband’s election as the governor of Texas. The Dallas Morning News provides this photo of the $2 million property
The Bush family has purchased a new home in Dallas, TX, a White House spokesperson said today. While they will still own and “spend time” at their ranch in Crawford, TX, the new home fulfills the First Lady’s reported desire to return to Dallas where the family lived prior to her husband’s election as the governor of Texas. The Dallas Morning News provides this photo of the $2 million property
Tangled Web: Rangel son got campaign cash — Between 2004 and 2007, Rep. Charles Rangel steered nearly $80,000 in campaign cash to an Internet company run by his son - paying lavishly for a pair of political Web sites so poorly designed an expert estimated one should have cost no more than $100 to create.
Thomas Refers a Previously Rejected Case Challenging Obama Eligibility — In a highly unusual move, U.S. Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has asked his colleagues on the court to consider the request of an East Brunswick, N.J. attorney who has filed a lawsuit challenging …
Alito jabs at Biden over long-ago plagiarism — WASHINGTON (AP) — His Supreme Court confirmation hearings three years old, Justice Samuel Alito apparently still harbors some hard feelings toward one Democratic questioner at the time. — Alito made several joking references …
CNN Cuts Entire Science, Tech Team — Despite network's intention to launch wire service, compete with the AP — CNN, the Cable News Network, announced yesterday that it will cut its entire science, technology, and environment news staff, including Miles O'Brien, its chief technology …
Alito jabs at Biden over long-ago plagiarism — WASHINGTON (AP) — His Supreme Court confirmation hearings three years old, Justice Samuel Alito apparently still harbors some hard feelings toward one Democratic questioner at the time. — Alito made several joking references …
CNN Cuts Entire Science, Tech Team — Despite network's intention to launch wire service, compete with the AP — CNN, the Cable News Network, announced yesterday that it will cut its entire science, technology, and environment news staff, including Miles O'Brien, its chief technology …
Report: India Warned of Airborne Attacks --New Intelligence Puts Indian Airports On High Alert, Unexploded Grenade Found At Hospital Local media reports quoted the Indian air force chief Thursday as saying authorities had received warnings of a possible airborne terrorist attack. Major airports across the country were put on high alert after receiving the information from intelligence agencies about possible aerial strikes.
New RNC expense reports: $110k for Sarah Palin stylists
Talkleft:For two months work, Sarah Palin's traveling makeup artist and hair stylist were paid $110,000, according to newly filed RNC campaign expense reports.
Ex-WorldCom Chief and convicted felon Ebbers Asks President for Clemency
And I am waiting for ex-Tyco chief and convicted felon to throw his name in the ring for clemency or pardon.
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Bernard Ebbers, the former WorldCom Inc. chairman imprisoned for accounting fraud, joined the growing ranks of disgraced executives and government officials asking President George W. Bush for clemency before he leaves office.
Ebbers, 67, submitted a request to have his 25-year sentence commuted and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney is reviewing it, spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said.
A former milkman, Ebbers built a small Mississippi phone company into the second-largest U.S. long-distance provider. He lost a U.S. Supreme Court bid in March 2007 to overturn his 2005 conviction for leading an $11 billion fraud, one of the largest in U.S. history.
Read on.
Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Bernard Ebbers, the former WorldCom Inc. chairman imprisoned for accounting fraud, joined the growing ranks of disgraced executives and government officials asking President George W. Bush for clemency before he leaves office.
Ebbers, 67, submitted a request to have his 25-year sentence commuted and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Pardon Attorney is reviewing it, spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said.
A former milkman, Ebbers built a small Mississippi phone company into the second-largest U.S. long-distance provider. He lost a U.S. Supreme Court bid in March 2007 to overturn his 2005 conviction for leading an $11 billion fraud, one of the largest in U.S. history.
Read on.
Blowhard News for Friday
Matthews: It's ‘Really Hard’ to ‘Salute Sarah Palin’ — On Thursday night's “Hardball,” Chris Matthews actually praised Sarah Palin for her ability to draw a crowd and even pegged her as the early frontrunner for the GOP nod in 2012, “Who's gonna beat her?”
Rove, Kristol Laugh At Idea U.S. Arrested American Muslims Without Trial: ‘We Didn’t Do It!’
On Tuesday, Karl Rove and Bill Kristol debated journalists Simon Jenkins and Jacob Wiesberg at an event sponsored by BBC. The debate was whether “President Bush is the worst president of the last 50 years“; Jenkins and Weisberg argued in favor of the resolution, while Rove and Kristol argued against it.
At one point, Weisberg said that the Bush administration had never convinced the world that it had “not taken out Muslims as a particular group.” Kristol and Rove literally laughed at the idea that the United States had targeted and arrested American Muslims as part of its “war on terror” effort:
KRISTOL: What have we done to Muslims in America? What has happened?
JENKINS: Arrested them.
KRISTOL: We’ve arrested Muslims in America? [LAUGHTER]
JENKINS: Incarcerated them without trial.
KRISTOL: We’ve incarcerated Muslims in America without trial?
ROVE: Rounded them up? Rounded, rounded them up? Name one?
KRISTOL: Nonsense.
ROVE: Name one instance.
JENKINS: The, [UNCLEAR] belabor me all day with lists of people who have vanished. Vanished.
ROVE: You know-
KRISTOL: Well, that-
ROVE: This is on the border of lunacy, with all due respect.
JENKINS: But you didn’t need to do it, you didn’t need to do it-
ROVE: We didn’t do it!
REPORT FAILS 49 STATES ON COLLEGE AFFORDABILITY
San Jose Mercury News:
California’s vast system of inexpensive community colleges has earned the state the top ranking—and the only passing grade in the nation—in a new analysis of America’s college affordability.
But that distinction may be short lived as the state proposes tuition increases at its system of 109 community colleges and eyes budget cuts at its four-year universities. Until then, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education concludes that California schools’ easy access is unique across the country.
Read more
California’s vast system of inexpensive community colleges has earned the state the top ranking—and the only passing grade in the nation—in a new analysis of America’s college affordability.
But that distinction may be short lived as the state proposes tuition increases at its system of 109 community colleges and eyes budget cuts at its four-year universities. Until then, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education concludes that California schools’ easy access is unique across the country.
Read more
Western banks face snub by China fund.
China Investment Corp, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, will no longer risk investing in western financial institutions because of concerns about their viability and a lack of consistency in their governments’ policies, according to its chairman.
“Right now we don’t have the courage to invest in financial institutions because we don’t know what problems we will put ourselves into,” Lou Jiwei said on Wednesday.
Mr Lou contrasted recent shifts in US regulatory and government policy and efforts to rescue ailing banks with the “clearer policies” of some developing countries, where he said CIC was still “actively” pursuing investment opportunities.
“My confidence should come from government policies. But if they are changing every week, how can you expect that to make me confident?” he said at a Hong Kong meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative.
Mr Lou’s comments came before talks that are set to start in Beijing on Thursday between Hank Paulson, US Treasury secretary, and Chinese officials.
Read on.
“Right now we don’t have the courage to invest in financial institutions because we don’t know what problems we will put ourselves into,” Lou Jiwei said on Wednesday.
Mr Lou contrasted recent shifts in US regulatory and government policy and efforts to rescue ailing banks with the “clearer policies” of some developing countries, where he said CIC was still “actively” pursuing investment opportunities.
“My confidence should come from government policies. But if they are changing every week, how can you expect that to make me confident?” he said at a Hong Kong meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative.
Mr Lou’s comments came before talks that are set to start in Beijing on Thursday between Hank Paulson, US Treasury secretary, and Chinese officials.
Read on.
Thursday, December 04, 2008
DOJ reopened probe of Siegelman trial
TPM:
The Department of Justice has reopened an investigation into crucial allegations made by a whistleblower in the Don Siegelman trial, according to documents submitted last week by prosecutors in the case.
Siegelman, the Democratic former governor of Alabama, was convicted in 2006 on corruption charges. (He is appealing the conviction). The whistleblower, who works in the US Attorney's office in Alabama, has claimed that, during his trial, there were inappropriate contacts between members of the jury and the prosecution, including messages passed by jurors revealing that some jury members had developed a romantic interest in an FBI agent attached to the prosecution team.
A DOJ investigation of the claims, launched after the whistleblower came forward and carried out by two US Attorneys, concluded that no such contacts had occurred. But in a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey last month, Rep. John Conyers, whose judiciary committee has been looking into the issue, questioned the thoroughness of that probe, noting that investigators had not contacted the jurors themselves, or the federal marshals who allegedly passed notes between the jurors and the prosecution team.
In the recent court filing -- which responds to a filing made previously by Siegelman's defense lawyers in connection with his appeal -- prosecutors referred to that DOJ investigation, then added in a footnote:
Out of an abundance of caution, the Department of Justice recently reopened the investigation into this matter in response to concerns raised about the completeness of the investigation ... It remains the case that we are not aware of any improper contacts.
The Department of Justice has reopened an investigation into crucial allegations made by a whistleblower in the Don Siegelman trial, according to documents submitted last week by prosecutors in the case.
Siegelman, the Democratic former governor of Alabama, was convicted in 2006 on corruption charges. (He is appealing the conviction). The whistleblower, who works in the US Attorney's office in Alabama, has claimed that, during his trial, there were inappropriate contacts between members of the jury and the prosecution, including messages passed by jurors revealing that some jury members had developed a romantic interest in an FBI agent attached to the prosecution team.
A DOJ investigation of the claims, launched after the whistleblower came forward and carried out by two US Attorneys, concluded that no such contacts had occurred. But in a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey last month, Rep. John Conyers, whose judiciary committee has been looking into the issue, questioned the thoroughness of that probe, noting that investigators had not contacted the jurors themselves, or the federal marshals who allegedly passed notes between the jurors and the prosecution team.
In the recent court filing -- which responds to a filing made previously by Siegelman's defense lawyers in connection with his appeal -- prosecutors referred to that DOJ investigation, then added in a footnote:
Out of an abundance of caution, the Department of Justice recently reopened the investigation into this matter in response to concerns raised about the completeness of the investigation ... It remains the case that we are not aware of any improper contacts.
Justice Stevens will swear in Biden as Veep; Chief Justice Roberts will swear in Obama as Prez.
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the oldest and longest-serving justice on the Court, will swear in Joseph Biden as Vice-President on Jan. 20, a source close to the inaugural planners has just confirmed to Legal Times. Stevens, 88, was named to the Court in 1975 by President Gerald Ford. It is rare for a vice president to be sworn in by an associate justice appointed by a president of the opposite party, so this choice can be seen as a bipartisan gesture -- though Stevens is usually regarded as one of the most liberal justices on the Court.
By long tradition the president is sworn in by the chief justice, unless an emergency situation arises -- the last one being the hasty swearing-in of Lyndon Johnson by U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Hughes on Air Force One after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. Barack Obama will be the first president sworn in by a chief justice -- John Roberts Jr. -- whose nomination he opposed.
Read on from Legal Times.
By long tradition the president is sworn in by the chief justice, unless an emergency situation arises -- the last one being the hasty swearing-in of Lyndon Johnson by U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Hughes on Air Force One after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. Barack Obama will be the first president sworn in by a chief justice -- John Roberts Jr. -- whose nomination he opposed.
Read on from Legal Times.
Schumer: Barofsky hold removed; Mystery solved.
Politico reports:
The anonymous hold on Neil Barofsky, the Bush administration's TARP special IG, was lifted late Wednesday, according to Chuck Schumer. That clears the way for (sic) quick voice vote on his nomination.
The government watchdog group POGO had also written on their website this morning that the hold had been lifted.
And it makes you wonder why Senator Barofsky put a hold on nomination for TARP special IG to investigate the possible waste and fraud into the use of the bailout money.
The anonymous hold on Neil Barofsky, the Bush administration's TARP special IG, was lifted late Wednesday, according to Chuck Schumer. That clears the way for (sic) quick voice vote on his nomination.
The government watchdog group POGO had also written on their website this morning that the hold had been lifted.
And it makes you wonder why Senator Barofsky put a hold on nomination for TARP special IG to investigate the possible waste and fraud into the use of the bailout money.
Spitzer's Op-Ed: Too Big Not To Fail
By Eliot Spitzer
Posted Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008, at 5:59 PM ET
Last month, as the financial crisis and the government rescue plan dominated headlines, almost everyone overlooked a news item that could have enormous long-term impact: GE Capital announced the acquisition of five mid-size airplanes—with an option to buy 20 more—produced by CACC, a new, Chinese-government-sponsored airline manufacturer.
Why is that so significant? Two reasons: First, just as small steps signaled the Asian entry into our now essentially bankrupt auto sector 50 years ago, so the GE acquisition signals Asia's entry into one of our few remaining dominant manufacturing sectors. Boeing is still the world's leading commercial aviation company. CACC's emergence—and its particular advantage selling to Asian markets—means that Boeing now faces the rigors of an entirely new competitive playing field and that our commercial airplane sector is likely to suffer enormously over the coming decades.
But the second implication is even bigger. The CACC story highlights the risk that current bailouts—a remarkable $7.8 trillion in equity, loans, and guarantees so far—may merely perpetuate a fundamentally flawed status quo. So far, at least, we are simply rebuilding the same edifice that just collapsed. None of the investments has even begun to address the underlying structural problems that are causing economic power to shift away from the United States, sector by sector:
Our trade deficit has ballooned from about $100 billion to more than $700 billion annually in the past decade, and our federal deficit now approaches $1 trillion. These twin deficits leave us at the mercy of foreign-capital inflows that may diminish as Asian nations, in particular, invest increasingly at home.
Our household savings rate has been close to zero—and even negative in some years—not permitting the long-term capital accumulation required for the investments we need; China's savings rate, by comparison, is an astonishing 30 percent of household income.
U.S. middle class income has stagnated over the past decade, while the middle class in China—granted, starting from a lower base—has seen its income growing at about 10 percent annually.
Our intellectual advantage could soon turn into a new "third deficit," as hundreds of thousands of engineers are being created annually in China.
We are realizing that the service sector—all the lawyers, investment bankers, advertising agencies, and accountants—follows its clients and wealth creation. This, not over-regulation, is the reason investment-banking activity has begun to migrate overseas.
A more sensible approach would focus not just on rescuing pre-existing financial institutions but, instead, on creating a structure for more contained and competitive ones. For years, we have accepted a theory of financial concentration—not only across all lines of previously differentiated sectors (insurance, commercial banking, investment banking, retail brokerage, etc.) but in terms of sheer size. The theory was that capital depth would permit the various entities, dubbed financial supermarkets, to compete and provide full service to customers while cross-marketing various products. That model has failed. The failure shows in gargantuan losses, bloated overhead, enormous inefficiencies, dramatic and outsized risk taken to generate returns large enough to justify the scale of the organizations, ethical abuses in cross-marketing in violation of fiduciary obligations, and now the need for major taxpayer-financed capital support for virtually every major financial institution.
Read on from The Slate.
Posted Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008, at 5:59 PM ET
Last month, as the financial crisis and the government rescue plan dominated headlines, almost everyone overlooked a news item that could have enormous long-term impact: GE Capital announced the acquisition of five mid-size airplanes—with an option to buy 20 more—produced by CACC, a new, Chinese-government-sponsored airline manufacturer.
Why is that so significant? Two reasons: First, just as small steps signaled the Asian entry into our now essentially bankrupt auto sector 50 years ago, so the GE acquisition signals Asia's entry into one of our few remaining dominant manufacturing sectors. Boeing is still the world's leading commercial aviation company. CACC's emergence—and its particular advantage selling to Asian markets—means that Boeing now faces the rigors of an entirely new competitive playing field and that our commercial airplane sector is likely to suffer enormously over the coming decades.
But the second implication is even bigger. The CACC story highlights the risk that current bailouts—a remarkable $7.8 trillion in equity, loans, and guarantees so far—may merely perpetuate a fundamentally flawed status quo. So far, at least, we are simply rebuilding the same edifice that just collapsed. None of the investments has even begun to address the underlying structural problems that are causing economic power to shift away from the United States, sector by sector:
Our trade deficit has ballooned from about $100 billion to more than $700 billion annually in the past decade, and our federal deficit now approaches $1 trillion. These twin deficits leave us at the mercy of foreign-capital inflows that may diminish as Asian nations, in particular, invest increasingly at home.
Our household savings rate has been close to zero—and even negative in some years—not permitting the long-term capital accumulation required for the investments we need; China's savings rate, by comparison, is an astonishing 30 percent of household income.
U.S. middle class income has stagnated over the past decade, while the middle class in China—granted, starting from a lower base—has seen its income growing at about 10 percent annually.
Our intellectual advantage could soon turn into a new "third deficit," as hundreds of thousands of engineers are being created annually in China.
We are realizing that the service sector—all the lawyers, investment bankers, advertising agencies, and accountants—follows its clients and wealth creation. This, not over-regulation, is the reason investment-banking activity has begun to migrate overseas.
A more sensible approach would focus not just on rescuing pre-existing financial institutions but, instead, on creating a structure for more contained and competitive ones. For years, we have accepted a theory of financial concentration—not only across all lines of previously differentiated sectors (insurance, commercial banking, investment banking, retail brokerage, etc.) but in terms of sheer size. The theory was that capital depth would permit the various entities, dubbed financial supermarkets, to compete and provide full service to customers while cross-marketing various products. That model has failed. The failure shows in gargantuan losses, bloated overhead, enormous inefficiencies, dramatic and outsized risk taken to generate returns large enough to justify the scale of the organizations, ethical abuses in cross-marketing in violation of fiduciary obligations, and now the need for major taxpayer-financed capital support for virtually every major financial institution.
Read on from The Slate.
National Mall will be open to the public on Obama's inauguration day.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
WASHINGTON, DC—In keeping with its pledge to make the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama one of the most open and accessible in history, the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) announced today that, for the first time, the entire length of the National Mall will be opened to the public so that more people than ever before will be able to witness the swearing-in of the President from a vantage point in sight of the Capitol.
» More...
WASHINGTON, DC—In keeping with its pledge to make the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama one of the most open and accessible in history, the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) announced today that, for the first time, the entire length of the National Mall will be opened to the public so that more people than ever before will be able to witness the swearing-in of the President from a vantage point in sight of the Capitol.
» More...
Isikoff: Rove may testify in prosecutor's USA firing probe
Interesting that Rove will cooperate with the Special Prosecutor but not the House Judiciary Committee where he is held in contempt for refusing the abide by the subpoenas.
Rawstory:
One of the biggest blockades to potential revelations regarding the Bush administration's politicization of the Justice Department has been the refusal of officials like Karl Rove and Harriet Miers to testify before Congressional committees investigating the matter.
That stonewalling may soon end, now that an independent federal prosecutor is probing the dismissal of nine US Attorneys, among other facets of the Justice Department scandal. The White House has said they plan to cooperate with the special prosecutor's probe, dropping their reliance on the executive privilege claims they have used to stymie Congress, Newsweek's Michael Isikoff tells MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
The two were discussing prosecutor Nora Dannehy's investigation, which was explored in a Wednesday Washington Post article. The paper reported that Dannehy has issued several subpoenas in the case and met with defense lawyers representing the government officials suspected of misconduct.
Isikoff told Maddow of a little-noticed letter sent from the Justice Department to a US Appeals Court, which is considering an attempt by the House of Representatives to pursue Contempt of Congress charges against Bush administration officials who have ignored subpoenas. In the Sept. 30 letter, Isikoff says, the Justice Department tells the court of assurances it received from White House counsel Fred Fielding that if Dannehy "determines that access to information from the White House would be helpful to assist her review, the White House will provide her with such information."That's an encouraging sign for those hoping for more answers about the firings.
"So they're essentially saying they're not going to claim privilege over key information that Nora Dannehy may want," Isikoff said. "Harriet Miers and Karl Rove's testimony? According to this letter, they're not going to claim privilege over information that she determines she needs."
Rawstory:
One of the biggest blockades to potential revelations regarding the Bush administration's politicization of the Justice Department has been the refusal of officials like Karl Rove and Harriet Miers to testify before Congressional committees investigating the matter.
That stonewalling may soon end, now that an independent federal prosecutor is probing the dismissal of nine US Attorneys, among other facets of the Justice Department scandal. The White House has said they plan to cooperate with the special prosecutor's probe, dropping their reliance on the executive privilege claims they have used to stymie Congress, Newsweek's Michael Isikoff tells MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
The two were discussing prosecutor Nora Dannehy's investigation, which was explored in a Wednesday Washington Post article. The paper reported that Dannehy has issued several subpoenas in the case and met with defense lawyers representing the government officials suspected of misconduct.
Isikoff told Maddow of a little-noticed letter sent from the Justice Department to a US Appeals Court, which is considering an attempt by the House of Representatives to pursue Contempt of Congress charges against Bush administration officials who have ignored subpoenas. In the Sept. 30 letter, Isikoff says, the Justice Department tells the court of assurances it received from White House counsel Fred Fielding that if Dannehy "determines that access to information from the White House would be helpful to assist her review, the White House will provide her with such information."That's an encouraging sign for those hoping for more answers about the firings.
"So they're essentially saying they're not going to claim privilege over key information that Nora Dannehy may want," Isikoff said. "Harriet Miers and Karl Rove's testimony? According to this letter, they're not going to claim privilege over information that she determines she needs."
So who did Mitchell Wade fingered?
Possibly two Democrats and a GOP.
TPM:
On Monday we noted a court filing made recently by defense lawyers for Mitchell Wade, the Duke Cunningham crony who's about to be sentenced in connection with his role in bribery scandal that felled the GOP congressman.
In arguing for a lenient sentence, Wade's lawyers claimed that their client had helped prosecutors' probe "at least five other members of Congress" who were under investigation for "corruption similar to that of Mr. Cunningham."
The blogger and Cunningham expert Seth Hettena named Katherine Harris, the former Florida congresswoman, and Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode as two of those members.
And now Hettena says he's identified the other three: Sen. Dan Inouye (D-HI), Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-WV), and Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA).
Hettena told Marcus Stern, the former San Diego Union-Tribune reporter who broke much of the Duke Cunningham story and now writes for Pro Publica, that those identifications are based on "information I developed and confirmed with two sources with knowledge of the investigation."
Tin cup day: Big three testify to Congress.
Crooks and Liars:
The representatives of the Big Three came back to Congress with tin cups in hand today, and you can watch them on most of the news channels today.
Humbled U.S. automakers pleaded with Congress Thursday for an expanded $34 billion rescue package, but heard fresh skepticism in a bumpy encore appearance.
“We made mistakes, which we’re learning from,” General Motors chief executive Rick Wagoner told the Senate Banking Committee.
Ford CEO Alan Mulally also acknowledged big mistakes, saying his company’s mantra once was “You build it, they will come.”
As Chuck Schumer observed, the problem is that they seem to want their bailout without setting the conditions first.
The representatives of the Big Three came back to Congress with tin cups in hand today, and you can watch them on most of the news channels today.
Humbled U.S. automakers pleaded with Congress Thursday for an expanded $34 billion rescue package, but heard fresh skepticism in a bumpy encore appearance.
“We made mistakes, which we’re learning from,” General Motors chief executive Rick Wagoner told the Senate Banking Committee.
Ford CEO Alan Mulally also acknowledged big mistakes, saying his company’s mantra once was “You build it, they will come.”
As Chuck Schumer observed, the problem is that they seem to want their bailout without setting the conditions first.
KBR exposed troops to tainted water, food and hazardous fumes from burn pit.
Thinkprogress:
A former technician who worked for contracting company KBR in Iraq has filed a class-action lawsuit saying the company “exposed everyone at Joint Base Balad in Iraq to unsafe water, food and hazardous fumes from the burn pit there.” Joshua Eller’s suit includes particularly disturbing charges about KBR’s indifference to proper sanatization and the disposal of human remains:
The lawsuit also accuses KBR of shipping ice in mortuary trucks that “still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice. This ice was served to U.S. forces.”
Eller also accuses KBR of failing to maintain a medical incinerator at Joint Base Balad, which has been confirmed by two surgeons in interviews with Military Times about the Balad burn pit. Instead, according to the lawsuit and the physicians, medical waste, such as needles, amputated body parts and bloody bandages were burned in the open-air pit.
A former technician who worked for contracting company KBR in Iraq has filed a class-action lawsuit saying the company “exposed everyone at Joint Base Balad in Iraq to unsafe water, food and hazardous fumes from the burn pit there.” Joshua Eller’s suit includes particularly disturbing charges about KBR’s indifference to proper sanatization and the disposal of human remains:
The lawsuit also accuses KBR of shipping ice in mortuary trucks that “still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice. This ice was served to U.S. forces.”
Eller also accuses KBR of failing to maintain a medical incinerator at Joint Base Balad, which has been confirmed by two surgeons in interviews with Military Times about the Balad burn pit. Instead, according to the lawsuit and the physicians, medical waste, such as needles, amputated body parts and bloody bandages were burned in the open-air pit.
White House finally admits the U.S. economy is in a recession.
A year too late...
Thinkprogress:
Yesterday, ThinkProgress noted that despite the National Bureau of Economic Research determining that the U.S. is in a recession, the White House still couldn’t bring itself to use the word. Today, however, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino appeared to finally recognize that relying on strained euphemisms is not an effective way to hold an informed discussion about the nation’s struggling economy. Instead, Perino acknowledged reality and finally used the word “recession.”
Thinkprogress:
Yesterday, ThinkProgress noted that despite the National Bureau of Economic Research determining that the U.S. is in a recession, the White House still couldn’t bring itself to use the word. Today, however, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino appeared to finally recognize that relying on strained euphemisms is not an effective way to hold an informed discussion about the nation’s struggling economy. Instead, Perino acknowledged reality and finally used the word “recession.”
Rick Warren: Bush’s ‘peace award was not about peace’
And he goes on Hannity of all places to explain his reasons..
Thinkprogress:
Earlier this week, Pastor Rick Warren presented President Bush with the first International Medal of PEACE from the Global PEACE Coalition for his work on the global HIV/AIDS crisis. During the award ceremony, Warren ignored the obvious irony of presenting a man who started two wars with a peace award.
Last night on Fox’s Hannity and Colmes, however, co-host Alan Colmes asked Warren to comment on that irony. Warren explained simply that Bush’s “peace award as not about peace”:
COLMES: But to give a peace award to a guy who started two wars…neither of which are completed yet. […]
WARREN: Well, the Peace Award was not about peace in domestic — or foreign policy.
Sean Hannity, in contrast, failed to see anything wrong with presenting a peace award to Bush. Rather, Hannity suggested that Bush was promoting peace by attempting to “defeat evil.”
Thinkprogress:
Earlier this week, Pastor Rick Warren presented President Bush with the first International Medal of PEACE from the Global PEACE Coalition for his work on the global HIV/AIDS crisis. During the award ceremony, Warren ignored the obvious irony of presenting a man who started two wars with a peace award.
Last night on Fox’s Hannity and Colmes, however, co-host Alan Colmes asked Warren to comment on that irony. Warren explained simply that Bush’s “peace award as not about peace”:
COLMES: But to give a peace award to a guy who started two wars…neither of which are completed yet. […]
WARREN: Well, the Peace Award was not about peace in domestic — or foreign policy.
Sean Hannity, in contrast, failed to see anything wrong with presenting a peace award to Bush. Rather, Hannity suggested that Bush was promoting peace by attempting to “defeat evil.”
SPB News for Thursday.
Treasury Sec. weighing whether to ask Congress for next $350 billion.
Even lobbyists hit by bad economy
'Bailout' wins word of year over 'maverick'
Hawaii 1st state with electric car stations
'Bailout' wins word of year over 'maverick'
Hawaii 1st state with electric car stations
NV Lt. Gov. Indicted Over Handling Of Savings Program
U.S. Presses Pakistan to Help India in Attack Inquiry
Ala. county sets ‘Barack Obama Day’ as new holiday
Bill Gates presses for stimulus package, foreign aid
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