Mitch McConnell Wasteful Spending In The Stimulus Bill VIDEO

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell discusses the wasteful spending Democrats stuffed in their "economic stimulus" bill. Among the problems he points out are permanent spending increases and pet projects that are unlikely to create jobs. He also raises the question of hundreds of billions in interest payments that taxpayers will be responsible for if the bill passes in its current form. RepublicanLeader

McConnell: ‘There’s plenty of room to cut wasteful spending’ from the Office of Senator Mitch McConnell

‘Republicans have a number of better ideas for making this bill simpler, more targeted, and more directly beneficial to workers and homeowners’

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell made the following remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday:

“According to the news reports, President Obama called Congressional Democrats down to the White House the other night to talk about treating this bill more like a stimulus and less like a free for all. I commend him on the effort. And I appreciate it.

“But after yesterday it looks like they might need stronger medicine. The day after meeting with President Obama, Democrats offered several amendments — and every single one of them ADDED to the total cost of what is already nearly a trillion-dollar spending bill.

“Eleven billion here, 25 billion there, another $6 billion somewhere else. In other words: real money.

“By the end of the first day of debate, Democrats had added more than $41 billion to a bill that just about everybody else in America thought was already too big.

“On this side, Republicans offered some amendments too. All but one sought to reduce the cost to the taxpayer.

“The President has tried to set some priorities. Unfortunately, Democrats just keep throwing more money on top of an already-bloated bill.

“At some point, we’re going to have to learn to say no. If we’re going to help the economy, we need to get a hold of this bill. And making it bigger isn’t the answer.

“The President seems to recognize the problem. Last night, he repeated his call for discipline and restraint in a letter from OMB Director Peter Orszag. Its message was clear: The nation is in a financial crisis. And this bill should be stripped of everything that doesn’t aim to solve that crisis.

“As Mr. Orzsag put it: ‘We need to recognize that this recovery and reinvestment plan is an extraordinary response to an extraordinary crisis. It should not be seen as an opportunity to abandon the fiscal discipline that we owe each and every taxpayer in spending their money and in keeping the United States strong in a global, interdependent, economy.’

“This bill needs to be cut down. And we could start with permanent spending increases, which only increase the deficit from here on out. This is permanent spending that’s been slipped into a bill that was supposed to be timely, targeted and temporary.

“Many of these additions may be very worthwhile — but they don’t belong in a stimulus bill. So the first thing I think we need to do is make a distinction between what grows the economy and what doesn’t — and anything that doesn’t gets cut.

“That’s what the President said Monday night, and that’s what he repeated last night — that we need to be, quote, “trimming out things that aren’t relevant to putting people back to work right now.”

“Add the interest payments and the total non-stimulative spending in this bill and it’s in the hundreds of billions of dollars. And that’s just unacceptable.

“So there’s plenty of room to cut in wasteful spending. As Mr. Orszag said in his letter, the President is, quote, ‘insistent that the bill not include any earmarks or special projects….’

“Another target rich area is all the spending for new programs that claim to create new jobs.

“What people don’t realize is how much it costs to create some of these jobs. Analysts have gone through some of the new programs. Here’s what they’ve found:

· $524 million for a program at the State Department that promises to create 388 jobs here at home. That comes to $1.35 million per job.

· $125 million for the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority. That comes to $480,000 per job.

· $100 million for 300 jobs at USAID. That’s $333,333 per job.

“And that’s just a few. Surely there are more efficient ways to create jobs with taxpayer dollars than this.

“So there is plenty of room to cut in this bill. It’s time we started doing some of it. America is already staring at a $1 trillion deficit. The bill before us, in its current form, will cost, with interest, $1.3 trillion. Soon we’ll vote on an Omnibus Appropriations bill that will cost $400 billion. The President is talking about another round of bank bailout funds that some say could cost as much as four trillion dollars.

“This isn’t Monopoly money. All of it is borrowed — borrowed money that the taxpayers will have to pay back at some point. I think we owe it to them to lay all these things out on the table now so America can see what it’s getting into. And I think we also owe it the American people to show some restraint on the bill before us.

“Republicans have a number of better ideas for making this bill simpler, more targeted, and more directly beneficial to workers and homeowners. We’ve been sharing those ideas for the last week.

“Economists from both sides of the political spectrum recognize that housing is at the root of the current downturn. We believe we should fix this problem first, before we do anything else — certainly before we build a fish barrier, spruce up offices for bureaucrats or build a water slide. I mean, let’s get serious here. We can either talk about fixing the problem, or we can take immediate action to help 40 million Americans stay in their homes or buy a new one.

“We need to act now, and soon we’ll be voting on a Republican better idea to do just that.

“But first, there are plenty of areas in this bill we can cut even before we consider some of the good Republican ideas that President Obama has said he wants to incorporate into the final bill.” ###

Michael S. Steele Biography VIDEO

A self-described Lincoln Republican. Michael S. Steele earned a place in history in 2003 when he became the first African-American elected to statewide office in Maryland. His experiences as a successful elected conservative African-American Republican and his engaging speaking style have launched Steele into national prominence. His first major exposure was during an appearance at the 2004 Republican National Convention.

Since then President George W. Bush chose Steele to be part of the U.S. delegation to the investiture of Pope Benedict XVI, and as a member of the Presidential Delegation to the Leon H. Sullivan Summit VIII in Tanzania. Steele has been an entertaining and eloquent guest on cable political talk shows such as HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher and Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report.

Born in 1958 at Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Steele was raised in Washington, DC. He was an adopted child and spent his childhood in the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest Washington, D.C. a small racially integrated community. He and his half-sister were raised by her father, John Turner, and their mother, Maebell Turner, who was born into a southern sharecropping family in South Carolina. Steele’s half-sister Monica later married and divorced former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson.

Steele attended Archbishop Carroll Roman Catholic High School in Washington, D.C. While at Carroll, he participated in the Glee Club, the National Honor Society and many of the school’s drama productions. During his senior year, he was elected the student council president.

Steele won a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In his first year, he was elected class president; he was also a member of the fencing team. he struggled academically while pursuing a major in biology and was nearly expelled from the university at the year's end.

After earning A's in summer classes at George Washington University, Steele was allowed to continue at Johns Hopkins and received a bachelor's degree in international relations in 1981.

He them spent three years as a seminarian in the Order of St. Augustine in preparation for the priesthood. He entered the Augustinian Friars Seminary at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. As a seminarian, he taught freshman world history and senior economics for one year at Malvern Preparatory School in Malvern, Pennsylvania, but ultimately decided on a career in law and he left the Seminary prior to taking the vows. He earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1991.

An expert on political strategy, fund-raising, PACs, and election reform, he is the current Chairman of GOPAC. He has served on the National Federal Election Reform Commission and the NAACP Blue Ribbon Commission on Election Reform.

Steele’s mother was a widowed laundress who, he stated, worked for minimum wage rather than accept public assistance. Steele grew up in a Democratic household. However, as a young man he switched to the Republican Party.

After joining the Republican Party, Steele became chairman of the Prince George's County Republican Central Committee. In 1995, the Maryland Republican Party selected him as Maryland State Republican Man of the Year. He worked on several political campaigns, was an Alternate Delegate to the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego and a Delegate to the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia that ultimately chose the George W. Bush ticket.

In December 2000, Steele was elected chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, becoming the first African American ever to be elected chairman of any state Republican Party.

In 2002, then-Congressman Robert Ehrlich selected Steele as his running mate and nominee for Lieutenant Governor in the campaign against Democrat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who was then the Lieutenant Governor (under Governor Parris Glendening). Steele resigned his chairmanship of the Maryland Republican Party to campaign full-time. In endorsing Townsend, The Baltimore Sun praised her running mate, Charles R. Larson, for his experience and expertise, and added: "By contrast, Mr. Ehrlich's running mate, state GOP chairman Michael S. Steele, brings little to the team but the color of his skin."

In the September primary election, Ehrlich and Steele had no serious opposition. In the November 2002 general election, even though Maryland traditionally votes Democratic and had not elected a Republican Governor in almost 40 years, the Townsend campaign was tainted by problems with outgoing governor Glendening's personal life. The Ehrlich-Steele ticket won, 51% to 48%.

Steele’s most prominent efforts for the Ehrlich administration were reforming the state’s Minority Business Enterprise program and chairing Governor Ehrlich’s Commission on Quality Education in Maryland. While opposed to the death penalty, Steele endured criticism for not standing firmly against Ehrlich's support of the punishment, despite claims of racial inequities in its administration.

When Paul Sarbanes, Maryland’s longest serving United States Senator, announced in March 2005 that he would not be a candidate for re-election in 2006, top state and national Republican officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, began pressing Steele to become their party's nominee for the seat. Steele lost the general election to Cardin on November 7, 2006, getting 44% of the vote to Cardin's 55%.

On November 11, 2008, Jeff Burton launched a political draft website to encourage Steele to run for Republican National Committee Chairman. The website allowed visitors to sign a draft petition, and received over 6,000 signatures. On November 24, 2008 Steele launched a campaign website, and confirmed his intention to run on Hannity and Colmes. Six men ran for the 2009 RNC Chairmanship: Steele, Blackwell, Mike Duncan, Saul Anuzis, Katon Dawson and Chip Saltsman. Saltsman dropped out one day before the voting. After the sixth vote, he won the chairmanship of the RNC over Dawson by a vote of 91 to 77

He is currently a Partner in the international law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf in Washington, DC. From 1991–1997, Steele was a corporate securities attorney at the international law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in Washington, DC, specializing in sophisticated financial transactions on behalf of Wall Street underwriters. He also was a corporate finance counsel for the Mills Corporation and founded his own company, The Steele Group, a business and legal consulting firm. His writings on law, business and politics have appeared in The Washington Times, Politico.com, Townhall.com, and The Journal of International Security Affairs, among others.

Named a 2005 Aspen Institute–Rodel Fellow in Public Leadership and awarded the 2005 Bethune-DuBois Institute Award for his ongoing work in the development of quality education in Maryland, Steele also has served on a variety of boards and commissions including Export–Import Bank Advisory Board, the U.S. Naval Academy Board of Visitors, and the Republican National Committee.

Lt. Governor Steele serves on the Administrative Board of the Maryland Catholic Conference and is a member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Landover Hills, MD, where he attends mass regularly with his wife Andrea and their two sons Michael and Drew.

Sources:

• Personal History and Life Story
• Michael S. Steele From Wikipedia

Vice President Joe Biden to lead the Middle Class Task Force VIDEO

The President created a Middle Class Task Force and asked his right hand man, Vice President Joe Biden, to lead it. (This video is public domain per White House copyright policy)

Vice President Biden announces Middle Class Task Force, Washington, DC– President Barack Obama today announced the creation of a White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families to be chaired by Vice President Joe Biden. The Task Force is a major initiative targeted at raising the living standards of middle-class, working families in America. It is comprised of top-level administration policy makers, and in addition to regular meetings, it will conduct outreach sessions with representatives of labor, business, and the advocacy communities.


President Obama said: "The strength of our economy can be measured by the strength of our middle class. That is why I have signed a memorandum to create the Task Force on Middle-Class Working Families – and why I have asked my Vice President to lead it. This is a difficult moment. But I believe, if we act boldly and swiftly, it can be an American moment - when we work through our differences and overcome our divisions to face this crisis."

Vice President Biden said: "America’s middle class is hurting. Trillions of dollars in home equity and retirement savings and college savings are gone. And every day, more and more Americans are losing their jobs. President Obama and I are determined to change this. Quite simply, a strong middle class equals a strong America. We can’t have one without the other. This Task Force will be an important vehicle to assess new and existing policies across the board and determine if they are helping or hurting the middle class. It is our charge to get the middle class – the backbone of this country – up and running again."

The Vice President and members of the task force will work with a wide array of federal agencies that have responsibility for key issues facing middle class and working families, and expedite administrative reforms, propose Executive orders, and develop legislative and policy proposals that can be of special importance to working families.

The White House unveiled today the initial version of the Task Force’s new website: www.AStrongMiddleClass.gov. Transparency is a key priority for the taskforce and any materials from meetings or reports produced will be made available to the public and on the website. The website will be updated with additional content as the Task Force gets underway.

President Obama has set the following goals for the task force:

* Expanding education and lifelong training opportunities
* Improving work and family balance
* Restoring labor standards, including workplace safety
* Helping to protect middle-class and working-family incomes
* Protecting retirement security

Members of the White House Task Force on Middle Class Working Families will include the Secretaries of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Commerce, as well as the Directors of the National Economic Council, the Office of Management and Budget, the Domestic Policy Council, and the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors.

The Middle Class Task Force’s first official meeting will be on February 27, 2009 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The topic of the first meeting will be: "Green Jobs: A Pathway to a Strong Middle Class."

Tom Daschle "Tax Cheaters" "Cheap" VIDEO

Tom Daschle's 1999 Comments On "Tax Cheaters"



President Barack Obama's nominee for Health & Human Services Secretary Tom Daschle has come under fire for not paying some of his taxes. Here is what he had to say in 1999 about "tax chea... aleast

Previous Tom Daschle Campaign Ad



A previous Tom Daschle campaign ad showcased how Daschle drove to work daily for 15 years in an old Pontiac. TomDaschleAd

President Obama Tom Daschle withdraw Health and Human Services

President Obama said in a written statement about two hours after Ms Killefer's 12:00 pm withdrawn.

“This morning, Tom Daschle asked me to withdraw his nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services. I accept his decision with sadness and regret.

“Tom Daschle has devoted his life to public service and health care reform, so that every American has access to health care they can afford. I had hoped that he could bring this passion and expertise to bear to finally achieve that goal, which is so essential to the progress of our economy and the well-being of businesses and families across our nation.

“Tom made a mistake, which he has openly acknowledged. He has not excused it, nor do I.

“But that mistake, and this decision, cannot diminish the many contributions Tom has made to this country, from his years in the military to his decades of public service.

“Now we must move forward, with our plan to lift this economy and put people back to work.”

Letter from Nancy Killefer to President Obama

February 3, 2009

Dear Mr. President,

I recognize that your agenda and the duties facing your Chief Performance Officer are urgent. I have also come to realize in the current environment that my personal tax issue of D.C. Unemployment tax could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay those duties must avoid. Because of this I must reluctantly ask you to withdraw my name from consideration.

I am deeply honored to have been selected by you and you have my deep appreciation for your confidence in me. You have my heartfelt support and best wishes for success in all your endeavors.

Respectfully yours,

Nancy Killefer

Source:

• whitehouse.gov

Related:

• Nancy Killefer Biography

RNC Chairman Michael Steele FOX News Sunday VIDEO

VIDEO PART 1

VIDEO PART 2

WASHINGTON — The following is a partial transcript of the Feb. 1, 2009, edition of "FOX News Sunday With Chris Wallace":

"FOX NEWS SUNDAY" HOST CHRIS WALLACE: On Friday, Republicans elected their first black national chairman. That is big news for a party that has traditionally been seen as failing to reach out to minorities.

Joining us now to tell us how he plans to turn around GOP fortunes is the new head of the Republican National Committee, Michael Steele.

Chairman Steele, congratulations.

RNC CHAIRMAN MICHAEL STEELE: Thank you, Chris. Thank you.

WALLACE: And welcome back to "FOX News Sunday."

STEELE: It's good to be back, yeah.

WALLACE: I want to start with something that you said in your victory statement on Friday just after you were elected by the RNC. And here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEELE: We want you to work with us. And for those of you who wish to obstruct, get ready to get knocked over.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Who were you talking about? Who are you thinking may want to obstruct?

STEELE: I'm thinking both inside and outside the party. I think it's an opportunity for us now to move this party forward on the ideas that matter to the voters, and so I'm not in the mood to have people stand in the way and say, "We can't. We've always done it this way. It's impossible to do."

I mean, I was told that in making this run. And I was told that when I decided to run for lieutenant governor of Maryland. So the idea that the opportunity presents itself and you fail to rise to it because someone is standing in your way to me just doesn't sit well.

So I wanted to make it very clear from the very beginning, my goal is to move this party forward. We're in the business of winning elections. And so I'm expecting my grassroots, my state parties, the national organization to get on board, to get on the page that is a winning page and move forward.

And for those Democrats and others who want to put up roadblocks and do the crazy typical play that they normally do — the name-calling and the obfuscation and the sleight of hand — I don't have time for it, because there are important issues that we have to face on the economy, the war, and issues that affect the poor. And I want to have this party in a position to move on those issues. FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

Greening the Internet Economy

CPUC commissioner Rachelle Chong and Calit2 director Larry Smarr will co-chair the Jan. 22-23 conference at UC San Diego on ‘Greening the Internet Economy’.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the University of California, San Diego, one of the nation’s greenest universities, are joining for a groundbreaking symposium on January 22-23 to explore how to improve the technology sector’s energy efficiency while developing innovations to help other industries reduce their carbon footprints.

From Silicon Valley to San Diego’s Telecom Mesa, California accounts for a large share of the computers, printers and cell phones that drive up productivity – but also drain power. In response, the CPUC and the UC San Diego division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) will bring together industry experts, policy makers and academic leaders for “Greening the Internet Economy,” in Atkinson Hall on the university’s La Jolla campus.

“California is committed to fight climate change,” said CPUC Commissioner Rachelle Chong. “Our state’s vibrant information and communications technology industries will play a critical role with innovations that can cut greenhouse gas emissions throughout the world. Not only should they cut their own greenhouse gas impacts, but they can empower users to reduce their carbon footprint. This conference will bring together a unique group of California leaders and stakeholders to collaborate.”

Keynote speaker Bill Weihl, is Google’s Green Energy Czar.

According to a report by Forrester Research, green information technology is currently a $500 million market and it is expected to grow to $4.8 billion by 2013. The information and communications technology (ICT) sector’s own emissions are nearly tripling in a business-as-usual scenario, to approximately 1.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from 2002 to 2020. In making that forecast, The Climate Group (an international, non-profit coalition) identified ICT opportunities that could lead to emission reductions five times the size of the sector’s own footprint – pushing total U.S. business-as-usual emissions down 15 percent by 2020.

Workers install solar photovoltaic panels on a building at UC San Diego. Solar power is part of a concerted ‘green’ effort on the campus to reduce the university’s carbon footprint.

“The ICT sector and universities can play an important role in reducing carbon emissions to fight global warming,” said Calit2 director Larry Smarr, a professor of computer science in UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering. “A whole new generation of equipment is being designed to build out the rapidly growing Internet economy, and that equipment has to be much greener than what we have today.”

In late 2008, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) approved a state plan to reduce California’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a drop of roughly 25 percent from today’s levels. The ARB’s decision makes California the first state in the nation to formally approve a comprehensive greenhouse gas reduction plan that is required under statute and that involves every sector of the economy. The approval followed passage of AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, under which the state will set greenhouse gas emissions limits and reduction measures to go into effect in 2012.

“The timing of this conference could not be better, because we now have a timetable for compliance with California’s aggressive new rules to reduce carbon emissions,” said conference organizer Jerry Sheehan, director of government relations at Calit2. “We are looking forward to an open dialogue among policymakers, regulators, industry representatives and university researchers about how to reach these ambitious goals.”

The keynote speaker on the opening day of the conference will be Bill Weihl, Green Energy Czar at Google, Inc. Weihl leads Google’s efforts in energy efficiency and renewable energy, and spearheads the company’s drive to become carbon neutral. He is a former professor of computer science at MIT, as well as former chief technology officer of Akamai Technologies. Weihl also co-chairs the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.

In addition, CPUC President Michael R. Peevey will provide a keynote address on the second day of the event. “This event marks an important collaborative effort to advance strategies for sustainability and energy efficiency in the rapidly growing realm of information and communications technology,” said President Peevey. “Solutions can emerge to our complex emissions challenges when the foremost public policy makers, industry experts, research leaders, and global nonprofits continue to prioritize cooperation.” Other speakers from the public sector will include Darren Bouton, Deputy Cabinet Secretary to Gov. Schwarzenegger, and Anthony Eggert, Science and Technology Advisor to the Chair of ARB.

California-based industries will be well represented on the speaking roster. Senior officials scheduled to make presentations come from companies including Intel, Cisco Systems, Qualcomm, Hewlett-Packard, Pacific Gas & Electric, AT&T, IBM, General Motors, Silver Spring Networks, Fuel Cell Energy, Arup Group, CTG-Energetics, Realcom, Verrari, and others.

The opening session on Jan. 22 will focus on the policy framework of California’s AB 32 legislation, and in particular, the landmark act’s implications for companies in the ICT sector. Other sessions that day will explore the greening of power-hungry data centers – which have doubled their electricity use to 61 billion kilowatt-hours since 2000 – and reducing an organization’s ICT carbon footprint. The latter will focus on best practices in low-carbon ICT businesses, not just in California, but globally. Also on Jan. 22, Calit2 and other UC San Diego units will demonstrate some of the technologies implemented on the campus, including the largest microclimate monitoring system in the world.

On Jan. 23, the first panel will explore how the ICT sector can capitalize on advances in the energy sector and emerging technologies in the utility industry. Other sessions will address ICT and smart buildings, ‘intelligent’ transportation, and consumers, who are estimated to control or influence over 60 percent of all CO2 emissions.

The final session of the conference will explore the role that universities such as UC San Diego can play through research, development and the deployment of so-called ‘green cyberinfrastructure.’ Cyberinfrastructure accounts for a large portion of CO2 emissions at research universities, and it is estimated that higher education is responsible for between five and 10 percent of U.S. carbon emissions. Speakers on the IT panel include Calit2 research scientist Tom DeFanti.

“As science relies increasingly on data-intensive computing and networking, research universities are facing campus-wide crises of space, power and cooling,” said DeFanti, who leads the National Science Foundation-funded GreenLight project. “The GreenLight project is building instrumentation to measure data-center efficiency and devise optimal design strategies for getting more computational work done for fewer watts of energy.”

UC San Diego is one of the leading universities investigating energy efficiency in information technology and data centers. It is the only university member of Green Grid, an international consortium dedicated to reducing energy usage at data centers. The new wing of the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego was designed and built to be 50 percent more energy efficient than California standards require, and UC San Diego also has one of the largest and most advanced university renewable energy programs. The campus will soon generate 7.8 megawatts of green energy, including wind, solar and biogas-powered fuel cell energy. By the end of 2009, green energy will provide 10 to 15 percent of the university’s annual electrical needs.

According to Steve Relyea, vice chancellor of business affairs at UC San Diego, the campus is going green with a vengeance. “We will be a zero waste campus by 2020,” said Relyea, who will brief attendees on the university’s Sustainability 2.0 program. “We are targeting climate neutrality by 2025 and have set specific targets and dates for procurement, water usage, transportation and other areas over the next decade. I really don’t know the limit of how green we can become, because I continue to be surprised by the ingenuity and resourcefulness of our faculty, students and staff.”

To attend “Greening the Internet Economy,” registration is required at the conference website. Admission for corporate participants is $200, or $100 for attendees from non-profit and government institutions. Faculty, students and staff from the two Calit2 campuses – UC San Diego and UC Irvine – will be admitted free of charge.

Contact: Doug Ramsey dramsey@ucsd.edu 858-822-5825, Terrie Prosper/CPUC, 415-703-1366. University of California - San Diego

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell Weekly Republican Address TEXT PODCAST VIDEO 01/31/09

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell delivers the Weekly Republican Address, responding to President Barack Obama's weekly address. Sen. McConnell lays out the problems with the stimulus plan ... PODCAST OF THIS ARTICLE

FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT:

“This is Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. Earlier this week, President Obama came to Capitol Hill to speak with members of my party about his plan for an economic recovery bill. The President said that a stimulus package is needed to revive the nation’s troubled economy, and to help the millions of Americans who’ve been affected by it. And Republicans in Congress agree.

“Every day brings more news of layoffs, home foreclosures, and shuttered businesses. The Labor Department this week reported job losses in all 50 states in the month of December. In California alone, almost 80,000 people are newly out of work. And across the country, employers are cutting to the bone even at businesses that most Americans never thought were vulnerable.

“A problem that started on Wall Street is reaching deeper and deeper into Main Street. And the President is counting on members of Congress to come together in a spirit of bipartisanship to act. Unfortunately, the plan that Democrats in Congress put forward this week falls far short of the President’s vision for a bill that creates jobs and puts us on a path to long-term economic health.

“Turning aside Republican ideas, Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives produced a massive bill that many analysts say is unlikely to create new jobs or boost the economy anytime soon. Most of the infrastructure projects it includes won’t impact the economy for at least another year. Permanent spending would be expanded by about $240 billion, an increase that would lock in bigger and bigger deficits every year. And the bill is loaded with wasteful spending:

* $20 million for the removal of fish-passage barriers.
* $25 million to improve All Terrain Vehicle trails.
* $34 million to renovate the Department of Commerce building in Washington.
* And $600 million to buy new cars for government workers.

“The task for Democrats in the House was to craft a stimulus plan that was timely, targeted, and temporary. Apparently, they didn’t get the memo. The bill they presented – and which House Democrats approved this week along a party line vote – looks more like a $1 trillion Christmas list.

“At a time when Americans are worried about holding onto their jobs and their homes, and learning to live with less, politicians in Washington shouldn’t be spending taxpayer dollars on new cars for government workers or sprucing up federal buildings in Washington. And that’s why Republicans are suggesting a simpler, more targeted plan that gets right at the heart of the economic crisis.

“Most economists agree that falling home values are the underlying cause of the recent downturn. Republicans think we need to fix this problem before we do anything else. So first, we propose providing government-backed, 4% fixed mortgages to any credit-worthy borrower. The availability of these low-interest loans would increase demand for houses significantly. And low interest mortgages would boost household income. The average family would see its monthly mortgage payment drop by $466 a month, or $5,600 a year. Over the life of a 30-year loan, that’s a savings of $167,760.

“Next, in order to get money into the economy quickly, Republicans would cut income tax rates for working Americans right away. The federal government currently imposes a 10% tax on married couples for income up to $16,700. Republicans would cut that rate in half, putting about $500 into the pocket of every working family. Income between $16,700 and $67,900 is now taxed at 15%. Republicans would cut that rate to 10%. This would put another $1,100 into the pockets of working couples. Single filers would get similar rate reductions. But either way, everyone who works and pays income tax would see an immediate increase in pay.

“Republicans are committed to working with President Obama to steer Americans out of the current economic troubles. We believe the best way to do that is to stabilize housing prices, cut your mortgage payments, and let you keep more of what you earn. And as Congress considers the best way forward, on behalf of the American taxpayer, these are the principles Republicans will pursue.

“Thanks for listening.”

President Obama Weekly Address 01/31/09 PODCAST VIDEO TEXT

Remarks of President Barack Obama, Weekly Address, Saturday, January 31st, 2009

PODCAST OF THIS ARTICLE MP3, 4 mb FULL STREAMING VIDEO MPEG4, 45 mb.

This morning I'd like to talk about some good news and some bad news as we confront our economic crisis.

The bad news is well known to Americans across our country as we continue to struggle through unprecedented economic turmoil. Yesterday we learned that our economy shrank by nearly 4 percent from October through December. That decline was the largest in over a quarter century, and it underscores the seriousness of the economic crisis that my administration found when we took office.

Already the slowdown has cost us tens of thousands of jobs in January alone. And the picture is likely to get worse before it gets better.

Make no mistake, these are not just numbers. Behind every statistic there's a story. Many Americans have seen their lives turned upside down. Families have been forced to make painful choices. Parents are struggling to pay the bills. Patients can't afford care. Students can't keep pace with tuition. And workers don't know whether their retirement will be dignified and secure.

The good news is that we are moving forward with a sense of urgency equal to the challenge. This week the House passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, which will save or create more than 3 million jobs over the next few years. It puts a tax cut into the pockets of working families, and places a down payment on America's future by investing in energy independence and education, affordable health care, and American infrastructure.

Now this recovery plan moves to the Senate. I will continue working with both parties so that the strongest possible bill gets to my desk. With the stakes so high we simply cannot afford the same old gridlock and partisan posturing in Washington. It's time to move in a new direction.

Americans know that our economic recovery will take years -- not months. But they will have little patience if we allow politics to get in the way of action, and our economy continues to slide. That's why I am calling on the Senate to pass this plan, so that we can put people back to work and begin the long, hard work of lifting our economy out of this crisis. No one bill, no matter how comprehensive, can cure what ails our economy. So just as we jumpstart job creation, we must also ensure that markets are stable, credit is flowing, and families can stay in their homes.

Last year Congress passed a plan to rescue the financial system. While the package helped avoid a financial collapse, many are frustrated by the results -- and rightfully so. Too often taxpayer dollars have been spent without transparency or accountability. Banks have been extended a hand, but homeowners, students, and small businesses that need loans have been left to fend on their own.

And adding to this outrage, we learned this week that even as they petitioned for taxpayer assistance, Wall Street firms shamefully paid out nearly $20 billion in bonuses for 2008. While I'm committed to doing what it takes to maintain the flow of credit, the American people will not excuse or tolerate such arrogance and greed. The road to recovery demands that we all act responsibly, from Main Street to Washington to Wall Street.

Soon my Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, will announce a new strategy for reviving our financial system that gets credit flowing to businesses and families. We'll help lower mortgage costs and extend loans to small businesses so they can create jobs. We'll ensure that CEOs are not draining funds that should be advancing our recovery. And we will insist on unprecedented transparency, rigorous oversight, and clear accountability -- so taxpayers know how their money is being spent and whether it is achieving results.

Rarely in history has our country faced economic problems as devastating as this crisis. But the strength of the American people compels us to come together. The road ahead will be long, but I promise you that every day that I go to work in the Oval Office I carry with me your stories, and my administration is dedicated to alleviating your struggles and advancing your dreams. You are calling for action. Now is the time for those of us in Washington to live up to our responsibilities.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele's Acceptance Speech VIDEO

A self-described Lincoln Republican. Michael S. Steele earned a place in history in 2003 when he became the first African-American elected to statewide office in Maryland. His experiences as a successful elected conservative African-American Republican and his engaging speaking style have launched Steele into national prominence. His first major exposure was during an appearance at the 2004 Republican National Convention. Since then President George W. Bush chose Steele to be part of the U.S. delegation to the investiture of Pope Benedict XVI, and as a member of the Presidential Delegation to the Leon H. Sullivan Summit VIII in Tanzania. Steele has been an entertaining and eloquent guest on cable political talk shows such as HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher and Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report.

An expert on political strategy, fund-raising, PACs, and election reform, he is the current Chairman of GOPAC. He has served on the National Federal Election Reform Commission and the NAACP Blue Ribbon Commission on Election Reform.

Born in 1958 at Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Steele was raised in Washington, DC. He spent three years as a seminarian in the Order of St. Augustine in preparation for the priesthood, but, ultimately, chose a career in law instead. He earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1991.

He is currently a Partner in the international law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf in Washington, DC. From 1991–1997, Steele was a corporate securities attorney at the international law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in Washington, DC, specializing in sophisticated financial transactions on behalf of Wall Street underwriters. He also was a corporate finance counsel for the Mills Corporation and founded his own company, The Steele Group, a business and legal consulting firm. His writings on law, business and politics have appeared in The Washington Times, Politico.com, Townhall.com, and The Journal of International Security Affairs, among others.

Named a 2005 Aspen Institute–Rodel Fellow in Public Leadership and awarded the 2005 Bethune-DuBois Institute Award for his ongoing work in the development of quality education in Maryland, Steele also has served on a variety of boards and commissions including Export–Import Bank Advisory Board, the U.S. Naval Academy Board of Visitors, and the Republican National Committee.

Lt. Governor Steele serves on the Administrative Board of the Maryland Catholic Conference and is a member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Landover Hills, MD, where he attends mass regularly with his wife Andrea and their two sons Michael and Drew.

Robert Gibbs White House Press Briefing 1/28/09 PODCAST

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar MP3 52 mb James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 1:36 P.M. EST MR. GIBBS: Good afternoon, guys. Before we get started, I wanted to introduce Secretary Salazar, who is going to make his second trip as our Secretary of the Interior tomorrow -- he's going to go out West.

And I've invited him here to talk a little bit about the reform agenda that he's going to take with him on that trip, and answer a few questions. And then we'll get back to our regularly scheduled programming.

So, Secretary.

SECRETARY SALAZAR: Thank you, Robert.

President Obama has immediately set high ethical standards for all of government as part of his reform agenda. As part of that commitment and implementing the reform agenda, I intend to do my part in the Department of Interior to make sure that scandals that have occurred in the past are properly dealt with, and that the problems that we uncover are fixed so that they don't occur again.

President Obama immediately made clear that the type of ethical transgressions, the blatant conflicts of interest, waste and abuses that we have seen over the last eight years will no longer be tolerated. Nowhere is President Obama's commitment to reform and to cleaning up the waste, fraud and abuse of the past more important than at the Department of Interior, which I now lead on his behalf.

Over the last eight years, the Department of Interior has been tarnished by ethical lapses, of criminal behavior that has extended to the very highest levels of government. The former deputy secretary of the department under the Bush administration, Steven Griles, was sent to prison. It is a department that the American people associate with Jack Abramoff. And it is a department that was tarnished by a scandal involving sex, drugs and inappropriate gifts from the oil and gas companies that the employees were in charge of overseeing.

The Lakewood, Colorado, office of the Minerals Management Service is taxed with making sure that taxpayers, the American taxpayers, collect their fair share from oil and gas development on their public lands. Last year that office collected $23 billion. That's $23 billion on behalf of the American people. Yet during the last administration, some of the employees of that office violated the public trust by accepting gifts and employment contracts from the very oil and gas companies that they were supposed to be holding accountable. FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPT

License: Under C-SPANs copyright policy a license is generally not required to use C-SPANs video coverage of federal government events online for non-commercial purposes so long as C-SPAN is attributed as the source of the video.

Rod Blagojevich FBI Audio Tape MP3 PODCAST

Rod Blagojevich, Emil Jones and Jeffrey Schoenberg at Illinois Executive Mansion.

Rod Blagojevich FBI Audio Tape Illinois lawmakers on Tuesday afternoon heard Gov. Rod Blagojevich's voice on secretly recorded FBI audiotapes. Recorded December 4, 2008 9:09 am. Copyright Status and Citation: Information generated by the Department of Justice is in the public domain and may be reproduced, published or otherwise used without the Department’s permission.

Citation to the Department of Justice as the source of the information is appreciated, as appropriate.

Image License information: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

John Boehner Weekly Republican Address PODCAST VIDEO 01/24/09

House Republican Leader John Boehner Weekly Republican Address PODCAST OF THIS ARTICLE

Boehner Statement on House Republicans’ Economic Recovery Proposals
House GOP Leader: “Our proposals are rooted in the belief that fast-acting tax, rather than slow-moving and wasteful government spending, is the most effective way to create jobs and put our economy back on track.”

Washington, Jan 23 - House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today issued the following statement on the economic proposals House Republicans presented to President Obama during a White House meeting earlier this morning:

“We had a productive meeting with the President this morning and, as he requested earlier this month, presented him with a series of proposals to get our economy moving again. Our proposals are rooted in the belief that fast-acting tax relief, rather than slow-moving and wasteful government spending, is the most effective way to create jobs and put our economy back on track. They provide relief to those who need it most: middle-class families, job seekers, small businesses owners, the self-employed, and homebuyers.

“Rather than spending too much, too late as the congressional Democrats’ proposal does, our proposals let the American people keep more of what they earn to spur investment, encourage savings, and create more private-sector jobs. I thank our Republican Whip, Eric Cantor, for leading the Working Group that developed these proposals, and hope the President and congressional Democrats consider our ideas to get more money back into the economy as quickly as possible.”

NOTE: The House Republicans’ economic recovery proposals – which are detailed in full here – include:

* Immediate Tax Relief for Working Families: House Republicans propose reducing the lowest individual tax rates from 15 percent to 10 percent and from 10 percent to 5 percent. Under the proposal, a married couple filing jointly could save up to $3,200 a year in taxes.

* Help for America’s Small Businesses: House Republicans propose to allow small businesses to take a tax deduction equal to 20 percent of their income. This will immediately free up funds for small businesses to create new jobs.

* Assistance for the Unemployed: House Republicans propose to make unemployment benefits tax free so that those looking for work can focus on providing for their families.

* Stabilizing Home Values: In order to encourage responsible buyers to enter the market and stabilize prices, House Republicans propose a home-buyers credit of $7,500 for those buyers who make a minimum down-payment of 5 percent.

* No Tax Increases to Pay for Spending: The congressional Democrats’ spending plan includes record levels of government projects and programs that will substantially increase the current deficit, without spurring a rapid economic recovery, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. House Republicans are concerned that this level of spending could result in near-term tax increases on American families and are insisting that any economic package include a provision precluding any tax increases now or in the future to pay for this new spending. #####

Keywords: House Republican Leader; John Boehner; Weekly Republican Address

Low-cost Strategy Developed for Curbing Computer Worms

Thanks to an ingenious new strategy devised by researchers at the University of California, Davis, and Intel Corporation, computer network administrators might soon be able to mount effective, low-cost defenses against self-propagating infectious programs known as worms.

Many computers are already equipped with software that can detect when another computer is attempting to attack it. Yet the software usually cannot identify newly minted worms that do not share features with earlier marauders. When network managers detect suspicious activity, they face a major dilemma, said Senthil Cheetancheri, who led efforts to develop the strategy. “The question is, ‘Should I shut down the network and risk losing business for a couple of hours for what could be a false alarm, or should I keep it running and risk getting infected?’”

Cheetancheri, a graduate student in the Computer Security Laboratory at UC Davis when he did the work, has shown that the conundrum can be overcome by enabling computers to share information about anomalous activity. As signals come in from other machines in the network, each computer compiles the data to continually calculate the probability that a worm attack is under way. “One suspicious activity in a network with 100 computers can’t tell you much,” he said. “But when you see half a dozen activities and counting, you know that something’s happening.”

The second part of the strategy is an algorithm that weighs the cost of a computer being disconnected from the network against the cost of it being infected by a worm. Results of this ongoing process depend on the calculated probability of an attack, and vary from computer to computer depending on what the machine is used for. The algorithm triggers a toggle to disconnect the computer whenever the cost of infection outweighs the benefit of staying online, and vice versa.

The computer used by a person working with online sales, for example, might be disconnected only when the threat of an attack is virtually certain; the benefit she provides by continuing to work during false alarms far outweighs the cost of infection. On the other hand, a computer used by a copywriter who can complete various tasks offline might disconnect whenever the probability of an attack rises above even a very low level.

The study is published in “Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection, 2008,” the proceedings of a symposium that was held in Cambridge, Mass., in September 2008.

Other contributors to the study are John-Mark Agosta with Intel Corporation; Jeff Rowe, research scientist in the UC Davis Computer Security Laboratory; and UC Davis computer science professors Karl Levitt and Felix Wu.

The study was supported by a grant from Intel IT Research.

Contact: Liese Greensfelder lgreensfelder@ucdavis.edu 530-752-6101 University of California - Davis

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President Obama Weekly Address 01/24/09 PODCAST VIDEO TEXT

Remarks of President Barack Obama, Weekly Address, Saturday, January 24th, 2009 PODCAST OF THIS ARTICLE VBR MP3, 4.0 mb FULL STREAMING VIDEO MPEG4, 9.7 mb

We begin this year and this Administration in the midst of an unprecedented crisis that calls for unprecedented action. Just this week, we saw more people file for unemployment than at any time in the last twenty-six years, and experts agree that if nothing is done, the unemployment rate could reach double digits. Our economy could fall $1 trillion short of its full capacity, which translates into more than $12,000 in lost income for a family of four. And we could lose a generation of potential, as more young Americans are forced to forgo college dreams or the chance to train for the jobs of the future.

In short, if we do not act boldly and swiftly, a bad situation could become dramatically worse.

That is why I have proposed an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan to immediately jumpstart job creation as well as long-term economic growth. I am pleased to say that both parties in Congress are already hard at work on this plan, and I hope to sign it into law in less than a month.

It’s a plan that will save or create three to four million jobs over the next few years, and one that recognizes both the paradox and the promise of this moment - the fact that there are millions of Americans trying to find work even as, all around the country, there’s so much work to be done. That’s why this is not just a short-term program to boost employment. It’s one that will invest in our most important priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century.

Today I’d like to talk specifically about the progress we expect to make in each of these areas.

To accelerate the creation of a clean energy economy, we will double our capacity to generate alternative sources of energy like wind, solar, and biofuels over the next three years. We’ll begin to build a new electricity grid that lay down more than 3,000 miles of transmission lines to convey this new energy from coast to coast. We’ll save taxpayers $2 billion a year by making 75% of federal buildings more energy efficient, and save the average working family $350 on their energy bills by weatherizing 2.5 million homes.

To lower health care cost, cut medical errors, and improve care, we’ll computerize the nation’s health record in five years, saving billions of dollars in health care costs and countless lives. And we’ll protect health insurance for more than 8 million Americans who are in danger of losing their coverage during this economic downturn.

To ensure our children can compete and succeed in this new economy, we’ll renovate and modernize 10,000 schools, building state-of-the-art classrooms, libraries, and labs to improve learning for over five million students. We’ll invest more in Pell Grants to make college affordable for seven million more students, provide a $2,500 college tax credit to four million students, and triple the number of fellowships in science to help spur the next generation of innovation.

Finally, we will rebuild and retrofit America to meet the demands of the 21st century. That means repairing and modernizing thousands of miles of America’s roadways and providing new mass transit options for millions of Americans. It means protecting America by securing 90 major ports and creating a better communications network for local law enforcement and public safety officials in the event of an emergency. And it means expanding broadband access to millions of Americans, so business can compete on a level-playing field, wherever they’re located.

I know that some are skeptical about the size and scale of this recovery plan. I understand that skepticism, which is why this recovery plan must and will include unprecedented measures that will allow the American people to hold my Administration accountable for these results. We won’t just throw money at our problems - we’ll invest in what works. Instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where we invest will be made public, and informed by independent experts whenever possible. We’ll launch an unprecedented effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government, and every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars by going to a new website called recovery.gov.

No one policy or program will solve the challenges we face right now, nor will this crisis recede in a short period of time. But if we act now and act boldly; if we start rewarding hard work and responsibility once more; if we act as citizens and not partisans and begin again the work of remaking America, then I have faith that we will emerge from this trying time even stronger and more prosperous than we were before. Thanks for listening.

Lisa P. Jackson Biography VIDEO

Lisa P. Jackson born February 8, 1962 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and adopted a few weeks later Lisa was raised in the Ninth Ward in New Orleans.

On December 15, 2008, then-President-Elect Barack Obama officially designated Jackson as the nominee for Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

On October 24, 2008, Governor Corzine announced that Jackson would take over as his Chief of Staff, effective December 1, 2008, succeeding Bradley Abelow. As Chief of Staff she served as Governor Corzine's top advisor, is his chief liaison to the State Legislature, oversees the operation of all state operations and handles political liaison for the governor. In New Jersey, the Chief of Staff to the Governor is recognized as the second most powerful position in state government. Jackson is the third woman and the first African American to hold the post of Chief of Staff to the Governor.

Ms. Jackson was sworn in to office on February 28, 2006 as Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP),

Lisa lead a staff of 3,400 professionals dedicated to protecting, sustaining and enhancing New Jersey’s water, air and land, and preserving its wealth of natural and historic resources.

During her time in that job, the state began conducting compliance sweeps to crack down on polluters in environmentally ravaged sections of Camden and Paterson, ended its controversial bear hunt and unveiled a plan to reduce carbon emissions 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.

Before her nomination by Governor Corzine, Jackson served as the DEP’s Assistant Commissioner for Land Use Management. Under her leadership, the DEP crafted regulatory standards for implementing the landmark Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act.

Upon joining DEP, Jackson served as Assistant Commissioner for the Division of Compliance and Enforcement. As the department’s chief environmental enforcer, Jackson led pioneering compliance sweeps in Camden, NJ and Paterson, NJ where families live in close proximity to regulated facilities. Working with the county officials, State Police and EPA, DEP mobilized more than 200 inspectors to conduct more than 2,100 compliance investigations and issued more than 500 violations in the two cities.

Prior to joining DEP, Jackson served for 16 years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), initially at its headquarters in Washington and more recently at its regional office in New York City. During her tenure at the EPA, Jackson worked in the federal Superfund site remediation program developing key hazardous waste cleanup regulations, overseeing hazardous waste cleanup projects throughout central New Jersey and directing multimillion-dollar cleanup operations. She later served as deputy director and acting director of the region’s enforcement division.

Jackson currently serves on several boards and committees, including the NJ Outdoor Women's League, Inc., New Jersey Sustainable State Institute, New Jersey Development Council, NJ Intergovernmental Protection Commission, the Executive Committee of the Natural Resources Leadership Council of the States, the Board of Trustees for Prosperity NJ, FIX DMV and the Governor's Intergovernmental Relations Commission, in addition to serving as Chair of the Ozone Transport Commission and Vice Chair of the Environmental Council of the State’s Compliance Committee. The New Jersey Conference of Mayors named Jackson the 2007 Cabinet Member of the Year.

As a native of New Orleans, Jackson was first in her class at St. Mary’s Dominican High School, she earned a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University. She is a summa cum laude graduate of Tulane University’s School of Chemical Engineering.

Jackson resides in East Windsor. She is married to Kenny Jackson and is the proud mother of two wonderful sons, Marcus and Brian. An avid cook, her signature dish — gumbo — is a tribute to her Louisiana roots.

WHY LISA JACKSON SHOULD NOT RUN EPA by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)

• Cases in which public health was endangered due to DEP malfeasance, including one case involving a day-care center in a former thermometer factory in which DEP failed to warn parents or workers for months about mercury contamination;
• Rising levels of water pollution, contamination of drinking water supplies and poisoning of wildlife with no cogent state response; and
• The state hazardous waste clean-up program under Ms. Jackson was so mismanaged that the Bush EPA had to step in and assume control of several Superfund sites.
• Invoking “executive privilege” to block a request filed by PEER under the state Open Public Records Act for a copy of her schedule and sign-in logs;
• Pushing to privatize pollution control through outsourcing of toxic clean-ups to industry;
• Abolishing the DEP Division of Science & Research after it produced damning reports on continuing contamination following state-supervised clean-ups.
• DEP failed to meet its first major statutory milestone in implementing the emission reduction goals of the highly touted Global Warming Response Act. A June 30th legal deadline for producing a plan identifying the legislative and regulatory “measures necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions” still has not been met. At the same time, Ms. Jackson supported and Gov. Jon Corzine signed “The Permit Extension Act” which exempts thousands of projects from any new energy conservation, efficiency or requirements for solar heating or renewable energy;
• New Jersey missed the historic first auction of greenhouse gas pollution allowances under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, this September because DEP was unable to adopt regulations to implement the pollution trading program that underpinned the auction; and
• Jackson proposed a cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that will do little to combat global warming because it sets emissions caps above current levels and contains numerous complex offsets and loopholes that undercut its effectiveness.

Sources:

• NJDEP - Office of the Commissioner: Lisa P. Jackson
• Biographical information on Lisa Jackson - International Herald Tribune
• he New Team - Lisa P. Jackson - Series - NYTimes.com
• Lisa P. Jackson
  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility: News Releases

Image License: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. In short: you are free to distribute and modify the file as long as you attribute its author(s) or licensor(s). Posted by the Obama-Biden Transition project.

John Cornyn Hillary Clinton Confirmation VIDEO

Floor Statement: Hillary Clinton Confirmation FULL STREAMING VIDEO Mr. President, I appreciate the comments of the distinguished chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and I find that I agree with virtually all of them so I want to make clear at the outset

that this is really an opportunity for us over the next few hours to talk about what ought to be our goal and that is to confirm a new Secretary of State who will be able to do the nation's work and be able to avoid any perceived conflict of interest as a result of the fundraising by her husband's foundation. And I appreciate particularly the Senator from Massachusetts' good faith acknowledgment of his concerns that were also expressed by Senator Lugar. I think the concerns were acknowledged by both the Clinton Foundation and by Senator Clinton herself by entering into a memorandum of understanding with the transition team of the now President Obama administration.

Yesterday, I know we all realize this, but it's important to say again that it was a historic day with the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States. Among many things that he said that I agree with, I was particularly glad to hear him say that we should do our business in the light of day because only then can we restore the public, the vital trust between the people and their government.

As someone who has long believed that our government is too opaque to most of the people we work for and as an advocate of open government I agree with him one thousand percent. And I pledge to him and to my colleagues across the aisle that there are things we can do working together like Senator Leahy and I have on Freedom of Information Act reform to improve the openness and transparency of our government. We ought to be all about that because in fact, as we know, the foundation of our legitimacy comes from consent of the government, the people of this country. If they don't know what the government is doing or certain things are hidden from their view they cannot consent and they operate in a less than legitimate way.

I wish President Obama and his administration well. His success will mean America's success. But if we're going to restore trust between the American people and their government we need to be careful that the reality matches the rhetoric. My concern is not whether our colleague, Senator Clinton, is qualified to be secretary of state or not. She is. And I intend to vote for her confirmation but I also believe it's very important to flesh out some of the concerns that have been raised legitimately by Senator Kerry, Senator Lugar and others that I think bears some public discussion and some debate here in the Senate.

I explained to Senator Clinton yesterday my position that I thought greater transparency would make it better for her as she enters this new job as Secretary of State because any cloud or question that remains because of the lack of transparency or lack of disclosure hurts her and hurts the Obama administration at a time when we want to see it succeed. Of course, the concern is that, as she explained to me, any rule we have should not just apply to her and the former President. And I told her that's fine with me, we would be glad to work together to try to come up with something to make this kind of disclosure across the board.

Although I agree with the Senator from Massachusetts to have a former President of the United States running a foundation like this and have his spouse as Secretary of State is an unusual and perhaps unprecedented event so giving rise to these unusual and unprecedented concerns. But of course many taxpayers make frequent disclosures to the government on a monthly or quarterly basis. Why the Clinton Foundation could not do so on a more frequent basis as suggested by Senator Lugar, the ranking member on the Foreign Relations Committee, I don't see any particular hardship for the foundation to do something that taxpayers are required to do regularly, file monthly or quarterly reports. And of course all of us who run for office are familiar with the fact we have to file campaign finance reports so the public can know who's contributing to our campaigns and be attuned to any concerns that may arise.

I want to be clear also that nor or my concerns with the charitable activities of the Clinton Foundation which I and others admire. But we should not let our respect for Senator Clinton or our admiration for the many good works of the Clinton Foundation blind us to the danger of perceived conflicts of interest caused by the solicitation of hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign and some domestic sources. The perception and reality must be that the office of Secretary of State is viewed around the world as beyond reproach.

Mr. President, I would ask that an article from the "New York Times" dated December 19, 2008, be put in put in the record immediately following my remarks titled, "In The Clinton List A Veil Is Lifted On Foundation."

As many of our colleagues know, when this memorandum of understanding was entered in to, for the first time the Clinton Foundation revealed the source of it's some five hundred million dollars worth of contributions over the last ten years. Many were unremarkable but some of them were troubling raising the very issue that we're discussing here today. Contributions from foreign nations directly by, for example, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, directly to the foundation. Clearly, Senator Clinton as Secretary of State will be dealing with as a diplomat with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I ask unanimous consent that the list of the Clinton Foundation select foreign sources of contributions be made part of the record at the end of my remarks.

It includes the state of Kuwait, the state of Qatar, various foreign individuals, and in the article that I mentioned a moment ago in the "New York Times" there's just one example of the perception of conflict of interest that I think ought to give all of us concern. Now, last year, last Congress, we voted to support a civilian nuclear technology arrangement with the country of India and I voted for it. But one of the problems is, for example, one of the individuals who was lobbying for that, a politician in India who gave between $1 million and $5 million to the foundation, was actually lobbying Congress to pass this very same deal at the time he was making a significant contribution to the foundation. I'm not suggesting anything untoward or impoper about that but I'm pointing out the very real example of the perception of conflict of interest, something I think we all would hope to avoid.

There's also a list of other contributors, domestic contributors, including some of the financial services industry on Wall Street that's been the beneficiary of various government bailouts during the course of the last few months during the economic crisis. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that list be also made part of the record at the end of my remarks.

Senator Lugar, admired by all of us for his knowledge and experience in the Foreign Relations Committee, explained the likelihood of a conflict of interest. He said that the Clinton Foundation exists as a temptation to any foreign entity or government who believes it could currie favor through a donation and obviously that creates a potential perception problem with any action taken by the Secretary of State in relation to foreign givers of their country.

I share Senator Lugar's concerns as I have explained here and I concur with his comments that during Senator Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State the foundation should actually refuse all contributions from foreign sources. That would take care of that particular problem outright. Senator Kerry, as he reiterated in those hearings, what he said today, pointed out that Senator Lugar wasn't speaking from a partisan perspective, he was speaking for the committee. In other words this is not a partisan matter but a matter of serious concern of public policy.

It's a matter of record that, as I said, that the transition team and Senator Clinton and the foundation agreed to a memorandum of understanding. Of course, this does not require disclosure of past contributions with any sort of real detail which would be helpful to the observer. It does require annual disclosure and I think that was a very positive step in the right direction. But simply stated, the fundraising restriction to disclosure statements I don't think go far enough. It's in the nation's interests for the Clinton Foundation to refuse foreign sources donation while Senator Clinton serves as Secretary of State. But if the foundation refuses to do so, and I realize Senator Clinton has limited control, if any, over what the foundation does, I think there should be other options available that would reduce the likelihood of real or perceived conflicts of interest.

Senator Lugar himself has recommended several disclosure requirements, for example, he suggested that gifts of $50,000 or more to the Clinton Foundation from any foreign source, including individuals, should be submitted to the agreed-upon State Department ethics review process.

I would alert my colleagues to the fact that the agreement between the Obama team and the foundation only commits the foundation to submit for State Department review gifts from foreign governments and government-controlled entities. As Senator Lugar aptly pointed out, in many foreign countries the tie between the government and private citizens is blurred. Individuals with close connections to the government or governing families often act as surrogates for those governments. Consequently, contributions from foreign governments or foreign-controlled companies are not the only foreign contributions that could raise serious conflicts of interest. I would go further and require that every pledge or donation be made publicly available online within a short time. Perhaps a week, I think if we did it on a monthly basis that would be far better than what the MOU currently provides.

The foundation's agreement to make disclosure once a year is simply not enough in order to acheive that transparency Obama talked about yesterday that will help give the American people more confidence in their government. That is not doing business in the light of day in a way that restores that vital trust, to do it only annually, after the fact. This is only one example of some of the improvements that could be made.

In short, I remain concerned that Senator and soon-to-be Secretary of State Clinton's diplomatic work will be encumbered by the global activities of the Clinton Foundation under these circumstances. Not their good and charitable work, which I certainly support, but contributions that they raise from these various sources that are not transparent, not subject to prompt disclosure.

Obviously I think it's important that the Senate discuss and debate this in the context of her nomination, not until the inevitable conflict or crisis arises. Mr. President, I would also ask to be made part of the record the "New York Times" editorial, the "Washington Post" editorial, and the "Los Angeles Times" editorial which identify some of these same concerns, I ask that they be made part of the record at the end of my remarks.

So in short, I was encouraged by my conservation with Senator Clinton yestarday in the rotunda following the Inaugural ceremonies, where she said she would be open to a requirement that really was an across-the-board disclosure requirement, one that wasn't just targeted at her and the Clinton Foundation. I think there is a meaningful basis upon which to further discuss this and negotiate it, and it would be my intention to work with other colleagues to introduce legislation as we flesh that out which might accomplish that in the days ahead.

Hillary Clinton Nomination Hearings To Be Secretary of State VIDEO

Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of State, Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Washington, DC