Week in Review 03/20/10

3/13/10 – Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) Delivers Weekly GOP Address on Health Care

“Jihad Jane”: American citizen, white, a woman and a terrorist

In the ongoing war on terror, one new and extremely troubling battle involves the rise of those who are citizens of the United States, that for one reason or another choose to conspire with terrorists. They then plan and attempt to implement attacks in this country or overseas.

Homegrown Terrorists Initially Raise Fewer Red Flags

Holding United States citizenship, a passport allowing for much less scrutiny at borders and in many cases not fitting into the profile that intelligence agencies would consider for an Islamic terrorist, these people pose a real and present risk to the homeland security of our country. It is not until they either slip up or get caught in the surveillance net of other suspects that they are stopped. Until that time they will have the ability to move, recruit and plan under the radar. Read more.

Barclay clears way for Hoffman

Republican Assemblyman Will Barclay isn’t running for the House this year, he said Sunday. Barclay’s decision leaves former Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman as the heavyweight among the Republicans hoping to challenge Democratic Rep. Bill Owens. Barclay said his duties in Albany would prevent him from spending time campaigning, and while he considered resigning from the state Assembly, he said that ” fate has it that this is not a good time for someone who thinks his sort of common sense and sound judgment are badly needed right where he is to just walk away.”

The radical left’s latest attack on Glenn Beck

The radical leftists are after Glenn Beck. That’s not unusual, but this time they are using hearsay and have the help of apostate clergy in their attacks.

On his television show, Mr. Beck rightly pointed out that the term “social justice” is code for socialism. He also pointed out that the socialists, and statists have infiltrated some churches as well as other areas of society and rightly suggested that if people were in a church with an apostate clergy that is preaching “social Justice”, they should leave that church.

The reaction from the left wing nut jobs and from the apostate clergy was immediate and fierce. One of the apostate “ministers”, a radical leftist, Jim Wallis, has been especially vocal in his attacks, appearing on TV and radio with every leftist, kook, and talking head, and his written rants are on the almost all of the radical left’s blogs attacking Mr. Beck. Read more.

NC US Senate candidates back health care reform

DURHAM — The Democratic Senate candidates voiced strong support for President Barack Obama’s health care proposal Monday night, separating themselves from the man they hope to replace, Republican Sen. Richard Burr.

The Senate hopefuls said the current health insurance caused too many people with illness to lose their insurance or to go broke paying their medical bills, was too expensive for many small businesses and provided too little competition for private insurers who raise rates at will.

“We have to act now to pass a comprehensive health care reform with a public option,” said Ken Lewis, a Chapel Hill lawyer. “We are closer than we have been in 60 years to getting health care reform …Now is the time to put the pedal to the medal.” Read more.

MoveOn.Org Pledge: DO not Support Dems voting Against Obamacare

Dear MoveOn member,

Health care reform is in serious danger in the House of Representatives: with a handful of conservative Democrats wavering, we don’t yet have the votes to pass the final bill.

So we’re asking every MoveOn member: will you pledge to support progressive primary challengers to House Democrats who side with Republicans to kill health care reform?

With the big vote happening as early as this Friday, conservative Democrats need to know the stakes if they choose to side with Big Insurance over the voters on health care reform. Our pledge will send that message loud and clear. We’ll publicize the amount pledged, and make sure the media and every wavering representative know about it. Read more.

New Glossary Guides People Through Harmful Planning Jargon

RALEIGH — Government planners distort terms such as “affordable housing” and “stakeholders” to attack basic individual freedoms. That’s a key message a John Locke Foundation expert sends with the new planning jargon glossary he’s compiled.

The glossary applies specifically to a new document prepared in connection with Raleigh’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan. Raleigh residents can hear public presentations tonight or Tuesday on that document, “Raleigh’s New Development Code: Diagnostic & Approach Report.”

“This glossary is necessary to help Raleigh’s citizens decipher what planners really mean when they talk about open space, sustainability, best practices, and other terms common in planning reports,” said report author Dr.Michael Sanera, JLF Research Director and Local Government Analyst. “The John Locke Foundation provides this glossary as a public service. Without it, the Diagnostic & Approach Report would be virtually indecipherable. It’s written in ‘PlanningSpeak.’” Read more.

Plan to Take Back NC State Assembly

New conservative 527 group plans to target swing NC state legislative districts throughout 2010 with strategic advertising to inform citizens about state Democrats’ shift to the political left. With liberals on the canvass, we can’t afford NOT to keep the pressure on in NC’s swing state legislative districts – even through the primary season and summer — straight through to November. That is the most sensible way for common-sense conservative values to take back control of our state government. That is our mission.

NC’s swing legislative districts are mostly in affordable media markets where efficient and targeted TV advertising, beginning now while liberals are on the run, can prevent their big government machine from dusting off their candidates, reinventing them and loading them up with millions in cash. Please Donate Now.

U.S. Criticism of Israel Ignites Firestorm

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration’s fierce denunciation of Israel last week has ignited a firestorm in Congress and among powerful pro-Israel interest groups who say the criticism of America’s top Mideast ally was misplaced.

Since the controversy erupted, a bipartisan parade of influential lawmakers and interest groups has taken aim at the administration’s decision to publicly condemn Israel for its announcement of new Jewish housing in east Jerusalem while Vice President Joe Biden was visiting on Tuesday and then openly vent bitter frustration on Friday.

With diplomats from both countries referring to the situation as a crisis, the outpouring of anger in the United States, particularly from Capitol Hill, comes at a difficult time for the administration, which is now trying to win support from wary lawmakers — many of whom are up for re-election this year — for health care reform and other domestic issues. Read more.

To fight terrorism, follow the money

On Christmas Day, a man allegedly armed with explosives slipped through our defenses and boarded a plane for the United States. But Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the man charged with planning this attack, was not the only threat. A sophisticated network — Al Qaeda — allegedly turned him from a lone man with violent desires into a grave threat to U.S. security.

While America remains vigilant in defending against such dangers, we must do more than just stop bombers. We must extinguish the source of their threat: the terrorist networks that recruit, train and arm them in the first place.

To do so, we must deny these networks the dirty money that is their lifeblood. Regardless of where our terrorist enemies are — Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia or the next place — we must follow their money and execute a battle plan to target and attack it. Read more.

Biden Slips, Honors Memory of Irish PM’s Mother — While She’s Alive

WakeUp America.com asks Obama: “What’s so FUNNY.”

Vice President Biden added to his lengthy list of gaffes Wednesday when he took a moment to honor the memory of the Irish prime minister’s mother — a woman who’s very much alive.

“God rest her soul,” Biden said as he introduced Brian Cowen and President Obama at a St. Patrick’s Day celebration at the White House Wednesday.

The vice president was quick to correct the mistake, noting that it’s Cowen’s father who is no longer living. Read more.

Quartet blasts Israel over East Jerusalem settlements

The Middle East quartet has strongly denounced Israeli moves to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem and urged the Israeli government and Palestinians to resume peace negotiations.

In a hard-hitting statement after a meeting in Moscow, the UN, the EU, Russia and the US condemned Israel’s “unilateral” construction plans and said the status of Jerusalem could only be resolved through negotiations between both parties.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said: “The quartet condemns the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem.” Read more.

Iran to Bam: Shove your olive branch

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s supreme leader sharply denounced the United States yesterday, accusing it of plotting to overthrow Iran’s clerical leadership, in a chilly response to an overture by President Obama for better ties. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei did not outright reject the offer, saying Iran would monitor US intentions. But the supreme leader said that so far, Washington’s offers of engagement have been a deception.

The exchange was a sign of how Obama’s hopes for dialogue have broken down over Tehran’s rejection of Western demands regarding Iran’s nuclear program and its crackdown on the opposition after disputed presidential elections last June. In his message, released Friday, Obama told Iranians that Americans want better cultural exchanges — but also criticized the Iranian leadership for “turning its back” on US overtures.

Week in Review 01/30/10

Bin Laden claims airline bomb attempt on Christmas

CAIRO (AP) – Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the failed attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas in a new audio message released Sunday threatening more attacks on the United States. The United States said there was no indication to suggest that bin Laden or any of his top lieutenants had anything to do with the attempted attack and that the claim may have been motivated by the wish of the terror network’s leaders to appear in control of al-Qaida’s offshoots. “They offer strategic guidance and rely on their affiliates to carry out that strategic guidance,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in an interview. Read more.

NC Democrats must again overcome corruption rap

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — For the past decade, North Carolina Democrats in charge of state government have been successful persuading the public they’re unlike fellow party colleagues who’ve ended up behind bars.

Democrats have remained in power in the Legislature and at the Executive Mansion despite the news of illegal activities that sent then-House Speaker Jim Black, Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps and Rep. Thomas Wright to prison.

They’ve done so while passing tougher ethics and campaign finance laws, and even expelling Wright from the Legislature. At the same time, they’ve had political advantages to get their message out, such as outraising Republicans on campaign dollars, pushing education initiatives and presiding during a span largely marked by growth and prosperity in the state. Read more.

Obama Administration Steers Lucrative No-Bid Contract for Afghan Work to Dem Donor

Despite President Obama’s long history of criticizing the Bush administration for “sweetheart deals” with favored contractors, the Obama administration this month awarded a $25 million federal contract for work in Afghanistan to a company owned by a Democratic campaign contributor without entertaining competitive bids, Fox News has learned.

The contract, awarded on Jan. 4 to Checchi & Company Consulting, Inc., a Washington-based firm owned by economist and Democratic donor Vincent V. Checchi, will pay the firm $24,673,427 to provide “rule of law stabilization services” in war-torn Afghanistan.

A synopsis of the contract published on the USAID Web site says Checchi & Company will “train the next generation of legal professionals” throughout the Afghan provinces and thereby “develop the capacity of Afghanistan’s justice system to be accessible, reliable, and fair.” Read more.

Democrats on the precipice of failure

Trying to guarantee Americans the thrill of the precipice, the president dashed to Massachusetts on Sunday, thereby conceding that he had already lost Tuesday’s Senate election, which had become a referendum on his signature program. By promising to cast the decisive 41st vote against the president’s health-care legislation, the Republican candidate forced all congressional Democrats to contemplate this: Not even frenzied national mobilization of Democratic manpower and millions of dollars could rescue one of the safest Democratic seats in the national legislature from national dismay about the incontinent government expansion, of which that legislation is symptomatic.

Because the legislation is frightening and unpopular, Democrats have had to resort to serial bribery to advance it. Massachusetts voted immediately after the corruption of exempting, until 2018, union members from the tax on high-value health insurance plans. This tax was supposedly the crucial component of what supposedly was reform’s primary goal: reducing costs. Read more.

Climate Chief Staying Put Despite Calls for His Head

The chief of the U.N.’s climate science panel says he isn’t going anywhere, despite calls for his head amid allegations that he is a sloppy scientist who presided over a report that contained intentionally misleading statements.

“I know a lot of climate skeptics are after my blood, but I’m in no mood to oblige them,” Rajendra Pachauri, head of the U.N.’sIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told The Times of London.

Pachauri spoke following revelations that an oft-cited “fact” in his panel’s 2008 climate change report — that the Himalayas were on track to melt by 2035 — was sloppily copied from a magazine interview with a single glaciologist in 1999.

Like water flowing downhill from a melting glacier, other errors have since emerged from the report, simply titled AR4. Read more.

Obama Gets ‘F’ on Stopping Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction

A bipartisan, independent commission on stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction says that the Obama administration has failed in its first year in office to do enough to prevent a germ weapons attack on America or to respond quickly and effectively should such an attack occur.

In a 19-page report card being published Tuesday, the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Proliferation and Terrorism, chaired by former Senators Bob Graham, a Democrat from Florida, and Jim Talent, a Missouri Republican, gives the new administration the grade of “F” for failing to take key steps the commission outlined just over a year ago in its initial report.

Specifically, the commission concludes that the Obama administration, like the three administrations before it, has failed to pay consistent and urgent attention to increasing the nation’s ability to respond quickly and effectively to a germ attack that would inflict massive casualties on the nation. Read more.

Sense of frustration awakens activists

They meet across the region in bars, restaurants, churches and fire stations. They’re Republicans, independents, even Democrats. They belong to groups with names such as We the People, Stand Up America and CAUTION.

What most share is frustration over what they see as an ever-expanding federal government and a belief that America has drifted from its founding principles.

They’re engaged and – like the voters who pushed Republican Scott Brown to victory in Massachusetts – energized.

“We’ve been asleep in politics too long. We’ve got to get involved,” says Deborah Walters, 52, one of more than 200 people at this month’s kickoff of Strengthen Charlotte. Read more

Obama Seeks Partial Three-Year Spending Freeze

President Obama, after spending hundreds of billions his first year, now is seeking a partial three-year federal spending freeze that would reduce budgets by less than 1 percent.

The drop-in-the-bucket nature of the president’s proposal was underscored Tuesday by a Congressional Budget Office estimate projecting the 2010 federal deficit to hit $1.35 trillion — Obama’s spending freeze would be expected to save up to $15 billion the first year.

The president will propose the congressional freeze on “non-security” spending in his State of the Union address Wednesday night, senior administration officials said. The freeze, which would apply to annual spending on day-to-day government, appears to be an attempt to answer widespread voter concern about rising deficits and debt. Read more.

A “Fishy” business: Sen. Basnight, Basnight Construction and the $25 million dollar state pier

Civitas first reported on the now infamous $25 million fishing pier in Nags Head as a Bad Bill of the Week in May. TheAugust issue of Civitas Review featured “Pier Pressure,” an in-depth background of this project and its ties to Senate President Pro Tempore Marc Basnight (D-Dare).

As the funding of this project was questioned, Civitas continued to provide the below updates on our Civitasreview.com blog.

Although this project was hailed as “shovel ready” by lawmakers, job creation claims were overblown and even downright ridiculous. Yet, despite concerns, the N.C. Aquariums have continued to pursue planning for additional piers in Emerald Isle and Carolina Beach.

The December issue of Civitas Review exposed how Sen. Basnight has benefited from his support of the Pier. Civitas continued to update this story, when it became clear that Basnight Construction has received subcontract work on the Pier.

Thomas Jefferson’s Words of Wisdom

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe. The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

People Said It didn’t Matter

God Save Us From Those Among US Who Are Too Stupid to Know the Truth And Worse: They Don’t Care! The Fundamental Transformation of America When Obama wrote a book and said he was mentored as a youth by Frank, (Frank Marshall Davis) an avowed Communist, people said it didn’t matter. When it was discovered that his grandparents, were strong socialist, sent Obama’s mother to a socialist school, introduced Frank Marshall Davis to young Obama, people said it didn’t matter. When people found out that he was enrolled as a Muslim child in school and his father and step father were both Muslims, people said it didn’t matter. Read more.

Gloves come off after Obama rips Supreme Court ruling

Washington (CNN) — The political furor escalated over President Obama’s high-profile rebuke of a recent Supreme Court ruling on campaign advertising Thursday, as Democrats pounded the high court decision. Democrats rallied around Obama the day after the president committed a rare breach of political etiquette, criticizing the controversial ruling in his State of the Union address as members of the high court sat only a few feet away. The court’s 5-4 decision, issued last week, removed long-established legal barriers preventing corporations from spending unlimited sums of money to influence voters in political campaigns. Democrats fear the decision has given the traditionally pro-business GOP a powerful new advantage. Read more.

Pelosi Pushes $300 Billion ‘Fix’ to Senate Health Care Bill

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing a $300 billion “fix” to the Senate health care bill, saying that her chamber could approve the Senate’s package if those changes are made first.

Senior Democratic aides told Fox News that Pelosi has offered up the new package of changes to Senate Democratic leaders, with the hope that they will be able to pass it using a controversial procedural maneuver known as “reconciliation.” The maneuver would allow Democrats to pass the measure with just 51 votes, without having to first overcome the normal 60-vote threshold.

Some Democrats are keen on using that process, since the election last week of Republican Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts broke the Democrats’ 60-vote supermajority. However, some Democratic moderates — notably Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh — have balked at using the controversial tactic to ram through health care reform measures. Read more.

Poole’s arrest puts reform in fast lane

Leading lawmakers and the governor are shaping a wide range of reforms that promise more accountability and sunshine across state government, fixes aimed at restoring trust after a stretch of scandals.

The efforts are moving with speed and are coalescing as another embarrassment commands attention: Ruffin Poole, a longtime senior aide to former Gov. Mike Easley, was arrested and appeared in court Thursday for the first time since his indictment last week on 51 corruption charges.

Poole, 38, has not entered a plea. He and his lawyer declined to comment Thursday. Read more.

Gitmo closure looks increasingly uncertain

The closure of the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is beginning to look like a protracted and uncertain project for the Obama administration as political, legal and security concerns limit the president’s options.

Having blown the one-year closure deadline set last January in an executive order, the administration is planning to transfer some detainees to a state prison it hopes to acquire in Illinois. But there appears to be little mood in Congress to provide the administration with either the funding for the prison or the authority to transfer detainees who will be held indefinitely.

At the same time, opposition is building to plans to transfer a number of detainees, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, to a civilian court in Lower Manhattan for federal trial. Read more.

Senate votes to raise limits on national debt

WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats needed all 60 votes at their disposal Thursday to muscle through legislation allowing the government to go $1.9 trillion deeper in debt.

Democratic leaders were able to prevail on the politically volatile 60-39 vote only because Republican Sen.-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts has yet to be seated. Republicans had insisted on a 60-vote, super-majority threshhold to pass the measure. An earlier test vote succeeded on a 60-40 vote.

The measure would put the government on track for a national debt of $14.3 trillion — about $45,000 for every American — and it served as a vivid reminder of the United States’ dire fiscal straits. Read more.

Week in Review 01/23/10

After Rocky First Year, Geithner Faces Another Test in AIG Bailout Hearing

The Treasury secretary is back in the hot seat, for bailout decisions he made about AIG while he was head of the New York Federal Reserve — and it has created a firestorm that some critics hope will mark the end of his tenure. Timothy Geithner’s tenure as Treasury secretary got off to a rocky start, to say the least. There was the revelation during his Senate confirmation last year that he once failed to pay taxes. There were the questions surrounding his role at Freddie Mac during an accounting scandal. And later, there were the calls from some lawmakers for his resignation for what they deemed as a poor response to the U.S. economic crisis. Read more.

House Democrats don’t like Plan B

House Democrats privately worry that the rank-and-file would reject a doomsday strategy that requires them to approve the Senate health care bill if Republican Scott Brown wins in Massachusetts on Tuesday. “Progressives and conservatives in the caucus won’t go for it,” one aide predicted on Monday. But they may not have another choice if the party loses its critical 60th vote in the Senate. If Brown beats Democrat Martha Coakley in the special election to fill the seat recently occupied by the late-Ted Kennedy, one alternative has the House passing the bill the Senate approved just before Christmas last year, with a promise to make additional changes through the upcoming budget process. Read more.

Hunt urged Obama to put Wright behind him

A new documentary about Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in North Carolina discloses that former Gov. Jim Hunt urged Obama to distance himself from his controversial pastor.

In April 2008, at the height of the controversy over Obama’s pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Hunt called Obama’s North Carolina campaign. He advised Obama to publicly profess his Christianity, love of country and denounce his pastor if he were to have any chance of winning the state’s May 6 primary.

“I made it very clear … you can either win this campaign, or you can lose it,” Hunt told the film’s producer, journalist Cash Michaels. Read more.

Estimates shore up Marco Rubio’s claim about illegal immigrants with visas

The statement “Close to half of the folks in this country illegally, entered legally (but) overstayed (their ) visas.” Marco Rubio on Thursday, in interview with Glenn Beck The ruling Florida U.S. Senate hopeful Marco Rubio has hit the big time — Glenn Beck’s radio program. During a wide-ranging interview Thursday, Rubio said that he thinks Republicans need to be the party that supports and promotes legal immigration. Then, he added: “Close to half of the folks in this country illegally, entered legally (but) overstayed (their) visas,” Rubio said. Read more.

Under Obama, U.S. has taken a step back in war on terror

Why is the Obama administration providing a despicable Nigerian Muslim terrorist named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab with sacred American constitutional rights? Why is Obama going to prosecute him in an American civilian court? Why did Team Obama read this scoundrel his Miranda rights? On Christmas Day 2009, nearly 300 people escaped death solely because the terrorist’s detonator failed to ignite his underwear bomb. In just one year the Obama administration has made America significantly less safe. I stated before Obama’s election that he would weaken America. It was my theory then. But it is certainly no longer in doubt. Obama is so busy trying to socialize America that he has completely taken his eye off of his most important duty: to keep America safe. Read more.

Scott Brown roars to Senate upset win

State Sen. Scott Brown has pulled a Bay State bombshell by upsetting his Democratic rival to capture the open U.S. Senate seat by a 5-point margin. Brown, 50, of Wrentham, will roll into Washington as the nation struggles with health-care reform. But Brown has vowed to be “the 41st Senator” that will defeat the measure. Democrat Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general, has gone down in a stunning defeat. Brown has won 52-47 percent, with 89 percent of the precincts reporting. Independent Joseph L. Kennedy finished way back with 1 precent of the vote. Read more.

Senate Democrats Propose $1.9T Increase to U.S. Debt Limit

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats on Wednesday proposed allowing the federal government to borrow an additional $1.9 trillion to pay its bills, a record increase that would permit the national debt to reach $14.3 trillion. The unpopular legislation is needed to allow the federal government to issue bonds to fund programs and prevent a first-time default on obligations. It promises to be a challenging debate for Democrats who, as the party in power, hold the responsibility for passing the legislation. The record increase in the so-called debt limit is required because the budget deficit has spiraled out of control in the wake of a recession that cut tax revenues, the Wall Street bailout, and increased spending by the Democratic-controlled Congress. Last year’s deficit hit a phenomenal $1.4 trillion, and the current year’s deficit promises to be as high or higher. Read more.

John Edwards admits paternity

John Edwards admitted this morning to being the father of Frances Quinn Hunter, the two-year-old daughter of his former mistress Rielle Hunter.

The admission comes after more than two years of rumors and tabloid hounding and an investigation into campaign money federal authorities suspect circulated around Edwards’ mistress. Edwards, former North Carolina senator and failed presidential candidate, has repeatedly denied being Frances Quinn Hunter’s father since August 2008.

“It was wrong for me ever to deny she was my daughter, and hopefully one day, when she understands, she will forgive me,” Edwards said in a statement. That statement was released to NBC’s Today show and The News & Observer. Read more.

House Democrats reluctant to take up Senate health-care reform bill

Determined to enact a health-care reform bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi struggled Wednesday to sell the Senate version of the legislation to reluctant Democrats, even as party moderates raised doubts about forging ahead without bipartisan support. Republican Scott Brown’s victory Tuesday in a Senate special election in Massachusetts blindsided President Obama and Democratic leaders, who had nearly reached the finish line on an ambitious overhaul of the nation’s health-care system and were beginning to turn their attention to other challenges, namely creating jobs and lowering the deficit. Read more.

Obama Seen as Anti-Business by 77% of U.S. Investors

Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) — U.S. investors overwhelmingly see President Barack Obama as anti-business and question his ability to manage afinancial crisis, according to a Bloomberg survey.

The global quarterly poll of investors and analysts who are Bloomberg subscribers finds that 77 percent of U.S. respondents believe Obama is too anti-business and four-out-of-five are only somewhat confident or not confident of his ability to handle a financial emergency.

The poll also finds a decline in Obama’s overall favorability rating one year after taking office. He is viewed favorably by 27 percent of U.S. investors. In an October poll, 32 percent in the U.S. held a positive impression. Read more.

51 charges for former Easley aide

Ruffin Poole, a longtime senior aide to former Gov. Mike Easley, corrupted his office by taking trips, liquor, money and other gifts from people he helped with state government action, a federal grand jury charged Thursday.

In a wide-ranging indictment, Poole was charged with 51 counts that include extortion, bribery, racketeering, fraud, money laundering and engaging in transactions in “criminally derived” property. Many of the charges in the indictment from the grand jury flow from Poole’s interference in environmental permits, in some cases for projects in which he had invested. Read more.

Obama concedes health overhaul hit ‘buzz saw’

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama, two days after signaling retreat on a massive health care overhaul, discounted the small-bore approach Friday and pledged to press for ambitious changes despite running into a “bit of a buzz saw” of opposition.

Even as the president sought to bring the public and nervous Democrats back on board, a leading member of his party suggested Congress slow it down on health care, a sign of eroding political will in the wake of Tuesday’s Republican election upset in Massachusetts.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who ushered the overhaul legislation through the Senate’s health committee last year after the death of his friend, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, said Obama and lawmakers could “maybe take a breather for a month, six weeks.” Read more.