Obama Unveils Plan To Speed Up Recovery. Recovery To Be Hardest Hit.

Why is it I have a feeling of dread about this plan?

Construction equipment manufacturers Caterpillar Inc. and Deere & Co. are among companies that may benefit from federal contracts for some of the work.

“We have a long way to go on our road to recovery but we are going the right way,” Obama said in the statement. “Our measure of progress is the progress the American people see in their own lives. And until that progress is steady and solid; we’re going to keep moving forward.

...

The new projects are being framed as the beginning of a “summer of accelerated Recovery Act activity” by the administration and include new services at health centers in 50 states, work on 107 national parks, improvements at airports, highway locations and veterans’ medical facilities. They will also provide funding for schools to hire more teachers.

White House officials said yesterday they are encouraged by a slowing rate of job losses. The economy lost 345,000 jobs last month, fewer than expected and the lowest number since September, the Department of Labor reported June 5.

Still, unemployment rose to 9.4 percent, higher than the 8 percent the administration projected when it pressed Congress to enact the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“Hopefully, that is a sign that this is turning,” David Axelrod told CNN yesterday. “While it’s going to take some time for these unemployment numbers to turn around, for the momentum to completely stop and turn in the other direction, it feels as if we’re moving.”

...

Vice President  Joe Biden, who later today will present Obama with the administration’s latest economic stimulus goals, said a “good foundation” was laid in the first 100 days of the Recovery Act.

“We plan to build on that foundation and accelerate our efforts so we can accomplish even more,” Biden said in a statement. “We’re going to get more dollars out the door, more shovels into the ground and more money into the pockets of workers and families who need it most.”

In the three months after the Democratic-led Congress approved Obama’s stimulus plan, the government doled out about 11 percent of the emergency stimulus funds, according to a progress report released by Biden’s office on May 13.

The administration says it will commit about 70 percent of the money by the end of the next fiscal year, less than the 75 percent that White House officials projected in February.

Biden, citing “significant progress,” stressed in the May report that most programs and projects were running ahead of schedule and under budget.

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Talk About A Direct Pipeline Between The White House And The MSM

Claire Shipmanm, the wife of Jay Carney, the flack catcher for Pluggy Joe, uttered this gem yesterday.

"I think it's also hard when you look at Sotomayor's record and look at the cases, it's very hard for people to make the case that she's a typical, you know, elite liberal judicial philosopher. I mean, really, she's not. Her cases go back and forth. It's going to be hard for the Republicans to try to pin down what that means. She's tended to give -- to be tough on crime, to give police the benefit of the doubt...."

Seriously, can you believe that the current Vice President, who used to serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and know how to work that room, didn't coincidentally and strongly suggest to his spokeman to recommend to his wife to bring this up on the Sunday Shows?

Oh well. But that Fox News? Nothing but mouthpieces for the GOP.

 

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Glad to see Google has their priorities straight

Who cares about the D-Day anniversary, when we have TETRIS!!!!eleventyone!

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Harrison Ford's Ox gets gored

Hey we've got to elect Democrats and take down these greedy, rich Republican assholes!  *a few months later*   Hey, hey, you're not supposed to tax the hell out of stuff I like, dude! 

Idiot.  Of course, these sort of punitive taxes on private planes is going to be very economically damaging to small airports and aircraft manufacturers, and in the end usually reduce the amount of tax money taken in. This reminds me of the old George Will column, where he notes the damage to the yacht and aircraft building industries in the US, caused by a luxury tax signed into law by Bush the Elder.

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Culture of Corruption: PA Democrats destroyed evidence wanted by AG for Bonusgate investigation

They of course sent an intern to do their dirty work, having him run their hard drives over a large magnet and drilling backups,

Interviewed by agents in January of last year, Mr. Drew said he was instructed to take five computer hard drives to another Capitol office and erase them with a large magnet. Mr. Drew said he was told by Steve Keefer, then the director of the office, "that the process would clean the hard drives so they could be reused. Drew explained to [state investigators] that it is his personal belief that a magnet as strong as the one he used would completely destroy a hard drive, leaving it useless to anyone."

So what is Bonusgate? Basically, you have a bunch of Democrats who work as a PA state employee for a few months during the year, they then leave to work as Democrat campaign workers during the election season.  Then when they would go back to work as part of the state, Democrats in the PA legislature would give these people big bonuses for their state jobs as reward for their work during the campaigns.  Beyond that, some of these state employees may have been using their state positions as campaigning offices. 

In reaction to this breaking story, John Murtha held a press conference to condemn the Democrats in the PA legislature as quote, "...a bunch of fucking amateurs."

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I Know John Kerry Is Irrelevant, But This Is Still Funny

Looks like John Kerry still has some nagging tax issues from his 2004 Presidential Run.

"The IRS contacted us last year about data they lost from the 2004 campaign," Smith said. "We gladly resubmitted all the forms needed to fill in the gaps, end of story."

Smith said the Kerry camp was surprised to learn the IRS had filed a tax lien based on the disputed W-2 payroll forms.

The IRS filed the lien earlier this year in the District of Columbia, saying it had tried to collect the money previously from the Kerry campaign.

"We have made a demand for payment of this liability, but it remains unpaid," according to the IRS tax lien.

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A Move So Stupid, Only A Big City Mayor Could Do It

Free M-16s from the military for your police officers to use? No thanks, says Boston Mayor Tom Menino.

Boston Mayor Tom Menino said Friday he will not approve a police department plan to put semiautomatic M-16 rifles in the hands of regular patrol officers. But Menino says he's open to giving them to "specialized units."

The police recently obtained 200 M-16s free of charge from the U.S. military and had planned to give them to dozens of officers for their patrols after training them to use the rifles.

However, some community leaders criticized the lack of public notice and questioned the reasoning behind arming district officers with M-16s when the city's SWAT team already has such weapons.

Seriously, why not let more police officers have more weapons than just a service pistol? Especially since the rifles were free of charge.

[doubleplusundead]  I saw this story too, I'm guessing they have more than service pistols, most police departments have 12 gauge shotguns issued to officers, too.   Obviously the Boston PD is hosed because Massachusetts is anti-gun and the community activists have spoken.   There's definitely a case to be made for a patrol rifle, and it would have been nice if the Boston PD would have gotten freebies to use, but failing that, what about alternatives? 

I was thinking about it last night and thought something like a Marlin 336 could be a good choice for a police patrol rifle.  It'd be enough punch for almost anything a police officer would need.  Lever rifles are fairly friendly to left handers, and it definitely would take up less room.  Given the political atmosphere in Massachusetts, the fact that they don't have the scaaawy look of an AR pattern rifle is a plus.  They would probably be a bit easier to maintain, and probably has about the same rate of fire as a standard police issue shotgun.  Admittedly, a Marlin lever rifle isn't as tacticool as an AR, but if the Boston PD really wants and needs a patrol rifle, I don't think that'd be a bad alternative choice.

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Ever love and hate a city at the same time? Welcome to my life.

The D.C. City Council has decided that a 5 cent fee on disposable bags will save the world (or, at least the Anacostia River).  Who knew it was that easy, right?

I can say one thing, I'm not headed across the Anacostia regardless of the plastic bag situation.  I've gone 27 years without getting shot and I'd like to keep that streak going.

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If You Like Amtrak, You'll Love The New O-GMChryslerCarEleventy!Motors Company

A bloated, inefficeint, money losing venture that few people want? Sign me up!

With Amtrak, the government got too involved in decision-making, leading to inefficiencies in the system that would never be corrected, say analysts. Since its creation in 1970, Amtrak has sucked up $30 billion in taxpayer money, and the money is still flowing. The original aid package from Congress in 1970 was $340 million with an expectation the railroad would make a profit in five years.

The potential parallels are worth being concerned about, critics say.

"I think the $50 billion might as well be kissed goodbye. I would expect that this is just the beginning," Cox, principal at the Wendell Cox Consultancy, said of the GM deal.

"I think the long-term outcome will be the same," said Ronald Utt, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation. "It's unlikely to ever recover the huge investment that's been made in it, and you will then be carrying this forever and ever and ever. (The government has) been carrying Amtrak now for more than 35 years."

Conservatives in Washington treated Monday's announcement with a hefty dose of skepticism. They called for a clearly stated exit strategy and said GM's success is by no means assured.

"Does anyone really believe that politicians and bureaucrats in Washington can successfully steer a multinational corporation to economic viability?" House Minority Leader John Boehner said in a written statement.

Though the rhetorical question might sound like a recycled GOP talking point, the analysts who spoke to FOXNews.com say the fear is justified. The government will have a hard time resisting getting closely involved in GM management, leading to the kind of problems that dogged Amtrak over the decades.

Utt and Cox said parochial, political interests have driven Amtrak to make ineffective decisions -- like maintaining costly, long-distance lines and setting up inefficient routes that detour through low-population areas.

Amtrak has experienced a boost in ridership recently, which its management attributes in part to high gas prices and better service. Though it is still in the red, Amtrak reported a record 28.7 million passengers in fiscal year 2008, marking its sixth straight year of record ridership.

The company notes on its fact sheet that "no country in the world operates a passenger rail system" without public support.

At the same time, Amtrak reported earning $2.45 billion in fiscal year 2008, and racking up $3.38 billion in expenses. Congress last year committed another $13 billion over five years to the rail service, with proponents of the investment saying at the time that the service had been underfunded for too long and this would finally help "rebuild" Amtrak.

Great. Just fucking great!

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From The "Duh" Files

 Obama gets fawning media coverage.

But the irony about this otherwise "no shit, Sherlock" article is how sad this quote really is:

Our political system works best when a president faces checks on his power. But the main checks on Obama are modest. They come from congressional Democrats, who largely share his goals if not always his means. The leaderless and confused Republicans don't provide effective opposition. And the press -- on domestic, if not foreign, policy -- has so far largely abdicated its role as skeptical observer.

Silly Rabbit, did you really expect the Mediacrats to attack and investigate Obama as vigorously as they did Bush? And you claim to be an intelligent person? I am just some dumb hillbilly who barely wears pants, but even I could see this coming.

But, this article gets better, as the author tries to explain away the bias:

Obama's rhetoric brims with inconsistencies. In the campaign, he claimed he would de-emphasize partisanship -- and also enact a highly-partisan agenda; both couldn't be true. He got a pass. Now, he claims he will control health care spending even though he proposes more government spending. He promotes "fiscal responsibility" when projections show huge and continuous budget deficits. Journalists seem to take his pronouncements at face value even when many are two-faced.

The cause of this acquiescence isn't clear. The press sometimes follows opinion polls; popular presidents get good coverage, and Obama is enormously popular. By Pew, his job performance rating is 63 percent. But because favorable coverage began in the campaign, this explanation is at best partial.

Perhaps the preoccupation with the present economic crisis has diverted attention from the long-term implications of other policies. But the deeper explanation may be as straightforward as this: most journalists like Obama; they admire his command of language; he's a relief after Bush; they agree with his agenda (so it never occurs to them to question basic premises); and they don't want to see the first African-American president fail.

Whatever, a great edifice of government may arise on the narrow foundation of Obama's personal popularity. Another Pew survey shows that since the election both self-identified Republicans and Democrats have declined. "Independents" have increased, and "there has been no consistent movement away from conservatism, nor a shift toward liberalism."

The press has become Obama's silent ally and seems in a state of denial. But the story goes untold: Unsurprisingly, the study of all the favorable coverage received little coverage.

Lemme try this one for you, Professor Clueless: the Media is not investigating Obama and skewering him because they went all in to help him get elected. No fucking way in hell they will let him fail, since if he fails, they fail.

Q.E. Fucking D.

 

 

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