Mayor Goodman rejects invitation to meet with President Obama

Updated: Feb 17, 2010 12:57 AM

Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) - Mayor Oscar Goodman has refused an invitation to meet with President Obama when he arrives in town on Thursday. Mayor Goodman called President Obama a slow learner after he told Americans not to blow money on a weekend in Las Vegas if they were saving to put their kids through college.

"I've got other things to do quite frankly for my constituents here in Las Vegas who rely on me to do the right thing as a mayor," explained Mayor Goodman.

http://www.ktnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=11996202

Via House Minority Whip Eric Cantor:

As we looked back over the past year of the Democrats? Stimulus, two themes emerged:

1. Every time the Administration or Congressional Democrats would claim credit for some number of jobs created or saved, a subsequent fact-check would debunk the claim
2. The unemployment rate kept marching upward

February 17, 2009: $787 billion Recovery Act signed into law. Unemployment rate stands at 7.6%.
February 17, 2009: Administration releases specific state-by-state numbers reflecting the expected impact of the Recovery Act.
February 17, 2009: The nation?s first Recovery Act project is announced, a new bridge in Tuscumbia, MO.
February 24, 2009: President Obama announces that Vice-President Biden will “lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort – because nobody messes with Joe.”
March 3, 2009: President unveils “Recovery Act” logo designed by the same Chicago firm that helped create the Obama Campaign logo. March 4, 2009: CNN reports on the controversy surrounding the first Recovery Act project in a segment titled “A New „Bridge to Nowhere.?” March 6, 2009: Department of Labor announces that 651,000 jobs were lost in February and that the unemployment rate rose to 8.1%.
March 16, 2009: Press reports indicate that even Recovery Act “Czar” Earl Devaney is questioning the state-by-state jobs figures released by the Administration.
April 3, 2009: Department of Labor announces that 663,000 jobs were lost in March and that the unemployment rate rose to 8.5%.
2
Note: Unemployment figures represent the initial estimates released that day and do not reflect
subsequent revisions.
April 13, 2009: The Administration announces 2,000th Recovery Act project, but an ABC News fact check reveals that far fewer projects are actually underway.
May 8, 2009: Department of Labor announces that 539,000 jobs were lost in April and that the unemployment rate rose to 8.9%.
May 12, 2009: Reports begin to surface of dead people, some deceased for 40 years or more, receiving $250 stimulus checks.
May 13, 2009: The Administration releases its first quarter Recovery Act report stating that as of May 5, $28.5 billion had been spent.
May 21, 2009: The Administration quietly releases a footnote to its previous report announcing a $10.4 billion accounting error that reduces the actual spending by roughly one-third of what was reported a week earlier.
May 27, 2009: President Obama marks the 100 day anniversary of the Recovery Act by claiming that 150,000 jobs have been saved or created.
May 29, 2009: Politifact.com reports on the President?s claim of 150,000 jobs created or saved, saying it is “not much better than a guess presented as a fact.”
June 5, 2009: Department of Labor announces that 345,000 jobs were lost in May and that the unemployment rate rose to 9.4%.
June 22, 2009: Administration releases rules for counting jobs “saved” and “created.”
July 2, 2009: Department of Labor announces that 467,000 jobs were lost in June and that the unemployment rate rose to 9.5%.
July 8, 2009: It is reported that the Administration will spend up to $18 million to revamp its recovery.gov website.
July 27, 2009: Congressional Democrats claim highway and transit spending from the stimulus has created or sustained 48,000 jobs.
July 31, 2009: The group ProPublica checks in on the Democrats? claim of 48,000 highway and transit jobs created or sustained and says the estimate suffers from “fuzzy math.”
August 5, 2009: Reports indicate that only 12% or $70 billion of stimulus funds have been spent.
August 7, 2009: Department of Labor announces that 247,000 jobs were lost in July and that the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.4%.
3
Note: Unemployment figures represent the initial estimates released that day and do not reflect
subsequent revisions.
August 17, 2009: Speaker Pelosi marks the six month anniversary of the Recovery Act, saying, “the Recovery Act is already paying dividends for workers, families, and small businesses.”
September 3, 2009: Vice President Biden states that the Recovery Act is "doing more, faster, more efficiently, and more effectively than most expected."
September 4, 2009: Department of Labor announces that 216,000 jobs were lost in August and that the unemployment rate rose to 9.7%.
September 28, 2009: Reports indicate that Recovery Act spending has reached $102 billion.
October 2, 2009: Department of Labor announces that 263,000 jobs were lost in September and that the unemployment rate rose to 9.8%.
October 15, 2009: Administration announces that contracts awarded with Recovery Act funds have created or saved 30,383 jobs.
October 29, 2009: Associated Press analysis reveals that the 30,883 job count previously released by the Administration overstated the jobs created or saved. “The AP review found some counts were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of jobs; some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced.”
October 30, 2009: Administration announces Recovery Act has saved or created 640,329 total jobs.
November 6, 2009: Department of Labor announces that 190,000 jobs were lost in October and that the unemployment rate rose to 10.2%--surpassing the 10% unemployment mark for the first time since 1983.
November 16, 2009: The press reports that many of the jobs created or saved were, according to the government?s official website, created or saved in congressional districts that do not exist.
November 16, 2009: Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI), one of the principal authors of the Recovery Act, condemns the inaccuracies reported on recovery.gov as “ludicrous mistakes.”
November 19, 2009: Administration confirms that they cannot confirm their claim that 640,329 jobs were saved or created by the Recovery Act.
December 4, 2009: Department of Labor announces that 11,000 jobs were lost in November and that the unemployment rate edged down to 10.0%.
4
Note: Unemployment figures represent the initial estimates released that day and do not reflect
subsequent revisions.
December 18, 2009: Administration sends out a memo saying they will no longer count jobs created or saved, but instead count jobs funded in whole or in part by the Recovery Act.
January 8, 2010: Department of Labor announces that 85,000 jobs were lost in December and that the unemployment rate remained at 10.0%.
January 26, 2010: The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) increases the estimated cost of the Recovery Act by $75 billion to $862 billion plus interest.
February 3, 2010: Reports indicate that one-third of stimulus funds have been spent.
February 5, 2010: Department of Labor announces that 20,000 jobs were lost in January and that the unemployment rate edged down to 9.7%.
February 12, 2010: The press reports that Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent Democrat Members of Congress a memo stating that "The Recovery Act is a hallmark achievement of this Congress…"

http://republicanwhip.house.gov/floor/A%20Stimulus%20Timeline.pdf

The political numbers tell a grim story. In five decades of closely following American politics, I have never seen the Democratic Party in worse shape. Democrats trail in polls in 11 of the 18 Democratic-held Senate seats up this fall and lead in polls in none of the 18 Republican-held seats.

Republicans currently lead Democrats in most generic polls — which party’s candidate will you support for the House of Representatives? — even though Democrats have almost always held the lead since Gallup began asking the question in 1950. Incumbents usually lead in individual House race polls. But polls have shown Democratic incumbents trailing Republican challengers in Arkansas, Indiana, Massachusetts and North Dakota.

Of course opinion can change, and the balance of enthusiasm, which currently favors Republicans, could shift. But if the election were held today, the numbers tell me that Democrats would fare worse than they have in any election since 1946.

But if I have never seen the Democratic Party in worse shape, I have seen the Republican Party in better shape — in 1972 (when Richard Nixon unaccountably failed to boost his party), at various points in the 1980s and 1990s, in 2002 and in 2004, when enthusiasm for George W. Bush eluded most political reporters but showed up in the election returns.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/With-Dems-sinking-GOP-better-come-up-with-a-plan-84527237.html

Silver Lining Hard to Find for Some on Anniversary of Stimulus

By Judson Berger

 - FOXNews.com

While the Obama administration and congressional Democrats are out in force this week touting the success of the $787 billion economic stimulus package signed exactly one year ago, critics are pointing to a still-dismal jobs picture and deflating public confidence as signs that the ballyhooed benefits of the stimulus bill, as one GOP leader put it, were a "fiction" and not worth the cost.

The United States of America owes $1.6 trillion more today than it did a year ago. The jobless rate has climbed from 8.1 percent to 9.7 percent. And the deficit has soared to record levels, with another record likely to be set this year. 

Happy anniversary. 

While the Obama administration and congressional Democrats are out in force this week touting the success of the $787 billion economic stimulus package, signed exactly one year ago, critics are pointing to a still-dismal jobs picture and deflating public confidence as signs that the ballyhooed benefits of the stimulus bill, as one GOP leader put it, were a "fiction." And certainly not worth the cost. 

President Obama and Vice President Biden argued Wednesday that the stimulus has saved or created 2 million jobs.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/17/silver-lining-hard-year-anniversary-stimulus/

We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding.  Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law. They sought to secure national independence, provide for economic opportunity, establish true religious liberty and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government.

Each one of these founding ideas is presently under sustained attack. In recent decades, America’s principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities and our politics. The selfevident truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist. The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant.

Some insist that America must change, cast off the old and put on the new. But where would this lead — forward or backward, up or down? Isn’t this idea of change an empty promise or even a dangerous deception?

The change we urgently need, a change consistent with the American ideal, is not movement away from but toward our founding principles. At this important time, we need a restatement of Constitutional conservatism grounded in the priceless principle of ordered liberty articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

The conservatism of the Declaration asserts self-evident truths based on the laws of nature and nature’s God. It defends life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It traces authority to the consent of the governed. It recognizes man’s self-interest but also his capacity for virtue.

The conservatism of the Constitution limits government’s powers but ensures that government performs its proper job effectively. It refines popular will through the filter of representation. It provides checks and balances through the several branches of government and a federal republic.

• It applies the principle of limited government based on the
  rule of law to every proposal.
• It honors the central place of individual liberty in American
  politics and life.
• It encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and
  economic reforms grounded in market solutions.
• It supports America’s national interest in advancing freedom
  and opposing tyranny in the world and prudently considers what we can and should do to that
  end.
• It informs conservatism’s firm defense of family, neighborhood,
  community, and faith.

If we are to succeed in the critical political and policy battles ahead, we must be certain of our purpose.

We must begin by retaking and resolutely defending the high ground of America’s founding principles.

http://www.themountvernonstatement.com/

Just weeks before elections, specter of sectarian violence resurfaces in Iraq

By Leila Fadel

Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, February 17, 2010

BAGHDAD -- It was only one killing, but it unleashed the demons of a bitter and perhaps unfinished past.

The victim was a Sunni man in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Hurriyah, in northwest Baghdad. The death and the aftermath were reminiscent of the prelude to the sectarian war, which began in late 2005 with a smattering of killings and threats and culminated with 100 bodies a day being dumped in the streets of the capital. With the imminent departure of American forces and fierce competition for power ahead of general elections on March 7, many here say sectarian strife is reigniting.

But this time, there will be no outsider acting as a buffer between the warring sects. U.S. military officials acknowledge that as Iraq regains sovereignty, their influence is waning. A senior U.S. military official who has spent years in Iraq said he fears that as the drawdown begins, American forces are leaving behind many of the same conditions that preceded the sectarian war.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/16/AR2010021606003.html?hpid=topnews

The ink is barely dry on the pay-as-you-go law, and Democrats are seeking to bypass it to enact parts of their job-creation agenda.

Democratic leaders said extensions of unemployment insurance and COBRA healthcare benefits should be emergency spending that isn’t subject to the pay-as-you-go statute, which requires new non-discretionary spending to be offset with spending cuts or tax increases.

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/81405-pay-go-gets-passed-then-it-gets-bypassed

Obama’s bundlers occupy dozens of key positions

Barack Obama has long decried the corrupting influence of money in politics. As a candidate, he ran against lobbyists and the pay-for-play culture of Washington. As president, he has continued to hammer the theme, most recently in his impassioned attacks on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission.

Given this, it’s a little surprising to learn that Obama has not only embraced the sordid money-driven culture of DC, but actually outdone his predecessors. An analysis by the American Foreign Service Association, for example, found that Obama has stuffed the diplomatic corps with more political appointees (i.e., cronies) than any president in the past 40 years. Only a year into the administration, close of half of the president’s biggest donors already have federal jobs.

Below is a list of Obama campaign bundlers and the taxpayer-funded positions they’ve received:

The Big Changers’ Club ($500,000+)

Avant, Nicole (Los Angeles, CA)
Position: Ambassador to the Bahamas

Barzun, Matthew (Louisville, KY)
Position: Ambassador to Sweden

Beyer, Don (Alexandria, VA)
Position: Nominated to Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein

Bleich, Jeff (Piedmont, CA)
Position: Ambassador to Australia

Danzig, Richard (Washington, DC)
Position: Member, Defense Policy Board

Donahoe, Eileen Chamberlain (Washington, DC)
Position: Nominated to Ambassador to UN Human Rights Council

Eacho, William (Bethesda, MD)
Position: Ambassador to Austria

Forester, Christine (San Diego, CA)
Position: Member, Presidential Committee on the Arts and Humanities

Genachowski, Julius (Washington, DC)
Position: FCC Chairman

Gips, Don (Boulder, CO)
Position: Ambassador to South Africa

Gutman, Howard (Washington, DC)

There are a lot more, just follow the link:

http://dailycaller.com/2010/02/16/obamas-bundlers-occupy-dozens-of-key-positions/