Part 6--August, 2009

* 8/4/09--You thought you'd had enough of depressing numbers after the stimulus package passed in February. But a reporter from the Heritage Foundation, out this week, shows that those numbers were just a fraction -- about one-fifth, to be precise -- of what the federal government will spend in 2009. This year's $4 trillion total -- a record, even accounting for inflation -- may look like a sudden blip on Heritage's graphs, but research shows the spike is here to stay. Three years from now, when stimulus spending has slowed to a dribble, new programs and strained entitlements will bring federal expenses right back to today's "emergency spending" levels. By 2019, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid caseloads will have hit record heights, and the national debt will be nearly double what it is now. In the haze of zeros, it's hard to really grasp what this means. It isn't helped by the fact that the Office of Management and Budget has some 2,200 pages of documents explaining the budget....--NY Post

* 8/5/09--WASHINGTON -- A prominent Jewish group slammed the White House yesterday for bestowing its highest civilian honor on a woman who critics charge has expressed hostility toward Israel. Mary Robinson, who was Ireland's first woman president, presided over the 2001 UN Durban Conference on Racism, which the United States boycotted for its bias against Israel and its final outcome document that equated Zionism with racism. But White House spokesman Robert Gibbs held firm to the decision to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Robinson as a "crusader of women's rights." The American Israel Public Affairs Committee ripped Robinson for showing "hostility and one-sided bias" against Israel when she served as the United Nations high commissioner for human rights from 1997 until 2002. AIPAC called on the White House to "repudiate her views on Israel," but Gibbs said President Obama believes she deserves the award, although he does not endorse her views.--NY Post

* 8/5/09--A Republican senator is calling for the White House to suspend a new project that asks members of the public to flag “fishy” claims about President Obama’s health care plans, arguing that it raises privacy concerns and will serve to chill free speech. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is sending a letter to the White House today asking the president to “cease this program immediately” -- or to explain how Americans’ privacy will be protected if e-mails are forwarded to the White House as requested. “I am not aware of any precedent for a President asking American citizens to report their fellow citizens to the White House for pure political speech that is deemed ‘fishy’ or otherwise inimical to the White House’s political interests,” Cornyn writes.“I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward emails critical of his policies to the White House. I suspect that you would have been leading the charge in condemning such a program -- and I would have been at your side denouncing such heavy-handed government action.” Yesterday, White House director of new media Macon Phillips wrote a blog posting urging readers to flag questionable claims about health care proposals. “There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.” Cornyn specifically asks whether those who quote the president’s past statements -- such as his 2003 statement that he was a “proponent” of single-payer care -- qualifies as “disinformation.” He also asks what actions the White House would take against those engaging in “fishy” speech.--ABC News

* 8/6/09--WASHINGTON -- Months after Congress blasted auto executives for flying private jets to Washington during tough economic times, members quietly ordered up three new sets of wings for themselves. The House last month approved nearly $200 million for the Air Force to buy three elite Gulfstream jets (and later five) for getting top government officials and members of Congress to their destinations in style. The legislative provision was uncovered by Roll Call, a Capitol Hill publication. One $65 million jet was requested by the military as part of regularly scheduled upgrades, but the other two were added to the must-pass Defense Appropriates bill unbidden. --NY Post (The request was eventually withdrawn over public outrage).

* 8/6/09--(Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama's approval rating is falling amid concerns about the U.S. economy and his push to revamp the U.S. health-care system, a Quinnipiac University poll shows. Exactly half of the registered voters surveyed from July 27 to Aug. 3 by Quinnipiac said they approve of the job Obama is doing, compared with 42 percent who disapprove. That’s down from 57 percent approval and 33 percent disapproval in a poll taken in late June, according to results released today.

* 8/7/09--Fox News' Glenn Beck reported that the federal government posted an ominous message at the Clunkers Web site stating that while logged into the Department of Transportation CARS system, users' computers would be considered property of the federal government and therefore all materials on the computers could be scanned, recorded, monitored, inspected and disclosed to any element of the government, including law enforcement. After Beck's program aired, the government quickly "clarified" that users who logged into the site had no explicit or implicit expectation of privacy, which sounds essentially like what Beck reported, just in better legalese. This should be considered an outrage of epic proportions, but the response from watchdog groups has been muted. The ACLU, which challenged every move the Bush Administration made during his eight years in office, had this to say: "It is hard to believe that (the Obama Administration) would do something like this".--Patriot Post

* 8/8/09--"Those who deem Iraq as the biggest US foreign-policy success in decades are baffled by Washington's determined efforts to deny that reality -- indeed, whenever possible, to try to undermine it. Having labeled Iraq the "bad war" as opposed to the "good war" in Afghanistan, the Obama administration has tried to minimize its commitment to the newly liberated nation. President Obama has appointed special envoys on the Middle East, Iran and the Afghanistan-Pakistan tandem, but refuses to name a senior coordinator for Iraq policy. The Iraqis feel that the administration is treating them as a stepchild -- perhaps tolerated, but never loved....Amir Taheri, NY Post

* 8/8/09--John Brennan, head of the White House Office of Homeland Security, disclosed in a speech Thursday that the terms "war on terror," "global war" and "jihadists" are now off the table, as far as the administration is concerned. That's because "terrorism is but a tactic," and "you can never fully defeat a tactic like terrorism, any more than you can defeat the tactic of war itself." All that Obama & Co. are prepared to declare, he said, is that "we are at war with al Qaeda . . . [and] its violent extremist allies." That's all gibberish, of course -- but at least it's better than "overseas contingency operation," which the Pentagon's Office of Security Review put forward last March as its preferred term.--NY Post

* 8/10/09--House Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned the health care debate up a notch Monday, penning a column along with her top deputy that questioned the patriotism of those disrupting town hall meetings to air their complaints. Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer claimed such behavior is "simply un-American." It's hardly the first time Pelosi, who earlier this year accused the CIA of lying to Congress and repeatedly has called Republicans unpatriotic, has employed some serious name-calling to characterize her opponents' views. The jab Monday drew swift scorn from Republicans and critics who say the health care demonstrations are as American as apple pie. "I, like most Americans, would find that kind of characterization of citizens exercising their First Amendment rights to be offensive," Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., told FOX News. "There's nothing more American than letting your elected representatives know how you feel about important issues facing the nation." House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, released a statement calling the charge "outrageous and reprehensible." Pelosi and Hoyer made the accusation as part of a lengthy column in USA Today stressing the need for action on health care reform. The piece was published as lawmakers return to their districts for summer recess, a period that could imperil the legislation if health care critics cause moderate Democrats to lose their stomachs for sweeping reform. Critics have confronted lawmakers about the bills, sometimes shouting at them, at a number of town halls in the past week alone. --FoxNews

* 8/12/09--(AP) - Militia groups with gripes against the government are regrouping across the country and could grow rapidly, according to an organization that tracks such trends. The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration.

* 8/12/09--Old folks can rest easy -- President Obama promised yesterday that his health care plan won't "pull the plug on grandma." Obama made his good-humored comment to address a growing fear about his push to overhaul the health-care system, as he spoke at a friendly town hall meeting in Portsmouth, NH....At one point, he begged the audience for tougher questions, saying he didn't want to be accused by the media of having "a bunch of plants" there.--NY Post (See Item Below)

* 8/13/09-- Michelle Malkin today exposes Obama's so called townhall meeting today. I was suspicious from the start. The townhall meeting yesterday was more like a pep rally than a genuine townhall meeting. Tickets were distributed. Many dissenters were not let in. Obama has not changed my mind on healthcare. There was not anything new. He himself said that there were not any "plants," in the audience. Well, the cute little 11 year old Julia Hall who asked the "mean sign" question at yesterdays townhall meeting in New Hampshire, may not be old enough to vote but her mother apparently not only voted for Obama, but is a staunch supporter. Malkin, getting her info from the Boston Globe, says that Julia's mother, Kathleen Manning Hall, not only voted for Obama, she gave thousands of dollars to his campaign as did the law firm she works for.--Examiner.com

* 8/13/09--Why have people lost trust in Democratic Senators, Congressman and the President? The explanation could never been on display better and never so evident than at Obama’s Town Hall meeting in Portsmouth, NH. The White House insists that the people at the Town Hall event were picked randomly. Oh Really? You mean like little 11 year old Julia Hall, the daughter of an Obama supporter and Obama organizer who some how out of sheer coincidence and luck of the draw not only was picked randomly by a computer to be at the town hall, but was also able to ask a question of “The One.” Give us a break President Obama and do not insult our intelligence. The Gateway Pundit asks whether the people who were bussed in were randomly picked as well? For weeks Democrats like Nancy Pelosi have been claiming that the anti-Obamacare response was fabricated and lead by RNC operatives. Sorry San Fran Nan, but that type of anger and hostility is impossible to manufacture. However, how convenient that some how an Obama Town Hall reflects nothing of what has been going on across America. It did not even reflect the atmosphere outside on the streets of Portsmouth as pro and anti-Obamacare folks battled each other. Talk about your astro-turfing a town hall meeting!--ScaredMonkeys.com

* 8/13/09-- (AP) -- Retail sales disappointed in July and the number of newly laid-off Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly last week.

* 8/13/09--47% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. That’s the lowest level of total approval yet recorded. The President’s ratings first fell below 50% just a few weeks ago on July 25. Fifty-two percent (52%) now disapprove. --Rasmussen Reports

* 8/13/09--In the Bush years, the US Interests Section in Havana erected a mockup of political prisoner Oscar Biscet's cell--to dramatize his plight and that of his fellows. It had Lech Walesa speak to dissidents by video hookup, and so on. We were engaged with the population, not merely the dictatorship. We also had--another of our gestures or gambits--a news ticker. This flashed information to Cuban passersby--information that the dictatorship was not keen for them to see. Well, the Obama Administration has now turned the ticker off. Cuba turns out to be the one place where liberals aren't for a Fairness Doctrine--National Review, The Week (in NY Post).

* 8/13/09--VIOLENCE is rising again in Iraq -- just as the country begins, for the first time since the fall of Saddam Hussein, to seriously contemplate life without American troops. Are we fleeing too soon? However valid, the question will surely be ignored by an administration that never hid its disdain for "Bush's War." Aware that the Obama team can't pull US forces out soon enough, all Iraqi factions are jockeying for position. Al Qaeda is again rushing to kill at symbolic religious and tribal sites. One frequent recent target is the oil-rich city of Mosul, where control is still up for grabs among various ethnic/religious groups. Other outsiders, Arab and Persian, also aim to exploit and deepen Iraq's sectarian divides. Some observers fear that, without America's backing, the country could yet break up into warring pieces. How did we get from last year's cautious optimism about Iraq to this malaise?....In a leaked -- and now widely circulated -- memo, US Army adviser Col. Timothy Reese wrote two weeks ago that all Americans in Iraq should "declare victory and go home" by next summer. Although Washington officials have since denied any support for such a hastened pullout, the administration's body language is clear: Iraq was Bush's war, and we need to pull out ASAP. The results on the ground? Since America's June 30 withdrawal from the cities, terrorists have killed 566 Iraqis. Al Qaeda in Iraq is on the rise again.... Americans are clearly tired of hearing about Iraq. Any slowdown of our departure, therefore, would spell political suicide for all involved. But leaving a chaotic mess behind will be catastrophic for America's regional interests. If we leave too quickly, a defeat may yet be snatched out of the jaws of what only recently seemed like certain victory in Iraq.--Benny Avni, NY Post Editorial

* 8/16/09--After he was asked, "Who can compete with the government? The answer is nobody," Mr. Obama's answer evoked the public-private competition in the mail business. "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right?" the president said. "It's the Post Office that's always having problems." ...Leave aside the shocking off-handedness with which the president promised to put tens of millions of Americans in a system that he himself compared to the one that "is always having problems." The US Postal Service is characterized by monopoly, long waits, indifferent treatment of customers, dwindling services, billions in losses and expert opinion that it would work better as a private firm -- exactly the list of flaws critics cite about ObamaCare. Thanks for drawing our attention to all this, Mr. President.--Kyle Smith, NY Post

* 8/16/09--To hear it from President Obama, the choice is simple: his plan or the status quo. He is wrong on both counts: he has no plan, and the Republicans do. In fact, Republicans have introduced meaningful health care reform for years. In the 1990s, Republicans tried to change Medicare into a defined-contribution model, more along the lines of the plan that federal employees enjoy. The Republican-controlled Congress passed such legislation in 1995, but President Clinton vetoed it. Seeing that Medicare costs were out of control, Clinton set up a bipartisan Medicare Commission headed by John Breaux (D-La.). The Breaux Commission came up with a similar plan in 1999. Democrats killed that too. When Republicans controlled Congress and the White House, from 2003-06, they provided Health Savings Accounts and prescription coverage under Medicare for the first time. With the Democrats regularly using Senate filibusters, those were significant achievements. Republican introduced precursors to the Patients' Choice Act in the House in July 2007, May 2008 and September 2008. All died in the Democrat-controlled House. There is also the Health Care Freedom, introduced in the Senate this June by Sen. Jim DeMint. The Patients' Choice Act addresses the concerns most of us have about health care. It will reduce costs. It will expand coverage. It will increase patient choice, moving decision-making away from government and corporations and toward individuals....--Randall Hoven, NY Post

* 8/16/09--"...Looking back, a key domestic moment in this presidency occurred only eight days after his inauguration, when Mr. Obama won House passage of his stimulus bill. It was a bad bill—off point, porky and philosophically incoherent. He won 244-188, a rousing victory for a new president. But he won without a single Republican vote. That was the moment the new division took hold. The Democrats of the House pushed it through, and not one Republican, even those from swing districts, even those eager to work with the administration, could support it. This, of course, was politics as usual. But in 2008 people voted against politics as usual. It was a real lost opportunity. It marked the moment congressional Republicans felt free to be in full opposition. It gave congressional Democrats the impression that they were in full control, that no one could stop their train. And it was the moment the president, looking at the lay of the land, seemed to reveal he would not govern in a vaguely center-left way, as a unifying figure even if a beset one being beaten 'round the head by the left, but in a left way, without the modifying "center." Or at least as one who happily cedes to the left in Congress each day. Things got all too vividly divided. It was a harbinger of the health-care debate...."--Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal

* 8/17/09--An IRS staffer who had no clue that her work e-mail was being audited got canned for sending out an anti-Barack Obama message in the heat of the 2008 presidential campaign. Cruz Salas was axed from her job of 30 years last month after supervisors at the agency's Manhattan office discovered she e-mailed six people a message falsely calling Obama a Muslim. The Office of Special Counsel filed a complaint against Salas last March. Her e-mails violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal staffers from engaging in political activities at the office, her employers said. Salas refused to talk about her messages. --AP (One wonders just how many Democrats violated the Hatch Act with impunity during 8 years of Bush Derangement Syndrome?)

* 8/19/09--WASHINGTON -- The White House fell into full retreat yesterday from its earlier surrender of Democratic plans for a massive new government-run insurance agency as part of its health-care reform bid. The Obama administration now says it remains fully behind the idea of a "public option" for government-run insurance, despite clear signals over the weekend from top officials that the public option is not a deal-breaker and is just a "sliver" of the overall reforms it seeks. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs blamed the media for misunderstanding the administration's support. "The administration's position is unchanged," Gibbs insisted in a testy exchange yesterday during which he handed one reporter exact quotes to read from previous speeches....--NY Post

* 8/19/09--BAGHDAD, Aug 19 (Reuters) - A series of explosions killed at least 75 people and wounded more than 300 in central Baghdad on Wednesday, the deadliest day in the Iraqi capital since U.S. troops withdrew from urban centres in June. At least six bombs and mortar rounds struck near government ministries and other sensitive targets in quick succession, the latest in a series of attacks in the capital and Iraq's north that raised doubts about the ability of Iraqi security forces to cope without U.S. help. One blast shattered windows in Iraq's parliament building in the heavily guarded Green Zone government and diplomatic complex, television footage showed. It occurred near the Foreign Ministry, just outside the Green Zone.

* 8/19/09--In a move some fear is a reprisal for opposing President Obama's health care plan, Democrats sent 52 letters to health insurers requesting financial records for a House committee's investigation. Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., sent a letter warning health insurers that the House Energy and Commerce Committee is "examining executive compensation and other business practices of the health industry." Waxman, chairman of the committee, and Stupak, chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee did not inform their Republican counterparts of their plans. Health insurers have until Sept. 4 to provide Congress a detailed list of every employee who made over a $1 million dollars a year between 2003 and 2008. Democrats also want documents about conferences and any events held off company property as well as the types of transportation, lodging, food, entertainment and even gifts exchanged. Raising the intimidation stakes: the Waxman letter offers insurers no explanation of what is being investigated or why. Industry insiders fear the beginning of reprisals for anyone daring to dissent from the Obama agenda. One said it feels like a reprisal audit by the IRS. With raucous health care town halls unfolding nationwide during the August congressional recess and polls showing increased opposition to a government-run insurance program or "public option," neither Waxman nor Stupak nor their staffs would comment on this story. But it's no secret that Democrats blame anti-reform ads on the private health insurance industry and its supporters.--FoxNews

* 8/19/09--Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- When the political winds shift -- when a party is voted out of power or a policy is panned by the public -- Washington turns to its favorite pastime: the blame game. And so it is with President Barack Obama, who tripped on his sprint to the health-care-reform finish line. Voters, it seems, want to understand a little more about what ObamaCare will mean for them, what it will do to the doctor-patient relationship, and what it will cost future generations in higher taxes and, yes, rationed supply. Rather than examine the public’s concerns, the plans’ inconsistencies or the sheer irresponsibility of trying to ram something this big and complicated through Congress without a small-scale trial, the Obama administration is pointing fingers. Lots of them. Most of the targets are just plain silly.

1. Conservative groups

When liberal activists, including trade unions, Acorn and MoveOn.org, protested against anything and everything President George W. Bush said or did, it was called grassroots democracy. When conservative groups encourage supporters to attend town hall meetings and make their sentiments known to their congressmen, it’s un-American, disruptive and the work of right- wing extremists. Where was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, when President George W. Bush was being compared to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis? She was a "fan of disrupters” in those days, as she told anti-war protesters at a January 2006 town hall meeting in San Francisco. Pelosi only developed a thin skin (too much plastic surgery?) when the Democrats took control of the executive and legislative branches of government. The effort to blame right-wing groups is transparent. If my feedback on a recent column is indicative of the political persuasion and demographic distribution of the protesters, these are ordinary Americans energized by the debate, frustrated at not having a voice and motivated to exercise their right of free speech. Attempts to smear opponents and shut down debate are, well, un-American.

2. Insurance Companies

Garnering support for health-insurance reform by demonizing insurance companies is a cheap shot, albeit one that resonates with the public. After all, these are the faceless bureaucrats who deny or pay claims in a seemingly arbitrary manner and refuse or cancel coverage if you cost them too much money. Facts are stubborn things, this White House is quick to remind us. And in this case, the facts don’t support the vilification. If insurance companies were gouging the public, the evidence would show up in one of two places, according to Graef Crystal, a compensation expert in Santa Rosa, California, and occasional Bloomberg News columnist: excessive executive pay or excessive returns to shareholders. His analysis of five major health insurers shows just the opposite: below-market pay and below-market shareholder returns. “There’s no case here for undue enrichment of shareholders” or over-compensating CEOs, Crystal finds. Health care needs a major overhaul, but that’s no reason to make scapegoats out of insurance companies.

3. The Media

I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard Obama point the finger at the media at his town hall meeting last week in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The president, defending the White House’s fishing expedition for “fishy” emails on health-insurance reform (suspended this week by popular demand), blamed the media for “distorting what’s taken place.” Is this the same media that was in the pocket for candidate Obama and waltzed us through the honeymoon? If Bush had been as reliant on his teleprompter as Obama, or said “Cinco de Cuatro” when he meant "Cinco de Mayo" the press would have been all over him for being inept. Sorry, Mr. President, you have no idea what it means for the media to distort what’s taken place. The long-gone Bush administration is getting more negative press than you are.

4. Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin, the recently retired governor of Alaska, 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate and Democrat’s favorite whipping boy (or girl), created a stir with a reference to death panels on Facebook. Palin said she didn’t want her parents or Down-Syndrome baby to “have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide” what kind of medical care should be allocated to these less productive members of society. This is the same Sarah Palin whose foreign policy experience was summed up during the campaign by her ability “to see Russia from land here in Alaska.” This is the same Sarah Palin credited with changing the terms of the debate? C’mon. That’s too laughable to address. Besides, there’s a kernel of truth in what she said. Like all goods and services, medical care is a scarce resource that must be rationed. The only question is how: by the market (price) or by government mandate. If government is doing the rationing, what exactly will bureaucrats use to determine who gets what care and who doesn’t? Opposition to fast-track health-insurance reform is coming from Obama’s own party. Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota and one of six Finance Committee members involved in bipartisan negotiations, said on Fox News Sunday that the goal is to “get this right,” not meet some “specific timetable.” He said the Senate lacks enough votes to pass a bill with a public option. “To continue to chase that rabbit, I think, is just a wasted effort.” There’s always room for one more -- the Democrats -- on Obama’s blame-game list.

* 8/19/09--WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama participated in a scripted online discussion of his health care overhaul with a friendly audience of religious voters and pastors Wednesday. It ended with him bemoaning those who bear "false witness" against his plans — and then making a claim of his own that's been widely shown to be false. "There's been a lot of misinformation," Obama said, complaining about people who are "bearing false witness." He said the first thing he wanted to correct was the idea that the proposed overhaul would force some people into different health care plans. "If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan," he said, repeating one of his stock lines. That's not true, however, according to FactCheck.org, an independent truth squad run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. "He can't make that promise to everyone," concluded FactCheck's analysis, one of several that point out that the Democrats' health care plan could lead to employers switching plans, and thus forcing their employees into different plans and perhaps to different doctors. "Under the House bill," FactCheck said, "some employers might have to modify plans after a five-year grace period if they don't meet minimum benefits standards. "Furthermore, some firms are likely to buy different coverage for their workers than they have now, or simply drop coverage and pay a penalty instead, leaving workers to buy their own private coverage or go on a new federal insurance plan." Obama tried anew to knock down false assertions that the overhaul would create "death panels" that would euthanize old people. "That is just an extraordinary lie," Obama said. He also noted that the proposed plan would ban financing health care for illegal immigrants, not provide care for them, as some have charged. (Untrue) He also said that there would be no federal financing of abortion under the plans, a charge made again Wednesday by the Republican National Committee. (Untrue--"Abortion will be covered as a benefit by one or more of the health care plans available to Americans," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), "and I think it should be." ) "These are all fabrications," Obama said. (Untrue) --McClatchydc.com

* 8/20/09--WASHINGTON –President Barack Obama's push for a national health care overhaul is providing a financial windfall in the election offseason to Democratic consulting firms that are closely connected to the president and two top advisers. Coalitions of interest groups running at least $24 million in pro-overhaul ads hired GMMB, which worked for Obama's 2008 campaign and whose partners include a top Obama campaign strategist. They also hired AKPD Message and Media, which was founded by David Axelrod, a top adviser to Obama's campaign and now to the White House. AKPD did work for Obama's campaign, and Axelrod's son Michael and Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe....--AP

* 8/20/09--Car dealers are mutinying over the popular Cash for Clunkers program. Hundreds of frustrated dealers around the city have pulled out of the program because the feds are holding up their reimbursements, the Greater New York Automobile Association said yesterday. About half the 425 association members say they've dropped out because they've gotten only 2 percent of the millions of dollars owed them by Washington. "It's an administrative nightmare," said association president Mark Schienberg. New York dealers aren't the only ones being told the check is in the mail. Nationally, only about 2 percent of dealers have gotten reimbursed for the $3,500 to $4,500 they shelled out for each car to make the program work, according to Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), who complained to President Obama this week....Dealers give the buyer a credit out of their own pocket, then take out loans on the transactions and repay them in a matter of days. Under federal regulations, they are supposed to be reimbursed by Washington within 10 days for the $3,500 to $4,500.... Dealers also complained that they had problems trying to file the 13-page forms required for each sale with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "Their [computer system] crashes all the time and you can't talk to anyone. It's extremely frustrating," said Schienberg. He said some local dealers are owed up to $1 million from the program. "Cash flow is extremely important," Schienberg said. "Dealers are throwing up their hands and saying it's time to pull out of the program." --Andy Soltis with AP (NY Post)

* 8/20/09--President Obama took to the conservative airwaves Thursday to charge that Republican leaders are engaged in a vast right-wing conspiracy to kill health care reform in order to repeat the 1994 mid-term takeover of Congress, which followed the defeat of President Clinton's reform plan. "I think early on, a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, 'Look, let's not give him a victory, maybe we can have a replay of 1993, '94, when Clinton came in, he failed on health care and then we won in the mid-term elections and we got the majority. And I think there are some folks who are taking a page out that playbook," the president said. Appearing on the Michael Smerconish radio show, Mr. Obama said he would "love to have more Republicans engaged and involved in this process," but he vowed to win the battle, with or without support from the minority party in Congress. "I guarantee you, Joe, we are going to get health care reform done," he said to one caller. "I know there are a lot of people out there who've been handwringing, and folks in the press are following every little twist and turn of the legislative process, but having a big bill like this is always messy." --Washington Times

* 8/20/09--US President Barack Obama launched a mocking counter-attack Thursday at pundits who believe the euphoric early promise of his presidency is evaporating amid bitter political warfare. Obama, who has watched his poll ratings dip sharply over recent months, drew comparisons to his 2008 presidential campaign, which was several times all but written off by media experts who set prevailing political wisdom. "We have been through this before, in Iowa," Obama said, referring to the first state to hold a 2008 Democratic nominating contest, which saw him capture a come-from-behind win. "All Washington said 'Oh, it's over,' hand-wringing angst ..." Then Obama drew parallels to the media frenzy that greeted the nomination of firebrand Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin in 2008. "The media was obsessed with it, cable was 24 hours a day," Obama told a friendly audience of grass-roots Democratic activists at a Washington forum broadcast live over the web. "'Obama's lost his mojo,' you remember all that? "There is something about August going into September where everybody in Washington gets all wee weed up!" Obama's counter-punch, delivered at a meeting of his Organizing for America network of supporters, follows a run of town-hall appearances and speeches, which have seen him mount a stern defense of his health care reform plan, which is facing stiff Republican attacks. He told backers not to get obsessed with polls, pundits and "cable chatter" but to take aim at what he described as fabrications drummed up by opponents to doom his top domestic priority. "We are going to have to cut through a lot of nonsense out there," he said. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll published Thursday found that 51 percent of those asked were very or fairly sure that Obama would bring real change to America -- down 10 points from February. A Quinnipiac University poll this month suggested Obama's approval ratings had slumped to 50 percent, the lowest since his inauguration -- a reflection of growing unease about his handling of the economy. The figure was a substantial drop from the 57 percent approval rating he had on July 2, and far less than the numbers he enjoyed in the honeymoon first 100 days of his tenure. But the president argued that he had "not a bad track record," having taken office in the teeth of the deepest economic crisis in decades. He said his sweeping economic stimulus plan had made an "enormous difference" and highlighted his move to lift the ban on government funding of stem cell research, and ban on the use of torture to interrogate terror suspects. "We should be proud of what we have done," Obama said. "But we have more work to do, more promises to keep." --Breitbart.com

* 8/20/09--WASHINGTON — Delinquency and foreclosure rates for U.S. mortgages continued to rise in the second quarter, with loans to the most qualified borrowers going bust at an unnerving clip, especially in hard-hit states such as Florida and California. The numbers reported Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association show clearly that rising job losses are worsening the nation's housing troubles and threaten the Obama administration's efforts to keep owners from losing their homes.--McClatchydc.com

* 8/21/09--(AP) BOSTON -- Cancer-stricken Sen. Ted Kennedy has asked Massachusetts leaders to change state law to allow a speedy replacement if it becomes necessary for him to surrender his seat, fearing a months-long vacancy would deny Democrats a crucial vote on President Obama's health-care overhaul. In a note to Gov. Deval Patrick and other state leaders, Kennedy wrote that "it is vital for this commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months between a vacancy and an election." Health care has been Kennedy's signature issue. Although Democrats hold a potentially filibuster-proof margin in the Senate, the fate of a sweeping health-care bill could hinge on a single vote and some moderate Democrats have been wavering.

* 8/21/09--WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration will raise its 10-year budget deficit projection to approximately $9 trillion from $7.108 trillion in a report next week, a senior administration official told Reuters on Friday. The higher deficit figure, based on updated economic data, brings the White House budget office into line with outside estimates and gives further fuel to President Barack Obama's opponents, who say his spending plans are too expensive in light of budget shortfalls. The White House took heat for sticking with its $7.108 trillion forecast earlier this year after the Congressional Budget Office forecast that deficits between 2010 and 2019 would total $9.1 trillion.

* 8/22/09--WASHINGTON -- Americans' confidence in President Obama has plummeted as he has worked to greatly expand the power and reach of the federal government with a massive new health-care program, a new poll shows. Just 49 percent of Americans now say they are confident Obama is making the right decisions for the country, the ABC News/Washington Post survey found. That's a dramatic 11-point drop from the 60 percent of Americans who had confidence in Obama just four months ago. Slipping almost as much is public approval of Democratic plans for reforming health care. Disapproval of the so-called "public option" -- a government-run health-insurance program -- has skyrocketed to 46 percent from 33 percent two months ago. During the same period of time, approval of such a plan has dropped 10 points, from 62 percent to 52 percent. Other recent polls have shown that more Americans oppose nationalized health insurance than support it, reflecting a deep lack of confidence in the federal government to successfully run such a massive program when every other similar program it runs is already on the verge of bankruptcy. Nowhere has that loss of confidence been as profound as it has been among highly valued independent voters. Two months ago, swing voters supported the notion of government health care by 2 to 1. Today, they are about evenly split. Almost as important, especially for Democrats, are seniors, who have always been skeptical of government health-care intervention. Two months ago, elderly voters were about evenly split over government health-insurance proposals. They've grown steadfastly opposed to it the more they've learned. The percentage of those who disapprove of Obama's approach to reforming health care has reached 50 percent. Forty-two percent "strongly disapprove." The bad-news poll comes as Obama takes off for a week's vacation and capped another tumultuous week in the president's effort to dramatically overhaul health care -- a key pledge during last year's presidential campaign....Beyond health, the ABC News poll showed a much wider decline in support for Obama. The percentage of those surveyed who say the country is seriously on the wrong track jumped to 55 percent, up from 48 percent four months ago. Obama's overall approval rating remains strong at 57 percent but is 12 points below his high of 69 percent four months ago.--NY Post

* 8/24/09--...So it's just as unsurprising that the Democrats are resorting to tactics befitting a schoolyard bully. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, last week sent letters to 50 of the nation's largest health insurers, demanding detailed information on how much they spend on executive salaries and corporate junkets. Surely it's just a coincidence that Democratic talking points now stress the need to bash insurance companies in order to save ObamaCare. The president, meanwhile, was taking Republicans to task for not being "bipartisan" -- though his biggest problem has always been skeptical Democrats. Meanwhile, Senate Dems were reportedly scheming to pass the most radical parts of the plan with a parliamentary trick that would avoid the need for a filibuster-proof, 60-vote majority....--NY Post Editorial

* 8/24/09--(Reuters) WASHINGTON -- The situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating, Washington's top military officer said yesterday. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added: "I think the Taliban insurgency has gotten better, more sophisticated, in their tactics." Combat deaths have risen since President Obama ordered a troop buildup in Afghanistan and a record 44 US troops were killed in July. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll showed a majority of Americans believe the Afghanistan war is not worth fighting, and just a quarter say more troops should be sent.

* 8/24/09--(AP) WASHINGTON -- Millions of people face shrinking Social Security checks next year for the first time in a generation. The program's trustees project no cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for the next two years. That hasn't happened since automatic increases were adopted in 1975. By law, benefits cannot go down, but monthly payments would for millions in the Medicare prescription program, since the premiums, often deducted from Social Security payments, are scheduled to go up slightly.

* 8/25/09--(Bloomberg) -- U.S. unemployment will surge to 10 percent this year and the budget deficit will widen to $1.5 trillion next year, reflecting a “deeper recession” than previously expected, White House budget chief Peter Orszag said. The Office of Management and Budget also forecasts that the U.S. economy will shrink 2.8 percent this year, worse than the 1.2 percent contraction the OMB projected in May.

* 8/25/09--Car buyers in New York and across the country rushed to beat yesterday's Cash for Clunkers deadline -- but many were frustrated by government snafus when they tried to seal the deals....Sales manager Dominick Montello had 20 customers waiting to complete deals made in the last few days. "But nobody can get into the [computer] system," he said....Four hours before last night's sales deadline, the US Transportation Department announced that dealers would have more time -- until noon today -- to file paperwork for reimbursement.--NY Post

* 8/25/09--WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration announced yesterday that it was launching an investigation into whether CIA officials broke any laws while harshly interrogating terrorism suspects in the aftermath of 9/11. Attorney General Eric Holder will appoint John Durham, a career Justice Department prosecutor from Connecticut, to probe about a dozen cases to determine if any charges should be filed against interrogators who used "enhanced" techniques to glean information. Word of the probe was applauded by liberals who remain horrified by the methods used by the Bush administration to ferret out terror information....Investigators credited the detention-and-interrogation program for developing key intelligence. One CIA operative interviewed for the report said the program thwarted al Qaeda plots to attack the US Embassy in Pakistan, derail trains, blow up gas stations and cut the suspension line of a bridge.--NY Post (See Editorial Below)

--..."Good luck getting any information. Banning techniques that have not only led to the arrests of top suspects but also disrupted terrorist plots is bad enough. But effectively criminalizing heretofore legal practices is a recipe for disaster. Fact is, techniques of the sort that the Obama administration has decided to target for criminal prosecution were meant to prevent a repetition of 9/11 -- and they succeeded spectacularly. As former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and ex-CIA Director Michael Hayden warned last spring, the "net effect will be to invite the kind of institutional timidity and fear of recrimination that weakened intelligence gathering in the past, and that we came sorely to regret on Sept. 11, 2001." --NY Post Editorial

---"The documents released Monday clearly demonstrate that the individuals subjected to Enhanced Interrogation Techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about al Qaeda. This intelligence saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks. These detainees also, according to the documents, played a role in nearly every capture of al Qaeda members and associates since 2002. The activities of the CIA in carrying out the policies of the Bush Administration were directly responsible for defeating all efforts by al Qaeda to launch further mass casualty attacks against the United States. The people involved deserve our gratitude. They do not deserve to be the targets of political investigations or prosecutions. President Obama’s decision to allow the Justice Department to investigate and possibly prosecute CIA personnel, and his decision to remove authority for interrogation from the CIA to the White House, serves as a reminder, if any were needed, of why so many Americans have doubts about this Administration’s ability to be responsible for our nation’s security."--Former Vice President Dick Cheney

* 8/25/09--KABUL, (Reuters) - Four U.S. servicemen were killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on Tuesday, making 2009 the deadliest year for the growing contingent of foreign troops since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001.The deaths highlighted the steadily worsening violence in the country, which has been in political limbo since a disputed presidential election last week. Afghan election authorities were preparing later on Tuesday to publish the first partial results from the presidential election, but the tiny sample may do little to resolve a growing war of words on the outcome. The election has also been a test of President Barack Obama's strategy of rushing thousands of extra U.S. troops to the country this year in a bid to reverse Taliban gains.

* 8/26/09--A major fund-raiser for President Obama and Bill and Hillary Clinton yesterday surrendered to the feds on a charge he scammed Citibank into lending him more than $74 million. Investment banker Hassan Nemazee -- who also recently joined a group of deep-pocketed Democrats backing Mayor Bloomberg's bid for a third term -- was intercepted by the FBI on Sunday as he prepared to fly from Newark to Rome....Nemazee reportedly raised more than $500,000 for the Obama campaign. --NY Post

* 8/26/09--KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Five car bombs detonated in a single, simultaneous blast yesterday in Afghanistan's largest southern city, flattening buildings and killing at least 41 people, officials said. The force of the explosion just after nightfall shattered windows around Kandahar and sent flames shooting into the sky. So many houses and nearby buildings had collapsed that officials feared the death toll could rise. At least 66 people were wounded, said Gen. Ghulam Ali Wahabat, a police commander in charge of southern Afghanistan....The reporter described the blast as the largest he has heard in nearly eight years of living in Kandahar, the site of several large Taliban attacks in recent years....In other violence, a bomb blast killed four US troops in southern Afghanistan yesterday, said military spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker. No other information was released pending the notification of family members. The deaths bring to 41 the number of GIs killed in Afghanistan this month.--AP

* 8/26/09--The real US unemployment rate is 16 percent if persons who have dropped out of the labor pool and those working less than they would like are counted, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday. "If one considers the people who would like a job but have stopped looking -- so-called discouraged workers -- and those who are working fewer hours than they want, the unemployment rate would move from the official 9.4 percent to 16 percent, said Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart--Breitbart.com

* 8/26/09--WASHINGTON -- Embattled Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel -- who is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee -- failed to reveal personal assets totaling as much as $780,000 in financial-disclosure reports filed with Congress, records released yesterday show. Democrat Rangel, the chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, submitted corrected documents with the House Clerk earlier this month, more than a year after filing handwritten and wildly inaccurate 2007 disclosure forms that left out a hefty checking account, several sizable investments and land in New Jersey.--NY Post

* 8/27/09--The Tax Man is a deadbeat. Rep. Charles Rangel, chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, has failed to pay taxes on two plots of land he has in New Jersey, records show. Rangel's ownership of the small, undeveloped properties came to light on Tuesday only after he drastically amended at least six years of financial-disclosure forms he had filed annually with the House clerk as required by law. The corrected filings as much as doubled the amount of personal wealth Rangel has claimed going back years and revealed at least $780,000 in previously unreported assets. The Harlem Democrat concealed somewhere between $38,902 and $116,800 in 2007 income, according to the revised filings. Among the assets he failed to list was a checking account containing somewhere between $250,000 and $500,000. Also undisclosed for years were two lots he owns in Glassboro, NJ, about 100 miles from the city. Rangel is delinquent on his taxes on that property, according to the Gloucester County Clerk's office....Skating on property taxes is nothing new for Rangel. A review of property records for the borough of Glassboro revealed at least six tax liens levied against Rangel's property during the past 16 years. Just last year, two separate liens were levied against both properties owned by Rangel....Meanwhile, Rangel was scheduled to hold a press conference yesterday just as dozens of stories revealed his ongoing ethical woes in Congress. Rangel canceled the press conference at the last minute, citing "changes in his schedule," according to one participant.--NY Post
* 8/27/09--WASHINGTON — Contrary to the insistence of Pentagon officials this week that they are not rating the work of reporters covering U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Stars and Stripes has obtained documents that prove that reporters’ coverage is being graded as “positive,” “neutral” or “negative.” Moreover, the documents — recent confidential profiles of the work of individual reporters prepared by a Pentagon contractor — indicate that the ratings are intended to help Pentagon image-makers manipulate the types of stories that reporters produce while they are embedded with U.S. troops in Afghanistan....Several professional journalists’ groups as well as media ethicists criticized the Pentagon’s attempts to rate and manipulate reporters. And at least one military official with knowledge of the profiling system has also begun to raise objections. “It’s troubling that the military is contracting a private PR firm, paid with U.S. taxpayer dollars, to profile individual reporters,” said one servicemember who declined to be identified for fear of official retribution. “It shows utter contempt for the Constitution, which we in the service pledge our lives to defend.”--Stars And Stripes.

* 8/27/09--As tributes poured in after Sen. Ted Kennedy's death, his political allies yesterday laid plans to harness the Massachusetts icon's legacy as the "liberal lion" of the Senate and reinvigorate his lifelong cause of health-care reform. After a month when President Obama's health plans came under heavy attack at town-hall meetings, Democrats sought to use the death of the 77-year-old Kennedy from brain cancer as a powerful motivating force for an overhaul, just as brother John F. Kennedy's assassination aided the drive for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. "Ted Kennedy's dream of quality health care for all Americans will be made real this year because of his leadership and his inspiration," vowed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said, "As we mourn his loss, we rededicate ourselves to the causes for which he so dutifully dedicated his life." But with Kennedy gone, Democrats now lack a critical 60th vote on procedural motions for several months, because Massachusetts law calls for a delay of 145 days before a special election can be held to fill a vacant Senate seat. That would make it even harder to overcome Republican opposition to the issue Kennedy called "the cause of my life." --NY Post

* 8/27/09--Alexandria, VA – Today Brent Bozell, President of the Media Research Center (MRC) denounced the Obama administration for its plans to delve into the private sector for the purposes of researching and regulating the national news media. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced plans for a two-day workshop in December to examine the state of the news industry – which could lead to recommendations for legislation to regulate print, television, and even online media on everything from changes in anti-trust land copyright law to media tax breaks. Some of the proposals being pushed by opinion leaders include direct government funding of media outlets, while other ideas like relaxing anti-trust regulations would still need government approval. --MRC

* 8/28/09--Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet. They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft, which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency. The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license. "I think the redraft, while improved, remains troubling due to its vagueness," said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which counts representatives of Verizon, Verisign, Nortel, and Carnegie Mellon University on its board. "It is unclear what authority Sen. Rockefeller thinks is necessary over the private sector. Unless this is clarified, we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill." Representatives of other large Internet and telecommunications companies expressed concerns about the bill in a teleconference with Rockefeller's aides this week, but were not immediately available for interviews on Thursday. A spokesman for Rockefeller also declined to comment on the record Thursday, saying that many people were unavailable because of the summer recess.--CNET News

* 8/28/09--Pressure mounted yesterday on Massachusetts pols to change the state's election law so that a temporary successor to Sen. Ted Kennedy could take his seat in time to vote on health-care legislation. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Bay State couldn't wait until a special election is held in January, well after the health bill is expected to come up for a vote on Capitol Hill. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said yesterday he would expedite a change in the state law that would enable him to name an interim senator. "I'd like the Legislature to take up the bill quickly and get it to my desk, and I will sign it," he said. Massachusetts legislators, led by Democrats, took away the governor's option in 2004. But now Democrats are alarmed that if Kennedy's seat remains vacant for five months, the Obama administration will lack the 60th Senate vote needed to ensure passage of its health-care bill. Two key Massachusetts legislators, state House Speaker Robert DeLeo and state Senate leader Therese Murray, appeared reluctant to approve a change when it was first proposed. But Kennedy's death and support from his widow, Vicki, have turned the political mood in Boston around. Among the potential candidates is Kennedy's nephew, Joseph Kennedy II, who has upward of $2 million in federal campaign funds he could use in a Democratic primary.--NY Post

* 8/29/09--KABUL (AP)— An American service member died Friday when his vehicle struck a bomb in eastern Afghanistan, making August the deadliest month for U.S. forces in the nearly eight-year war. The grim milestone comes as the top U.S. commander prepares to submit his assessment of the conflict — a report expected to trigger intense debate on the Obama administration's strategy in an increasingly unpopular war....That brought to 45 the number of U.S. service members killed this month in the Afghan war — one more than the previous monthly record, set in July. American casualties have been rising steadily following President Barack Obama's decision to send 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan to combat a resurgent Taliban and train Afghan security forces to assume a greater role in battling the insurgents.