Michelle Obama more popular than ever (or anyone, come to that)

By: Julie Mason
11/19/09 3:29 PM

The perils of popularity! (ap)

While President Obama's approval ratings are hovering at 50 percent, first lady Michelle Obama is enjoying a 62 percent favorability, according to Rasmussen Reports. Her numbers are up four points from last month and represent her highest favorables in several months.

Lesson: Playing it safe pays off. The first lady, once a controversial figure during the campaign, has successfully rebranded her image to be softer, more nurturing, approachable -- non-controversial. What is she best known for? Her clothes and figure, the White House kitchen garden, and her visits with schoolchildren.

It's a trick that former first lady Laura Bush pulled off just as well, and it's clear that Mrs. Obama has taken a page from her predecessor, whom Obama has said she admires. Mrs. Bush is formidable, sometimes icy, with an iron spine -- and yet she was generally misunderstood to be merely a gentle librarian (not unlike her mother-in-law, former first lady Barbara Bush, a tough matriarch popularly perceived as an avuncular grandma).

A popular first lady is a huge asset to any president, and the Obama administration is likely to deploy Michelle Obama in much the same way the Bush administration used Laura Bush during election years -- dispatching her to fundraisers and rallies in support of Democratic candidates.

It would be a newish role for the first lady, who h...

About Henry Paulson's new book...

11/19/09 3:15 PM

It seems that former Treasury secretary Henry Paulson has a new book coming out. It's supposed to be an inside account of the collapse of the global banking system. Though the book might run into some legal trouble, as I believe O.J. Simpson was the first to use the title "If I Did It."

Rep. Brown-Waite's complaint against Recovery.gov

By: David Freddoso
11/19/09 3:28 PM

Republican Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida agrees with our editorial last month on the heavily redacted contract for redesigning Recovery.gov. The irony we noted more than a month ago was that the creation of a transparency website could be so opaque, with several sections and pages completely blacked out. What does the government have to hide about the making of the super-expensive website that has proven to be, as one computer-savvy blogger put it, "a kludgy beast of a site?"

But Brown-Waite's gripe, which led her to file a formal complaint against Recovery.gov, is with the quality of the data, her spokesman told me.

"Her complaint is that they spent $18 million in taxpayer dollars for a website that doesn't work," said Cassie Smedile. "That leads to her real concern, which is where are the jobs?"

To be fair, Recovery.gov deserves only a small amount of blame for the fact that the data is garbage. It's mostly the fault of the people who entered the data, and also of the various agencies' bureaucrats who issued instructions for entering it. But it is Recovery.gov's fault that the input forms used by stimulus recipients are so idiot-prone. (Obvious example: they allow the stimulus recipients to enter Congressional Districts that don't exist.)

And aside from any issues of data quality, it is also their fault if they paid $18 million for a kludgy beast...

Lou Dobbs on The Kudlow Report tonight

By: Mark Tapscott
11/19/09 3:29 PM

Former CNN anchor and program host Lou Dobbs will be grilled tonight by Larry Kudlow on CNBC at 7:00 pm EST to discuss the economy, interest rates, immigration, TARP, health care reform, his recent departure from the original cable news channel and who knows what else. More details here.

Does Petraeus have political ambitions?

11/19/09 1:25 PM

Without question, the American Enterprise Institute is one of the most influential think tanks in D.C. The joke is that AEI's building in downtown Washington houses more conservative intellectuals than most European nations. Every year AEI hosts a black-tie annual dinner -- referred to colloquially as "the conservative prom" -- where they bestow an award on a leading conservative statesman or intellectual who delivers the evening's keynote address. Guess who's headlining the dinner in 2010:

General David H. Petraeus to Receive 2010 Irving Kristol Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 19, 2009

AEI President Arthur Brooks announced today that General David H. Petraeus will be presented with the 2010 Irving Kristol Award. General Petraeus, who commands the United States Central Command, will deliver the Kristol lecture on Thursday, May 6, 2010.

The yearly award is presented at the Institute's annual dinner to an individual, selected by the AEI Council of Academic Advisers, who has made exceptional intellectual or practical contributions to improved government policy, social welfare, or political understanding.

This could mean nothing, but it could also be a signal Petraeus does have political ambitions. If he does, I'm going to go ahead and guess he won't be running as a Democrat.

'Confused populists' and the Business-vs-Government myth

By: Timothy P. Carney
11/19/09 1:30 PM

Blogger and Crunchy-Con author Rod Dreher is reading Sarah Palin's going rogue, and he makes a good point:

She's a conflicted populist, and doesn't understand that. It's simply bizarre how she can write with passion about how badly Exxon screwed over the people of Alaska in the Exxon Valdez incident, and how the cozy relationship between Alaska's government and the oil industry worked against the interests of ordinary hardworking people ... and yet repeat shopworn GOP nostrums like this one:

In national politics, some feel that big Business is always opposed to the Little Guy. Some people seem to think a profit motive is inherently greedy and evil, and that what's good for business is bad for people. (That's what Karl Marx thought too.)

Somebody is not connecting the dots.

In linking to Dreher, columnist New York Times columnist Ross Douthat expands the diagnosis:

This isn’t a Palin-specific problem. From Glenn Beck to the Tea Parties, much of the energy in the post-Bush G.O.P. is with people who have grasped, albeit sometimes in inchoate ways, that big government and big business are increasingly on one team, and the champions of free markets and limited government are on the other. But they don’t know what to do about it, and what they do seem to know — cutting taxes, and letting the rest take care of itself — is often non-responsive, not only to the proble...

Citigroup still hasn't ruled out severing ties with ACORN

11/19/09 1:30 PM

Citigroup, which has given ACORN millions of dollars over the years via its charitable foundation, still isn't sure the organization is up to no good. This is despite multiple videos of employees enabling underage sex-slavery, the cover-up by top organizational officers of a multi-million dollar embezzlement, and the Louisiana Attorney General raiding their offices on charges of tax fraud. But Citigroup doesn't want to rush to judgment here:

Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit isn’t ruling out reinvesting in scandal-plagued ACORN, the left-wing community group whose employees were caught on a hidden camera earlier this year allegedly giving advice on how to set up a prostitution ring without getting nabbed by the IRS.

Pandit, who yesterday was at a Wellesley College forum on the global economy, said in an interview afterward that Citi is awaiting an ACORN-sponsored audit of the Baltimore incident before making a decision on whether to resume its financial ties with the controversial liberal group.

“We, as a company, would like to see that report,” said Pandit.

Asked if he could see Citi severing its financial ties with ACORN, Pandit said it “completely depends” on the outcome of the report.

Color me dubious the "ACORN-sponsored audit" will finally hold them accountable.

Stimulate the economy: cut taxes!

By: Michael Barone
11/19/09 11:30 AM

Pollster Scott Rasmussen asked voters a straightforward question: what is the best way to stimulate the creation of more jobs, tax cuts or more government stimulus spending? The results are pretty unambiguous: 62% favor tax cuts while only 21% favor more stimulus spending.

This would seem to be a pretty hearty endorsement of, for example, Stanford economist Michael Boskin’s proposal for cutting the payroll tax (something I advocated in my Sunday Examiner column) over Princeton economist Alan Blinder’s proposal for a public sector jobs program. Blinder also semi-endorses a tax credit for employers who create new jobs, but admits that the possibilities of gaming the system would be daunting.

Barack Obama’s December “jobs summit” will probably be dominated by those favoring more government spending, and certainly union leaders will favor public sector jobs, since those employees can be required to join unions and send dues money their way. But Democratic members of Congress might want to take a look at Rasmussen’s numbers before voting for increased spending.

McCain now unable to stop talking about Palin

By: Julie Mason
11/18/09 2:43 PM

It seems like ages ago that John McCain urged former campaign staffers to hold their fire on Sarah Palin. Not worth it, he said. Defend yourselves if you must -- but just don't go on TV.

Of course McCain was among the first to crack. He told The Hill newspaper that Palin was wrong when she claimed in her book that the campaign charged her $50k for her own vetting, saying the legal bills were for work on her Alaska ethics troubles.

Now, he's given a phone interview to Steve Holland of Reuters (a "phoner," in the sophisticated jargon of the newsroom), defending the campaign staffers Palin names in her book. Oh, McCain!

"There's been a lot of dust flying around in the last few days and I just wanted to mention that I have the highest regard for Steve Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace and the rest of the team ... and I appreciated all the hard work and everything they did to help the campaign," he said.

Guess who else he's proud of?

McCain, who has largely kept silent in the high-profile run-up to Palin's book release and tour, said he remained proud of Palin, whom he plucked from obscurity as governor of Alaska last year to join him in his campaign.

"I'm still really proud of her and the campaign she ran and I think it's pretty obvious that she has a substantial base and interest out there," McCain said.

Rove book to hit in March: AP

By: Julie Mason
11/18/09 2:43 PM

Karl Rove has so much more to tell us, apparently. His memoir, "Courage and Consequence," just got a March 9 2010 release date, according to the AP.

Initial thought: Consequence? Not Consequences??

"Courage and Consequence," according to Threshold, "frankly responds to critics, passionately articulates his political philosophy and openly explains the reasons behind his decisions in campaigns and the White House."

Rove, who became synonymous with ruthless but effective campaign tactics, said in a statement Threshold issued Wednesday that his book would be "a frank account of what I witnessed and my often-controversial role."

Rove hasn't exactly stayed low-profile since the end of the Bush administration. He is a Fox News regular and recently debated health care with Howard Dean. Is there really more we need to know about his political philosophy? Still, if he dishes on some behind-the-scenes from the White House -- and not just David Plouffian hagiography about what a great leader he worked for -- it could be good.

Also on tap for next year: books from Laura Bush, George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld.

Drat! "Teabagger" merely runner-up for word of the year!

By: Julie Mason
11/18/09 12:40 PM

Your tramp stamp: Also not J.P.'s problem.



Awwww! Beltway Confidential is finding her blog colleagues all shy and bashful for not noting earlier this week that "teabagger" was among the runners-up for this year's New Oxford American Dictionary's 2009 Word of the Year.

And yes, the publisher notes -- they included the word as a reference to those who protest President Obama's fiscal policies. What were you thinking?

But you are dying to know: What was the word of the year?

Unfriend.

We feel that one. Having been unfriended with fuming alacrity several times over the past year on Facebook, it does seem like unfriend is an appropriate choice. Some other also-rans:

hashtag - a # [hash] sign added to a word or phrase that enables Twitter users to search for tweets (postings on the Twitter site) that contain similarly tagged items and view thematic sets.

intexticated - distracted because texting on a cellphone while driving a vehicle netbook - a small, very portable laptop computer with limited memory.

tramp stamp - a tattoo on the lower back, usually on a woman.

sexting - the sending of sexually explicit texts and pictures by cellphone.

birther - a conspiracy theorist who challenges President Obama's US birth certificate

death panel - a theoretical body that determines which patients deserve to live, when care is rationed

You know politicians are in trouble . . .

By: Michael Barone
11/18/09 12:15 PM

. . . when they start saying that they need to get their message out better. We saw this with Republicans in 2006, 2007 and 2008, and we’re seeing it with Democrats now, as indicated in this article in Politico on how Democrats are alarmed by their poor ratings from Independent voters. “Quite frankly,” the chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic party is quoted as saying, “we’ve got to do a better job of messaging.” “This is what is particularly heartbreaking,” says the pollster for Democratic House of Delegates candidates in Virginia. “It’s a real problem for messaging for us.”

“Quite frankly” is the sort of thing politicians of both parties say when they are being quite frank with us, and “heartbreaking” is what political consultants say when they are unable to come up with a successful strategy (Democrats lost six seats in the Virginia House of Delegates last month). But some of those quoted show more sense. “I think it’s about action and not words right now,” says a pollster for the Pew Research Center. “The public wants to see action.” Of course, that may depend on what kind of action.

Welcome back, Rudy Giuliani

By: Julie Mason
11/18/09 12:00 PM

Thanks, yes. It's great to be back. (ap)

Why should Huckaboom and Sarah Palin get all the attention? America's Mayor has been conspicuously absent from general speculation about 2012. Mostly, he seemed adrift, a man without a reason. But -- behold! Rudy is resurgent -- turning up all over cable and today, and RNC conference call with reporters, fulminating against plans to put Khalid Sheik Mohammed on trial in Manhattan.

GIULIANI: I disagree with it. It is fitting that the 9/11 murderers be treated as war criminals, because it was an act of war. This was not just another murder in the City of New York that year. This was an act of war, and an act of terror. They should be — they should be prosecuted — they should be prosecuted in a military tribunal.

Interesting! But also ah, somewhat inconsistent. As Domenic Montenaro points out at MSNBC, Guiliani used to think civilian courts were the best place to put terrorists on trial, such as the 1993 World Trade Center bombers:

He said, for example in 1994, per the New York Times, that the verdict in that case “demonstrates that New Yorkers won't meet violence with violence, but with a far greater weapon -- the law.” And "It should show that our legal system is the most mature legal system in the history of the world, that it works well, that that is the place to seek vindication if you feel your...

Pelosi's former top aide joins anti-Google lobbying push

By: Timothy P. Carney
11/18/09 10:00 AM

Few companies are as cozy with the Obama White House as Google is. Google and Obama are on the same side of the Net Neutrality debate, Schmidt has met with President Obama multiple times, and for the Obama campaign, Schmidt was an informal advisor, a donor, and a fundraiser.

So when software maker Rosetta Stone picked a fight with Google, it was asking for trouble.

At heart is Google AdWords product. If I ran a gutter cleaning business, I might buy the adwords "gutter cleaner" and "clogged gutters" from Google. This means that when someone searched those terms, along the right side of the page, text ads for my business would pop up.

Apparently, competitors were buying "Rosetta Stone" as ad words, so that when people searched those terms, they saw text ads for other language software. Rosetta Stone sued Google. The Washington Post wrote:

Rosetta Stone said in the lawsuit that when other firms buy Rosetta Stone's trademarks for keyword searches, ads for their own Web sites appear and unfairly mislead people into thinking they are going to the Arlington firm's site. Some of the company's trademarks include "Rosetta Stone," "global traveler," "language library," and "dynamic immersion."

Now Rosetta Stone has taken its fight to Capitol Hill. A recently filed lobbying registration shows that Rosetta Stone has retained a...

Open Government 2.0: Google to make legal opinions available

11/17/09 10:03 PM

Here's some really positive news for people that care about transparency and open government. Google is going to make legal decisions publicly accessible:

Starting today, we're enabling people everywhere to find and read full text legal opinions from U.S. federal and state district, appellate and supreme courts using Google Scholar. You can find these opinions by searching for cases (like Planned Parenthood v. Casey), or by topics (like desegregation) or other queries that you are interested in. For example, go to Google Scholar, click on the "Legal opinions and journals" radio button, and try the query separate but equal. Your search results will include links to cases familiar to many of us in the U.S. such as Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education, which explore the acceptablity of "separate but equal" facilities for citizens at two different points in the history of the U.S. But your results will also include opinions from cases that you might be less familiar with, but which have played an important role.

As it stands now, if you want legal opinions you often have to use Nexis or Westlaw -- services that cost alot of money and aren't particularly user friendly. If past is prologue, Google will no doubt do a better job presenting this information and they will provide it for free.

Tom Carper's old chief of staff now a lobbyist for nation's largest health insurer

By: Timothy P. Carney
11/17/09 2:29 PM

Now that health-care reform has moved to the Senate, Senator Tom Carper is one of the central players: he sits on the Finance Committee's subcommittee for health, and he has positioned himself as a dealmaker on the government option in health insurance, which is the most contentious item in the whole reform package, and the item that poses the most threat to insurers.

That may be why WellPoint, the nation's largest health insurer, has retained Carper's former chief of staff to lobby on health-care reform. Jonathon Jones became Carper's chief of staff just a few weeks after Carper came to Washington in 2001, and served in that role until the end of 2006. With his boss reelected, and now serving in the majority party, Jones cashed out and went to work at the K Street firm Johnson, Madigan, Peck, Boland & Stewart.

In early 2009, Jones became a partner, and the firm changed its name to Peck, Madigan, Jones & Stewart.

Then, on September 25, insurer WellPoint hired Jones' firm to lobby in the issue areas of health care, insurance, and Medicare/Medicaid, according to the lobbying registration filed last week, which lists the anticipated "specific lobbying issues" as "Healthcare reform legislation, specifically proposals affecting health insurance providers."

Jones' other health-sector clients include drugmakers Astra-Zeneca and Amgen, the trade groups Pharmaceu...

Build more nukes or head back to the Dark Ages?

By: Barbara Hollingsworth
11/17/09 2:30 PM

If reducing carbon emissions to stave off imminent climactic disaster is really their main goal, you’d think environmental groups would be clamoring to replace coal-burning power plants with nuclear reactors, which don’t emit any carbon.

Surprise! Not only are they steadfastly opposed to nuclear power, they’re now arguing that building nuclear plants will actually “set America back in the race against global warming” because – get this – thanks to them, there’s no new reactors under construction, and it could take a decade or more to cut through all the bureaucratic red tape.

A new report by Environment America also claims that even if a miracle happened and 100 new nuclear reactors were built by 2030, that still wouldn’t be enough to meet their stringent carbon reduction targets. That gives you an idea of how much existing power plants that burn fossil fuels are under attack .

“Today we have cleaner, cheaper, faster solutions that we should be investing in before we seriously consider reviving the nuclear dinosaur,” says Dave Hamilton, the Sierra Club’s director of energy programs.

One of their solutions (besides nuclear power) is energy efficiency (i.e. unplug everything). Another is using renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and biomass (which people used before electricity was discovered) that &l...

Survey finds only 43 percent would re-elect Obama now

By: Mark Tapscott
11/17/09 2:30 PM

Only 43 percent of voters surveyed by the Zogby/O'Leary Poll would vote for President Obama less than a year after he was elected, or about the same level of support President Clinton won in 1992 in a three-way race with the first President Bush and former EDS executive and national political gadfly Ross Perot.

Perhaps even more worrisome for the president is that only 37 percent of independents queried in the survey said they would support Obama. That figure appears to be consistent with exit polling following the Virginia and New Jersey governorship races which indicated a seismic shift among independents away from Obama and to Republican candidates Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie.

And on the question of trust, Obama also fell far short of his performance during the 2008 presidential race. A year later, Zogby/O'Leary find that 42 percent of voters say they do not trust the Obama White House “at all” to gain passage in Congress of legislation that will create new jobs in 2010, and another 11 percent say they don't have much trust that the president can succeed on that score.

The survey is conducted by pollster Brad O'Leary in conjunction with Zogby International.

“President Obama’s popularity with the voting public has been eroding for some time, but these numbers really drive home the point,” said O’Leary. “Most voters don’t trust ...

Examiner FOIAs so you don’t have to

By: Barbara Hollingsworth
11/17/09 2:31 PM

It’s really a very simple concept: If you work for the government, taxpayers who pay your salary and benefits have the right to know how much you make. If you don’t want such personal information to be made public, get a job in the private sector.

However, making sure that citizens can exercise their right to know this aspect of how their tax dollars are being spent is often all but impossible.

The Examiner recently sent out Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to local governments and school systems in the Washington metropolitan area. We asked for a list all their employees, including each worker’s name, job title, department, annual salary, paid overtime, bonuses or other performance incentives, date and amount of last raise, amount of medical and pension benefits paid on their behalf and total compensation in an Excel-compatible format.

Since we plan to post this information on our Web site and thus make it unnecessary for our readers to submit other FOIA requests for the same data, we asked them to waive their customary processing fees.

Government officials are required by law to respond to FOIA requests in a timely manner, and all of the jurisdictions contacted acknowledged receipt of our request. So far, so good.

Then it got a bit complicated.

The D.C. Public Schools replied that “current salary information of all District of Columbia government ...

Joe Biden: Fake stimulus jobs a 'small problem'

11/17/09 2:32 PM

Worried about all those non-existent stimulus jobs in the 43rd congressional district of Freedonia? Have no fear, Joe Biden is on the case:

"He thinks it is a relatively small problem involving a small number of jobs that exist, but which were entered into Recovery.gov with the wrong coding and therefore the wrong address," Biden spokesman Jay Carney said in an email. "He expects the problem will be fixed quickly."

Small number of jobs?! David Freddoso and I determined there were some 75,000 bogus jobs -- over ten percent of the number of jobs the administration claims the stimulus created -- just from compiling the numbers in a very limited number of media reports. A proper accounting would probably find the number of jobs is much higher. The vice-president and supposed "stimulus sheriff" shouldn't be downplaying the problems in the stimulus reporting. It's insulting.

McCain says trying KSM in New York would be like trying Nazi in San Francisco

By: Susan Ferrechio
11/17/09 2:30 PM

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is comparing the decision to decision to try accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other terrorists in New York City to trying Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering in San Francisco.

"It's ridiculous," McCain told me. "These are war criminals and terrorists and they should not be privy to regular courtroom procedures."

Democrats afraid to call new stimulus bill a 'stimulus'

11/17/09 2:33 PM

Good news! Another stimulus. It's sure to work this time:

Democrats in the House of Representatives aim to pass job-creating legislation before the end of the year to ease double-digit unemployment levels that threaten the economic recovery, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on Tuesday.

Specifics being proposed include:

Among the items under consideration:

* A transportation bill that could cost up to $500 billion

* A tax credit for businesses that create jobs

* Assistance to state governments, which otherwise would lay off teachers, police and other employees as they cope with plunging tax revenues and rising social spending

* Another extension of unemployment benefits, which otherwise could run out for millions of jobless workers

* Health insurance for the jobless.

And note that the first stimulus has been such a success that Democrats are now running away from the term "stimulus":

Since the stimulus bill was passed, Democrats have taken a few other steps to boost the economy, such as broadening tax credits for homebuyers and businesses. But they have been careful to avoid terming their efforts as a "second stimulus."

Perhaps because the February's $787 billion boondoggle has been so unsuccessful, it's rendered the term politically toxic? And speaking of politically toxic, here's Reuters' take on on the GOP opposition to the stimulus:

Economists say that a $787 billion...

McCain breaks silence, issues verbal eye-roll at Palin

By: Julie Mason
11/17/09 2:33 PM

Back when the love was strong! (ap)

John McCain started the week being all classy and cool -- telling former campaign staffers on a conference call that it would be better to just let this whole Sarah Palin thing blow by. Recounts CNN:

McCain conceded to the reality of the media firestorm surrounding Palin's charges against his team, and told them he understood if they felt the need to defend themselves. But the Arizona senator called for a minimalist approach, suggesting that his former aides avoid television appearances.

Right? Like Beltway Confidential's sainted mother used to say of unwanted attention from boys on the playground, "Just ignore them and they'll go away." Sadly, this stellar advice has little practical use in adulthood, but we digress.

Some, unnamed McCain campaign types did get in there and mixed it up a little bit when the Palin excerpts first emerged ahead of the book. Others were bolder and talked on the record. Still, it was low-grade fuming and not all-out warfare (unlike the aftermath of the campaign). Until today -- which it should be noted, is actually the first day Palin's book is on sale (although it already feels like it's been out a few weeks at least). And McCain snapped! Reports The Hill:

John McCain (R-Ariz.), who spoke to The Hill Monday evening, denied Sarah Palin’s allegation that his campaign stuck her with a $5...

Memo to banks: Don't lend money to the SEIU

11/17/09 12:30 PM

The SEIU seems hellbent on doing what they can to put public pressure on Bank of America. They've campaigned incessantly all year to shame the bank. Take this entry from today on the SEIU's blog: We need to tell Bank of America to stop with the tired excuses and choose a CEO that will use the tax dollars we're giving them to get our country back on track. Tell them to start lending to small businesses again. Tell them to stop foreclosing on the homes of struggling families. And tell them to never, ever hire another CEO like Ken Lewis that puts Wall Street profits ahead of Main Street families That link goes to sign a petition demanding the bank comply with a number of left-leaning political demands. But their were a lot of bailout recipients -- why is SEIU harping about Bank of America so much? Earlier this year, the SEIU even staged a protest at the bank's annual shareholder meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. Could it be that the SEIU want the bank under their thumb politically because the bank holds $87 million of the SEIU's debt? The fact that the SEIU took on tremendous debt to fund political campaigns in 2008 has been a major source of tension within the SEIU's ranks. If the union's major creditor started giving them grief, it could cause problems.

But the real lesson here is simple: If you're a bank, don't lend money to a union -- lest you find yourself on the rece...

One tip for using Recovery.gov -- Just don't use it.

By: David Freddoso
11/17/09 12:00 PM

I've written that I find the search interface at Recovery.gov to be useless, but some soul was kind enough to show me something I had missed -- a way of researching stimulus data that lets you avoid the web site's problems.

If you go to this page and scroll to the bottom, then you can download an Excel file. (Don't be lured in by the links in the middle of that page, as I was originally -- go all the way to the bottom.) Once you have your Excel file, you can just sort through the useful data on your PC or Mac.

This won't make up for the poor quality of the data itself, but at least you can avoid the frustrations of using the $18 million Recovery.gov website.

Union corruption at the New York Times

11/17/09 12:30 PM

This morning, police raided the printing plant of the New York Times on charges of union corruption. From the paper's own website:

The police raided the printing plant of The New York Times on Tuesday morning as part of what appeared to be a larger investigation into the union that delivers newspapers in the metropolitan area.

A warrant was served at the newspaper’s printing plant in College Point, Queens, by New York City police officers working in conjunction with the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, as investigators sought paperwork related to the work of the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers Union, which bundles and trucks newspapers across the region.

And curiously, the Times observes:

Allegations of corruption and connections to organized crime are not new to the union, which has historically wielded enormous power over the news companies that rely on its truck drivers to deliver hundreds of thousands of papers ever day. Messages left at the union’s headquarters in Long Island City were not immediately returned.

Given the Times' admission that they are familiar with union corruption on an ongoing and intimate basis, you'd think the paper might be more interested in reporting on the topic.

Is Recovery.gov really as useless as I think it is?

By: David Freddoso
11/16/09 3:11 PM

ABC reports on jobs that Recovery.gov lists as created in non-existent Congressional Districts. There are several such cases. Although ABC claims an exclusive, Townhall had something on this earlier today.

For all we know, these are real jobs and there was just a small mistake when the recipients reported their Congressional District. That's why we haven't added these to our Stimulus Inflation Map. But this is a very clear example of the low-quality job done in creating the Recovery.gov website.

This is a data quality issue, and a much simpler issue than the question of whether the jobs are real. It isn't too hard to limit input fields so that non-existent Congressional Districts don't make their way into a government website. The developers of Recovery.gov didn't bother.

Beyond the data quality issues, I find this site to be nearly useless. Until now, I've been hesitant to write about this, because I might just be revealing myself as a technological incompetent, but I can't help it anymore.

Among the reasons I hate Recovery.gov: - Its lousy search engine fails to find things that I know are there. - Because the search engine is so bad, your only option is to search for contracts by the awarding agency or by state. Unfortunately, it's not intuitive how to find the page where you can do this. The first few times I used the site, it was trial and error. (The trick is to br...

Los Angeles Times smears GOP as obstructionist

11/16/09 3:13 PM

The Los Angeles Times has a story up today on Obama's judicial appointments, or the lack thereof:

For Obama judicial nominees, confirmation is slow process

Senate Republicans have quietly used their minority power to block candidates to the lower federal courts. A showdown is set for Tuesday with Judge David Hamilton's nomination

That pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the article, which might as well be a Democratic press release. Take these paragraphs:



But liberal activists have voiced growing irritation that Republicans are quietly using their minority power to block Senate votes on Obama's judicial nominees. They note that during the Bush administration, Republicans insisted the president's nominees deserved up-or-down votes.

"This has become more bitter and more partisan than the Clinton years. It is obstructionism across the board," said Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice, an association of environmental, civil rights and consumer advocacy organizations.

The reporter is credulously repeating the claim of "liberal activists" that "during the Bush administration, Republicans insisted the president's nominees deserved up-or-down votes," as if that actually means something. Late in Bush's second term, the President had a backlog of 190+ nominations -- including many, many judicial appointments -- that Democrats were stonewalling. S...

A Jacksonian Republican sweep?

By: Michael Barone
11/16/09 3:13 PM

Sometimes a poll result slaps you in the face. That was the case for me when I saw Public Policy Polling’s results in the 2nd congressional district of Arkansas. PPP has the incumbent, Democrat Vic Snyder, leading three unknown Republicans (two-thirds to three-quarters of respondents could not describe their feelings toward them) by margins of 44%-43%, 44%-42% and 45%-42%. No, it doesn’t matter which Republican got the best score. The news here is that a seven-term Democratic incumbent, an intelligent man (he has earned an M.D.) with no disqualifying personal characteristics or accusations of scandal (so far as I know) is running significantly below 50% and is essentially tied with three unknown Republicans.

Snyder was first elected to the House in 1996, when the Bill Clinton was sweeping to reelection (Little Rock is in the 2nd district), by a 52%-48% margin. A coattails victory, perhaps: Bill Clinton was carrying the district 55%-37%. Since then Snyder has won with solid percentages, 58% in 1998 and 2000, 93% in 2002, 58% in 2004, 61% in 2006 and 77% in 2008 (when, as in 2002, he had no Republican opponent). But now, PPP tells us, Snyder’s job rating is 42%-46% negative, and 55% of 2nd district voters (and 67% of Independents) oppose the health care bill the House passed and Snyder voted for while only 32% favor it.

Arkansas 2 is part of what I call the Jacks...

The 'Making YOU Pay' tax credit (UPDATED)

By: David Freddoso
11/16/09 3:12 PM

President Obama's "Making Work Pay" tax credit was an idea he first set forward during his presidential campaign. Unfortunately, it will soon take many Americans unawares and hurt some financially.

The credit has been administered as part of the stimulus package through a reduction in tax-withholding from workers' paychecks. But the reduced withholding, which began quietly this April, might cause up to 15 million Americans to underpay the IRS even though they did nothing wrong.

Thanks to the government's mistake, some of these folks -- especially anyone who suddenly loses a jobs near the end of this year -- will find themselves without the cash to pay an unexpectedly high tax bill next spring. It will affect many working married couples and also people who have more than one job.

If you want to protect yourself from this, you can always use this IRS withholding tax calculator. It's simple -- just five pages of complicated forms to fill in.

I sure hope Tim Geithner hired someone good to do his taxes this year.

UPDATE: The truly incredible thing is that AP saw this coming as early as May and the government did it anyway.