Kuhusu Rush Limbaugh, i can't stand the man, sorry, lakini for further discussion hebu mshtue Nyani - he is a fan!
El Rushbo is one of the smartest guys. Nakwambia ukitaka ku debate naye he'll get the best of you...you just can't out debate him. No one can. Hata Obama mwenyewe anamwogopa Rush.....
Super big up to Sean Hannity.....
Umekuja na terminology mpya? Mchemfu ndo nini?sasa kama obama alichemka kwa nini bado tuliambiwa kuwa ni yeye pekee atakayetutoa kwenye reccession....? obama bana...mchemfu sana aisee..
halafu hata press conference anatumia prompter, what the hell?
Unaona Nyani, Crist ndo aliyempa poltical life kampeni ya babu yako lakini babu yako alipomleta tu Kisura basi aka-jump ship. Sasa he is on board the O train! Atafika mbali, utaona! Good for Crist!Republican Gov. Charlie Crist (Fla.) said he is not trying to obscure congressional Republicans' complaints about a lack of cooperation on the stimulus plan even as he appeared at an event with President Obama.
No, Crist said that his appearance with Obama in Fort Myers, Fla., Tuesday was a matter of pragmatism.
"I would love for [congressional Republicans] to be able to inject more into the discussion," Crist told The Hill on Tuesday afternoon. "Bipartisanship is a two-way street, after all."
Congressional Republicans argue that Obama's pledge of bipartisanship is not holding true in the negotiations on the stimulus package. They claim Democrats are ramming the plan through Congress.
But Crist said in a telephone interview that while Republicans in Washington are howling about the spending and the size of the plan, "obviously, this bill's passing, so I'm trying to be practical and pragmatic and make sure Florida gets its share."
Obama made it clear in his first primetime press conference Monday night that passing his stimulus package is more of a priority than changing the hyper-partisan traditions of Washington.
But the president said his extended outreach to Republicans since taking office is part of a long-term effort to build trust.
Enter Crist.
The popular Florida governor was widely credited with helping Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) win the Florida primary, propelling him to his partys presidential nomination.
The president stood with Crist in Fort Myers, Fla., on Tuesday and said that Crist "shares my conviction that creating jobs and turning this economy around is a mission that transcends party."
"When the town is burning, we don't check party labels," Obama said. "Everyone needs to grab a hose."
The Senate passed its version of the stimulus package scored by the Congressional Budget Office at $838 billion on Tuesday, but only three Republicans voted with Democrats on Monday's cloture vote. And in the House, not a single Republican crossed the aisle to vote for
the package.
As a result, Republicans took to the airwaves, arguing that Obama's pledge of bipartisan cooperation was largely talk after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) hijacked the bill in favor of massive spending with little
stimulative value.
To combat what was largely viewed as a week of lost messaging, Obama set out for the road this week, with a stop in Elkhart, Ind., on Monday and Tuesday's Florida trip.
But Tuesday saw a new addition to the Obama strategy of going around Washington to rally support for the plan: He is now putting a public face on his argument that Republican governors and mayors are backing his efforts.
The president met with Republican Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas at the White House last week, but the meeting was largely ignored in the media. Crist carries much more political heft when Obama makes his argument for bipartisanship, and his political potential he was discussed as a finalist to be McCain's running mate, and there is talk he could be a Senate candidate in 2010 or a presidential candidate in 2012 raises his profile.
Thus the Florida governor provided the new Democratic president with some welcome blocking Tuesday as Obama argued that the economic crisis is too severe to be crippled by partisan Washington gridlock.
"Gov. Crist and governors across the country understand that," Obama said. "Mayors across the country understand that. And I think you understand that, too."
Crist acknowledged that his appearance with Obama could be blunting the effectiveness of the Washington GOP's daily cries of being shut out of the stimulus negotiations, but he said as "Florida's CEO," he has to worry about his state.
Crist said he has been to six Florida unemployment offices in the past five weeks and seen firsthand the economic crisis that Obama is tasked with correcting.
"It's very tangible to me," Crist said.
That and the fact Florida's budget has been cut by $7 billion in the last two years has Crist saying he expects there to be more severe cuts coming.
"It's getting harder every day," he said.
So Crist said that when the Obama administration was "kind enough to invite us," it was a "great honor."
On the Air Force One trip to Florida, the president was asked why no Republican members had joined him on the trip.
"We couldn't find any that wanted to go with us," he joked, before adding: "We got a governor."
Mi nakwambia Nyani, hapa Gregg ndo anaonekana yuko confused kabisaaaa! Haya tuendelee....Democratic sources close to the White House suggest that President Obama's vetting team was not fully aware of Gregg's position on the census prior to his being nominated to the Commerce post. And when members of the Congressional Black Caucus began airing complaints about a Commerce Secretary who voted to withhold emergency funds for the census, the administration had to reverse course. The decision was made, at first, to strip Gregg of this responsibility, even though it traditionally falls under the Commerce Secretary's purview. But that, in turn, sparked frictions between the Obama team and its second Commerce nominee.
"The census thing was one of those things that, it is a disqualifier," said one source. "And the way that the White House dealt with it, I don't think they caught it ... This was like a couple that had a couple of good dates. They liked each other and once they talked about moving in, they said, I don't know if this is a good idea."
Calls and emails to the White House for information and comment went unreturned. But, in other publications and in past statements, administration officials have insisted that the census was a priority for the president "from the first days of the transition," and that the president always intended to "reevaluate" the process.
In a statement issued shortly after the news broke, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs put the onus of the mishap squarely on Gregg's shoulders, saying the New Hampshire Republican was the one who had "a change of heart."
"Senator Gregg reached out to the President and offered his name for Secretary of Commerce," the statement read. "He was very clear throughout the interviewing process that despite past disagreements about policies, he would support, embrace, and move forward with the President's agenda. Once it became clear after his nomination that Senator Gregg was not going to be supporting some of President Obama's key economic priorities, it became necessary for Senator Gregg and the Obama administration to part ways."
In a subsequent press conference, Gregg affirmed that policy disagreements were at the heart of his decision to withdraw. But the notion that Gregg backpedaled on his pledge to support Obama's agenda obscures the question as to why he was ever asked to push Obama's agenda in the first place.
"It was my mistake to say yes," Gregg said at the press conference, "because it wasn't my personality... The census was only a slight catalyzing issue, not a major one."
The Senate confirmed Leon Panetta as director of the CIA on Thursday, placing the nation's top spy agency in the hands of a government veteran valued for his skills as a lawmaker and policy manager rather than an expert at intelligence-gathering and analysis.
The Senate approved President Barack Obama's choice on a voice vote. On Wednesday, the Senate Intelligence Committee sent Panetta's nomination to the full chamber without opposition.
During two days of confirmation hearings last week, Panetta told senators that the Obama administration would not prosecute CIA officers who participated in harsh interrogations even if they constituted torture as long as they did not go beyond their instructions. However, he would not say whether charges would be sought against those who authorized the treatment.
Panetta also said that the Obama administration would continue to transfer foreign detainees to other countries for questioning but only if U.S. officials are confident that the prisoners will not be tortured. Some former prisoners have claimed that they were tortured after the Bush administration handed them over to other countries, a transfer process known as "extraordinary rendition."
"We can protect this country, we can get the information we need, we can provide for the security of the American people and we can abide by the law," he told senators. "I'm absolutely convinced that we can do that."
Besides pledging not to interfere in the CIA's day-to-day intelligence operations, Panetta said he would keep on Deputy Director Steven Kappes and three other top officials at the spy agency. He also said he would encourage differing opinions within the agency and would brief the full House and Senate intelligence committees as much as possible, not just their top members.
"I anticipate focusing primarily on ensuring policy and procedure is handled correctly, rather than intervening personally in the details of operational planning or the production of individual pieces of analysis," he said. "But let me assure you, the decisions at the CIA will be mine."
Panetta, 70, a native of Monterey, Calif., worked in government and practiced law before he served in the House from 1977-1993. He left Congress to join the Clinton administration as director of the Office of Management and Budget and then served as President Bill Clinton's chief of staff from July 1994 to January 1997.
At the time of his nomination as CIA chief, Panetta and his wife, Sylvia, directed the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy, based at California State University, Monterey Bay. He helped establish the university on the site of Fort Ord, a former U.S. Army base.
Don't blame it on the alcohol, blame it on Limbaugh, ndo anakudumazaa mkuu! nimekutumia picha ya Rahm katika thread nyingine!
Oh yeah..Rahm "Dead Fish" Emmanuel...Lol
Yaani GOP ni zero! Wametumia energy nyingi sana kupinga stimulus lakini inaonekana walijua that the stimulus package is necessary lakini walileta siasa tu ... angalia Specter anachokiri....In a major victory for President Barack Obama, Democrats muscled a huge, $787 billion stimulus bill through Congress late Friday night in hopes of combating the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Republican opposition was nearly unanimous.
After lobbying energetically for the bill, Obama is expected to sign it within a few days, less than a month after taking office.
Supporters said the legislation would save or create 3.5 million jobs. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., conceded there was no guarantee, but he said that "millions and millions and millions of people will be helped, as they have lost their jobs and can't put food on the table of their families."
Vigorously disagreeing, House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio dumped a copy of the 1,071-page bill to the floor in a gesture of contempt. "The bill that was about jobs, jobs, jobs has turned into a bill that's about spending, spending, spending," he said.
The Senate approved the measure 60-38 with three GOP moderates providing crucial support _ the only members of their party to back it. Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio cast the decisive vote after flying aboard a government plane from Ohio, where he was mourning his mother's death.
Hours earlier, the House vote was 246-183, with all Republicans opposed to the package of tax cuts and federal spending that Obama has made the centerpiece of his plan for economic recovery.
The legislation, among the costliest ever considered in Congress, provides billions of dollars to aid victims of the recession through unemployment benefits, food stamps, medical care, job retraining and more. Tens of billions are ticketed for the states to offset cuts they might otherwise have to make in aid to schools and local governments, and there is more than $48 billion for transportation projects such as road and bridge construction, mass transit and high-speed rail.
Democrats said the bill's tax cuts would help 95 percent of all Americans, much of the relief in the form of a break of $400 for individuals and $800 for couples. At the insistence of the White House, people who do not earn enough money to owe income taxes are eligible, an attempt to offset the payroll taxes they pay.
Mnaona sasa GOP walivyo political wimps??? This is hilarious, kumbe behind closed doors wanajua majukumu yao?Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), who broke with his party to support President Obama's stimulus package last week, said before the final vote Friday that more of his colleagues would have joined were they not afraid of the political consequences.
"When I came back to the cloak room after coming to the agreement a week ago today," said Specter, "one of my colleagues said, 'Arlen, I'm proud of you.' My Republican colleague said, 'Arlen, I'm proud of you.' I said, 'Are you going to vote with me?' And he said, 'No, I might have a primary.' And I said, 'Well, you know very well I'm going to have a primary.'"
Specter, along with centrist Maine Republican Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, joined with Democrats last week to move the stimulus bill forward. Specter said he doubted there would be any more Republican votes than those three Friday night.
"I think there are a lot of people in the Republican caucus who are glad to see this action taken without their fingerprints, without their participation," he said.
Specter was asked, How many of your colleagues?
"I think a sizable number," he said. "I think a good part of the caucus agrees with the person I quoted, but I wouldn't want to begin to speculate on numbers."
Being the 60th and deciding vote isn't easy for a centrist who will likely face a more conservative primary challenger and then a more liberal general election opponent.
"I'd feel less uncomfortable about being the sixty-first and even better about being the sixty-seventh, but I'll take 'em one at a time," he said.
Specter added that his hope was that next time there would be more Republicans joining within him. But is that realistic?
"I didn't say it was my expectation, it was my hope," said Specter, before walking on to the Senate floor.
In an interview with columnists aboard Air Force One, President Obama talked about what he learned from the stimulus battle. Pronouncing himself impressed with his team for moving the legislation through Congress so quickly, he said the plan wasn't everything he wanted but was still a "very good start on moving things forward."
As for his experience with congressional Republicans, the president said, "I made every effort to reach out to Republicans early to get their input and to get their buy-in. I think that there were some senators and House members who have a sincere philosophical difference with the idea of any government role in boosting demand in the economy. They don't believe in [John Maynard] Keynes and they're still fighting FDR ... I think we can disagree without being disagreeable on that front."
He added that the GOP also made a "political and tactical" decision to oppose the stimulus as a way to rally their base. "Whether that's a smart strategy, I think you should ask them." He said that it was his impression that the House Republicans decided to vote party-line against the bill before he met with them. "I'm not sure that there was a whole host of things that we were going to do that was going to make a difference." (Republicans dispute that interpretation, claiming they were open to the stimulus when they met with Obama.)
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said recently that Obama lost control of the stimulus debate by focusing too much on bipartisanship.
Asked if he would be so willing to reach out to Republicans in the future, the president responded, "You know, I am an eternal optimist. That doesn't mean I'm a sap."
Looking more forward, the president also outlined his priorities for the rest of the year:
My priorities for the rest of the year. Number one is to get the right structure for the successor to TARP; spending the $300-some billion that has already been authorized as wisely as possible, and injecting transparency and trust into the financial system. Having a housing program that provides relief to people who are at risk of losing their homes. Financial regulations that ensure that the crisis doesn't happen again. A innovative and aggressive push for health care reform that focuses not just on access but also on costs, and trying to just provide relief to working families. And a push for an energy policy that puts us on a path to sustainability.
In a half-hour segment on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, the varying threads of the GOP political id came into sharp contrast. On one side sat Charlie Crist, the moderate governor of the state of Florida, who not only openly campaigned for the president's stimulus package but also sent some very public plaudits the Obama's way.
"I think there is a national leader, his name is President Obama," he told host David Gregory when asked if his own party had national leaders. "The people elected him. And I'm willing to give him a good shot and try to help make this work. We're in a tough time, as we talked about before. I think we do need to be bipartisan. We need to be, in fact, nonpartisan. We're all Americans. Our country is at a dire point and we need to do everything we can to work together to get America through this."
Pressed as to whether he thought "the president has the right prescription to ease this recession," the Florida Republican replied, without pausing: "I think he's on the right track." Asked if he thought it was a mistake for "the Republican Party to define itself by opposition to the stimulus," he said: "It may be."
The show's other guest, Bobby Jindal, did not offer such willing praise for the president. The Louisiana Governor, known superficially as the conservative Obama, pledged that the party would and should work in a bipartisan fashion. But his pitch was one of philosophical defiance, especially on matters like the stimulus.
"The Republican Party has got to offer conservative alternative solutions. I think our obligation is to work with the president every chance we can, to be bipartisan," he told Gregory. "We need to work with the president every chance we can. But on principle we should be unafraid to stand up on principle and to point out our alternative solutions."
The two governors, both rumored to harbor presidential ambitions, represent the current bookends of Republican thought. Their appearances on "Meet the Press" underscored the complex question facing the party. How does the GOP restore its power: through reaffirming principles or expanding its approach? Not surprisingly, the two had different diagnoses when it came to rebuilding the Republican brand.
The Cullman Times reports that Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, in a meeting with constituents, appeared to give some thought to rumors questioning President Obama's citizenship.
Another local resident asked Shelby if there was any truth to a rumor that appeared during the presidential campaign concerning Obama's U.S. citizenship, or lack thereof.
"Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven't seen any birth certificate," Shelby said. "You have to be born in America to be president."
According to the Associated Press, state officials in Hawaii checked health department records during the campaign and determined there was no doubt Obama was born in Hawaii.
Politico's Ben Smith says he has emailed Shelby's spokesman to ask if the Senator actually believes there's truth in the repeatedly debunked rumor.
While some Republican governors with presidential ambitions struggle to balance their state's budgetary needs with their own ideological opposition to the stimulus package, others don't find themselves feeling nearly as constrained.
Appearing on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger giddily embraced the idea that more money would be available for California should his GOP colleagues -- like Govs. Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana -- refuse stimulus funds.
"Well, Governor Sanford says that he does not want to take the federal stimulus package money. And I'll say to him, I'll take it," Schwarzenegger said. "I'm more than happy to take his money or any other governor in this country that doesn't want to take this money. I'll take it, because we in California need it. I think it's a terrific package. I think if you ask a thousand people for their opinion, what is their ideal stimulus package, you will have a thousand different answers. So everyone's is a little different. I think he's done a great job and I think California benefits tremendously from that $80 billion of tax benefits there, for around $35 billion. There are other advantages: $45 billion of money that go to transportation, to education, to health care, all those different areas. There's even some money that could benefit our revenues or, I should say, our budget itself...."
We love Arnold!!!! Yaani ametuma ujumbe mzito sana kwa GOP wenzake! kama hamtaki pesa nipeni nikaifanyie kazi! Safi sana.... sijui Ze Ukweli na Nyani wataleta hoja gani sasa....
Obama Job Approval Dips Below 60% for First TimeFifty-nine percent now approve as more express no opinion on his performanceUSA Government Government and Politics Leadership The Presidency Americas Northern America by Jeffrey M. Jones
PRINCETON, NJ -- For the first time since Gallup began tracking Barack Obama's presidential job approval rating on Jan. 21, fewer than 60% of Americans approve of the job he is doing as president. In Feb. 21-23 polling, 59% of Americans give Obama a positive review, while 25% say they disapprove, and 16% have no opinion.
To date, Obama has averaged 64% approval, but, as the graph shows, there has been a slight but perceptible decline in his approval rating since he took office. This decline has largely occurred among Republicans.
The drop below 60% approval within the past week -- from 63% in Feb. 18-20 polling to 59% in Feb. 21-23 polling -- has mostly come among independents. Late last week, 62% of independents approved of Obama, compared with 54% in the last three days. His approval rating among Democrats has dipped slightly (but not to a statistically significant degree), while approval among Republicans has not changed.
While Obama's overall approval rating has fallen by four percentage points in recent days (from 63% in Feb. 18-20 polling to the current 59%), his disapproval rating has been steady (24% in Feb. 18-20 polling to the current 25%). Rather, the percentage of Americans without an opinion of his job performance has increased, from 13% to 16%. In essence, Americans in recent days are becoming increasingly unsure about how Obama is doing, rather than becoming more critical.
As the table suggests, most of the movement among independents in recent days has been from the approval to the no opinion category. And his disapproval rating has dropped among Republicans, with a concomitant increase in no opinion. Thus, Americans' assessments of Obama are in a period of flux.
Given that Obama is addressing the nation tonight, he has a tremendous opportunity to convert Americans who are now on the fence -- in addition to those who now disapprove of him -- into supporters. The latest USA Today/Gallup poll shows Americans are most interested in hearing about economic matters, particularly how Obama will address unemployment, the mortgage crisis, and how the economic stimulus package will be administered.
Survey Methods
Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,553 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Feb. 21-23, 2009, as part of Gallup Poll Daily tracking. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.
Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones (for respondents with a land-line telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell-phone only).
In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
LOL...OBantu's poll numbers are plumetting earlier than I expected. I suppose Americans are beginning to fed up with Bantunomics. We can only hope..
Source:
Obama Job Approval Dips Below 60% for First Time
Kumbe mnapenda kupiga mdomo tuuuu! Haha!After weeks of criticizing the federal economic stimulus package, Gov. Mark Sanford has accepted the first offering to come from the plan.
He has agreed to a component that will pay an extra $25 a week to the state's unemployed workers. Each state had to notify the federal government by Saturday if it was accepting the benefit, and Sanford made his decision then, said Joel Sawyer, the governor's spokesman.
"It was something, literally, that every other governor had asked for," Sawyer said. "We could not find a compelling reason not to."
CAVUTO: Republican Senators Collins, Specter, and Snowe who voted for the stimulus plan in the Senate, what...uhh...retribution will you exact?
STEELE: Look, my retribution is the retribution of the voters in their states. They're going to have to go through a primary in which they're going to have to explain to those Republican voters in that primary...
CAVUTO: I know, but will you, as RNC head recommend no RNC funds being provided to help them?
STEELE: That is something I'll talk to the state parties about and we'll follow their lead.
CAVUTO: So, in other words, are you open to that?
STEELE: Oh, yes, I'm always open to everything, baby, absolutely.
Wow! Sasa GOP wana kazi inabidi kweli wajaribu kuji-redefine...The full gamut of punditry had little praise for Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's rebuttal speech Tuesday night. Notably, Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman, responding to the flak Jindal gave high-speed rail and volcano-monitoring, has labeled the GOP 'the party of Beavis and Butthead':
So what did Bobby Jindal choose to ridicule in this response to Obama last night? Volcano monitoring, of course.
...
The intellectual incoherence is stunning. Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead.
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama enjoys widespread backing from a frightened American public for his ambitious, front-loaded agenda, a new poll indicates.
He is more popular than ever, Americans are hopeful about his leadership, and opposition Republicans are getting drubbed in public opinion, the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll suggests.
The president's support, while still deep, looks increasingly partisan as Republicans move away from him. Americans have more confidence in the president himself than in some of his initiatives, such as the economic stimulus package, and have some hesitation about his plans to raise taxes to expand health coverage.
"The American people trust him and like him," Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, said in an interview. "That's how you make change possible, because it's not threatening but accessible."
To that end, the president emphasizes the aspects of his program that are easiest to support. On energy, he focuses on the upsides of alternative energy and the need for efficiency, glossing over the impact of punishing polluters. On health care, he focuses on the need to reduce the cost of care, with the need to help the uninsured always mentioned second.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) predicted that Mr. Obama will have trouble moving his agenda. "Everyone knows that the president remains popular, but let's be honest: The solutions Democrats are pushing are not," he said in a statement.
The poll found a sharp jump in the proportion of Americans who say the nation is "generally headed in the right direction" since Mr. Obama's January inauguration, a period when economic indicators and financial markets have suggested the opposite. The survey shows that 41% of Americans say the country is headed in the right direction, up dramatically from 26% in mid-January, before Mr. Obama took office, and up from 12% before the election.