TOTUS 1…Shattered…
The broken glass of the TelePrompTer lies at the base of the podium as President Barack Obama speaks at the at the Urban and Metropolitan Policy Roundtable at the Eisenhower Old Executive Office Building in Washington Monday, July 13, 2009. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Via AP at HA:
Tapper saw it happen live and somehow pulled himself together to file a report. Tragic mishap? Or further harrowing evidence of The One’s penchant for playing hardball with his enemies, especially those who have betrayed him time and again?…
Midway through his speech on urban and metropolitan policy in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building this afternoon, one of his two small glass prompters came crashing down, hitting the wood floor and crashing in many pieces. It made quite a ruckus.
“Oh, goodness,” a startled President Obama said. “Sorry about that, guys.”
He then proceeded on with his remarks, “To pull our economy back from the brink, including the largest and most sweeping economic recovery plan in our nation’s history…”
For the rest of the speech the president relied on the one remaining teleprompter, to his right, and notes on his podium to finish his speech…
Clip courtesy of TheRollingStones!!!
The Rolling Stones perform “Shattered” in the Martin Scorsese movie, “Shine A Light” live from the Beacon Theater in New York City in the fall of 2006.
Update: Ron Bloom to take over, Steve Rattner stepping down as Auto Czar…
Bloomberg has it up, they say Ron Bloom who I have seen described as a friend of labor but who isn’t at this point on the auto force?? How can GM make money negotiating against its own workers interests when it owns itself?
…Ron Bloom, who has worked with Rattner on the car company restructurings, will take over the leadership of the Obama administration’s auto task force, the statement said.
…Rattner “has decided to transition back to private life and his family in New York City,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement. “I hope that he takes another opportunity to bring his unique skills to government service in the future.”
Here is a take on Rattner and Bloom from the former chief of IBM…
…“Who did we pick to figure out how to fix the automobile industry? We picked two investment bankers,” Gerstner said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s “Conversations with Judy Woodruff” airing today. “It’s sort of like asking the arsonist to run the fire department.”
In February, Obama named Steven Rattner, co-founder of private-equity firm Quadrangle Group LLC, as chief adviser on auto-industry issues, and Ron Bloom, a former vice president at investment bank Lazard Ltd., to advise his auto task force….
Breaking on CNBC Chyron. The way Rattner allegedly treated Chrysler senior bondholders is truly abhorrent to our system of law. Hope this is not so they can promote him to destroying more contract law elsewhere in our economy…Karma is a two way street. He may be going off to spend more time in his mondomansion for all I know but what comes around goes around and he did a lot of damage to American business and contract law with his actions IMO…
Our MANY previous posts on the Chrysler travesty here
He is taking his giant cheese and going back to his giant rat trap perhaps…we hear the TOTUS family will be vacationing in MASS also…
MM is also following the story
CW – The Vampire Diaries – Written in Blood…
More promos for this Fall from CW:
Song: “Help I’m Alive” by Metric.
Update: 2009 government deficit $1.086 Trillion this year SO FAR…..Make A STAND…
Scroll down for update from WSJ…
Breaking CNBC Chyron
2009 Government Budget Deficit at $1.086 Trillion SO FAR this fiscal year
CALL YOUR CRITTERS, STOP THE SPENDING!!!
The Stand with Crowded House courtesy of nefertitisheir
Stephen Kings miniseries about a plague (sp), its survivors and the battle between good and evil. I just love it! Song by Crowded House called “Don’t Dream It’s Over”.
Update: WSJ:
The U.S. budget deficit broke past $1 trillion in June, a grim testament to the recession and financial crisis. The federal government spent $94.32 billion more than it made in the ninth month of fiscal 2009, the Treasury Department said Monday in its monthly budget statement.
With that latest spill of red ink, the budget gap, for the first nine months of fiscal 2009, widened to $1.086 trillion. A year earlier, the deficit was $285.85 billion for the same nine months.
In June 2008, the government ran a surplus of $33.55 billion.
Fiscal years start Oct. 1. The White House has predicted the deficit will climb to $1.841 trillion this fiscal year. The biggest deficit for any fiscal year on record is $454.8 billion, which was rung up in fiscal 2008.
A survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires forecast a June deficit of $97.0 billion. June federal government spending totaled $309.68 billion, compared to $226.37 billion in June 2008….
Update: Americans support local law enforcement checking immigration status during traffic stops; meanwhile in Bizarro World Justice Dept to kill 287G program due to mythical ‘racial profiling’….Sheriff Joe just says no..
Update: Rasmussen recent results show Americans WANT 287g enforcement by local cops:
The police chiefs who spoke out recently indicated a desire to get local law enforcement out of the immigration business. However, 73% of voters want cops to check the immigration status of all offenders during traffic stops. Sixty-seven percent (67%) also say that if law enforcement officers know of places where immigrants gather to find work, they should sometimes conduct surprise raids to identify and deport those who are here illegally.
On another point, the police chiefs recommended that illegal immigrants should be integrated into the legal system, “possibly with driver’s licenses.” However, 77% of voters nationwide oppose drivers’ licenses for undocumented immigrants. That topic tripped up Hillary Clinton in a debate during the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona, has taken a different approach and has aggressively enforced immigration laws. While his efforts have prompted a U.S. Justice Department civil rights investigation, the sheriff remains popular in his home state. Most Arizona voters not only support his policies, but 58% say he has been good for the state’s image. On a personal basis, Arpaio is viewed favorably by 68% of Arizona voters…
More from the polling:
…Sixty-six percent (66%) of likely voters nationwide say it is Very Important for the government to improve its enforcement of the borders and reduce illegal immigration. Just 32% of America’s Political Class agree.
Sixty-eight percent (68%) of voters nationwide say that those who knowingly hire illegal immigrants should be punished. By a 48% to 36% margin, voters say the same about landlords who rent to illegal immigrants.
The biggest point of disconnect between voters and the conventional wisdom in Washington, D.C. has to do with priorities. Almost always in Washington, the debate begins with a focus on how to address the status of illegal immigrants. To voters, that is a secondary concern. Controlling the borders is a top concern. That hasn’t changes since the 2006 immigration legislation collapsed when the U.S. Senate surrendered to public opinion. During that debate, a New York Times/CBS poll found that 69% believed illegal immigrants should be prosecuted and deported.
What is often lost in the shuffle of the debate over immigration reform is that once the borders are controlled, most Americans favor a welcoming immigration policy provided it is done within the law. Republicans are more supportive than Democrats of such a policy. Overall, by a 55% to 27% margin, Americans favor a policy goal that would welcome everyone except criminals, national security threats and welfare dependants.
Also, while nearly a third of Americans are angry about the immigration issue, they are not angry at the immigrants. They are angry at the federal government….
Bumped: Sotomayor: The Drinking Game!
Well, it is finally after High Noon here in AZ, and the Congress Critters are just warming up for a weeklong hogging of the media light they love oh so much…thus I am bumping this post :0)
Get your shot glass ready…it’s live on practically every channel…
Over at The Daily Beast Thomas Goldstein has the list of drinkable phrases, I would add drink before and after everything Al Franken asks!:
…If the proceedings instead end up as a boring snooze-fest, I suggest using the list as a drinking game. Whenever a senator utters one of the following names or phrases, take a shot.
Frank Ricci—The lead white plaintiff in the famous New Haven, Connecticut, firefighters case. The Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote recently reversed a decision by a panel of the 2nd Circuit (that included Judge Sotomayor), which had previously thrown out a suit challenging the city’s refusal to adhere to a promotional exam. Republicans assert that Judge Sotomayor’s vote indicates that she cannot eliminate her ideology and race-driven sympathy from her decisions—unlike, of course, the Supreme Court’s conservative white males.
Empathy—The worst-chosen phrase of the Obama presidency (since discarded), suggesting that a judge should decide cases on the basis of how much she shares the same feelings and experiences, rather than, say, the law.
Pearl-Def (PRLDEF)—The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund. Depending on who is talking, either a well-established, mainstream civil-rights organization or an abortion-loving, death-penalty-opposing, terrorist front group. The latter characterization plays well with extreme conservatives, the former with a growing electoral group that is politically in play.
Miguel Estrada—A conservative Washington lawyer nominated by President Bush to a federal appeals court but blocked by Democrats. He is offered as proof that Democrats discriminate against Hispanic nominees as much as Republicans.
Moderate in the Middle 