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Latest Articles: United States News
Katrina: Competent President, Incompetent Locals; Gulf Spill: Incompetent President, Competent Locals
Post Date: 2010-06-22 12:01:28 by no gnu taxes
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In many respects, the Deepwater Horizon disaster and Katrina are mirror images of each other. The harm from Katrina was on state land—mainly Louisiana, but also Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. As a result, President George W. Bush and the federal government were limited in what they could do. For example, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff wanted to take command of disaster relief on the day before landfall, but Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco refused. Federal response was hindered because the law gave first authority to state and local authorities. State and local efforts—particularly in New Orleans, and Louisiana more broadly—interfered with what actions the ...
The Kenyan: ‘Never Again Such Failures’
Post Date: 2010-06-22 11:22:04 by no gnu taxes
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On his first day in office, January 20, 2009, President Barack Obama issued a statement on the White House Web site promising Gulf Coast residents that his administration would not fail them like he accused his predecessor President George W. Bush. Eighteen months later, those arrogant words are coming back to haunt Obama as the Gulf Coast is facing the third month of failure by Obama to marshall sufficient resources to protect the region from the massive BP oil spill. “President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. He and Vice President Biden will take steps to ensure that the federal government will never again allow ...
Why I’m Not Worried About Marco Rubio, Yet
Post Date: 2010-06-22 11:04:30 by Badeye
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Why I’m Not Worried About Marco Rubio, Yet June 21, 2010 4:50 PM By Jim Geraghty Lots of readers are looking at new polls in Florida and getting worried about Marco Rubio. I’m not, yet. I’d like to see Rubio leading, obviously, but a couple of things are jumping out at me in recent polling. 1. Democrats are wavering between Crist and Meek. Until April, Kendrick Meek was above 20 percent in a three-way matchup; since then, the bottom has fallen out; in the last four, he’s hit 15, 17, 15, and 14 percent. This is an astonishingly low level for a major-party candidate in a competitive state. By contrast, Katherine Harris’s disaster of a Senate campaign won 38 percent ...
N.J. Millionaires Tax Plan Fails (Christie wins Again)
Post Date: 2010-06-22 09:47:13 by Badeye
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N.J. Millionaires Tax Plan Fails Updated: Monday, 21 Jun 2010, 6:41 PM EDT Published : Monday, 21 Jun 2010, 2:38 PM EDT TRENTON, N.J. - Democrats in the New Jersey Assembly have failed to override the Republican governor's veto of a tax surcharge on millionaires. Monday's vote was strictly along party lines. All 47 Assembly Democrats voted for the override and all 33 Republicans voted against it. The measure needed seven GOP votes to advance. The one-year surcharge would have raised about $600 million by increasing income taxes nearly two percent on the state's 16,000 highest wage earners. It would have put the top earners into a 10.75 percent tax rate on income above $1 ...
The Oil Spill: The Best Thing to Happen to Sarah Palin?
Post Date: 2010-06-22 09:02:48 by no gnu taxes
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Double, double, oil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble! Mr. wOw considers Obama’s real Waterloo. Watching and listening to all those who ponder, pontificate, advise, criticize, rant — I do mean you, James Carville, you idiot! — and yacht while millions of gallons of oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico, I have come to only one conclusion: More is expected of Barack Obama than any president in the history of the United States. Any other. Ever. It’s not that I feel Obama has handled this perfectly — too tentative at first, always too "thinky," perpetually opaque emotionally. But I wonder what else could have been done that would have stopped the oil ...
Obama DROWNING in HIS OWN OIL SPILL! IT IS HIS NOW!
Post Date: 2010-06-22 08:54:31 by no gnu taxes
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Drowning in oil, the Obama Administration is pulling out all the stops to halt the hemorrhaging of liberal support which is driving his ratings down to the low 40s–previously unexplored territory. Obama has already lost all the Republicans and almost all of the Independents. But he has kept his head above water with the solid support of liberal Democrats and African-Americans. But now that the Gulf oil spill enters its eighth week, with no sign of abating, he is shedding Democrats. Rapidly. It is not that the gushing oil will drive a single Democrat to vote Republican. The GOP’s strong support for off shore drilling will bar such switches. But the increasing image of ...
Obama's Answer to Clean Up Oil Spill: Play Golf and Have Meetings With Policy Hacks
Post Date: 2010-06-22 08:49:03 by no gnu taxes
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The panel appointed by President Barack Obama to investigate the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is short on technical expertise but long on talking publicly about "America's addiction to oil." One member has blogged about it regularly. Only one of the seven commissioners, the dean of Harvard's engineering and applied sciences school, has a prominent engineering background — but it's in optics and physics. Another is an environmental scientist with expertise in coastal areas and the after-effects of oil spills. Both are praised by other scientists. The five other commissioners are experts in policy and management. The White House said the commission will focus on the ...
Barton's Apology to BP Opens Door for Opponent
Post Date: 2010-06-22 07:41:38 by war
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By David Cozad’s own admission, hardly anyone knew his name before last week. And that’s still mostly true, though it may not matter. For all practical purposes, he is That Guy Running Against Joe Barton. Two little words — “I apologize,” uttered by Barton, the Republican congressman representing Arlington and a large swath of the Fort Worth suburbs, to Tony Hayward, the chief executive of British Petroleum, the company daily soiling the Gulf of Mexico with crude oil — have upgraded the status of Cozad’s campaign from Sure Loser to Longer-Than-Longshot. Calling himself a Green Dog Democrat focused on reforming the energy industry, he newly brims with ...
Player of the Week: Rep. Joe Barton
Post Date: 2010-06-22 07:33:08 by war
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Will Joe Barton (R-Texas) survive the week as the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee? Barton’s apology to BP last week was cited repeatedly by the White House and Democrats in Congress as a reason why voters should reject the GOP at the polls this fall. The good news for Barton is that countless politicians have survived after major gaffes. In many cases, it’s not what you say, but how you recover from it. The bad news for Barton is that two Republicans, Reps. Jeff Miller (Fla.) and Jo Bonner (Ala.), have called for Barton to step aside as the panel’s ranking member. Before his statements about a government “shakedown” of BP, Barton was ...
AP Source: White House Budget Chief Stepping Down
Post Date: 2010-06-21 23:49:39 by Brian S
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White House Budget Director Peter Orszag plans to resign, a Democratic official said Monday night, positioning him to be the first high-profile member of President Barack Obama's team to depart the administration. Orszag is expected to leave in the coming months. The exact timing is not known. As director of the Office of Management and Budget, Orszag holds Cabinet-level rank and a pivotal role in shaping and defending how the administration spends the public's money. He quickly emerged from a bureaucratic post to become a camera-friendly face of Obama's government, often in front on plans to confront the deficit and to spur the economy. The official confirmed the news to The ...
AP Sources: Obama To Mark 90 Days Of Health Care Law With Announcement On Consumer Benefits
Post Date: 2010-06-21 23:21:09 by Brian S
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President Barack Obama on Tuesday will announce new health insurance benefits for consumers, marking the first 90 days since he signed landmark legislation to expand coverage. The announcement will follow a private meeting between administration officials, several state insurance commissioners, and CEOs of major insurance company, amid concerns over continued premium hikes, the White House said. Obama is expected to attend at least part of the session. Consumers who buy their policies directly faced increases averaging 20 percent this year, according to a survey released Monday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Although most Americans are covered on the job, about 14 million purchase ...
Some Oil Spill Events From Monday, June 21, 2010
Post Date: 2010-06-21 23:17:12 by Brian S
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A summary of events on Monday, June 21, Day 62 of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that began with the April 20 explosion and fire on the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, owned by Transocean Ltd. and leased by BP PLC, which is in charge of cleanup and containment. The blast killed 11 workers. Since then, oil has been pouring into the Gulf from a blown-out undersea well. MORATORIUM Companies that ferry people and supplies to offshore oil rigs asked a federal judge Monday to lift a six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling projects imposed in the aftermath of the massive Gulf spill. After hearing two hours of arguments, Judge Martin Feldman said he will decide by Wednesday whether to ...
Ariz. Wildfire Near Flagstaff Now At 10,000 Acres
Post Date: 2010-06-21 22:50:44 by Brian S
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(06-21) 19:12 PDT Flagstaff, Ariz. (AP) -- When Jon Stoner opens the blinds to a front window in his home "it's a piece of heaven," he says. Acres of ponderosa pine trees stretch into the distance, staggering up a mountain and bringing a sense of calmness to the area northeast of Flagstaff. With an 10,000-acre wildfire burning nearby, Stoner is unsure how much of that scenery will remain in tact. As he evacuated his home Sunday, he looked out that same window and saw flames shooting up above the trees. "That's scary," he said from a shelter where a community briefing was held a day later. "It moves fast." The combination of high temperatures, low ...
NOAA Expands Fishing Closed Area To About 36% Of Gulf Of Mexico
Post Date: 2010-06-21 22:45:00 by Brian S
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Monday added more than 6,000 square miles to the area of the Gulf of Mexico closed to fishing due to the oil spill. The closed area now covers 86,985 square miles, or about 36% of Gulf federal waters. That is a three-point expansion from the previous week and closer to the 37% of federal waters put off-limits three weeks ago. NOAA said Monday the oil slick was moving beyond the current boundaries off of the Florida panhandle and south of Mississippi. The federal closure does not apply to state waters. On Sunday NOAA predicted that the oil slick would continue moving slowly east, toward coastal regions, with a potential for oil to ...
Obama’s Boss Sees Silver Lining in BP Spill [ Jewish Soros ]
Post Date: 2010-06-21 19:58:25 by WhiteSands
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Reuters is reporting that Brazil stands to benefit from the BP oil spill catastrophe as the US moratorium makes more rigs available for other countries. Even as an ecological catastrophe makes the future of U.S. offshore drilling less certain, Brazil is plowing ahead with a $220 billion five-year plan to tap oil fields even deeper than BP’s (BP.L) ill-fated Gulf well, which is still leaking crude. It’s estimated that thirty five rigs are now sitting idle in the Gulf of Mexico. Brazil is already getting inquiries from companies wanting to move their rigs there. Brazil’s state oil company, Petrobras already produces about a fourth of the world’s deep water ...
Rig Worker Says BP Was Told of Leak in Emergency System Before Explosion [weeks before the "accident"]
Post Date: 2010-06-21 19:43:31 by Brian S
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Updated | 2:37 p.m. In an interview published online on Monday, a technician who worked on the Deepwater Horizon told the BBC that the rig’s blowout preventer, which failed to seal BP’s Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico after an explosion on April 20, was leaking fluid weeks before the accident. Tyrone Benton, who worked for a subcontractor on the rig, operating underwater robots, said in a video interview that he had spotted a leak in one of two control pods in the blowout preventer weeks before the explosion and notified BP and Transocean, the rig operator. As my colleague Ian Urbina reported in May, internal BP documents mentioned leaks in the blowout preventer. Federal ...
Dallas Police Chief's Son David Brown Jr. Named in Cop Killing
Post Date: 2010-06-21 19:09:27 by Brian S
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The son of the Dallas police chief is believed to have fatally shot a man on a Lancaster, Texas, street Sunday evening, then killed a police officer before being shot dead himself in an exchange of gunfire with cops, officials said today. David Brown Jr., the son of the Dallas police chief, has been named a suspect in a deadly shooting that killed one police officer and another civilian. Brown Jr. also died at the scene. (Courtesy Dallas County Sheriff's Office) David Brown Jr., 27, the son of Dallas Police Chief David Brown, who just took office in May, was today identified as the alleged shooter in the incident, which broke out at an apartment complex in Lancaster, 15 miles south of ...
Faisal Shahzad Pleads Guilty In Times Square Car Bomb Plot, Warns Of More Attacks
Post Date: 2010-06-21 19:05:20 by Brian S
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Faisal Shahzad pleaded guilty Monday afternoon to trying to explode a car bomb in Times Square on May 1, and to receiving terror training from the Pakistani Taliban, and warned that further attacks on the U.S. were coming. The 30-year-old naturalized American, who was born in Pakistan and lived in Connecticut, pleaded guilty to ten different terror-related federal charges, two of which carry a mandatory life sentence. After Shahzad pleaded guilty to the first charge, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, Judge Miriam Cedarbaum said, "I gather you want to plead guilty to all [the charges.] "Yes," said Shahzad, and then said he wanted to plead guilty and 100 times ...
Key Republican: Blow Up The Well
Post Date: 2010-06-21 18:51:18 by Brian S
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A Republican congressman suggested over the weekend that BP detonate dynamite to seal its leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. Rep. Phil Gingrey (Ga.), who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee that grilled BP CEO Tony Hayward last week, said that he has had knowledgeable people advise him that the solution could cap the leak. “For the life of me, I can’t understand why BP couldn’t go into the ocean floor, maybe 10 feet lateral to the — around the periphery — drill a few holes and put a little ammonium nitrate, some dynamite, in those holes and detonate that dynamite and seal that leak. And seal it permanently," he told Atlanta's WABE ...
Iowa Republican: Barton Was Right To Say BP Suffered 'Shakedown' At White House`
Post Date: 2010-06-21 18:10:11 by Brian S
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One Republican lawmaker said Monday he agreed with Rep. Joe Barton's (R-Texas) apology to BP. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said he thought Barton was right to call the Obama administration's effort to force BP to create a $20 billion escrow account to pay out claims to victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill a "shakedown." "I think Joe Barton was spot-on when he called it a 'shakedown.' That's part of this administration's process," King said Monday on the conservative Laura Ingraham radio show. "If you look at all they have nationalized during this administration — some started during the Bush administration — it should tell you, ...
Judge: Former Iowa Kosher Slaughterhouse Manager Will Get 27 Years In Prison, Pay $31M
Post Date: 2010-06-21 16:54:11 by Brian S
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By: Michael J. Crumb, The Associated Press DES MOINES, Iowa - A former vice-president of an Iowa kosher slaughterhouse will be sentenced to 27 years in prison and ordered to pay $31 million restitution for his conviction on financial fraud charges, a federal judge said Monday. Chief U.S. District Court Judge Linda R. Reade released the memorandum outlining the sentence she will hand down for Sholom Rubashkin during the former Agriprocessor's Inc. manager on Tuesday in federal court in Cedar Rapids. A jury found Rubashkin guilty last fall on 86 federal financial fraud charges. Prosecutors had sought a 25-year sentence. Rubashkin's attorney, Guy Cook, said the sentence is ...
USA: Jones Act Not Hindering Oil Cleanup
Post Date: 2010-06-21 16:49:09 by Brian S
2 Comments
The maintenance of the US’ Jones Act, which rules that only US-flag vessels may transport merchandise or passengers in the country, is not hindering the BP oil cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico, despite widespread commentary that it is. President Obama has been criticised for not waiving the Jones Act in the same manner former President Bush did in the Hurrican Katrina recovery. “It appears that critics of the Jones Act are distorting the facts by claiming that the Jones Act applies in an instance when it simply doesn’t, or where it does, not being forthcoming with the law and the facts,” said Ken Wells, president of the Offshore Marine Service Association. “Worse, they ...
Democrats of 2004 Brand Obama Worst President
Post Date: 2010-06-21 15:15:43 by no gnu taxes
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As we approach another general election, it will be interesting to see how the economic performance of Democrats is judged. If voters borrow the preferred method of John Kerry and other Democrats from 2004, Barack Obama will be revealed to be among the worst presidents in history. During the 2004 election, Democrats constantly reminded voters that George W. Bush was the first president in decades to oversee a net loss of jobs. The drumbeat was incessant. “This administration is the first since Herbert Hoover’s to actually lose jobs on its watch -- 1.8 million jobs,” Kerry said at a campaign stop. His campaign chairman, Jeanne Shaheen, said Bush deserved “the first-ever ...
Obama Can’t Outsource His Incompetence
Post Date: 2010-06-21 14:35:33 by no gnu taxes
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The OPA amended the Federal authority in § 311 to respond to spills. Prior to the OPA, § 311 authorized the President to respond to discharges of oil and hazardous substances, but there was significant latitude for private cleanup efforts by the discharger. The OPA amended § 311 to mandate the President to take action to ensure ‘effective and immediate removal of a discharge, and mitigation or prevention of a substantial threat of a discharge, of oil or a hazardous substance.’ The President’s removal authority is primarily carried out through the creation and implementation of facility and response plans. Following the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, Congress ...
Economy Weak, Data Look Even Weaker (The Obama Depression)
Post Date: 2010-06-21 13:01:32 by no gnu taxes
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No one thought this recovery would be quick or easy, and it hasn't been. The U.S. economy has been growing, but it's still too fragile to stand on its own. The economic data to be released in the coming week are expected to be a mixed lot, while the Federal Reserve holds its regular meeting to assess how much progress is being made in the economy. The likely conclusion from the Federal Open Market Committee? Not enough. The FOMC is expected to maintain its exceptionally low interest-rate policy amid persistently high unemployment and low inflation. The recovery hasn't been derailed by Europe, or by the fiscal crisis in the states, or by the collapse in home buying after the ...
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