osmoothie
You need to know
Clinton announces $500 million in aid to Pakistan
AP,
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sought Monday to convince skeptical Pakistanis that American interest in their country extends beyond the fight against Islamist militants by announcing a raft of new aid projects worth $500 million.
The projects, which include hospitals and new dams for badly needed electricity, are part of a $7.5 billion aid effort to win over Pakistanis suspicious about Washington’s goals here and in neighboring Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are being killed in ever greater numbers in an insurgency with roots in Pakistan.
Mistrust over U.S. intentions in Pakistan is in part due to Washington’s decision to turn away from the nuclear-armed country after enlisting its support to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Administration now defends insurance manade as a tax
When Congress required most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, Democrats denied that they were creating a new tax. But in court, the Obama administration and its allies now defend the requirement as an exercise of the government’s “power to lay and collect taxes.”
And that power, they say, is even more sweeping than the federal power to regulate interstate commerce.
Administration officials say the tax argument is a linchpin of their legal case in defense of the health care overhaul and its individual mandate, now being challenged in court by more than 20 states and several private organizations.
Chavez’s “communes”
Tucked into forested hills in southwest Caracas, a red-brick housing complex for the poor is a testing ground for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s latest step to build socialism in the Latin American oil producer.
The phalanx of simple five-storey apartment blocks, some still being built, anchors the “Cacique Tiuna Commune”. This is one of a network of “socialist communes” that Chavez and his supporters want to extend across the nation in a political and legislative offensive to dismantle “bourgeois” capitalism.
Not surprisingly in a country whose politics is as flammable as gasoline, the project enshrined in a package of “power to the people” laws is stoking a political firestorm.
Mexican drug lords use car bomb to kill police
AP,
Mexican drug traffickers’ first car-bomb attack against police has revealed a new level of cold-blooded planning that is forcing this border city and security forces to change the way they confront violence.
Police said Friday that La Linea drug gang — the same group blamed for the March killing of a U.S. consulate employee and her husband — lured federal officers and paramedics to the site of a car bomb by dressing a bound, wounded man in a police uniform and calling in a false report of an officer shot.
The gang then exploded a car holding as much as 22 pounds (10 kilograms) of explosives, killing the decoy, a rescue worker and a federal officer. A regional military commander said a cell phone might have been used to detonate the bomb.
Ex-Obama, Clinton fundraiser gets 12 years for fraud
A wealthy Manhattan investment banker and former top Democratic fundraiser was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in prison for defrauding banks of $292 million, some of which he donated to politicians including Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Al Gore.
Hassan Nemazee, 60, had reached a plea deal in March, admitting that he cheated banks out of the money and pleading guilty to three counts of bank fraud and one count of wire fraud. U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein in Manhattan said he’ll get out of prison in about a decade.
Nemazee was the national finance chairman of Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign; he also raised money for Obama and a long list of other prominent Democrats. He was Sen. John Kerry’s New York finance chairman during his failed 2004 presidential run.
UK gov’t admits: Releasing Lockerbie bomber was a mistake
The controversy surrounding the release of the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing reignited yesterday after Britain’s ambassador to the US said the government regretted the Scottish decision to free Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and considered it a “mistake”.
Sir Nigel Sheinwald’s remarks come amid claims by a group of Democrat senators that BP lobbied the British government to release Megrahi to help it secure an oil deal with Libya.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, is to look into the allegations, while the powerful Senate foreign relations committee will question BP executives at a special session later this month. The prisoner transfer agreement with Libya was signed in 2007 – the same year BP sealed a $900m (£584m) exploration agreement with Tripoli.
Romney leads as GOP candidate
Mitt Romney is dominating fundraising in the nascent GOP 2012 presidential field and pushing ahead with a strategy to bolster not just midterm congressional campaigns but state-level ones — as well as his own.
The former Massachusetts governor, who sought the Republican White House nomination in 2008, has put considerable distance between himself and his would-be opponents, not just on the money front but operationally.
That he will seek the party’s nod again seems all but a given. And, with the depth of his coffers now apparent, he stands as the arguable front-runner in a field that remains relatively narrow, perhaps with just half a year until the next White House campaign begins in earnest.
Specter wants a White House job — in exchange for his vote?
Sources tell ABC News that Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pennsylvania, has informed the White House that he would like to consider remaining in public service after his Senate term ends at the end of this session, and White House officials are keeping an open mind about possible job openings for him.
Specter, who was defeated in his March primary by Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pennsylvania, is a close friend of Vice President Joe Biden and someone praised for his leadership in pushing for greater funding for the National Institutes of Health.
Sources said the job discussions are far from anything other than preliminary, and were not part of any “deal” when Specter switched parties and began supporting President Obama’s agenda in earnest. Neither the White House nor Specter had any comment.
Talk of such a job, however, has raised eyebrows among Specter’s Republican Senate colleagues, who are now eyeing his votes with added scrutiny. For instance, Specter seemed not particularly impressed with Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, whose nomination as solicitor general Specter opposed last year. This week, he announced support for her Supreme Court nomination.
Timothy Geithner to inherit vast power after new financial regulations
Half a year after some predicted he would be booted from the Obama administration, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner stands to inherit vast power to shape bank regulations, oversee financial markets and create a consumer protection agency.
Few Treasury secretaries have had such sweeping influence over such a wide realm as Geithner will wield once President Obama signs the new financial overhaul legislation passed this week by Congress.
The effort to dramatically expand financial regulation bears the stamp of no one more than Geithner. The bill not only hews closely to the initial draft he released last summer but also anoints him — as long as he remains Treasury secretary — as the chief of a new council of senior regulators. The legislation also puts him at the head of the new consumer bureau until a director is confirmed by the Senate, allowing Geithner to mold the watchdog in coming months. And it will be up to him to settle a raft of issues left unresolved by the bill — for instance, which financial derivatives will be subject to the tough new trading rules and which risky activities big banks will be required to spin off.
Financial reform bill on the verge of passage
A sweeping overhaul of the nation’s financial regulations stands on the verge of reaching President Barack Obama’s desk after a year of partisan struggles and delicate cross-party courtships that promised more and delivered less.
Only three Senate Republicans say they will vote for the bill during a key vote Thursday that will set the stage for final passage. But the bill bears the fingerprints of many others in the GOP.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., negotiated several provisions with key committee Republicans such as Richard Shelby and Bob Corker. Neither, though, intends to vote for the bill.
That those bipartisan talks even occurred was remarkable in the highly politicized atmosphere in Congress. That they failed to expand the bill’s base of support illustrates how much things remain the same.
Nancy Pelosi predicts Democrats will keep the House
Speaker Pelosi just sent this message to DCCC supporters:
Friend –
Here is what will happen in November. Democrats will keep control of the House. Period.
While some Washington pundits are claiming that Republicans have the momentum, I remain more confident in our chances for victory as long as we have our secret weapon — you.
Next Sunday, July 25th, marks 100 days from the fall elections. I have set a goal of raising $1 Million in grassroots contributions to send a powerful message to the media and to the world that we will keep control of the House and we will continue America’s New Direction!
Please stand with me to send an overwhelming message of grassroots strength. If you contribute today, you will receive a special invitation to join me on our National Campaign Kickoff Conference Call.
Sheila Jackson Lee: All those who wore sheets now wear Tea Party clothing
Representative Sheila Jackson Lee: ….And I thank you professor very much. I’m going to be engaging you with those very powerful numbers that you have offered on what the tea party recognizes, uh, or is recognized as. Might I add my own P.S.? All those who wore sheets a long time ago have now lifted them off and started wearing [applause], uh, clothing, uh, with a name, say, I am part of the tea party. Don’t you be fooled. [voices: "That's right.", applause] Those who used to wear sheets are now being able to walk down the aisle and speak as a patriot because you will not speak loudly about the lack of integrity of this movement. Don’t let anybody tell you that those who spit on us as we were walking to vote on a health care bill for all of America or those who said Congresswoman Jackson-Lee’s braids were too tight in her hair had anything to do with justice and equality and empowerment of the American people. Don’t let them fool you on that [applause]….
….But let me just say this. We have had a challenging time with African-Americans on the question of immigration. As it first begun, uh, it looked as if it was a job killer bill for all of you. It looked as if these were folk who were interlopers who were attempting to move in on your territory. My brothers and sisters, once they begin to divide us [voices: "That's right."], once they begin to point out this one and that one [voices: "Yes."], for many of you don’t realize that immigrants are Haitians, they are Liberians, they’re Nigerians, and they come to this nation as we did, first in the bottom of a belly of slave boat, to make for a greater time. Wouldn’t it be better if we linked arms with them to find the justice that is [inaudible] our people. [applause]….
Sen. Schumer writes letter to Steve Jobs, calls for “transparency”
Dear Mr. Jobs,
I write to express concern regarding the reception problem with the Apple iPhone 4. While I commend Apple’s innovative approach to mobile technology and appreciate its service to millions of iPhone users nationwide, I believe it is incumbent upon Apple to address this flaw in a transparent manner. According to Consumer Reports’ review, released Monday on its website, the iPhone 4′s signal-strength problem is a hardwire glitch triggered by gripping the device in a particular manner. This finding, according to Consumer Reports, “call[s] into question” Apple’s recent claim that the problem is “largely an optical illusion caused by faulty software.” Consumer Reports declined to recommend the iPhone 4 because of this hardware design flaw.
Senator: Public hearing would have made Obama’s Health Care Rationing Czar ‘unconfirmable’
President Barack Obama never asked the Senate for a hearing on his nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid, Dr. Donald Berwick, as far as White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs knows.
Berwick was nominated on Apr. 19, and with no confirmation hearing scheduled, Obama recess-appointed him on July 7 when Congress was out of town for its July 4 vacation.
Obama made the recess appointment because a public confirmation hearing in the Senate would have made Berwick — who has openly advocated the redistribution of wealth as part of a health care plan — “unconfirmable,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).