Democrats may have eliminated provisions on birth control and sod for the National Mall in the "job stimulus" -- but buried on page 147 of the bill is stimulation for prevention of sexually transmitted diseases!
The House Democrats' bill includes $335 million for sexually transmitted disease education and prevention programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
In the past, the CDC has used STD education funding for programs that many Members of Congress find objectionable and arguably unrelated to a mission of economic stimulus [such as funding events called 'Booty Call' and 'Great Sex' put on by an organization that received $698,000 in government funds.]
"Whether this funding has merit is not the question; the point is it has no business in an economic plan supposedly focused on job creation," says a stimulated Hill source.
Developing...
.pdf file of bill
_______________________________________________________________
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Democrat Al Franken was quickly turned down Monday when he asked Minnesota's governor and secretary of state to issue an election certificate that would let him take office in the Senate.
In letters the campaign sent to Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, Mr. Franken's lawyers argued that a seven-day waiting period for issuing the certificate after an election has passed and he should get the signed certificate. But the state officials said their hands were tied by state law and they couldn't act.
Mr. Franken led Republican Norm Coleman by 225 votes after a statewide recount that was completed Jan. 5.
Mr. Coleman is suing over the result, claiming there were irregularities on Election Day and during the recount.
Minnesota law prevents officials from issuing an election certificate until legal matters are resolved. But Mr. Franken's legal team argues that federal election law entitles Mr. Franken to receive the certificate before the lawsuit is settled.
"The people of Minnesota are down a senator in the U.S. Senate. This is an opportunity for Governor Pawlenty and Secretary Ritchie to ensure the interests of all Minnesotans are represented in Washington," Franken lawyer Marc Elias told reporters in a conference call. He didn't rule out a lawsuit.
In a statement, Mr. Ritchie said state law requires him and the governor to turn down Mr. Franken's request.
"Minnesota law is very clear on when a certificate of election can be issued. Neither the governor nor I may sign a certificate of election in the U.S. Senate race until all election contests have reached a final determination," Mr. Ritchie's statement read.
The statement didn't specifically address Mr. Franken's argument that federal law supercedes the state law.
Wall Street Journal article_______________________________________________________________
With Harry Mitchell, a Democrat from Arizona, Ron Paul has once again introduced a bill to stop the 2010 automatic congressional pay increase. Notes Ron: "Turning down our automatic pay increase this year is the least Congress could do to demonstrate fiscal responsibility and solidarity with our constituents in these tough economic times. Much more needs to be done to reduce the size and expense of government, but passing this legislation would be a start."
Read the full article here. More details on the legislation to follow in the coming days.
_______________________________________________________________
Doug Wead looks toward the future in his latest piece. The following is an excerpt, and you can read the rest here.
The fact is that a successful run for president is the only way to reform the GOP and the only way to take control of the party and the only way to get new congressmen elected.People will only get off the ground if they are shooting at the moon.They need the inspiration of a big dream.
Well, you say, the conditions were right in 2008. We had an unpopular war in Iraq and an unpopular president. And Ron Paul’s moment was great theatre.In one of my earlier blogs I compared it to the little boy who cried, “The Emperor has no clothes.” Ron Paul’s arguments were breathtaking. He was reading the collective minds of millions and saying publicly what they were barely able to admit to themselves, let alone to a spouse or a friend. It came as relief to find that these instinctive feelings, these unconscious worries, rested on a bedrock of principle that someone had been tending and fussing over for years. And when the debates ended, 32 million, grateful, dollars came pouring into the Ron Paul Campaign.
But to relegate the Ron Paul phenomenon to a lucky confluence of events, to say it cannot happen again, is to say it was only a parlor trick and never was an argument based on principles. It is to deny ourselves.
Indeed, the one big, frightening collective thought that has come to the Paulista nation in recent months is the reality of all that he and others have been warning us about. All those things they have been saying about the Federal Reserve and the house of cards of this global world economy are now upon us. If Ron Paul cannot get a political head of steam going in this environment then who can? And if not now, when the daily news confirms their prescience, then when would they ever be able to do it?
We who believe in the original American idea, or even some remote version of it, or ever believe in a free markeplace, must rally now, or forever resign from public life. What will we tell our grandchildren? We didn’t try because we didn’t think we could win? Shouldn’t the American people be given that choice? Shouldn’t the media be forced to confront it as well? Remember, our currently serving lame duck president is a “conservative Republican.” And he willingly “socialized” the American banking system to buy a few good days on the stock market for the Republican nominee.
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________Nov. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Congress will send President-elect Barack Obama an economic stimulus package the day he takes office Jan. 20, two Democratic lawmakers said today.
Senator Charles Schumer of New York said on ABC’s “This Week” program that the package will be between $500 billion and $700 billion. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, of Maryland, said on “Fox News Sunday” that he believed the Inauguration Day goal would be met, but he declined to put a price tag on the bill.
“I think Congress will work with the president elect starting now and will have a major stimulus package on his desk by Inauguration Day,” Schumer said. “I think it has to be deep. My view it has to be between five and $700 billion.”
Obama said yesterday he aims to save or create 2.5 million jobs in his two-year plan to stimulate an economy facing a “crisis of historic proportions.”
The U.S. economic slowdown has been exacerbated by the worst credit crisis in seven decades. More firings will weigh on the economy and consumer spending will pressure Obama and Congress to agree on legislation that will stimulate growth, economists say.
Reuters:
Russia has stepped up ties with Venezuela and Cuba as its relations with the West and particularly the United States soured in the past few years amid a series of rows ranging from Kosovo to U.S. missile defense plans in Eastern Europe.
The ties plummeted to a post-Cold War low after the West condemned Russia's invasion of Georgia in August.
Moscow, annoyed by NATO warships appearing in or near its borders in the Black Sea to deliver aid to Georgia, dispatched its own warships to the Caribbean for the exercises with Venezuela, a buyer of billions of dollars in Russian arms.
Ahead of Medvedev's visit, the Russian military said they were discussing with Havana air defense cooperation.
Medvedev marked Obama's election victory on November 4 with the announcement of plans to deploy Russian missiles close to NATO's European borders in retaliation for Washington's plans to set up elements of its missile defense system in Eastern Europe.
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff WriterPerhaps it was the announcement that NBC News is coming out with a DVD titled "Yes We Can: The Barack Obama Story." Or that ABC and USA Today are rushing out a book on the election. Or that HBO has snapped up a documentary on Obama's campaign.
Perhaps it was the Newsweek commemorative issue -- "Obama's American Dream" -- filled with so many iconic images and such stirring prose that it could have been campaign literature. Or the Time cover depicting Obama as FDR, complete with jaunty cigarette holder.
Are the media capable of merchandizing the moment, packaging a president-elect for profit? Yes, they are.
What's troubling here goes beyond the clanging of cash registers. Media outlets have always tried to make a few bucks off the next big thing. The endless campaign is over, and there's nothing wrong with the country pulling together, however briefly, behind its new leader. But we seem to have crossed a cultural line into mythmaking.
"The Obamas' New Life!" blares People's cover, with a shot of the family. "New home, new friends, new puppy!" Us Weekly goes with a Barack quote: "I Think I'm a Pretty Cool Dad." The Chicago Tribune trumpets that Michelle "is poised to be the new Oprah and the next Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis -- combined!" for the fashion world.
Whew! Are journalists fostering the notion that Obama is invincible, the leader of what the New York Times dubbed "Generation O"?
Each writer, each publication, seems to reach for more eye-popping superlatives. "OBAMAISM -- It's a Kind of Religion," says New York magazine. "Those of us too young to have known JFK's Camelot are going to have our own giddy Camelot II to enrapture and entertain us," Kurt Andersen writes. The New York Post has already christened it "BAM-A-LOT."
"Here we are," writes Salon's Rebecca Traister, "oohing and aahing over what they'll be wearing, and what they'll be eating, what kind of dog they'll be getting, what bedrooms they'll be living in, and what schools they'll be attending. It feels better than good to sniff and snurfle through the Obamas' tastes and habits. . . . Who knew we had in us the capacity to fall for this kind of idealized Americana again?"
But aren't media people supposed to resist this kind of hyperventilating?
[...]
There is always a level of excitement when a new president is coming to town -- new aides to profile, new policies to dissect, new family members to follow. But can anyone imagine this kind of media frenzy if John McCain had managed to win?
Obama's days of walking on water won't last indefinitely. His chroniclers will need a new story line. And sometime after Jan. 20, they will wade back into reality.
The USG Open Source Center translates an article from the Persian Afghan press alleging that French troops were at one point close to capturing Usamah Bin Ladin in Afghanistan, but that American forces stopped them from doing so. It says that a forthcoming French documentary containing interviews with the French soldiers provides proof for the allegation. The argument is that the Bush administration needed Bin Ladin to be at large in order to justify its military expansionism.
Excerpt:
So, the rumour was right: French soldiers trapped Usamah Bin-Ladin, but were not allowed by the Americans to arrest the apparent fugitive leader of Al-Qa`idah. A Bin-Ladin documentary just released by French documentary cinema examines this issue, an issue which has led to heated debate in the French media.The article found at Juan Cole blog.
This French documentary shows how the Americans are interested in continuing the game, a bloody and expensive game whose victims are only the unprotected and local people of our dry and dusty country. It was last year that rumors spread about this report in Kabul, but it has not been taken seriously by the media. But watching this revealing French documentary changes the rumors into disturbing facts. "Bin Laden, the failings of a manhunt", produced by Emmanuel Razavi and Eric de Lavarene, two French filmmakers and reporters, assesses and confirms the claims of French soldiers that they could have killed Osama within two operations, but the American forces prevented them. This film has not been broadcast publicly yet and is to be broadcast by Planet, a French network.
_______________________________________________________________
President-elect Barack Obama over the weekend scrubbed his transition Web site, deleting most of what had been a massive agenda for his first term that appears on his campaign's site.The article from Washington Times.
Gone from Change.gov are the promises on how an Obama administration would handle 25 agenda items — from Iraq and immigration to taxes and urban policy — which the campaign first laid out on the Web site www.BarackObama.com.
As The Washington Times first reported Monday morning, the official agenda on Change.gov has been boiled down to one vague paragraph proclaiming a plan "to revive the economy, to fix our health care, education, and social security systems, to define a clear path to energy independence, to end the war in Iraq responsibly and finish our mission in Afghanistan, and to work with our allies to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, among many other domestic and foreign policy objectives."
"We are currently retooling the Web site," said Obama transition spokesman Nick Shapiro.
[...]
Change.gov still contains pages about how to apply for jobs in the Obama administration, biographies of top transition team members and a call for Americans to serve as volunteers and for students to perform 50 hours of community service.
_______________________________________________________________
Here we go
- Zero Quantum of Solace UK PM: Time to build GLOBAL society
- The World is Not Enough Bretton Woods II?
- From Russia With Love Putin
- Dr. Doom Gore: USA needs 'emergency rescue of human civilization'
- For Your Eyes Only FED refuses to identify $2,000,000,000,000.00 bank loans
- Golden Eye
- Silly Link
end
_______________________________________________________________
Posts
