The administration is working on proposals for how it will use the last $350 billion from the rescue program. Some of the measures being considered could end up costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars beyond the original $700 billion pricetag.
A new lawsuit is challenging Barack Obama's eligibility to be president, and this one targets Congress as a defendant for its "failure" to uphold the constitutional demand to make sure Obama qualified before approving the Electoral College vote that actually designated him as the occupant of the Oval Office.
More than 2,600 anti-spending activists phoned in to speak with Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) and Tom Price (Ga.) about their concerns over President Obama's $825 billion stimulus billl Monday evening.
Americans for Prosperity hosted the call to allow their members to connect with Bachmann and Price, two members who have repeatedly stood up for taxpayers by voting against reckless spending in Washington. AFP created the site www.nostimulus.com to draw attention to specific complaints.
On Monday, the MRC's Brent Bozell warned Americans that Obama's statement to Republican Congressional leaders last Friday advising them to stop listening to Limbaugh was "just an opening salvo from the new administration in the war to stifle conservative talk radio and could soon be followed by a concerted effort to resurrect the so-called Fairness Doctrine."
That wasn't Obama's only jab at Republicans today.
While discussing the stimulus package with top lawmakers in the White House's Roosevelt Room, President Obama shot down a critic with a simple message.
"I won," he said, according to aides who were briefed on the meeting. "I will trump you on that."
The response was to the objection by Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to the president's proposal to increase benefits for low-income workers who don't owe federal income taxes.
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today sat down with CNN's Mark Preston for a "Digg Dialogg," a question-and-answer session driven by the online community. During the discussion, Boehner talked about working with President Barack Obama on economic recovery solutions, his opposition to government regulation of the internet, the future of the Republican Party and the importance of using social media to connect citizens and government, and more.
“I am disappointed in President Obama’s decision to waive the “revolving door” provisions of the executive order for Mr. Bill Lynn, his nominee to serve as deputy secretary of defense,” McCain said. “While I applaud the president’s action to implement new, more stringent ethical rules, I had hoped he would not find it necessary to waive them so soon.”Click here.
Security and transportation costs are being paid by taxpayers. And with millions of tourists expected to descend on Washington for Tuesday's inauguration ceremony, Bush declared a state of emergency, allowing the district to recover some costs for the event.
Despite the bleak economy, however, Democrats who called on President George W. Bush to be frugal four years ago are issuing no such demands now that an inaugural weekend of rock concerts and star-studded parties has begun.
| THIS IS VERY SERIOUS, PLEASE SENDTO EVERYONE ON YOUR E-MAIL LIST!! Anyone-using Internet mail such as Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL and so on. This information arrived this morning, Direct from both Microsoft and Norton Please send it to everybody you know who has access to the Internet. You may receive an apparently harmless e-mail titled 'Mail Server Report' If you open either file, a message will appear on your screen saying: 'It is too late now, your life is no longer beautiful.' Subsequently you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC, And the person who sent it to you will gain access to your name, e-mail and password. This is a new virus which started to circulate on Saturday afternoon. AOL has already confirmed the severity, and the antivirus software's are not capable of destroying it. The virus has been created by a hacker who calls himself 'life owner'. PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THIS E-MAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS, And ask them to PASS IT ON IMMEDIATELY! THIS HAS BEEN CONFIRMED BY SNOPES. http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/mailserver.asp | |||
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| FLORIDA COURT SETS ATHEIST HOLY DAY In Florida , an atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter & Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians, Jews & observances of their holy days. The argument was it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized day(s). The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, 'Case dismissed.' The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, 'Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Ea ster & amp; others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur & Hanukkah. Yet my client & all other atheists have no such holidays.' The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, 'But you do. Your client, counsel, is woefully ignorant.' The lawyer said, 'Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists.' The judge said, 'The calendar says April 1st is 'April Fools Day.' Psalm 14:1 states 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned. | |||
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Bush: Obama Shouldn't Become 'Economic Forecaster'
President Bush says his administration did not foresee the economic meltdown.
FOXNews.com
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush is confident that he and first lady Laura Bush have lost money in the economic crisis, but that they won't find out until after he leaves office how much their financial accounts have lost.
In an interview with CNN's Larry King on Tuesday, the president said his personal assets are in a blind trust and that the last time he talked with the trustees was eight years ago. Bush said he has "no earthly idea" how much he and his wife have lost in the market slump but said he's confident that they had lost some.
Asked what part of the responsibility for the financial meltdown rests on his shoulders, Bush defended his decision to ask Congress to approve a $700 billion financial rescue plan. He said his actions have mitigated the effects the economic crisis is having on Americans. He also argued that his administration called for reform of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but that no legislative reform was ever passed.
"Not to blow my own horn, but I recognized the dangers inherent with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and asked Congress to regulate them," Bush said, adding that he was worried they were getting a little overextended.
But he acknowledged that his administration did not foresee the meltdown.
"No, we didn't see it coming," he said. "We saw that there could be dangers in an unregulated Fannie and Freddie and they needed a regulator and they needed to be reined in."
Bush also said it wasn't a good idea for President-elect Obama to "become an economic forecaster once he gets to be president."
"I think he can say it's going to be a tough period, but to predict what the economy is going to do ... it is going to be bad. How bad? How long?" Bush said. "What he ought to be saying -- and I know he feels this way -- is he's going to take the steps he thinks are necessary to get us back on the road to recovery and we will recover."
In the interview held in the White House library, Bush also defended Vice President Dick Cheney, describing him as an intelligent patriot. He denied allegations that some of the harsh interrogation techniques used on terror suspects amounted to torture and said he was "comfortable" with the methods used because they were based on legal opinions. While he said the U.S.-led invasion in Iraq was the right decision, he acknowledged being "worried Iraq was going to fail" at the time he decided to dispatch 30,000 more U.S. troops there in 2007.
Bush was asked if Hurricane Katrina was the lowest point of his presidency.
"Well, I think being called a racist was the low point," Bush replied, referring to reaction to the federal government's sluggish response to the needs of hurricane victims, many of whom were black.
Asked if he thought he had gotten a bum rap as president, Mrs. Bush chimed in, saying that she thought he had. "A lot of it was very personal and demeaning," she said.
The president, however, brushed off the criticism, saying he couldn't and didn't make decisions based on polls.
On other issues, the president said he was a little surprised that his brother, Jeb, decided not to run for the Senate from Florida. Bush declined to tip his hand about whether he planned to issue more pardons before leaving office. And he said he had no interest in being commissioner of baseball -- that even though he loves the sport, he was going to focus his attention on writing a book and developing his presidential library and center at Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas.
Among the alleged collaborators were three brothers, one of whom attempted before his arrest to swallow a cell phone's SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card, which is believed to have documented his conversations with Israeli security officials.
An eyewitness said that among the dead were three brothers executed on the street. Palestinians organization members and security sources in the Strip confirmed the report.
KAILUA, Hawaii – A small group of placard-waving pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered near U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's vacation retreat in Hawaii on Tuesday to protest against the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
Obama has made no public comment on the strikes, which Israel launched on Saturday. Aides have repeatedly said he is monitoring the situation and continues to receive intelligence briefings but that there is only one U.S. president at a time.
But with outgoing Republican President George W. Bush already viewed as a lame-duck, many people, particularly in the Middle East, are looking past him to Obama, who is due to be sworn in on January 20, for leadership.
Obama did speak out after the attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai in November in which gunmen killed nearly 180 people, condemning them as acts of terrorism.
He has also spoken on the economic problems facing the United States.
"He is talking about how many jobs he is going to create but he is refusing to speak about this," said one of the protesters, Carolyn Hadfield, 66.
She was one of eight protesters standing with placards reading "No U.S. support for Israel" and "Gazans need food and medicine, not war" near Obama's rented vacation home in Kailua, an upmarket suburb on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where he is in the second week of a vacation with his family.
Obama did not acknowledge the protesters when his motorcade drove past to take him to play basketball at his old school. He stared straight ahead sipping from a bottle of water.
"The president-elect values citizen participation in our nation's foreign policy, but there is one president at a time, and we intend to respect that," said Brooke Anderson, his chief national security spokesperson.
Obama has in the past called Israel one of the United States' greatest allies and has vowed to ensure the security of the Jewish state.
He has also said he would make a sustained push to achieve the goal of two states -- a Jewish state in Israel and a Palestinian state.
Israel on Tuesday pressed on with air strikes in Gaza that it says are in response to rocket fire by Hamas militants deep inside the Jewish state. Medical officials put Palestinian casualties at 383 dead and more than 800 wounded.
"We are very upset with what is going in Palestine. There is a very great need for change in U.S. foreign policy toward Israel and Palestine. We need to stop giving Israel a blank check," said another protester, Margaret Brown, 66.
The protesters were rebuffed when they tried to hand a letter signed by dozens of U.S. activist groups to a Secret Service agent guarding the access road to Obama's beachfront compound.
The Bush administration has backed Israel's actions in Gaza and demanded the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to a lasting ceasefire.
In Washington, several hundred pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the State Department, waving Palestinian flags and chanting slogans such as "free Palestine" while police looked on but took no action.
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