Wanted: Could You Be Obama's Facebook Guru?

5:04pm UK, Tuesday February 16, 2010

Hannah Thomas-Pa social media expert to take charge of his MySpace and Facebooketer

Sky News Online

President Obama is looking for a social media expert to take charge of his MySpace and Facebook pages and keep his Twitter account up to date.

Can we tweet it? Yes we can! Well, somebody will be employed to do so...

But this is not a role for slackers who have honed their expertise spending time on Facebook in the office.

The job application warns the successful candidate must be "ready to work hard; this isn't a 9-5 sort of job".

The job description says the right person needs to have "strong organising and campaigning instincts; you can craft messages that move people to act, and you know what actions will achieve the right impact at the right time".

It is understood Mr Obama's current ghost tweeter is stepping down, so the Democratic National Committee (DNC) wants someone to take on the broader job title of "social networks manager".

They will be responsible for managing pages for both the DNC and the Organising for America group, an organisation that drives Mr Obama's agenda at a local level.

Many politicians use Twitter to engage with voters.

Gordon Brown tweets through the Number10 Downing Street page, and John Prescott and Ed Balls are also avid users.

Conservative party leader David Cameron does not have a personal Twitter account, although other members like party chairman Eric Pickles use the site frequently.

February 17, 2010 3:07 PM

On Stimulus, Perception Doesn't Match Reality

CBS

According to the multiple highly-regarded, non-partisan economic research firms, President Obama's economic stimulus package, which will likely ultimately cost around $862 billion, has in its first year saved or created at least 1.6 million jobs.

Yet just about the only people who seem to realize that fact seem to be the number-crunchers who put together the data: According to a CBS News/New York Times poll last week, just six percent -- six percent -- of Americans believe the stimulus package has created any jobs at all.

That gulf between perception and reality explains why the White House is still selling the Recovery Act a year after the program was signed into law. President Obama and Vice President Biden went before the cameras Wednesday to laud the impact of the bill while also acknowledging that the economic recovery it has helped spur "doesn't yet feel like much of a recovery," as the president put it.

It's easy to see why. Upon signing the bill just a month into his time in office, Mr. Obama lauded the stimulus as "the beginning of the end" to the economic crisis -- and promised that it would be responsible for 3.5 million jobs over two years. But while the economy has clearly turned around, with job losses slowing significantly and the overall economy shifting from contraction to expansion, the jobs numbers have lagged. The unemployment rate spent most of last year at or around 10 percent, and there are fewer people overall working today than there were when Mr. Obama signed the bill.

Most knowledgeable economists believe the stimulus bill significantly lessened the impact of the recession, but it did not obliterate it -- which helps explain why Americans don't see the bill as having been particularly effective. A larger stimulus bill, which some both in and outside the White House pushed for last February, might have had a more noticeable impact, though it also may not have made it through Congress.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated last year that through three quarters the bill had lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.3 and 0.9 percent and grown the economy between 1.2 percent and 3.2 percent. (The CBO also said -- again, through three quarters, not the whole year -- that the stimulus had generated between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs.)

Much of the aid, meanwhile, has come in the form of direct payments to states and unemployment and health insurance benefits, non-infrastructure projects which most people do not trace back to the stimulus bill. (Here's a breakdown of the stimulus spending one year out.) Only about $31 billion of the stimulus money -- more than 40 percent of which remains unspent or undistributed -- has gone to more visible infrastructure projects, as CNN notes.

Some of the fault for the perception/reality divide also lies with the White House. The tax cut portion of the bill, for example, didn't come in the form of a government check -- it simply left more money in Americans' paychecks. That meant many Americans simply didn't notice they had gotten a tax cut. Only 12 percent said they had received one in the CBS News/New York Times poll.

"One-third of the money in this bill -- one-third -- was made up of tax cuts," Mr. Obama said Wednesday in acknowledging the divide. "I talked about this at the State of the Union. Tax cuts for 95 percent of working Americans. I just want to say to the American people, because we see some polling where about twice as many people think we've raised taxes as lowered taxes -- 95 percent of you got a tax cut."

And then there were the high-profile missteps like the government's mistaken reporting of stimulus money being spent in zip codes that don't exist. While these mistakes were insignificant considering the scope of the program, they generated headlines and gave Republicans fodder for their claims that the program was wasteful and ineffective.

The White House and Congressional Democrats will be looking to avoid such missteps as they seek to pass a second stimulus -- which the White House prefers to call a jobs bill, since "stimulus" has become a dirty word. But with Congress more polarized than ever, it has been a struggle to get even a modest bill through the House and Senate despite calls from members of both parties for action to spark hiring.

Tiger Woods PUBLIC STATEMENT: Golfer To Speak On Friday

Tiger Woods will appear in public on Friday to issue a statement. There will be no question and answer session, according to Darren Rovell of CNBC.

An alert at PGATour.com indicates that the news conference will be held at the headquarters of the PGA Tour.

Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, issued the following statement:

Tiger Woods will be speaking to a small group of friends, colleagues and close associates at 11 a.m. ET Friday at the TPC Sawgrass Clubhouse in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Tiger plans to discuss his past and his future and he plans to apologize for his behavior.

Steinberg told Rovell that "Tiger will make a public statement to begin to make amends."

The AP has more:

"This is all about the next step," Mark Steinberg, his agent, told The Associated Press. "He's looking forward to it."

Steinberg said he would speak to a "small group of friends, colleagues and close associates" about his past and what he plans next, along with apologizing for his behavior.

He said three wire services would be invited, and he was asking the Golf Writers Association of America to pick a small group of reporters to serve as a pool. Steinberg said there would be one pool camera, but it would be available live via satellite.

The news conference will be held during the Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona, and is sure to steal attention away from the first big event of the year. Accenture was the first sponsor to drop Woods when he became embroiled in a sex scandal.

"It was a matter of timing," Steinberg said.

When asked if the news conference could have waited until after Accenture's tournament, he replied, "No."

A statement on Tiger Woods' web site reads:

Tiger Woods will be speaking to a small group of friends, colleagues and close associates at 11:00 a.m. EST on Friday at the TPC Sawgrass Clubhouse in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Tiger plans to discuss his past and his future, and he plans to apologize for his behavior.

While Tiger feels that what happened is fundamentally a matter between him and his wife, he also recognizes that he has hurt and let down a lot of other people who were close to him. He also let down his fans. He wants to begin the process of making amends, and that's what he's going to discuss.

His remarks will be open to a press pool for live coverage. It is NOT a news conference.

Earlier, Charlie Gasparino of Fox Business Network weighed in:

"I have been speaking with sponsors who say they have been alerted by his reps that a public apology from Tiger Woods is imminent. It could occur as early as tomorrow sometime around 11am, and there's going to be an announcement of the public apology that will be done at a press conference some time tonight. Like I said, we don't have this yet from Tiger's representatives. I logged in lots of calls over the last two hours, but I'm getting this from reliable sources among his--the sort of sponsors of his charities of some of the companies he represents who are saying they're being alerted that something is coming down the pike, and it's coming down the pike really soon."

Feb 17, 2010 12:00 am US/Eastern

Trust In Government Nears All-Time Low

Sarah Dutton

NEW YORK (CBS News)

The latest CBS News/New York Times Poll finds Americans cynical about and dissatisfied with government.

At 75 percent, the percentage that disapproves of Congress now matches the highest level recorded in this poll; only in October 2008 and March 1992 was disapproval so high. The two parties themselves have also fallen in public estimation -- more than half the public views the Democratic Party and the Republican Party unfavorably.

And while President Obama fares better than Congress in the poll, his job approval rating is now 46 percent, matching his lowest approval rating ever.

The public's dissatisfaction extends to government in general as well. The poll found seven in ten Americans feel they don't have much say in what the government does (a record high), and nearly four in five think government is run by a few big interests, while just 18 percent think it is run for the benefit of all Americans.

Trust in government has fallen as well. Pollsters have long measured Americans' level of trust in government, tracking changes in attitudes toward government as important national events occurred.

A 1958 measure of trust in government conducted by the National Election Survey found 73 percent trusted the government to do what is right all or most of the time; by 1970 that had dropped to 53 percent, and in the aftermath of Watergate was as low as 36 percent. The percentage rose during Ronald Reagan's presidency, but by the mid 1990s the percentage that trusted government all or most of the time had fallen once again.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 led to a widespread sense of national unity; President George W. Bush's approval rating rose to 90 percent and trust in government rose as well, to 55 percent. But by October 2008, just before Barack Obama's election to the presidency, trust in government had reached an all-time low of 17 percent.

Reaction to initiatives led by both the Bush and Obama administrations suggest reasons for the public's low estimation of government. CBS News Polls have shown consistent public frustration over government bailouts. Many Americans have disapproved of the government assistance provided to large banks and financial institutions, and think the Obama administration has done too much for that industry.

In addition, the government bailout of U.S. automakers in 2009 never received support from a majority of Americans.

And few Americans have expected much personal benefit from the health care reform that has been debated in Congress for much of the past year: CBS News Polls have shown that only a minority of Americans expected health care reform to lower their costs or improve the quality of the health care they receive.

The lack of bipartisanship in Congress has probably also contributed to the public's negative views of government. CBS News Polls have shown that Americans like bipartisanship and compromise, but few think the Republicans in Congress are trying to work with President Obama. And four in five Americans think Congress is more interested in serving the needs of special interests rather than the people they represent.

Given the lack of public enthusiasm for these initiatives, and falling approval ratings for political leaders, it isn't surprising that the percentage of Americans that prefers a smaller government providing fewer services has risen recently to 56 percent, up from 48 percent last April and now the highest level recorded in CBS News Polls since 1996.

Read more of this article click link below.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/16/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6214095.shtml?tag=cbsnewsMainColumnArea

County settles for $4.1 million in wrongful imprisonment suit

(CNN) -- It won't make up for almost a decade of imprisonment, but a $4.1 million settlement is a "good start," one of Tim Masters' attorneys said Tuesday.

The Larimer County, Colorado, Board of Commissioners voted earlier Tuesday to settle a lawsuit that Masters filed after a judge exonerated him on a murder charge that put him behind bars in 1999.

"There's no dollar figure that's going to give him back his 10 years," said David Wymore, one of the attorneys who represented Masters in the case. "Tim just wishes this never happened to him, but it did."

Masters was 15 when Fort Collins, Colorado, police began investigating him in the murder of 37-year-old Peggy Hettrick, who was found murdered and sexually mutilated in a field near Masters' family home.

He was convicted largely on circumstantial evidence and the testimony of an expert witness who said he fit the profile of a sexual predator. A judge freed Masters in 2008 after new evidence was presented in the case. The crime remains unsolved.

Masters' co-counsel David Lane emphasized there is still a lawsuit pending against the city and that Tuesday's settlement represented only a "good start" to compensating a man who was "framed for a crime he did not commit."

Wymore, who also represented Masters in the criminal proceedings that saw the charges against him dismissed, said he is pleased with the settlement, but feels "someone should apologize to Tim one day because it's not just an accident."

Case History

In 1987, a bicyclist found the maimed body of Peggy Hettrick, 37, near the home of Tim Masters.

Masters, then 15, quickly became the top suspect in the slaying, but it was not until 1999 that police and prosecutors saw Masters convicted. He was sentenced to life in prison.

In hearings that began in September 2007, Masters' new defense team alleged police and prosecutorial misconduct in the investigation and trial.

In January 2008, a judge threw out the conviction and freed Masters after DNA evidence pointed to someone else.

Later that year, Masters' attorneys filed a lawsuit against several Fort Collins police officers and former prosecutors, alleging malicious prosecution, attorney Maria Liu says.

Masters, 38, was unable to comment because of the case pending against Fort Collins and some of its police officers. In a statement from his attorney, Masters said he was pleased with the county settlement and eager to conclude the proceedings.

"I would gladly have paid $10 million, or whatever it took, if I could get those years of my life back. Unfortunately, that can never happen," Masters said in the statement.

Kelly DiMartino, a spokeswoman for the city, said Fort Collins is presently negotiating with Masters, but she was unable to share details because it involves pending litigation.

Tuesday's settlement -- $3 million of which will be paid by the county's insurer -- closes the case against the county and two of its judges, Terry Gilmore and Jolene Blair, who were prosecutors in the case that jailed Masters.

A news release said the county had already paid more than $400,000 defending the case and officials believe Gilmore and Blair "handled the Masters prosecution with the utmost professionalism and confidence."

It also said Gilmore, Blair and District Attorney Larry Abrahamson objected to the settlement.

"They would rather have had their day in court," county attorney George Hass said.

The settlement indicates no wrongdoing, explained Hass. Rather, he said, the county was concerned by the prospect of a jury assigning more exorbitant damages. The county decided it would settle for $4.1 million "even though we felt we had a good case to defend," the attorney said.

Hass said he has seen juries dole out damages in excess of $10 million in similar cases, and "that would be a number the county would have to struggle with."

The money should be paid to Masters by February 25, Hass said.

It was 12 years after Hettrick's slaying before prosecutors convicted him and he was sentenced to life in prison.

Police procured no physical evidence in their investigation, and prosecutors relied largely on a collection of knives and gruesome doodles and sketches, as well as the testimony of a forensic psychologist who implicated Masters without ever interviewing him.

He wants to be a normal guy. He wants to get a house, a dog, a car.
--David Wymore, attorney for Tim Masters

Citing DNA evidence that did not implicate Masters, a visiting judge threw out the case in 2008, and Masters walked free.

A year after his release, Masters told CNN he maintained hard feelings for police and prosecutors in the case and said he felt he would have a wife and job if not for the bogus conviction. He was selling items on eBay at the time to earn money.

"They locked me up for a decade for something I didn't do," he told CNN.

Wymore said Tuesday that Masters' eBay income has dried up since he spoke to CNN last year. He is presently living in his aunt's basement and attending school to be recertified as an aircraft mechanic, a job he enjoyed during his eight years in the Navy.

"The settlement allows Tim to re-establish himself as a human being," Wymore said. "He wants to be a normal guy. He wants to get a house, a dog, a car."

LINK TO PHOTOS: 

President Obama pledges $8 billion to first nuclear plant built in US in nearly 3 decades

Kenneth R. Bazinet
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

 

Tuesday, February 16th 2010, 4:03 PM

 

Wilson/Pool

President Obama pledges $8 billion in loan guarantees to build the first nuclear power plant in the United States in nearly 30 years.

WASHINGTON - President Obama announced more than $8 billion in loan guarantees Tuesday to build the first nuclear power plant in the U.S. in nearly three decades.

"It's a plant that will create thousands of construction jobs in the next few years, and some 800 permanent jobs, well-paying permanent jobs, in the years to come," Obama said.

"And this is only the beginning. My budget proposes tripling the loan guarantees we provide to help finance safe, clean nuclear facilities - and we'll continue to provide financing for clean energy projects here in Maryland and across America," Obama added while visiting IBEW Local 26 headquarters in suburban Lanham, Md.

The Department of Energy will oversee $8.3 billion in loan guarantees to build the first new nuclear plant in Burke County, Ga., by Southern Co.

Obama's decision places him in rare agreement with former Vice President Dick Cheney and many Republicans who have accused Democrats of playing environmental politics with nuclear policy while railing against America's dependence on foreign oil.

Anticipating vigorous debate on the issue, Obama said he expects support and criticism for the project, but insisted nuclear energy is a clean, green source of dependable energy.

"Even when we have differences, we cannot allow those differences to prevent us from making progress. On an issue which affects our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, we cannot continue to be mired in the same old debates between left and right; between environmentalists and entrepreneurs," Obama said.

The President warned that if the U.S. doesn't begin reinvesting in nuclear power, as well as other energy sources, it will be overtaken by other nations that are already acting.

"Our competitors are racing to create jobs and command growing energy industries. Nuclear energy is no exception. Japan and France have long invested heavily in this industry. Meanwhile, there are 56 nuclear reactors under construction around the world: 21 in China; 6 in South Korea; 5 in India," Obama said.

"And the commitment of these other countries isn't just generating jobs; it's generating demand for expertise and new technologies. Make no mistake: whether it is nuclear energy, or solar or wind energy, if we fail to invest in these technologies today, we'll be importing them tomorrow," he added.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/02/16/2010-02-16_president_obama_pledges_8_billion_to_first_nuclear_plant_built_in_us_in_nearly_3.html#ixzz0fkgzKvzW

James B. Shimsky, a priest in the Diocese of Scranton, was arrested Jan. 30 in North Philadelphia for allegedly possessing a small amount of cocaine. (Police handout photo)

Posted on Fri, Feb. 12, 2010

Last updated, Mon, Feb. 16, 2010

Priest arrested in N. Phila. on drug charges

By Sam Wood

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Philadelphia police today announced that a Roman Catholic priest has been charged for allegedly possessing a "small quantity" of cocaine.

James B. Shimsky, a priest in the Diocese of Scranton, was arrested Jan. 30 in North Philadelphia. Narcotics officers saw a man in a silver Jeep Liberty engage in a drug transaction at 10:40 a.m. on the 3300 block of N. 5th Street, police said.

When officers stopped the SUV, police found a small amount of cocaine in the vehicle and charged him with possession of narcotics.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Scranton said Shimsky was ordained in 2001 and most recently served as pastor of St. John Vianney Parish in Scott Township, Lackawanna County.

Since his arrest, Shimsky has been on a leave of absence, said spokesman William Genello.

Baltimore Sun

Sarah Palin as GOP nominee in 2012? Don't laugh it off

Jules Witcover

February 16, 2010

After weeks of working the book-promotion circuit, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin seems to be getting down to the serious business of selling herself as a viable presidential nominee for the Republican Party in 2012.

Now that she has shed the confining requirement of running a state government, Citizen Sarah has hit the political talk circuit full blast, first with her speech to the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville and then with a long interview with Chris Wallace on the Fox network that is her new employer. She told Mr. Wallace on the Fox Sunday talk show that "it would be absurd" not to consider a presidential candidacy if the cards fall right for her and her family and that she will not "close the door that perhaps could be open for me in the future."

Sarah Palin may come off as a bit ditzy, but stupid she is not. She can read as well as anyone else that the political tea leaves already reveal a wide public curiosity about her, whether politically favorable or unfavorable so far. She has gotten the nation's attention and plenty of offers to exploit it.

But attention cannot always be translated into votes. The latest Washington Post/ABC News telephone poll of about a thousand randomly selected voters indicates most agree with her dissatisfaction with Washington under President Barack Obama. But the same poll also suggests most don't see her right now as the ideal messenger.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said they are "dissatisfied" or "angry" with the federal government, the highest disaffection in a decade, though two-thirds also profess to know little of the tea party movement whose ranks Ms. Palin has joined, ostensibly as a foot soldier.

As for Citizen Sarah, the poll shows 55 percent of those questioned about her saw her in an unfavorable light, to only 37 percent favorable, and 7 in 10 rated her unqualified to be president. Even among conservative Republicans, only 45 percent said she was qualified, down from 66 percent. Not surprisingly, a mere 6 percent of Democrats surveyed could see her as White House-ready, and only 29 percent of independents.

All this could change. Her set speech in Nashville was well delivered and overwhelmingly well received. And in her interview with Mr. Wallace, she conveyed a sense of self-confidence sorely lacking in her fumbling, extemporaneous 2008 campaign interviews with Charlie Gibson of ABC News and Katie Couric of CBS News.

In the Wallace interview, she deftly played the populist card, saying she was no "elitist" like, she implied, Ivy Leaguer Obama, "some charismatic guy with a Teleprompter." Rather, she cast herself as just one of the average folks from Main Street who better understands what other Main Streeters are going through. And at the National Tea Party Convention, she titillated the conservative crowd by needling Mr. Obama, asking the audience: "How's that hopey, changey stuff working out for you?"

As an entertainer, Citizen Sarah has already made her mark, but now she needs to make an effective segue into the stature of political leadership. The same rap of being only an entertainer didn't stop Ronald Reagan in his quests for the California governorship and then the presidency, so we know it can happen. But Mr. Reagan 30 years ago successfully rode a similar dissatisfaction with Washington by promising to "clean out the swamp" there. By the time he ran for president, he had demonstrated a firm enough grasp of the issues of the day to convince voters he could do a better job than the hapless Jimmy Carter.

One challenge for Ms. Palin is to shake off the public impression that she is still going to boot camp as a national candidate. Those crib notes on her palm captured by the television camera in Nashville served chiefly to remind voters that she has a lot of homework to do, while also subjecting her to ridicule she doesn't need right now.

But with the prospective 2012 Republican presidential field of other attractive and commanding figures so thin at this point, the old Henny Youngman answer to "How's your wife?" -- "Compared to what?" -- comes quickly to mind.

2 Men Steal $2,000 Worth Of Panties

Surveillance Video Shows Thieves Stealing Panties From Victoria's Secret

POSTED: 9:34 am EST February 15, 2010

http://www.wbaltv.com/video/22569282/

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/sns-faces-of-meth-pictures,0,2810221.photogallery

Rangers fan proposes on the big screen, rejected by 'bride'

NEW YORK POST STAFF

Last Updated: 11:19 AM, February 15, 2010

Posted: 11:15 PM, February 14, 2010 

Talk about a blocked shot!

A hockey-rink Romeo used today's Rangers game to pop the big question -- only to see his would-be bride storm out in front of thousands booing fans.

"Melissa, will you be my Blueshirt bride? Love, Nick," read the message on the scoreboard, bordered by little hearts. With the stadium -- and Nick -- watching Melissa put her hand over her mouth in apparent horror, picked up her bag and walked out, shaking her head.

Melissa was showered with boos as she left and the Rangers went on to blow away the Tampa Bay Lightning, 5-2.

Some wonder whether it was a Valentine's Day prank.

"I thought maybe it was staged because of Valentine's Day," Rangers center Erik Christensen said. "Was that real?"

The Bergen Record newspaper in New Jersey says two Garden sources claim it was all a stunt, although stadium officials thought the proposal was real when they put it on the big screen.

LINK TO  VIDEO OF MARRIAGE PROPOSAL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4AlDQT5sM8&feature=player_embedded

'Joe The Plumber:' McCain Screwed Up My Life

Sam Wurzelbacher Slams Former GOP Presidential Candidate For 'Using' Him In Campaign

Tucker Reals
WASHINGTON (CBS News)

 

Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Samuel 'Joe the Plumber' Wurzelbacher, right, embrace during a campaign rally in the gymnasium at Mentor High School on Oct. 30, 2008 in Mentor, Ohio.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Baltimore Sun

Valentine sting brings in 15 arrests in Arundel

Sheriff's office uses several tactics to clear unserved warrants

Andrea F. Siegel

February 15, 2010