Not Another Czar!
Big Government: In a “fireside chat” to quell concerns about the Gulf oil disaster, the president announced the appointment of an oil czar. Is more bureaucracy the answer to every problem?
The media elite just can’t comprehend the anger of the Tea Party movement. The New York Times this week enlisted a professor of philosophy to write an article with a resounding conclusion: “In truth, there is nothing that the Tea Party movement wants; terrifyingly, it wants nothing. .. . (T)hey are nihilists.”
In fact, the Tea Party movement is pretty clear about its demands, exemplified by a protester’s placard with a photo of a crying baby and the message, “Stop Spending My Money — I Haven’t Even Earned It Yet!” Read more.
Dem Lawmakers Challenge Pentagon on Afghan War
WASHINGTON (AP) — A schism deepened Wednesday between U.S. war leaders and Congress as lawmakers — crucial Democrats among them — challenged Pentagon assertions that progress is picking up in Afghanistan.
“I wouldn’t call it eroding,” Democratic Sen. Carl Levin said of once-solid Democratic support for President Barack Obama’s war strategy. “But there’s a lot of fair concern.”
Congressional hearings stepped up pressure on the Pentagon, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates complaining about negative perceptions taking root in Washington about the war. Another top military official acknowledged feeling “angst” about the conflict.
But military leaders said the U.S. effort is advancing. “I think that we are regaining the initiative,” Gates told a skeptical Senate panel. “I think that we are making headway.” Read more.
Obama’s Oil Spill Speech Turns to Energy Policy, Fueling Capitol Crossfire
President Obama tried Tuesday night in his Oval Office speech to rally the nation behind his efforts to tackle the Gulf oil spill, but by also highlighting his energy agenda, he set off reaction on Capitol Hill that could risk turning the disaster into a political football.
Obama, trying to take control of a crisis that has slowly eroded support for his administration, pointed to the relief efforts already under way and said the government would hold BP responsible. But later in his 18-minute speech, he turned his focus to the need to “seriously tackle our addiction to fossil fuels.”
“We can’t afford not to change how we produce and use energy, because the long-term costs to our economy, our national security, and our environment are far greater,” Obama said in the first Oval Office address of his presidency.
The speech came 57 days after the April 20 explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 workers and sparked the crisis, in which millions of gallons of oil already have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. The speech also served as a prelude to Obama’s meeting Wednesday with BP executives at the White House.
Republicans accused the president for using the oil spill to push his legislative agenda. Read more.
Sestak silence worries Pa. officials
Four weeks after claiming the Pennsylvania Senate nomination, Rep. Joe Sestak continues to have an awkward relationship with many leaders of the state’s Democratic establishment — with the two-term congressman so far neglecting to check many of the boxes that ordinarily would be routine for a candidate trying to unify his party after a hard-fought primary.
It’s been nearly a month since the May 18 primary, and key local party leaders have not been in close contact with Sestak. His unorthodox campaign organization is unnerving Democratic officials, and his public comments suggest he hasn’t forgotten the rough treatment he received from the White House and the state party establishment, both of which worked furiously to deliver the nomination to party-switching Sen. Arlen Specter. Read more.
How’d we lose Brazil, Turkey and Lebanon?
After 17 months of diplomacy, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice was only able to get 12 of the 15 countries on the United Nations Security Council to vote to place increased sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s illegal pursuit of nuclear weapons. Yesterday, on Fox News Sunday, Rice jumped to defend the Obama Administration’s lackluster performance by claiming that previous Iran resolutions were not unanimous during the Bush Administration and that there were “abstentions”. Her strategy to minimize the Bush team’s performance in order to make her own poor performance look better isn’t factual. After so much hype about President Barack Obama’s foreign policy engagement strategy, the Obama UN resolution was remarkably weak, took too long to get and received less support than Bush’s team got in producing FIVE Security Council resolutions on Iran. Read more.
Gulf fuels new energy-bill push
President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies plan a major new push for a broad global-warming bill, fueled in part by public outrage over the BP disaster, according to top aides.
Joel Benenson, a pollster for the Democratic National Committee and Obama’s presidential campaign, argues in a new briefing for top Capitol Hill officials that a comprehensive energy bill “could give Democrats a potent weapon to wield against Republicans in the fall.”
Read the briefing.
“The oil spill is intensifying the public’s desire for clean energy investments and increased regulation on corporate polluters,” Benenson writes in the briefing, which he prepared on behalf of the League of Conservation Voters.
“In the aftermath of the spill, people firmly believe Congress needs to do more than just make BP pay. Even when pressed with opposition messaging that now is not the time for some ‘job killing energy tax,’ people coalesce around comprehensive clean energy reform. Consequently, support for a comprehensive energy bill is very high. With the right messaging, that support holds strong in the face of harsh opposition attacks.” Read more.
Company Bidding to Help Manage Tower at Ground Zero Has Arab Ties
Nearly nine years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the bi-state agency that operates the World Trade Center is looking for a private partner to help manage the 1776-foot office tower that is being built at Ground Zero — and one of two companies under consideration may have ties to the Middle East.
The bidding process for private partners for the “Freedom Tower” has been whittled down to two companies: Durst Organization and Related Companies, Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. reports.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will soon decide which partner will manage and help market the tower, which has been renamed One World Trade Center. The partner will invest at least $100 million onto the office tower and memorial building.
Related Co. is an international real estate group whose investors include Goldman Sachs; MSD Capital, LP; Mubadala Development Company; Kuwait Investment Authority; and Olayan Group, according to the company’s website. Read more.
Pakistan’s main spy agency still supports Taliban despite US pressure, says report
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s main spy agency continues to train, fund and arm the Taliban despite U.S. pressure to sever ties with the group that Islamabad helped rise to power in Afghanistan in the 1990s, said a research report released Sunday.
The findings could raise tensions between Pakistan and the U.S., which has provided billions of dollars in military assistance to Islamabad since 2001 to help fight the Taliban. U.S. officials believe Pakistan’s support is key to defeating the insurgency.
But the country’s powerful Inter Services Intelligence agency, or ISI, continues to work closely with the Taliban and is even represented on the group’s leadership council, said the report, which was issued by the London School of Economics and is based on interviews with more than a dozen unnamed Taliban commanders. Read more.
Obama pushes for $50b in local aid
President Obama Saturday asked Congressional leaders to “urge swift action” on legislation he called crucial to shoring up small businesses, and to averting “massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters.”
In a letter to Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, the president said that more spending is needed immediately to avert a devastating double dip recesssion, and that concerns about the deficit, while important, may have to wait. For now, he said, the federal government needs to spend money to provide immediate economic aid to the still-struggling economy, and especially to states that otherwise may have to lay off workers to fill their own budget holes. “We are at a critical juncture on our nation’s path to economic recovery,” Obama said, deeming it “essential that we… build momentum toward recovery, even as we establish a path to long-term fiscal discipline.” Obama called the extenders legislation the Senate is considering, along with small business legislation he’s proposed as well as rebates for home improvements and additional tax credits for clean manufacturing, “cost-effective ways of spurring job creation.” The total package of state and local aid the president is pushing Congressional leaders to pass would cost $50 billion, according to the Washington Post. Read more.
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