Various Departments. Fast and Furious. Obama urges Congress to create transportation jobs. By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY Updated 2012-03-25 12:55 PM President Obama speaks in front of a Cincinnati bridge in need of repair in September 2011. By Pabro Martinez Monsivais, AP President Obama used his weekly radio address Saturday to take on a familiar foe -- House Republicans -- over a familiar topic, creating jobs and rebuilding America's transportation system. The president lauded the Democratic-controlled Senate for passing a bipartisan, two-year, $109 billion transportation bill, but he blamed the House for gridlock that threatens to cost middle-income jobs. "Once again, we're waiting on Congress," Obama said. House Republican leaders are pushing a five-year, $260 billion measure but have had trouble rounding up enough support.
House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica has said the House would approve a three-month extension of current transportation funding while negotiators continue to seek a compromise. Here's the president's full address: Hello. See photos of: Barack Obama.
How President Obama Plans to Implement the NDAA's Military Custody Provisions. Indefinite Detention Targeted In Democratic Bill On Handling Terrorist Suspects. WASHINGTON -- A pair of lawmakers on Thursday offered a bill that would repeal laws that allow the indefinite detention of Americans and others by the military without trial. The power of military authorities to arrest and jail people as long as they want stems from Congress' 2001 joint resolution authorizing the use of military force against terrorists, but was explicitly codified into law last year after President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act on New Year's Eve.
While allowing military detention of anyone, the act mandated that certain terrorist suspects had to be held by the armed forces. Civil libertarians on the left and right were sharply critical of the law, even though the president promised not to grab Americans. Obama set out policy rules last month making good on that pledge, specifying that U.S. citizens and numerous other categories of suspected terrorists would not be clapped into the military system, which somewhat mollified critics.
Education Policy. Is Obama Leaving NASA Lost in Space? When President Obama released his 2013 budget on Monday, we looked for the science and tech winners of the proposal. But one part of the plan is leaving some space geeks adrift: NASA's Mars goals are being put on the back burner. Obama's plan would reduce NASA's planetary science funding by approximately 21 percent while putting more money into human exploration, new spacecraft and space technology. That moves NASA away from researching Earth's neighbors and towards finding new ways to launch men and women into space. The overall message to NASA?
"Some important, but currently unaffordable missions are deferred, such as large-scale missions to study the expansion of the universe and to return samples from Mars," reads Obama's budget. Instead of sending people to Mars, the Obama plan would focus on a "lower cost program" that would use robots, not humans, to explore our galatic neighbor. And what about the James Webb telescope, being designed to replace the aging Hubble?
The Obama Administration's War On Particulate Emissions. Greg Ip has a piece in the Economist noting (surprise surprise) that the Obama administration's Office of Informational and Regulatory Affairs takes a friendlier approach to environmental regulations than did the Bush administration version of OIRA. It very useful moves beyond that observation to pinpoint specifically what the source of the difference is, namely that Obama administration's much greater reliance on the idea that reducing the level of fine particulates in the atmosphere is beneficial. He cites as an example the important mercury regulation the administration handed down several months ago. Complying with the new rules on mercury will cause a number of the oldest and dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the country to shut down, which will drastically reduce fine particulate emissions coming from those plants.
This, according to the Obama administration, will have major benefits for human welfare.
SOTU 2012. Personnel and Other Issues and Criticism. Feb. 2012 Contraception and Catholic Church. Business, Deficit, Tax Policy and Conflicts. Military and Foreign Policy. White House Responds to Anti-SOPA Petition. President Obama's administration has issued a public response to petitions protesting the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). "While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response," said the note, "we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet. " SOPA, opponents agree, does exactly that — it reeks of censorship, throws unreasonable demands at many online businesses and poses significant technological problems. "The bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and technology mandates that would require monitoring of web sites," wrote Facebook, Google, Twitter and others in a joint letter sent to key members of the U.S.
Senate in November 2011. Meanwhile, an anti-SOPA rally in New York is still planned for Wednesday. U.S. to Tell Drug Makers to Disclose Payments to Doctors. Top Contributors to Barack Obama. Barack Obama (D) This table lists the top donors to this candidate in the 2008 election cycle. The organizations themselves did not donate Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates. Because of contribution limits, organizations that bundle together many individual contributions are often among the top donors to presidential candidates. These contributions can come from the organization's members or employees (and their families).
The organization may support one candidate, or hedge its bets by supporting multiple candidates. Groups with national networks of donors - like EMILY's List and Club for Growth - make for particularly big bundlers. University of California. What’s Obama done the last Two Years? I’m Glad You Asked | FREEdom Of Speech. What’s Obama done the last Two Years? I’m Glad You Asked My good friend Halli said he doesn’t want to re-elect Barack Obama because he hasn’t done anything since he’s been in office but since the Republicans dont have anyone worth electing, he’s at a bit of a crossroad. So this is dedicated to him and all the people who finds their self asking, “Obama, what have you done for me lately??” Read em’ and weep… Seriously, what the hell has Obama been doing for the last two years??? I mean, who would want to re-elect a guy with such a pitiful track record like the one above? [Via] Like this: Like Loading... About Travon Free Stand-up comedian, actor, and writer.
This entry was posted in Celebrities & Politicians, Duuuh, News Entertainment Politics & Randomness and tagged 2012, America, Barack Obama, bills, democrat, elections, policy, republican, track record, Voting, White House. Obama, Explained - Magazine. As Barack Obama contends for a second term in office, two conflicting narratives of his presidency have emerged. Is he a skillful political player and policy visionary—a chess master who always sees several moves ahead of his opponents (and of the punditocracy)? Or is he politically clumsy and out of his depth—a pawn overwhelmed by events, at the mercy of a second-rate staff and of the Republicans? Here, a longtime analyst of the presidency takes the measure of our 44th president, with a view to history. Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press/Corbis Images In the late 1990s, when his fellow University of Chicago professor Barack Obama had just run for the Illinois State Senate and long before a newly inaugurated President Obama named him to his Council of Economic Advisers, the economist Austan Goolsbee was on the most terrifying airplane trip of his life.
One jolt of turbulence was so strong that a flight attendant, not yet strapped in, hit her head on the airplane’s ceiling. Kal Penn: It's Time to Ignore the Paralyzing Cynicism and Get Engaged. Before I met President Obama, I was always cynically independent when it came to politics. Like a lot of other young people with different views on different issues, I never considered myself to be either a Democrat or Republican. I still don't. But having had the honor to serve in this president's White House for two years, one thing that dissipated from my mind is the sense of cynicism that existed before.
Now, I know that it might sound nuts to hear someone say that they're less cynical today than they were 2 years ago, even after having seen first-hand the chaos in Congress. Flash back to 2008, when President-elect Obama won with an overwhelming majority of young voters on a promise to make college more affordable, fix a broken health care system, bring our buddies home from Iraq, and make sure that our gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members could serve openly in the military. Fast forward to September 2011. Kal Penn is an actor and producer based in Los Angeles. The Ultimate Barack Obama Video Timeline. What Can We Say About President Obama’s Economic Performance in Early 2010?
There’s an argument that we should look less to President Obama for the success or failure of the economy in this Great Recession – especially with the lack of movement on unemployment – and more to Congress and the Federal Reserve, especially as they interact with the Presidency. The role of President as agenda-setter is overrated and maybe even counter-productive, because it increases partisanship in Congress. The role of President as rhetorician doesn’t hold up in political science literature and is exaggerated because of the way we (and the media) view elections and government generally. This argument sets the tone in Ezra Klein’s big New York Review of Books piece on Suskind’s Confidence Men and Obama’s performance on the economy.
Discussing it today at his blog, Ezra notes: The point of these pieces has been that we systematically overrate the power of the presidency and underrate the importance and autonomy of Congress and the Federal Reserve. There’s a lot of truth there. Obama Signs 'Game-Changing', Crowd-Funding JOBS Act. President Obama called the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act a "game-changing" bill moments before singing it into law Thursday afternoon.
The JOBS Act is a bipartisan bill which aims to make it easier for startups to grow, hire employees and contribute to the United States' sluggish economic recovery. The bill classifies startups as "emerging growth companies" that can turn to online investors to raise much-sought-after startup capital — similar to how websites such as Kickstarter let users raise money for films, books or other projects. Those companies would also be able to sell up to $50 million in shares before having to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and have up to 1,000 shareholders — double the current limitation. "One of the great things about America is that we’re a nation of doers," said President Obama at a White House signing ceremony, where he was flanked by members of Congress and some of the nation's top entrepreneurs.