Archive for category Politics
Obama Criticized After Lobbyists Banned From Dem Fundraiser but Allowed to Give Later
Thursday, June 18, 2009 
WASHINGTON — Lobbyists were banned from a fundraiser Thursday night where President Obama raised $3 million for Democratic candidates, but that won’t stop them from donating cash to the same political account.
They just weren’t welcome at the event where Obama repeated his broad plan to repair the economy and bring back badly needed jobs.
“It requires taking on the status quo in Washington,” Obama said, painting himself as an outsider who could change politics. “Let’s face it: The status quo in Washington favors inertia over action and tinkering over real reform.”
Obama prohibited lobbyists from donating to the Democratic National Committee, his re-election campaign-in-waiting and any fundraisers where he’s the star attraction. The party’s campaign arms for House and Senate candidates, however, still take donations from the special interests.
That standard has left the president open to criticism. It was his fastidious campaign against lobbyists that helped win him the populist vote last year, set up an us-versus-Washington tone to his campaign, and pave the way for him to raise millions from small-dollar donors.
“This is the height of hypocrisy and just one more example of President Obama’s rhetoric not squaring with reality,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said. “Obama said lobbyists and special interests will not fund the Democratic Party, but now the Democrats are cashing their checks as fast as they come in, 364 days a year.”
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Obama: Government could go broke if healthcare not fixed
Posted by admin in Mixed Economy, Politics on June 15th, 2009
CHICAGO (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, making his case for healthcare reform to America’s doctors, said on Monday the U.S. government could suffer the same fate as troubled automaker General Motors and go broke if the healthcare system is not fixed.
“When it comes to the cost of our health care,” Obama told the American Medical Association, “the status quo is unsustainable.”
(Editing by Sandra Maler)
Is Obama Flubbing the Financial Fix?
Posted by admin in Financial Market, Politics on June 15th, 2009
Top News June 14, 2009, 10:03PM EST
The Administration’s backtracking on regulatory reform has some critics saying that a rare opportunity is being squandered
By Jane Sasseen
It was hard not to draw that conclusion over the past week, as Wall Street and Washington alike prepared for President Barack Obama’s much-anticipated June 17 speech outlining the Administration’s proposals to overhaul financial regulations. Despite the promise of tough reforms from the President and his top economic officials, the Administration—in its decision to put off tough political battles over regulatory turf and reining in executive pay—appeared to be backing away from the stiffest moves that were on the table.
With the worst of the crisis appearing to recede, the political will to take on those tough constituencies appeared to be fading as well. With it may go a once-in-a-generation opportunity to aggressively tackle some badly needed changes in the U.S. financial system.
“Is the drive for reform losing steam? Yes, absolutely,” says Daniel Clifton, a Washington-based policy analyst at institutional broker Strategas Research Partners. With Congress signaling that it is unlikely to act on the President’s financial-system reforms until the fall, Clifton and other observers warn that this week’s regulatory plan could be highly vulnerable to attack for five months. Short of an unexpectedly sharp return of crisis in the financial sector, which would force the Administration and Congress to conclude that the costs of retaining much of the status quo intact are too high, Clifton believes the push for reform “will lose a lot more momentum by October.”
The aim of the Administration’s regulatory plan, largely developed by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, is to create a more effective and powerful regulatory structure that would have a better chance of preventing the sort of unseen and out-of-control financial excesses that brought about the current global crisis.
Retired U.S. State Official, Wife Indicted on Charges of Spying for Cuba
AP Friday, June 05, 2009
The indictment handed down by the attorney general’s office in Washington says Walter Kendall Myers and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, have been clandestine agents for Cuba for 30 years.
A retired State Department worker with top secret security clearance and his wife have been indicted on charges of spying for Cuba over the past three decades.
The indictment unsealed Friday in Washington says Walter Kendall Myers and his wife, Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers, have been clandestine agents for Cuba since 1979. The pair were arrested Thursday.
The indictment says the couple met with Cuban President Fidel Castro in Cuba in 1995, traveling through Mexico under false names. They allegedly made several other trips to Latin America and the Caribbean to meet with Cuban agents.
David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, described the couple’s alleged spying for the communist government as “incredibly serious.”
Authorities said the Myerses shared their views of Obama administration officials that had recently taken over responsibility for Latin American policy. They also accepted a device to encrypt future e-mail.
Kendall Myers, 72, worked at the State Department. Early in his career, he specialized in European issues at the agency’s Foreign Service Institute. In 2007, he retired from department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research.
The indictment says in his last year of employment, Kendall Myers viewed more than 200 intelligence reports related to Cuba.
The government said that Gwendolyn Myers revealed to investigators that her favorite places to pass information were Washington-area grocery stores.
Kendall Myers was known by the Cubans as Agent 202 and his wife went by both Agent 123 and Agent E-634, according to the indictment.
The two were charged with conspiracy to act as illegal agents of the Cuban government and to communicate classified information to the Cuban government. Each is also charged with acting as an illegal agent of the Cuban government and with wire fraud.
The indictment says the couple own a shortwave radio, which they used to broadcast encrypted messages to the Cuban Intelligence Service using Morse code. In recent years, the documents say, they communicated through e-mail using a false name.
An undercover FBI agent approached them in April, pretending to be a Cuban spy. Court documents say the couple fell for the ruse and began meeting with the undercover agent at Washington hotels.
The indictment says the two agreed to be spies in 1979 after meeting with a Cuban government official while they were living in South Dakota. At Cuba’s direction, authorities say, Kendall Myers attempted to get jobs that would give him access to classified information.
He applied for a position at the CIA in 1981. He didn’t get the job but later was able to get work at the State Department, where his security clearance rose over the next two decades.
This Country Needs A Voice Like This!
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd - Australia
Posted: 5/16/2009
Market Mix Up
Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks.
Separately, Rudd angered some Australian Muslins on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation’s mosques. Quotes:
‘IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take it or leave it. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians.’
This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom.
We speak mainly ENGLISH, not Spanish, Lebanese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russians, or any other language. therefore, if you wish to become part of our society Learn the language!
Most Australians believe in God. This is not some Christian, right wing, political push, but a fact, because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as you new home, because God is part of our culture.
We will accept your beliefs, and will not question why. All we ask is that you accept ours, and live in harmony and peaceful enjoyment with us.
This is OUR COUNTRY, OUR LAND, and OUR LIFESTYLE, and we will allow you every opportunity to enjoy all this. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about Our Flag, Our Pledge, Our Christian beliefs, or Our Way of Life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great Australian freedom, ‘THE RIGHT TO LEAVE’.
If you aren’t happy here then LEAVE. We didn’t force you to come here. You asked to be here. So accept the country YOU accepted.
Maybe if we circulate this amongst ourselves, WE will find the courage to start speaking and voicing the same truths.
Obama Proposes Saving $17 Billion by Cutting Programs (Update3)
By Roger Runningen and Brian Faler
May 7 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama urged Congress to cut almost $17 billion in programs, including tax breaks for oil and gas companies, while seeking an $81 billion increase for his domestic agenda.
In a 1,374-page document released today, Obama proposed abolishing preferential tax treatment for the two industries as part of a package of 121 federal programs the administration wants to eliminate or reduce.
Obama filled in the details of the budget outline the administration released Feb. 26 that has already been adopted by Congress. The new items are mainly areas where Obama is seeking cuts, which some lawmakers said weren’t enough to begin reducing a deficit that the Congressional Budget Office projects will reach $1.38 trillion in fiscal 2010, the second-highest ever.
“These savings, large and small, add up,” Obama said in remarks after the release of the budget documents. “And this is just one aspect of the budget reforms and savings we are seeking.” Obama repeated his pledge to cut the deficit in half by the end of his term in 2012.
TARP Money
The budget maintains the $250 billion “placeholder” request made in February in case U.S. banks need a further cash infusion under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, budget chief Peter Orszag said in a conference call with reporters. Overall, the budget seeks an $81 billion increase in spending, to $1.30 trillion for the domestic budget, the Congressional Budget Office said.
Unlike past years, the administration won’t release until May 11 its “analytical perspectives” or “historic tables” that help explain its spending decisions and put them in context.
After the Great Recession
Posted by admin in Mixed Economy, Politics on April 29th, 2009
Published: April 28, 2009
NYTimes.com
On April 14, President Obama gave a speech at Georgetown University, trying to explain why he was taking on so many economic issues so early in his administration. He argued that the country needed to break its bubble-and-bust cycle and cited the New Testament in calling for a new economic foundation for the nation. This foundation would be built on better schools, alternative energy, more affordable health care and a more regulated Wall Street, he said. Later that afternoon (shortly before the Obama family introduced its new dog, Bo, on the South Lawn of the White House), I sat down with the president to talk about how his agenda might change daily life in this country.
This was our third interview about the economy, the first two occurring during last year’s campaign. And while the setting was decidedly more formal this time — the Oval Office — the interview felt as conversational as those earlier ones. We sat at the far end of the office from his desk and spoke for 50 minutes. None of his economic advisers were there. As the conversation progressed, Obama spoke in increasingly personal terms. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of that interview.
At the end of our conversation, when I asked him if he was reading anything good, he said he had become sick enough of briefing books to begin reading a novel in the evenings — “Netherland,” by Joseph O’Neill.
I. The Future of Finance
Q: The idea here is to look beyond the current moment and try to think about what American life is going to be like on the other side of the so-called Great Recession. And so I thought it might make sense to start where the trouble started — finance. People who want to get a sense for how you think about education and jobs and all sorts of other issues can get a really good sense for your thinking by reading “The Audacity of Hope,” or by reading your old speeches, where you basically lay out your learning curve. But there’s no chapter on finance in “The Audacity of Hope.” And so I wonder if you would be willing to describe a little bit of your learning curve about finance, and what you envision finance being in tomorrow’s economy: Does it need to be smaller? Will it inevitably be smaller?
