truesee's Blog

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/24/ed-schultz-to-robert-gibb_n_434710.html

White House advisers promise sharper focus on jobs

In this Sunday, Jan. 24, 2010, photo provided by Fox News Sunday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs speaks on Fox News Sunday at their studio in Washington. Gibbs said Obama presidential campaign manager David Plouffe is returning to a greater role in the administration primarily to deal with this year's midterm elections for Congress and state governors. (AP Photo/Fox News Sunday, Freddie Lee)

Steven R. Hurst

President Barack Obama's poll numbers are off -- primarily because of the slow economic recovery and double-digit unemployment. And a majority of Americans also have turned against health care reform, the president's signature legislative effort that was likely killed with Scott Brown's stunning upset in the special election in Massachusetts.

"The president has always gotten the message," top Obama adviser David Axelrod said. "The message is, we need to grow this economy in a way that allows hardworking people who are meeting their responsibilities to get ahead instead of falling behind."

Axelrod said Americans would learn more about White House plans for the economy on Wednesday when the president delivers his first State of the Union address. The adviser offered no specifics; there has been talk of a second economic stimulus package, one totaling around $175 billion.

On health care, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said discussions were under way to see whether Democrats can take some kind of action in Congress. Valerie Jarrett, another top adviser, said Obama had spoken to congressional leaders over the weekend "to try to see what the climate is, what's the art of the possible."

Indications are that independent voters, key to Obama's 2008 victory over Sen. John McCain, may move heavily to Republicans in November midterm elections for Congress and governors.

Looking to prevent future surprises like Brown's Senate victory and to block the feared Republican surge in November, Obama has brought back to the White House his adviser David Plouffe, the political mastermind of Obama's against-the-odds presidential victory.

"He will help supplement an already good political staff ... in helping us watch the 2010 elections, the gubernatorial, the Senate and the House elections," Gibbs said. Both Gibbs and Axelrod said there was no White House shake-up in the works.

Having watched Obama suffer through one of the cruelest political weeks of his first year in the White House, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had no plans to give the president any help or breathing room. He said the only hope for health care was to "stop and start over and go step by step to fix the cost problem."

More largely, McConnell said Obama needs to move to the political center. "I think he'll find a lot more Republican support than he's had in the first year," the senator said.

With health care languishing, Obama was likely as well to run into heavy Republican opposition as he turns up the verbal heat on America's big banks and financial institutions, calling for legislation that would clamp off moves to grow even larger. He has spoken of federal fees on transactions by those banks that have taken government assistance and are once again showing massive profits and paying outsized bonuses.

Obama is moving in that direction even as opposition grows in the Senate to his nomination of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to a second term. Officials in the White House and Senate, however, predicted that Bernanke would be confirmed for a new four-year term.

Gibbs said Bernanke was needed to ensure stability in the financial system and warned lawmakers against "playing politics in any way" that would send a negative message to financial markets.

Jarrett said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had assured Obama that Bernanke had strong support among Democrats, and McConnell said he anticipated bipartisan confirmation, although he would not say how he planned to vote.

Bernanke, appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, is widely credited with helping to prevent the recession from turning into a depression. But his support of Wall Street bailouts has angered the public.

Obama called Senate allies on Saturday to make his case for Bernanke, whose term ends Jan. 31. The Senate is scheduled to vote on Bernanke by week's end.

Gibbs spoke on "Fox News Sunday" while Axelrod appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" and ABC's "This Week." Jarrett and McConnell spoke on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Bin Laden takes responsibility for Christmas Day bombing attempt

JASON KEYSER

Associated Press Writer

4:04 p.m. EST, January 24, 2010

LINK TO VIDEO OF BIN LADEN:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/videobeta/watch/?watch=18c4f705-9cc8-4c44-83ef-24bd60ce4bc4&src=front

Obama Moves to Centralize Control Over Party Strategy

JEFF ZELENY and PETER BAKER

January 23, 2010

WASHINGTON — President Obama is reconstituting the team that helped him win the White House to counter Republican challenges in the midterm elections and recalibrate after political setbacks that have narrowed his legislative ambitions.

Mr. Obama has asked his former campaign manager, David Plouffe, to oversee House, Senate and governor’s races to stave off a hemorrhage of seats in the fall. The president ordered a review of the Democratic political operation — from the White House to party committees — after last week’s Republican victory in the Massachusetts Senate race, aides said.

In addition to Mr. Plouffe, who will primarily work from the Democratic National Committee in consultation with the White House, several top operatives from the Obama campaign will be dispatched across the country to advise major races as part of the president’s attempt to take greater control over the midterm elections, aides said.

“We are turning the corner to a much more political season,” said David Axelrod, a senior adviser, who confirmed Mr. Plouffe’s role. “We are going to evaluate what we need to do to get timely intelligence and early warnings so we don’t face situations like we did in Massachusetts.”

As Mr. Obama prepares to deliver his State of the Union address on Wednesday and lay out his initiatives for the second year of his presidency, his decision to take greater control of the party’s politics signals a new approach. The White House is searching for ways to respond to panic among Democrats over the possible demise of his health care bill and a political landscape being reshaped by a wave of populism.

Improving tactical operations addresses only part of his challenge. A more complicated discussion under way, advisers said, is how to sharpen the president’s message and leadership style.

The reinforcement of the White House’s political operation has been undertaken with a sense of urgency since Tuesday, when a Republican, Scott Brown, won the Massachusetts Senate seat that had been held by Edward M. Kennedy. The White House was caught off guard when it became clear that Democrats were in danger of losing it, and by the time alarm bells sounded from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, it was too late.

The president summoned Mr. Plouffe to the Oval Office hours before the polls closed and asked him to assume the new role because of the implications the midterm elections hold. Mr. Plouffe built a reputation in 2008 as a master of the nuts and bolts of campaigns, and will assemble a team to provide unfiltered information that serves as an early-warning system so the White House and party officials know if a candidate is falling behind.

The day-to-day political operation will be run by Jim Messina, a deputy White House chief of staff, but Mr. Plouffe will coordinate the effort.

The party is trying to become less reliant on polls conducted by candidates, which can often paint a too-rosy picture of the political outlook. The president’s leading pollster, Joel Benenson, will be among those conducting research for Mr. Plouffe, aides said, along with others who will divide the country by regions.

Mr. Plouffe, who did not follow Mr. Obama to the White House last year, has remained in the president’s tight circle of advisers and has frequently worked on projects for the party.

The first indication of Mr. Plouffe’s more prominent role came in an op-ed article he wrote for the Sunday issue of The Washington Post, presenting a blueprint for how Democrats could avoid big defeats in the fall. He acknowledged the challenges ahead, saying, “We may not have perfect results, but November will be nothing like the nightmare that talking heads have forecast.”

Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said he had “no interest in sugarcoating” the defeat in Massachusetts. Several party leaders said they expected Mr. Menendez to remain in his position for the rest of the election cycle, but the move by the White House had the effect of subverting at least some of the committee’s authority.

“Our own political operation will be more rigorously in communication with the other elements, so we can compare notes,” Mr. Axelrod said. “What we learned from Massachusetts is that we need to be more assiduous about getting our own data and our own information so we have a better sense of where things stand.”

The White House intends to send Mr. Obama out into the country considerably more in 2010 than during his first year in office, advisers said, to try to rekindle the relationship he developed with voters during his presidential campaign.

His first big chance will come when he delivers his State of the Union address. Rather than unveil a laundry list of new initiatives, advisers said, Mr. Obama will try to reframe his agenda and how he connects it with public concerns. In particular, he will focus on how his ideas for health care, energy and financial regulation all fit into the broader economic mission of creating what he calls a “new foundation” for the country, the key words being “rescue, restore and rebuild.”

While presidents typically experience rough patches, this one is particularly challenging for Mr. Obama. Liberals have grown disenchanted with what they see as his unwillingness to fight harder for their causes; independents have been turned off by his failure, in their view, to change the way Washington works; and Republicans have become implacably hostile.

The long and messy legislative fight over health care is a leading example of how Mr. Obama has failed to connect with voters, advisers say, because he appeared to do whatever it would take to get a bill rather than explain how people could benefit.

“The process often overwhelmed the substance,” said Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. “We need to find ways to try to rise above the maneuvering.”

The discussion inside the White House includes at least two distinct debates: Should Mr. Obama assume a more populist or centrist theme in his message? And should the White House do what it takes to pass compromise legislation or should it force votes, which even if unsuccessful can be used to carry an argument against Republicans in the fall?

It remains an open question how much new legislation will pass Congress, but the coming months will help frame the campaigns. While some form of financial regulation and job creation measures may pass, Obama aides said, larger initiatives like health care, a cap on carbon emissions and an immigration overhaul may have to wait, even though the White House denies trimming its ambitions.

“I wouldn’t say the door is shut on trying to find some places where you can develop a strategy for a bipartisan vote in the Senate,” said John D. Podesta, a former White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton who advises the Obama team.

But he said Republicans appeared determined to oppose any initiative Mr. Obama offers. “They would try to deny him passing the Mother’s Day resolution,” he said.

Some veterans of the Clinton White House have advised their friends in the West Wing to take a breath and not make lasting decisions in the immediate aftermath of the election, when it might be tempting to overreact.

Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff and himself a Clinton alumnus, gave a pep talk at the senior staff meeting last week. “These things go in cycles,” participants recalled him saying. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. Keep your head up and keep going.”

Police: Man poses as cop, robs couple

January 23, 2010 11:38 AM 

A Lincoln Park man has been charged with impersonating a police officer after allegedly luring a couple into his car and robbing them, authorities said.

Dwayne Carter, 37, of the 1700 block of Clark Street, is scheduled to appear in bond court today with aggravated false personation of a police officer, aggravated robbery and possession of cannabis.

About 4:30 p.m. Friday, the suspect, driving a silver Chevrolet Impala, stopped the vehicle alongside a man and woman in the 4800 block of North Hamlin Avenue in Albany Park, police said. The suspect showed the couple a pair of handcuffs, a police scanner, and what they believed was a handgun.

The suspect ordered the victims into the car, telling them he was an undercover office, and drove the two to a nearby alley, where he took their belongings, including cell phones, an iPod and an unreported amount of cash, police said.

Albany Park district police officers were called to the scene and broadcast a description of the suspect and vehicle over the radio. Patrol officers later spotted and stopped the car in the 3400 block of West Leland Avenue and called the victims to the scene.

The couple identified Carter as the suspect and have since retrieved their belongings, police said.

LINK TO PHOTO:

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/01/cops-man-poses-as-officer-robs-couple.html

Obama's State of the Union agenda: Yes, I get it

WASHINGTON – Seizing a chance to reconnect, President Barack Obama will use his first State of the Union address to try to persuade the people of a frustrated nation that he's on their side, with a familiar sounding agenda recast to relate better to everyday struggles.

In a time of deep economic insecurity, Obama will use this stage on Wednesday to offer hope after a grueling, grinding first year of his presidency, aides say. For the many who think the United States is still on the wrong track, Obama will attempt to present a clearer sense of how everything he's pursuing fits together to help.

And for jittery Democrats facing re-election this fall, Obama will seek to give them an agenda they can sell to voters.

Obama will propose ways to help the middle class. But any new ideas probably will play a supporting role to the plainspoken narrative he wants to tell, that his agenda works for people despite their growing doubts.

"Obviously you want to write a speech in a way that is interesting enough that people want to listen, and that leaves them feeling a sense of momentum and progress," senior Obama adviser David Axelrod told The Associated Press. "But these are serious times. I don't think this is a time for rhetorical flights of fancy."

What to expect in the speech, which comes during a rocky period for Obama?

Heavy does of health care, despite the setbacks of the past week, and job creation. Obama will address the budget deficit, his bid to take on the financial industry, energy, education and immigration. All those issue, he says, fit into his plan to rebuild the economy.

On national security, he will address terrorist threats, the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan and nuclear disputes with Iran and North Korea.

Recent big events won't escape notice, such as Haiti's humanitarian crisis and the Supreme Court ruling allowing businesses and labor unions more power to influence elections. Obama will directly confront a seething frustration with Washington, evident in Republican Scott Brown's stunning Senate victory in Massachusetts that rattled Democrats and cost Obama the voting bloc he needed in the Senate.

It all points to the message Obama wants to convey: Yes, I get it.

Obama is emerging from a year in Washington that, he now says, has left the public with a sense of "remoteness and detachment" from what he's been trying to do.

The president says his agenda is not about him. But in important ways, this speech will be.

Moments like this are opportunities for presidents to take or lose command. Obama's poll numbers on how he handles major issues have been dropping; less than half the people support his management of the economy, taxes and other issues. Unemployment is in double digits and terrorism fears are rising.

To regain his footing, Obama is putting himself on the side of the people. He's challenging special interests on health care and banking. He's reminding people that while he got an economic stimulus plan through, he bailed out Wall Street and the auto industry only by necessity.

Expect plenty of looking back, too. Obama wants people who may tune in only occasionally to what happens in Washington to know, as he sees it, that he got some things done this year, particularly on the economy.

Aides say the speech also will feature promises that Obama wants to return to — changing Washington and restoring trust in it. That case looks much more difficult than when Obama was sworn in, as partisanship is as entrenched as ever, and backroom side deals remain a messy part of legislation.

What the speech won't do is reshape Obama's agenda. He ran on it and will defend it anew.

"I didn't run to kick these challenges down the road," Obama told an audience in Ohio on Friday, seeming to find a campaign voice that had not appeared in so many of his remarks this year. "I ran for president to confront them — once and for all."

Those familiar with the address say it reflects Obama's tendency toward consistency and his opposition to a laundry list of programs. "It's not going to be a series of disjointed offerings, poll-tested offerings," Axelrod said. "It's going to be a narrative about where he wants to lead, and why, and for whom."

Obama gave his speechwriters an outline of what he wanted, and has exchanged drafts. He was spending more time on it over the weekend, and will keep doing so until he steps before a struggling nation on Wednesday night.

Hank Dudding

January 22, 2010 at 11:21 a.m.

As clues go, deputies couldn’t do much better than the one they found at the scene of a break-in in southeast Shelby County last week.

The suspect’s wallet, with a Tennessee I.D. card, birth certificate and Social Security card inside, was lying on a staircase.

 

Agandus Osborn

Agandus Osborn, 26, has been charged with aggravated burglary and theft in connection with the incident Jan. 15 in the 7900 block of Carmen Cove.

Deputies were called to the address at 3:30 p.m. after the resident reported that two large televisions, an Xbox and other items – with a total value of more than $5,000 – had been stolen.

But the case was cracked quickly when the deputy found the suspect’s calling card. Neither the victim nor his son knew Osborn, and they said he had no business in their home.

He was booked Thursday into the Shelby County Jail, where he was being held on $75,000 bond.

“It’s not often that an alleged criminal might leave a calling card,” said Shelby County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Steve Shular. “This one happened to have not only a name and address, but a picture I.D. of the suspect.”

Osborn told deputies he was set up by someone else, said Shular, who said the Shelby County District Attorney General’s Office decided the wallet was evidence enough to bring charges.

A spokeswoman at the A.G.’s office wasn’t immediately available for comment.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/wjw-haiti-calls-off-search-rescue-txt,0,708738.story

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/22/conan-obriens-heartfelt-f_n_433954.html

Jerome Karabel

Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Berkeley

January 22, 2010 03:53 PM

Democratic Panic and the Meaning of Massachusetts

"Those who do not learn the lessons of history," George Santayana famously said, "are condemned to repeat them." But those who overinterpret the lessons of history may also draw erroneous - even catastrophic - inferences about their meaning. As Democrats contemplate the implications of their defeat in the Massachusetts Senate election, there is every sign that they are in the process of making the second mistake, with disastrous consequences for the Democratic Party and the nation.

Let us briefly review what happened in Massachusetts last Tuesday. In a special election to the Senate, the Republican candidate, Scott Brown, defeated the Democratic candidate, Martha Coakley, by 4.8 points. In a state in which there had not been a Republican Senator since 1978, the Republicans won a clear-cut victory. But this was anything but a landslide; had Coakley managed to attract 55,000 Brown voters in an election in which over 2,200,000 ballots were cast, she would have emerged triumphant.

Let us imagine what the outcome might have been had candidate Coakley not done the following:

1. exuded overconfidence and more than a whiff of entitlement from the moment she won the Democratic primary of December 8

    

2. went on a vacation after the primary while her opponent was criss-crossing the state in a pick-up truck

    

3. did not appear in public a single time during the entire period between December 23 and December 30                                                                 
4. when asked by a Boston Globe reporter about suggestions that she was being too passive, Coakley bristled, saying "As opposed to standing outside Fenway Park? In the cold? Shaking hands?" in an apparent reference to an online video of Scott Brown doing just that.

Many more examples could be cited, but the point is clear: this was not simply a bad campaign, but a calamitous one. Can anyone doubt that a minimally competent Democratic candidate could have won this election?

To be sure, losing Ted Kennedy's seat - and with it their 60-vote filibuster-proof majority - was a major blow to the Democrats. But to conclude from this particular election - which could easily have had a different outcome - that Democrats need to beat a hasty retreat on health care reform is to take overinterpretation to absurd lengths. After all, the Democrats still have a 59-41 majority in the Senate and a 256-178 majority in the House - far better numbers than George W. Bush ever enjoyed. Nevertheless, squeamish Democrats seem to be headed for the exit doors, worried that they be accused of "not hearing the message" from the voters of Massachusetts.

Yet as Steve Pearlstein of the Washington Post and others have pointed out, there is little reason to believe that the Massachusetts vote was a referendum on health care. True, Massachusetts voters were angry and wanted to send a message, but this anger had more to do with the general state of the economy and the failure of those in power to address ordinary people's concerns. According to a survey by Hart Research Associates of 810 voters in the special election conducted on the evening of the election, the most important quality voters were looking for was "electing a candidate who will strengthen the economy and create more jobs" (79% single-most/very important factor). Those who felt the economy was "not so good or poor" (52%) voted for Brown 56 to 39%, while voters who said the economy was "excellent, good or fair" voted for Coakley 52 to 43%. Surprisingly, especially given national media coverage, Coakley won among the 59% of voters who identified health care as one of their top two issues (50% Coakley, 46% Brown); moreover, 67% favor the Massachusetts law that ensures almost universal coverage, including a remarkable 53% of Brown voters.

As the Democrats make the fateful decision of whether to stand and fight on health care reform or to fold their tents, it is important to remember that what is at stake is a fundamental moral issue that transcends the policy and political debates of the moment. Maintaining the status quo means that each year 5,000,000 people will lose their medical insurance, over 900,000 will go bankrupt for medically-related reasons, and 45,000 people will die because of lack of health insurance. This is unconscionable in a society as wealthy as the United States, and it is hard to see how the Democratic Party - if it is to stand for anything - can permit such a system to continue. 

It would be tragic indeed if the defeat in Massachusetts continues to be grossly overinterpreted by Democrats, causing a fatal loss of nerve when courage and steadfastness are required. After nearly one hundred years of struggle to establish the principle of universal health care, the Democrats have finally reached the one-yard line. Opportunities like these are rare, and if the Democrats - with control of the White House and with substantial majorities in both the House and Senate - cannot get the ball into the end zone, they will justifiably lose the people's confidence in their capacity to govern. Democrats simply must find a way to get this done. Failure to do so will cost them grievously at the polls, but the real casualty will be a growing loss of faith in the very possibility of progressive social change.

Deputies seek car theft suspect, find him playing 'Grand Theft Auto'

Roger Simmons

Orlando Sentinel

1:32 p.m. EST, January 22, 2010

January 20, 2010

Beauty-store heist suspects visit station, one arrested

News Journal Online
Staff Report

DELAND -- Two women suspected of robbing a beauty supply store showed up at the DeLand police station wanting to know why they were shown on news reports, a sheriff's spokesman said Tuesday night.

"At 8 p.m. the two women in the video went to the DeLand police station saying they had seen themselves on the news and they wanted to know what is going on," sheriff's spokesman Brandon Haught said.

A sheriff's deputy then escorted the women to the sheriff's District 2 Office and an investigator interviewed them, Haught said.

It was determined that Myesha Williams, 20, was the one who robbed the store, Haught said.

Williams was charged with strong arm robbery and retail theft, Haught said. The other woman, whose identity was not available late Tuesday night, was not charged because she had left the store when Williams confronted the store employee, he said.

According to investigators, the women were in Isis Beauty Supply & Accessories on East New York Avenue on Friday at 5:31 p.m. when a worker saw the women look at hairpieces and suspected they might be shoplifting, Haught said. The worker confronted the two and one of the women walked toward the exit and left the store. But Williams headed to the cash register, said she had a gun and asked for money, Haught said.

The suspects then left the store with an unknown amount of money and about $150 in beauty supplies, Haught said.

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Local/newWEST02A012010.htm

9:19 p.m. Jan. 20, 2010

Police impersonator arrested after interrupting prostitution sting in Detroit

A man impersonating a Detroit police officer interrupted a prostitution sting being conducted by the Wayne County Sheriff's Office on the city's east side today.

The 51-year-old Detroit man flashed a badge and told an undercover detective to get off the street while she was talking to a potential customer in the area of Vernor and Oakdale about 5 p.m., according to the Wayne County Sheriff's Office. After the customer ran away, the man, who was driving a red pickup, began following the detective, shouting that he was an officer.

When the detective replied that she was also an officer, the man sped off, and he was stopped a short distance away.

Despite denying that he was carrying a badge, a search of the man's truck uncovered a loaded .40-caliber gun, a Detroit Police Department badge and clothing with a police department logos, the sheriff's office said.

The man, who faces one count of impersonating an officer and possibly other charges, is in jail in Hamtramck pending arraignment.

“This is a very bizarre situation that could have become deadly,” said Sheriff Benny Napoleon in a statement. “This guy was so bold as to interrupt officers conducting a sting. … Who knows what other crimes he would commit in the future had our team not taken him down?”

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/21/democrats.policy/index.html?eref=time_politics

Lotto Winner Lost Money After Investing Funds

A Towson University student who hit it big on a Maryland Lottery scratch-off ticket said he's found out that a seve...

http://www.wbaltv.com/video/22307339/