President to meet with key senators on immigration
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama plans to focus attention on immigration next week by meeting at the White House with two senators crafting a bill on the issue.
White House spokesman Nicholas Shapiro said Obama will meet with Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on Monday.
The president is “looking forward to hearing more about their efforts toward producing a bipartisan bill,” Shapiro said Friday. Read more.
Iran’s Ahmadinejad: Sept. 11 attacks a ‘big lie’
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday called the official version of the Sept. 11 attacks a “big lie” used by the U.S. as an excuse for the war on terror, state media reported.
Ahmadinejad’s comments, made during an address to Intelligence Ministry staff, come amid escalating tensions between the West and Tehran over its disputed nuclear program. They show that Iran has no intention of toning itself down even with tighter sanctions looming because of its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.
“September 11 was a big lie and a pretext for the war on terror and a prelude to invading Afghanistan,” Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by state TV. He called the attacks a “complicated intelligence scenario and act.” Read more.
Obama Draws Fire for Appointing SEIU’s Stern to Deficit Panel
President Obama’s decision to appoint his close political ally, union leader Andrew Stern, to the newly created National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has set off a firestorm of criticism from business and conservative groups who charge he is a political radical who should be investigated for failure to register as a lobbyist.
The prestigious 18-member commission will study and recommend ways to whittle down the $12 trillion debt the federal government has amassed. Stern is one of six panelists Obama has named; the House of Representatives and the Senate will each appoint six others.
Stern, the 59-year-old president of the 2.2 million-member Service Employees International Union, has angered business groups and political conservatives because of his support for health care reform and controversial “Card Check” legislation, which would make it easier for unions to organize in workplaces. Read more.
The nation’s capital is one sorry spectacle these days
WASHINGTON — Washington has its moments when the nation’s capital shines for all the world to see. Inaugurations. The Fourth of July .
This isn’t one of them.
Recent days instead have shown Washington at its worst. An ethics mess in the House of Representatives , even in its ethics committee. A nasty fight over spending in the Senate with the two major parties scrambling for political advantage rather than helping Americans in need. Read more.
Al-Qaida calls on US Muslims to attack America
CAIRO – (AP) Al-Qaida’s American-born spokesman on Sunday called on Muslims serving in the U.S. armed forces to emulate the Army major charged with killing 13 people in Fort Hood.
In a 25-minute video posted on militant Web sites, Adam Gadahn described Maj. Nidal Hasan as a pioneer who should serve as a role model for other Muslims, especially those serving Western militaries.
“Brother Nidal is the ideal role-model for every repentant Muslim in the armies of the unbelievers and apostate regimes,” he said. Read more.
ACORN Registration Workers Charged With Felony Voter Fraud
Five Wisconsin residents, including two who worked for community organizing group ACORN, were charged Monday with election fraud relating to the 2008 presidential election.
State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced felony charges against Maria Miles, Kevin Clancy, Michael Henderson, Herbert Gunka and Suzanne Gunka.
Miles and Clancy worked for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and are accused of submitting multiple voter registration applications for the same individuals, including each other, to meet voter registration quotas imposed by the community organizing group. Read more.
Two Congressional Candidates Sign Bonded Term Limit Pledge
Lindsey Graham to President Obama: Time to ‘step it up’
President Barack Obama is summoning two key senators to the Oval Office on Thursday for an update on immigration reform efforts — but one of them, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), thinks Obama should be the one giving the update.
Graham, less than thrilled at the notion of providing the equivalent of a book report to the headmaster in chief, said Obama’s lack of direction on immigration reform is hampering Graham’s efforts to recruit additional Republicans to the cause.
“At the end of the day, the president needs to step it up a little bit,” Graham told POLITICO on Tuesday. “One line in the State of the Union is not going to do it.”
For the past six months, Graham and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — who meet with Obama at 3 p.m. Thursday — have worked on a reform framework. Their plan, which hasn’t been introduced yet, includes a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants (a liberal must-have) while sweetening the pot for moderates by proposing tough new safeguards, including a biometric national ID card for workers. Read more.
Roberts: Scene at State of Union ‘Very Troubling’
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts said Tuesday the scene at President Obama’s first State of the Union address was “very troubling” and that the annual speech to Congress has “degenerated into a political pep rally.”
Responding to a University of Alabama law student’s question about the Senate’s method of confirming justices, Roberts said senators improperly try to make political points by asking questions they know nominees can’t answer because of judicial ethics rules.
“I think the process is broken down,” he said. Read more.
Obama Budget Raises Taxes and Doubles the National Debt
President Obama declared: “I didn’t come here to pass our problems on to the next president or the next generation–I’m here to solve them.” Yet rather than “solve” the runaway spending that is projected to cause historic deficits, the President’s budget doubles down on it with trillions of dollars in new spending and taxes, culminating in a doubling of the national debt. Heritage Foundation economic policy expert Brian Riedl lays out how a $3 trillion tax hike and an additional $74,000 debt burden on every U.S. household will affect the country–and why Congress should reject President Obama’s budget proposal.
When he released his new budget proposal on February 1, President Barack Obama asserted that the government “simply cannot continue to spend as if deficits don’t have consequences; as if waste doesn’t matter; as if the hard-earned tax dollars of the American people can be treated like Monopoly money; as if we can ignore this challenge for another generation.”
Yet the President’s new budget does exactly that– raising taxes by $3 trillion and federal spending by $1.6 trillion over the next ten years. If enacted, this budget would increase the 2010 deficit to more than $1.5 trillion, and leave a deficit of more than $1 trillion even after an assumed return to peace and prosperity. Overall, the President’s budget would double the national debt over the next decade. Read more.
Parties Announce Top Targets in 2010 House Races
Wilson. The Democratic Party is gunning for your seat.
But the “You lie!”-shouting South Carolina Republican isn’t the only member of Congress with a mark on his back. Two Democratic and Republican campaign groups released their lists Wednesday of the top House seats and incumbents targeted in the November midterm elections.
The parties are looking to prop up a number of new faces in their quest to either retain or seize control of Congress. On the Republican side, the House Conservatives Fund announced endorsements for 10 candidates who will, as part of the deal, receive an extra $5,000 for their campaigns to unseat Democrats. Read More.
Sharp Elbows, Cold Shoulders Mark Biden Trip to Israel
Vice President Biden’s trip to the Middle East — meant to pave the way for a new round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks — is coming to a close, leaving in its wake a trail of stinging snubs, cringe-worthy blunders and one-word headlines in Israel newspapers: “Embarrassment.”
If it were merely a series of typical “Biden’isms,” it’d be one thing. But in a sign that U.S.-Israeli relations have cooled, the vice president and top Israeli officials spent the better part of the week poking each other in the eye.
It didn’t take long to see the trip was not going well. Read more.
Stimulus funds pay for monkey research in N.C.
Monkeys are getting high for science in North Carolina.
An analyst at the Civitas Institute seized on that image when selecting a cocaine addiction study at Wake Forest University Medical School as No. 1 on a list of the “10 worst federal stimulus projects in North Carolina.” Civitas’ Brian Balfour takes swipes at projects, writing that they “seem completely unrelated to avoiding an economic ‘catastrophe,’ but rather an ad hoc satisfaction of countless dubious wish lists.”
So, what is the $71,623 federal stimulus grant paying for? Read more.