State Of The Union 2010: From Hope To "Help"

Good evening, folks. I've been away from TtP for a while, so I'll try to make up for that by live-blogging the president's State of the Union address tonight. How will the Supremely Chill One spin the generally crappy state of the economy, his stalled legislative agenda and the fact that the Saints somehow made it to the Superbowl? Stay tuned ...

Update, 7:53 pm -- Okay, here is the TtP SOTU drinking game rules. Drink every time the Leader of the Free World:

1- Says Americans want Washington to act all bipartisan ... by passing his agenda.

2- Says the health care reform bill is just too important to the American people to be abandoned.

3- Attacks Wall Street greed.

4- Says he made some mistakes, then immediately glosses past them.

5- Says he will fight for American jobs.

6- Says we are failing future generations by not getting the nation's finances in order.

There, that should leave all of you as wrecked as Haiti by the time the speech is over.

Update 8:17 p.m. -- CNN reports the first real news of the evening: Obama may call for the end of the Pentagon's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy tonight. As somebody who is neither gay nor in the military, this doesn't really concern me much, but if a gay dude wants to pick up a rifle and shoot terrorists I am not going to object. Heck, I've met lesbians who were at least scary as anything on HBO's Oz. Why not send them to Afghanistan or where ever the fighting is?

Update 8:23 p.m. -- In case this evening wasn't enough of a downer, Anderson Cooper says the Haitian government is no longer bothering to bury the country's dead. They are just dumping them by the side of the road.

Update 8:26 p.m. -- Rob, on Twitter: "is that anderson coopers boyfriend? oh...it's just sanjay gupta."

Update 8:32 p.m. -- CNN notes that while this is Obama's first State of the
Union address, this is the third (or was it fourth?) time he has spoken to a joint session of Congress. Hmm ... Well, you cannot say he is not getting his message out. Double hmm, maybe that is his problem ...

Update 8:36 p.m. -- Whoa, Dr. C. Everett "Wear a condom" Koop just appeared in an ad basically echoing Sarah Palin's Democrats-want-to-create-death-panels argument. My thoughts on the subject here.

Update 8:40 p.m. -- For the record, I am drinking Miller Light while watching this. Why? 'Cause it is recession, dammit. As I write this, CNN is showing the presidential limo. Nice to know he is doing well, though I am a little disappointed that he has not pimped the limo out a little more. Of course, it is hard to beat basic black.

Update 8:44 p.m. -- Just saw an Allstate commercial starring that black guy who played the president on "24". If I get drunker and they keep running that ad this could get confusing.

Update 8:48 p.m. -- Just saw Al Franken on the floor. I keep forgetting that Stuart Smalley really is a senator now. Do you think that if Chris Farley had lived, he could have made it to Washington? He couldn't possible be worse than our current chief of homeland security.

Update 8:56 p.m. -- The glare from Joe Biden's forehead is distracting.

Update 8:59 p.m. -- Oh, shit. CNN just said the speech will run 70-75 minutes. Time to break out the whiskey after all. This is going to be an ass-number.

Update 9:02 p.m. -- Hey, did you know that Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor is a Latina? Damn, how did I miss that?

Update 9:05 p.m. -- Rob on Twitter: "the housing sec is the guy who leads the country if someone blows up the capitol??"

Update 9:07 p.m. -- So, was Bill Bennett the guy who played Norm on "Cheers"? I forget ...

Update 9:09 p.m. -- Okay, the Supremely Chill One has arrived. And we are off ...

Update 9:10 p.m. -- I don't know why, but Mrs. Obama looks pissed.

Update 9:13 p.m. -- Rob says he'd bone Nancy Pelosi. Well, that makes one of us.

Update 9:15 p.m. -- "... and my fellow Americans." What, no shout-out to his homeboys back in Illinois?

Update 9:16 p.m. -- "One year ago I took office in the midst of two wars ..." Which, ahem, are still ongoing ...

Update 9:17 p.m. -- So, the American people want Congress to work together. Drink.

Update 9:18 p.m. -- "It is time Americans get a government that matches their decency." Oh, shit, not that ...

Update 9:19 p.m. -- So he hated, hated the bank bailout but had no choice but to do it? If only he could get elected to some prominent political position where he could figure out some alternative way of dealing with the problem.

Update 9:22 p.m. -- "Let me repeat: We cut taxes." You didn't cut mine, buddy.

Update 9:23 p.m. -- So, we are on track to add one million jobs by the end of the year? Well, I am so fucking glad we spent that $787 BILLION to get one million jobs. What a deal that was!

Update 9:30 p.m. -- "These steps won't make up for the 7 million jobs that have been lost." Then what the fuck are we all doing here listening to you?

Update 9:35 p.m. -- "I am not interested in punishing banks ... but we can not allow financial institutions to take risks with our economy." Well, which is it? Are they evil or not?

Update 9:37 p.m. -- Okay he's giving it up for nuclear power AND offshore drilling? Maybe he really is getting past the old politics ... Oh, no, wait it's just window dressing for a climate change bill. Hello, skyrocketing energy bills.

Update 9:42 p.m. -- He is for free trade but only when our trading partners are playing by the rules, i.e., when the industries that contribute to political campaigns are not facing pesky competition from countries that want to sell the same thing to American consumers, only cheaper.

Update 9:45 p.m. -- "That is why we are doubling the child care tax credit ... " And those of us who don't have kids? Hello? Helloooooo?

Update 9:47 p.m. -- The health care bill will bring down the deficit? Bullshit.

Update 9:51 p.m. -- Again, he says any problems are all Bush's fault. Okay, Bush was loser, but, hey, you did ask for this job. Don't give us that weaselly everything was wrong before I walked in the door line.

Update 9:55 p.m. -- So, the budget freeze won't take place until next year? This is on top of that fact that it excludes defense spending, entitlements like Social Security and Medicare and isn't even across the board on what remains. So in what sense is this even a freeze? And even then the Democrats are acting like he just took a piss in the punchbowl.

Upfront 9:59 p.m. -- So now he is all about openness and limiting lobbyist influence? I don't buy it.

Update 10:04 p.m. -- CNN just just followed his lines about renewing the focus on our national security will a shot of Janet Napolitano looking like she has to get Daddy to sign her straight F report card.

Update 10:09 p.m. -- "We will have all of our combat troops out of Iraq by August." Umm, combat troops? Not just troops? Am I reading too much into that?

Update 10:10 p.m. -- "That is why North Korea is more isolated." Are they so isolated that they are feeling ronrey, so ronrey? Sorry, I know that was dumb, but frankly I got nothing. This speech mind-numbingly dull and as well as longer than John Holmes' penis.

Update 10:13 p.m. --His Justice Department is prosecuting more civil rights cases against business and beefing up hate crimes statutes. Well, thank goodness he is not pushing that big government agenda all those right-wing nuts keep complaining about.

Update 10:16 -- No, Mr. President we are not too cynical. We are not cynical enough ...

Update 10:18 p.m. -- "What keeps me going is that that sense of determination ... that core decency, lives on." Yeah, what keeps me going is Jameson, neat.

Update 10:22 p.m. -- And that is it. And now he is off to the White House to break out the Courvoisier and En Vouge albums.

'Obama Announces Intiatives for Middle Class' -- Yay for Me...Oh, Fuck...Scratch That

I'd like to stop being the "other person" in the "spending other people's money" axiom.

AP:

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Monday offered help for people struggling to pay bills and care for their families, appealing to a middle-class he says has been "under assault for a long time."

In a partial preview of a State of the Union address that aims to answer voter angst about the economy and reconnect with the public, Obama outlined the series of proposals from the White House.[...]

Among the initiatives: a doubling of the child care tax credit for families earning under $85,000; a $1.6 billion increase in federal funding for child care programs and a program to cap student loan payments at 10 percent of income above "a basic living allowance."

His initiatives also include expanding tax credits to match retirement savings and increasing aid for families taking care of elderly relatives. That program would also require many employers to provide the option of a workplace-based retirement savings plan.

I exist in some sort of childless, non-property owning, no college debt, earning little money, black-fuck-me-up-the-ass-hole of taxpayers. Doesn't anyone want to buy my vote??

I promise you; 20-somethings with substance abuse problems and a lack of life ambitions WILL be the swing vote in the upcoming mid-term elections. And we're cheap to buy off. I'd just take a bottle of something.

Stimulus Not Just Saving Or Creating Jobs, It's Creating Whole New Congressional Districts

This ABC News story has already been blogged a couple of places on the web, but it is too unbelievable for TtP to not jump on the bandwagon as well:

Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 15th congressional district, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the Web site set up by the Obama administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says.

There's one problem, though: There is no 15th congressional district in Arizona; the state has only eight districts.

And ABC News has found many more entries for projects like this in places that are incorrectly identified.

How is this happening? Well, let's just say the recipients aren't too careful about reporting on the money once they get it.

Late Monday, officials with the Recovery Board created to track the stimulus spending, said the mistakes in crediting nonexistent congressional districts were caused by human error.

"We report what the recipients submit to us," said Ed Pound, Communications Director for the Board.

Pound told ABC News the board receives declarations from the recipients - state governments, federal agencies and universities - of stimulus money about what program is being funded.

"Some recipients clearly don't know what congressional district they live in, so they appear to be just throwing in any number. We expected all along that recipients would make mistakes on jobs numbers, on award amounts, and so on. Human beings make mistakes," Pound said.

Here's an alternate theory: They funding recipients just making shit up and the jobs numbers they are providing aren't any more reliable than the other information. Oh, and one final thing:

The recovery.gov Web site was established as part of the stimulus bill "to foster greater accountability and transparency" in the use of the money spent through the stimulus program. The site is a well-funded enterprise; the General Services Administration updated it earlier this year with an $18 million grant.

Umm, Okay ...

The New York Times reports on the art the Obamas borrowed from museums to decorate the White House. Some of the choices were ... kind of revealing:

Another contemporary work chosen by the Obamas is a word painting by the California artist Ed Ruscha. Called “I Think I’ll ... ” it deals with the subject of indecision. The work depicts a brilliant red sunset against which Mr. Ruscha has painted phrases like “Maybe ... Yes ... ” and “Maybe ... No ... ” and “On Second Thought.”

And You Thought Obama Didn't Care About the Gays

Obama throws gays a bone:

President Obama plans to name an openly gay lawyer to serve as his ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, administration officials said Wednesday evening. If confirmed by the Senate, the lawyer, David Huebner, would become the first openly gay ambassador in the Obama administration.

Ambassador to New Zealand. Prestigious shit.

Isn't it time to kiss and make up gay community? All those broken campaign promises are in the past. I know you've felt jilted, but look, he's doing his best to make up for it. We're talking about naming a gay lawyer to the ambassadorship of New Zealand people. This is big-time stuff. Forget gay marriage -- you have a seat at the table next time we have a dispute over sheep tariffs...or something.

Way to mend fences Obama.

Oh, Shit ...

A Census worker was found dead today with the word "Fed" scrawled on his chest. He was hanging from a tree. The FBI is still investigating -- there hasn't been an autopsy yet -- so very little is known. The victim was a 51 year-old teacher who worked for the Census Bureau to make a few extra bucks.

It's a horrible tragedy for the guy's family of course and I hope they catch the sick fuck who did it, assuming it was a murder.

Unsurprisingly the guy's body wasn't even cold before left-wing bloggers started saying the murder was because of town hall meetings and anti-Obama protests. "Another Glenn Beck Killing?" asks Oliver Willis (What, is Beck a serial killer or something?). "Again I ask, at what point does someone using fiery rhetoric, grossly false claims, and race baiting become responsible for the violence it incites?" asks the New Atheist. "[N]ow, people are getting killed as collateral damage from this game," says one of Daily Kos's bloggers.

Never mind that we have no idea yet what actually happened to the Census worker. Never mind that vast overwhelming number of protesters just want to peaceably air their grievances and that the claims of violence at the protests are ridiculously overblown.

That whizzing sound you hear is these bloggers pissing on the ashes of liberaltarianism. They are not interested in expanding freedom or defending the rights of people to peaceably (if obnoxiously) protest. They hate it when anyone opposes them and will wave whatever bloody shirt they can find -- bogus claims of racism, Joe Wilson's outburst, now this guy's death -- to shutdown their opponents. Well, fuck them.

How About We Just Call It "Shit The Government Forces You To Pay For" Instead?

Barack Obama got into a telling exchange with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos Sunday when they spared over whether his health care plan's mandate that people buy insurance coverage or get fined amounted to a tax.

From ABC's transcript:

STEPHANOPOULOS: I -- I don't think I'm making it up. Merriam Webster's Dictionary: Tax -- "a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes."

OBAMA: George, the fact that you looked up Merriam's Dictionary, the definition of tax increase, indicates to me that you're stretching a little bit right now. Otherwise, you wouldn't have gone to the dictionary to check on the definition.

Obama apparently thinks dictionaries are a bad place to learn the meanings of words. Good to know, good to know ...

In any event, this is beside the point since the Senate health care bill that is the vehicle for Obama's reform explicitly calls the mandate a tax. From the Politico:

In the most contentious exchange of President Barack Obama’s marathon of five Sunday shows, he said it is “not true” that a requirement for individuals to get health insurance under a key reform plan now being debated amounts to a tax increase.

But he could look it up — in the bill.

Page 29, sentence one of the bill introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont) says: “The consequence for not maintaining insurance would be an excise tax.”

And the rest of the bill is clear that the Finance Committee does, in fact, consider it a tax: “The excise tax would be assessed through the tax code and applied as an additional amount of Federal tax owed.”

Read the whole thing here.

So who are you gonna believe? Obama or your lying eyes?

Jane Hamsher Will Not - Repeat, Not - Be A Veal Cutlet For Obama

The buzz in Washington today was all about the, ahem, parting of ways between the Obama administration and Van Jones, it's green jobs "czar". It happen primarily because Jones had signed a petition by the crackpot conspiracy group 9/11 Truth Movement. Jones defended himself by saying, yeah, I signed it, but I didn't read what I was signing. Which may actually be worse come to think of it.

David Corn does a pretty good job here of explaining why - even if you are the kind of person who absolutely hates George W. Bush and Dick Cheney - the supposed conspiracy doesn't even pass the laugh test.

Rightwingers predictably gloated over getting a scalp. It was especially sweet for talk show host Glenn Beck who had been targeted by Jones's allies and helped to publicize that Jones had signed the petition.

Mickey Kaus meanwhile was in awe that the New York Times was once again behind the curve on this one. And remained there.

Reason's Jacob Sullum and Matt Welch weighed in that the real problem with Jones was that he was selling snake oil by claiming that green jobs can ever come close to replacing the amount of jobs that will be lost by getting rid of carbon-based fuels. Welch was particularly incisive in noting how expertly Jones managed to shake down various public and private groups with this hustle.

And of course, there was the predictable anguish and anger from the Left over this. It was interesting to note also the number of lefties who kinda, sorta said that while they didn't necessarily endorse the 9/11 Truthers, they, you know, understood. Lefties like the Nation's John Nichols:

While some who circulated that petition may have believed the worst about members of the former administration, Jones clearly and unequivocally stated the more extreme position "certainly does not reflect my views, now or ever."

Jones wanted a more serious inquiry, as did many mainstream Democrats and Republicans who worried about the constrained and ineffectual approach of the 9/11 Commission and a Bush-friendly Congress. As the NAACP's Jealous says, "I have known Van Jones for more than 15 years. In that time he, as is characteristic of great public servants, has continuously grown and increased his capacity for improving the condition of humanity. Throughout, he has been guided by a powerful sense of patriotism and love for all."

Jones' Republican critics knew this.(Emphasis added.)

As National Review's Ramesh Ponnuru notes:"There's a lot of crazy in John Nichols's piece."

Even wackier, though, was the reaction of Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake.com, who turned the loss of Jones into an extended metaphor about how the Democrats are treating their liberal allies like veal. I shit you not.

If Only Obama Would Listen To Himself

Washington is set to raise the debt ceiling, again, pushing this country even deeper into a sea of red ink. Was it only three years ago that Democrats were citing this as proof of George W. Bush's failure? Yes, it was:

“Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren,” Obama said in a 2006 floor speech that preceded a Senate vote to extend the debt limit. “America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.”

Obama later joined his Democratic colleagues in voting en bloc against raising the debt increase.

Now Obama is asking Congress to raise the debt ceiling, something lawmakers are almost certain to do despite misgivings about the federal debt. The ceiling already has been hiked three times in the past two years, and the House took action earlier this year to raise the ceiling to $13 trillion.

Maybe it's just me but I don't think going even further into debt was the change people voted for in 2008.

Get A Second Opinion ...

There's been a fair amount of talk in recent weeks about so-called "death panels" being part of the health care reform bill in Congress, especially since Sarah Palin mentioned it. Democrats have pushed back hard against this and virtually all mainstream news outlets have followed along. Only crackpots and cynical right-wing talk show host are pushing this, so the conventional wisdom goes.

It is true there is nothing specifically like that in any of the health care bills floating around Congress. So where does this notion come from? Well, from comments like this from Barack Obama:

In terms of these expert health panels -- well, this goes to the point about "death panels" -- that's what folks are calling them. The idea is actually pretty straightforward, which is if we've got a panel of experts, health experts, doctors, who can provide guidelines to doctors and patients about what procedures work best in what situations, and find ways to reduce, for example, the number of tests that people take -- these aren't going to be forced on people, but they will help guide how the delivery system works so that you are getting higher-quality care.

Why should anybody who is concerned about rationing of care find such assurances that these panels will be merely advisory even remotely satisfying? One of the supposed purposes of this whole initiative is to reduce costs after all. Why shouldn't people who are on Medicare or some other government program fear that these panels will become more than advisory at some point? Especially when this effort is being lead by a man who has openly questioned whether his own grandmother's late in life care was worth the trouble?

Hey, Obama Said It, Not Me ...

After beating up President Obama for bullshitting about his healthcare plan, I should give him props for being honest in some comments he made Monday:

Would health care reform bring "greater inefficiencies" to the country's health care system?

That's exactly what Obama said Monday when he spoke about health care reform at the Childrens National Medical Center in Washington.

"The reforms we seek would bring greater competition, choice, savings and inefficiencies to our health care system," Obama said in remarks after a health care roundtable with physicians, nurses and health care providers. "And greater stability and security to America's families and businesses."(emphasis added)

How refreshing.

Wait, I've just been handed an update by TtP's crack reporting staff. He's backing away from the comment:

The White House quickly recognized the mistake and inserted a "sic" in the remarks sent to reporters on Monday afternoon.

Josh Earnest, a White House deputy press secretary, said Obama "misspoke" in his remarks.

Ah, well. It was nice while it lasted.

Do That Voodoo That You Do So Well

The Problem: The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reports that your health care plan is a budget buster, a massive black hole of red ink that will make health care more expensive, not less, as you have promised.

The Solution: If you are Barack Obama, you just ignore it and tell people to expect bureaucratic miracles:

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said that the proposals fall short of Obama's promise to slow the increase in health-care costs, leading critics to charge that those bills would only add to the nation's large budget deficits.

"That's simply not true," Obama said yesterday.

Reform is expected to cost at least $1 trillion over the next decade, and Obama has pledged to pay for it without adding to the nation's budget deficit.

He says the savings accrued by adjusting health-care incentives will eventually reduce medical costs and help tame the deficit.

"By helping improve quality and efficiency, the reforms we make will help bring our deficits under control in the long term," Obama said yesterday.(emphasis added)

Reason's Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie have dubbed the Obama administration the "magical realism" presidency. It would be funnier if it weren't true.

The Backside of Foreign Intrigue

Anyone see Drudge this morning? He's got a shot up on the front page of Obama and Sarkozy at the G8 appearing to catch a sideways glance at some 16 yr old Brazilian tail. The only surprise is that Silvio was nowhere to be seen in the picture...

I of course don't blame them. In fact, this is the first action of President Obama that I can fully support. I say more flagrant checking out of 16 year old girls, with no regards to decency or social mores. If he would like some talking points to counter the inevitable anti-teenage lookers I've got plenty of material I've been working on for the past 4-5 years...Or whenever it became officially creepy for me to check out teenage girls.

So Mr President, I'm glad that we finally see eye-to-ass on something of importance. Perhaps it might be better if it was about the massive deficit, cap and trade, or you decision to allow a baboon be our Vice President. No, I understand that it's a give and take with our politicians, and that it is impossible to have a President who you agree with on all the important issues of the day. I'm happy knowing that if nothing else, we both believe in freedom of grown men to check out hot, 16 year old Brazilian girls.

P.S. I'm not posting the picture here because it will undoubtedly drive our traffic way up via google image searches and I'm tired of paying for bandwidth charges. Check out the two links in the beginning of the post if you want to see the backside of the lady in question.

Can You Say Social Security?

As stay-at-home moms everywhere eagerly await the Smoker-In-Chief's upcoming 4th presser in about 3 minutes, (it seems like there have been more, no?) I remain unconvinced that he is going to be able to accomplish any of his lofty domestic goals, especially health care and that it could prove to be a Bush social security reform moment for Obama.

I'm not really basing this off of any of the recent polling data, it's more just a gut feeling from a sales guy about the angle Obama has taken on health care reform. Selling health care reform as a necessary part of balancing the budget is a pretty gutsy and transparent move. This might be a case of me giving too much credit to the average American, but I get the feeling that most people see right through his pitch, and that's the point where customers stop listening to a sales pitch.

For starters -- and lots of people have made this point -- it's tough to convince people you care about spending and balancing the budget when you are spending like Obama has, and will continue to do. Also, I'm pretty sure that most semi-educated folks understand that universal health care would cost more money, but feel as though health care is a right in a developed society and is worth the trade-off of additional costs. I don't agree with that, but it's a position that one can defend. Most discussions I get into with co-workers centers around the fundamental issue of whether people have a right to free health care, and exactly what "free" health care entitles one to. Until Obama has that discussion with the American public I don't think he can make much headway in his pursuit.

Because Detroit Just Isn't Screwed Enough

The other week, Obama joked that Car and Driver magazine had named him auto executive of the year. If only he really was joking:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will announce Tuesday a breakthrough compromise to set tough standards of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016 for new cars and trucks in return for California backing off its push for more stringent rules on automakers.

The rules could radically reshape the U.S. automotive industry by forcing automakers to push higher levels of technology such as hybrid-electric drives into vehicles faster than once planned. The deal fulfills Obama’s campaign promise to push Detroit and other automakers toward more fuel-stingy vehicles, but will also sharply raise the industry's costs for meeting regulations.

***

The new rules will increase the costs of meeting fuel economy standards by $600 per vehicle to a total of $1,300 in 2016, a senior administration official said. The administration did not provide a total cost to the industry, but previous estimates for meeting 35 miles per gallon by 2020 had run more than $100 billion.

Read the whole thing from the Detroit Free Press here.

Now, is it just me or is this not the best time for this kind of industrial policy? We are in a recession and the auto industry is suffering big time, with two of the Big Three are teetering on the edge of extinction. Do we really want to be jacking up costs across the board?

Then again, what do I know? I'm not Car and Driver's auto executive of the year, am I?

Hey, Brother Can You Spare $7.1 Trillion?

Washington Post columnist Robert J. Samuelson is great at being really depressing:

Just how much government debt does a president have to endorse before he's labeled "irresponsible"? Well, apparently much more than the massive amounts envisioned by President Obama. The final version of his 2010 budget, released last week, is a case study in political expediency and economic gambling.

Let's see. From 2010 to 2019, Obama projects annual deficits totaling $7.1 trillion; that's atop the $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009. By 2019, the ratio of publicly held federal debt to gross domestic product (GDP, or the economy) would reach 70 percent, up from 41 percent in 2008. That would be the highest since 1950 (80 percent). The Congressional Budget Office, using less optimistic economic forecasts, raises these estimates. The 2010-19 deficits would total $9.3 trillion; the debt-to-GDP ratio in 2019 would be 82 percent.

There's more, but frankly that is enough. I'm posting the picture above to distract me from even thinking about this shit.

Diversity in the News

FoxNews.com Headline:

Obama Seeks Hikes in Domestic Spending:  "President is calling on Congress to reward generous budget increases to domestic programs while proposing cuts totaling about one-half of 1 percent of the $3.4 trillion budget."

CNN.com Headline:

Obama will slice budget by $17 billion:  "White House will propose cutting or reducing funding for more than 100 federal programs in latest salvo in 2010 budget fight."

Obama Promises Government Will Stop Eating Out; Cut Back on Fancy Coffee

Obama the budget hawk:

President Obama is making a $100 million downpayment on fiscal responsibility when he holds his first formal cabinet meeting Monday.

He'll do that by ordering the agency bosses to come up with that much in savings within the next 90 days. And that $100 million is on top of whatever efficiencies have already been uncovered.[...]

Among the highlights are 26 conferences that the Veterans Affairs administration has canceled or delayed in favor of cheaper alternatives, like video conferences, keeping nearly $17.8 million in the bank.

Also, the Agriculture Department hopes to save $62 million by putting 1,500 employees from seven offices into one building in 2011, and the Department of Homeland Security thinks it can cut $52 million over five years by buying office supplies in bulk.

Call me cynical, but I don't think our nation is on the brink of bankruptcy because the assholes at federal bureaucracies are spending too much money on colored post-it notes and highlighters.

(Although, when the geniuses at Homeland Security say they can save $52 million by buying office supplies in bulk, one does wonder exactly how they are currently buying their pens and legals pads...)

Department of Speaking Too Soon

Mark Steyn at National Review Online Saturday afternoon:

Once upon a time we killed and captured pirates. Today, it’s all more complicated. The attorney general, Eric Holder, has declined to say whether the kidnappers of the American captain will be “brought to justice” by the U.S. “I’m not sure exactly what would happen next,” declares the chief law-enforcement official of the world’s superpower. But some things we can say for certain. Obviously, if the United States Navy hanged some eyepatched peglegged blackguard from the yardarm or made him walk the plank, pious senators would rise to denounce an America that no longer lived up to its highest ideals, and the network talking-heads would argue that Plankgate was recruiting more and more young men to the pirates’ cause, and judges would rule that pirates were entitled to the protections of the U.S. constitution and that their peglegs had to be replaced by high-tech prosthetic limbs at taxpayer expense.

The Washington Post today:

MOMBASA, Kenya, April 12 -- An American captain held hostage for five days by Somali pirates in a lifeboat adrift in the Indian Ocean was rescued unharmed Sunday in a surprise U.S. military operation in which snipers killed three pirates with the captain tied up just feet away, American military officials said. A fourth pirate was in U.S. custody.

The snipers, positioned near the fantail of the destroyer USS Bainbridge less than 30 yards from the lifeboat, fired within seconds after a commander determined that Capt. Richard Phillips, 53, was in "imminent danger" as one of the pirates aimed an AK-47 at his back, military officials said. President Obama had issued a standing order that the military was to act if the captain's life was in immediate jeopardy, said Navy Vice Adm. William E. Gortney, commander of the Fifth Fleet.
***
The rescue occurred at 7:19 p.m. local time Sunday, the Navy said, and involved dozens of SEALs. With one of the pirates pointing an AK-47 straight at Phillips's back, an on-scene commander gave the SEAL snipers authority to fire.

Mission Accomplished, Again

Cato's Gene Healy had a good piece in the Washington Examiner yesterday about the Left's hero worship of Barack Obama and how eerily it replays the way Rightwingers fell head-over heels in love the Great Decider:

Last summer, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Morford wrote that "Many spiritually advanced people I know … identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who … can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet."

The Politico recently ran a 900-word article entitled "The Power of Obama's Hand," reverentially describing how the president "uses touch to control and console simultaneously," laying hands on supporters and opponents alike.

And in February, author Judith Warner used her New York Times blog to confess that “The other night I dreamt of Barack Obama. He was taking a shower right when I needed to get into the bathroom to shave my legs.”

Instead of keeping that information to herself, Warner “launched an email inquiry,” which revealed that “many women—not too surprisingly—were dreaming about sex with the president.” Those of us who like to point out that the Emperor has no clothes now have to worry that when we do, we may give rise to a new round of lurid cougar fantasies.

Conservatives like to think they're above this sort of thing. Their attitude is summed up by the subtitle of Jerome Corsi's recent bestseller: Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality.

But any conservative who thinks cultishness is exclusively a leftist phenomenon ought to take a good long look in the mirror. Because many of those who decry the "cult of Obama" are the same people who made a flight-suited action figure hero out of such common clay as George W. Bush.

Peggy Noonan called Bush's post-9/11 address to Congress "a God-touched moment and a God-touched speech." Fred Barnes wrote that "the stage was set for Bush to be God's agent of wrath." National Review Online ran ads for the Bush "Top Gun" action figure, and an article about how wonderful it was to have a presidential superhero to complement your GI Joe collection.

Obama Owns Detroit Now; We Get The Bills

The Wall Street Journal is on target describing Obama's auto industrial policy, which is all about forcing Detroit to build the kind of cars he wants to see, not about making the companies viable:

Bankruptcy or not, the larger problem here is Washington's industrial policy. Even if Chrysler merges and GM restructures, Mr. Obama wants the companies to make the kind of cars the political class favors, whether or not consumers want to buy them. "The United States of America will lead the world in building the next generation of clean cars," the President said yesterday. He didn't mention a goal of profitability. To that end, Treasury tapped Fiat's know-how in small vehicles for Chrysler and wants GM to move in this direction.

Yet the Treasury's own "viability summary," released yesterday, points out that "GM's product portfolio is more vulnerable to CAFE [fuel-economy] standard increases than the portfolios of many of its competitors." Only nine of GM's "top 20 profit contributors in 2008" were cars; the rest were SUVs and trucks, which are politically incorrect on Capitol Hill and with the green lobbies. Chrysler has a similar problem. Even GM's much-vaunted electric Volt car is "too expensive to be commercially successful," according to Treasury.

In other words, Mr. Obama's industrial policy vision runs directly counter to a strategy that would get the companies back to profitability as soon as possible. To help them sell those unwanted cars, Mr. Obama yesterday was already pledging that taxpayers will cover new-car warranties. And he urged Congress to pass a new "incentive program" (read: subsidy) for "cleaner car" purchases.

Government Gets Into the Service Agreement Business. Why Not?

And this is supposed to make potential car buyers feel safe? From the President's prepared remarks about designating someone to a title very ominous called "Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers":

GOVERNMENT WARRANTY

It is my hope that the steps I am announcing today will go a long way towards answering many of the questions people may have about the future of GM and Chrysler. But just in case there are still nagging doubts, let me say it as plainly as I can -- if you buy a car from Chrysler or General Motors, you will be able to get your car serviced and repaired, just like always. Your warrantee will be safe.

In fact, it will be safer than it's ever been. Because starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warrantee

Fact-Checking The Chosen One

Here's a handy rundown of things that Obama said during a his press conference that are either bullshit or so twist the truth that it is tantamount to the same:

* 1 in 50 kids are homeless in America? Mickey Kaus calls bullshit on that.

* Reagan would have supported Obama's charitable deductions rollback, which won't affect at all what people give to charities? Reason writers Matt Welch and Jacob Sullum are on the case.

* Obama's cutting the budget deficit in half claim? Lots of people are calling him on that one.

* We cannot grow the economy without his budget's massive new spending? The Cato Institute's Chris Edwards is on that one.

* Obama's response on when he learned about the AIG bonuses and why he didn't talk about them earlier? Dissembling, at best.

There's more I'm sure, but I've gotta get to work.

Suppose They Had A Political Uprising And Nobody Noticed?

Just Last week, the White House went into campaign mode to sell its proposed budget, enlisting the same network that is used during the election. The Washington Post breathlessly detailed the mobilization:

The Obama administration and the Democratic National Committee opened a new chapter Saturday in their ambitious project to convert the energy from last year's campaign into a force for legislative reform on health care, climate change, education and taxes.

More than 1,200 groups from Maine to Hawaii spent the day gathering signatures in support of Obama's economic plan, the first step in building what the White House hopes will be a standing political army ready to do battle.

Seeking to create a grass-roots force on a scale never seen before, Obama called the volunteers into action in a video message reminiscent of the 2008 contest. In defense of his budget, under attack from many quarters, he asked his supporters to go "block by block and door by door."

The theory here being, apparently, we have a cult of personality in place, so let's use it to try to scare the rest of the country into backing this economic plan. So how's that mobilization going? According to McClatchy, not so well:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's army of canvassers fanned out across the nation over the weekend to drum up support for his $3.55 trillion budget, but they had no noticeable impact on members of Congress, who on Monday said they were largely unaware of the effort.

"News to me," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, a House Budget Committee member, of the canvassing. Later, his staff said that his office had heard from about 100 voters.
***
Blue Dogs [i.e., southern and rural moderate Democrats] were careful not to criticize Obama, but said they've felt little pressure from the canvassing.

Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Ill., once a coalition member but now vice-chair of the New Democrat Coalition, said she wasn't aware of the effort and has heard no response to it from her district.

It's nice to know that campaign tactics that work to get Democrats to the polls during primaries and election don't work nearly as well for budgets that spend us into total bankruptcy.

Obama Makes Retard Joke; Rob Holds Out for Bestiality One-Liner Next Thursday

Mr President -- You can borrow our Shameless Jokes About Retards tag. You're just going to have to promise me that you'll use it on your buddy Joe a time or two.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has apologized to the chairman of the Special Olympics for his late-night talk show quip equating his bowling skills to those of athletes with disabilities.

Appearing on "The Tonight Show" Thursday, the president told host Jay Leno he'd been practicing at the White House's bowling alley but wasn't happy with his score of 129. Then he remarked: "It was like the Special Olympics or something."

Maybe Obama might be interested in a guest blogging gig at TtP?

More:

On his way back to Washington on Air Force One, Obama called the chairman of the Special Olympics, Tim Shriver, to say he was sorry — even before the taped program aired late Thursday night.

"He expressed his disappointment and he apologized in a way that was very moving. He expressed that he did not intend to humiliate this population," Shriver said Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America." Obama, Shriver said, wants to have some Special Olympic athletes visit the White House to bowl or play basketball

After which Obama added, "Only because the retards would make me feel better about my scores!" Zing! Good one Barry.

And don't feel too bad if your child, or some one you love is a mushhead. Obama didn't mean to disrespect them.

Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton told reporters traveling with Obama that the president's offhand remark was not meant to disparage the Special Olympics, only to poke some fun at the commander in chief's bowling skills.

"He thinks that the Special Olympics are a wonderful program that gives an opportunity to shine to people with disabilities from around the world," Burton said.

That's right. It wasn't meant to "disparage the Special Olympics". He was only saying that everyone knows retards aren't good at bowling, so his poor bowling is comparable to retards bowling....

Can't wait to catch Barry at the Laugh Factory next week's press conference. Who knows what wacky thing will come out of the Prez's mouth.

Rebranding The War On Terror, Obama-Style

Remember how Obama said he would change the Bush administration policy on enemy combatants, Gitmo and the rest? Well, this administration has quietly announced those changes -- They are no longer using the term "enemy combatants" but they are keeping the rest of the policy. From the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration said it is dropping use of the term "enemy combatant" for suspected terrorist detainees held by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, while slightly modifying the legal standard used to justify their continued imprisonment.

The steps are meant to distance the new administration from controversial policies of its predecessor, though they reserve some of the broad detention powers that President George W. Bush exercised -- and that President Barack Obama criticized during last year's campaign.

The change was announced in a Justice Department filing Friday in federal court in the District of Columbia. It states that under the government's new standard, terror suspects can be detained if they "substantially supported Taliban or al-Qaida forces or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners." The Bush administration previously argued for detaining those who "directly supported" al Qaeda or the Taliban, a broader standard that is slightly easier to meet.

Now I'm no legal expert, but "substantially supported" sounds broader to me than "directly supported". The legal experts quoted by the Journal see it the same way:

"The Obama administration is trying simultaneously to distance itself from the Bush administration's legal positions while preserving flexibility," said Matthew Waxman, a Columbia University law professor and former detainee-affairs official in the Bush administration.

But legal tussles are likely to continue between the government and lawyers representing detainees, who have argued that military detention be limited to those who engaged in combat. Some civil libertarians said they could hardly tell how the Obama standard differs from old policy.

Jonathan Hafetz, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing Ali al-Marri, a Qatar-born U.S. resident recently transferred from military to civilian custody, said the administration's filing "contains similarly vague and open-ended language that appears to license dragnet detention power. Civilians suspected of terrorism should not be subject to military justice."

Should Have Gone With the Wal-Mart Gift Card

This has been covered to death by the conservative blogs, but it was just too good for me to pass up. Paul Waugh in the Evening Standard across the Atlantic:

So Gordon goes to all that trouble of getting an historic pen holder carved from the oak timbers of a Victorian anti-slavery ship. Carefully chosen and months in the preparation, the pen was finally handed over in Washington when the men met this week.

And what does Obama give him in return? A DVD collection of 25 classic American films.

We don't know yet what the films are, but that surely aint the point.

It looks for all the world as though Obama has scoured the local bargain basement shop in a last-minute supermarket sweep. When it's taken with the helicoper model of Marine One given to the Brown boys, it looks a little shoddy.

Funny enough by itself for sure. but taken with this tidbit the whole debacle turns hilarious. Over at Powerline:

MORE: Reader Ken Gage observes: "Going back to the topic of is he just that stupid or is he doing it on purpose, consider the fact that Gordon Brown is blind in one eye and has some visual deterioration in the other (how much is unclear). A calculated insult could not have been more on-target."

I had no idea if this was in fact true, but a quick check of Wikipedia backs up the Powerline commenter. "Calculated insult" seems to be a bit harsh. "Unintentional, but really fucking funny" would probably be a more appropriate description.

Combine this along with Biden's award wheelchair moment and you have an Administration that is proving to be very sympathetic to disabled people.

Last thought: Do presidents ever give governors gifts? I hope so, 'cause I can't wait to see what David Patterson gets.

Black Man Arrives At White House; Things Turn Gray

The Washington Post and The New York Times do some deep investigative reporting:

Mr. Obama’s graying is still of the flecked variety, and appears to wax and wane depending on when he gets his hair cut, which he does about every two weeks. His barber, who goes by only one name, Zariff, takes umbrage with bloggers who alternately claim Mr. Obama, 47, is dyeing his hair gray (to appear more distinguished) or dyeing it black (to appear younger). “I can tell you that his hair is 100 percent natural,” Zariff said. “He wouldn’t get it colored.”

Fairy Dust A Key Ingredient Of Obama Economic Policy

Apparently that whole "audacity of hope" thing extends to the Obama administration budget policies too. From the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON -- The White House is relying on a set of optimistic economic assumptions in its budget that allows the Obama administration to claim a steeper drop in the deficit in coming years than many mainstream forecasters expect.

The budget forecast assumes that U.S. gross domestic product -- the nation's total economic output -- will decline about 1.2% this year, while private forecasts -- measured by the Blue Chip survey -- show a 1.9% decline. Next year the Obama team forecasts 3.2% growth, while professional forecasters expect a 2.1% gain.

Economic assumptions are vital to the budget forecasts. Stronger growth translates into more profits for businesses and greater income for individuals. That means higher tax receipts, which can reduce the nation's annual deficit and total debt.

The Obama budget puts the deficit at less than $600 billion starting in 2012 from $1.75 trillion this year. Getting to that point requires GDP to rise more than 4% a year by then -- meaning the U.S. would quickly return to growth rates similar to the boom years of the 1990s -- after the worst financial shock since the Great Depression. Such growth is more than a full percentage point above private-sector growth estimates for 2011 and 2012.

So If Last Night Was a Democratic Pep Rally, Does That Make Joe Biden the Mascot?

I watched a good portion of last night's quasi-SOTU. And by good, I don't mean that I watched anything that would qualify as "good", only that I watched most of the sophomoric show in between the LSU - Florida basketball game.

An important caveat -- A mistake was made in staying sober. I wasn't at my house and only had access to a few glasses of wine. No pills, nothing to smoke, no hard liquor. How anyone actually watches one of these things sober is beyond me. Turns out there are a lot of things you miss when slipping in and out of alcohol and barbiturates induced comas. But don't get me wrong -- you're better off for it. My thoughts from last night:

--What the fuck was Nancy Pelosi wearing? The morning-beer-shits-color straitjacket she had on last night was hideous and off putting to even this observer who usually finds the lady and her massive boobies quite attractive. Put the outfit together with a level of exuberance that was downright offensive after what she's done to the American taxpayer recently and it was very hard to watch her behind the president.

--Is Joe Biden the dumbest guy on earth? I think so. He's a caricature of Joe Biden. The grin and finger points to the crowd, he's obnoxious like no other. And what the fuck was with Obama saying, "No one messes with Joe!". Seriously, this is supposed to be a serious speech during a serious time and he gives a shout-out to the goofy VP? What a joke.

--Were we supposed to feel better about the $1 trillion that was just taken from us, when Obama confirmed that Joe Biden would be overseeing the stimulus raping of America investment and recovery act? 'Cause I don't.

--How long can Obama get away with blaming Bush and a former Republican congress for deficit? You would think it would be hard to do when you've signed off on spending in you're first month like no other president has ever done. Basically I'm making Nick Gillespie's point that he made so well.

--We learned you're against America if you drop out of high school.

--Solar panels and windmills are still going to be the drivers of tomorrow's jobs. Let me repeat: Solar panels and windmills...

--Did anyone hear anything about free trade? Honest question. I might have missed it. I definitely heard one reference to companies that ship our jobs overseas.

--More and more Obama strikes me as the prototypical pragmatic office bureaucrat that forces me to sit in hour long meetings about carpet. Anyone else get this vibe? I'm using pragmatic in a pejorative manner. I think anyone who considers themselves a pragmatist is usually worthless. So Obama will have lots of meetings with lots of breakout sessions where people will talk about a lot of things that will never happen. All just to repeat mistakes made 40 years ago. Great.

Obama And Accountability? Not So Much

Given the fact that members of Congress had only ten hours to read the 1,000+ pages of the economic stimulus bill before it was voted on, it is not surprising that they missed a few things. Byron York highlighted one in an eye-opening story that ran earlier today in the DC Examiner:

You’ve heard a lot about the astonishing spending in the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, signed into law this week by President Barack Obama. But you probably haven’t heard about a provision in the bill that threatens to politicize the way allegations of fraud and corruption are investigated — or not investigated — throughout the federal government.

The provision, which attracted virtually no attention in the debate over the 1,073-page stimulus bill, creates something called the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board — the RAT Board, as it’s known by the few insiders who are aware of it. The board would oversee the in-house watchdogs, known as inspectors general, whose job is to independently investigate allegations of wrongdoing at various federal agencies, without fear of interference by political appointees or the White House.

In the name of accountability and transparency, Congress has given the RAT Board the authority to ask “that an inspector general conduct or refrain from conducting an audit or investigation.” If the inspector general doesn’t want to follow the wishes of the RAT Board, he’ll have to write a report explaining his decision to the board, as well as to the head of his agency (from whom he is supposedly independent) and to Congress. In the end, a determined inspector general can probably get his way, but only after jumping through bureaucratic hoops that will inevitably make him hesitate to go forward.

***
When I inquired with the office of a Democratic senator, one who is a big fan of inspectors general, I was told the RAT Board was “something the Obama administration wanted included in this bill.” When I asked the White House, staffers told me they’d look into it. So for now, at least, there’s been no claim of paternity.

The RAT Board has all sorts of other things wrong with it. For one thing, it’s redundant; there is already a board through which inspectors general police themselves, created last year in the Inspectors General Reform Act. For another thing, it could complicate criminal investigations stemming from inspector general probes. And then there’s the question of what it has to do with stimulating the economy.

But none of that matters now. It’s the law.

What The New York Times Defines As Patriotic

Press bias at the New York Times? What press bias?

Senate Democrats reached an agreement with Republican moderates on Friday to pare a huge economic recovery measure, clearing the way for approval of a package that President Obama said was urgently needed in light of mounting job losses.

The deal, announced on the Senate floor, was a result of two days of tense negotiations and political theater. Mr. Obama dispatched his chief of staff to Capitol Hill to help conclude the talks and reassure senators in his own party, and he called three key Republicans to applaud them for their patriotism.
***
Mr. Obama called Ms. Collins and Mr. Specter, as well as Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, another Republican expected to support the deal, to acknowledge they were acting against pressure from their party and, one official said, to thank them for their patriotism in helping advance the bill at a critical time.

Yeah, I know: The Times is paraphrasing Obama. But you'd think they could have at least noted that this was a rather dubious definition of patriotism.

Does Anybody In This Administration Pay All Of Their Taxes?

Once is understandable. Twice is embarassing. Three times is a pattern. Four times is pretty much beyond parody.

Taxing Our Patience

Let me take a slightly different tack on this situation than Rob. It's all well and good that Obama has owned to his recent screwups with his appointments. Still, am I the only one who finds it ironic, to say the least, that of the three major appointments Obama has made who have run into tax trouble, the one who hasn't stepped down is the guy who's now the Treasury secretary?

Good for Obama

I mean it. I swear.

Obama: I screwed up.

Yes HE Can

Via Andrew Studdaford who notes this bit of hypocrisy from Obama:

WASHINGTON — The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.

“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”

He cranks up the thermostat as he appoints Climate Czars...of course. And what was that he said back in May?

Pitching his message to Oregon's environmentally-conscious voters, Obama called on the United States to "lead by example" on global warming, and develop new technologies at home which could be exported to developing countries.

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said.

"That's not leadership. That's not going to happen," he added.

Uh huh. What's good for us, isn't good for him. Even when things "change", nothing actually changes.

The Difference...

between guys who get paid to write and the guys who don't. Mark Steyn on a rather silly comparison by Tom Brokaw:

Re: The Velvet Revolution [Mark Steyn]


Kathryn, Jonah, that Tom Brokaw comparison between Obama's inauguration and the Czech revolution is, of course, deeply insulting to millions of people around the world who know what it's like to live under a tyrannous regime and aren't so parochial and narcissistic as to confuse it with sitting around over a decaf latte and lo-fat granola bar complaining that Bush is shredding the Constitution because some radio station in Texas hasn't put the Dixie Chicks' "Rock Against Libby" CD into high rotation.

Nevertheless, large numbers of Democrats do sincerely believe that some sort of Velvet Revolution has taken place—that a mass hopey-changey vibe forced the hated Gustav Husak of Crawford to revise his plans to seize power for life and agree to go quietly. And they look on today's events not (as Kathryn does) as the wondrous ritual of an enduring democracy but as a necessary tactical compromise—after which "war crimes" trials and "truth and reconciliation commissions" and all the rest will surely follow.

They won't. Aside from rhetorical feints, Obama has been at pains to emphasize continuity. But in the broader culture I would bet that the delegitimization of the last eight years is set to continue indefinitely.

That first paragraph is pure laugh-out-your-nose brilliance.

What If?

Markets down this morning; we'll see what they do after the Obama decade officially starts in a few minutes. But my thought this Tuesday morning -- Could you imagine the headlines if the markets were down 2% when a Republican was being sworn in? It's a fair point to make about the media....

Inauguration Day

My office has a "Inauguration Party" in our boardroom starting in 15 minutes with food and a big screen TV showing the events. Everyone is all jazzed up to say the least.

If this is such a special occasion because it is the first black guy being sworn in (rather than just uber-irrational hope and joy for this guy for reasons that I just don't fully grasp), I'm curious if we can have parties and be excused from work everytime the new black President has a "first". For the sake of lazy fucks everywhere I hope so.

Solution: War on Budget Deficits, Ban the Word Trillion

I was going to point out the inconsistencies in the headline -- "Obama planning ways to rein in budget deficit", but saw that Nick Gillespie already did it. I'll let the paid guy do the work.

Obama: The Governor Guy? I Hardly Knew Him

Maybe. Goddamn, that "Change" man is slick. He must have sensed that Rod Blagojevich was toxic and kept him at arms length, even as Blagojevich contemplated his successor. I swear sometimes I think Obama could sell hams in a synagogue.

Obamacracy Update, Pt VI: Land of the Living Lobbyists

The effort to Change Washington and purge the influence of those evil lobbyists continues apace in the Obama administration. From the Politico:

One of the leading members of President-elect Barack Obama’s Health and Human Services transition team was an anti-tobacco lobbyist as recently as September, a position that would appear to break a transition team rule that prevents lobbyists from serving in policy areas they have worked to influence within the past year.

But in an example of how the tough-sounding rules can provide Obama plenty of wiggle room, the campaign explained how the lobbyist’s work didn’t violate the restrictions.

Bill Corr, executive director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, unsuccessfully pushed Congress to give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco. But because the legislation granting that authority failed, there is no dovetail between Corr’s lobbying and HHS policies, said a transition spokeswoman, who did not wish to be identified.

Obamacracy Update, Pt V: Misty Water-Colored Memories

Congressional Quarterly reports:

Here’s some change that supporters of President-elect Obama may not want to see: all of the policy commitments on specific issues have been removed from his transition Web site.

On Nov. 7, global health advocates noticed that some of the details of Obama’s “fight global poverty” statement had been removed. Specifically, the site no longer promised to fully fund debt cancellation for the world’s poorest countries or provide the full U.S. contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Activists already were concerned, since boosting foreign aid was the one thing Obama mentioned during the campaign when asked what proposals he’d have to scale back due to the faltering economy...

By this morning, all of the issue-specific pages on the transition site had been removed from the agenda section. In its place, a statement that mentioned details but provided none at all: “The Obama Administration has a comprehensive and detailed agenda to carry out its policies.”

Via NRO's Campaign Spot.

Obamacracy Update, Pt IV: Day of the Living Lobbyists

Via the New York Times:

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama has imposed stricter conflict-of-interest restrictions on his White House transition team than any president before him. But a list of transition team members that his office made public on Friday includes a complicated tangle of ties to private influence-seekers.

Among the full roster of about 150 staff members being assigned to government agencies between now and Inauguration Day are dozens of former lobbyists and some who were registered as recently as this year. Many more are executives and partners at firms that pay lobbyists, and former government officials who work as consultants or advisers to those seeking influence.
***
Some appear to skirt the edges of the ban on working in areas of the transition where they have recently lobbied. Handling some Interior Department issues is Keith Harper, who lobbied earlier this year for Native American tribes. Overseeing the Consumer Products Safety Commission is Pamela Gilbert, a former executive director of the agency who as recently as two years ago lobbied for a consumer advocacy group. Within the last year she has lobbied for the company Barr Laboratories, for an investor group, and for an antitrust enforcement group.

Among the group handling the Justice Department and civil rights areas of the transition is Theodore Shaw, a litigator for an arm of the N.A.A.C.P. He has registered as a lobbyist for the group in the past, but N.A.A.C.P. officials say he has not lobbied in the past 12 months.
***
Several of the officials have ties to Fannie Mae, the government-backed mortgage firm whose implosion this fall contributed to the financial meltdown. Thomas Donilon, overseeing the State Department, is a partner in the law and lobbying firm O’Melveny and Myers who until three years ago lobbied for Fannie Mae. Wendy R. Sherman, the other official charged with reviewing the State Department, once headed Fannie Mae’s charitable foundation. And James Johnson, a former top officer of Fannie Mae, is on the economics and international trade team, charged with reviewing the Commodities Futures Trading Commission.

Even Mr. Lu, the transition’s executive director charged with policing potential conflicts of interests, may have his own appearance problems. His wife, Kathryn Thomson, is a lawyer who represents corporate clients dealing with federal environmental regulations, while his older brother, Curtis Lu, is a top lawyer for Fannie Mae. (Such family connections may not be disqualifying conflicts depending on the nature of the transition job, ethics lawyers said.)

Obamacracy Update, Pt III: Dawn of the Living Lobbyists

Via the Politico:

After leaving the Clinton administration in its waning months, newly tapped Vice Presidential chief of staff Ron Klain lobbied for an asbestos industry bailout package, an airline merger, mortgage regulations to help Fannie Mae and a drug-maker under congressional scrutiny for withholding life-saving drugs from dying patients, among other clients.

Klain’s career as a lobbyist, during which clients paid nearly $700,000 for lobbying in which he participated, ended when he left his partnership at the law firm O’Melveny & Myers in 2005.

That makes him eligible to be the top aide to Vice President-elect Joe Biden under the rules outlined by President-elect Barack Obama, who decreed early in his campaign that lobbyists can work in his administration — just not in areas related to their lobbying within two years of that lobbying.

Obamacracy Update, Pt II: Night of the Living Lobbyists

Change is definitely coming to Washington. The big-deal lobbying firms in DC are getting rid of some of their Republican staffers ... and replacing them with Democrats. The Washington Post reports "Democrats Benefiting From Post-Election Lobby Boom":

Barack Obama spent much of his presidential campaign decrying the influence of Washington lobbyists. In the 10 days since he was elected, he already has had an impact: He has touched off a mini-boom on K Street.

Top lobbying firms are gearing up to handle increased demand from corporate clients who fear that the Obama administration will expand its regulatory reach and target them for tax increases. Some firms, such as Patton Boggs, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and Alston & Bird, are also preparing for new business resulting from the ongoing effort to stabilize the economy.

And who is cashing in on this boom? Democrats who supported Obama, such as Jaime R. Harrison.

Harrison helped mobilize voter turnout for Obama in South Carolina, and for the past two years he directed floor operations for House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) -- credentials that made him a sought-after addition to firms looking for an edge in a new administration.

"I built a lot of strong relationships with members, as well as their staff, and some of my very best friends worked on the campaign," Harrison said. He will start with the Podesta Group next week.

That would be Podesta as in John Podesta, Obama's transition chief. But hey, The Supremely Chill One himself is going to put his foot down and not let them influence his administration right? Hmmm, maybe not. The Post makes a great catch:

[A]lmost from the start of his campaign, Obama made clear that he would not be slamming the door on interactions with lobbyists. In a December 2007 speech in Iowa, he said he was "running to tell the lobbyists in Washington that their days of setting the agenda are over. They have not funded my campaign. They won't work in my White House." But the candidate quickly backed away from that second part. A few days later in Waterloo, Iowa, he changed the phrasing to say that lobbyists "are not going to dominate my White House."

Obamacracy Update

Hey, Change really is coming to Washington! Barack Obama is pushing out the lobbyists and their filthy corporate money:

Barack Obama campaigned as an anti-Washington candidate, and the leader of his presidential transition team made it clear that the president-elect would seek to build on that theme over the next two months.

His transition chief, John D. Podesta, announced a set of broad regulations yesterday that restrict how federal lobbyists can participate in Obama's transition, saying the move is designed to ensure "that the undue influence of Washington lobbyists and the revolving door of Washington ceases to exist."

The transition team will not allow lobbyists to work in the subject areas in which they have previously lobbied, Podesta said. And if someone becomes a lobbyist after working on the transition, that person will be prohibited from lobbying the administration for 12 months on matters on which he or she worked.

Oh, wait. Scratch that:

President-elect Barack Obama is barring lobbyists from participating in the transition that will help install his administration. He will still leave room on his team for the rich and powerful.

Top fundraisers and other well-connected supporters will serve in an advisory capacity before the Democrat takes office on Jan. 20.

Five of the 12 members of Obama's transition advisory board raised at least $50,000 for his presidential campaign, and eight contributed the maximum individual donation of $4,600. Other transition team members include a partner in a lobbying firm and two executives of financial companies whose employees were among his biggest donors.

"If an Obama administration is going to sell influence, these are the ones who have bought it," said Craig Holman of Public Citizen, a Washington-based advocacy group that favors stronger campaign-finance and lobbying laws.

Too Rich For My Blood, Blood

Not News: They're scalping tickets to Barack Obama's inaugural. News: The tickets are going as high as $40,000. The solution: federal regulations of course:

Hoping to keep the inauguration from turning into the ultimate hustle, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is drafting legislation that would make it a federal crime to sell the free tickets to President-elect Barack Obama's swearing-in. She is also writing to Web sites requesting that they not permit tickets to be sold.

Only 240,000 tickets are available for the event. The offices of senators and House members have been flooded with calls and e-mails from constituents clamoring to be part of the historic day.

Feinstein, chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, said she has heard reports of tickets going for $40,000. "This is unconscionable and must not be allowed."

Gil Duran, Feinstein's spokesman, said, "It kind of runs contrary to what this . . . is supposed to be about when scalpers fire up their engines and declare open season on the inauguration."

Lamar Latrell Is Heartbroken

The numbers are in and as I surmised earlier this week, all of those black voters excited by Barack Obama's message of hope and change turned around told gays to go to hell:

Seven in 10 African Americans who went to the polls voted yes on Proposition 8, the ballot measure overruling a state Supreme Court judgment that legalized same-sex marriage and brought 18,000 gay and lesbian couples to Golden State courthouses in the past six months.

Similar measures passed easily in Florida and Arizona. It was closer in California, but no ethnic group anywhere rejected the sanctioning of same-sex unions as emphatically as the state's black voters, according to exit polls. Fifty-three percent of Latinos also backed Proposition 8, overcoming the bare majority of white Californians who voted to let the court ruling stand.

Why did they oppose it? Because that's God's will, apparently:

"I think it's mainly because of the way we were brought up in the church; we don't agree with it," said Jasmine Jones, 25, who is black. "I'm not really the type that I wanted to stop people's rights. But I still have my beliefs, and if I can vote my beliefs that's what I'm going to do.

"God doesn't approve it, so I don't approve it. And I approve of Him."
***
"What the church does is give that perspective that this is a sacred issue as well as a social issue," said Derek McCoy, African American outreach director for the Protect Marriage Campaign. "The reason I feel they came out so strong on the issue is one, for them, it's not a civil rights issue, it's a marriage issue. It's about marriage being between a man and a woman and it doesn't cut into the civil rights issue, about equality.

"The gay community was never considered a third of a person."

And so there you have it, the glorious multicultural rainbow of Barack Obama's coalition. And don't forget he opposed gay marriage too.

No Hope, No Change For Gay Marriage?

Did Barack Obama sink gay marriage last night? In one of the more ironic developments of the election, ballot proposals in Arizona and Florida that defined marriage as only being between a man and a woman passed last night. A third, in California, appears to have passed as well though the counting isn't finished yet.

With such a big night for the Democrats, how did this happen? Well it depends on which Democrats vote. An expert in ballot initiatives told me last week that the bans would likely pass if Obama boosted black turnout significantly. Black voters tend to be more conservative on social issues like this -- they love their bibles and Jesus -- but they typically turnout in smaller numbers on Election Day than other ethnic groups. This year they hustled to the polls to elect Obama. Apparently they gave gays the cold shoulder while they did it.

We'll see if the exit poll data bears this theory out.

Democrats Finally Get Big O; How Satisfying For The Rest Of Us?

I literally just came home from the Republican National Committee's erroneously-named victory night party in DC (I was there as a reporter). It was not as gloomy as you might think. The crowd -- young and mostly white -- ate and chatted like it was an ordinary happy hour. They all had seen the writing on the wall and knew they would lose tonight. They didn't have spirits to deflate, so why not party? And this time, there really was no sex in the champagne room.

Meanwhile, outside on the streets of DC, people went fucking nuts. Honking cars horns, shouting crowds, and random cries of "Obamaaaaaaaa!" could be heard. I saw one woman shout "Barack, bitch!" in a guy's face.

As I write this Barack Obama is leading 51-47% in the popular vote. If he keeps that percentage or builds on it, he'll be the most successful Democratic candidate since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Bill Clinton, you'll remember, never broke 49% nationally. The lesson here? Republicans should never run Arizona senators for the presidency. They get their asses handed to them.

Seriously, congrats to Obama. He ran the better campaign, beating the pantsuit off of Hillary Clinton when everybody thought the old bag was unstoppable. He then cleaned the clock of the only Republican that polled better than him at the beginning of the year. He also expanded the Democrats' majorities in the House and Senate with his magical touch. That's quite a haul for the Kid from Hawaii.

The Republicans deserved to lose. They had no ideas, no direction, no responses to the problems the country faces. And even after getting shellacked in 2006 and losing control of Congress, they were never serious about rooting out corruption in their own ranks and just generally getting their shit together. I mean, a party that allows Ted Stevens, an 84 year-old guy facing a federal felony trial for taking bribes, to run for reelection deserves whatever punishment the voters give them.

So what's next? Damned if I know. Obama is a total enigma to me. Who knows what he believes in or what he'll do? If were lucky he'll be Clinton without the zipper problem and I'd be cool with that. Or he could be the second coming of Jimmy Carter, only even more sanctimonious. And while I agree with Rob its cool that we proved that we're willing to elect a black dude, the fact that it happened fairly easily shows it isn't that big of a deal (which is the way it ought to be).

As for me, I'm going to bed ...

Live Blogging the Obama Half Hour Variety Show

7:56 p.m. EST I'm watching Fox News right now, waiting for this big Obama special. Fox has a focus group of undecided voters to watch the presentation. Fox talking head Shepard Smith is appropriately incredulous. How can these people still be undecided? The voters are indignant at the question. "We haven't heard enough from the candidates," they say. Bullshit, they're morons.

8:06 p.m. EST Okay, cheesy swelling music as he speaks from the podium. Not a good start.

8:09 p.m. EST Hmm, he starts off the taped part by defending the bailout bill that Congress passed. Of course, it is not enough. How could $700 billion ever be enough?

8:10 p.m. EST One of the talking heads mentions Obama's "common-sense Kansas roots". Yes, the Kansas roots he got by being raised in Hawaii and Indonesia.

8:12 p.m. EST So far, its one sob story after another set to sad, tinkly piano music. Was this produced by the people at the Lifetime channel?

8:13 p.m. EST Obama says he'll create 5 million new jobs with green technologies. Yes, but how much will it cost us to subsidize those jobs?

8:14 p.m. EST Every time a politician says something like a "new era of shared responsibility" I grab hold of my wallet and start thinking about buying more guns.

8:16 p.m. EST Okay, the current sob story is a Hispanic family where the mom is a teacher. They seem like decent folks, but they don't like how much milk costs. Yeah, who does? He's just going for cheap emotional points now, going right for the Oprah vote. Somebody should tell him he already has Oprah's vote.

8:19 p.m. EST He's going to fix education and fix health care. Apparently it just takes spending more tax dollars and offering more incentives. Why didn't anybody think of that before? P.S. He repeats the bogus statistic that 47 million people don't have health care.

8:20 p.m. EST Hmmm, his special has an awful lot of scenes of him getting roaring applause from crowds. The people, they love him. And he loves that they love him.

8:22 p.m. EST Hey, did you know Obama has "changed the way things are done in Washington"? Gone are the gifts from lobbyists and "business as usual" politics, we're told. I guess nobody told the Obama campaign this.

8:24 p.m. EST "This is our moment." Well, at least it is not just all about him.

8:28 p.m. EST "He's a man that can heal this country. He can bring bipartisanship," Bill Richardson says. Will Obama do this by laying his hands on the country?

8:29 p.m. EST "Hope over fear", "Unity over division", blah, blah, blah. I know some of you are thinking I'm too cynical. I wonder if I am cynical enough.

8:22 p.m. EST And back to your regularly scheduled program, game 5 of the World Series. I've heard it's kind of a big deal. Not as big as Obama though ...