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Obama speech, August 31: pays tribute to troops, refocuses on economy
Posted on 03. Sep, 2010 by vladowsky.
Obama speech, August 31: pays tribute to troops, refocuses on economy
President Obama Tuesday night told an American public weary of war that it is time to “turn the page” on the war in Iraq. And although he said the formal end of US combat operations in Iraq would allow the military to turn fuller attention to the war in Afghanistan, Mr. Obama also repeated his pledge to begin a drawdown of troops in Afghanistan next summer.
Read more on The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News
American Software Reports Preliminary First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2011 Results
ATLANTA—-American Software, Inc. today reported financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2011, delivering a 39% increase in first quarter operating earnings when compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2010, achieving 38 consecutive quarters of profitability and completing 28 consecutive quarters of dividend distributions to shareholders.
Read more on Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance
President Obama’s Address on Iraq
The text, as prepared for delivery, of President Obama’s address from the Oval Office on Tuesday night, provided by the White House.
Read more on New York Times
You can view the full speech here: millercenter.org At American University in Washington, DC, Kennedy announces upcoming talks with the Soviets in Moscow, as well as his decision not to test nuclear weapons in the atmosphere as long as other nations also refrain from nuclear tests as a show of goodwill. June 10th, 1963
Video Rating: 4 / 5
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Obama In New York || BP “Gnaws” || The RGA’s Massachusetts Money || Brentin Mock
Follow on Twitter @marcambinder
WNBC’s Jonathan Deinst is reporting that President Obama is expected at 1 Police Plaza tomorrow afternoon thank the troops for their excellent response to the Times Square bombing attempt. This event is not on the White House schedule.
He may not be welcomed terribly warmly. The Department of Homeland Security provided a courtesy notification to lawmakers today about the latest round of homeland security grants. The DHS’ Transit Security Grant Program will give NYC $111 million, down 27% ($42 million) The Port Security Grant Program includes an additional $33.8 million, a cut of 25% ($11.2
million). Chuck Schumer and Peter King are outraged.
Now. These cuts were made before the Times Square attempt. They represent MORE money over zero. But the city uses the predictability of the funding stream to plan its budgets for the next year. Tough choices have to be made; the DHS is giving out less money overall this year, and New York got money from the Recovery Act for security. That said, the nation’s top target gets just over 11% of the funding. Because of Faisal Shahzad, the city itself decided not to cut 900 police officer positions. But it’s cutting firehouses. (By the way: if the FDNY and urban policy interests you in any way, please read this book.). In any event, Obama’s walking into a bit of a hail storm tomorrow, even if NYC _is_ getting $47 million more in 2010 than in 2009.
Obama is said to be beyond livid at British Petroleum and by his government’s own inability to contain and mitigate what he realizes is an environmental catastrophe of near un-imaginable proportions. Says an official: “It gnaws at him.“ If you want to get as angry as POTUS, read this series of articles by Brentin Mock of TheLensNola. Problem is: there’s really not much the administration can do, because its technical capacity is limited. The tragedy is that big. In the near term, expect more money and more people. Note: Rep. Henry Waxman hinted that MSNBC tonight that BP “may not survive” the combined financial/PR crisis that has resulted. … The administration sent a letter to the Hill tonight asking for an oil spill supplemental, which would make more money available more quickly.
SecDef Robert Gates wants to kill funding for the spare engine for the F-35. But as of now, it’s back in the budget. Co-developers General Electric and Rolls Royce had agreed to absorb more of the spending overruns. It remains to be seen how hard Gates will fight to kill this line item, which provides jobs in a large number of Congressional districts. Something big is supposed to happen in the Kentucky Senate race tomorrow, and I hear it involves a major endorsement for trailing Sec/State/establishment candidate Tray Grayson. Sarah Palin travels to Washington, D.C. late tomorrow. She’s speaking at the Susan B. Anthony List’s annual event on Friday morning at the Reagan Building. Four members of the Republican National Committee have signed on to a letter asking RGA chairman Haley Barbour why he’s spending so much money in the Massachusetts gubernatorial race. (The RGA just upped its ad buy by $1 million.) Well, eight did originally, including Iowa’s two RNC members. (Barbour has presidential ambitions). Four, including the two Iowans, retracted their letter, but not before a reporter got one of the them, social conservative activist Steve Scheffler, to call Barbour “toast” in Iowa. The RGA’s thinking is fairly straightforward: it thinks Republican Charlie Baker can win the race if independent candidate Tim Cahill drops below 10% in the polls. Cahill’s political team whispers that the RNC’s anti-Cahill ads have benefited Democratic incumbent Deval Patrick, who has shot up 16 points in the polls since the RGA went on the air. Still, it’s hard to argue with the RGA’s record of success. It spent a good deal of money in New Jersey and Virginia in 2009, and it will have plenty of money to spend as the other races heat up. (The RGA is also spending money right now in Colorado.) Here’s the language the two Iowans used to withdraw their names from the letter: “”We are strong conservatives and signed a letter we initially thought would send a message of support for conservative candidates in our party. Upon further reflection, we understand this letter could be interpreted as meddling in the affairs of an independent Republican organization and we wish in no way to harm the efforts of the Republican Governors Association in the pursuit of its work.” Jane Harman, House Republican Whip Eric Cantor’s YouCut initiative has received 15,000 suggestions so far, despite a heavy negative PR barrage from Democrats. Don’t worry: there will be lots of unidentified aircraft flying over Washington, D.C. tomorrow night. NORAD and NORTHCOM are holding a training exercise, weather permitting. A NORAD release points out that it has notified the Capitol Police and the Secret Service, so there won’t be any misunderstanding.
one of the Democratic leading lights on national security, has
something less of a primary challenge on her hands than some pubs might
lead you to believe. A May 10 Mellman Group (D) poll puts her 41 points
ahead of her challenger, and she easily won a floor fight at the
California Democratic Convention last month. The narrative that
incumbents are in trouble doesn’t seem apply in the 36th District just yet.
A DC mega-conference tomorrow: The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts a full day of panels with all of its experts and numerous outside experts. The keynote will be delivered by Gen. James Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Here’s the embed code in case you want to livestream:
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Haley Barbour – Joint Chiefs of Staff – Republican National Committee – President of the United States – Democratic
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Tom Schick, Executive Vice President, American Express, USA, at the 2010 Horasis Global India Business Meeting – on the next big driver for India’s growth story
Posted on 03. Sep, 2010 by vladowsky.
Some cool American president images:
Tom Schick, Executive Vice President, American Express, USA, at the 2010 Horasis Global India Business Meeting – on the next big driver for India’s growth story
Image by Horasis
Red Presidents Wall Study for Habitat for Humanity
Image by Cain and Todd Benson
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Rep. Paul Calls for Gold Audit, Questions Whether Fort Knox Is Empty
Posted on 02. Sep, 2010 by vladowsky.
Rep. Paul Calls for Gold Audit, Questions Whether Fort Knox Is Empty
Texas Rep. Ron Paul, suggesting America’s reserves may not be as robust as officials claim, is calling for an independent audit of the U.S. gold held at Fort Knox and other facilities.
Read more on Fox News
Chronic insomnia with objectively measured short sleep duration associated with increased mortality in men
A study in the Sept. 1 issue of the journal SLEEP found an elevated risk of death in men with a complaint of chronic insomnia and an objectively measured short sleep duration. The results suggest that public health policy should emphasize the diagnosis and appropriate treatment of chronic insomnia.
Read more on News-Medical-Net
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Wither Conservative Reform?
In the past few months, Newt Gingrich and William Kristol have weighed in publicly with advice for John McCain. It’s all about what sort of presidential campaign he should run or what sort of candidate he should be.
Gingrich and Kristol are foursquare behind the idea that the Arizonan should run as a reformer, a conservative reformer.
The advice has plenty of merit. Voters want change and the nation needs it. And it would most certainly be advantageous for the country if Senator McCain were to grab the conservative reform banner and run with it.
But the Arizonan, famous for his independent streak, and with more than a quarter of a century of political experience under his belt, isn’t likely to campaign as a banner-waving reformer. He’s likely to be just what he is: a seasoned politician who will take the most practical routes to winning the presidency.
That doesn’t make him a crass opportunist. Nor does it mean that his candidacy is a principle-free zone. It simply means that as a practitioner of the fine art of electoral politics, Senator McCain is going to find ways of successfully negotiating the nation’s broad and tangled political landscape to gain victory.
His recipe will probably call for a little reform, a little populism and some stand-patism. In fact, that’s already the case. He’s calling for an optional simpler tax system while bashing Wall Street. His trade proposals are conventionally Republican. As the campaign unfolds, he may well change the mix of ingredients or the portions to better reflect swings in the electorate. That’s part of the fine art as well: flexibility.
Where does that leave conservative reform?
Without a strong standard-bearer, yes, indeed. But as conservatives have come to appreciate, Ronald Reagans don’t grow on trees. A movement leader who can be a political leader as well is, perhaps, a once in a generation occurrence.
But that shouldn’t be a cause for despair among conservatives. It helps to keep in mind that when it comes to movements, in the chain of events, electing likeminded politicians is the last link. Generally, reform doesn’t start at the center and work out to the perimeters. Reform starts on the perimeters and works its way to the center. In a very real sense, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan were the end results of a much longer, less visible, process.
Thanks to the William Buckleys and Russell Kirks, thanks to countless Main Street Americans, conservatism was translated into a movement that became a political force that has been powerfully shaping the nation for a quarter of a century.
Despite what the establishment media and liberals say about conservatism being played out, such is not the case. There’s no shortage of conservative ideas for transforming the country. Start at the Heritage Foundation website and then visit the many other national and state conservative think-tank websites. Go online to conservative journals, like National Review. And visit pages like the American Thinker, where tangible contributions are being made to conservative thought and the national dialogue. Conservative reform ideas are everywhere.
Consider the period from Ronald Reagan’s inauguration through, at least, the completion of George W. Bush’s first term as the end of Phase I in the conservative advance. Much of that phase dealt with cleaning up the mess made by liberals in the 1960s and 1970s. The military was rebuilt. The Russians were defeated. Some significant reforms were passed, including the landmark 1996 welfare reform act pushed by Congressional Republicans. The Reagan tax cuts became the George W. Bush tax cuts. Voters were introduced to conservative thought, and, thanks to Ronald Reagan, the Great Communicator, that thought was made practical to the everyday lives of Americans.
But that phase is now over, and gratitude for past achievements goes only so far with voters. They want answers and direction in dealing with the problems and challenges they now face.
Enter conservative reform. Government is still the problem, as Ronald Reagan would undoubtedly say if he were around. In fact, all the more so.
Today, much of the federal government is rusting out and dry-rotting. It was built by liberals in the last century to respond to the challenges of industrial America. The America of Big Business and Big Labor; of sprawling factories and belching smokestacks. That old big government is protected by liberals due to their narrow self-interest and by loyalty to a hoary ideology that, with the passing years, has become more Europeanized and statist.
The liberal response to contemporary challenges and problems is no different than that of liberals a generation ago. Healthcare: let government run it. Energy: punish producers and let government control it. Taxes: hike them. Public education: throw more money at it. Social welfare: spend more. Government: grow it. And on and on.
Liberalism is purely a reactionary creed. That point can’t be underscored enough. It offers no new departures. None. Everything in the Obama and Clinton playbooks comes from the McGovern-Carter playbooks of the 1970s. From taxes to spending to foreign policy and national defense, the Democratic contenders are Ford Pintos with fresh coats of paint.
Reactionary liberalism has gained traction this year because it found a moment to exploit. Voter disillusionment and fatigue with the Iraqi war, a slowing economy and a recent Republican Congress that turned from conservative governance to big government, profligate spending and earmarking have given liberals an opening.
But originality of thought and innovation and new ideas with an eye to the future are occurring among conservatives. Voters are anxious for change, not the empty change offered by Barack Obama, but meat and potatoes change. Change that dramatically reshapes government; that makes it more effective in performing its essential duties; that divests or decentralizes other functions to states and localities; that seeks solutions in the private sector first; and that returns to citizens greater responsibility for their lives. And with that responsibility comes greater choices and rewards.
Yet absent a compelling conservative reform message and messenger, to date, voters have been enticed by the Democrats, whose repackaged liberalism looks brand spanking new, especially to younger voters with no firsthand knowledge of the liberal debacle a generation ago.
Senator McCain may well win the presidency, but that will be due to many factors. No small part will be voters realizing that Barack Obama isn’t an agent of change, but an agent of the status quo ante.
Whoever wins the presidency, it’s a good bet that voters won’t get what they truly want. The likelihood is that this year’s restless, volatile electorate will be that way in 2010 and 2012. Getting more of the same from the Democrats, or not enough that’s new from John McCain, could make this so.
No historical parallel is exact, of course, but the early years of the 21st Century presents conservatives with opportunities similar to what the Progressives had in the opening years of the last century. It offers the chance to advance a broad reform agenda. This time, not aimed at the ills and excesses of capitalism, but at the ills and excesses of government.
Progressive reformers didn’t wait for political leaders to come along to spark their movement. It was started by countless people in countless communities throughout the nation. Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt were results.
The same thing holds true for conservative reform today: start the movement and the politicians will follow.
Jeffrey Schmidt is a public affairs consultant. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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William Hague at Conservative Party Conference
Image by conservativeparty
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White House sued for ‘targeted killings’
The United States government faces legal action for ordering the assassination of American citizens, whom it accuses of terrorist links.
Read more on Press TV
Eagle County kids invited to White House
EAGLE COUNTY, Colorado – Luisa Taal has never met the first lady, but she has a good feeling about her. “She looks really nice,” the 11-year-old said. Taal will get to see Michelle Obama in person Tuesday. She and fellow valley resident Colby Lange, also 11, have received an exclusive invitation to the White House to participate in a dance workshop. The first lady is putting on the event to …
Read more on The Vail Trail
