links for 2009-02-05

The White House's nominee for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, has earned more than $700,000 in speaking and consulting fees since the beginning of 2008, with some of the payments coming from troubled financial firms and from a firm that invests in contractors for federal national security agencies, according to financial disclosures released Wednesday.

Mr. Panetta received $56,000 from Merrill Lynch & Co. for two speeches and $28,000 for a speech for Wachovia Corp., according to disclosures released ahead of Thursday's scheduled Senate hearing on Mr. Panetta's nomination.
+++++
Just like Tom Daschle….

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday said he thinks hog farmers are a greater threat to Americans than Osama bin Laden.

Mr. Kennedy, son of the the slain New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, is an environmental law attorney who was testifying before a House Judiciary subcomittee when Rep. Steve King, Iowa Republican, asked him if a quotation attributed to him in 2002 about hog farmers representing a greater threat than the leader of al Qaeda was accurate.

"I don't know if that [quotation] is accurate, but I believe it and I support it," said Mr. Kennedy, who has been involved in a vigorous legal effort against the meat industry for some years, arguing that manure and other products associated with large livestock producers emit toxic wastes that threaten the environment.
++++++
The guy is an unhinged leftist environmentalist. He will never be elected to any office.

I just had a conversation with one Republican who speculated that Richard Holbrooke may have been at the center of the current mess over who will serve as U.S. ambassador in Iraq. According to the scenario he laid out, despite Jones having offered the job to Zinni — an offer from one retired four-star to another — and Clinton having confirmed the offer, Holbrooke interceded on behalf of his protege, Chris Hill, urging Clinton to reserve the Iraq post for someone who had spent a career in the foreign service.

The Obama administration asked retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni to be U.S. ambassador to Iraq but abruptly withdrew the appointment without explanation, Gen. Zinni said Tuesday.

Gen. Zinni, a former commander of Central Command, told The Washington Times that he had been offered the job by the White House national security adviser, retired Marine Gen. James Jones, two weeks ago and that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton confirmed the offer on Jan. 26.

As a Sunday Washington Post editorial said, “Former Clinton administration budget director Alice Rivlin fears that "money will be wasted because the investment elements were not carefully crafted." Former Reagan administration economist Martin Feldstein writes that "it delivers too little extra employment and income for such a large fiscal deficit." Columbia University's Jeffrey D. Sachs labels the plan "an astounding mishmash of tax cuts, public investments, transfer payments and special treats for insiders.”

Only $30 billion of the $825 billion package is dedicated to fixing infrastructure projects such as highways and bridges. There is $40 billion for electric grid development and another $20 billion in tax breaks for business. That’s only about $90 billion out of $825 billion or 12 cents on the dollar that — as the Wall Street Journal pointed out — can plausibly be characterized as an economic stimulus. Even the minor business tax breaks it includes will not do much to stimulate

That’s why the Republican Study Committee (RSC) is introducing the Economic Recovery and
Middle-Class Tax Relief Act of 2009—to provide some much-needed, incentive-based relief to jobcreators
and to reduce the cost that government imposes on middle-class families.
The RSC’s Economic Recovery and Middle-Class Tax Relief Act is designed to provide broad,
growth-oriented, permanent incentives for economic activity across all sectors and industries, with
immediate application and sustained, long-term implications. This will ensure that Washington takes a
back seat to Main Street and job creators are empowered to do what they do best—create jobs.

Even if you believed that this bill was necessary to respond to our economic troubles, this ignores the fact that Democrats control the House and Senate by wide majorities. Republicans have put forth their solutions, and Pelosi and most of her members chose to ignore them. GOP lawmakers are under no obligation to sell out their principles and sign on to this dog's breakfast of a bill so that Obama can crow about having "bipartisan support." Neither are the ten skeptical House Democrats.

Las Vegas, which by some accounts already glitters, wants $2 million for neon signs.

Boynton Beach, Fla., is looking for $4.5 million for an "eco park" featuring butterfly gardens and gopher tortoises.

And Chula Vista, Calif., would like $500,000 to create a place for dogs to run off the leash.

These are among 18,750 projects listed in "Ready to Go," the U.S. Conference of Mayors' wish list for funding from the stimulus bill moving through Congress. The group asked cities and towns to suggest "shovel ready" projects for the report, which it gave to Congress and the Obama administration.

Although the bulk of proposals are roads, sewers and similar projects, some wouldn't require a shovel at all. The mayors group sees a potential 1.6 million new jobs from the projects, though a few of them wouldn't create any.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe has agreed to a seven-figure deal to write a book about last year's presidential election

"The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory" will be published by Viking next fall.

According to a statement issued Wednesday by Viking, the book will offer a unique, high-level account, including "the deliberations about whether to run against long odds, the epic primary battle with Hillary Clinton, the drama of the general election campaign against John McCain and the strategic roads taken—and not taken … The book will also detail the business lessons to be learned from the formation and the functioning of an unprecedented $1 billion start-up—use of technology, crisis management, grass roots, and personnel management."

Viking is an imprint of Penguin Group (USA).

Senate Democratic leaders conceded yesterday that they do not have the votes to pass the stimulus bill as currently written and said that to gain bipartisan support, they will seek to cut provisions that would not provide an immediate boost to the economy.

An ex-aide to Commerce Secretary nominee Judd Gregg is under investigation for allegedly taking baseball and hockey tickets from a lobbyist in exchange for legislative favors.

The revelation comes at a particularly bad time for President Barack Obama's administration, a day after he had to defend his selection process because two high-profile nominees withdrew due to tax problems.

It also points to the challenges confronting a president who promised to end Washington's insider dealings but who has hired mostly Washington insiders.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday that Gregg "is neither a target nor a subject" of the investigation, and he noted the aide in question stopped working for Gregg four years ago.

The House Democratic Caucus spent more than $500,000 in taxpayer money over the past five years for its annual retreats at resorts in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

On Thursday, Democrats will head to the Kingsmill Resort and Spa in historic Williamsburg, Va., for the three-day planning powwow. The resort boasts multiple championship golf courses, a full-service spa and six restaurants.

Twice today, CNN has done short segments on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's declaration that

To give the proposed economic stimulus plan some perspective, "if you started the day Jesus Christ was born and spent $1 million every day since then, you still wouldn’t have spent $1 trillion."

Both times they said the claim checked out, the second time with a famous mathmetician (although I think they just needed a calculator).

Christ's birth in year zero, times 365, times 2009, gets you 733,285,000,000, or a bit over $733 billion. (Yes, I'm leaving out leap years.) You're not even three quarters of the way there. (Politifact calculates from 4 B.C.)

Mr. President, I'm sure your life has been a whirlwind since Election Day—since the day you announced your campaign, really—but, uh, the work is just getting started. Two weeks into the job seems a bit early to be getting "tired of being in the White House."
++++++
Get Over It!

"In the past few days I’ve heard criticisms of this (stimulus) plan that echo the very same failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis –- the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can ignore fundamental challenges like energy independence and the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive. … I reject those theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change."

One of my GOP consultant friends reacts to yesterday's statement from Mitt Romney praising Obama's selection of Judd Gregg: "Translation: I'm running for president in 2012, and I’d really like to have your endorsement or at least the support of your infrastructure, so I’m putting out this statement of support."

I've heard otherwise from another figure once tied to Romney; more on that in a bit . . .

As the Senate debates an economic stimulus plan whose price tag could come close to $900 billion, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation — a non-partisan group created to bring awareness to the nation's rising spending and entitlement costs — is launching an ad campaign to urge the Obama White House and Congress to address long-term fiscal challenges.

As the Senate considers a massive $1.1 trillion stimulus bill, it is vital that the American people ask hard questions of their elected officials. When they do, it will become very clear that the bill will not only fail to stimulate the economy, but could seriously delay economic recovery.

As a nation, we got into this mess by spending and investing money that didn't exist. We won't get out of it by doing more of the same.