● Chief Justice John Roberts found State of the Union scene 'troubling'... ● Obama's plans for NASA changes met with harsh criticism... ● House Ways and Means Chairman Levin says job creation will be top priority...Again?... ● Massa flirts with the right, but Beck isn't tickled... ● CBO Update... ● Massa under investigation for allegedly groping male staffers... ● From Greece, an economic cautionary tale for the U.S.... ● Obama wants to Overhaul Immigration System. What's Next? The People?... ● Are unemployment benefits no longer temporary?... ● Analysis finds uneasy mix in auto industry and regulation...
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When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; When the government fears the people, there is liberty.  ~ Thomas Jefferson

 

Entries Tagged as 'Government'

Chief Justice John Roberts found State of the Union scene ‘troubling’

March 10th, 2010 · Accountability, Democrats, Ethics, Greed, Obama Exposed, Obama's Scheme, Supreme Court

By Associated Press – Wednesday, March 10, 2010

TUSCALOOSA, ALA. — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said Tuesday that the scene at President Obama’s State of the Union address was “very troubling” and that the annual speech has “degenerated to a political pep rally.”

Obama chided the Supreme Court in his Jan. 27 speech, with the justices seated before him, for a campaign finance case decision.

“The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering,” Roberts told University of Alabama law students, “while the court — according to the requirements of protocol — has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling.”

Breaking from tradition, Obama criticized the court’s decision that allows corporations and unions to freely spend money to run political ads for or against specific candidates. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. responded by shaking his head and mouthing the words “not true.”

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs responded later Tuesday, “What is troubling is that this decision opened the floodgates for corporations and special interests to pour money into elections — drowning out the voices of average Americans.”

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Obama’s plans for NASA changes met with harsh criticism

March 10th, 2010 · Corruption, Deception, Ethics, Greed, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within

By Joel Achenbach Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Harrison Schmitt’s credentials as a space policy analyst include several days of walking on the moon. The Apollo 17 astronaut, who is also a former U.S. senator, is aghast at what President Obama is doing to the space program.

“It’s bad for the country,” Schmitt said. “This administration really does not believe in American exceptionalism.”

Schmitt’s harsh words are part of a furious blowback to the administration’s new strategy for NASA. The administration has decided to kill NASA’s Constellation program, crafted during the Bush administration with an ambitious goal of putting astronauts back on the moon by 2020. Obama’s 2011 budget request would nix Constellation’s rocket and crew capsule, funnel billions of dollars to new spaceflight technologies, and outsource to commercial firms the task of ferrying astronauts to low-Earth orbit.

The new strategy, however, has been met with outrage from many in the aerospace community. The entire congressional delegation from Florida, Democrats and Republicans alike, has sent a letter of protest to the president. Doubters fill op-ed pages and space blogs.

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House Ways and Means Chairman Levin says job creation will be top priority…Again?

March 10th, 2010 · Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Government, Money Lost, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within

House Ways and Means Chairman Levin says job creation will be top priority

By Lori Montgomery Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 10, 2010

As he takes the reins of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Sander M. Levin is vowing to raise the profile of a once-powerful panel that, in recent years, has been overshadowed by the ethics troubles of its previous chairman, Rep. Charles B. Rangel.

In one of his first interviews as chairman, Levin (D-Mich.) said that job creation will be his top priority in the run-up to this fall’s congressional elections. But he said he also plans to wade aggressively into the debate over national tax policy and return his committee to its customary position at the center of the coming battle over tax reform.

“I don’t think [the Senate Finance Committee] should run the show. Charlie Rangel has struggled with this,” Levin said. “The task ahead makes it important that I actively chair this committee. On a really collegial basis, because I’ve always acted that way. But you can combine strength and collegiality.”

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Massa flirts with the right, but Beck isn’t tickled

March 10th, 2010 · Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Selling Out the US, Treason

By Dana Milbank Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Just seven minutes into Glenn Beck’s hour-long interview of Eric Massa on Tuesday evening, things had already gone very wrong.

Conservatives had hopes that the now-former Democratic congressman from Upstate New York, who resigned abruptly under an ethics cloud, would deliver the goods about corruption and strong-arm tactics in the Obama White House and Congress. But instead, Massa served up an icky new confession.

“Now they’re saying I groped a male staffer,” he volunteered. “Yeah, I did. Not only did I grope him, I tickled him until he couldn’t breathe and then four guys jumped on top of me. It was my 50th birthday.”

Beck looked aghast. “Was your wife at that one?” the Fox News Channel host asked.

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Massa under investigation for allegedly groping male staffers

March 9th, 2010 · Congress, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within

By Carol D. Leonnig – Tuesday, March 9, 2010; 5:01 PM

Former representative. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) has been under investigation for allegations that he groped multiple male staffers working in his office, according to three sources familiar with the probe.

The allegations surrounding the former lawmaker date back at least a year, and involve “a pattern of behavior and physical harassment,” according to one source. The new claims of alleged groping contradict statements by Massa, who resigned his office on Monday after it became public that he was the subject of a House ethics committee investigation for possible harassment.

Massa had said that the allegations were limited to his use of “salty language” with his staff. He apologized for making some inappropriate comments and argued he was being unfairly vilified.

Days later, Massa accused the White House and Democratic congressional leaders of trying to oust him from office to improve their chances of passing health-care reform legislation – a charge that the House majority leader, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), called “absurd.”

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From Greece, an economic cautionary tale for the U.S.

March 9th, 2010 · Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Foreign Policy, Government, Money Lost, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within, Treason

By Dana Milbank Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Look into the face of George Papandreou, America, and see your future.

The Greek prime minister is in town this week as part of a world tour seeking help for his beleaguered homeland. Greece is broke, its government on the verge of default. As Papandreou landed in Washington, there were strikes in the streets of Athens over his tax increases, his wage cuts for government workers and his scaling back of retirement benefits.

As he and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton faced the cameras Monday, she spoke of the weekend’s election in Iraq. “Greece is the birthplace of democracy, so anytime there’s a democratic election anywhere in the world, Greece should get a royalty, Prime Minister,” Clinton said.

“Would help our deficit, too,” Papandreou joked.

“Yeah,” Clinton agreed. “It’s a new way of plugging the hole.”

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Obama wants to Overhaul Immigration System. What’s Next? The People?

March 9th, 2010 · Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Immigration, Selling Out the US, Treason

Immigrant rights group slam Obama, Democrats for slow action with legalization bill

By N.C. Aizenman and Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Leaders of nearly a dozen grass-roots immigrant rights groups excoriated President Obama and congressional Democrats on Monday, accusing them of moving too slowly to legalize the status of undocumented immigrants and citing a record number of deportations in 2009.

“Our community is angry. Our members feel betrayed,” said Brent Wilkes, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “We never believed in our wildest dreams that President Obama would have a record like this.”

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Are unemployment benefits no longer temporary?

March 9th, 2010 · Federal Spending, Money Lost, Obama's Scheme, Stimulus, Unemployment

By Michael A. Fletcher and Dana Hedgpeth Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Millions of Americans have been forced to rely on unemployment payments for extended periods as the nation struggles through its longest period of high joblessness in a generation, and critics are taking aim, saying that the Depression-era program created as a temporary bridge for laid-off workers is turning into an expensive entitlement.

About 11.4 million out-of-work people now collect unemployment compensation, at a cost of $10 billion a month. Half of them have been receiving payments for more than six months, the usual insurance limit. But under multiple extensions enacted by the federal government in response to the downturn, workers can collect the payments for as long as 99 weeks in states with the highest unemployment rates — the longest period since the program’s inception.

The unemployed say extensions help to tide them over in unusually difficult times when jobs are hard to come by. Although unemployment held steady at 9.7 percent in February, millions of jobs have been lost in the downturn, particularly in the hardest-hit sectors including real estate, construction, manufacturing and financial services. Those jobs are unlikely to return even when the economy recovers, many experts say.

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Analysis finds uneasy mix in auto industry and regulation

March 9th, 2010 · Auto Industry, Corruption, Deception, Ethics, Federal Spending, Government, Greed

By Kimberly Kindy Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Dozens of former federal officials are playing leading roles in helping carmakers handle federal investigations of auto defects, including those for Toyota’s runaway-acceleration problems.

A Washington Post analysis shows that as many as 33 former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration employees and Transportation Department appointees left those jobs in recent years and now work for automakers as lawyers, consultants and lobbyists and in other jobs that deal with government safety probes, recalls and regulations.

The reach of these former agency employees is broad. They are on staff rosters for every major automaker and every major automotive trade group, and they appear as expert witnesses and legal counsel for the industry in major class-action lawsuits over auto safety.

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U.S. reportedly gives billions to firms doing business with Iran

March 8th, 2010 · Defense, Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, National Security, Non-Transparency, Politics

Monday, March 8, 2010

The U.S. government, while pushing for tougher sanctions against Tehran, has given $107 billion in the past 10 years to U.S. and foreign companies doing business in Iran, much of it in the energy sector, the New York Times reported in its Sunday editions.

Despite the threat of punishment for companies that seek U.S. federal contracts while dealing with Iran, the Times said successive administrations have struggled to exert authority over foreign companies and overseas units of U.S. firms.

Of the 74 companies the newspaper said it had identified as doing business with both the U.S. government and Iran, 49 still work with Iran and have no announced plans to leave.

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