New US strategy seeks to strengthen Pakistan

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration’s new strategy for Pakistan not only seeks a greater US engagement with the country but also tries to redefine its relations with neighbouring countries, a senior State Department official said on Monday while outlining salient features of the policy at a Washington think-tank.

Recent statements by other US officials also show that the new strategy envisages Pakistan as a Muslim democratic state but recognises the army as a key player in the country’s domestic affairs.

In these statements, the officials made no commitment to prop up the Zardari government and instead urged both opposition and government forces to promote a culture of political tolerance.

In a lecture at the Brookings Institution, Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg explained how the United States would like India to help Pakistan deal with the problem of extremism.

In return, the US expected Pakistan to recognise that terrorism, and not India, was its real enemy, he said.

‘I think it will be important for India to make clear that as Pakistan takes steps to deal with extremists on its own territory that India will be supportive of that,’ Mr Steinberg said.

But he acknowledged that it would not be easy to reduce tensions between South Asia’s two nuclear-armed neighbours.

‘There is obviously a complex history between the two countries but we will encourage India to see that it has a big stake in the efforts that we will be advocating to work both with Afghanistan and Pakistan,’ he said.

The Obama administration is expected to unveil its new strategy on fighting extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan later this week. Earlier Monday, US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke met America’s Nato allies to outline the new policy.

Ambassador Holbrooke, Senator John Kerry and other officials and lawmakers have indicated earlier that in the new strategy the Obama administration will seek to drastically increase US aid to Pakistan.

This means that the non-military assistance could rise to three times the current $450 million a year. Military aid, now running at $300 million a year, could also rise, although by a lesser amount.

Senator Kerry, supports giving an extra $1.5 billion a year in non-military aid to Pakistan over five years, amounting to a total of $7.5 billion. US officials say that this increase will be linked to a broad-based US programme focusing on the building up of infrastructure and on economic development to fight extremism.

American officials familiar with the new strategy say that Washington also wants to strengthen democratic institutions in Pakistan, pointing out the country has been ruled by the military for more than half of its 61 years of existence.

The officials noted that the US played a key role in defusing tensions between President Asif Ali Zardari and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif earlier this month.

US policymakers fear Pakistan’s political turmoil could destabilise the country, enabling militants to access nuclear weapons. They also fear that turmoil in Pakistan could worsen an already tense situation in Afghanistan.

The US administration, however, conveyed to the rulers in Islamabad that their commitment is to democracy and not to an individual. That’s why they disliked Mr Zardari’s efforts to debar the Sharif brothers from politics.

During the judicial crisis, the Americans maintained a regular contact with the Pakistan Army, encouraging it to play an effective role in defusing a potentially explosive situation.

Diplomatic observers in Washington have noted that the crisis forced the Americans to continue to see the army as the only stable institution in Pakistan.

They, however, made it clear that while the US appreciates the role the army played in the judicial crisis, an army takeover would not be welcome. The US, they argued, would welcome the army as a player as long as it is in support of democracy.

US lauds restoration of CJ

WASHINGTON: The United States is praising Pakistan’s plan to reinstate a fired Supreme Court chief justice whose supporters had threatened to march on the capital.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters Monday that the decision by Pakistan’s leaders had “brought Pakistan back from the brink.”

Wood says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s calls over the weekend to U.S.-allied President Asif Ali Zardari, who had refused to restore the independent-minded justice, and to opposition leader Nawaz Sharif were meant to signal a concern over the situation and a desire for a nonviolent outcome.

Wood was careful to note that there were no U.S. demands and “no threats at all” in Clinton’s calls.

source : jang.com.pk

Obama calls AIG bonuses an ‘outrage’

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama Monday said multi-million-dollar bonuses planned for executives and traders at bailed-out insurance giant AIG were an “outrage” and vowed to pursue a clampdown.

“How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?” he said at the White House, pledging to “pursue every legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole.”

source : jang.com.pk

Obama chooses Gary Locke for commerce secretary

WASHINGTON – Hoping the third time will be the charm, President Barack Obama named former Washington Gov. Gary Locke as his nominee for Commerce secretary Wednesday.

“I’m sure it’s not lost on anyone that we’ve tried this a couple of times. But I’m a big believer in keeping at something until you get it right,” Obama said, standing with the fellow Democrat in the Indian Treaty Room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building near the White House.

The president’s two top earlier choices for the post dropped out — one a Democrat facing questions about a donor and the other a Republican who had a change of heart about working for a president from the opposition party — well before the Senate had a chance to confirm them.

Obama praised Locke as a man who shares his vision for turning around the economy, and someone who knows the American dream. “He’s lived it and that’s why he shares my commitment to do whatever it takes to keep it alive in our time,” Obama said.

“I’m grateful he’s agreed to leave one Washington for another,” the president added.

In turn, Locke said: “The American people and I fully support you and have confidence in your bold strategy to turn our economy around.” He said he was committed to making the sprawling department an “active and integral partner” in advancing Obama’s agenda.

A Democrat, Locke was the nation’s first Chinese-American governor, serving two terms from 1997 to 2005.

If confirmed by the Senate, he would assume control of a large agency with a broad portfolio that includes overseeing the 2010 national head count, oceans policy and many aspects of international trade.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Maybe the third time will be the charm. President Barack Obama can only hope.

He is set to name former Washington Gov. Gary Locke as his commerce secretary on Wednesday after his top two choices for the post fell through.

A Democrat, Locke was the nation’s first Chinese-American governor, serving two terms from 1997 to 2005.

If confirmed by the Senate, he would assume control of a large agency with a broad portfolio that includes overseeing the 2010 national head count, oceans policy and many aspects of international trade.

The president initially tapped New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a fellow Democrat, for the Cabinet post. He withdrew in January, before Obama took office, after the disclosure that a grand jury is investigating allegations of wrongdoing in the awarding of contracts in his state.

A month later, Obama announced that Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire had accepted the job. But a week after that, Gregg stepped down, citing “irresolvable conflicts” with the policies of the Democratic president.

Even after Obama makes Locke’s selection official, his Cabinet still won’t be complete. He still does not have a health and human services secretary; former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination for that post amid a tax controversy. Among those under consideration to replace him is Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

Locke, 59, works for the Seattle-based law firm Davis Wright Tremaine on issues involving China, energy and governmental relations.

He still must get through Senate confirmation hearings to assume the post, and there are a number of issues over which he may face questions.

Locke was briefly linked to the scandal over foreign contributions to President Bill Clinton’s 1996 campaign. In July 1998, he gave a deposition to the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight about his relationships with questioned Clinton donors. But the committee later said the deposition produced no evidence that Locke knowingly accepted illegal campaign donations.

Locke denied any wrongdoing, and he subsequently returned some checks tied to people implicated in the fundraising scandal, including $750 from John Huang. The former Commerce Department official was the Democratic Party’s chief fundraiser for the Asian-American population in the 1996 elections, and he became one of the central figures in the national Democratic Party fundraising scandal.

In December 1997, Locke’s political committee was fined a maximum $2,500 by state regulators after it admitted breaking campaign finance laws during two out-of-state fundraisers in 1996.

And in March 1998, state investigators cleared Locke of wrongdoing following complaints that he unlawfully took $10,000 in campaign contributions from members of a Buddhist church.

source : news.yahoo.com

Freddie Mac investigates self over lobby campaign

WASHINGTON – Lawyers hired by mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac are quietly investigating the firm’s own $2 million lobbying campaign, The Associated Press has learned. The lobbying effort helped quash proposed new regulations on the company before the housing market collapsed.

It was not immediately clear how much Freddie Mac is spending to investigate its own conduct or whether it is spending any federal bailout money on the internal probe. The firm was placed under U.S. government control due to its massive investment losses.

One of Washington’s leading law firms, Covington & Burling LLP, has spent more than a month interviewing current and former Freddie Mac employees and executives, according to three people familiar with the matter. These people spoke on condition of anonymity because they fear reprisals if they were identified. The inquiry is led by former Justice Department prosecutor Stephen Anthony, who specializes in corporate internal investigations.

Freddie Mac board chairman John Koskinen confirmed for the AP that an inquiry is under way but declined to comment further. Anthony did not return phone calls and e-mails seeking comment. Corinne Russell, spokeswoman for the federal office that regulates Freddie Mac, declined to comment.

The internal investigation is happening even as the Obama administration provides $200 billion more in government assistance to Freddie Mac and its larger sister company, Fannie Mae. The two government-sponsored enterprises are the largest providers of home mortgages in America. Freddie Mac’s activities fall under oversight of the new Federal Housing Finance Agency, which describes itself as “a world-class, empowered regulator with all of the authorities necessary to oversee vital components of our country’s secondary mortgage markets.”

The inquiry inside Freddie Mac follows stories by the AP about the company secretly hiring Republican consulting firm DCI Group of Washington to stop a proposal in the Senate in 2005 sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. The legislation would have forced Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to sell hundreds of billions of dollars worth of assets from their portfolios of mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. At the time, the portfolios were highly lucrative but their value plunged when the housing market collapsed.

The DCI Group did not file lobbying reports describing the work it was performing. At the time, Freddie Mac executives who knew about the initiative referred to it among themselves as “the stealth lobbying campaign,” according to people familiar with the matter. DCI Group spokesman Geoffrey M. Basye says the firm practiced the highest ethical standards and coordinated with Freddie Mac’s lawyers to ensure uncompromising compliance with all applicable federal and state laws and regulations.

The people familiar with the internal inquiry told the AP that Anthony has interviewed current and former Freddie Mac employees about three issues raised by the AP stories:

_An accounting of the work done for the $2 million in payments to the DCI Group. It targeted 17 Republican senators in 13 states working to defeat Hagel’s regulatory legislation by convincing prominent constituents and financial contributors the bill would hurt the housing boom. The measure was never brought to a vote and died.

_An accounting of six-figure payments to 52 outside lobbying firms and political consultants in 2006, including details about what work, if any, the consultants performed for the money paid to their firms. The consultants included former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and ex-Sen. Alfonse D’Amato. The payments to the 52 consultants amounted to $11.7 million. D’Amato’s firm, which was paid $240,000, declined to comment. Gingrich’s firm was paid $300,000 for strategic advice on a number of issues.

_An accounting of personal use by Freddie Mac executives of company-paid tickets and a company-leased skybox at the Verizon Center. Freddie Mac executive Hollis McLoughlin, who oversaw the $2 million campaign by DCI, was photographed by the AP in Freddie Mac’s leased skybox four months ago at the season home opener of the Washington Capitals hockey team.

Covington & Burling has represented Freddie Mac in other controversies, including its defense against charges it made illegal campaign contributions. Freddie Mac settled the matter by paying a record $3.8 million fine imposed by the Federal Election Commission in 2006. Separately, Covington & Burling represented Freddie Mac in roughly 20 lawsuits alleging the company fraudulently inflated the price of its stock from 1999-2002. All have been settled.

source : news.yahoo.com

Forecasters: Economy worse in ‘09, better in ‘10

WASHINGTON – Brace yourself: The recession is projected to worsen this year. The country stands to lose a sizable chunk of economic activity in 2009 as consumers at home and abroad retrench in the face of persistent economic troubles. And the U.S. unemployment rate — now at 7.6 percent, the highest in more than 16 years — is expected hit a peak of 9 percent this year.

That gloomy outlook came from leading forecasters in the latest survey by the National Association for Business Economics to be released Monday. The new estimates are roughly in line with other recent projections, including those released last week by the Federal Reserve.

“The steady drumbeat of weak economic and financial market data have made business economists decidedly more pessimistic on the economic outlook for the next several quarters,” said NABE president Chris Varvares, head of Macroeconomic Advisers.

All told, Varvares and his fellow forecasters now expect the economy to shrink by 1.9 percent this year, a much deeper contraction than the 0.2 percent dip projected in the fall.

If the new forecast is correct, it would mark the first time since 1991 the economy actually contracted over a full year and would be the worst showing since 1982, when the country had suffered through a severe recession.

Vanishing jobs, shrinking nest eggs, rising foreclosures and tanking home values have forced American consumers to cut back, which in turn has caused businesses to lay off workers and slash costs in other ways, feeding a vicious downward cycle for the economy.

The current recession, which started in December 2007, is posing a major challenge to Washington policymakers, including President Barack Obama and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. That’s because its root causes — a housing collapse, credit crunch and financial turmoil — are the worst since the 1930s and don’t lend themselves to easy or quick fixes.

“As the news on the economy has darkened, so too, have the forecasts,” said Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics. “We are suffering a period of maximum stress on the economy.”

The economy is expected to remain feeble this year — even with new efforts by the administration and Congress to provide relief.

Just over the past few weeks, a $787 billion recovery package of increased government spending and tax cuts was signed into law, the president unveiled a $75 billion plan to stem home foreclosures and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said as much as $2 trillion could be plowed into the financial system to jump-start lending.

In terms of lost economic activity in 2009, the biggest hit will come in the first six months, forecasters said.

NABE forecasters now expect the economy to slide backward at a staggering pace of 5 percent in the current January-March quarter. That’s a sharp downgrade from the 1.3 percent annualized drop projected in the old survey.

“Further pronounced weakness in housing and deteriorating labor markets underscore the risks for 2009,” Varvares said.

Many economists believe that the current quarter will be the worst of the recession in terms of the bite to gross domestic product, which is the value of all goods and services produced within the U.S. and is the broadest barometer of the country’s economic health.

The second quarter of this year also will be a lot weaker, with the forecasters now calling for the economy to contract at a 1.7 percent pace, compared with the prior projection of 0.5 percent growth.

In the second half of this year, the economy should expand, but still less than what economists thought just a few months ago. NABE forecasters believe home sales and housing construction should hit bottom by the middle of the year, which would help stabilize the economy. Home prices, however, are expected to keep falling, according to other experts.

NABE forecasters predicted that when all is said and done the recession will have caused GDP to decline 2.8 percent. That would be “slightly less than the 3.1 percent during the early ’70s,” according to the survey of 47 forecasters taken between Jan. 29 and Feb. 12.

Even in the best-case scenario, with the recession ending sometime in the second half of this year, employment conditions will be tough.

Some of the forecasters said the nation’s unemployment rate could rise as high as 9 percent for all of 2009 and hit 10 percent next year. In 2008, the jobless rate averaged 5.8 percent, the highest since 2003. The survey’s median forecast — or middle point — called for the unemployment rate to rise to 8.4 percent this year and 8.8 percent next year.

Companies touching every part of the economy have announced thousands of layoffs already this year and more cuts came last week. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., said it will cut nearly 5,000 jobs, or almost 7 percent of its work force, this year, following the elimination of about 4,000 jobs in the second half of last year. General Motors Corp. and Chrysler, which are asking the government for billions more in aid to remain viable, announced plans to cut 50,000 more jobs, 47,000 of which would be at GM.

The Fed said the unemployment rate could stay elevated into 2011. Some analysts think the jobless rate won’t drift down to a more normal range of around 5 percent until 2013 — at the earliest.

Companies won’t ramp up hiring until they feel confident that any recovery has staying power. That’s why employment is usually the last piece of the economy to reap the benefits of a recovery.

“A meaningful recovery is not expected to take hold until next year,” said Varvares.

NABE predicts GDP will rebound in 2010, averaging 2.4 percent over the course of the year. The Fed, too, is forecasting that the economy will grow again in 2010_ and will pick up momentum in 2011.

Even so, the Fed is still guarded about any turnaround.

Given all the negative forces weighing on consumers and businesses, the economic recovery “would be unusually gradual and prolonged,” the Fed said.

source : news.yahoo.com

8-year mystery of Chandra Levy’s slaying may end

WASHINGTON – A Salvadoran immigrant convicted of attacking two women in the park where Chandra Levy’s remains were found was expected to be arrested in the next few days in the former intern’s slaying, a person close to the investigation said.

An arrest would cap a revived investigation into the 2001 killing that had gone cold for years after destroying the career of former U.S. Rep. Gary Condit of California.

Investigators in 2002 questioned Ingmar Guandique, now 27, in the slaying after he was convicted of attacking two women joggers in Washington’s Rock Creek Park. They didn’t charge him, but statements he made to people while in prison helped lead investigators back to him, said the person, who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity Saturday.

A law enforcement official who has spoken to investigators said the break came in part from DNA evidence that was either retested or collected, and it was connected to Guandique. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the Levy investigation is ongoing.

Local prosecutors have convened a grand jury in the District of Columbia, and an arrest warrant is expected within the next few days, the officials said. Levy’s father, Robert Levy, said Washington, D.C., Police Chief Cathy Lanier called his home late Friday and said the same thing.

Chandra Levy was 24 and had just completed an internship with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons when she disappeared in May 2001 after leaving her Washington, D.C., apartment. The Modesto, Calif., woman was wearing jogging clothes when she vanished, and a man walking his dog found her skull and bones in the park a year later.

Authorities questioned Condit, her congressman, in the disappearance, but he was never a suspect in her death. Condit, a popular Democrat for a dozen years in his district, was reportedly having an affair with Levy, and the negative publicity from the case was cited as the main reason for his overwhelming primary loss in 2002.

Guandique was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for attacking two women in the park. The federal Bureau of Prisons lists an inmate in California with the same sentence and age, but with the spelling Guandigue instead of Guandique. A message seeking comment was not returned.

One of his victims in the park attacks, Halle Shilling, told The Washington Post that new prosecutors and detectives apologized to her because prior investigators had never interviewed her in the Levy case.

“They said they were so sorry it took so long to talk to me,” Shilling said. “They really want to get to the bottom of this, and they are not going to sleep well until they get a conviction.”

Robert Levy said he and his wife, Susan, were not told who would be arrested, “but we all know who it is.” He would not elaborate but said they would favor a life sentence for the killer.

“If someone is executed, they really don’t suffer too much,” he said from his home in Modesto.

Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Condit, said the revelations clear the former congressman.

Condit did not return several messages left by The Associated Press but said in a statement to WJLA-TV in Washington that he is glad the Levy family is finally getting answers.

“I had always hoped to have the opportunity to tell my side of this story, but too many were not prepared to listen. Now I plan to do so, but I will have no further comments on this story at this time,” he said in the statement, posted on the station’s Web site.

After Condit lost, he sued several media outlets that had connected him to Levy’s disappearance and death. He reached an undisclosed settlement with three tabloid newspapers.

Lanier, the D.C. police chief, said Saturday that she could not comment out of respect for the Levy family and the investigators and prosecutors who have worked on the case.

___

Associated Press writers Matt Apuzzo in Washington and Samantha Young in Modesto, Calif., contributed to this report.

source : news.yahoo.com

War tours strain US military readiness

WASHINGTON: Strained by repeated war tours, persistent terrorist threats and instability around the globe, there is a significant risk the U.S. military may not be able to respond quickly and fully to new crises, a classified Pentagon assessment has concluded.

This is the third year that the risk level has been set at “significant” _ despite improved security conditions in Iraq and plans to cut U.S. troop levels there. Senior military officials spoke about the report on condition of anonymity because it is a classified document.

The risk assessment, drawn up by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, paints a broad picture of the security threats and hot spots around the world and the U.S. military’s ability to deal with them. Mullen has delivered it to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The assessment is prepared every year and routinely delivered to Congress with the budget. Because the threat is rated as significant, Gates will send an accompanying report to Congress outlining what the military is doing to address the risks. That report has not yet been finished.

source : jang.com.pk

US seeks unconditional release of abducted UN official

WASHINGTON: The United Sates has urged the abductors to release official of UN refugee agency in Pakistan.

At a news briefing, State Department Deputy Spokesman Gordon Duguid said expressed sympathies with the family of John Solecki and said we are constantly in touch with international agencies. He, however, expressed concern over security of abducted UN official.

John Solecki, who heads the UNHCR office in Balochistan, was kidnapped on February 2 by gunmen who killed his driver. The Balochistan Liberation United Front has claimed responsibility for the abduction.

source : jang.com.pk

US Navy seizes 9 suspected pirates in Gulf of Aden

WASHINGTON: The U.S. Navy apprehended this week a total of 16 suspected pirates in the Gulf of Aden, while a maritime watchdog warned on Friday that the pirate attacks off Somalia have risen sharply as weather improved and brigands looked to replenish their haul after releasing ships hijacked for ransom.

The Navy said it responded Thursday to a distress signal from the Indian-flagged vessel Premdivya which said it was fired upon by men in a skiff who were trying to board their vessel.

The nine may be handed to Kenyan authorities for prosecution, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said. The United States agreed last month to hand pirate suspects to the east African nation.

source : jang.com.pk

Gregg withdraws as commerce secretary nominee

WASHINGTON – Saying “I made a mistake,” Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire abruptly withdrew as commerce secretary nominee on Thursday and left the fledgling White House suddenly coping with Barack Obama’s third Cabinet withdrawal. Gregg cited “irresolvable conflicts” with Obama’s policies, specifically mentioning the $790 billion economic stimulus bill and 2010 census in a statement released without warning by his Senate office.

Later, at a news conference in the Capitol, he sounded more contrite.

“The president asked me to do it,” he said of the job offer. “I said, yes. That was my mistake.”

Obama offered a somewhat different account from Gregg.

“It comes as something of a surprise, because the truth, you know, Mr. Gregg approached us with interest and seemed enthusiastic,” Obama said in an interview with the Springfield (Ill.) Journal-Register.

Later, he told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One that he was glad Gregg “searched his heart” and changed course now before the Senate confirmed him to the Cabinet post. He also said Gregg’s withdrawal won’t deter him from working with Republicans and trying to change the partisan ways of Washington.

“Clearly he was just having second thoughts about leaving the Senate, a place where he’s thrived,” Obama added.

The unexpected withdrawal came just three weeks into Obama’s presidency and on the heels of several other Cabinet troubles. The new president is in the midst of expending political capital in Washington — and around the country — for his economic package and is seeking to move forward with an ambitious agenda in the midst of an economic recession while the country continues to face threats abroad.

Now Obama also finds himself needing to fill two vacancies — at Commerce and at the Health and Human Services Department. Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination for that post amid a tax controversy. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was confirmed despite revelations that he had not paid some of his taxes on time.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was Obama’s first choice as commerce secretary. He withdrew in early January following disclosure that a grand jury is investigating allegations of wrongdoing in the awarding of contracts in his state. Richardson has not been implicated personally.

Gregg was one of three Republicans Obama had put in his Cabinet to emphasize his campaign pledge that he would be an agent of bipartisan change.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Gregg told the White House early this week that he was having second thoughts and met with Obama about them during an Oval Office meeting on Wednesday. Emanuel said there were no hard feelings and “it’s better we figured this out now than later.”

“He went into this eyes open and he realized over time it wasn’t going to be a good fit,” Emanuel added.

Gregg said he’d always been a strong fiscal conservative and added: “It really wasn’t a good pick.”

In an interview with The Associated Press, Gregg said, “For 30 years, I’ve been my own person in charge of my own views, and I guess I hadn’t really focused on the job of working for somebody else and carrying their views, and so this is basically where it came out.”

Gregg, 61, said he changed his mind after realizing he wasn’t ready to “trim my sails” to be a part of Obama’s team.

“I just sensed that I was not going to be good at being anything other than myself,” he said.

The New Hampshire senator also said he would probably not run for a new term in 2010.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called Gregg a friend and said, “I respect his decision.” But Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said he wished Gregg “had thought through the implications of his nomination more thoroughly before accepting this post.”

In his statement, Gregg said his withdrawal had nothing to do with the vetting into his past that Cabinet officials routinely undergo. He told the AP he foresaw conflicts over health care, global warming and taxes.

He also cited both the stimulus and the census as areas of disagreement with the administration.

When the Senate voted on the president’s massive stimulus plan earlier this week, Gregg did not vote. The bill passed with all Democratic votes and just three Republican votes. Asked by reporters whether the White House could have used his vote on the plan, Gregg said “I’m sure that’s true” and he said the administration had asked him to vote for it.

Conservatives in both houses have been relentless critics of the centerpiece of Obama’s economic recovery plan, arguing it is filled with wasteful spending and won’t create enough jobs.

The Commerce Department has jurisdiction over the Census Bureau, and the administration recently took steps to assert greater control. The outcome of the census has deep political implications, since congressional districts are drawn based on population.

Gregg’s announcement also undid a carefully constructed chain of events.

The New Hampshire senator had agreed to join the Cabinet only if his departure from the Senate did not allow Democrats to take his seat.

New Hampshire’s Democratic governor, John Lynch, in turn, pledged to appointed Bonnie Newman, a Republican and a former interim president of the University of New Hampshire.

She, in turn, had agreed not to run for a full term in 2010, creating an open seat for Democrats to try to claim.

In a statement, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Gregg “made a principled decision to return and we’re glad to have him.”

Lynch, who spoke to Gregg several hours before the announcement, said he respected Gregg’s decision to withdraw and remain in the Senate. He thanked Newman for her willingness to serve.

A day after Gregg’s nomination had been announced, the AP reported that a former staffer, Kevin Koonce, was under criminal investigation for allegedly taking baseball and hockey tickets from a lobbyist in exchange for legislative favors while working for Gregg.

The senator said at the time that he had been told he was neither a subject nor target of the investigation, and would cooperate fully.

___

Associated Press writers Jennifer Loven and Andrew Taylor in Washington, Ben Feller in Springfield, Ill., and Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H., contributed to this report.

source : news.yahoo.com

Creator of iconic Obama ‘Hope” poster arrested for graffiti: report

WASHINGTON: The artist, who created the iconic pop-art portrait, which became the unofficial logo for Barack Obama’s insurgent White House bid, has been arrested in Boston for defacing property with graffiti, US media reported Saturday.

Artist Shepard Fairey was arrested in Boston late Friday on warrants for defacing property with graffiti, the Boston Herald and other media outlets reported.

source : jang.com.pk

Pentagon ups PR spending

WASHINGTON: As it fights two wars, the Pentagon is steadily and dramatically increasing the money it spends to win what it calls “the human terrain” of world public opinion. In the process, it is raising concerns of spreading propaganda at home in violation of federal law.

A US news agency’s investigation found that over the past five years, the money the military spends on winning hearts and minds at home and abroad has grown by 63 percent, to at least $4.7 billion this year, according to Department of Defense budgets and other documents. That’s almost as much as it spent on body armor for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2004 and 2006.

This year, the Pentagon will employ 27,000 people just for recruitment, advertising and public relations — almost as many as the total 30,000-person work force in the State Department.

“We have such a massive apparatus selling the military to us, it has become hard to ask questions about whether this is too much money or if it’s bloated,” says Sheldon Rampton, research director for the Committee on Media and Democracy, which tracks the military’s media operations. “As the war has become less popular, they have felt they need to respond to that more.”

Yet the money spent on media and outreach still comes to only 1 percent of the Pentagon budget, and the military argues it is well-spent on recruitment and the education of foreign and American audiences. Military leaders say that at a time when extremist groups run Web sites and distribute video, information is as important a weapon as tanks and guns.

“We have got to be involved in getting our case out there, telling our side of the story, because believe me, al-Qaida and all of those folks … that’s what they are doing on the Internet and everywhere else,” says Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., who chairs the Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee. “Every time a bomb goes off, they have a story out almost before it explodes, saying that it killed 15 innocent civilians.”

On an abandoned Air Force base in San Antonio, Texas, editors for the Joint Hometown News Service point proudly to a dozen clippings on a table as examples of success in getting stories into newspapers.

What readers are not told: Each of these glowing stories was written by Pentagon staff. Under the free service, stories go out with authors’ names but not their titles, and do not mention Hometown News anywhere. In 2009, Hometown News plans to put out 5,400 press releases, 3,000 television releases and 1,600 radio interviews, among other work — 50 percent more than in 2007.

The service is just a tiny piece of the Pentagon’s rapidly expanding media empire, which is now bigger in size, money and power than many media companies.

The biggest chunk of funds — about $1.6 billion — goes into recruitment and advertising. Another $547 million goes into public affairs, which reaches American audiences. And about $489 million more goes into what is known as psychological operations, which targets foreign audiences.

Staffing across all these areas costs about $2.1 billion, as calculated by the number of full-time employees and the military’s average cost per service member. That’s double the staffing costs for 2003.

Recruitment and advertising are the only two areas where Congress has authorized the military to influence the American public. Far more controversial is public affairs, because of the prohibition on propaganda to the American public.

“It’s not up to the Pentagon to sell policy to the American people,” says Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., who sponsored legislation in Congress last year reinforcing the ban.

Spending on public affairs has more than doubled since 2003. Robert Hastings, acting director of Pentagon public affairs, says the growth reflects changes in the information market, along with the fact that the U.S. is now fighting two wars.

source : jang.com.pk

Obama takes oath as 44th US President today

WASHINGTON: Amid high expectations of a change in some controversial policies pursued in the last eight years, Barack Hussein Obama assumes power today as the first ever African-American of the United States.

Crowds streamed into the U.S. capital Tuesday, jamming subway cars and packing the National Mall from the Capitol building to the Washington Monument hours before President-elect Barack Obama was to be sworn in.

For weeks, officials urged people to arrive early for the historic inauguration of the first black U.S. president and throngs of revelers heeded that advice, streaming onto the Mall hours before daybreak.

By 7 a.m. (1200GMT), some 207,000 people had entered Washington’s Metro transit system, transit officials said. Huge lines formed outside subway stations; many parking lots filled up and had to be closed.

“Platforms are extremely crowded,” Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said. Lines were six to 10 deep at fare machines.

Meanwhile, thousands of people gathered near the parade route on Pennsylvania Avenue, occasionally erupting in spontaneous cheers and chants of “open the gates!”

The large crowds made it difficult for many to figure out where checkpoints into the secure area were. Police have projected crowds ranging between 1 and 2 million for the inauguration.

It is possible that attendance could top the 1.2million people who were at Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 inauguration, which is the largest crowd the National Park Service has on record.

The unprecedented enthusiasm on the historic occasion both domestically and globally rests on the 47-year old Obama’s campaign promises to set America in a new direction aimed at restoring its prestige that especially suffered in the aftermath of the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

On top of the legal, moral and political questions connected to the two wars, US economic recession is bound to test his skills in the backdrop of the Bush Administration’s unpopular policies.

President George W. Bush leaves office Tuesday with an approval rating of 22 percent as Obama moves into the White House as the 44th president with unrivaled high rating of 83 percent.

The Americans also hope for the beginning of a new era of a better sense of national unity as they see too much division along party lines. So far, Democratic Obama has shown bipartisanship by seeking cooperation from a number of Republicans.

But for those who have converged on Washington to witness the historic moment, the occasion is too big to let the burden of expectations override their joy. Besides a host of American celebrities, hundreds of foreign diplomats, government representatives and members of Congress will attend the inauguration ceremony on the Capitol Hill.

On the eve of inauguration, Washington has been wearing a festive look with a series of concerts and a staggering two million people from across the country and several parts of the world gathering to see the history happen when Obama takes oath. In the process Obama will also becomes the first African American to lead the free world; a day after America marked Martin Luther King day, whose famous “I have a dream” speech is said to be a major inspiration behind Obama’s success.

Vice President-elect Joseph Biden, who recently visited Pakistan and Afghanistan, will also take oath of office.

source : jang.com.pk

Obama arrives in Washington for last time before inauguration

WASHINGTON: President-elect Barack Obama pulled into Washington’s Union Station on Saturday on a special inaugural train, three days before he is to be sworn in as the 44th US president.

Obama journeyed to the US capital in a day-long train trip from Philadelphia tracing the train tracks followed by his hero Abraham Lincoln ahead of his own inauguration as president a century-and-a-half ago.

Thousands of joyful supporters waved to the train as it rolled through small towns and stations, and the president-elect whipped up frigid crowds at rallies which drew an estimated 47,000 people in Wilmington, Delaware and Baltimore, Maryland.

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend Obama’s inauguration before the domed US Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, the culmination of four days of celebrations, star-studded concerts and parties.

source : jang.com.pk

Obama begins historic train journey to Washington

PHILADELPHIA: Barack Obama warned on Saturday that America faces ”a time of great challenge” as he launched pre-inauguration festivities with a special train trip to Washington, where in three days he will become president of the United States.

Obama, a Democrat who will take office on Tuesday during the sharpest economic downturn in generations, has vowed to hit the ground running with plans to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to jolt the country out of a deepening recession.

The Obama transition – Jan-05 Bush inhabits lonely White House – Jan-16 But he also has stressed it will take time and sacrifice to turn the economy around, casting a sombre shadow over the celebrations marking his victory.

”Together, we know that this is a time of great challenge for the American people. Difficult days are upon us, and even more difficult days lie ahead,” Obama said in a weekly radio address released on Saturday.

”Our nation is at war. Our economy is in great turmoil. And there is so much work that must be done to restore peace and advance prosperity.”

Outgoing President George W. Bush, a Republican who leaves the White House with some of the lowest popularity ratings on record, has used a series of farewell speeches to defend his eight years in office, including his response to the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 and his decision to launch the war in Iraq.

source : jang.com.pk

Obama rides rails to capital, as onlookers cheer

PHILADELPHIA – President-elect Barack Obama, cheered by onlookers along the train route Abraham Lincoln took nearly a century and a half earlier, undertook the final leg of his inaugural journey to the nation’s capital Saturday, pledging to reclaim America’s spirit but also warning of steep challenges facing the country.

Hundreds of excited people screamed and cheered as Obama waved from the back of his inaugural train when it rolled slowly through the station in little Claymont, Del., on the way to larger crowds at stops in Wilmington, Del., and Baltimore on the route to Washington.

Unfazed by frigid temperatures, scattered groups stood waving at crossroads along the way.

“Starting now, let’s take up in our own lives the work of perfecting our union,” Obama told several hundred people gathered for the sendoff inside a hall at Philadelphia’s historic 30th Street train station. “Let’s build a government that is responsible to the people and accept our own responsibilities as citizens to hold our government accountable. … Let’s make sure this election is not the end of what we do to change America, but the beginning and the hope for the future.”

While talking about the future, Obama reflected on the past, echoing the words of the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln and President John F. Kennedy. He cited the founding fathers who risked everything with no assurance of success in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776:

“They were willing to put all they were and all they had on the line — their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor — for a set of ideals that continue to light the world: That we are equal. That our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness come not from our laws, but from our maker. And that a government of, by, and for the people can endure.”

Vice President-elect Joe Biden, who hopped aboard the train in Wilmington, said the train ride marked the beginning of a journey that would change America.

“Our economy is struggling. We are a nation at war,” Biden said. “Sometimes, just sometimes, it’s hard to believe that we’ll see the spring again. But I tell you spring is on the way with this new administration.”

This is a momentous time for the Obamas. And for Michelle Obama, it was also her 45th birthday. The crowd in Wilmington sang “Happy Birthday” to her, forcing the president-elect to briefly delay the start of his second speech of the day in which he pledged a revival of the middle class.

“When we Americans get knocked down, we always, always get back up on our feet,” Obama said.

“We’ve heard your stories on the campaign trail,” he said. “We have been touched by your dreams, and we will fight for you every single day that we’re in Washington because Joe and I are committed to leading a government that is accountable not just to the wealthy or to the well-connected, but to you.”

The president-elect’s triumphant day — heralded along the 137-mile rail route — started in Philadelphia with a sober discussion of the country’s future with 41 people he met during his long quest for the White House.

He told the crowd in Philadelphia that the same perseverance and idealism displayed by the nation’s founders are needed to tackle the difficulties of today.

“We recognize that such enormous challenges will not be solved quickly,” Obama said. “There will be false starts and setbacks, frustrations and disappointments. And we will be called to show patience even as we act with fierce urgency.”

He cited the faltering economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — “one that needs to be ended responsibly, one that needs to be waged wisely” — the threat of global warming and U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

“We are here today not simply to pay tribute to our first patriots but to take up the work that they began,” he said. “The trials we face are very different now, but severe in their own right. Only a handful of times in our history has a generation been confronted with challenges so vast.”

Preparing to board the train, Obama said that “what’s required is a new declaration of independence — from ideology and small thinking.”

Obama’s vintage rail car, known as Georgia 300, was tacked onto the back of a 10-car train made up of Amtrak cars filled with hundreds of guests, reporters and staff along for the ride.

The train was due at Washington’s Union Station after nightfall.

At Union Station, as Obama set out from Philadelphia, the vanguard of perhaps the greatest crowd in Washington history was beginning to arrive.

Bursting with enthusiasm, Toni Mateo arrived from Atlanta, where he works at a public relations firm.

“It’s going to be life-affirming for me,” said Mateo. “It was really important that I come here to represent the family and to take the energy back with me.” He said his train car was crowded but quiet — until “I just screamed out `Obama,’ and the whole crowd erupted.”

Elsewhere in Washington, members of his administration stayed focused on policy.

Addressing the winter meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Valerie Jarrett, a senior Obama adviser, asked for help keeping the momentum going for passage, and implementation, of a measure to jump-start the economy.

House Democrats this week unveiled their version of the bill, an $825 billion package of tax cuts and spending.

Although his path tracked Lincoln’s and took on the same overtone of high security, it wasn’t the journey of virtual secrecy that the 16th president-elect took so long ago on the eve of the Civil War. Lincoln was smuggled under cover of darkness from one train station to another to avoid a feared assassination attempt.

This year, the FBI has been planning its inauguration mission since June. Large trucks, a bomb-detecting robot, canisters with hundreds of gallons of water to disrupt a car bomb and other emergency response equipment stretch down a block near the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

John Perren, a special agent in charge of counterterrorism, said there was no credible intelligence warning of any attack.

___

Associated Press Writers Darlene Superville, Nafeesa Syeed and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.

source : news.yahoo.com

British soldier killed in Afghanistan explosion

LONDON: A British soldier was killed Sunday in an explosion while on a routine patrol in Afghanistan, the defence ministry here said.

The Royal Marine was killed in the Kajaki area of the troubled southern Helmand Province.

“He was taking part in a routine reassurance patrol when the explosion occurred. He received immediate medical attention at the scene but sadly died of his wounds,” the ministry said in a statement.

Britain has around 8,300 troops in Afghanistan, largely battling Taliban insurgents in Helmand.

The death brings to 139 the total number of British service personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001, when US-led forces ousted the Taliban in the wake of the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

Of these, at least 111 were killed as a result of hostile action.

The man is the 13th Royal Marine to die in the past two months.

“The death of this Royal Marine is a tragedy for everyone in Task Force Helmand,” said Commander Paula Rowe, a spokeswoman for the unit.

“Whilst words cannot ease their loss, our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this desperately sad time.”

He is the second British serviceman killed in Afghanistan this month after Sergeant Chris Reed of 6th Battalion The Rifles was killed in action in the Garmsir district of Helmand Province on New Year’s Day.

A total of 51 died in the Afghanistan operation in 2008.

source : jang.com.pk

Obama says economic critics should show him ideas

WASHINGTON – Facing unwelcome resistance from fellow Democrats, President-elect Barack Obama is encouraging critics of his $800 billion economic recovery plan to “just show me” their own ideas. With more than 11 million Americans out of work, Obama pressed Congress for urgent action Friday and said the U.S. is undergoing “a devastating economic crisis that will become more difficult to contain with time.”

His warning was underscored by a government report showing that unemployment hit a 16-year high of 7.2 percent in December.

But congressional Democrats are making it clear they want to put their own stamp on the revival plan, despite the inevitable delays. Some Obama ideas, like a $3,000 job creation tax credit, might get scrapped.

Many Democrats aren’t thrilled with Obama’s business tax cut plans and are griping that there’s not enough money in the measure for traditional infrastructure projects like road construction and water projects or for tax credits to promote renewable energy.

Under pressure, Obama aides agreed Friday to increase the money ticketed to energy tax breaks from $10 billion to $20 billion, according to congressional Democratic aides. The Democrats want $30 billion.

Beyond the emerging rifts — and the openness with which Democrats are pushing back against some of Obama’s ideas — is the sheer enormity of crafting such a complex, controversial measure in just weeks. Lawmakers’ insistence on making changes could delay the recovery plan beyond a mid-February deadline declared by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Obama, at a news conference, sought to play down the differences. “There’s no disagreement that the economy is in dire straits,” he said. “There’s no disagreement that we need to create jobs.”

Top Democrats affirmed there is far more agreement than disagreement on the major parts of the recovery plan: aid to cash-strapped state governments, $500-$1,000 tax cuts for most workers and working couples, and a huge spending package blending old fashioned public works projects with aid to the poor and unemployed and a variety of other initiatives.

Obama said he welcomed input from lawmakers in both parties.

“If members of Congress have good ideas, if they can identify a project for me that will create jobs in an efficient way that does not hamper our ability over the long term to get control of our deficit, that is good for the economy, then I’m going to accept it,” the president-elect said.

“What we can’t do is drag this out when we just saw a half-million jobs lost,” Obama said.

“If you can show me that something is going to work, I will welcome it,” he said.

A squadron of Obama officials came to the Capitol on Friday to brief House Democrats on the measure, and they again heard criticism of some of Obama’s proposed tax cuts, particularly a $3,000 credit for job creation. Lawmakers pressed for more infrastructure spending and tax credits to promote renewable energy and said that more needs to be done to address the housing crisis.

“There’s considerable expertise running around the halls of Congress, and this week represents the first, most significant opportunity to have good, constructive dialogue on how we build the best package,” said Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D.

Obama is promising to ride herd.

“It is my job to make sure that Congress stays focused in the weeks to come and gets this done,” he said.

The top Democrat in Congress is a cheerleader for the Obama plan.

“All of their priorities are ones that we share,” Pelosi said. “We just want to make sure that those (ideas), when they’re written in the bill, are ones that can be used immediately and can create jobs.”

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., emphasized areas of broad agreement and the universal sentiment of a need to act.

“Please don’t get the idea there was some sort of breakdown here,” Boxer told reporters.

The details are closely held and subject to change — and the cost of various components seems to be bouncing around daily in the push and pull between the Obama transition team and congressional leaders.

“Spend more on infrastructure. That was a recommendation made in the caucus,” Rep. Pomeroy said. Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said money will be added to have state and local governments buy up foreclosed homes.

Boxer said about 20 percent of the bill would provide aid to the cash-strapped states, with 40 percent, or about $300 billion for tax cuts for individuals and businesses. The remaining 40 percent would go to spending programs such as infrastructure, help for the unemployed and renewable energy.

One tax provision would provide a $500 tax cut for most workers and $1,000 for couples, at a cost of about $140 billion to $150 billion over two years. The individual tax cuts may be awarded by withholding less from worker paychecks, effectively making checks about $10 to $20 larger each week.

source : news.yahoo.com

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Rain and melting snow bring floods to Washington

SNOQUALMIE, Wash. – More than 30,000 people were urged to leave their flood-endangered western Washington homes as snowmelt and rain swelled rivers and caused mudslides and avalanches that engulfed neighborhoods and roadways.

Warmer temperatures and heavy rains were rapidly melting the deep snow that dumped on the Cascade mountains over the weekend. Ten inches of snow melted in a 12-hour period at Snoqualmie Pass, according to Andy Haner, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Nearly 7 inches of rain fell in one 24-hour period at Marblemount in the Cascade foothills. A record 2.29 inches of rain fell Wednesday at Sea-Tac Airport and a record 4.82 inches at Olympia.

Rising waters led state highway crews to close a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 5 around Chehalis on Wednesday evening. The state’s three major east-west routes across the Cascade mountains also were closed by avalanches and the threat of more slides.

Authorities feared Interstate 5, which carries 10,000 trucks a day, could be closed for days, just as it was in a similar flood in December 2007. But they hoped to reopen one of the east-west routes sometime Thursday “to get people moving and freight moving,” said Transportation Department spokeswoman Alice Fiman.

The National Weather Service issued flood warnings for about two dozen rivers in western Washington, and Amtrak passenger train service out of Seattle was suspended because of mudslides.

“It’s right up there with some of our most memorable flood events,” National Weather Service forecaster Doug McDonnal said Thursday.

Rain tapered down to showers Thursday and drier weather is due Friday, but flooding will remain a problem as overflowing rivers drain. The storm also produced heavy rain and strong wind in northwest Oregon, but by early Thursday, the area managed to avoid the mudslides and severe flooding that battered Washington.

Thursday’s forecast called for cooler temperatures and snow in the mountains, with 6 to 10 inches possible, and the rain to mostly end in the lowlands.

Fire trucks rolled through Orting, about 10 miles southeast of Tacoma, with loudspeakers Wednesday, advising everyone to leave the town and surrounding valley, home to about 26,000 people. Sandbags were placed around many downtown homes and businesses as the Puyallup River neared record levels.

Kim and Carl Scanson closed their Around the Corner restaurant when Orting police told them of the recommended evacuation. They sent employees home to care for their families.

“It’s scary, but everybody works together in this town,” Kim Scanson told The News Tribune as she helped pack sandbags around the city’s water treatment plant.

Some residents also left their homes in the nearby towns of Puyallup and Sumner. Fife Mayor Barry Johnson suggested roughly 6,000 people voluntarily leave their homes in that city near Tacoma and Interstate 5.

Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma declared a civil emergency for his city of about 200,000, south of Seattle, largely because of Puyallup River flooding could create problems for the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

State emergency officials said voluntary evacuations were recommended for Snoqualmie, a riverside town 25 miles east of Seattle, and for the southwest Washington cities of Naselle, Packwood and Randle.

The Snoqualmie River at Carnation, in the rural Snoqualmie Valley, was measured at 61.3 feet Wednesday night, 7.3 feet above flood stage and a record for measurements kept since 1932, weather service meteorologist Jay Albrecht said.

In Orting, several dozen people and a number of pets were rescued by boat Wednesday morning, Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said.

Diane Knowles of Eatonville said those rescued included her 81-year-old father-in-law and her brother- and sister-in law, who in past flooding arranged for the family to bring rescue boats.

“It came up so fast this time, there wasn’t really time to think about it,” she said.

An avalanche of snow and mud about 100 yards wide damaged some weekend recreation homes in the Hyak area east of Snoqualmie Pass. All homes at Hyak and condominium complexes at the base of the ski area were evacuated.

The debris field spanned eight houses, including one that was severely damaged, and two occupants of that home were treated for minor injuries, said Matt Cowan, chief of Snoqualmie Pass Fire and Rescue.

Chris Caviezel, who has lived at Snoqualmie Pass for about seven years, said conditions were the worst he has seen. “We’re getting avalanches and we’re being flooded,” Caviezel said.

In Snoqualmie, kayakers paddled in the street as city officials urged residents in the flood plain of the Snoqualmie River to leave before they became trapped.

Rachel Myers stood across a flooded parking lot from her home and waited for her father to pick her up in a boat. She said her family has lived in the house since her great-grandmother built it, but they’ve decided this will be their last winter there.

“With flood after flood, it just gets more ruined every time,” Myers said.

In the east, Spokane, already beset by more than 6 feet of snow in the past three weeks, was hit with rain and temperatures in the mid-40s, triggering a flood warning for the area. The city’s schools were closed Thursday, giving its 29,000 students a third unscheduled day off this week.

In Oregon, high wind toppled trees along U.S. 26, forcing the highway’s closure and stranding some motorists while crews worked to clear the road. The weather service posted flood warnings for areas along several rivers and a flood watch for all of northwest Oregon.

In Alaska, extreme temperatures — 60 below zero in Stevens Village, which is about 90 miles northwest of Fairbanks — have grounded planes, disabled cars, frozen water pipes and even canceled several championship cross country ski races.

___

Associated Press photographer Ted Warren in Orting and AP writers Doug Esser and Tim Klass in Seattle contributed to this report.

source : news.yahoo.com

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Gov’t projects $6.5M in bailout costs through Jan.

WASHINGTON – The government estimated Tuesday that it will spend $6.5 million by the end of January in salaries and other administrative costs for the $700 billion financial rescue program.

The Treasury Department estimate was part of the latest update it’s required to provide Congress on the operation of the largest government bailout effort in history.

Treasury projected that it would spend nearly $1.2 million on salaries through the end of January and more than $5.3 million on other expenses. The biggest expense category was for “other services,” which amounted to nearly $5 million.

The report said Treasury expected to have made obligations totaling nearly $26.6 million by the end of January with the biggest part of that being more than $24.4 million for “other services,” which covers the contracts the department has awarded to accounting and law firms to help administer the program.

The new report, which updates the activities in the rescue program since the first accounting was provided to Congress on Dec. 5, provided details on the emergency loans that the Bush administration decided to provide to the auto industry from the bailout program after Congress was unable to pass legislation to help the automakers.

The Bush administration announced that it would lend $17.4 billion to General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC in an effort to buy them time to reorganize and avoid having to file for bankruptcy.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has said that with the auto loans, the administration has obligated the first half of the $700 billion rescue program and he has called on Congress to authorize use of the second $350 billion.

However, the administration said Monday that it has not yet submitted to Congress a report required by law that would spell out how the second $350 billion would be used.

source : news.yahoo.com

Victims of Blackwater shooting await guards’ trial

BAGHDAD: Iraqis wounded by gunfire in a Baghdad square 15 months ago are awaiting with guarded hopes the beginning of court proceedings against five former private Blackwater Worldwide security guards.

The five men are to appear in a federal court in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday for an initial hearing on charges of manslaughter in the chaotic few minutes of shooting on Sept. 16, 2007 that killed 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded dozens more. The defendants, who are expected to plead not guilty, contend they opened fire after coming under attack when a car in a State Department convoy they were escorting broke down. But people wounded in the outburst say the shooting was unprovoked. “It all started when they began shooting without any cause, ”Samir Hobi, a taxi driver who was sitting in his car at the scene. “Then the Blackwater vehicles came up on the wrong side and pushed my car away,” said Hobi, who suffered a broken leg. The North Carolina-based Blackwater is the largest contractor providing security in Iraq. Most of its work for the State Department is in protecting U.S. diplomats in Iraq–a job the agency is unable to handle on its own. Many Iraqis saw the bloodshed in Nisoor Square as a demonstration of American brutality and arrogance and suspected the guards would never be called to account.

source : jang.com.pk

Protesters, fans greet Obama in US capital

WASHINGTON: About 100 well-wishers and two dozen protesters braved the winter chill to greet President-elect Barack Obama as he arrived in Washington Sunday to prepare his transition.

A heavy security presence encircled the historic Hay-Adam hotel near the White House, where the Obamas will stay until January 15, as police set up cement barriers and kept onlookers at a city block’s distance. “He waved! That’s cool! Awesome!” said Keith Slade, 43, who having a drink at a nearby bar when he caught a glimpse of Obama passing by in the motorcade. Before Obama departed Chicago, he told reporters: “Well guys, I’m looking forward to seeing you guys in Washington. I gotta say I choked up a little bit leaving my house today.”

source : jang.com.pk

Good luck getting around D.C. on Inauguration Day

WASHINGTON – On a typical weekday, hundreds of thousands of people commute to the nation’s capital, snarling roads and packing subway trains and buses during peak hours.

Imagine multiplying that several times for Barack Obama’s inauguration Jan. 20.

“I don’t want in any way to discourage anyone,” said the District of Columbia’s city administrator, Dan Tangherlini. “I just don’t want them to come and be completely shocked by what they find.”

It won’t be pleasant, Tangherlini and other officials say.

The Washington area’s transit system is telling passengers to expect extraordinarily long lines for trains and buses. Airports will be bustling with extra flights. Traffic could be at a standstill as motorists cope with street and bridge closings. Those who do manage to arrive in Washington will find limited parking.

“Pack your patience” is the advice from Corinne Geller, a Virginia State Police spokeswoman.

Amtrak is expanding service between Boston and Washington on Inauguration Day. Southwest Airlines is adding 26 flights to and from the region between Jan. 17 and Jan. 23. Delta Air Lines and its subsidiary, Northwest Airlines, are adding more than 5,000 seats Jan. 16 and Jan. 21 by using larger aircraft on existing flights. Airport officials say they will add staff to help guide travelers.

Virginia State Police plan to bring troopers from across the state to monitor expected gridlock outside Washington, Geller said. Maryland transportation officials are urging truck drivers and other commercial drivers to avoid the area.

Major bridges into the city, such as the Roosevelt, Memorial and inbound Key bridges, will be open only to buses and official inaugural traffic, Tangherlini said. A complete list of road closures will be released early this week, according to the Secret Service.

Prepare for the unexpected, authorities and inaugural organizers say.

“We also recommend developing backup plans in case your original travel plans need to be changed at the last minute,” the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies said in a recent advisory.

Given the impending headaches, some would-be revelers are staying home.

Larry Froneyberger of Atlanta planned to pick up his 68-year-old grandmother, Francine, from High Point, N.C., on his way to the inauguration. They were going to stay in Baltimore and take the train into Washington.

She was excited about the prospect of witnessing the first black president, especially because she grew up during a time when that seemed impossible, Froneyberger said. But with her slow stride due to foot surgery last year, the transportation situation was too overwhelming.

“It’s going to be a lot of waiting and she was like, ‘I just can’t do it,’” Froneyberger said.

Even cab drivers are thinking twice about working that day, said William J. Wright, president of the Taxicab Industry Group in Washington.

Wright said he has driven his cab during past inaugurations — including John F. Kennedy’s — but based on what he’s hearing, he expects gridlock for this one to be the worst.

“I don’t see how a cab driver can make any money, to be honest with you, because he can’t go anywhere,” he said.

Others are willing to brave it, despite the many inconveniences.

Tony Vincent of northeast Washington said he will take the subway into Union Station, where he shines shoes. Depending on how many people step on his shoes on the packed train, he may need a polish of his own, he said.

“I know it’s going to be crazy,” he said. “It might be a little uncomfortable.”

While government workers are off that day, some sectors are requiring employees to show up.

Nicholas Ramfos, who heads Commuter Connections, a nonprofit group that coordinates commuter programs in Washington, is recommending that employers allow workers to telecommute or shift their hours outside of peak inaugural travel time.

Besides biking or public transport, he suggests people take a look at his group’s car pool list to find others who work or live near them.

For some people, leaving the city isn’t an option.

Emily Durso, president of the Hotel Association of Washington, D.C., said hotels will be fully staffed, with many people working multiple shifts. Her group represents 97 hotels in Washington, and she said a number of them plan to set up cots for employees at the hotels or in empty apartments.

“We’ve never had anything like this,” she said. “It’s just a whole different animal in many ways.”

___

Associated Press writers Dena Potter in Richmond, Va., and Brian Witte in Annapolis, Md., and AP Airlines Writer Harry R. Weber in Atlanta contributed to this report.

source : news.yahoo.com

Democrats plan cool reception for Senate appointee

WASHINGTON – Senate Democratic leaders plan to grant few if any privileges next week to Roland Burris, the man picked by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to represent the state in the Senate, even if Burris arrives on Capitol Hill with the proper credentials.

Senate officials involved in the tangle of legal and logistical planning said Friday that a Democrat will object to Burris being duly sworn with the rest of his class and will propose that his credentials be reviewed for a period of time by the Rules Committee.

That would give Burris the status of a senator-elect to the seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama in the juiciest of several dramas swirling around open Senate seats days before the 111th Congress convenes.

Senate Democrats are slow-walking Burris’ appointment because they hope Blagojevich will be removed from office before the Rules Committee completes its investigation.

As early as next week Blagojevich — federal authorities accuse him of offering to sell the appointment to the highest bidder — could become the state’s first chief executive to be impeached. A state Senate trial would follow and if he were convicted, Blagojevich would be removed from office.

For his part, Burris planned to argue his case in the news media and threatened to sue Senate Democrats if they refuse to swear him in as the chamber’s only black member.

Race is a prominent force in the dispute. Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., said he called Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and “made it abundantly clear that we felt that they should reconsider.”

No luck, Payne reported on Friday.

“I have heard no one say that they felt that he is not qualified,” Payne said. Race would not be a factor, he added, were there black members of the Senate. “There is a legitimate opportunity to have the Senate at least start to look a teeny bit like America.”

Democrats have said that their opposition to Burris is not about Burris but the fact that anyone appointed by Blagojevich would be tainted by the corruption charges against the governor.

And they’re not budging, despite significant questions about whether they have the legal standing to block an appointee of a sitting governor.

The only way Burris will be allowed on the floor, according to Democratic officials who asked not to be identified, is if he possesses a certification of appointment signed by Blagojevich and Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White.

Burris would then be treated as a senator-elect, which by tradition means he’ll be allowed on the Senate floor without voting or speaking privileges — and he wouldn’t be granted a desk, according to the officials. They requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The man charged with letting people through the door of the chamber, Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer, said he expects the two sides to work out a deal before Tuesday.

Gainer has known Burris since their days in Illinois law enforcement, when Burris was attorney general and Gainer was the director of the state police.

“He is a good man,” Gainer said in a telephone interview. “He plays by the rules. I don’t think there’s going to be a confrontation.”

Republicans have been wary about commenting, pleased to see Democrats mucking through a political mess of their own party’s making.

But Republican Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona said Friday that he wants to review state and federal law before opining on whether Burris should be seated. Still, he questioned whether the legal status of the patron is enough reason to block the appointee.

“The Senate has to be very careful of setting a precedent that just because it doesn’t like the governor that appointed (Burris) we therefore refuse to seat a qualified appointee,” Kyl said in a telephone interview.

Not that Republicans are against blocking people from being seated. Another Republican leader, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told reporters Friday that he would object to seating any new senator from Minnesota until an anticipated court case is finished and an official election certificate issued in the battle between Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken.

In contrast, nobody’s objecting to Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet, who is expected to be named to replace Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., set to be Obama’s interior secretary.

In the Illinois case, Senate Democrats believe the Constitution and their agenda-setting power give them the tools for a slow-motion rejection of Burris’ credentials if they are not signed by both the governor and White, who has refused to certify anyone Blagojevich appoints.

If Burris appears at the Capitol with his certification signed by Blagojevich and White, the officials said, Burris would be permitted on the Senate floor.

Vice President Dick Cheney, as president of the Senate, would then ask whether anyone objects to the senators-elect being duly sworn. A Democrat would object and propose that Burris’ credentials be referred to the Rules Committee for an investigation. If no one objects to that motion, the credentials go to the panel for a period of perhaps 90 days.

In the meantime, Burris gets the privileges of an unsworn senator-elect. The Senate’s unofficial customs and traditions leave unclear whether that status would come with a pay check, but Burris could be accorded a stipend for staff and given office space.

____

Associated Press writers Steven K. Paulson in Denver, Brian Bakst in St. Paul, Minn., and Christopher Wills in Chicago contributed to this report.

source : news.yahoo.com

Bush says he wants lasting Mideast cease-fire

WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush says any cease-fire in the Mideast must be fully respected, Hamas rocket attacks on Israel stopped and the flow of smuggled weapons into Gaza cut off.

Bush called the Hamas attacks an “act of terror” and said no peace deal would be acceptable unless the flow of smuggled weapons to terrorist groups is monitored and stopped. He made the comments in his weekly radio address taped for broadcast Saturday but released a day early.

It was the first time Bush has spoken about one of the bloodiest Mideast clashes in decades, though a White House spokesman has offered extensive comments in recent days.

The conflict began a week ago. Israeli warplanes have rained bombs on Gaza, targeting the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has traumatized southern Israel with intensifying rocket attacks.

“The United States is leading diplomatic efforts to achieve a meaningful cease-fire that is fully respected,” Bush said. “Another one-way cease-fire that leads to rocket attacks on Israel is not acceptable. And promises from Hamas will not suffice — there must be monitoring mechanisms in place to help ensure that smuggling of weapons to terrorist groups in Gaza comes to an end.”

With time running out on the Bush presidency, the crisis in Gaza is likely to carry over to President-elect Barack Obama. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice briefed Bush on developments in Gaza, and she continued telephone diplomacy to arrange a truce. Yet, she said she had no plans to make an emergency visit to the region.

More than 400 Palestinians and at least four Israelis have been killed in the latest offensive. The U.N. estimated Friday that a quarter of the Palestinians killed were civilians. In their waning days in power, Bush and Rice have been working the phones with world allies.

Bush offered no criticism of Israel, depicting the country’s air assaults as a response to the attacks on its people. The White House will not comment on whether it views the Israeli response as proportionate to the scope of rockets attacks on Israel.

“This recent outburst of violence was instigated by Hamas — a Palestinian terrorist group supported by Iran and Syria that calls for Israel’s destruction,” Bush said.

The president said Hamas ultimately ended the latest cease-fire on Dec. 19 and “soon unleashed a barrage of rockets and mortars that deliberately targeted innocent Israelis — an act of terror that is opposed by the legitimate leader of the Palestinian people, President (Mahmoud) Abbas.”

Hamas-run Gaza has been largely isolated from the rest of the world since the Islamic militants won parliamentary elections in 2006. Then Hamas violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, expelling forces loyal to the moderate Abbas.

Bush expressed deep concern about the humanitarian suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza. U.N. officials say Gaza’s 1.5 million residents face an alarming situation under constant Israeli bombardment, with hospitals overcrowded and both fuel and food supplies growing scarce.

“By spending its resources on rocket launchers instead of roads and schools, Hamas has demonstrated that it has no intention of serving the Palestinian people,” Bush said. “America has helped by providing tens of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid, and this week we contributed an additional $85 million through the United Nations. We have consistently called on all in the region to ensure that assistance reaches those in need.”

The White House has cautioned Israel to be aware of the toll its military strikes will have on civilians. Bush blamed Hamas for hiding within the civilian population. “Regrettably, Palestinian civilians have been killed in recent days,” he said.

International calls for a cease-fire have been growing. Bush promised to stay engaged with U.S. partners in the Middle East and Europe and keep Obama updated. Obama is receiving the same intelligence reports on Gaza that Bush is.

Rice has spoken to both Obama and his choice for secretary of state, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, about the situation at least once in the last week. Obama and Clinton have remained mum out of deference to Bush, who will be in office until Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

source : news.yahoo.com

Motorists’ habits spur call for tax increases

WASHINGTON – Motorists are driving less and buying less gasoline, which means fuel taxes aren’t raising enough money to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs.

That has the federal commission that oversees financing for transportation talking about increasing the federal fuel tax.

A 50 percent increase in gasoline and diesel fuel taxes is being urged by the commission to finance highway construction and repair until the government devises another way for motorists to pay for using public roads.

The National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing, a 15-member panel created by Congress, is the second group in a year to call for increasing the current 18.4 cents a gallon federal tax on gasoline and the 24.4 cents a gallon tax on diesel. State fuel taxes vary from state to state.

In a report expected in late January, members of the infrastructure financing commission say they will urge Congress to raise the gas tax by 10 cents a gallon and the diesel tax by 12 cents to 15 cents a gallon. At the same time, the commission will recommend tying the fuel tax rates to inflation.

The commission will also recommend that states raise their fuel taxes and make greater use of toll roads and fees for rush-hour driving.

Although the cost of gasoline has dropped dramatically in recent months, such tax increases could be politically treacherous for Democratic leaders in Congress. A gas tax hike was one of the reasons they lost control of the House and Senate in the 1994 elections. President-elect Barack Obama has expressed concern about raising fuel taxes in the current economic climate.

But commission members said the government must find more road and bridge building money somewhere.

“I’m not excited about a gas tax increase, but the reality is our current gas tax doesn’t pay for upkeep of the system we have now,” said Adrian Moore, vice president of the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank in Los Angeles, and a member of the highway revenue commission. “We can either let the roads go to hell or we can pay more.”

The dilemma for Congress is that highway and transit programs are dependent for revenue on fuel taxes that are not sustainable. Many Americans are driving less and switching to more fuel-efficient cars and trucks, and a shift to new fuels and technologies like plug-in hybrid electric cars will further erode gasoline sales.

According to a draft of the financing commission’s recommendations, the nation needs to move to a new system that taxes motorists according to how much they use roads.

“Most if not all of the commissioners have a strong belief and commitment that we need a fundamental transformation of the current system,” said commission chairman Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a technology policy think tank in Washington.

A study by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies estimated that the annual gap between revenues and the investment needed to improve highway and transit systems was about $105 billion in 2007, and will increase to $134 billion in 2017 under current trends.

Projected shortfalls in revenue led the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, in a report issued in January 2008, to call for an increase of as much as 40 cents a gallon in the gas tax, phased in over five years.

Charles Whittington, chairman of the American Trucking Associations, which supports a fuel tax increase as long as the money goes to highway projects, said Congress may decide to disguise a fuel tax hike as a surcharge to combat climate change.

Transportation is responsible for about a third of all U.S. carbon emissions created by burning fossil fuels. Traffic congestion wastes an estimated 2.9 billion gallons of fuel a year. Less congestion would reduce greenhouse gases and dependence on foreign oil.

“Instead of calling it a gas tax, call it a carbon tax,” Whittington said.

Bottlenecks around the nation cost the trucking industry about 243 million lost truck hours and about $7.8 billion per year, according to the commission.

source : news.yahoo.com

NASA reports graphic details of Columbia deaths

WASHINGTON – Seat restraints, pressure suits and helmets of the doomed crew of the space shuttle Columbia didn’t work well, leading to “lethal trauma” as the out-of-control ship lost pressure and broke apart, killing all seven astronauts, a new NASA report says. At least one crew member was alive and pushing buttons for half a minute after a first loud alarm sounded, as he futilely tried to right Columbia during that disastrous day Feb. 1, 2003.

In fact, by that time, there was nothing anyone could have done to survive as the fatally damaged shuttle streaked across Texas to a landing in Florida what would never take place.

But NASA scrutinizes the final minutes of the shuttle tragedy in a new 400-page report released Tuesday. The agency hopes to help engineers design a new shuttle replacement capsule more capable of surviving an accident. An internal NASA team recommends 30 changes based on Columbia, many of them aimed at pressurization suits, helmets and seatbelts.

As was already known, the astronauts died either from lack of oxygen during depressurization or from hitting something as the spacecraft spun violently out of control. The report said it wasn’t clear which of those events killed them.

And in the case of the helmets and other gear, three crew members weren’t wearing gloves, which provide crucial protection from depressurization. One wasn’t in the seat, one wasn’t wearing a helmet and several were not fully strapped in. The gloves were off because they are too bulky to do certain tasks and there is too little time to prepare for re-entry, the report notes.

Had all those procedures been followed, the astronauts might have lived longer and been able to take more actions, but they still wouldn’t have survived, the report says.

The new report comes five years after an independent investigation panel issued its own exhaustive analysis on Columbia, but it focused heavily on the cause of the accident and the culture of NASA.

The new document lists five “events” that were each potentially lethal to the crew: Loss of cabin pressure just before or as the cabin broke up; crew members, unconscious or already dead, crashing into objects in the module; being thrown from their seats and the module; exposure to a near vacuum at 100,000 feet; and hitting the ground.

Columbia disintegrated as it returned to Earth at the end of its space mission. The accident was caused by a hole in the shuttle’s left wing from a piece of foam insulation that smashed into it at launch. The breach in the wing brought it down upon its return to Earth. Killed in the disaster were commander Rick Husband, pilot William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, and Ilan Ramon of Israel.

A timeline of what was happening in crew compartment shows that the first loud master alarm — from a failure in control jets — would have rung at least four seconds before the shuttle went out of control.

Twenty-six seconds later either Husband or McCool — in the upper deck with two other astronauts — “was conscious and able to respond to events that were occurring on board.”

Shortly after that, the crew cabin depressurized, “the first event of lethal potential.” That would have caused “loss of consciousness” and lack of oxygen. It took 41 seconds for complete loss of pressure.

Dr. Jonathan Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon whose astronaut wife, Laurel, died aboard Columbia, praised NASA’s leadership for releasing the report “even though it says, in some ways, you guys didn’t do a great job.

“I guess the thing I’m surprised about, if anything, is that (the report) actually got out,” said Clark, who was a member of the team that wrote it. “There were so many forces” that didn’t want to produce the report because it would again put the astronauts’ families in the media spotlight.

Some of the recommendations already are being applied to the next-generation spaceship being designed to take astronauts to the moon and Mars, said Clark, who now works for the National Space Biomedical Research Institute at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Kirstie McCool Chadwick, sister of pilot William McCool, said a copy of the report arrived at her Florida home by FedEx Tuesday morning but that she had not read it.

“We’ve moved on,” Chadwick said. “I’ll read it. But it’s private. It’s our business … Our family has moved on from the accident and we don’t want to reopen wounds.

__

Correspondent Mike Schneider in Orlando, Fla., contributed to this report.

SOURCE : NEWS.YAHOO.COM

Some stations to reach fewer viewers with digital (AP)

WASHINGTON – Nearly a fifth of the nation’s full-power television stations will no longer reach at least 2 percent of viewers now covered by their existing analog signals after they switch to digital broadcasts in February, federal regulators say.

The Federal Communications Commission report comes amid mounting concerns that some consumers who rely on analog-only television sets could lose some or all over-the-air broadcast channels following the Feb. 17 digital transition even if they have purchased and hooked up digital converter boxes.

That’s because many television stations will shift their broadcast footprints with the mandatory transition by changing transmitter locations, antenna patterns or power levels. The FCC is not requiring television stations to replicate their analog coverage.

Some viewers could also lose signals because of what’s known as the digital “cliff effect.” Unlike analog signals, digital broadcasts either come in clear or not at all, meaning that those on the fringes of analog coverage areas will lose that reception entirely after the transition. Currently, they can still get fuzzy analog signals.

Some viewers may therefore need more powerful antennas — in addition to converter boxes — to continue receiving certain channels.

In a report released late Tuesday, the FCC said 319 of the nation’s 1,749 full-power television stations, or 18 percent, will have a digital signal that reaches at least 2 percent fewer viewers than their current analog broadcasts.

Those numbers do not reflect viewers who will continue to receive channels after the transition because they subscribe to cable or satellite service — roughly 85 percent of viewers overall — or rely on so-called “translators” or repeaters to get reception.

What’s more, many stations will be gaining viewers elsewhere even as they lose some of their existing viewers. About half of those 319 stations will reach more people overall after the transition.

Other stations will also reach fewer existing viewers, but below the 2 percent threshold. All told, 196 stations, or 11 percent of the 1,749 full-power TV stations, will reach viewers overall, while the rest will see gains.

Broadcasters can take a number of steps to restore service for those who may lose signals. Options include using translators or “fill-in” stations that operate on a different channel, using another station’s digital spectrum to retransmit a signal, maximizing the station’s power, changing the station’s channel or changing its antenna pattern.

The National Association of Broadcasters had no comment on the FCC report.

The transition from analog to digital broadcasting is expected to free up valuable spectrum that can be used to deliver high-speed Internet access and other commercial wireless services and to connect police officers, fire fighters and other emergency workers.

Earlier this month, Congress passed a law requiring analog broadcasts of public safety announcements and information about the digital transition for 30 days following the transition. The information to be broadcast will include details on how consumers can convert their television sets to receive digital signals.

source : news.yahoo.com

Coal for Christmas: Brooklyn man’s pardon revoked

WASHINGTON – The pardons President George W. Bush granted this week couldn’t have been better Christmas gifts if Santa himself had delivered them.

But a Brooklyn, N.Y., man, Isaac Robert Toussie, received the legal equivalent of a lump of coal.

Toussie, convicted of making false statements to the Housing and Urban Development Department and of mail fraud, was among 19 people pardoned Tuesday.

But after learning in news reports that Toussie’s father had donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Republican Party a few months ago, as well as other information, the White House issued an extraordinary statement Wednesday saying the president was reversing his decision on Toussie’s case.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said the decision to revoke the pardon — a step unheard of in recent memory — was “based on information that has subsequently come to light,” including the extent and nature of Toussie’s prior criminal offenses. She also said neither the White House counsel’s office nor the president had been aware of a political contribution by Toussie’s father that “might create an appearance of impropriety.”

“Given that, this was the prudent thing to do,” she said.

The new information came to the White House’s attention from news reports, Perino said.

A story in the New York Daily News said Toussie’s father, Robert, donated $28,500 to the national Republican Party in April — just months before Toussie’s pardon petition.

The counsel’s office generally doesn’t include vetting of political contributions in its reviews on such matters, as that would be “highly inappropriate on many levels,” she said. The White House decision on Toussie had come without a recommendation from the pardon attorney, Ronald L. Rodgers, as Toussie’s request for a pardon came less than five years after completion of his sentence, so that eliminated another step in the review process.

The Daily News story on Wednesday, and others in Newsday and on blogs, shed light on Toussie’s record. He pleaded guilty for lying to HUD and mail fraud, admitting that he falsified finances of prospective homebuyers seeking HUD mortgages. He was sentenced to five months in prison and five months’ house arrest, a $10,000 fine and no restitution, the Daily News reported.

In another case, Toussie pleaded guilty to having a friend send his local county a letter that falsely inflated property values.

The Daily News located a lawyer representing hundreds of ex-customers who have sued Toussie in federal court, accusing him of luring poor, minority homebuyers into buying overpriced homes with mortgages that had hidden costs.

The attorney, Peter E. Seidman, said Wednesday that news of the pardon was “gut-wrenching for his clients” and left him “baffled.”

“I am glad somebody at the White House woke up,” he said in an interview.

Maxine D. Wilson, 42, bought one of Toussie’s homes on Long Island in 1996. She later sued Toussie, claiming the house started to fall apart after she moved in in 1997. She said she was shocked when she learned Bush was going to pardon Toussie.

“I was angry at how money, power and influence seemed to trump justice,” she said. But on Wednesday, she said she felt “somebody paid attention. Somebody stepped back and made us feel equal.”

The Justice Department advises the president on who qualifies for pardons. Only people who have waited five years after their conviction or release from prison can apply for a pardon under the department’s guidelines. Criminals are required to begin serving time, or otherwise exhaust any appeals, before they can be considered for sentence commutation.

But the president can forgive people outside that process if he chooses. Under the Constitution, the president’s power to issue pardons is absolute and cannot be overruled — meaning he can forgive anyone he wants, at any time.

Perino said she did not know of another instance of a pardon reversal in “recent memory,” but that the White House couldn’t say for sure it never had happened before.

“The counsel to the president reviewed the application and believed, based on the information known to him at the time, that it was a meritorious application,” she said. Bush now believes the case should rest with the pardon attorney.

Bradford Berenson, an associate White House counsel during Bush’s first term and Isaac Toussie’s lawyer, said in a statement that his client remained confident the pardon attorney would grant his request.

“Isaac Toussie is deeply grateful that both the counsel to the president and the president himself found Mr. Toussie’s pardon application to have sufficient merit to be granted,” Berenson said. “Mr. Toussie looks forward to the pardon attorney’s expeditious review of the application.”

Berenson declined to elaborate further on the case and its developments.

Federal Election Commission records show a number of donations to Republicans this year by Robert Toussie and by a Laura Toussie who lists the same address. Between them, they gave $4,600 to Minnesota GOP Sen. Norm Coleman and another $4,600 to Oregon Republican Sen. Gordon Smith, all on Oct. 15. Coleman is locked in a still-undecided race against Democrat Al Franken, and Smith lost in November to Democrat Jeff Merkley.

On Oct. 30, Robert Toussie also gave $2,300 to GOP Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia.

His contribution to the Republican National Committee came as part of a fundraiser in March for GOP presidential candidate John McCain. Out of a total donation of $30,800 by Toussie, $2,300 went to McCain’s campaign and $28,500 went to the RNC.

Doug Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University and a close follower of presidential clemency decisions, said the White House decision strikes him as unprecedented, but he said it’s not inconceivable that it had happened in the past.

“It’s, at best, embarrassing. At worst, it’s an extraordinary example of this White House’s ability to bollix up one bit of presidential authority that he clearly has,” Berman said.

With the Toussie reversal, Bush has granted a total of 189 pardons and nine commutations. That’s fewer than half as many as Presidents Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan issued during their two-term tenures.

___

Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann in Washington and Adam Goldman in New York contributed to this story.

source : news.yahoo.com

Homeland Security forecasts 5-year terror threats

WASHINGTON – The terrorism threat to the United States over the next five years will be driven by instability in the Middle East and Africa, persistent challenges to border security and increasing Internet savvy, says a new intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press.

Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks are considered the most dangerous threats that could be carried out against the U.S. But those threats are also the most unlikely because it is so difficult for al-Qaida and similar groups to acquire the materials needed to carry out such plots, according to the internal Homeland Security Threat Assessment for the years 2008-2013.

The al-Qaida terrorist network continues to focus on U.S. attack targets vulnerable to massive economic losses, casualties and political “turmoil,” the assessment said.

Earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction remains “the highest priority at the federal level.” Speaking to reporters on Dec. 3, Chertoff explained that more people, such as terrorists, will learn how to make dirty bombs, biological and chemical weapons. “The other side is going to continue to learn more about doing things,” he said.

Marked “for official use only,” the report does not specify its audience, but the assessments typically go to law enforcement, intelligence officials and the private sector. When determining threats, intelligence officials consider loss of life, economic and psychological consequences.

Intelligence officials also predict that in the next five years, terrorists will try to conduct a destructive biological attack. Officials are concerned about the possibility of infections to thousands of U.S. citizens, overwhelming regional health care systems.

There could also be dire economic impacts caused by workers’ illnesses and deaths. Officials are most concerned about biological agents stolen from labs or other storage facilities, such as anthrax.

“The threat of terrorism and the threat of extremist ideologies has not abated,” Chertoff said in his year-end address on Dec. 18. “This threat has not evaporated, and we can’t turn the page on it.”

These high-consequence threats are not the only kind of challenges that will confront the U.S. over the next five years.

Terrorists will continue to try to evade U.S. border security measures and place operatives inside the mainland to carry out attacks, the 38-page assessment said. It also said that they may pose as refugees or asylum seekers or try to exploit foreign travel channels such as the visa waiver program, which allows citizens of 34 countries to enter the U.S. without visas.

Long waits for immigration and more restrictive European refugee and asylum programs will cause more foreigners to try to enter the U.S. illegally. Increasing numbers of Iraqis are expected to migrate to the U.S. in the next five years; and refugees from Somalia and Sudan could increase because of conflicts in those countries, the assessment said.

Because there is a proposed cap of 12,000 refugees from Africa, officials expect more will try to enter the U.S. illegally as well. Officials predict the same scenario for refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Intelligence officials predict the pool of radical Islamists within the U.S. will increase over the next five years due partly to the ease of online recruiting means. Officials foresee “a wave of young, self-identified Muslim ‘terrorist wannabes’ who aspire to carry out violent acts.”

The U.S. has already seen some examples of these homegrown terrorists. Recently five Muslim immigrants were convicted of plotting to massacre U.S. soldiers at Fort Dix in a case the government said demonstrated its post-Sept. 11 determination to stop terrorist attacks in the planning stages.

The Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah does not have a known history of fomenting attacks inside the U.S., but that could change if there is some kind of “triggering” event, the Homeland assessment cautions.

A 2008 Interagency Intelligence Committee on Terrorism assessment said that Hezbollah members based in the U.S. do local fundraising through charity projects and criminal activity, like money laundering, smuggling, drug trafficking, fraud and extortion, according to the homeland security assessment.

In addition, the cyber terror threat is expected to increase over the next five years, as hacking tools become more sophisticated and available. “Youthful, Internet-savvy extremists might apply their online acumen to conduct cyber attacks rather than offer themselves up as operatives to conduct physical attacks,” according to the assessment.

Currently, Islamic terrorists, including al-Qaida, would like to conduct cyber attacks, but they lack the capability to do so, the assessment said. The large-scale attacks that are on al-Qaida’s wishlist — such as disrupting a major city’s water or power systems — require sophisticated cyber capabilities that the terrorist group does not possess.

But al-Qaida has the capability to hire sophisticated hackers to carry out these kinds of attacks, the assessment said. And federal officials believe that in the next three to five years, al-Qaida could direct or inspire cyber attacks that target the U.S. economy.

Counterterrorism expert Frank Cilluffo says the typical cyber attack would not achieve al-Qaida’s main goal of inflicting mass devastation with its resulting widespread media coverage. However, al-Qaida is likely to continue to rely on the Internet to spread its message, said Cilluffo, who runs the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University.

Officials also predict that domestic terrorists in the forms of radical animal rights and environmental extremists will become more adept with explosives and increase their use of arson attacks.

source : news.yahoo.com

Federal judges call for higher pay

WASHINGTON – Earlier this year, Martin Jenkins took what looked like a step down the career ladder. Jenkins traded his lifetime appointment as a federal trial judge for a seat on a California state appeals court.

In his new job, Jenkins must periodically face the voters, but he reaped one immediate benefit — a 20 percent jump in his annual salary.

Jenkins’ case highlights what Chief Justice John Roberts and many other federal judges have identified as an emerging crisis — the failure to pay judges enough to keep them on the job and lure talented lawyers from private practice to the federal bench.

Not everyone sees it the way Roberts does. Committees in the House and Senate this year voted nearly 30 percent salary hikes for federal judges, but neither house of Congress acted on the measure.

Judges last received a substantial pay raise in 1991, although they have been given increases designed to keep pace with inflation in most years since then.

For 2009, though, judges are alone among federal workers — members of Congress included — in not getting a cost-of-living adjustment. Lawmakers get their COLA (cost-of-living allowance) automatically — $4,700 for 2009 — but they refused to authorize the same 2.8 percent bump for judges.

“Federal judges are currently under-compensated because Congress has repeatedly failed to adjust judicial salaries in response to inflation,” said James C. Duff, director of the Administrative Office of the U.S Courts. “By its failure to do so once again, Congress only exacerbates a long-standing problem it must someday address.”

Duff acknowledged that the current economic turmoil makes the judges’ case harder. After all, federal trial judges are paid $169,300 a year, have lifetime job security and can retire at full salary at age 65 if they have 15 years in the job. Appellate judges make more, ranging up to Roberts’ salary of $217,400.

But those salaries, large as they are, are much smaller than what judges’ peers make in private practice. Attorney General-designate Eric Holder said his partnership at the law firm of Covington & Burling earned him $2.1 million this year. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who retired as a federal judge in 2006 after 18 years, made nearly $2 million in 21 months at a New York law firm.

Timothy Lewis resigned from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia in 1999 at the age of 44, after eight years as a federal judge. Money was a consideration.

“It’s almost embarrassing to say you can’t survive on $170,000 or $180,000, whatever it was that I was being paid,” said Lewis, now in private practice in Washington. “That’s not true, of course. But it just did not seem conducive to the lifestyle I was trying to provide for my children in private schools and college tuitions, which I’m paying now.” Appellate judges made $145,000 in 1999.

Yet even with the wide gap in pay between judgeships and private practice, only a handful of judges are leaving before they are eligible for retirement. In the past two years, seven judges younger than 65 quit. Of those, Mark Filip was appointed deputy attorney general of the United States. Another judge, Edward Nottingham, resigned amid an ethics controversy.

Jenkins, who did not return calls for this article, was confirmed as a California Court of Appeal judge in the San Francisco division in April, 10 years after President Bill Clinton appointed him to the federal bench.

Jenkins, 54, packed up his office in the federal courthouse and moved across the street to a state court building. The trip was worth $35,000 a year at current levels. Another Clinton appointee in California, Nora Manella, made a similar move in 2006.

David Levi also was a federal trial judge in California who gave up his seat and the prospect of judges’ retirement pay in 2007. Levi became dean at Duke University’s law school in Durham, N.C.

He was 55 when he left, with 16 years experience as a judge, but still 10 years shy of eligibility for retirement.

Levi said he left because of the opportunity to be dean, but thought hard about giving up his pension rights. “It was significant to me that I’d be paid more as dean of the law school,” he said. “That made up some of the difference.”

More important than retaining experienced judges is the growing possibility that lawyers will pass up the chance to be federal judges until their children are grown.

“I think we will see people who are prepared to be considered in their late 50s and early 60s, but who will decline to be considered earlier than that because it’s too expensive,” Levi said.

University of Chicago law professor Eric Posner questions the case for raising judges’ pay.

Posner said if judges were underpaid, there should be trouble recruiting them in the first place and then retaining them.

“Existing judges could make more money if they retire, maybe three to four times their salary, and yet they don’t retire in great numbers,” Posner said. He recently wrote a paper with fellow law professors Stephen Choi of New York University and G. Mitu Gulati of Duke, raising doubts about giving judges more money.

Judges have better job security than almost anyone and good retirement pay, Posner said. “For many people, it’s more rewarding and less stressful to be a judge,” Posner said. His father, Richard Posner, is a judge on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, and also skeptical of the need to increase pay.

source : news.yahoo.com

For Obama, huge challenges vs. big assets

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama will inherit two wars and the worst economic conditions in three generations when he takes the oath of office on Jan. 20. Ironically, that challenge might be a blessing for the president-elect — unemployment is so high and consumer confidence so low that even modest improvements will let him claim progress.

Obama also brings extraordinary assets to the task.

The president-elect enjoys high approval ratings, well-regarded Cabinet appointees and a smooth running transition operation that grew almost seamlessly from his successful campaign team. Fellow Democrats will hold solid House and Senate majorities to help move his agenda through Congress.

But political veterans and presidential scholars say Obama can’t waste time. He must decide which major issues to tackle in his first 100 days in office, when his political capital will be at its peak. His powers and popularity might wane as he looks to end the Iraq war and enact repairs to an economic system that has ravaged jobs, home ownership, retirement accounts and Americans’ optimism.

“His goal is to strike a sustainable balance between the politics of sequencing and the politics of urgency,” said William Galston, a domestic policy assistant in President Bill Clinton’s administration. He said Obama must determine “what are the risks of overreaching versus underreaching.”

So far, Obama has given few hints about which goals might have to wait. Asked recently about tougher regulations on auto emissions and reinstating an offshore drilling ban, for example, he said his advisers will review them “in the weeks to come.” And earlier this month, he told reporters he had not decided “how we’re going to deal with the rollback of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.”

Presidential historians say Obama will have to set priorities soon, even if he does it discreetly in hopes of avoiding confrontations with key constituency groups. On overhauling health care, for example, Princeton historian Fred I. Greenstein said Obama might create study groups and commissions that will push it to the back burner without leaving the impression it’s being ignored.

Greenstein, who has written several books on the presidency, said he gives Obama high marks for running his transition with the same brand of assertive self-confidence he showed during the campaign. The transition has been characterized, he said, by “a very strong sense of maintaining control and professing to be waiting in the wings but filling up all the presidential space, and doing things in textbook order.”

Obama’s first high-stakes policy choices will involve a costly stimulus plan, which might be ready for his signature within days of his taking office. His aides are working with congressional leaders on a package that could spend $850 billion over two years, much of it on infrastructure, schools and other construction-heavy projects.

He must pick winners and losers from scores of interest groups scrambling for a piece of the stimulus pie. Some want billions of dollars for energy programs, including ethanol pipelines, nuclear power plants and “green” projects that use renewable fuels. Others want mass transit help, cell telephone towers, travel and tourism marketing, and countless tax breaks.

“The fiscal stimulus bill gives him a tremendous opportunity to work with Congress quickly to produce a very significant piece of legislation” that helps the economy and “makes a down payment on some policies central to his agenda,” said Thomas E. Mann, a government scholar at the Brookings Institution.

Meanwhile, Mann said, Obama also can launch discussions of how to revise energy and health care policies “without setting specific dates for completion.”

Issues that cannot wait, however, include the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama has repeatedly said he wants to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months, although he has left himself some wiggle room. Top military leaders advocate a somewhat slower schedule, and the new president will have to resolve the matter.

Obama wants to increase the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, which might draw more public attention and controversy if the economic news were not so dominant.

For now, at least, Obama enjoys strong public support. Political insiders say his Cabinet picks are savvy and substantial. A recent AP-GfK poll found that nearly three in four Americans approve of how Obama has handled the transition. That’s about the same level of support his two immediate predecessors enjoyed.

But there is no guarantee that Obama’s actions will reverse the dramatic drops in employment and the stock market, or the crises in the financial and automaking sectors. With billions of taxpayer dollars pouring in, Americans may want results soon, and the new president’s popularity could rapidly diminish if they don’t materialize.

“I find it hard to believe that, no matter how skillful he is, he can sustain this level of hope and support,” said Galston, the former Clinton aide. “To govern is to choose,” he said, and every time a president chooses, some groups are disappointed.

source : news.yahoo.com

US urging calm over possible Pakistan troop moves

WASHINGTON – U.S. officials watched with growing concern Friday as reports suggested Pakistan was massing troops to the India border. Such a move raises double-barreled worries: A possible confrontation between two nuclear powers and a shift by the Pakistani military away from battling the Taliban along its western Afghan edge.

“We hope that both sides will avoid taking steps that will unnecessarily raise tensions during these already tense times,” said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

U.S. military leaders have been urging both India and Pakistan to exercise restraint in the wake of the deadly Mumbai attacks that many believe originated with Pakistan-based militants.

On Friday, U.S. intelligence and military officials were still trying to determine if the reported troop movements were true, and, if so, what Pakistan’s intent may be. And they cautioned that the reports may be exaggerated, aimed more at delivering a message than dispatching forces.

Officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

U.S. defense leaders have been worried about a new flare-up between Pakistan and India ever since the coordinated terror attacks in India’s financial capital of Mumbai last month that killed 164 people.

India has demanded that Pakistan arrest the perpetrators behind the Mumbai attacks. It says they are members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a militant group widely believed created by Pakistani intelligence in the 1980s and used to fight Indian-rule in the disputed Kashmir region.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in Pakistan twice this month, and as many as seven times in the past year. In recent meetings with senior Pakistani leaders he has urged restraint and encouraged both sides to find ways to work together.

One senior military official said Friday that the U.S. is monitoring the issue, but still could not confirm assertions from Pakistani intelligence officials that some 20,000 troops were on the move, heading to the Indian border.

A key concern for U.S. officials is that some of those troops may have been stationed along the volatile Afghan border, and were being diverted to the Indian side.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Mullen, who have both been in the region in recent weeks, have expressed the hope that Pakistan would stay focused on fighting militants in its mountainous northwestern Federally Administered Tribal Areas, or FATA.

Insurgents there have proved increasingly troublesome, launching attacks into Afghanistan, disrupting supply routes for the Afghan, U.S. and coalition militaries, and providing training and hiding places for the Taliban, al-Qaida and others. It also has long been suspected that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has been hiding there.

Senior defense officials said the U.S. is watching the situation very closely since officials would prefer that the Pakistanis remain focused on battling insurgents within their own country, including along the border.

U.S. Military leaders in Afghanistan earlier this month said they had seen no indications that Pakistan was shifting its focus away from the Afghan border.

There was also no indication Friday that either Gates or Mullen had reached out to their counterparts in Pakistan since these latest reports had surfaced.

Johndroe added that, “We continue to be in close contact with both countries to urge closer cooperation in investigating the Mumbai attacks and in fighting terrorism generally.”

___

Associated Press Writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report.

source : news.yahoo.com

Obama is most admired American: poll

WASHINGTON (AFP) – President-elect Barack Obama has replaced US President George W. Bush as the most admired man in America, according to a poll published Friday in the USA Today newspaper.

One-third of the 1,008 respondents surveyed named Obama as their first or second choice, with Bush falling to a distant second after seven years as the country’s most-admired man.

Thirty-two percent of respondents chose Obama against five percent for Bush. It was the first time a president-elect topped the poll since Dwight Eisenhower in 1952.

The poll was conducted over telephone between December 12 and 14.

The newspaper reported that the only higher support in the history of the survey was Bush’s 39 percent rating in 2001, just a few months after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Among men, John McCain — Obama’s defeated Republican rival for the presidency — ranked third and three others tied for fourth place: Pope Benedict XVI, the Reverend Billy Graham and former president Bill Clinton.

Hillary Clinton led the list of most-admired woman at 20 percent — a spot she’s held for 13 of the past 16 years.

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who catapulted into the limelight after McCain named her Republican vice-presidential candidate, was a distant second at 11 percent.

Among women, the president-elect’s wife, Michelle Obama came in fifth place, following talk-show host Oprah Winfrey in third and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in fourth.

The Gallup polling organization has been conducting the phone survey, which has sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points, since 1948.

source : news.yahoo.com

India Travel Alert: Department of State travel advisory for India

WASHINGTON: The Department of State warns U.S. citizens that there is a high threat of terrorism throughout India, and advises U.S. citizens traveling to or already in India to maintain a high level of vigilance and to take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness, especially during the end-of-year holidays until India’s Republic Day, January 26. This Travel Alert expires on January 31, 2009 and replaces that issued on December 4 to provide updated information regarding the security situation.

The November 26 terrorist attack in Mumbai was carried out at venues frequented by Americans. That attack killed 170 persons (including six Americans and 16 other non-Indians) and injured 300. Future attacks may also target public places frequented by Westerners, including in large cities and tourist areas. The State government in Goa has warned against beach parties and large gatherings on beaches and “open spaces” between December 23 and January 5.

The U.S. Mission is concerned that increased political tension between Pakistan and India may further complicate travel in areas near their already-sensitive border. In addition, the Department of Defense has increased its security requirements for all its employees visiting India.

source : jang.com.pk

Bush withdraws 1 of 19 pardons he issued Tuesday

WASHINGTON – President George W. Bush on Wednesday revoked a pardon he had granted only a day before — a step unheard of in recent memory — after learning in news reports of political contributions to Republicans by the man’s father and other information.

Bush pardoned 19 people on Tuesday, including Isaac Robert Toussie of Brooklyn, N.Y., who had been convicted of making false statements to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and of mail fraud. On Wednesday, the White House issued an extraordinary statement saying the president was reversing his decision in Toussie’s case.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said the new decision was “based on information that has subsequently come to light,” including on the extent and nature of Toussie’s prior criminal offenses. She also said that neither the White House counsel’s office nor the president had been aware of a political contribution by Toussie’s father that “might create an appearance of impropriety.”

“Given that, this was the prudent thing to do,” she said.

The new information came to the White House’s attention from news reports, Perino said.

A story in the New York Daily News said Toussie’s father, Robert, donated $28,500 to the national Republican Party in April. It came just months before Toussie’s pardon petition, the newspaper said.

The counsel’s office generally doesn’t include vetting of political contributions in its reviews on such matters, as that would be “highly inappropriate on many levels,” she said. The White House decision on Toussie had come without a recommendation from the pardon attorney, Ronald L. Rodgers, as Toussie’s request for a pardon came less than five years after completion of his sentence, so that eliminated another step in the review process.

The Justice Department advises the president on who qualifies for pardons. Only people who have waited five years after their conviction or release from prison can apply for a pardon under the department’s guidelines. Criminals are required to begin serving time, or otherwise exhaust any appeals, before they can be considered for sentence commutation.

But the president can forgive people outside that process if he chooses. Under the Constitution, the president’s power to issue pardons is absolute and cannot be overruled — meaning he can forgive anyone he wants, at any time.

Perino said she did not know of another instance of a pardon reversal in “recent memory,” but that the White House couldn’t say for sure it never had happened before.

“The counsel to the president reviewed the application and believed, based on the information known to him at the time, that it was a meritorious application,” she said. Bush now believes the case should rest with the pardon attorney.

The Daily News story on Wednesday, and another in Newsday and on blogs, shed light on Toussie’s record. He pleaded guilty for lying to HUD and mail fraud, admitting that he falsified finances of prospective homebuyers seeking HUD mortgages. He was sentenced to five months in prison and five months’ house arrest, a $10,000 fine and no restitution, the Daily News reported.

In another case, Toussie pleaded guilty to having a friend send his local county a letter that falsely inflated property values.

The Daily News also located a lawyer representing hundreds of ex-customers who have sued Toussie in federal court, accusing him of luring poor, minority homebuyers into buying overpriced homes with mortgages that had hidden costs.

The attorney, Peter E. Seidman, said Wednesday that news of the pardon was “gut wrenching for his clients” and left him “baffled.”

“I am glad somebody at the White House woke up,” he said in an interview.

Maxine D. Wilson, 42, bought one of Toussie’s homes on Long Island in 1996. She later sued Toussie, claiming the house started to fall apart after she moved in in 1997. She said she was shocked when she learned Bush was going to pardon Toussie.

“I was angry at how money, power and influence seemed to trump justice,” she said. But on Wednesday, she said, “I feel today that somebody paid attention. Somebody stepped back and made us feel equal.”

Federal Election Commission records show a number of donations to Republicans this year by Robert Toussie and by a Laura Toussie who lists the same address. Between them, they gave $4,600 to Minnesota GOP Sen. Norm Coleman and another $4,600 to Oregon Republican Sen. Gordon Smith, all on Oct. 15. Coleman is locked in a still-undecided race against Democrat Al Franken, and Smith lost in November to Democrat Jeff Merkley.

On Oct. 30, Robert Toussie also gave $2,300 to GOP Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia.

His contribution to the Republican National Committee came as part of a fundraiser in March for GOP presidential candidate John McCain. Out of a total donation of $30,800 by Toussie, $2,300 went to McCain’s campaign and $28,500 went to the RNC.

Doug Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University and a close follower of presidential clemency decisions, said the White House decision strikes him as unprecedented, but he said it’s not inconceivable that it had happened in the past.

“It’s, at best, embarrassing. At worst, it’s an extraordinary example of this White House’s ability to bollox up one bit of presidential authority that he clearly has,” Berman said.

Bradford Berenson, an associate White House counsel during Bush’s first term and Isaac Toussie’s lawyer, said in a statement that his client remained confident the pardon attorney would grant his request.

“Isaac Toussie is deeply grateful that both the counsel to the president and the president himself found Mr. Toussie’s pardon application to have sufficient merit to be granted,” Berenson said. “Mr. Toussie looks forward to the pardon attorney’s expeditious review of the application.”

Berenson declined to elaborate further on the case and its developments.

With the Toussie reversal, Bush has granted a total of 189 pardons and nine commutations. That’s fewer than half as many as Presidents Clinton or Reagan issued during their two-term tenures.

___

Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann in Washington and Adam Goldman in New York contributed to this story.

source : news.yahoo.com

SEC chief defends response to economic turmoil

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox, responding to heavy criticism, said in an interview published on Wednesday he takes pride in his response to the U.S. financial crisis.

“What we have done in this current turmoil is stay calm, which has been our greatest contribution — not being impulsive, not changing the rules willy-nilly, but going through a very professional and orderly process that takes into account unintended consequences and gives ample notice to market participants,” Cox told The Washington Post.

This caution “has really been a signal achievement for the SEC,” said Cox.

“When these gale-force winds hit our markets, there were panicked cries to change any and every rule of the marketplace: ‘Let’s try this. Let’s try that.’ What was needed was a steady hand,” he said.

The SEC, created after the 1929 stock market crash to police markets and restore investor confidence, has come under heavy criticism after the Wall Street meltdown and financial scandals exposed lapses in its oversight.

Cox last week acknowledged that the SEC had failed to detect the alleged $50 billion fraud by disgraced Wall Street investment manager Bernard Madoff, despite many warnings.

Cox told The Washington Post the biggest mistake of his tenure was agreeing in September to an extraordinary three-week ban on short selling of financial company stocks.

Cox told the newspaper he had been under intense pressure from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to take this action and did so reluctantly.

They “were of the view that if we did not act and act at that instant, these financial institutions could fail as a result and there would be nothing left to save,” Cox said.

Cox, a former California Republican congressman, argued that the SEC has carefully defined responsibilities and that it was unfair to blame it for every problem on Wall Street.

Cox became SEC chairman in mid-2005. He plans to step down early next year before his five-year term expires.

President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Mary Schapiro, chief executive of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and a former SEC commissioner, to replace him.

(Reporting by Joanne Allen; Editing by Alan Elsner)

source : news.yahoo.com

Will Obama’s stimulus work fast enough?

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama’s plan for economic revival puts a big emphasis on public works projects. It also would rely on tax cuts.

But with the nation bruised by recession, with hundreds of thousands of jobs vanishing monthly, Obama’s plan raises an urgent question: Will his remedies work fast enough?

The answer won’t be clear for months or longer. In the meantime, pressure on the Obama team to deliver help quickly is intensifying.

At least as designed, the Obama plan, like a calibrated drug regimen, aims to deliver both short- and long-term relief.

The short-term help would flow partly from tax cuts of $1,000 for couples and $500 for individuals, costing about $140 billion over 2009-2010. The Obama team, said two congressional Democratic aides familiar with the discussions, will likely deliver those tax cuts by reducing the tax withheld from paychecks.

This would put more money in paychecks, unlike the lump-sum rebates issued earlier this year. Many people used those rebates to pay down debt, rather than spending them as the administration had hoped.

In addition, states would get up to $200 billion over two years for Medicaid health coverage for the poor and to narrow state budget gaps, which are forcing layoffs and cuts in services. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity to candidly discuss the evolving plan.

Also in the short term, the nation’s governors are pushing a wish list of $136 billion in jobs-producing public works projects — chiefly road and bridge repairs — that they say are ready to go.

But even if they are, the Obama administration faces a much harder task, too: creating jobs that won’t disappear once a bridge is fixed. What’s needed are millions of permanent jobs that would put legions of laid-off people back to work for years to come.

It’s too soon to know whether many of the 2.5 million jobs the president-elect has said he intends to “save or create” within his first two years would become permanent. And with economic signs worsening, Obama wants to raise the goal to 3 million jobs, a presidential transition official said.

For now, given the depth of the recession, the Obama plan focuses on the early months.

By embracing projects already in the pipeline and stressing infrastructure repairs, parts of the plan could roll out soon — perhaps within weeks — creating jobs and stirring economic activity. That way, the new administration also buys time to allocate money for other projects that might take years to complete.

“Looking after the existing infrastructure is not as exciting as cutting ribbons on new projects, but it could generate jobs quickly,” Martin Baily, who served as President Bill Clinton’s top economist and is now at the Brookings Institution, told Congress.

Economists say the combination of tax cuts and infrastructure spending could deliver a quick one-two punch against the recession: the faster-acting tax breaks, plus the time-released benefits of infrastructure spending.

“You need a cocktail of drugs to go after this recession,” said Sean Snaith, economics professor at the University of Central Florida. “It needs to be a multipronged attack.”

Obama is proposing a package priced at perhaps $675-$775 billion over two years, his advisers say, though they think add-ons by lawmakers could raise the price to $850 billion. His advisers say an $850 billion plan could generate about 3.2 million jobs by the first quarter of 2011.

Some economists favor an even bigger spending stimulus: up to $1.3 trillion.

Vice President-elect Joe Biden said Tuesday, though, that anyone expecting a bounty of pet projects should think again.

“There will be no earmarks” in the stimulus plan, Biden said at the start of a meeting of Obama’s economic staff, referring to the special-interest projects that lawmakers often attach to legislation.

Obama said his plan would “make the single-largest new investment in our national infrastructure since President Eisenhower established the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s.”

For each $1 invested in infrastructure spending, around $1.60 in economic activity would be generated, according to estimates by some economists.

Put a different way: Peter Morici, economist at the University of Maryland, projects that $100 spent on a bridge or school boosts economic activity by about $200. (That doesn’t count the benefit of improving Americans’ longer-term productivity. For instance, better roads could reduce commuting times or help get goods to customers more efficiently.)

Can tax cuts help rejuvenate the economy? Some are skeptical.

“Most infrastructure spending will create more jobs by year-end 2010 than a tax cut, particularly a temporary tax cut,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “Some of any tax cut will be saved. And some of it will be spent on imported goods, reducing its jobs impact.”

The rap on infrastructure projects as an economic boon has been that they can be too slow to work — at least six or nine months to kick in. But that’s less of an issue now because the economy’s weakness is expected to last for so long — perhaps into 2010 and possibly beyond.

“I think in this case it is right,” said Simon Johnson, former chief economist to the International Monetary Fund and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. “A lot of U.S. infrastructure is run down. Compared to other rich countries, the U.S. is lagging behind.”

Still, timing is tricky. Public works projects need to roll out while the economy is still hurting. If they launch after the economy has rebounded, they could drive up costs and wages and fan inflationary forces. A more philosophical matter is how much the government should be involved in industrial policy — in picking winners and losers.

Obama’s vision of infrastructure goes beyond repairing or building roads and bridges. It includes modernizing schools, boosting high-speed communications networks and installing technology at hospitals and doctors’ offices to electronically access medical records.

URS Corp. and Fluor Corp., which provide engineering and construction services, are among companies that could benefit from an infrastructure initiative, said Heiko Ihle, an analyst at Gabelli & Co. Other firms passed up would likely raise questions about the fairest and most efficient use of taxpayer money.

A more fundamental problem is today’s work force is more skilled and specialized — and in some ways less fluid — than during the 1930s when President Franklin Roosevelt launched the New Deal during the Great Depression. The jobs Obama’s stimulus plan would create wouldn’t likely help laid-off white-collar workers.

“I don’t think it’s realistic to think you’ll see unemployed financial services people and retail clerks flocking to construction,” says Brian Bethune, economist at IHS Global Insight.

“So you have to be careful about not overdoing it and thinking this is going to be the savior of our problems. There are only a certain number of big engineering firms that can do certain big projects and only a certain number of workers skilled in those trades.”

Whatever its ultimate size, the stimulus package will dig the government budget hole ever deeper. The U.S. is on track to hit a record budget deficit of $1 trillion or more for 2009 budget year, which began Oct. 1. That would be more than twice the previous record-high deficit set last year.

Yet despite the swelling costs, economists agree that forceful action with staying power is desperately needed.

“With negative or low economic growth projected well into the future, the economy needs a long-term fix,” said John Taylor, a Stanford economics professor who held a top Treasury Department post in the Bush administration. “We need to worry about the next few years, not just the next few months.”

source : news.yahoo.com

Blagojevich questioning takes up Obama’s time

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama has said all along that neither he nor his team was involved in any eye-popping dealmaking over filling his vacated Senate seat. On Tuesday, Obama’s hand-picked investigator agreed.

“Everybody behaved appropriately,” declared Greg Craig, Obama’s incoming White House counsel and the person asked to conduct the internal inquiry into contacts between the transition team and Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Prosecutors have said Obama is not implicated in the case against Blagojevich, accused of trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder. But the corruption scandal has drained precious energy from Obama’s preparations to take over the White House.

In addition to the time Craig devoted to the internal review that Obama requested, the topic also has surfaced at news conferences intended to highlight key appointments and policy priorities. And Obama himself had to sit down last week in Chicago for an interview by federal investigators, Craig’s report revealed. Accompanying him was lawyer Robert Bauer, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Federal investigators last week also interviewed two top Obama aides, incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. Though Craig completed his review more than a week ago, Obama delayed making it public until those interviews were finished and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald gave his team the go-ahead to put it out.

The inquiry was released in Washington while Obama was vacationing in Hawaii. Though Obama has taken questions on the matter on five occasions since Blagojevich’s Dec. 9 arrest, the president-elect did not make himself available Tuesday to talk about it.

Blagojevich is accused of trying to use his authority as governor to appoint Obama’s Senate replacement to get cash or a lucrative job for himself, starting days before Obama’s Nov. 4 election through Dec. 5. The governor has denied any criminal wrongdoing and has resisted multiple calls for his resignation, including from Obama.

Wiretapped conversations cited in the criminal complaint against Blagojevich were not available to the Obama lawyers who conducted the internal review.

The report states, as Obama has said, that the president-elect had no contact about the seat with the governor or his aides. Further, no one on Obama’s transition team discussed any deals or had any knowledge of deals, Craig’s report said.

Emanuel was the only Obama transition team member who discussed the Senate appointment with Blagojevich or his aides, and those conversations were “totally appropriate and acceptable,” Craig said.

Those with knowledge of the federal investigation have said that Emanuel is not a target in the case. There also is no indication that Jarrett ever was a target, a transition official said. Like Obama, both were accompanied by lawyers for their interviews with the prosecutor’s staff, Gibbs said.

Fitzgerald’s criminal complaint quotes the governor’s conversations with aides, including discussions about swapping the appointment if Obama provided a Cabinet post or an ambassadorship or helped raise millions for a private foundation Blagojevich could tap for personal use.

Obama’s report states that none of Blagojevich’s aides reached out to the president-elect’s staff. The report only notes that Obama friend Eric Whitaker was approached by one of Blagojevich’s top aides to learn “who, if anyone, had the authority to speak for the president-elect” about the Senate appointment.

Obama told Whitaker that “no one was authorized to speak for him” and that “he had no interest in dictating the result of the selection process,” according to the report.

Emanuel had “one or two telephone calls” with Blagojevich and four conversations with John Harris, the governor’s chief of staff, who later resigned after being charged in the federal case, the report says. Craig told reporters Emanuel said he couldn’t be sure it was only one call.

The report said Emanuel had recommended Jarrett for the Senate seat without Obama’s knowledge. Jarrett later accepted a job as a senior White House adviser.

Obama authorized Emanuel to pass on the names of four people he considered to be highly qualified to take over his seat: Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, Illinois Veterans’ Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., the report said.

Others Obama considered to be qualified candidates, including Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Chicago Urban League Director Cheryle Jackson, were offered later, the report said.

“Mr. Harris did not make any effort to extract a personal benefit for the governor in any of these conversations,” the report said.

During Emanuel’s interview Saturday, federal authorities played for him a taped recording of at least one conversation he had with Blagojevich’s office, according to a transition official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss information not included in the report.

Emanuel left for a long-planned family vacation in Africa on Tuesday and was not available for comment. Harris’ lawyer, James Sotos, declined to comment.

Blagojevich attorney Edward M. Genson, who has said the prosecutor’s allegations are built on nothing beyond talk, said Obama’s report proves his point.

Obama’s report details a conversation about the appointment between Jarrett and Tom Balanoff, head of the Illinois chapter of the Service Employees International Union, in which Balanoff told her that Blagojevich had “raised with him” the idea of being appointed Health and Human Services secretary.

Balanoff informed Jarrett he had told Blagojevich it wouldn’t happen, and Jarrett agreed, discounting the notion as “ridiculous,” the report states.

However, there was never any suggestion in the conversation that Blagojevich was linking the Senate appointment to the possible Cabinet posting, the report states.

SEIU officials are referenced, but not named, in the FBI affidavit, and Balanoff is believed to be one of them.

Blagojevich mentioned in a Nov. 5 conversation taped by the FBI that he would take the HHS job or “various ambassadorships” in exchange for appointing Obama’s choice, according to an affidavit filed with the federal complaint. The affidavit states he discussed it again days later with an unnamed SEIU official, believed to be Balanoff.

The governor told advisers in a Nov. 10 discussion that “it was unlikely” Obama would give him the HHS appointment or an ambassadorship, and he discussed other favors he could seek, according to the complaint.

Obama’s report also addresses confusion over earlier statements by David Axelrod, a top adviser who had said at one point that Obama discussed the Senate appointment with Blagojevich. Axelrod had discussed potential recommendations for the Senate appointment with Obama and Emanuel, and “was under the impression” that it would be Obama who would offer those to Blagojevich.

“He later learned that it was Mr. Emanuel who conveyed those names,” the report states

source : news.yahoo.com