Bloomberg Praises Obama

On Gas tax stance

REPORTER: Could you elaborate on your opposition to giving drivers a break from the gas tax and how-

MAYOR: It’s about the dumbest thing I’ve heard in an awful long time from an economic point of view. I don’t understand why you think there’s any merit to it whatsoever. We’re trying to discourage people from driving and we’re trying to end our energy dependence. You don’t do that- and incidentally, and we’re trying to have more money to build infrastructure. All three of those things go- fly in the face of giving everybody 30 bucks a year. The 30 bucks is not going to change anybody’s lifestyle. The billions of dollars that we would otherwise have in tax revenues can make a big difference as to what kind of a world we leave our children.

REPORTER: And what would you say to Joe Bruno, who’s advocating for it?

Mayor: I have no idea. I haven’t talked to Joe Bruno about it. You’d have to say something to Joe Bruno. I- that’s- I just do not think that it is intelligent tax policy and it’s not a good energy policy. It is something that, you know, sounds good but I thought in this case Obama had it right.

Gallup poll Obama trails Clinton by four

Gallup Daily: Clinton 49%, Obama 45%

Not a good result for Obama, however, if things pick up in the next few days he can still win on tuesday and end the race, we’ll have to see how things play for him this week

MCCain Flip-Flops on Earmarks

McCain Says He No Longer Objects To Earmarks, Just The ‘Process’

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has repeatedly pledged that if elected president, he “will veto every bill with earmarks.” But in recent months, McCain has slipped further and further away from that promise:– After ThinkProgress pointed out that military housing and aid to Israel, McCain said that he would make an exception for certain projects.

– On April 24, McCain backtracked from his sweeping pledge, saying he would now judge spending cuts “on the basis of need.”

– McCain has repeatedly used earmark-funded projects and venues as backdrops to his campaign events.

Yesterday, McCain held a health care event at the Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA. While there he met Mary, a woman with ovarian cancer who was treated “in a $80 million clinical trial program funded by an earmark.” Confronted with this “human face of earmark spending,” McCain again backed away from his campaign rhetoric:

McCain praised the woman’s treatment and later said some earmarks were clearly worthy.

“It’s the process I object to,” McCain told reporters. “We need to start over from scratch.” […]

“When you earmark in the middle of the night you have no budgetary constraints,” he said.

As Politico’s Ben Smith notes, “That’s one thing about spending cuts: Much harder when you get to the details.”

Here’s the problem with McCain’s constant flipping: The reason the senator has said he opposes earmarks is because they are fiscally irresponsible. “No is always the right answer to wasteful spending,” according to McCain. Similarly, his campaign aides like to tout the costs McCain will supposedly save taxpayers by getting rid of all earmarks.

So now, if McCain is only opposed to the “process” and willing to fund some “worthy” earmarks, which programs will he cut to come up with that $95 billion in savings he has promised? So far, his campaign hasn’t been willing to give any specifics.

However he doesn’t seem to be above shameless pandering for votes

ALLENTOWN, Pa. - Republican John McCain said Wednesday that the bridge collapse in Minnesota that killed 13 people last year would not have happened if Congress had not wasted so much money on pork-barrel spending. ADVERTISEMENT

Federal investigators cite undersize steel plates as the “critical factor” in the collapse of the bridge. Heavy loads of construction materials on the bridge also contributed to the disaster that injured 145 people on Aug. 1, according to preliminary findings by the National Transportation Safety Board.

“The bridge in Minneapolis didn’t collapse because there wasn’t enough money,” McCain told reporters while campaigning in Pennsylvania. “The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was spent on wasteful, unnecessary pork-barrel projects.”

McCain, the expected GOP presidential nominee, regularly rails against “earmarks,” the pet projects that lawmakers tuck into spending bills, such as the proposed $223 million “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska.

The Arizona senator says he would eliminate earmarks, estimated at $18 billion last year, and would make each project compete in the regular congressional funding process.

“I think there is a long, long list of earmarks which went to unnecessary and unwanted projects that I think should have gone to the bridge in Minnesota,” McCain said. “I don’t know whether it would have gone or not, but if you’re spending $223 million on a bridge in Alaska to an island with 50 people on it …”

McCain also criticized earmarks for projects in New Orleans that didn’t help protect the city from Hurricane Katrina, saying a congressional earmark helped to dig a channel outside New Orleans that helped speed the hurricane into the city.

McCain said such projects “have everything to do with the power and influence of an individual congressman or senator and has nothing to do with the actual transportation needs of the United States.”

On the same day, McCain was confronted with an earmark he did consider worthy. During a forum at Lehigh Valley Hospital, he met a woman with ovarian cancer who was treated in a clinical trial funded with $80 million in congressional earmarks.

The hospital was showing off an electronic medical records system that is virtually paper-free.

McCain insisted he was not trying to have it both ways and said that deserving projects can get money through regular channels.

“It’s the process I object to,” he said. “I’m sure that I can give you a list of projects the Mafia funds, and they would probably be good projects. But I can’t give you a justification for the Mafia. I can’t give you a justification for the corruption that’s been bred which has sent members of Congress to the federal prison,” he said.

“Look, if we reform the process, then the money will take care of itself. It’s a corrupt process,” he said.

Yup it is corrupt and you’re one of the worst

AFL-CIO official and Superdelegate John Patrick Endorses Obama

TEXAS SUPERDELEGATE ENDORSES BARACK OBAMA

CHICAGO, IL — Today, a Texas superdelegate backed Barack Obama, citing his record of standing up for working families and opposing trade deals that fail to protect American workers. The endorsement by Texas DNC Member John Patrick, who is also a 31 year member of the United Steelworkers (USW) as well as a Vice President of the Texas AFL/CIO, brings the total number of superdelegates to endorse Barack Obama to 249. Senator Obama is 283 delegates away from securing the Democratic nomination.

John Patrick said, “Senator Barack Obama has spent a lifetime standing up for American workers, and he will be a crucial voice for us in the White House. Senator Obama chose a career as an organizer on the streets of Chicago, fighting for working families who lost their jobs, specifically those families in neighborhoods devastated by steel plant closings. He has consistently opposed unfair trade deals that fail to offer protection to American workers - like NAFTA. Senator Obama has a real plan to put money back in the pockets of working families by restoring the manufacturing base in America.”

Unemployment up, jobless claims soar

Yup, the economy may not be technically in a recession, but to many that’s not much comfort:

The Labor Department reported Thursday that claims for unemployment benefits rose by 35,000 to 380,000. Private economists had expected claims would rise by a smaller 18,000.

The report on jobless claims came a day ahead of a report on unemployment for April. Economists expect that report will show that the unemployment rate edged up to 5.2% in April, from 5.1% in March. The economy is expected to lose 70,000 jobs, the fourth straight month of job losses

Economy turning worse for most Americans

PRINCETON, NJ — Forty-two percent of Americans say rising gas prices at the pump are a “crisis,” while 29% point to the declining value of the dollar, 28% to rising healthcare costs, 28% to the housing debacle, and 20% to each of the following: rising food prices, declining real wages, and job losses.

Especially concerning is the large number who say its a major problem or a crisis, over 70% say each factor is a major problem or a crisis, this tells me that even though the economy is not technically in a recession, to most people it is as bad as one, probably indicative of a wealth gap in America

New Polls

New polls have Obama behind Hillary in Indiana 46 to 41, ahead in North Carolina 49 to 42 and behind in North Carolina 44 to 42

The last one is from Insider advantage, and seems to probably be an outlier, as every other poll has him ahead in NC, but it shows the race tightening, reagrdless both races are close at this point and it will be a fight all the way to may 6th

I’ve been warning people about this

McCain Making Promises That Would Cost Taxpayers Billions

Republican John McCain is making promises that would cost billions of taxpayer dollars, yet he is vague about how he would pay for them.

McCain is handing around a campaign grab bag of goodies. There are little treats like a summer gas-tax holiday and new mortgages for struggling homeowners, and there are big plums like tax breaks for corporations and families with children.

The expected GOP presidential nominee has nothing on the Democrats. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama would spend billions of dollars themselves on things like paid family leave, universal health insurance and preschool for kids.

The difference? Unlike the Democrats, McCain has made a career of trying to cut spending. He rails against spending in nearly every speech. McCain gets laughs by singling out silly sounding projects like a federal DNA study of bears in Montana: “I don’t know if that was a paternity issue or a criminal issue.”

His plans will add to the deficit

Think progress has been covering McCain’s ”economic” plans as well

Here

Here

And Here

Right Wing group dislikes “Dear Abby” columnist

Today, the Washington Times highlights a recent analysis by the right-wing Culture and Media Institute, which concludes that Phillips has repeatedly “rejected traditional morality“:

Here’s the thing, she’s an advice columnist, its not her position to impart her morality onto others, if people are having sex its not her place to say you shouldn’t have sex because its wrong.  Face it, sex happens, its natural, now people have different views on sex, some say it should be only in marriage, or only between a man and a woman, great, if that’s what you feel then follow that, but its not her place to say that any other form of sex is evil; and even if she did it wouldn’t stop people.

Her place is to give her advice when someone asks, advice that helps them in the situation they are in, not to pass moral judgements on them.  If people are having sex the best advice is how to protect themselves and to seek out medical advice for testing and such, not that they are somehow evil for doing the act.

US kills leader of Al-Qaeda in Somalia

Striking at Al-Qaeda in Somlia is all well and good, but its Pakistan and Afghanistan where the real threat lies, how about striking there

Joe Andrew’s hits at Clintons before they hit him

Not wanting to end up like Bill Richardson, Andrews is attacking first

My endorsement of Senator Obama will not be welcome news to my friends and family at the Clinton campaign. If the campaign’s surrogates called Governor Bill Richardson, a respected former member of President Clinton’s cabinet, a “Judas” for endorsing Senator Obama, we can all imagine how they will treat somebody like me. They are the best practitioners of the old politics, so they will no doubt call me a traitor, an opportunist and a hypocrite. I will be branded as disloyal, power-hungry, but most importantly, they will use the exact words that Republicans used to attack me when I was defending President Clinton.

When they use the same attacks made on me when I was defending them, they prove the callow hypocrisy of the old politics first perfected by Republicans. I am an expert on this because these were the exact tools that I mastered as a campaign volunteer, a campaign manager, a State Party Chair and the National Chair of our Party. I learned the lessons of the tough, right-wing Republicans all too well. I can speak with authority on how to spar with everyone from Lee Atwater to Karl Rove. I understand that, while wrong and pernicious, shallow victory can be achieved through division by semantics and obfuscation. Like many, I succumbed to the addiction of old politics because they are so easy.

Hillary does better than Obama in Quinnipac polling against McCain

Although Obama does well against McCain in all three, Hillary does better

Florida: Clinton tops McCain 49 - 41 percent; McCain gets 44 percent to Obama’s 43 percent;

Ohio: Clinton beats McCain 48 - 38 percent; McCain gets 43 percent to Obama’s 42 percent;

Pennsylvania: Clinton tops McCain 51 - 37 percent; Obama leads McCain 47 - 38 percent.

While Obama shows imporvement in all three states, it could still hurt him that Hillary looks stronger

Note this poll probably does not take into account Obama’s denunciation of Wright on Tuesday

Iraqi MPs, Sadr meet in Iran in bid to end clashes

Iraqi Officials meet with Al-Sadr to end fighting

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — A group of Iraqi Shiite MPs is in Iran for talks with radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in a bid to end clashes between his fighters and troops that have killed hundreds of people, a Sadr aide said on Thursday.Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi, Sadr’s spokesman in the central holy city of Najaf, said the lawmakers, led by deputy parliament speaker Sheikh Khalid al-Attiya, travelled to Iran on Wednesday.

“The members of the parliament led by Sheikh Khalid al-Attiya went to Iran to meet Sadr there and other leaders of the Sadr movement who are in Iran to negotiate with him a way out of the crisis,” Obeidi said.

Also:

Iraqi officials supporting Al-Sadr refer to Maliki as Depraved

Joe Andrew, former DNC chair drops Clinton, endorses Obama

Hillary Clinton supporter Switches to Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) — A leader of the Democratic Party under Bill Clinton has switched his allegiance to Barack Obama and is encouraging fellow Democrats to “heal the rift in our party” and unite behind the Illinois senator.

Joe Andrew, who was Democratic National Committee chairman from 1999-2001, planned a news conference Thursday in his hometown of Indianapolis to urge other Hoosiers to support Obama in Tuesday’s primary, perhaps the most important contest left in the White House race. He also has written a lengthy letter explaining his decision that he plans to send to other superdelegates.

“I am convinced that the primary process has devolved to the point that it’s now bad for the Democratic Party,” Andrew said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

Bad news for Clinton, great for Obama

No new Taxes, yeah right!

When MCCain promised he wouldn’t raise taxes, he meant only in terms of explicit taxes

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Though Senator John McCain has promised to not raise taxes, his campaign acknowledged Wednesday that the health plan he outlined this week would have the effect of increasing tax payments for some workers, primarily those with high incomes and expensive health plans.

The campaign cannot yet project how many taxpayers might see their taxes go up, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Mr. McCain’s top domestic policy adviser. But Mr. Holtz-Eakin said in an interview that for some, Mr. McCain’s health care tax credits would not be large enough to compensate for his proposal to eliminate the tax breaks afforded to workers with employer-provided health benefits.

Car Bomb explodes in Iraq

Iraqi police: Nine people killed in car bomb in Baghdad

A car bomb has exploded in Baghdad this morning killing at least nine people and wounded 26 others, local police have said.

Media reports claim the bomb was aimed at a US patrol operating in Iraq’s capital.

The attack took place during Thursday morning in a crowded commercial area of east Baghdad, Iraqi police confirmed.

Amongst those killed by the blast were three women and a child.

The US military announced that no American soldiers were killed, but three had been injured as a result of the attack. It was also confirmed that 17 militants were killed by US troops in Sadr City.

Figures released yesterday showed that 49 US troops have been killed in Iraq during the month of April, making it the deadliest month since September.

According to the Associated Press, 4,062 members of the US military have been killed since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

The Iraq government said yesterday that 925 Iraqis were killed in recent fighting in Baghdad’s Sadr City.

Low Spending Is Taking Toll on Economy

Yeah tell me something I didn’t know already

For months, beleaguered American consumers have defied expert forecasts that they would soon succumb to the pressures of falling home prices, fewer jobs and shrinking paychecks. Now, they appear to have given in.On Wednesday, the Commerce Department reported that the economy continued to stagnate during the first three months of the year, with a sharp pullback in consumer spending the primary factor at play.

Pressures on households in which cash is tight appeared to weigh significantly in the calculations of the Federal Reserve as it rolled back interest rates Wednesday for the seventh time since September — this time by one-fourth of a percentage point — in a bid to prevent a further falloff in the economy.

The Fed made clear, though, that investors and borrowers should not expect another drop in interest rates anytime soon. In the statement accompanying their action, policy makers said they believed that with the short-term rate at 2 percent, they had already unleashed enough economic stimulus to “help promote moderate growth.”

With the overall economy growing at a mere 0.6 percent annual rate for the second quarter in a row, consumer spending advanced by only 1 percent, the government estimated. That was down sharply from the 2.9 percent gain for all of 2007 and the 3.1 percent gain for 2006. It was the weakest showing since 2001, the last time the economy was ensnared in a recession.

Even more ominously, Americans cut back on a wide variety of discretionary purchases, conserving their cash for necessary spending.

In the dip, economists saw evidence that the basic laws of arithmetic are now impinging on millions of households.

As real estate prices plunge, so does the ability of homeowners to borrow against the value of their homes, crimping a major artery of spending. As banks grow tighter with their dollars in a period of uncertainty, families are running up against credit limits, forcing many to live within their incomes. And as companies lay off employees and cut working hours, paychecks are effectively shrinking.

“This is not a fluke or a technical quirk,” said John E. Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia in Charlotte, N.C. “It’s fundamental. Real disposable income has been squeezed.”

A panel of economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private research organization, ultimately decides whether a particular period of weakness qualifies as a recession, which it defines as a “significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months.”

Jared Bernstein, senior economist at the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute in Washington, said, “The argument that we’re not in a recession certainly gets a little bit more of a boost from this report.”

But he and many other specialists still assume the economy will slide into negative territory. Moreover, the recession-or-not question is now almost entirely academic, Mr. Bernstein contended, given the steady erosion of American spending power and soaring costs for food and gasoline.

On Wednesday, the Labor Department reported that wages and benefits, adjusted for inflation, were down 0.6 percent in the January-March period, compared with a year earlier.

The Commerce Department reported that growth was hampered in the first three months of the year by a continued decline in home construction, which fell for the ninth straight quarter, and by a pullback in investments for business equipment and buildings.

The only factors preventing the economy from sliding backward were the growth of American exports — aided by a weakening dollar — and a swing in business inventories from shrinking to swelling. Putting exports and inventories aside, the final sales of goods and services produced domestically dipped at a 0.4 percent annual rate in inflation-adjusted terms, the first such decline since the end of 1991.

“You’re seeing a sharp slowdown in domestic demand,” said Michael T. Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners in Greenwich, Conn. “This is stall-speed growth.”

Economists suggested that larger stocks of unsold goods might portend trouble in the months ahead. If business does not swiftly improve, allowing factories to sell the products they have piled up, firms are likely to lay off workers at a more aggressive clip.

Even if business picks up and orders materialize, averting broader layoffs, factories will probably not need to produce as many new things in coming months, prompting some to trim working hours and purchases of materials.

“A big inventory contribution in one quarter means a payback in another quarter,” said Zach Pandl, United States economist at Lehman Brothers. “Firms are likely to pull back.”

The biggest questions ahead center on the duration and severity of the downturn. Attention now turns to the job market and the tax rebate checks being sent out to roughly 130 million American taxpayers to encourage spending.

On Friday, the Labor Department is to release its monthly snapshot of the jobs picture, which has become a primary factor gnawing at the economy. For four months in a row, the private sector has shed jobs, with 80,000 nonfarm jobs lost in March alone, according to the Labor Department.

If, as widely expected, the jobs report shows another monthly decline, markets are likely to absorb it as a sign of an economy that has effectively slipped into a recession despite the modestly reassuring positive figures from the Commerce Department.

Most economists agree that the tax rebate checks will finance a flurry of spending that should stimulate economic growth. But whether it will be a quick binge lasting only a few months, or whether spending will crystallize a sense of confidence, prompting companies to expand and hire, is a matter of much contention.

Even with the rebate checks, consumer spending should grow by only 1.7 percent this year and roughly the same next year, predicted Alan D. Levenson, chief economist at T. Rowe Price Associates in Baltimore. With spending that weak, the economy would probably continue to shed 75,000 to 80,000 jobs a month, even after stronger growth resumes, he said.

“It doesn’t get us across the chasm,” said Robert Barbera, chief economist at the research and trading firm ITG, speaking of the rebate checks. “It will make things look better than they are for a few months, but it doesn’t change the fundamentals. The underlying circumstances are unambiguously recessionary.”

McCain Flip-Flops on Iraq

Oh McCain, flip-flopping on 100 years

Talking Points Memo brings us the video:

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen McCain change his stance, in fact the Carpetbagger report has a few articles on it

No wonder he and Kerry are such great friends

Fallout

Obama’s lost some ground in the polls, against both McCain and Clinton

Possibly due to the fallout from Wright’s media appearances and possibly from some bad press this weekend on issues like the Gas tax holiday, pandering works for a lot of people unfortunately.

We will have to see if his pushback this week will result in any gains in the upcoming days, we’ll probably know by saturday if his numbers go back up

Obama’s town hall meeting in Indiana

This is why i’m supporting this cantidate, a real chance at engaging people, engaging the public in government, in making this country what it can be

Obama takes on flawed gas tax holiday

Obama strikes at the Gas tax holiday plans of McCain and Clinton

A pity some people don’t realize that it will likely raise prices at the pump