Part 12--February, 2010

2/1/10--Senate Democrats, taking a cue from President Obama, are ripping into Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for his understandable (and understated) display of disagreement with the president's misrepresentation of a recent court decision. During last week's State of the Union Address, recall, Obama launched into an unpresidential attack on the court's upending of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance act. Obama incorrectly claimed the ruling -- in which Alito joined the 5-4 majority -- would permit foreign corporate campaign contributions in US elections. TV cameras just happened to focus on Alito during this part of the speech -- during which he shook his head and mouthed the words "not true." To hear Democrats tell it, Alito's reaction was akin to GOP Rep. Joe Wilson's shout of "you lie" during Obama's health-care speech to Congress last fall. "Inappropriate" and "not very judicial," huffed Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wisc.), who also complained that Alito had failed to "maintain his judicial demeanor." "Totally classless," added Delaware's Ted Kaufman, the Democratic seat-warmer for what was expected to be a run by Vice President Joe Biden's son, Beau. Talk about really classless. Alito was under no obligation to sit impassively when faced with a verbal assault from the president of the United States -- particularly at such an inappropriate forum. And especially when, as even several liberal commentators and legal bloggers have noted, Alito -- and not Obama -- was right on the facts. Given the provocation, Alito was remarkably restrained. To say nothing of correct. Time to cut him some slack.--NY Post Editorial

* 2/2/10--WASHINGTON -- President Obama's new $3.8 trillion budget plan unveiled yesterday forecasts a record deficit this year and socks the wealthy with nearly $1 trillion in higher taxes but still doesn't bring the budget close to balance within the decade. The deficit for this year would climb to $1.6 trillion, from $1.4 trillion last year. The biggest hit for high-earning taxpayers would be in allowing top-level Bush-era tax cuts from 2001 to expire. Top income-tax rates, which dropped to 33 percent and 36 percent, would return to Clinton-era levels of 35 percent and 39.6 percent -- producing about $365 billion over a decade. The boosted rates will hit individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples earning over $250,000 and take effect next Jan. 1. The top capital-gains rate would revert back to 20 percent from 15 percent now. The budget would also limit the itemized tax deductions high earners can claim for charitable donations, mortgage interest and state and local taxes. All told, the taxes on top earners would total around $970 billion. Even with the new revenue, the president's budget anticipates deficits over the next five years topping $5 trillion, while the annual deficit surpasses 10 percent of the nation's output this year. --NY Post

* 2/3/10--The United States can expect a terror attack within its borders in three to six months, top US intelligence officials told Congress yesterday. Al Qaeda operatives are being sent here to carry out new attacks, CIA Director Leon Panetta told the Senate Intelligence Committee at an annual assessment of the nation's terror threats. Panetta said the terror organization is using "clean" recruits with a negligible trail of terrorist contacts. The hearing came amid growing concerns that future terror attacks could resemble the foiled Christmas Day airline attack in Detroit, in which Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to detonate a bomb planted in his underwear -- but managed only to set his pants on fire. The CIA director warned that new terror recruits may be harder to spot. "The biggest threat is not so much that we face an attack like 9/11. It is that al Qaeda is adapting its methods in ways that oftentimes make it difficult to detect," he said. Panetta also warned about terrorists acting alone. "It's the lone-wolf strategy that I think we have to pay attention to as the main threat to this country," he said. Meanwhile, Abdulmutallab has been cooperating with investigators since last week, a federal law-enforcement official said yesterday.--Post Wire Services

* 2/4/10--WASHINGTON (AP) -- The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, evidence that layoffs are continuing and jobs remain scarce. The rise is the fourth in the past five weeks. Most economists hoped that claims would resume a downward trend that was evident in the fall and early winter.
* 2/4/10--Attorney General Eric Holder said yesterday he was the one who made the much-criticized decision to try the Christmas Day underwear bomber in civilian court -- and neither President Obama nor any of his top aides objected. Holder revealed that shortly after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to blow up a jetliner over Detroit, the president and senior administration officials considered treating him as an enemy combatant and holding him at a military base. Obama and senior members of his national-security team discussed the "law of war" option on Jan. 5, the day before Abdulmutallab was indicted, Holder said in a letter to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. But no one spoke in favor, he said. "No agency supported the use of law-of-war detention for Abdulmutallab, and no agency has since advised the Department of Justice that an alternative course of action should have been, or should now be, pursued," the attorney general wrote. For weeks, Republican lawmakers have blasted the decision to treat Abdulmutallab as a common criminal who can enjoy full legal rights. Holder said that the terrorist "more recently" began talking again and gave information that "we are actively using to protect our country." --NY Post

* 2/5/10--Congress voted yesterday to raise the US debt ceiling by a staggering $1.9 trillion — putting every man, woman and child in the country $6,000 deeper in the hole — as Wall Street tanked because of debt problems in Europe. The House of Representatives — trying to act well before the November elections, because lawmakers fear a backlash -- approved a debt ceiling of $14.3 trillion. The figure amounts to an increase of roughly $6,000 for every US resident, and brings the accumulated debt total to $40,000 per person. "This debt is being piled on the backs of our kids and grandkids with no relief in sight," said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). Republicans criticized the aggressive spending measures Democrats have taken to blunt the impact of the deepest economic downturn in 70 years. "They took out a monster loan that is not paying off," said Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas). Economists sounded the alarm, saying the debt hike could negatively impact interest rates and hit an already battered economy in the gut. Financial markets were roiled by concerns that Greece might default on its obligations, and that massive amounts of new debt in Portugal and Spain would not be bought by investors. Those fears, combined with disappointing job figures at home, sent the US markets reeling -- with the Dow Jones industrial average falling 268 points. Critics of the growing deficit also worry about the US government selling so much debt to China. And the topper? The debt-ceiling hike yesterday would only do enough to keep the government's balance sheet in check for roughly another year, as the nation borrows more than 40 cents for every dollar spent on critical service programs, including defense. The measure, which passed the Democratic-controlled House by a razor-thin margin of 217-212, was tailored to keep the party's congressional members from casting unpopular spending votes again before the fall midterm elections. The bill will now go to President Obama for his signature. Democrats who backed the measure said it was the only way to keep from defaulting on the nation's obligations, which would have been unprecedented. "If the United States defaults, investors will lose confidence that the US will honor its debts in the future," said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass). But in a clear sign of concern about the fall elections, 37 Dems from conservative-tilting districts cast "no" votes. Democrats primed the pump to pass the bill with a sweetener, changing budget rules to create a new "pay as you go" system in which any new tax cuts or spending hikes are covered by equivalent new spending slashes or levies. Sessions said, "In place of real fiscal discipline, it offers a phony pay-as-you-go rule that is more loopholes and exceptions and does nothing to tackle our government's long-term structural deficit."--NY Post

* 2/5/10--For most Americans, the Great Recession has been an occasion to hold on for dear life. For public employees, it's been an occasion to let the good times roll. The percentage of federal civil servants making more than $100,000 a year jumped from 14 percent to 19 percent during the first year and a half of the recession, according to USA Today. At the beginning of the downturn, the Transportation Department had one person making $170,000 or more a year; now it has 1,690 making more than that. The New York Times reports that state and local governments have added a net 110,000 jobs since the start of the recession, while the private sector's lost 6.9 million. The gap between total compensation of public and private workers has only widened during the downturn, according to USA Today. In 2008, benefits for public employees grew at a rate three times that of private employees. Public employees have developed an inverse relationship to the rest of the economy -- as it shrinks, shedding jobs and cutting salaries, they draw on a never-ending taxpayer bounty. It used to be said that the Great Depression wasn't so bad, if you had a job. The Great Recession has practically been a boom, if you have a government job. Public employees can thank the union label. In 2009, for the first time ever, a majority of union members worked in the public sector. Unionism has been in a long, secular decline in the private sector (down to 7.2 percent of all workers), but increasing in government (up to 37.4 percent of all workers). These public-sector unions are flush with cash, politically connected and unabashedly self-interested. They are an active and growing conspiracy against the public fisc. The states where they are most powerful -- California and New York -- lumber toward insolvency. The federal government follows not far behind, on the kind of diet geese enjoy prior to becoming foie gras.--Rich Lowry, National Review

* 2/5/10--WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly declined in January, but the economy continued to shed jobs and revisions painted a bleaker picture for 2009, casting doubt over the labor market's strength. The unemployment rate, calculated using a household survey, fell to 9.7% last month from an unrevised 10% in December, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast the jobless rate would edge higher to 10.1%. Meantime, nonfarm payrolls fell by 20,000 compared with a revised 150,000 drop decline in December. Economists had expected payrolls to be flat. The December figure was revised down sharply from an originally reported 85,000 drop. The Labor Department's annual benchmark revision to the survey that produces the monthly payroll report painted a bleaker 2009 picture. Last year, job losses were almost 600,000 more than previously reported, the revisions showed. The January report was influenced by several special factors that may not be consistent with the underlying jobs trend. Temporary hiring for the U.S. 2010 census collection helped the employment picture in January, while the unusually cold weather probably hurt it. The interaction of a very bad employment year in 2009 with January seasonal factors clouds the picture further, analysts warned ahead of the release. "We will be inclined to treat either a very strong or a very weak employment report -- particularly the payroll portion -- with a greater than usual skepticism," Goldman Sachs economist Andrew Tilton warned in a note. The so-called "underemployment" rate--which includes everyone in the official rate plus those who are neither working nor looking for work, but say they want a job and have looked for work recently--fell to 16.5% in January from 17.3%. Since the start of the recession at the end of 2007, payroll employment has fallen by 8.4 million. Over the last quarter, however, employment has shown little net change as the economy's recovery helped companies retain workers.--Nasdaq.com

FLASHBACK: August 1, 2003

Washington, D.C. -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' announcement that 470,000 people abandoned their job searches in July and that 3.2 million private sector jobs have been lost since President Bush took office:

“The fact is that President Bush’s misguided economic policies have failed to create jobs. Since President Bush took office, the country has lost 3.2 million jobs, the worst record since President Hoover. And today we learned that in July nearly half a million people gave up looking for a job. “Job losses are taking a real toll on the financial security of American families. While Democrats are fighting for opportunity, jobs, and economic security for working families, Republicans continue to focus on helping those who need help the least. “According to today’s survey, while the national unemployment rate dropped slightly, it still stands at a near record high (6.1%). In addition, the unemployment rate for African Americans was still over 11 percent in July, and the unemployment rate for Hispanics was 8.2 percent in July. “It is time for President Bush and the Republicans to get to work for all Americans, not just the elite few.”

* 2/5/10--Barack Obama's 2011 NASA budget will effectively terminate America's manned space flight program, leaving space exploration leadership to the Chinese and the Russians.--Patriot Post

* 2/5/10--Last week, the Obama administration trumpeted a 5.7 percent growth in the fourth quarter gross domestic product as evidence that its economic plan has resuscitated the economy, all thanks to the massive government stimulus program. But as Mark Twain famously quipped, "There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are statistics." When the bigger the lie is the more believable it is, why stop short of using statistics? Due to the inventory reductions brought on by corporate bloodletting, fully 3.5 percent of that 5.7 percent is only a one-shot depletion of inventory that won't be replaced until demand resumes. Alarmingly, the remaining 2.2 percent growth rate is 0.8 percent below the neutral minimum job creation threshold. This continuing negative growth condition explains why businesses shed 735,000 jobs over the last six months of 2009. Other indicators reveal a 0.1 percent year-to-year growth rate, a 14.6 percent drop in businesses future output investments, and stagnant or shrinking wages from a year ago. Most revealing is the fact that since Democrats seized control of Congress in 2006, the private sector has lost almost eight million jobs while the unemployment rate soared past 10 percent. Democrat policies have helped created some jobs, though -- those in the federal government, which will hit 2.15 million employees this year, the highest since Bill Clinton declared that "the era of big government is over." --Patriot Post

* 2/8/10--Independent voters see Pres. Obama in a negative light by a nearly 2-1 margin, according to a new Marist College survey, while almost half of voters say he has failed to meet their expectations. The poll, conducted Feb. 1-3, showed just 44% of registered voters approving of Obama's job as president. 47% disapprove. But among indie voters, Obama's approval rating sits at a terrible 29%, while his disapproval rating is at 57%. Obama's 44% job approval rating is the lowest he has scored in any non-internet poll since moving into the WH, according to a review of data compiled by Polster.com.--NationalJournal.com

* 2/11/10--Iran is now a 'nuclear state', President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced this morning.--Dailymail.co.uk

* 2/15/10--"In lecturing us about blowing our money, The Great Ozbama displays breathtaking gall. Given that he is blowing trillions of our money, not his, and burying us in debt as no president in history, silence on the subject would seem more reasonable. To be nit-picky about it, since he is in citing trips to Vegas as particularly objectionable, I hold in my casino chip-calloused fingers a list procured from CanadaFreePress.com of Mrs. Obama's staff and their salaries. She reportedly has a staff of 22 assistants. Yes, I said twenty-two. (Previous First Ladies' dedicated staffs were in the single digits). Michelle's little army includes a Chief of Staff costing $172,000 a year; a Deputy Chief of Staff at $90,000; a Director of Policy and Projects at $140,000; a Director of Communications at $102,000; a Deputy Director of Scheduling at $62,000; two Social Secretaries -- mysteriously, one at $65,000, one at $64,000; an Associate Director of Correspondence at $45,000, an Assistant to the Social Secretary at $36,000, and more, in total consuming $6.3-million annually thus $25-million during her 4-year term. Not to mention a make-up artist and hair stylist. I have one assistant. Answer my own correspondence. Keep my own calendar. ... Mr. President, sir, if you are going to lecture me about blowing my money in Vegas or turning down my thermostat or inflating my tires, do you think you could reign in your wife's blowing of my money just a teeny bit?" --columnist Dan Kennedy

* 2/18/10--President Obama yesterday declared his $787 billion economic-stimulus plan a rousing success on its first anniversary -- claiming that it had created or saved 2 million jobs and averted a second Great Depression. So happy days are here again, right? Well, not exactly. Though you wouldn't know that to hear the president speak. "We have rescued this economy from the worst of this crisis," he said. "The American people are rebuilding a better future." Is he kidding? For one thing, Obama promised a year ago that the stimulus would keep unemployment below 8 percent. At last count, the rate was 9.7 percent, a slight drop from a high of 10.1 percent. As for those jobs saved (the White House estimates have ranged from 1.5 million to as high as 3 million), what the stimulus essentially did was to preserve unionized public-sector jobs -- federal, state and local government employees. The reality is that more than 3 million private-sector jobs have been lost over the past year. Plus, he also promised that the stimulus would be pork-free. In fact, it was loaded with the kind of congressional earmarks and special-interest giveaways that have bloated federal spending for years. And as for that "better future" -- the American people face a daunting financial future that likely will end up significantly lowering their standard of living. The reason: Uncontrolled, spiraling government debt -- to which the stimulus, when fully spent, will add nearly $1 trillion (and even more, according to many economists). A new report by the nonpartisan Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform predicts that the federal debt -- at $12 trillion, already at an enormous 50-plus percent of gross domestic product -- will grow to 200 percent of GDP by 2038. Within a dozen years, debt service will be the single largest item in the federal budget -- and these, noted former US Comptroller General David Walker, are "payments for which we get nothing." And yet rather than cut spending, Obama's $3.8 trillion budget request for 2011 actually hikes outlays by more than $100 billion. A "better future"? As the saying goes, don't bet the family farm on it.--NY Post Editorial

* 2/18/10--The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment insurance unexpectedly surged last week, while producer prices increased sharply in January, raising potential hurdles for the economic recovery. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 31,000 to 473,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. That compared to market expectations for 430,000. Another report from the department showed prices paid at the farm and factory gate rose a faster than expected 1.4 percent from December after a 0.4 percent gain in December, as higher gasoline prices and unusually cold temperatures helped boost energy costs. "When you have PPI moving up and still no progress in the jobs situation, that doesn't bode well for continued improvement in equity prices," said Alan Lancz, president at Alan B. Lancz & Associates in Toledo, Ohio. Last week was the survey week for the employment report for February, which is scheduled for release in early March. The labor market, hardest hit by the worst recession in seven decades, has lagged the economic recovery that started in the second half of 2009. The economy has lost 8.4 million jobs since the start of the downturn in December 2007.--Reuters

* 2/18/10--(AP) - Homelessness in rural and suburban America is straining shelters this winter as the economy founders and joblessness hovers near double digits—a "perfect storm of foreclosures, unemployment and a shortage of affordable housing," in one official's eyes. "We are seeing many families that never before sought government help," said Greg Blass, commissioner of Social Services in Suffolk County on eastern Long Island. "We see a spiral in food stamps, heating assistance applications; Medicaid is skyrocketing," Blass added. "It is truly reaching a stage of being alarming." The federal government is again counting the nation's homeless and, by many accounts, the suburban numbers continue to rise, especially for families, women, children, Latinos and men seeking help for the first time. Some have to be turned away. "Yes, there has definitely been an increased number of turnaways this year," said Jennifer Hill, executive director of the Alliance to End Homelessness in suburban Cook County, Illinois. "We're seeing increases in shelter use along the lines of 30 percent or more."

* 2/23/10--(Bloomberg) -- Confidence among U.S. consumers fell in February to the lowest level in 10 months, a sign that concern about job prospects may hold back the spending needed to sustain the recovery. The Conference Board’s confidence index slumped to 46, below the lowest forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists, from 56.5 in January, a report from the New York- based private research group showed today.

* 2/23/10--The Justice Department's disclosure that nine of President Obama's appointees had either represented or advocated for Guantanamo detainees has touched off a firestorm of criticism. The surprising admission came three months after Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa asked Attorney General Eric Holder for a list of names of Obama DOJ appointees who had been involved in legal work for Gitmo prisoners. Holder, in a letter to Grassley, admitted that nine of the agency's appointees had done some kind of work on behalf of terror suspects. "To the best of our knowledge, during their employment prior to joining the government, only five of the lawyers who serve as political appointees in those components represented detainees," said Holder in the letter, which is dated Feb. 18. "Four others either contributed to amicus briefs in detainee-related cases or were otherwise involved in advocacy on behalf of detainees." Holder refused to reveal the names of any of the DOJ lawyers who worked on behalf of terrorists or their positions in the department, except for two officials whose advocacy for Gitmo detainees had already been reported...But the revelation that the DOJ had staffers who had once backed America's enemies left many critics fuming. "It's like they're bringing al Qaeda lawyers inside the Department of Justice," said Debra Burlingame, who lost her brother on 9/11 and a board member of the advocacy group Keep America Safe. Long Island GOP Rep. Peter King said he was perplexed why Holder didn't reveal the names of appointees who had worked for terrorists. --NY Post

* 2/23/10--BAGHDAD -- Eight members of a Shiite family were killed near Baghdad, in the worst incident on a day of bloodshed that left at least 23 dead across Iraq. The spate of attacks -- and the fact that members of the family were beheaded -- raises fears that terrorists are trying to reignite sectarian warfare as the country is preparing for critical March elections to determine who will oversee Iraq as US forces go home. --AP

* 2/23/10--WASHINGTON -- Included in President Obama's latest stab at health-care reform released yesterday is one of the more astonishing admissions of political deception in recent memory. After months of swearing that his health legislation would lower the skyrocketing costs of insurance premiums, Obama finally acknowledged that actually it would not. So, instead, he has included a new provision that can simply outlaw premium increases his administration deems "unreasonable and unjustified." This, in lieu of literally years of promises and proclamations about transforming the American hospital-industrial complex in a way that would drastically lower the cost of medicine in this country and leave insurance companies scrambling to lower the premiums they charge customers. --NY Post

* 2/24/10--Voter unhappiness with Congress has reached the highest level ever recorded by Rasmussen Reports as 71% now say the legislature is doing a poor job. That’s up ten points from the previous high of 61% reached a month ago. Only 10% of voters say Congress is doing a good or excellent job. Nearly half of Democratic voters (48%) now give Congress a poor rating, up 17 points since January. The vast majority of Republicans and voters not affiliated with either party also give Congress poor ratings. --Rasmussen Reports.

* 2/25/10--WASHINGTON -- On the eve of today's health-care summit, the White House and Democrats in Congress were threatening to skirt normal Senate rules requiring 60 votes in order to ram through their highly unpopular health-care legislation. The saber-rattling added a new chill to the already frosty televised health-care meeting hosted today by President Obama. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said Republicans should "stop crying" about the threatened new tactics, and the White House press secretary has listed examples of when it was used in the past. Meanwhile, a conservative video Web site compiled and released a devastating compilation of clips showing Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Reid and even Sen. Chuck Schumer warning of the devastation that would ensue if such a tactic were used. Talking at a time when Republicans were in control and trying to get a final vote on former President Bush's federal-court nominees, then-Sen. Biden called it "arrogance of power" and "a fundamental power grab" in the video. The compilation was crafted by NakedEmperorNews.com. He even said he prayed Democrats would never try such a thing. Schumer called it a "temper tantrum." "We are on the precipice of a crisis, a constitutional crisis," he said, glancing up to the press gallery. "The checks and balances which have been at the core of this republic are about to be evaporated." Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) warned, "This is the way democracy ends -- not with a bomb, but with a gavel." Meanwhile, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), widely admired for his ability to accurately count votes, said yesterday he's not so sure the health-care bill will pass the House even if it is rammed through the Senate. "House Democrats are farther away from securing the votes to pass a government health-care bill today than they have ever been," he said in a memo yesterday.--NY Post