Young Obama voters stay in the game by lobbying for policy changes

From TheMatadorOnline.com newsroom:

By Laura Isensee
The Dallas Morning News

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ Backpacks on the floor, dozens of Texas college students crowded into the atrium of a Senate office building and circled around an aide to Sen. John Cornyn.

The subject was legislation. But this was no school tour: These students came to Washington to lobby.

"Can we count on the senator to stand as a voice in Congress for capping carbon emissions?" asked Jacob Bintliff, a 21-year-old University of Texas at Austin senior who sported a khaki blazer, shiny tie and purple bandana around his head.

The Texas students joined some 10,000 other youth on Capitol Hill in March to push for climate action, in what organizers called the second-largest lobbying day in the nation's history. (The fact that a freak snowstorm hit the same day hardly fazed them.)

The event gives some clues how young voters who helped propel Barack Obama to the White House are trying to shift their influence from the campaign trail to the policy realm. It's a tough task _ shaping legislation is often a professional pursuit involving millions of dollars the college students don't have.

But they're trying to fill the gaps with the tools they do have: progressive issues that move young people; old-school techniques like Capitol Hill visits; civil disobedience when necessary; and a heavy dose of social networking tools such as Twitter.

Youth organizers believe their cohort earned a louder voice in Congress on Election Day last year. Youth mobilized in the campaign, with turnout slightly higher than four years before, and young voters made up a bigger share than usual in some key battleground states. And about two-thirds voted for Obama.

"This is the first time we can go to the political table and flex our muscle," said Praween Dayananda. He helped organized the 160-strong Texas contingent at the event and pointed out this year Cornyn's office was more receptive than last year.

Texas A&M senior Adrienne Jones, who used her own cell phone to make voter turnout calls for Obama last year, trekked to Washington.

"This is our movement. This is our time to make change in the world. I want to be a part of it," said Jones, a 23-year-old from Dallas.

Confidence is key for youth to engage in policy-making, said Peter Levine, who directs research at Tufts University's Jonathan Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. Young people have to believe they're able to make a difference.

Levine's extensive research on the "Millennial" generation finds that, compared to previous generations, twentysomethings are more liberal, trust Congress more and volunteer more.

But anyone _ young or old _ who wants to engage in policy-making faces serious challenges, said Levine and others who promote civic engagement.

First, there have to be opportunities to engage. Traditional methods _ like writing, emailing or calling your congressman _ can be superficial and easy to manufacture on a large scale.

"There are so many people doing it, that every single individual letter ends up counting very little," Levine said.

Then there are institutional barriers: pressure from interest groups, fundraising difficulties and partisanship, said Joe Goldman, vice president of citizen engagement at AmericaSpeaks. The nonprofit group was started by a former Clinton administration official who wanted to close the gap between citizens and government decision-making.

"People want to participate but they only want to do that if they're actually going to be heard," Goldman said. And youth, he contends, have often been forgotten in the process.

Adding to the challenge, young people have few political groups with the legal status to lobby, said Matt Segal, the young executive director of the Student Association for Voter Empowerment.

Plus, "money talks in this town," Segal said.

To help remedy that, Segal's group may merge with two or three other organizations, so they can have a nonprofit arm and a legislative advocacy arm.

"We're not organized, not powerful enough. We need to do more than just blogging and Facebook posts," Segal said.

For the Texas students who trooped to Washington, the lobby day was just a start. Next on the agenda: meetings with their representatives at home and a statewide energy conference in Austin this weekend.

They're already learning about ways to send their message. Before a final photo op with Cornyn's aide, the group had something for the senator: a plastic green hard-hat slapped with a sticker "Get to Work!"

___

If the "Millennial" generation is able to put its stamp on government policy, what might that look like?

First, don't expect a narrow agenda focused only on college students' issues, said Hans Riemer, who was key in organizing youth voters in the Obama campaign and now works with AARP in Washington.

"We don't want to ghettoize them," said Riemer, adding that young people would be involved in issues ranging from the environment to health care.

Also, watch for Millennials to develop new ways of influencing policy, said Ian Storrar, with Moblize.org, which works to get young people involved in policy at all levels of government.

Storrar, 27, predicts his generation will not follow the traditional, top-down approach to political organizing. Instead, individuals will be able to share ideas and organize action through social networking, rather than wait for direction from leaders of a group.

_Laura Isensee

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© 2009, The Dallas Morning News.

Visit The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at http://www.dallasnews.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Blagojevich indictment could bring more defendants

From TheMatadorOnline.com Newsroom:

By John Chase and Jeff Coen
Chicago Tribune

(MCT)

CHICAGO _ With a deadline fast approaching for federal prosecutors to file an indictment against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, all eyes will be on the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse this week.

Sources with knowledge of the probe have said the indictment could be filed as soon as Thursday. That is the last scheduled day for the grand jury investigating the former governor to meet before an April 7 deadline for filing the indictment.

The grand jury has convened on Thursdays throughout the probe.

The indictment is expected to include more details about the allegations against Blagojevich and his former chief of staff John Harris regarding the corruption charges leveled against them in December. It also could include more defendants.

Known targets include Blagojevich's brother, Robert, who headed the former governor's campaign fund; Lon Monk, Blagojevich's onetime best friend and former chief of staff; Blagojevich's wife, Patricia; and Friends of Blagojevich, the ex-governor's campaign committee.

Robert Blagojevich was caught on several federal wiretaps, including discussing campaign donations from a horse track owner who wanted the governor to sign legislation favorable to the horse-racing industry. Monk, who was identified only as "Lobbyist 1" in the original charges, was also caught on the recordings. And investigators have probed Patricia Blagojevich's real estate deals for more than a year.

FBI agents arrested Blagojevich on Dec. 9 on various corruption charges, including trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama. U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said investigators moved quickly to stop a crime spree.

But in doing so, prosecutors had to charge Blagojevich and Harris in a criminal complaint, not an indictment. An indictment is necessary because defendants cannot be tried on criminal complaints, which are used only to initiate criminal cases.

___

© 2009, Chicago Tribune.

Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Obama reaches out to Iran

By Trudy Rubin

The Philadelphia Inquirer

(MCT)

If you want to know how President Obama is changing America's foreign-policy strategy, watch the short video in which he wishes Iran's people and leaders a happy Nowruz.

Nowruz is the Persian new year, an ancient holiday celebrated on the first day of spring. The president's greeting (www.whitehouse.gov/nowruz), broadcast last Friday, shows how he intends to fulfill his pledge to reach out to Iran.

Obama's Nowruz message was striking for what it included _ and what it omitted. His words were sharply different in tone from messages sent by President George W. Bush, who considered Iran's regime part of the "axis of evil." Unlike Bush, Obama addressed Iran's leaders as well as the Iranian people, making it clear that he is not seeking regime change.

The president said clearly that "the United States wants the Islamic Republic of Iran to take its rightful place in the community of nations." But he added that such a place "cannot be reached through terror or arms."

At the same time, by sending his message on a traditional holiday not linked to religion, Obama showed his respect for the Persian nation. He praised Iran's "great civilization." And, to counter those who say past differences between our two countries can't be overcome, he quoted the words of the Persian medieval poet Saadi: "The children of Adam are limbs to each other, having been created of one essence."

Iran expert Karim Sadjadpour, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, was visiting Dubai when Obama delivered his message. He said the large Iranian community there had an "overwhelmingly positive" reaction to Obama's recognition of Iran's new year and its rich culture.

Perhaps most important, Obama never mentioned Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose call for Israel to be "wiped off the map" has convinced many Americans of the impossibility of dialogue with Tehran. Some Iran experts have criticized Obama for not responding to a letter the Iranian president sent him after he won election. However, Obama's new-year message was a better idea than a quick response to the mercurial Ahmadinejad.

That's because Obama's message was directed at Iran's leaders _ plural. He made clear that he recognizes that Ahmadinejad is not the key figure in Iran's power structure; the supreme clerical leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, holds that position. Some reports indicate Obama may follow up with a private message directly to the supreme leader.

Press reports noted Khamenei's cool reaction to the extended hand of Obama. The cleric insisted the United States would have to make "real changes" in foreign policy before relations could improve.

Many experts argue that Khamenei considers anti-Americanism to be an immutable tenet of the regime's ideology. Obama's new-year message, and his new policy, will put that thesis to the test.

Sadjadpour contends that the Nowruz video will provoke an internal Iranian political debate over whether Iran should take up Obama's offer of honest engagement "grounded in mutual respect." With Iranian elections coming up in June, the new U.S. approach will put the burden on hard-liners to justify continued enmity toward America at a time when Iran's economy is in deep trouble.

"We may see Obama's approach accentuate deep internal Iranian divisions," Sadjadpour said, "between those who want to continue hostility for domestic reasons and those who recognize that the 'death to America' culture of 1979 is unproductive in 2009." He thinks Obama's offer will likely increase public pressure for Iran's leaders to come down on the 2009 end of that debate.

Of course, there's no guarantee Khamenei will be responsive. It won't be easy to improve the United States' toxic relationship with Iran's Islamic republic or agree on a formula to deal with Tehran's suspect nuclear program. It's not clear whether Iran will even be willing to cooperate with Obama on areas of mutual security interest, such as stability in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And spoilers within Iran's government will try to impede warmer relations by continuing to arrest Iranian-Americans. The latest victim is 31-year-old Roxana Saberi, a freelance journalist from North Dakota who was working in Tehran before being thrown in Evin prison nearly two months ago. Her father says she is depressed and suicidal.

Yet Obama is right to throw down a challenge to Iranian leaders and test the possibility of better relations. If they choose not to respond, the onus will be on them.

___

ABOUT THE WRITER

Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Readers may write to her at: Philadelphia Inquirer, P.O. Box 8263, Philadelphia, Pa. 19101, or by e-mail at trubin@phillynews.com.

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© 2009, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Visit Philadelphia Online, the Inquirer's World Wide Web site, at http://www.philly.com

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Expanding federal control of health care will only raise costs and reduce quality

From TheMatadorOnline.com newsroom:

(EDITORS: The writer is addressing the question, Is President's Barack Obama's proposed $634 billion down payment on health care reform too costly in the midst of a recession?)

By Grace-Marie Turner
(MCT)

ALEXANDRIA, Va. _ President Obama says we can't afford not to pass health care reform, even as our economy faces its biggest challenges in decades.

So far this year, his stimulus legislation has pumped an additional $150 billion into our $2.4 trillion health sector, with no efforts at reform. And the health care plans he is proposing would add trillions more.

Mr. Obama argues that American companies are at a competitive disadvantage because of high health costs that add, for example, $1,500 to the price of a car. But health costs wouldn't vanish under his plan; they would just get switched to another ledger through higher taxes.

The president is working with congressional leaders to write legislation that would require companies to provide a rich health benefits package _ one more expensive than most can afford today. Companies that don't comply would pay heavy fines. This is hardly a prescription for reducing costs.

The plan involves major new subsidies, creation of a new government health insurance plan, and possibly a requirement that all Americans must buy insurance. The entire plan is expected to cost at least $1.5 trillion over the next decade. This is far too much to be taking on in this economy.

To pay for this and many other changes to our health sector, the White House has set aside $634 billion as a "down payment" on health reform. But even this is difficult for Congress to swallow because it involves increasing taxes on mortgage interest deductions and charitable contributions for affluent taxpayers and cutting Medicare Advantage programs that serve lower-income seniors. These are bad ideas, especially in a fragile economy.

Pumping more money into the health sector and increasing demand will add to the inflationary pressuring, which will in turn exacerbate the cost problem.

The president argues there will be huge savings from the plan's multibillion dollar investments in information technology, wellness and prevention.

He says the average family would save up to $2,500 a year as a result. But analysts say it will be hard to see any savings from these programs for the next decade, if then. And even if the savings materialized, Mr. Obama's own advisers have acknowledged they would not actually accrue to individual consumers but to the system as a whole. So don't hold your breath waiting.

They also argue that we must get everyone covered to lower health costs. Massachusetts actually provides us with evidence: The state was the first to require all residents to have health insurance, but the subsidies enacted as part of its reform plan are forcing lawmakers to impose new fees, taxes and fines on employers and providers, and the program still is in the red, even with huge subsidies from the federal government through additional Medicaid funds.

The United States already is on red-ink alert with huge federal deficits as far as the eye can see and with existing entitlement programs that are threatening our country's long-term economic survival.

So where does that leave us? It means that we need to focus on providing targeted help to the uninsured to purchase private coverage, giving people more options in buying health insurance, and building a stronger safety net for those with pre-existing conditions.

That's a full plate in itself, but one more likely to achieve results.

We can build on the strengths of our system, but it won't happen if we try to reform one-sixth of our economy in one sweeping bill.

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ABOUT THE WRITER

Grace-Marie Turner is a health policy expert who advised John McCain's presidential campaign. She is president and founder of the Galen Institute, a nonprofit research organization devoted exclusively to health policy. Readers may write her at Galen, 128 S. Royal Street, Alexandria, VA 22314.

This essay is available to McClatchy-Tribune News Service subscribers. McClatchy-Tribune did not subsidize the writing of this column; the opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of McClatchy-Tribune or its editors.

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© 2009, Galen Institute

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

When are liberals not liberals? When they're progressives

From TheMatadorOnline.com newsroom:

By Frank Greve

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ About as many left-of-center political groups in the nation's capital call themselves liberals these days as say they're Whigs. Instead, they call themselves "progressives."

What progressive means is "pretty murky," political historian Alan Brinkley said. Still, murky is a big improvement over "liberal," a mainstream term in the '60s that conservatives reduced to a dirty word in the '80s.

Pollsters say that the shift to "progressive" sheds the onus of the liberal label and enables left-of-center groups and candidates to fight again.

Although the term "progressive" has a distinguished early 20th-century history that includes reformers Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, uncertainty about what it means today works in favor of erstwhile liberals.

Mary Helms, for example, whose family raises peanuts and cotton in Dothan, Ala., said that she knew what a liberal was. "Someone who doesn't have very good morals," said Helms, who's 54.

And a progressive? "I don't really know anyone who says he's a progressive," Helms said. So she has nothing against them.

Among Washington L-groups that eschew the L-word in favor of "progressive" are:

_People For the American Way, among whose stated missions is to "promote progressive policies" and "elect progressive candidates."

_America Votes, a powerful voter-recruitment coalition that seeks to "increase progressive voter registration and turnout."

_EMILY's List, "dedicated to building a progressive America" by raising money for left-of-center candidates.

_MoveOn.org, a promoter of liberal causes whose constituent groups "work together to realize the progressive promise of our country."

_President Barack Obama's favorite policy institute, the Center for American Progress, may be the most progressive of all. It uses the term 12 times in its online mission statement.

Talk-show host Rush Limbaugh is on to the switch. To spread the old tar, he often refers now to "liberal progressives." So is Michael Savage, another leading conservative radio voice. Both liberals and progressives, he says, are "degenerates ... on an express train to hell."

(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Founder John Podesta, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, spelled out what he meant by progressive in a 2008 election season book, "The Power of Progress."

Liberals tend to care more about individual freedom, Podesta wrote, while progressives care more about the public good. Their number includes Republicans, he adds, citing historic reformers such as Roosevelt and Robert LaFollette. That liberals in their day also included Republicans goes unmentioned, as Podesta is at great pains to make the small point that liberal and progressive are "not exactly the same."

Still, Podesta wrote that when he's asked the difference between liberals and progressives, he responds, "Call me whatever you want."

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Democratic presidential contenders were fey about the L-word, too, in the last campaign. "I prefer the word progressive," Hillary Clinton said in a July 2007 debate.

"We're all progressives," John Edwards chimed in.

The political gain from shifting to "progressive" is massive, according to a post-debate analysis by the public opinion research firm Rasmussen Reports.

Only 20 percent of respondents considered calling a candidate a liberal to be a positive description, it found. However, 35 percent considered it positive to call a candidate a progressive.

Equally telling, 39 percent considered "liberal" a negative, while only 18 percent saw "progressive" as negative.

Ralph Nader, an anti-corporate progressive of the old school, isn't suffering one-time liberals who'd rather switch than fight. So many are "deserting the liberal ship and swimming over to the progressive ship," he said, that "you have people calling themselves progressives that make me laugh."

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

One of the few groups still aboard the liberal ship is Americans for Democratic Action, which describes itself as "committed to liberal politics, liberal policies and a liberal future."

Amy Isaacs, the national director of Americans for Democratic Action, dismisses progressives as "liberals who don't have the courage of their own convictions."

She and others blame Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis _ a former member of Americans for Democratic Action's Swarthmore College chapter _ for failing to stand up for liberalism in his 1988 campaign. Although Reagan spoke out against the "L-word" at the Republican convention that year, and George H.W. Bush baited Dukakis with it, the former Massachusetts governor ignored the jibes until his campaign's last days.

"I made the biggest mistake of my life when I decided not to respond to that attack campaign," said Dukakis, who now teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"But if 'progressive' sounds better and reflects better what we're talking about," he added, "I'm all for using 'progressive.' "

___

THE ORIGINS OF 'PROGRESSIVE'

The original Progressive era, from the 1890s to the 1920s, produced many important social changes, including women's suffrage, child labor limits, workers' compensation, open government laws, a minimum wage, the progressive income tax and open primary elections.

Faith in government intervention to achieve fairness was a hallmark of Progressive thinking, as was faith in science to improve humankind. Corporate power was the archfoe. Among Progressive leaders were Republicans Theodore Roosevelt and Wisconsin's Robert LaFollette, a governor and senator who ran for president as a Progressive in 1924.

Woodrow Wilson, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida Tarbell and Thorstein Veblen also were Progressives. Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt and Walter Lippmann helped carry Progressive politics into the '40s and beyond.

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© 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau on the World Wide Web at www.mcclatchydc.com.

Law enforcement overwhelmed on Inauguration Day, panel told

By Barbara Barrett

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ Members of Congress scolded federal law enforcement officials Wednesday over why thousands of their constituents didn't get to see Barack Obama sworn in as president in January despite holding coveted tickets to the ceremony.

A classified congressional report, part of which was released this week, found that visitors overwhelmed an understaffed cadre of law enforcement officers on Inauguration Day. Crowds knocked down barriers, crowded security zones and forced many ticket-holding spectators away from their coveted viewing areas nearest the Capitol.

"These were constituents from each of our districts, who traveled often at great expense and personal sacrifice to witness this historic day," said Rep. David Price, D-N.C., who led the hearing along with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.

Price and Wasserman Schultz are the chiefs of the Homeland Security and Legislative Branch subcommittees, respectively, of the House Appropriations Committee.

Among the problems, according to Wednesday's testimony: Spectators arrived before law enforcement officers. Signage was poor, and visitors without tickets mingled among those carrying tickets, breaking down any hope of orderly queues. Security maps conflicted.

Police tried to funnel 100,000 carriers of silver tickets through a single checkpoint and had turned down offers of help from the District of Columbia Army National Guard.

Also, just more than 300 police officers were dispatched to manage a crowd of 250,000.

Thousands were caught underground for hours in the so-called "Purple Tunnel of Doom" as emergency vehicles whizzed by and police officers did nothing to disperse the crowd.

The congressional report on the inaugural crowds found that the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Capitol Police didn't have enough support to handle the crush of people.

(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

"It was just horrible," said Kay Singer of Hillsborough, N.C., whose blue ticket line moved just 25 feet in three hours in subfreezing weather. As the noon swearing-in time grew nearer, she abandoned the line and went to a friend's apartment to watch on television. Next time, she said, she'll just go to the National Mall without a ticket.

The chaos marred an otherwise calm day in which jubilant Obama supporters cheered for the new president and sang in the streets afterward. Police agencies reported no arrests among the estimated crowd of 1.8 million people.

Thousands of people who had traveled from across the country with tickets from their members of Congress couldn't get close enough to see the swearing-in, however.

"What was supposed to be a positive experience for my constituents turned into an embittering one," said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., the chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

"I want to go back to the Purple of Tunnel of Doom," Wasserman Schultz said.

Police officers knew about the crowds in the tunnel, which was supposed to be off-limits to pedestrians, but they did nothing because the group stood peacefully.

Wasserman Schultz wondered what would prevent such problems in four years.

"Do you know what will happen so we don't have 'Son of Purple Tunnel of Doom' in 2013?" she asked.

Rep. Harold Rogers of Kentucky, the top Republican on the Homeland Security Subcommittee, said that most of the decisions about signs, tickets and other plans were made by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. That committee is run by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, who wasn't at the hearing.

"I don't know what we're doing here," Rogers said.

Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., said it was important to understand what happened because the event not only was massive but also was infused with a historic significance that was tarnished for many visitors.

"I had people coming from my district in the Bronx who were over 90 years old," Serrano said. "This was going to be emotional. This was going to be important. And that's why there's so much concern about it."

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Phillip Morse testified that police were overwhelmed by what he called a "cascading" effect of ticketed and nonticketed visitors scrambling to find space after access to the National Mall closed earlier than expected.

Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan said that in four years, law enforcement would open screening sites earlier in the morning, add better signage, enlarge the security perimeter and monitor the crowds through online social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

"We were caught short," Sullivan said.

Only the eight-page executive summary of the congressional report was released to the public this week, as most of it is considered a law enforcement secret. Sullivan pledged Wednesday to review the report again and make as much of it public as possible.

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© 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau on the World Wide Web at www.mcclatchydc.com.

Shriver, Gingrich push for Alzheimer's ‘Manhattan Project'

From TheMatadorOnline.com newsroom:

By Lesley Clark

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ Sargent Shriver once walked the halls of Congress pressing senators and members of the House of Representatives for more money for the Peace Corps, Head Start and Job Corps, his daughter, Maria Shriver, testified Wednesday.

"He knew every senator and every congressman by name. He knew their careers, their interests, their politics and, of course, their soft spots," California's first lady said. Now, at 93, the one-time adviser to two presidents doesn't remember his daughter, thanks to the ravages of Alzheimer's, the disease that's left him entirely dependent on others.

It was for her dad and millions like him that Shriver testified Wednesday, pushing for increased attention to Alzheimer's in the wake of a new report that suggests the disease "could very easily surpass even the current economic crisis in the damage it inflicts on individuals and our economy."

The report by the Alzheimer's Study Group projects that Alzheimer's-related costs to Medicare and Medicaid alone will top more than $1 trillion annually by 2050.

"We have to put Alzheimer's on the front burner, because if we don't, Alzheimer's will not only devour our memories, it will cripple our families, devastate our health care system and decimate the legacy of our generation," Shriver told the Senate's Special Committee on Aging.

Her words on her father's behalf earned her a standing ovation from the dozens of Alzheimer's advocates who had packed the ornate Senate hearing room, many of them wiping away tears as she spoke.

The study group _ convened by Congress in 2007 and chaired by former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Nebraska Democratic Sen. Bob Kerrey _ recommends creating what it called an Alzheimer's Solutions Project to accelerate and focus national efforts, including an emphasis on research into preventing Alzheimer's. Research funding for the disease has been flat for five years.

"The human pain and financial burden of Alzheimer's is so great and the potential breakthroughs in science are so encouraging that a 'Manhattan Project' ... approach to ending Alzheimer's is more than justified," Gingrich said, referring to the government project to develop a nuclear weapon during World War II. He noted that polio infected more than 50,000 Americans in the 1950s, but the disease largely was eradicated when a vaccine was found.

"An Alzheimer's preventive would dramatically overshadow even that great scientific victory," Gingrich said.

Pitching for more money in a tight economy may be tricky, but Gingrich suggested that research should be based on potential savings.

"The choice for our generation is not whether or not to spend the money on Alzheimer's," Gingrich said. "The choice for our generation is to invest the money early and save a lot of lives, pain and money later or to be foolishly cheap."

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Kerrey noted that many researchers think they may be close to developing the ability to delay or even prevent Alzheimer's.

New cases of the disease _ which the report notes strikes almost half of those who are older than 85 _ are projected to increase by more than 50 percent in 20 years and then double to as many as 16 million cases by 2050.

"We just can't face that kind of personal tragedy and the cost," said retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a member of the study group who has personal experience with Alzheimer's: Her husband, John, has the disease.

O'Connor called for a major prevention initiative and more help for families, noting that many patients require two or more people providing around-the-clock care.

"The disease is devastating not only for those who are afflicted, but also their friends, family and colleagues," O'Connor said.

The study group also is calling for changes to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, noting that the system discourages the use of counseling and community services, which Kerrey said could be of great value to dementia patients.

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ON THE WEB

The Alzheimer's Study Group report: http://tinyurl.com/ccug97

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© 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau on the World Wide Web at www.mcclatchydc.com.

Human smuggling: Mexican drug cartels also smuggle people across border

From TheMatadorOnline.com newsroom:

By Josh Meyer

Tribune Washington Bureau

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ Mexican drug cartels and their vast network of associates have branched out from their traditional business of narcotics trafficking and are now playing a central role in the multibillion-dollar-a-year business of illegal immigrant smuggling, U.S. law-enforcement officials and other experts say.

The business of smuggling humans across the Mexican border has always been brisk, with many thousands coming across every year. But smugglers affiliated with the drug cartels have taken the enterprise to a new level _ and made it more violent _ by commandeering much of the operation from beginning to end from independent coyotes, according to these officials and recent congressional testimony.

U.S. efforts to stop the cartels have been stymied by a shortage of money and the failure of federal law-enforcement agencies to collaborate effectively with each other, their local and state counterparts and the Mexican government, officials say.

For many years, U.S. authorities have focused efforts on the cartels' trafficking of cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamines, which has left a trail of violence and corruption in its wake.

Unlike the drug-trafficking problem, the cartels' involvement in human smuggling has received scant attention in Washington.

The cartels often further exploit illegal immigrants by forcing them into economic bondage or prostitution, U.S. officials say. In recent years, illegal immigrants have been forced to pay even more exorbitant fees for being smuggled into the U.S. by the cartels' well-coordinated networks of transportation, communications, logistics and financial operatives, according to officials.

Many more illegal immigrants are raped, killed or physically and emotionally scarred along the way, authorities say. Organized smuggling groups are stealing entire safe houses from rivals or trucks full of "chickens" _ their term for their human cargo _ so they can resell them or exploit them further, according to these officials and documents.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., said greed and opportunity has prompted the cartels to move into illegal immigrant smuggling.

"Drugs are only sold once," Sanchez, the chairwoman of the House Homeland Security border subcommittee, said in an interview. "But people can be sold over and over. And they use these people over and over until they are too broken to be used anymore."

(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

The cartels began moving into human smuggling in the late 1990s, initially by taxing the coyotes as they led bands of a few dozen people across cartel-controlled turf near the border. After U.S. officials stepped up border enforcement after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the price of passage increased and the cartels got more directly involved, using the routes they have long used for smuggling drugs north and cash and weapons south, authorities said.

Sometimes they loaded up their human cargo with backpacks full of marijuana. In many cases they smuggled illegal immigrants between the two marijuana-growing seasons, authorities said.

Kumar Kibble, deputy director of the Office of Operations at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of Homeland Security, said the cartels make money by taxing coyotes and engaging in the business themselves. "Diversification has served them well," Kibble said.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

The Obama administration and Congress are increasingly focusing their attention on Mexico, fearing that its government is losing ground in a battle against the cartels that already has resulted in the deaths of more than 7,000 people since the beginning of 2008.

At one of many congressional hearings on the subject last week, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., unveiled a chart he said described the cartels' profit centers: drugs, weapons and money laundering.

"I would add one thing, Senator," said Arizona Atty. Gen. Terry Goddard, who then described to Durbin his concerns about the cartels' role in illegal immigrant smuggling. "It is really a four-part trade and it has caused crime throughout the United States."

Arizona has become the gateway not only for drugs but for illegal immigrants. Fights over the valuable commodity have triggered a spate of shootings, kidnappings and killings, Goddard and one of his chief deputies said in interviews.

Goddard said that in Arizona, the cartels grossed an estimated $2 billion last year on smuggling humans.

Senior officials from federal law-enforcement agencies confirmed they are concerned about the cartels' human smuggling network.

In recent years, the U.S. government has taken significant steps to go after illegal immigrant smugglers on a global scale, setting up task forces, launching public awareness campaigns and creating a Human Smuggling & Trafficking Center to fuse intelligence from various agencies.

But at the border with Mexico, the effort has stumbled, in part because Homeland Security and various Justice Department agencies have overlapping responsibilities and are engaging in turf battles to keep them, Goddard and other federal and state officials said.

The vast majority of ICE agents cannot make drug arrests, for instance, even though the same smugglers are often moving illegal immigrants.

The reason: The Drug Enforcement Administration has not authorized the required "cross-designation" authority for them, according to Kibble and others. A top DEA official said that is partly to prevent ICE agents from unwittingly compromising ongoing DEA investigations and informants working the cartels.

Agents from the Justice Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives focus almost exclusively on cartel efforts to smuggle large quantities of American-made weapons into Mexico.

"The only way we're going to be successful is to truly mount a comprehensive attack upon the cartels. They're doing a comprehensive attack on us through all four of these different criminal activities," Goddard told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee. "I'm afraid in this country we tend to segregate by specialty the various areas that we are going to prosecute. And our experience on the border is we can't do that. We've got to cross the jurisdictional lines or we're going to fail."

Kibble agreed, saying the cartels' diversification will require federal agencies to work together. "It means we need more teamwork so things don't slip through the cracks."

"We are very focused on it and applying law-enforcement pressure to all aspects of the cartels' activities," Kibble said.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Authorities also are hampered by budget shortcomings and other obstacles. Even though ICE has primary responsibility over illegal immigrant smuggling, it has only 100 agents dedicated to the task, Kibble said.

Cameron Holmes, an assistant Arizona attorney general at the front lines of the fight against cross-border human smuggling, said federal authorities are trying to collaborate better.

"Are they working together enough? Absolutely not. Are they being successful? Look around," Holmes said before describing details of illegal immigrant smuggling cases in which people were killed or enslaved for years. "We have a multibillion criminal industry that has grown up in the last 10 years and it all involves violations of federal law. I would not call that a success."

___

© 2009, Chicago Tribune.

Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Geithner seeks expanded power to take over financial firms

From TheMatadorOnline.com newsroom:

By William Douglas

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called Tuesday for new powers to regulate giant nonbank financial companies, such as insurance titan American International Group, whose failure would endanger the U.S. economy.

In a rare joint appearance before the House Financial Services Committee, Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the AIG experience underscored that the Treasury needed to be able to take over failing financial institutions expeditiously, remove their bad assets and sell their good assets to competitors. The powers that Geithner seeks are similar to what the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has over national banks.

"The proposed resolution authority would allow the government to provide financial assistance to make loans to an institution, purchase its obligations or assets, assume or guarantee its liabilities and purchase an equity interest," Geithner said. "This proposed legislation would fill a significant void in the current financial-services regulatory structure with respect to nonbank institutions."

Geithner said "AIG highlights broad failures of our financial system," and that it underscores why action must be taken to ensure that such dangers never menace the nation again.

The Obama administration will lay out more details of its proposed revisions for financial regulation Thursday. It will do so in advance of a G-20 meeting of leaders from the world's 20 major economies, at which Europeans will push hard for stronger regulation of global financial markets.

The White House has voiced wariness over ceding too much authority over U.S. markets to international institutions. However, President Barack Obama said Tuesday that he would push at the G-20 meeting for greater regulation of hedge funds and other nonbank financial institutions that, like AIG, could affect the world economy.

Geithner said he'd give more details of the administration's regulatory plan Thursday when he testified again before the committee.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., appeared supportive of the administration's call.

"We need to give somebody somewhere in the federal government ... the authority to do what the FDIC can do with banks," Frank said. "It's called resolving authority, but giving somebody . . . a form of bankruptcy power given under the Constitution ... allows us to avoid the choice of all or nothing: Nothing in the case of Lehman Brothers, all in the case of AIG."

Lawmakers grilled the two senior officials anew about the $165 million in bonuses paid to AIG employees. Geithner and Bernanke restated their displeasure over AIG's retention bonuses and vowed to work with Congress to prevent excessive bonuses or rewards going to the employees of firms that receive federal bailout money.

Bernanke testified Tuesday that he had considered suing to block the AIG bonuses but his legal counsel persuaded him not to. Bernanke said that if the Treasury had the power it now sought, "the bonus issue would not have arisen."

"I share the anger and frustration of the American people, not just about the compensation practices at AIG and in other parts of our financial system, but that our system permitted a scale of risk-taking that has caused grave damage to the fortunes of all Americans," Geithner said.

However, while Geithner said he found the bonuses repugnant, he said that there was no choice but to pay them because they were part of legally binding contracts.

"We need to strike the right balance between encouraging investment and prudent risk-taking to get our financial system moving again, and, on the other hand, placing limits on executive compensation to avoid taxpayer-funded rewards for failure," he said.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Last week the House of Representatives rammed through legislation to levy a 90 percent tax on bonuses to employees with household incomes that exceed $250,000 a year at companies that receive at least $5 billion in federal assistance.

After financial industry executives began warning that such punitive terms may make them reluctant to cooperate with federal efforts to end the financial crisis, and after legal authorities warned that the legislation probably is unconstitutional, reservations began to emerge. Obama said on "60 Minutes" that he wanted to oppose rewarding bad behavior with bonuses but also wanted to ensure that his administration did nothing to impede economic recovery, and that he would try to balance the two goals as he weighed whatever Congress did regarding the AIG bonuses.

AIG head Edward Liddy has asked his employees who got bonuses to return at least half of the amounts voluntarily. On Monday, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said that nine out of 10 of AIG's top bonus recipients were returning all the money. He also said that 15 of the 20 largest recipients from AIG's Financial Products division had agreed to give back the money, an estimated $30 million.

The Senate is postponing debate on its own bill aimed at reclaiming the bonuses through taxes, a delay intended to let passions die down and reason prevail. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday that "the issue is not over, and that's an understatement," but didn't set timing for further action.

___

ON THE WEB

Bernanke's testimony: http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/testimony/bernanke20090324a.htm

Geithner's testimony: http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/tg67.htm

New York Fed testimony: http://www.ny.frb.org/newsevents/speeches/2009/dud090324.html

President Obama's 2010 budget outline: http://tinyurl.com/bcbxk6

Concord Coalition's budget analysis: http://tinyurl.com/cwjb2e

___

© 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau on the World Wide Web at www.mcclatchydc.com.

Palin criticizes Obama for Special Olympics quip

From TheMatadorOnline.com newsroom:

By Erika Bolstad

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Friday criticized President Barack Obama's gaffe about the Special Olympics, calling his off-handed remark on the Tonight Show "degrading," especially since it was "coming from the most powerful position in the world."

"These athletes overcome more challenges, discrimination and adversity than most of us ever will," Palin said in a statement released Friday. "By the way, these athletes can outperform many of us and we should be proud of them. I hope President Obama's comments do not reflect how he truly feels about the special needs community."

Obama apologized for his remark shortly after his Thursday night appearance on NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno. His gaffe came toward the end of the interview, when the Tonight Show host ribbed Obama about his less-than-stellar bowling skills, which were derided on the campaign trail. Obama joked he had been practicing and recently bowled a 129. Leno offered tongue-in-cheek praise, saying "that's very good, Mr. President."

"It's like _ it was like Special Olympics, or something," Obama responded.

Palin, whose son, Trig, was born with Down syndrome last year, appeared in a video promoting this year's winter Special Olympics games in Boise, Idaho. In it, she held Trig and talked about how important participating in the Special Olympics will be to her son's future happiness, especially in a sports-loving family.

"Thanks to Special Olympics, we know for certain that Trig is going to have every opportunity to enjoy sports and competition that all of our other children have," Palin said in the video. She riffed on her infamous hockey-mom-and-lipstick line from when she was introduced last summer to the nation as Sen. John McCain's vice presidential running mate.

"You know what the difference is between a hockey mom and a Special Olympics hockey mom?" Palin said. "Nothing."

The president's hasty apology came shortly after the Tonight Show was taped in California. White House spokesman Bill Burton released a statement while the president was flying back to Washington D.C. on Air Force One.

"The President made an offhand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics," Burton said. "He thinks that the Special Olympics are a wonderful program that gives an opportunity to shine to people with disabilities from around the world."

En route to Washington, the president also called and offered an apology to the chairman of the Special Olympics, Tim Shriver, whose mother Eunice Kennedy Shriver founded the Special Olympics in 1968. Shriver told "Good Morning America" that there's a Special Olympics athlete from Detroit who has bowled three perfect games and would be thrilled to offer the president some tips.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also weighed in. His wife, Maria Shriver, is Tim Shriver's brother; both Schwarzenegger and his wife have served as Special Olympics ambassadors.

"I know where his heart is at," Schwarzenegger said of the president, outside the White House Friday afternoon. "He loves Special Olympics, and he will do everything he can to help Special Olympics. And every one of us sometimes makes a mistake. Something comes out of your mouth and you say 'Oops, I wish I wouldn't have said that.' I've had many of those."

Maria Shriver was a little more critical: "Oftentimes we don't realize that when we laugh at comments like this it hurts millions of people throughout the world," she said. "People with special needs are great athletes and productive citizens, and I look forward to working with the president to knock down myths and stereotypes about this community."

Friday afternoon, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs repeated the president's apology during his daily briefing.

"I know that the president believes that the Special Olympics are a triumph of the human spirit, and I think he understands that they deserve a lot better than _ than the thoughtless joke that he made last night, and he apologizes for that," Gibbs said.

___

© 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau on the World Wide Web at www.mcclatchydc.com.

Banks lend heavily to insiders amid credit crunch, bailouts

From TheMatadorOnline.com newsroom:

By Stella M. Hopkins

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ Banks nationwide hold $41 billion in loans to directors, top executives and other insiders, a portfolio that experts say should be stripped of secrecy.

Insider lending to directors is particularly troublesome because it could cloud the judgment of people charged with protecting shareholders and overseeing bank management, the experts say.

At Charlotte-based Bank of America, those loans more than doubled last year, to $624.2 million _ the biggest dollar jump in the country. The largest of them likely went to three directors or their companies. The surge came during the third quarter as credit markets froze, the government prepared to infuse banks with billions in tax dollars and the board approved the purchase of troubled Merrill Lynch.

Bank of America ranked fourth on the list of biggest insider lenders. At the top was JPMorgan of New York, which held $1.48 billion in insider loans, mostly by directors or their companies.

At No. 2, Charlotte-based Wachovia, which was sold to Wells Fargo of San Francisco at the end of 2008, finished the year with $747 million in insider loans. All of the loans were held by the bank's directors or their companies, with just five holding the largest.

Ranking third on the list was M&I Marshall & Ilsley of Milwaukee, with $644.4 million, and Chicago's Northern Trust was at No. 5 with $524.5 million.

Insider loans, ranging from home mortgages to multimillion-dollar lines of credit for big companies, are legal but are largely shrouded from public scrutiny.

Banks don't have to explain increased insider lending. They don't have to disclose individual loan amounts or terms for any insiders, including executives. Directors and their businesses, often the largest insider borrowers, are completely shielded. Directors must approve insider loans greater than $500,000, so they sometimes vote on loans for each other or the executives they oversee.

Insider favoritism is against the law. Bankers and regulators say the loans are subject to greater scrutiny to ensure insiders aren't getting better terms and are creditworthy.

But top corporate governance experts contend that insider lending carries serious potential for conflict of interest among bank officials and must be stripped of secrecy. They argue that lending to directors, the watchdogs of management, must be revealed so shareholders can gauge their independence. And disclosure should be paramount for banks receiving government aid, said Ed Lawrence, a University of Missouri-St. Louis finance professor and co-author of a 1989 study that was a rare look at insider lending.

Seven of the 10 banks with the largest insider loans received a total of more than $50 billion in the banking bailout late last year, according to a Charlotte Observer analysis of banks' federal filings.

"It's good for the public to know ... where the money is going," Lawrence said. "When you start taking public money, we hold them to a much higher standard."

The majority of the nation's 8,000-plus banks make insider loans, some very small. At the end of last year, banks had $41 billion of insider loans, up 5.7 percent from a year earlier, according to The Charlotte Observer's analysis.

Insider loans accounted for less than 2 percent of the banks' assets, amounts that are generally unlikely to seriously damage banks if the loans go sour. The loans tend to make up a larger percentage of business for smaller banks.

Not all large banks are big insider lenders. Wells Fargo, for example, was about the size of Wachovia before the San Francisco bank swooped up the wounded Charlotte institution late last year. Wells ended last year with $20 million of insider loans, a fraction of Wachovia's $747 million. Neither bank would discuss the disparity.

Most publicly traded companies were banned from making insider loans in 2002, part of the regulatory rush following the collapse of Enron and other accounting scandals.

But banks were excluded from the ban, partly because they're in the business of lending and also because the loans have been subject to extensive regulation for more than 25 years.

The loans were blamed for bank problems during the nation's S&L crisis. Lawrence and others have linked insider lending to bank failures. In December, the chairman of a large Irish bank resigned after revelations he had $109 million of secretive insider loans. In January, the government seized the Dublin bank.

"Studies of bank failures have found that insider abuse, including excessive or poor quality loans made ... is often a contributing factor to the failure," says the "Insider Activities" handbook from the Comptroller of the Currency, the lead regulator for big national banks.

Banks can be hurt by even the perception of insider favoritism, the guide says.

"We don't have a difficulty with insider loans when they're properly written and extended," said Ray Grace, the North Carolina deputy banking commissioner who heads bank supervision for state-chartered firms. "It makes a certain amount of sense that a director or bank officer take that business to their own bank rather than shop it to a competitor."

A key requirement is that insider loans be on the same terms as those to similar outsiders.

"This is a highly scrutinized area, so usually any problems would be caught early," said Mindy West, a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chief whose job includes crafting instructions for bank examiners.

Large banks, such as Bank of America, have regulatory officials on site. Smaller banks are typically examined every 12 to 18 months. Regulatory officials request insider loan details for review prior to their regular bank examinations, West said. The FDIC has regulatory authority over about 5,100 banks.

New loans and increases in existing loans are especially likely to be scrutinized, West said. And a loan balance that doubled would probably trigger a second look.

(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Longtime governance expert Charles Elson doesn't advocate banning insider loans, although he was startled the loans can run into hundreds of millions. But, he said, banks need to make full disclosure, revealing names, amounts and terms. He is especially concerned about disclosure for loans to directors and their interests.

"Management, who can dictate the terms of the loan, are being overseen by the director who is a beneficiary," said Elson, who is director of the University of Delaware's Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance. "It compromises the director's ability to be objective."

As borrowers, directors might be less rigorous when evaluating the CEO or other executives, he said. They might be unwilling to buck management when approving deals.

Wachovia's board approved its 2006 acquisition of mortgage lender Golden West Financial, a vote that ultimately helped push the bank near collapse. Shortly before that approval, the bank had $1.47 billion in insider lending. Fifteen borrowers held the largest loans. Banks aren't required to disclose details of past lending so there's no way to identify those borrowers.

At the end of 2008, all of the bank's $747 million in insider loans were held by directors or their companies, said Julia Bernard, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo, which bought Wachovia last year. Five borrowers held the largest loans. Bernard said most of the loans were made before 2008.

Wachovia's former chairman and longtime director, Lanty Smith, did not respond to two calls for comment.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Nel Minow, co-founder of The Corporate Library, said directors should take their business elsewhere if they aren't comfortable with disclosure.

"Do you want them as directors or do you want them as customers?" she said. "To the extent there's even the perception of conflict of interest, it's very important for them to be very transparent."

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

___

TOP 10 INSIDER LENDERS

JPMorgan Chase, New York, $1.48 billion

Wachovia, Charlotte, N.C., $747 million

M&I Marshall & Ilsley, Milwaukee, $644.4 million

Bank of America, Charlotte, $624.2 million

Northern Trust, Chicago, $523.5 million

Union Bank, San Francisco, $499.3 million

BB&T, Winston-Salem, N.C., $493.8 million

Commerce Bank, Kansas City, Mo., $467.9 million

Regions Bank, Birmingham, Ala., $444.3 million

Comerica Bank, Dallas, $391.5 million

(Note: Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, bought Wachovia on Dec. 31.)

___

(Database editor Ted Mellnik contributed to this report. Stella Hopkins can be reached at shopkins@charlotteobserver.com.)

___

© 2009, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).

Visit The Charlotte Observer on the World Wide Web at http://www.charlotte.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Obama gives Treasury secretary vote of confidence during '60 Minutes' interview

from TheMatadorOnline.com newsroom:


By Mark Silva

Tribune Washington Bureau

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ The besieged secretary of the Treasury gets a strong vote of confidence from President Barack Obama in a TV interview to be broadcast Sunday.

In a 90-minute session with "60 Minutes" interviewer Steve Kroft, Obama tells Kroft that if Timothy Geithner were to tender his resignation, he would tell him, "Sorry, buddy, you've still got the job."

The president stressed that neither he nor Geithner has mentioned resignation. But Obama said that criticism is natural, in light of the circumstances.

"It's going to take a little bit more time than we would like to make sure that we get this plan just right," Obama said. "Of course, then we'd still be subject to criticism _ 'What's taken so long? You've been in office a whole 40 days and you haven't solved the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression.' "

The president also discussed the proposed bonus tax for companies that have collected federal bailout money, health care, assistance for automakers, and the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Addressing national security, Obama had an answer for Vice President Dick Cheney's recent contention that the new president has put the nation at greater risk with his plans to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and prohibit torture of prisoners.

"How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney?" Obama said. "It hasn't made us safer. What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment."

Asked about released prisoners who have returned to terrorist groups, Obama said: "There is no doubt that we have not done a particularly effective job in sorting through who are truly dangerous individuals ... to make sure (they) are not a threat to us."

But the president said the Bush administration's policy on detainees at Guantanamo _ including long incarcerations without trial _ is "unsustainable."

Excerpts from the interview, taped Friday, will air on "60 Minutes" Sunday at 7 p.m. EDT.

___

© 2009, Tribune Co.

Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Obama defends emptying Guantanamo

From TheMatadorOnline.com newsroom:

By Carol Rosenberg

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

MIAMI _ President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast Sunday the Bush administration did not properly vet Guantanamo detainees before freeing them. Still, he defended his plan to empty the prison camps to mend global relations.

Obama made the remarks in excerpts released by CBS "60 Minutes" a week after former Vice President Dick Cheney said the president's plans to dismantle GOP-led detainee policy were risky.

"How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney?" Obama retorted. "It hasn't made us safer. What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment."

The Bush administration sent to other countries some 500 detainees in its periodic rounds of releases since opening the controversial prison camps in January 2002. The Obama White House has approved release of only one so far from Guantanamo _ a former British resident who was sent to London.

Justice Department officials are now sifting the files of the 220 war on terror captives at Guantanamo to decide who can be sent home, who can be resettled in third countries and who should face trials.

Spokesmen for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have claimed a sizable recidivist rate of former detainees who have rejoined the Taliban or attacked U.S. forces or allies. In a few instances, Pentagon spokesmen have cited specific cases, but mostly pointed to secret intelligence reports and scarce public proof.

"There is no doubt that we have not done a particularly effective job in sorting through who are truly dangerous individuals...to make sure they are not a threat to us," said Obama.

But he said his predecessor's policy of indefinite detention at Guantanamo without trial was "unsustainable."

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Only a few dozen have been charged in the now frozen war court the Bush administration championed. Of the three who were convicted _ Osama bin Laden's driver and media secretary and an Australian foot soldier _ two have been set free in Australia and Yemen.

Obama has said he prefers traditional prosecutions for which cases can be built in U.S. courts _ an approach that Cheney cast as an effort to transform war policies into law enforcement practices.

Cheney's remarks on last Sunday's CNN broadcast sparked a new round of national debate on the future of the prison camps.

A former Bush appointee, retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, reignited a feud with the former vice president by reminding on a Web site that Bush-era intelligence suggested some at Guantanamo are innocent.

The Obama administration has been steadily breaking with Bush detainee policy since the president signed an Executive Order instructing his government to empty the prison camps within his first year in office.

Attorney General Eric Holder, who is leading the Cabinet level review of what to do with the detainees, toppled one taboo last week:

He told reporters he could imagine the U.S. resettling on American soil some Muslims from China who had been cleared of being "enemy combatants," but cannot go home from Guantanamo for fear of religious persecution in their communist homeland.

Gates, a holdover from the Bush years, had urged legislation that banned ex-Guantanamo captives from being settled in the United States.

___

© 2009, The Miami Herald.

Visit The Miami Herald Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.herald.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Sesame Street and Madoff...?

Seperating Fact from BS

So who really is telling the truth in politics? A special Web site from the St. Petersburg Times helps seperate fact from fiction:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/

Obama decries earmarks, signs bill with 9,000 of them

By Steven Thomma and David Lightman

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ As a candidate, Barack Obama once said that a president has to be able to do more than one thing at a time. Wednesday he proved it, though not in the way he had in mind.

He criticized pork barrel spending in the form of "earmarks," urging changes in the way that Congress adopts the spending proposals. Then he signed a spending bill that contains nearly 9,000 of them, some that members of his own staff shoved in last year when they were still members of Congress.

"Let there be no doubt, this piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business, and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability," Obama said.

He said, however, that it was crucial for him to sign the $410 billion bill as soon as it arrived at the White House from Congress because it's needed to finance much of the government for the rest of this fiscal year. It was largely written last year but was held back while Republican George W. Bush was president because he opposed it.

"I am signing an imperfect ... bill," Obama said, "because it's necessary for the ongoing functions of government, and we have a lot more work to do. We can't have Congress bogged down at this critical juncture in our economic recovery."

Obama proposed changing the way special projects are financed, including competitive bidding for spending that goes to for-profit businesses. Aides also said the White House Office of Management and Budget would review the spending bill for examples of wasteful spending. The president then could send those back to Congress as proposed cuts, called rescissions, for an up-or-down vote.

Although Obama insisted that the recently enacted $787 billion plan to stimulate the economy be free of any earmarks _ spending on special projects usually in senators' home states or representatives' districts _ he made no such demand of this spending bill.

"The president could have done better. He couldn't have eliminated the earmarks in this bill, but he could have at least cut them back significantly," said Steve Ellis, the vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group. "We appreciate how he kept them out of the stimulus, but we think he's only batting .500."

"The American people know actions speak louder than words," said Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, his party's leader in the House of Representatives. "The president's new promises on earmark reform would carry greater weight if they had been accompanied by a veto keeping his earlier promises on earmark reform."

The bill contains 8,816 earmarks worth $7.6 billion, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Notable among them are $155.9 million worth of projects that six members of the Obama administration who were members of Congress last year, when the bill was originally written, inserted into the bill.

Top among them was Vice President Joe Biden. As a senator from Delaware, Biden added 56 earmarks that cost a total of $52.1 million, including $13.7 million for the Intracoastal Waterway from the Delaware River to the Chesapeake Bay and $190,000 to help build a children's museum in Wilmington.

Others:

_White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who as a House member from Illinois added 16 earmarks worth about $8.3 million, including money for a Chicago planetarium and suburban children's museum.

_Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, formerly a Democratic senator from Colorado, $44.6 million.

_Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, formerly a Republican congressman from Illinois, $26.5 million.

_Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, formerly a Democratic House member from California, $15.5 million.

_Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, formerly a Democratic senator from New York, $6.7 million.

The White House has pledged to send legislation to Congress seeking the rescission of all earmarks sponsored by current members of the Obama administration.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Geographically, Alaska topped the list, with 100 earmarks valued at $143 million, or $209.71 per capita. Next was North Dakota, with $110 million or $172 per capita.

The data show that it pays to be a top Appropriations Committee official. Hawaii, the home state of Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, came in third, at $165 million, or $128.12 per capita. Fourth was Mississippi, represented by top Republican Appropriations member Thad Cochran, with $324 million in earmarks, or $110.59 per capita.

Last on the list: Arizona, the home state of Sen. John McCain, with $54 million, or $8.41 per capita. McCain railed against the practice throughout the weeklong Senate debate, just as he did in last year's presidential campaign, but his effort to effectively erase earmarks from the bill failed by a big margin Monday night.


___

© 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau on the World Wide Web at www.mcclatchydc.com.

_____

PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): OBAMA

Obama picks ex-NYC health commissioner to head FDA

By Noam N. Levey

Tribune Washington Bureau

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ President Barack Obama has decided to tap former New York City Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to head the Food and Drug Administration, turning to a former Clinton administration official to help right the beleaguered regulatory agency, a source briefed on the choice said Wednesday.

Hamburg, 53, a physician who has worked extensively on bio-terrorism issues, is now a senior scientist at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a Washington-based foundation focused on threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

Though less experienced as a regulator, Hamburg has extensive government experience. She served as health commissioner in New York for six years in the 1990s before becoming assistant secretary for planning and evaluation in the Clinton administration's Department of Health and Human Services.

Another leader in public health, Baltimore health commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, 39, is widely expected to be named Hamburg's deputy.

A pediatrician by training, Sharfstein led the Obama transition team's assessment of the FDA. He also has worked as an aide to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who is a leading critic of the pharmaceutical industry.

The president will be looking to Hamburg and Sharfstein _ whose choices were first reported by the Wall Street Journal _ to strengthen the FDA's regulatory oversight after controversies involving its drug and device approvals and its response to outbreaks of food-borne illness.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Just two months ago, inspectors from the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said the agency was fast-tracking approvals of medical devices without sufficient review.

And agency scientists recently called on the new administration to remove senior medical device regulators, whom they accused of corrupting the FDA's review process.

"Current senior FDA employees are too close with the industries they regulate," said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., a frequent critic who chairs the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. "The new FDA commissioner must recognize that the FDA works for the American people, not drug companies and food producers." Other critics complain the agency has been too slow to approve generic drugs that could help reduce health care costs.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, have been agitating to transfer the FDA's responsibility for regulating food to a new agency, a drive that has gained momentum with each new food scandal.

The FDA is still wrestling with last year's deadly salmonella outbreak involving peanut plants. More than 600 people were sickened in the months-long outbreak, and at least nine deaths were attributed to salmonella.

FDA leaders have taken some steps to respond to the criticism, including increasing their focus on overseas inspections. But much of the reform effort has been on hold as the Obama administration worked to fill the agency's top posts at the agency, a process delayed by setbacks in selecting a new secretary of Health and Human Services.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

The FDA has not had a commissioner since December, when Bush appointee Andrew von Eschenbach resigned.

As health commissioner in New York, Hamburg was widely praised for a major initiative to control the spread of tuberculosis, reducing the city's infant mortality rates and boosting child immunizations. She sits on the board of medical supply distributor Henry Schein Inc., but would have to surrender the position if confirmed by the Senate.

Hamburg would have a great deal of work to do at the FDA, said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., a leading champion of stronger federal regulation of food.

"After years of failing to perform its responsibilities adequately and allowing industry influence to permeate its culture, reforming the FDA will represent an enormous undertaking," DeLauro said. "The next commissioner faces a significant and long-term challenge in changing the culture at the agency and ensuring that the FDA once again emphasizes independent science."

___

© 2009, Tribune Co.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Obama makes case for taking time to get economy out of deep hole

By Kevin Diaz

Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ President Obama, in his 51st day on the job, acknowledged that he has yet to reassure a nervous public about his game plan for stabilizing the financial system that has pulled the rug out from under the economy."We can always do a better job," he said Wednesday during a roundtable discussion with 15 regional newspapers, including the Star Tribune of Minneapolis.

"I recognize the degree of concern that people have. We've been in office all of seven weeks so far. This is a crisis that was eight years in the making, maybe longer, in certain aspects. The buck stops with me and we're responsible, but it's going to take some time."

The meeting was Obama's second with regional reporters who cover Washington, part of an aggressive media strategy that has seen the new president reach out to bloggers and columnists across the political spectrum.

"This is my monthly occasion to break out of the Washington bubble," Obama said in the West Wing's Roosevelt Room. "I enjoy the keen insights of people outside of Washington."

The president walked into the room with a casual "Hey, how you guys doing?" He spent the next hour holding forth on topics ranging from Mexican border violence to 57 extra police officers in Minneapolis, citing the latter as evidence of the benefits of his recently passed $787 billion economic stimulus package.

"Obviously, our overarching focus right now is the economy," Obama said. "I'm very mindful of the hardships that are taking place all throughout the country."

Speaking slowly and deliberately, like the college professor he was, Obama made clear that his administration is in its infancy and that he still has the public on his side.

"The truth of the matter is the American people I think understand that it's going to take some time," he said. "If you look at the public polling, they recognize that it's going to take a while to dig ourselves out of the hole."

Obama noted that it's been only two weeks since he laid out his plans in a joint session of Congress. "The reviews were pretty good," he said.

(EDITORS: BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

He noted that one aspect of the stimulus package _ extra money to preserve police officer jobs _ was highlighted by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, a co-chairman of Obama's presidential campaign in Minnesota. "People are getting the message that slowly, surely, we are making progress on these fronts," Obama said.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

As for the unanimous opposition to his stimulus plan from House Republicans, including the three from Minnesota, Obama said "Saying 'no' is easy. ... I'm not impressed by just being able to say no."

For early signs of hope, Obama pointed to his new housing plan to provide relief to homeowners facing foreclosure. "You're already starting to see an uptick in refinancings that are providing families with relief," he said. "And in certain pockets of the country, you're starting to see housing prices stabilize after a long drop."

The president acknowledged, however, that there's "significant uncertainty" in the markets about the banking sector, which has been decimated by bad loans and mortgages. "That's obviously a particular concern to Wall Street," he said.

One problem is that the administration is still in the process of "stress-testing" or evaluating the financial strength of banks. "What we don't want to do is to prejudge those tests, or make a lot of statements that cause a lot of nervousness around banks that are already having difficulties," Obama said. "On that particular issue we've got to explain to people _ and as I said, we can always do better _ why it is so important to get lending going again, to get credit flowing to businesses and consumers.

"I'll be making statements about this tomorrow and the next day and in my radio addresses next week. And the main message I'm going to be delivering is that it's going to take some time to get out of this deep hole we're in. But we're going to get out."

By the time Obama took his last question, his water glass was still more than half full.

___

© 2009, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Visit the Star Tribune Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.startribune.com

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Obama: No U.S. troops to Mexico border

By Todd J. Gillman

The Dallas Morning News

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ President Barack Obama is keeping close watch on the violence from Mexico's drug war, but he said Wednesday so far it hasn't spilled into this country enough to justify sending troops to the border.

"We've got a very big border with Mexico," he said. "I'm not interested in militarizing the border."

Last month, Texas Gov. Rick Perry visited El Paso, Texas _ whose neighbor, Ciudad Juarez, has taken the brunt of drug violence that has claimed more than 7,000 lives in Mexico in 14 months _ and called on Washington to send a thousand troops or border agents.

"We're going to examine whether and if National Guard deployments would make sense and under what circumstances they would make sense," Obama told The Dallas Morning News in an hour-long talk with 14 regional newspapers. "I don't have a particular tipping point in mind."

Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared a war on drug cartels nearly two years ago, setting off waves of violence as rival gangs fight for turf and resist the government crackdown. Obama emphasized he will continue working closely with Mexico and said within "a few months" he will offer a comprehensive policy to curtail U.S. demand for drugs and curb the southbound flow of cash and guns that give the cartels "extraordinary power."

"It's really a two-way situation," he said, promising a combination of border security, law enforcement, prevention and treatment.

"We're fighting with one hand tied behind our back because our effort to lower demand is grossly underfunded," Obama said. "The average person who's seeking serious substance abuse treatment in a big city like Dallas or Chicago typically has a three-, four- or six-month waiting list to get enrolled."

Obama has said little until now about the horrific violence in Mexico, which has included beheadings, assassinations of top anti-drug officials and police, running gun battles in border cities and the resignations of law enforcement officials who flee into the U.S. for safety.

Obama lauded Calderon for "taking some extraordinary risks under extraordinary pressure to deal with the drug cartels."

In 2007, then-President George W. Bush hammered out a deal with Calderon, called the Merida Initiative, to provide equipment and training to help Mexico take on the traffickers and weed out corruption.

Obama noted recent high-level contacts between U.S. and Mexican officials as a sign of the ongoing partnership.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Last Friday, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with counterparts in Mexico and offered more intelligence and surveillance, as well as training based on lessons learned against insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder have already met with top Mexican officials, too.

On Wednesday, Obama named a national drug czar, Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske. Bush had given the post Cabinet rank. Obama removed that designation but said that's not a reflection on how seriously he takes the effort to curtail drug use.

"We do have to treat this as a public health problem, and we do have to have significant law enforcement,' he said. "If we can reduce demand, obviously that allows us to focus more effectively where interdiction is needed."

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

As a candidate, Obama called the "war on drugs ... an utter failure." He also said he was open to legalizing marijuana for medical purposes.

Asked Wednesday if he believes this country is still engaged in a war on drugs, he avoided the phrase but promised not to weaken drug laws and to pursue border security and law enforcement while putting fresh emphasis on prevention and treatment.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

President George W. Bush's drug czar, John Walters, agreed on the need for a multifaceted approach.

"It's not an endless battle, and it's not a war like the Vietnam War," said Walters in a separate interview. "The issue of the 'war' has become a kind of metaphor for using inappropriate means, or focusing on force, or focusing on the supply side rather than the demand side. We have learned that we need balance."

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

Obama also offered assurance Americans won't be put at risk when he closes the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and transfers some detainees to U.S. facilities. Texas Republicans in Congress are among those who have denounced his plan, insisting he send terror suspects elsewhere.

"We already have experience with terrorists who are in federal prisons," Obama said. "And there's been no indication that the safety or security of prison guards or of surrounding communities have been compromised."

On food safety, Obama said he has ordered the Agriculture Department and the Health and Human Services Department to work more closely and develop better procedures, after a salmonella outbreak traced to peanut processors in Texas and Georgia. The nation needs "better warning signals" from food producers and an ability to track contamination more quickly, he said.

___

© 2009, The Dallas Morning News.

Visit The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at http://www.dallasnews.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Obama says NASA's next leader must end agency's 'drift'

By Mark K. Matthews

The Orlando Sentinel

(MCT)

WASHINGTON _ President Barack Obama said Wednesday that NASA is an agency afflicted by "a sense of drift" and that it needs "a new mission that is appropriate for the 21at century."

Obama said the first priority of a new agency administrator _ whom he promised to appoint "soon" _ would be "to think through what NASA's core mission is and what the next great adventures and discoveries are under the NASA banner."

Until that happens, he said during a session with reporters from the Orlando Sentinel and other regional newspapers, the White House would delay any major policy decisions about the agency.

That would likely ensure the retirement of the space shuttle in 2010 _ as Obama called for in the budget proposal he gave Congress last month _ and pave the way for massive job losses at Kennedy Space Center and the surrounding Space Coast in Florida.

Obama took only one question about NASA. He said nothing about whether he wants to continue the Bush administration's Constellation program, intended to send astronauts to the moon by 2020. The program's Ares I rocket is behind schedule and over budget, leading to speculation that it will miss its targeted 2015 launch date and further reduce the skilled work force at KSC.

He was also silent about the fate of the $100 billion international space station. Once the shuttle is retired, NASA will depend on Russian Soyuz spacecraft for access to the station.

Obama made clear that the agency, which has been without an administrator since his Jan. 20 inauguration, could not continue on its current course.

"Shaping a mission for NASA that is appropriate for the 21st century is going to be one of the biggest tasks of my new NASA director," he said. "What I don't want NASA to do is just limp along. And I don't think that's good for the economy in the region, either."

Several names have been floated as possible replacements for former agency chief Michael Griffin. Congressional and space-industry sources said the current front-runner appears to be Steve Isakowitz, a former NASA official now with the Department of Energy who is said to have the strong support of Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.

Other candidates include former NASA astronaut Charles Bolden, a favorite of Florida's Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, and two retired Air Force generals, Lester L. Lyles and J. Scott Gration.

Since taking office, Obama has said little about NASA. The only clues to his policy aims were included in his proposed 2010 budget, which called for the shuttle's retirement next year but added one additional launch if it can be done "safely and affordably."

But with eight missions needed after Discovery to finish construction of the space station, it could be difficult to cram another launch into the schedule before the 2010 deadline. The bonus mission Obama touted would ferry a physics experiment to the space station.

The end of the shuttle era is expected to devastate Kennedy Space Center and the Space Coast. KSC's main function is to launch shuttles and other NASA rockets. With nothing to fly, there would be little work.

NASA estimates that at least 3,500 KSC jobs would be lost, while shuttle contractors put the estimate at 10,000. With each NASA job credited with creating 2.8 others in the community, an additional 9,870 to 28,200 jobs would be at risk.

(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)

During his hourlong press briefing, Obama touched on several other topics:

_High-speed rail: He said he wishes he could have shoehorned more than $8 billion in his economic-stimulus package for high-speed rail. Florida officials are interested in a high-speed-rail project that would connect Tampa, Orlando and Miami.

One advocate, U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, said he couldn't be "more enthusiastic" about Obama's support. "I have to be careful how much I praise him," Mica joked. "It's one of the most exciting things I have ever been involved in."

_Voting Rights Act: The president voiced his continued support for Department of Justice reviews of states, primarily Southern, that wish to implement changes that could affect minorities' voting rights. "That's not such a huge hurdle to jump through," he said. Several Florida counties are affected by the law.

_Mexican drug violence: Obama said he has not yet decided whether to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to combat growing drug-related violence. "We are going to examine whether, and if, National Guard deployments would make sense and under what circumstances they would make sense . . .," he said. But he noted: "We have a very big border with Mexico, so I'm not interested in militarizing the border."

___ WHO'S IN MIX?

President Obama says a new NASA chief will be named "soon." Top candidates:

_Steve Isakowitz: Insiders say ex-NASA official is in lead.

_Charles Bolden: Ex-astronaut has Florida Sen. Bill Nelson's support.

_Lester L. Lyles, J. Scott Gration: Retired Air Force generals.

___

© 2009, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).

Visit the Sentinel on the World Wide Web at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Obama Tracker

With Obama now more than half way through his 100 day 'honeymoon,' his recent activity was the talk last night on SmithtownRadio.com Live with Amanda Boitano, Dean Laurence, Megan Russ, Trevor Higgins and James Brierton.

As promised, here is the NPR widget tracking his first 100 days: