August 2009

Patrick mum on people interested in Kennedy seat (AP)

Posted Thu, 08/27/2009 - 06:25 by admin

WASHINGTON – Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick says the focus should be on mourning Sen. Edward Kennedy and that questions surrounding his Senate vacancy can wait.
Interviewed Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America," he acknowledged "a lot of interest" in Kennedy's seat. Patrick declined to discuss names and didn't directly answer as to whether he thought former Rep. Joseph Kennedy might be a candidate.
Under existing law, a special election has to happen within 160 days of a vacancy and the governor has no authority to name an interim senator. There has been talk of changing the law and Patrick supports that. With respect to people interested in the vacancy, he called that "very personal decisions." Patrick said, "We've got so much political talent in Massachusetts ... in that family and beyond."

Costas to host pregame show from site of game (AP)

Posted Thu, 08/27/2009 - 04:40 by admin

NEW YORK – Bob Costas will host NBC's "Sunday Night Football" pregame show from the site of the game starting this season.
The network announced Wednesday that it was tweaking the format of the show. The reunited tandem of Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann will remain in the New York studio to provide highlights. They will be joined by two new hires who recently retired from the NFL: former Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy and ex-New England Patriots safety Rodney Harrison.
Costas will share the onsite set with game announcers Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth.

STIMULUS WATCH: GOP opposes plan then seeks money (AP)

Posted Thu, 08/27/2009 - 02:49 by admin

WASHINGTON – Georgia's Republican senators, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, voted against the $787 billion economic stimulus package, blasting the bill as a bloated government giveaway.
But their disdain didn't stop them from later asking Defense Secretary Robert Gates to steer $50 million in stimulus money to a constituent's bio-energy project.
Gates didn't do it, but Chambliss, Isakson and other Republican opponents of the stimulus aren't going empty-handed.
Billions of dollars worth of Defense Department stimulus money is paying for repairs and construction at military installations in areas represented by lawmakers who said "no" to the legislation, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.
The request from Chambliss and Isakson isn't the only one Gates and other top defense officials received before and after President Barack Obama signed the stimulus law in February. Their pitch stands out, though, because of the GOP's staunch opposition.
As Congress considered the legislation earlier this year, Republicans called it a partisan bill bound to make the size of government grow, not the economy. Not a single House Republican voted in favor of the bill; only three Senate Republicans did so.
Trashing the stimulus and also welcoming the money is a sore point for Democrats who say the GOP can't have it both ways. But Republicans say there's no inconsistency in opposing wasteful spending while also backing worthwhile projects.
The Pentagon is staying out of the fight. Navy Cmdr. Darryn James, a Pentagon spokesman, said political considerations were not a factor as defense officials put together the department's stimulus spending plan. The two main criteria were that projects could be started quickly to boost the economy and would also improve the quality of life for military personnel.
In statements, Chambliss and Isakson said helping their constituents is an important part of their jobs. In this case, it was Bell BioEnergy of Tifton, Ga., which is developing a process to convert waste into fuel.
Overall, Georgia is getting just over $200 million in defense stimulus money for work at installations that include the Army's Fort Stewart and Fort Gordon, and Moody Air Force Base.
Just a few days after criticizing the "staggering" cost of the stimulus, Rep. Brett Guthrie, a Republican from Kentucky, urged Gates to consider using stimulus money to renovate a military hospital at Fort Knox, a sprawling Army base located in his congressional district.
The Pentagon's stimulus spending plan shows no money for the hospital repairs. But of the more than $159 million in military stimulus money slated for Kentucky, almost $38 million is for other repair work at Fort Knox. Most of the total, $110 million, goes to Fort Campbell, home to the Army's 101st Airborne Division. It's in Republican Ed Whitfield's district.
Oklahoma Republican Mary Fallin joined her Democratic colleague, Rep. Dan Boren, in asking Army Secretary Pete Geren to use $8.4 million in stimulus money for repairs to buildings at two Oklahoma National Guard sites.
Fallin had called the stimulus a "Big Brother spending program" that didn't do enough to finance needed infrastructure projects. The money she and Boren sought isn't in the Pentagon's spending plans.
The Pentagon was allotted $7.4 billion in stimulus money, the bulk of it for overdue base repairs and new construction. About $5 billion is going to 16 states that top the Pentagon's stimulus spending list, including California, Texas, Florida, Virginia, Georgia and Kentucky, where the military has a significant presence.
About $1.2 billion is for new hospitals at Fort Hood, an Army base in Texas Republican John Carter's district, and Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base in California Republican Darrell Issa's district. The two hospitals are the largest individual projects to be paid for with defense stimulus dollars.
Carter voted against the bill, saying the stimulus would pile debt on future generations. But he hailed the $621 million hospital project as a victory for the economy in central Texas, where Fort Hood occupies more than 217,000 acres.
Construction of the Fort Hood hospital is scheduled to begin in September 2010. Also planned for the base is $100 million more in stimulus money for work ranging from road repairs to replacing heating and cooling systems.

John Stone, Carter's spokesman, said the congressman has been pushing for several years to get a new hospital at Fort Hood. The new hospital is also supported by Rep. Chet Edwards, a Texas Democrat who chairs the House subcommittee that controls military construction spending. Carter is also on the subcommittee.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is logging Republican names into a "Hypocrisy Hall of Fame," an online catalog of GOP lawmakers who voted against the stimulus package yet are "celebrating the benefits of President Obama's economic recovery bill in their districts."

One of the most recent names added to the Democratic list is Rep. Bill Young of Florida, whose congressional Web site contains a page with dozens of links to help Floridians "take advantage of federal stimulus money." Another is Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, a top House Republican who supports a high-speed rail project that's included in the bill.

Brad Dayspring, Cantor's spokesman, said the congressman has long backed the commercial rail project, which would connect Washington and Richmond, Va.

___

On the Net:

Defense Department Recovery Act: http://www.defenselink.mil/recovery/

Kennedy to lie in repose in Boston for 2 days (AP)

Posted Thu, 08/27/2009 - 02:13 by admin

HYANNIS PORT, Mass. – Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's body will travel more than 70 miles from his Cape Cod home to Boston to lie in repose in a presidential library he helped develop in tribute to one of his slain brothers.
Family members will attend a private Mass at Kennedy's Hyannis Port compound at noon Thursday, and the motorcade is scheduled to leave around an hour later. It will pass sites that were significant to the senator on the way to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, where his body will lie in repose until Friday, a Senate office statement said.
The motorcade will go by St. Stephen's Church, where his mother, Rose, was baptized and her funeral Mass celebrated; cross the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, the Boston park he helped create and is named after his mother; pass historic Faneuil Hall, where Boston Mayor Thomas Menino will repeatedly ring the bell; and then move by the site of Kennedy's first office as an assistant district attorney.
A military honor guard will join members of his family, friends and current and former staff to stand vigil around the clock as thousands are expected to file past the closed casket to pay their respects. The library will remain open until the last person comes through. Several large photographs will be in the room, showing the senator at different stages of his life.
An invitation-only memorial service will be held at the library Friday evening. On Saturday, President Barack Obama will speak at a private funeral mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica — commonly known as the Mission Church — in Boston's Mission Hill neighborhood.
A church official said former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush also are expected to attend the Mass at the cavernous basilica built in 1878.
Kennedy prayed at the basilica every day in 2003 as his daughter, Kara, was successfully treated for lung cancer at a nearby hospital. The church eventually became a place of hope and optimism for the senator, especially during his yearlong battle with brain cancer before he died Tuesday at age 77.
Kennedy will be buried Saturday evening near his slain brothers — former President Kennedy and former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy — at the Arlington National Cemetery, in Virginia. Other family members buried on the famous hillside include former first lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and the former president's baby son, Patrick, who died after two days.
Kennedy is eligible for burial at Arlington because of his service in Congress as well as his two years in the Army from 1951 to 1953. He was a private first class and served in the military police at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, located at that time in Paris.
On Wednesday night, the Lightship Nantucket — the vessel that marked limits of the dangerous Nantucket Shoals in Massachusetts for more than 150 years — pulled up outside the Kennedy compound as dusk fell and illuminated the late senator's schooner as a tribute.

Kennedy to have Boston funeral, Arlington burial (AP)

Posted Wed, 08/26/2009 - 21:36 by admin

BOSTON – Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's body and members of his family will travel for at least two hours from his Cape Cod home to Boston, where he will lie in repose for two days before his funeral at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Kennedy's body will leave his Hyannis Port compound around lunchtime Thursday and pass through sites that were significant to him as the hearse heads to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, a family spokesman said late Wednesday.
Kennedy, who died Tuesday at age 77 after a yearlong struggle with brain cancer, will lie in repose at Smith Hall, ringed by an honor guard including representatives from each of the four military branches. Members of his family, including his wife, Vicki, are expected to greet well-wishers filing past his casket.
A memorial service will be held at the presidential library Friday evening.
President Barack Obama will deliver a eulogy at a funeral Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica, commonly known as the Mission Church, in the Mission Hill neighborhood on Saturday. The cavernous basilica, built in the 1870s, was where Kennedy prayed daily while his daughter, Kara, successfully battled cancer.
"Over time, the basilica took on special meaning for him as a place of hope and optimism," a family statement said.
A burial service for Kennedy at Arlington was scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
Kennedy, who served in the Senate for nearly half a century, will be laid to rest near his slain brothers, former President John F. Kennedy and former Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, on the famous hillside that serves as the burial site of others from the storied clan, including former first lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis.
At the site of the eternal flame rest four Kennedy family members: the former president and his wife; their baby son, Patrick, who died after two days; and a stillborn child. Robert Kennedy's grave is a short distance away, and near it is the most likely site for Edward Kennedy's burial.
Kennedy, the family statement said, "spent more days than most at Arlington visiting the graves of his beloved brothers and paying tribute to the fallen men and women of Massachusetts who gave their lives for our country."
A senior defense official said the Kennedy family some time ago approached the Army to explore the possibility of burying the senator at Arlington, the nation's most celebrated burial ground of fallen military and the resting place of astronauts, Supreme Court justices and other giants in American history.
Kennedy is eligible for burial at Arlington by virtue of his service in Congress and his two years in the Army, 1951 to 1953. He was a private first class and served in the military police at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, then located in Paris and now in Belgium.
The family met with Arlington officials again Wednesday to finalize the plans, a second defense official said.
___
Associated Press writers Laurie Kellman and Pauline Jelinek in Washington and Philip Elliott in Oak Bluffs, Mass., contributed to this story.

Sound Chips

Posted Wed, 08/26/2009 - 21:33 by admin

Chiptune music is relatively unknown in North America, and most of the chiptune artists are European, Australian or Japanese. Due to Myspace, chiptune artists have gained some notoriety. There has however been a small amount of artists coming out of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

The June 2008 issue of Paste Magazine has an article on chiptune artist Jeremiah "Nullsleep" Johnson, and the included sampler CD features chiptune song "Local Hero" by Crazy Q.

Sound Chips

US military deaths in Afghanistan region at 725 (AP)

Posted Wed, 08/26/2009 - 18:15 by admin

As of Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009, at least 725 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Wednesday at 10 a.m. EDT.
Of those, the military reports 549 were killed by hostile action.
Outside the Afghan region, the Defense Department reports 69 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, three were the result of hostile action. The military lists these other locations as Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba; Djibouti; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan; Turkey; and Yemen.
There were also four CIA officer deaths and one military civilian death.
___
The latest deaths reported by the military:
• A soldier died Wednesday when an improvised explosive detonated in southern Afghanistan.
• A soldier died Wednesday in an attack in eastern Afghanistan.
___
The latest identifications reported by the military:
• Army Cpl. Darby T. Morin, 25, Victoria, Canada; died Saturday in Logar province, Afghanistan, when a vehicle overturned; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.
___
On the Net:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/

White House, CBO debt forecasts challenge Obama (Reuters)

Posted Wed, 08/26/2009 - 17:24 by admin

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
The U.S. national debt will nearly double over the next 10 years, government forecasts showed on Tuesday, challenging President Barack Obama's economic and healthcare overhaul agenda.

The White House midsession budget forecast and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office both forecast that government revenues will be crimped by a slow recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s Great Depression, while spending on retirement and medical benefits soars.

The White House projected a cumulative $9 trillion deficit between 2010 and 2019, while the CBO pegged the total at $7.1 trillion because it assumed higher revenues as tax cuts expire.

The spending blitz could push the national debt, now more than $11 trillion, to close to $20 trillion. The debt is the total sum the government owes, while the deficit is the yearly gap between revenues and spending.

"If anyone had any doubts that this burden on future generations is unsustainable, they're gone," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, adding that economic stimulus funds should be diverted to pay down U.S. debt.

However, both the White House and CBO anticipate that the deficit, now at its highest level as a percent of economic output since World War Two, will decline relatively swiftly in the next three years as growth resumes and federal bailout programs shrink.

White House budget director Peter Orszag said the deficit was too high and cited this as a reason to pass Obama's healthcare overhaul plan, which is in trouble with lawmakers while opinion polls show it losing popular support. Democrats argue that the $1 trillion plan will stem the growth of healthcare costs.

"I know that there will be some who say this report proves that we cannot afford health reform. I think that has it backward," Orszag told reporters on a conference call.

The debate is gaining steam as Republicans seek momentum for next year's mid-term elections, where they hope to chip away at the dominant position Obama's Democrats enjoy in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Congressional Democrats said the country's fiscal condition was a legacy from former Republican President George W. Bush, who cut taxes while pursuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They also said spending on retirement and health benefits must be put under control as millions of Baby Boomers retire.

"Today's budget numbers send a clear signal that the time for putting off tough choices is over and the time to act is now," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, a Democrat.

NEAR-TERM FORECASTS SIMILAR

The White House forecasts a record $1.58 trillion deficit in fiscal 2009, matching the numbers of the CBO, while it shows the deficit at $1.5 trillion in 2010, a touch higher than the $1.48 trillion projected by CBO.

The estimates for the current fiscal year were reduced from earlier forecasts because of lower anticipated spending on financial bailout programs as markets have stabilized.

The White House has withdrawn a $250 billion "placeholder" budget request, while the CBO estimates that actual TARP outlays this year will be $203 billion less than anticipated

.

But both estimates show annual deficits staying above $500 billion every year until 2019, compared with a then-record $459 billion last year. The White House shows the gap averaging 5.1 percent of gross domestic product per year through 2019, compared with 3.2 percent last year.

By 2019 the ratio of national debt to gross domestic product will rise to 69 percent from 48 percent in 2009 the White House said, closely tracking CBO's estimates.

"The administration has always said that you have to get deficits under 3 percent of GDP to be safe. They now admit that they will not in the next 10 years," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a CBO chief under Bush and chief economic adviser to Republican Senator John McCain for his 2008 presidential bid.

The budget news was overshadowed by Obama's surprise announcement on Tuesday to renominate Ben Bernanke to a second four-year term as Federal Reserve chairman, a move seen as aiming for continuity at the central bank during a tentative stage of recovery.

"I'm stunned at how hard they have worked to bury this," Holtz-Eakin said of the White House's budget estimate timing.

DIFFERING ASSUMPTIONS

The CBO and OMB typically end up with different numbers because of differing accounting methods and variations in key assumptions. The CBO employs a baseline method that only takes into account policies that have already become law. [ID:nN25208016]

The administration's forecasts can reflect the economic impact of policies it hopes to implement, even if they have not yet been approved by lawmakers.

For example, the CBO assumes the there would be no "patch" for the Alternative Minimum Tax, meaning millions more Americans would have to pay higher taxes even though Congress has agreed to a temporary reprieve every year to prevent this happening. CBO also assumes Bush's tax cuts will expire at the end of 2010.

Had the White House used the CBO's methods it would have arrived at a much lower 10-year deficit figure of $6.3 trillion, the congressional budget experts said. Conversely, a CBO estimate built on the White House's methods would likely reach a higher figure than the administration's $9 trillion.

Orszag said that the White House numbers also assumed that some of the Bush tax cuts would be extended. Obama has pledged not to raise taxes on U.S. households earning less than $250,000 a year.

(Writing by David Lawder, Editing by Vicki Allen)

AP source: Obama to give eulogy at Kennedy Mass (AP)

Posted Wed, 08/26/2009 - 17:24 by admin

OAK BLUFFS, Mass. – A White House official says President Barack Obama will deliver a eulogy at Sen. Edward Kennedy's funeral Mass.
The funeral will take place Saturday at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica — commonly known as the Mission Church — in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston. Kennedy will be buried the same day at Arlington National Cemetery near his slain brothers.
The White House official spoke with The Associated Press on Martha's Vineyard, the island resort south of Boston where the first family is vacationing. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the Kennedy family had not yet made an announcement.

Decision a small consolation for exposed players (AP)

Posted Wed, 08/26/2009 - 16:45 by admin

BOSTON – David Ortiz sat at the computer in the home clubhouse at Fenway Park, checking his e-mail, when a group of reporters sidled up to him with some news: A federal court ruled investigators were wrong to seize the list of baseball players who allegedly failed drug tests in 2003.
A list that included Ortiz.
"I don't care," he said, so softly he had to repeat it even though the reporters were just inches away.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 9-2 vote Wednesday that federal agents violated the players' protections against unreasonable searches and seizures when it confiscated a list of players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.
Investigators only had a warrant for 10 drug test results as part of the BALCO investigation into Barry Bonds and others, the court said — not the 104 results it seized.
"This was an obvious case of deliberate overreaching by the government in an effort to seize data as to which it lacked probable cause," Chief Judge Alex Kozinski wrote, adding that the players' union had good reason to want to keep the list secret. "Some players appear to have already suffered this very harm as a result of the government's seizure."
Although the list was under seal, several names have leaked out, including Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and Sammy Sosa.
Was Ortiz disappointed the ruling came too late to save him from a maelstrom of media attention about whether he used performance-enhancing drugs?
"I guess," Ortiz, who has denied using steroids, said without ever looking away from the computer screen.
The baseball players agreed in 2003 to survey drug testing without penalties to determine the extent of steroid use in the sport. There were 104 positive tests, though the players' union has said some could be multiple failures from the same player and others might not have held up on appeal.
In 2004, federal agents obtained a search warrant and seized the records from two labs. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the government overstepped its authority.
"A lot of people's credibility and a lot of people's dignity have been damaged in this," Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said. "It's not fair to the clean players. It's not fair to the players who've been leaked. Get 'em all out there so we can start the healing process. It's not going to stop until they're all out there."
Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen agreed the story won't go away until the entire list is released.
"Whoever's got the list, get them out of there, make us suffer for couple days and move on," he said. "Just get the thing out. Clear the thing and move on. Move on and this game is going to be better."
Royals pitcher Brian Bannister disagreed.
"It was done in a confidential matter, and I think it should stay that way," he said. "I think the law should be upheld. It was done according to law."
Twins outfielder Michael Cuddyer said the slow trickle of leaking names has been difficult — even for players who have never been connected with the list.
"It's like you almost get punched in every round, and just when you think the round is over the next one starts again," he said. "You're a Major League Baseball player, and the casual fan sees this negative publicity and see who's cheating and not cheating and automatically they associate every Major League Baseball player with that — right, wrong or indifferent. And that's not fair."

Other players said they wanted to see a different list of names: Those who might be illegally leaking the names to reporters.

"Leak the names that leaked the names," said St. Louis pitcher Adam Wainwright, the Cardinals' player representative. "People are obviously breaking the law acquiring those names, and it's not the agreement the federal government had with Major League Baseball. Those names were court-sealed. For crying out loud, you can't release them, period."

___

Associated Press Writer Paul Elias contributed to this story from San Francisco, along with AP Sports Writers Paul Newberry in Atlanta, John Marshall in Kansas City, Colin Fly in Milwaukee, Dave Campbell in Minneapolis and R.B. Fallstrom in St. Louis.