Infrastructure bank could be part of jobs package (BLOG)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A national infrastructure bank that would entice private investors into road and rail projects could be a major part of the jobs package that President Barack Obama hopes will finally bring relief to the unemployed.

The White House hasn't divulged the contents of the package that Obama is to unveil in an address to a joint session of Congress next Thursday. But the president has pushed the idea of an infrastructure bank in recent speeches and has praised Senate and House bills that create such a government-sponsored lending institution.

Whether the bank, which would need time to organize, could have any real impact on the jobs situation in the coming year — and particularly before the November 2012 elections — is in dispute.

Obama seems to think it would.

He said at a July news conference that while the bank he is proposing is "relatively small," he could imagine "a project where we're rebuilding roads and bridges and ports and schools and broadband lines and smart grids, and taking all those construction workers and putting them to work right now."

But Janet Kavinoky, director of infrastructure issues at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, cautioned that "even in the next two years I don't believe the bank is going to be that kind of job creator."

The best way to spur job growth in the short term is for Congress to pass long-stalled bills to fund aviation and highway programs, she said.

The Chamber of Commerce strongly supports the infrastructure bank. Kavinoky said the United States is one of the few large countries that lack a central source of low-cost financing for construction projects. But she said it's going to take time to get it running and come up with a pipeline of projects where funds can be invested.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who's sponsoring an infrastructure bank bill, argued that "we have projects all across America that are ready to go tomorrow." He said the bank "could have money flowing in the next year easily."

Michael Likosky, senior fellow at the NYU Institute for Public Knowledge and author of "Obama's Bank: Financing a Durable New Deal," says he is working with transportation agencies in California and New York that "are waiting for the federal government to say they are going to support these projects."

A commitment to a national infrastructure bank could also provide a positive spark to financial markets and encourage investment, he said.

The bank would supplement federal spending on infrastructure by promoting private-sector investment in projects of national or regional significance. The private sector currently provides only about 6 percent of infrastructure spending.

Supporters, which range from the Chamber of Commerce to the AFL-CIO, say pension funds, private equity funds and sovereign wealth funds have hundreds of billions of dollars ready to be invested in low-risk infrastructure projects.

It's better than having pension fund money go to Treasury bonds, Likosky said. "It's really about changing our approach; we're in tough economic times and we will be for a while. We have to make sure the money we have goes further."

The Kerry bill would require $10 billion in start-up money from the government to get the first loans going and cover administrative costs. The bank would be government owned, run by a board of directors, independent of any federal agency and self-sustaining after the initial expense. Public-private partnerships, corporations and state and local governments would be eligible for the loans.

The bank's directors would pick which projects to finance based on an analysis of costs, benefits and revenue streams, such as from tolls or fees, for repaying the loan. Once the terms of the loan, including interest rates and fees to cover risk, are set, the Treasury Department would disburse the loan.

Urban projects would have to be at least $100 million in size, rural ones $25 million. The infrastructure bank's loan could cover no more than 50 percent of a project's costs.

"There is going to be a revenue stream for payback and therefore the project is going to stand on its own because it will be a good enough project to attract private-sector funding," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas, one of several Republican co-sponsors of the Kerry plan.

Supporters estimate the bank could set up as much as $160 billion in government loans over a decade and anchor as much as $650 billion in projects.

In the House, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., has a similar bill that relies on $25 billion in start-up money and makes use of bonds as well as loans to stimulate construction projects. Both Kerry and DeLauro would cover transportation, water and energy projects.

DeLauro would also include communications projects. She says her bill is modeled after the European Investment Bank, which has been financing infrastructure projects for 50 years and last year invested more than $100 billion.

Obama, in his 2012 budget proposal, envisioned spending $30 billion to start an infrastructure bank within the Transportation Department that would provide grants as well as loans to transportation projects.

That idea drew opposition from the House Transportation Committee chairman, Rep. John Mica, R-Fla. He said in a recent article in the congressional newspaper Roll Call that it would be better to increase help for existing state infrastructure banks "rather than increasing the size of the bloated federal bureaucracy, as some advocate, by creating a national infrastructure bank."

Kerry pointed to a 2009 American Society of Civil Engineers report that said $2.2 trillion needs to be spent over five years to bring the nation's roads, bridges and water systems up to an adequate level. He said Congress needs to both pass a new highway bill and agree on alternatives like the bank.

"If we can leverage $650 billion and get money going in the transportation bill, we can begin to nibble away at the problem," Kerry said.

Obama to address Congress next week on jobs (BLOG)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will lay out his jobs plan in a prime television time address next week to a rare joint session of Congress, the White House said Wednesday.

Obama sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asking to speak to both chambers on Sept. 7 at 8 p.m (midnight GMT).

With the U.S. economy on the rails and opposition Republicans on the attack, the much-anticipated speech is expected to include proposals for economic growth such as tax credits and infrastructure spending along with calls for shrinking the deficit.

In his letter to the lawmakers, Obama said Washington must answer the call to put aside politics and do what's best for the country to grow the economy and create jobs.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said that Obama decided to seek to speak to a joint session of Congress because congressional action is needed to carry out his plans. Lawmakers will have just returned from their annual summer recess.

"He believes the venue is appropriate because of the actions that need to be taken," Carney said.

The speech will conflict with a Republican presidential debate happening at the same time in California, but Carney said that was not a consideration. "It is coincidental," he said.

Is Drug Testing Welfare Applicants Unconstitutional? (BLOG)

(TIME)Under a new Florida law, people applying for welfare have to take a drug test at their own expense. If they pass, they are eligible for benefits and the state reimburses them for the test. If they fail, they are denied welfare for a year, until they take another test.

Mandatory drug testing for welfare applicants is becoming a popular idea across the U.S. Many states - including Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Louisiana - are considering adopting laws like Florida's. At the federal level, Senator David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, has introduced the Drug Free Families Act of 2011, which would require all 50 states to drug-test welfare applicants. (See photos inside Colorado's marijuana industry.)

And the focus isn't even limited to welfare. In July, Indiana adopted drug tests for participants in a state job-training program. An Ohio state senator, Tim Grendell, recently said he plans to introduce a bill to require the unemployed to take a drug test before they receive unemployment benefits.

Drug-testing the needy has an undeniable populist appeal. It taps into deeply held beliefs about the deserving and undeserving poor. As Alabama state representative Kerry Rich put it, "I don't think the taxpayers should have to help fund somebody's drug habit."

But as government policy, drug testing is being oversold. These laws do not do what their supporters claim. And more importantly: they are likely to be unconstitutional. (See a TIME feature on your right to privacy.)

Drug testing proponents like to argue that there are large numbers of drug users going on welfare to get money to support their habits. The claim feeds into long-standing stereotypes about the kind of people who go on welfare, but it does not appear to have much basis in fact.

Several studies, including a 1996 report from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, have found that there is no significant difference in the rate of illegal-drug use by welfare applicants and other people. Another study found that 70% of illegal-drug users between the age of 18 and 49 are employed full time.

Drug-testing laws are often touted as a way of saving tax dollars, but the facts are once again not quite as presented. Idaho recently commissioned a study of the likely financial impact of drug testing its welfare applicants. The study found that the costs were likely to exceed any money saved.

Read why drug tests do not always work.

That happens to be Florida's experience so far. A Florida television station, WFTV, reported that of the first 40 applicants tested, only two came up positive, and one of those was appealing. The state stands to save less than $240 a month if it denies benefits to the two applicants, but it had to pay $1,140 to the applicants who tested negative. The state will also have to spend considerably more to defend the policy in court.

Given that cost-benefit reality, it is hard to escape the suspicion that what is really behind the drive to drug-test benefits applicants is a desire to stigmatize the needy. The fact is, there are all sorts of people who benefit from government programs. Businessmen get state contracts, farmers receive crop subsidies and retired state workers receive pensions. The pro-drug-testing movement, however, is focusing exclusively on welfare recipients - an easy target. (Read about ER doctors testing for drugs without a patient's consent.)

Policies like Florida's will almost certainly end up in court - and there is a good chance that they will be struck down. The Fourth Amendment puts strict limits on what kind of searches the state can carry out, and drug tests are considered to be a search. In 1997, in Chandler v. Miller, the Supreme Court voted 8-1 to strike down a Georgia law requiring candidates for state offices to pass a drug test.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the majority, said that the drug testing was an unreasonable search. The state can impose drug tests in exceptional cases, when there is a public-safety need for them (as with bus and train operators, for instance). But the Fourth Amendment does not allow the state to diminish "personal privacy for a symbol's sake," the court said. (Read whether schoolteachers should be drug-tested.)

Drug testing welfare applicants does not seem to meet the Chandler test since there is no particular safety reason to be concerned about drug use by welfare recipients. In 2003, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Michigan's drug testing of welfare applicants as a Fourth Amendment violation.

If Florida and other states are really concerned about drug use, they should adopt stricter laws and better enforcement policies aimed at the whole population, not just the most vulnerable. But these laws are not really about drug use. They are about, in these difficult economic times, making things a little harder for the poor.

AP-GfK Poll: 87% in US disapprove of Congress (BLOG)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are plenty angry at Congress in the aftermath of the debt crisis and Republicans could pay the greatest price, a new Associated Press-GfK poll suggests.

The poll finds the tea party has lost support, Republican House Speaker John Boehner is increasingly unpopular and people are warming to the idea of not just cutting spending but also raising taxes — anathema to the GOP — just as both parties prepare for another struggle with deficit reduction.

To be sure, there is plenty of discontent to go around. The poll finds more people are down on their own member of Congress, not just the institution, an unusual finding in surveys and one bound to make incumbents particularly nervous. In interviews, some people said the debt standoff itself, which caused a crisis of confidence to ripple through world markets, made them wonder whether lawmakers are able to govern at all.

"I guess I long for the day back in the '70s and '80s when we could disagree but we could get a compromise worked out," said Republican Scott MacGregor, 45, a Windsor, Conn., police detective. "I don't think there's any compromise anymore."

The results point to a chilly autumn in Washington as the divided Congress returns to the same fiscal issues that almost halted other legislative business and are certain to influence the struggle for power in the 2012 elections. They suggest that politicians, regardless of party, have little to gain by prolonging the nation's most consequential policy debate. And they highlight the gap between the wider public's wishes now and the tea party's cut-it-or-shut-it philosophy that helped propel Republicans into the House majority last year.

The survey, conducted Aug. 18-22, found that approval of Congress has dropped to its lowest level in AP-GfK polling — 12 percent. That's down from 21 percent in June, before the debt deal reached fever pitch.

The results indicate, too, that the question of trust remains up for grabs — a sign that the government's stewardship of the economy over the next year will weigh heavily on the fortunes of both parties in the elections. Republicans and Democrats statistically tied, 40 percent to 43 percent respectively, when respondents were asked which party they trust more to handle the federal budget deficit. Nearly a third of independents said they trust neither party on the issue.

Much about the next election hinges on independent voters, the ever-growing group fiercely wooed by campaigns for years. These respondents, the poll found, were the least forgiving toward incumbents and shifted substantially toward the need to raise taxes as part of the deficit and debt solution.

Among them, 65 percent say they want their own House representative tossed out in 2012, compared with 53 percent of respondents generally.

This group, too, is helping fuel the shift toward raising taxes as a way to balance the budget. The poll found that among independents, 37 percent now say that increasing taxes should be the focus of the fiscal dealmakers, over cutting government services. That's up nine points from March, the poll found.

The backlash was personal, too. Boehner, the congressional veteran from Ohio who struggled to win enough members of his own party to pass the debt deal, won approval from 29 percent of the poll's respondents. That's the lowest such level of his tenure and also the first time his rating is more negative than positive. Forty-seven percent of Republican respondents said they approve of Boehner; only a fifth of independents have a favorable opinion of him.

The tea party, too, took a hit, according to the poll. Unfavorable views of the tea party have climbed 10 percentage points since November, when they fueled the Republican resurgence. Of those, 32 percent have a deeply unfavorable impression of the movement and just a quarter of respondents say they consider themselves supporters of the tea party — the lowest in AP-GfK polling and a dip of 8 percentage points since June.

Overall, 87 percent disapproved of Congress' performance. Entrenched partisanship explained some of the discontent.

"They're so committed to their personal ways, and party's way, that they are having a hard time finding a middle road," Republican Frank Chase, 77, a military retiree from Hopkinton, Mass., said of both sides.

Democrat Laurie Lewis, a Rutgers University professor from Flemington, N.J., agreed with that much. "Elect those who are willing to make compromise on both sides of the hall," she said. Still, "I don't think it's smart to say throw out everyone."

On budget and debt policy, the poll finds a public warming to the idea of using tax increases to help solve the fiscal crisis, a potential boon to President Barack Obama and the congressional Democrats who want to end Bush-era tax breaks for the nation's wealthiest Americans. Republicans bristle at anything called a tax increase, though some acknowledge that more revenue must be raised.

It's perhaps the most difficult issue of the debate and carries tremendous influence over the nations' economic future and the political fortunes of the candidates next year, when the presidency and the House and Senate majorities are at stake. The problem now rests on the shoulders of a dozen House and Senate members named to a supercommittee that will spend the fall digging into the morass that the broader Congress couldn't solve.

Asked which should be the main focus of lawmakers trying to solve that problem, raising taxes or cutting government services, 53 percent of respondents said cutting services and 34 percent said increasing taxes. That's a shift toward raising taxes since March, when 29 percent said increasing taxes and 62 percent said cutting services.

Since then, more Democrats and independents have shifted toward taxes as a means of balancing the budget, while Republican views on the question have not moved, according to the poll. Half of Democrats polled said raising taxes should be the focus over cutting services, up 10 percentage points from March. Independents showed a clear preference for cutting services over raising taxes in March, 64 percent to 28 percent. Now, only 42 percent of independents say focus on cutting services while 37 percent say increase taxes, according to the poll.

Overall, 57 percent of respondents believe both that that taxes will rise and government services will be cut in order to balance the federal budget.

The poll was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Corporate Communications. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,000 adults nationwide and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points.

Mississippi: 1st African American modern major-party nominee for gov (BLOG)

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree on Tuesday became the first black candidate in modern times to win major-party nod for Mississippi governor in a state that hasn't had a black statewide official since Reconstruction.

DuPree, 57, won a Democratic primary runoff and advances to the Nov. 8 general election to face Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, 56, of Brandon.

"I'm just so proud of the fact that we had people who believed in us, believed in the message, believed in what we're trying to accomplish. I'm so proud that people took a hold of that," DuPree said in a phone interview from a Hattiesburg community center, where he celebrated with family and supporters.

DuPree is the first black mayor of Hattiesburg, and is running a race-neutral campaign. In a 15-second commercial recently posted to his campaign website, DuPree looks directly into the camera and says: "I'm here to talk to you about color — green."

DuPree holds up a $1 bill and continues: "Better jobs mean more money for Mississippians. And we do that with better schools and safer streets. More green means a better tomorrow."

With a population that's 37 percent black, Mississippi has more black elected officials than any state in the nation. However, that doesn't extend statewide.

Funding could be a challenge for DuPree in the 11 weeks leading to the general election. Bryant already has spent $3.1 million on his campaign — more than twice as much combined as DuPree and his primary opponent, developer Bill Luckett, who is white.

"We're going to campaign regardless of whether we have a million dollars or half a million dollars," DuPree said.

Luckett was joined at his election-night party by actor Morgan Freeman, his partner in two Clarksdale businesses, and whom he had mentioned frequently during this campaign.

Two other high-profile black politicians ran for Mississippi governor as independents in the 1970s. Charles Evers, brother of slain civil-rights leaders Medgar Evers, ran in 1971. State Sen. Henry Kirksey ran in 1975. Neither had to go through a primary.

Republican Gov. Haley Barbour could not seek a third term this year.

Social Security disability on verge of insolvency (BLOG)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Laid-off workers and aging baby boomers are flooding Social Security's disability program with benefit claims, pushing the financially strapped system toward the brink of insolvency.

Applications are up nearly 50 percent over a decade ago as people with disabilities lose their jobs and can't find new ones in an economy that has shed nearly 7 million jobs.

The stampede for benefits is adding to a growing backlog of applicants — many wait two years or more before their cases are resolved — and worsening the financial problems of a program that's been running in the red for years.

New congressional estimates say the trust fund that supports Social Security disability will run out of money by 2017, leaving the program unable to pay full benefits, unless Congress acts. About two decades later, Social Security's much larger retirement fund is projected to run dry as well.

Much of the focus in Washington has been on fixing Social Security's retirement system. Proposals range from raising the retirement age to means-testing benefits for wealthy retirees. But the disability system is in much worse shape and its problems defy easy solutions.

The trustees who oversee Social Security are urging Congress to shore up the disability system by reallocating money from the retirement program, just as lawmakers did in 1994. That would provide only short-term relief at the expense of weakening the retirement program.

Claims for disability benefits typically increase in a bad economy because many disabled people get laid off and can't find a new job. This year, about 3.3 million people are expected to apply for federal disability benefits. That's 700,000 more than in 2008 and 1 million more than a decade ago.

"It's primarily economic desperation," Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said in an interview. "People on the margins who get bad news in terms of a layoff and have no other place to go and they take a shot at disability,"

The disability program is also being hit by an aging population — disability rates rise as people get older — as well as a system that encourages people to apply for more generous disability benefits rather than waiting until they qualify for retirement.

Retirees can get full Social Security benefits at age 66, a threshold gradually rising to 67. Early retirees can get reduced benefits at 62. However, if you qualify for disability, you can get full benefits, based on your work history, even before 62.

Also, people who qualify for Social Security disability automatically get Medicare after two years, even if they are younger than 65, the age when other retirees qualify for the government-run health insurance program.

Congress tried to rein in the disability program in the late 1970s by making it tougher to qualify. The number of people receiving benefits declined for a few years, even during a recession in the early 1980s. Congress, however, reversed course and loosened the criteria, and the rolls were growing again by 1984.

The disability program "got into trouble first because of liberalization of eligibility standards in the 1980s," said Charles Blahous, one of the public trustees who oversee Social Security. "Then it got another shove into bigger trouble during the recent recession."

Today, about 13.6 million people receive disability benefits through Social Security or Supplemental Security Income. Social Security is for people with substantial work histories, and monthly disability payments average $927. Supplemental Security Income does not require a work history but it has strict limits on income and assets. Monthly SSI payments average $500.

As policymakers work to improve the disability system, they are faced with two major issues: Legitimate applicants often have to wait years to get benefits while many others get payments they don't deserve.

Last year, Social Security detected $1.4 billion in overpayments to disability beneficiaries, mostly to people who got jobs and no longer qualified, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

Congress is targeting overpayments.

The deficit reduction package enacted this month would allow Congress to boost Social Security's budget by about $4 billion over the next decade to invest in programs that identify people who no longer qualify for disability benefits. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that increased enforcement would save nearly $12 billion over the next decade.

At the same time, the application process can be a nightmare for legitimate applicants. About two-thirds of initial applications are rejected. Most of these people drop their claims, but for those willing go through an appeals process that can take two years or more, chances are good they eventually will get benefits.

Astrue has pledged to reduce processing times for applicants' appeals, and he has had some success, even as the number of claims skyrockets. The number of people waiting for decisions has increased, but their wait times are going down.

"It's ludicrous to say that the backlog problem is getting worse," Astrue said. "The backlog problem has gotten dramatically better."

Patricia L. Foster said she was working as a nurse in a hospital in Columbia, S.C., in 2005 when she was attacked by a patient who was suffering from a mental illness. Foster, 64, said she injured her neck so bad she had a plate inserted. She said she also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Foster was turned down twice for Social Security disability benefits before finally getting them in 2009, after hiring an Illinois-based company, Allsup, to represent her. She said she was awarded retroactive benefits, though the process was demeaning.

"I have to tell you, when you're told you cannot return to nursing because of your disability, you don't know how long I cried about that," Foster said. "And then Social Security says, 'Oh no, you don't qualify.' You don't know what that does to you emotionally. You have no idea."

President Obama Joins Foursquare! ....Sorta(BLOG)

NEW YORK (AP) — President Barack Obama joined the location-based social network Foursquare this week, adding to his other hip, online destinations that include Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Obama is also on the professional social networking service LinkedIn, which suggests the president is hedging his bets, in case he's looking for work after the 2012 election.

In announcing his entry to Foursquare, the White House said in a blog post that it will offer "tips" on the places he visits, including his recently launched bus tour of the Midwest on economic issues. So far, his Foursquare posts have been past tense, giving information on where he was, rather than where he is (as most utilize Foursquare).

Follow The White House on Foursquare Here

The announcement didn't stop the jokes about the irony of the president — whose location is generally shrouded in secrecy for national security sake — advertising his movements on the Internet.

The chain of command seems backward, too. Foursquare rewards a user who heavily frequents a location by dubbing the user "mayor" of that spot. Would the president of the United States take pleasure in also being the mayor of Applebee's? He certainly has a lock as "mayor" of the Oval Office.

But the president's continuing push into Web interconnectivity begs the question: To what other digital destinations should Obama expand? It takes effort to stay current with the ever-shifting hangouts of the Internet. Here's a look envisioning a truly 2.0 President Obama.

Chatroulette: Imagine: You're flipping from webcam chat to webcam chat, and suddenly the leader of the free world pops up. It could actually be an effective and quick way of interacting with voters. Part of the problem is that no one would believe they were actually chatting with the president. This one might be a better fit for Vice President Joe Biden.

FarmVille: Zynga's popular social network game, in which you plow land, harvest crops and raise livestock could be a real boon to a campaign looking to attract voters from the nation's heartland. Candidates love to appear folksy. Perhaps FarmVille can be Obama's digital answer to President George W. Bush's brush clearing.

Singboard.com: Really, the pathway to Internet relevancy runs directly through karaoke. If Obama isn't going to post a YouTube video of him doing Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" dance, he might as well get started on karaoke sites such as Singboard. There is obvious political risk here, though. More than a few have been undone by ABBA.

Etsy: The homemade marketplace Etsy has a largely female demographic from which Obama could benefit. Surely, he can assemble some kind of red-white-and-blue owl or "Yes We Can!" ceramic plates to add to the crafts site. After all, if he can appear on "The View," he can drop by Etsy.

Eons: An online community that caters specifically to baby boomers, Eons attracts an older demographic than Facebook. Obama is just 50 years old, but he's starting to show some gray hair.

"Between Two Ferns": Zach Galifianakis' mock-interview web series on FunnyOrDie.com would be the ultimate Web-savvy move for the president. The comedian's guests have largely been actors, but a head-of-state dropping by would be the digital age version of Nixon appearing on "Laugh-In" — only funnier, and with less dancing. Sock it to us, Mr. President.

Rush Limbaugh Goes Full-Tilt Racial Slur with "Or-Bam-eo" Cookies(BLOG)

(YAHOO)COMMENTARY | Most who listen to Rush Limbaugh don't think too much about what he is saying. That's why they -- as a collective -- earned the nickname "dittoheads" back in the day when Limbaugh lorded it over both a radio and television empire. But those who do still think while the man drones on (and on) about how liberals and Democrats are driving America down the highway to hell in a truck loaded with handbaskets must have cringed inwardly when Limbaugh started talking about the new line of Triple Double Oreo cookies from Kraft and began insinuating President Obama into the mix. And if most Americans had given Limbaugh the benefit of the doubt over the years concerning the various charges that he might be either a racist or a closeted one, that benefit probably now has been rescinded.

On his radio talk show Wednesday, as revealed by Media Matters, Limbaugh cited a Chicago Tribunearticle concerning the new Triple Double Oreo cookie, a cookie that has three wafers and both chocolate and vanilla creme filling to separate them.

"Well, it -- what it's going to be here, it's actually a biracial cookie," Limbaugh said as he described the new product.

"The Triple Double Oreo," he continued. "You wait, it isn't going to be long before it's called the Or-Bam-eo, or something like this. Well, it's a biracial cookie, here. And this story is from the Chicago Tribune, and it's all about Kraft's juicing up its investment in the Oreo in recent years. Legitimate businesses."

Limbaugh went on to talk about how one could get Oreos in ice cream and being able to get Rolos candy in McDonald's shakes. But Limbaugh can't resist just one more swipe at Obama, tying the entire idea into some pretzel logic attack against the president and the First Lady.

"In the midst of all this talk of obesity. And, I mean, every time Michelle Obama goes out there and talks about healthful eating, the food industry responds with, 'Oh, yeah? Take this.' And Kraft comes up with the Or-Bam-eo, the triple double-dipper."

Those who think nothing of such remarks should know -- and most already do know -- that an Oreo is not only a cookie made by Kraft Foods. It is also a denigrating slang term used to pejoratively describe a black person who acts as if they are actually white (black on the outside, as the slur is defined colloquially, white on the inside), a pretender, an impostor, a fraud. It is used to describe others who appear to be something they are not. Sociologically, it is the social backlash in verbal form against the assimilation of an individual into another social structure or culture.

It is also common knowledge that President Obama's lineage includes his white Kansas-born mother as well as his black Kenya-born father.

To say that Rush Limbaugh was not aware of the double-meaning is to stretch the bounds of credibility. And it would not be true. In a diatribe against comments about race made by Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, Limbaugh mentioned an incident where then lieutenant governor Michael Steele of Maryland allegedly had had Oreos thrown at him during speeches. His reference to a new Oreo cookie with both chocolate and vanilla creme stuffing being called an "Or-bam-eo" is simply an extension of the street pejorative. It is nothing short of a racial (more specifically, a bi-racial) slur.

He also passed the story off as something presented by the Chicago Tribune. It was not. The Tribunestory highlighted the introduction of the Triple Double Oreo, which is what it is called. It is Americanized version of the cookie concoction created in Argentina called the "Oreo x3," or "Por Tres." There is no suggestion in the article that "Or-bam-eo" would be used. Not by those interviewed. Not by the staff writers who wrote the article.

And then there is the outright insinuation that somehow Michele Obama is responsible for the creation of something like the Triple Double, that her speeches about maintaining good health and healthy eating somehow goads the food industry into producing foodstuffs that contribute even more to the obesity of America.

Simply put: In his constant crusade against any and all things Obama, Limbaugh decided to do what he has done here and there throughout his career -- dabble in a little racial stereotyping, race-baiting, and/or outright effrontery.

Back in 2003, while a commentator on ESPN, he made the comment that part of the Philadelphia Eagles' quarterback problem was Donovan McNabb being quarterback, which was the result, he said of "social concerns" in the NFL, "...the media being desirous that a black quarterback do well." He later resigned over the remark.

On his radio program in 2007, he complained about the showboating and excessive celebrating going on in the NFL, then said, "Look, let me put it to you this way: The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it."

He also once advocated dismantling the National Basketball Association. After the headline-making brawl in 2004 between the Indiana Pacers and the Detroit Pistons, he said, "You just gotta be who you are, and I think it's time to get rid of this whole National Basketball Association. Call it the TBA, the Thug Basketball Association, and stop calling them teams. Call 'em gangs. You have the Laker Gang, you have the Heat Gang, you have a Timberwolf Gang [distortions of official team names], and let 'em strap up out there, and let 'em market their CDs. Instead of selling concessions, sell CDs out there at the concession stand." Limbaugh later added, "They're going in to watch the Crips and the Bloods out there wherever the neighborhood is where the arena happens to be, and be who you are."

In fact, it was his apparent racially-tinged comments and statements over the years that ultimately led to his failed bid to become a partial owner in an NFL team.

Is Rush Limbaugh a racist or closet racist? Although he may not be what many consider a full-on racist, and the argument can be made both pro and con on the matter, it certainly appears as if the closet door is often left ajar.

Obama to unveil measures to boost rural jobs (BLOG)

DECORAH, Iowa (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will on Tuesday announce fresh steps to boost rural hiring on the second day of a bus tour through the heartland to explain his economic and job policies to anxious voters.

Democrat Obama, who began his three-day tour in Minnesota, visits Iowa and will end the tour in his home state of Illinois. He embarked on this bus tour along the back roads of the rural Midwest to press his case against Republicans.

Tepid U.S. growth and high unemployment could dent his prospects for reelection next year, and the president is trying to persuade voters his policies of action to boost growth now, coupled with deficit reduction, is the best path.

Obama won all three states in the 2008 presidential election, although Iowa has recently played host to Republicans vying to battle him for the White House next year who have been criticizing his record for ballooning U.S. deficits.

The tour, on a plain black bus with blacked-out windows and flashing police lights, also exposes the president to voters who, polls suggest, are furious about gridlock in Washington.

However, the crowds he faced on Monday were pretty friendly, and many of the questions were challenging him to take a tougher line against Republicans.

The White House says Obama is on a listening tour to hear from Americans about the economy and talk about how to boost jobs and hiring. With U.S. unemployment mired at just above 9 percent, jobs are expected to be the central issue for voters in next year's presidential and congressional elections.

Obama plans to put forward a very specific plan for economic growth when Congress returns from summer recess in September, and challenged lawmakers to take action.

He has repeatedly called for Congress to extend a payroll tax cut, finalize free-trade pacts and promote infrastructure projects to create construction jobs.

But his hands are tied by a divided Congress, where Republicans control the House of Representatives and oppose any significant spending measures to stimulate growth.

Obama will spend much of Tuesday at a rural economic forum in Iowa, and will unveil $350 million in funding for small businesses over the next 5 years -- not the big plan to be presented to Congress next month, but help all the same.

"These are tough times for a lot of Americans -- including those who live in our rural communities," Obama will tell a townhall meeting in Peosta, Iowa, according to prepared remarks.

At the forum, he will unveil a number of other ideas to boost the rural economy and its communities, including improving access to private capital, expanding job search and training services, and improving rural access to healthcare.

The unmistakable campaign style of the trip will help the president test his organization and grassroots support as the field of Republican presidential candidates takes clearer shape.

Texas Governor Rick Perry entered the race for the Republican nomination on Saturday and immediately joined early front-runner Mitt Romney and Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann in the top tier of candidates in the field.

Obama embarks on campaign-style Midwest tour (BLOG)

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama hits the road on Monday for a Midwestern bus tour that he hopes will leave doubts over his leadership behind in Washington.

But the three-day trip through Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois -- three states seen as vital to his 2012 re-election campaign -- could put him in front of voters who, polls show, are furious about political gridlock in the U.S. capital.

Iowa, which launched Obama's historic journey to the White House in 2008, has recently been playing host to Republican presidential hopefuls who have aggressively slammed his record as they criss-cross the state.

The White House says the president is on listening tour to hear from Americans about the economy and to talk about how to boost jobs and hiring. There are no plans for a major policy speech to roll out new initiatives for growth.

The unmistakable campaign style of the trip will help Obama, a Democrat, test his organization and grassroots support as the Republican presidential field begins to take shape.

Texas Governor Rick Perry entered the race for the Republican nomination on Saturday and is expected to join Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann as one of the stronger Republican candidates. Bachmann won an Iowa straw poll on Saturday in the first big test for the Republican candidates.

White House communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said Iowa had a special connection for Obama and told reporters that the U.S. leader was excited to be able to finally escape from Washington.

His departure follows a brutal period of bad news that dented confidence in his leadership, particularly after a bitter debate over raising the U.S. debt limit that exposed deep partisanship bordering on government dysfunction.

A leading ratings agency has downgraded the nation's AAA credit rating and fears of another U.S. recession have grown, adding to investor concerns about Europe's ongoing debt crisis. Stockmarkets whipsawed over the past week, producing one of the most volatile periods of Obama's presidency.

Polls show many Americans think the country is on the wrong track and are deeply anxious about their future, amid sluggish economic growth and an unemployment rate that remains above 9 percent.

Obama's approval ratings have taken a hit but he remains more popular than U.S. lawmakers, who prompted public anger for pushing the country to the brink of default during the debt limit negotiations.

"All people see out of Washington is conflict and dysfunction," said Ryan McConaghy, director of economic policy at Third Way, a non-partisan thinktank in Washington.

"For the president to go out and really talk about why his agenda is going to help people, it is going to be a lot easier for him to do that, and a lot more effective for him to do that in their communities," McConaghy said.

Obama speaks at a townhall meeting in Cannon Falls, Minnesota on Monday before heading to Decorah, Iowa.

He will hold a rural economic forum in Peosta, Iowa, on Tuesday, and on Wednesday he will hold town hall meetings in Atkinson and Alpha, Illinois before returning to Washington.

The president gave a hint of the kind of things he will say on his trip during a weekly radio address on Saturday, playing on public frustration with the Congress.

"We can no longer let partisan brinksmanship get in our way -- the idea that making it through the next election is more important than making things right," the president said.

Obama is still holding well in all three states, with a Gallup tracking poll showing him with a 54 percent approval rating in his home state of Illinois, 52 percent in Minnesota and 49 percent in Iowa.

In 2008 he won all three states, which collectively make up 36 of the 270 Electoral College votes he will need to retain the White House next year.

In U.S. presidential elections, the winner of the popular vote does not necessarily win the presidency. That decision falls to the Electoral College, party faithful allotted to each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia based on their representation in the U.S. Congress or population.

Obama: Something is wrong with country's politics (BLOG)

NEW YORK (AP) — Aligning himself with a public fed up with economic uncertainty and Washington gridlock, President Barack Obama declared Thursday: "There is nothing wrong with our country. There is something wrong with our politics."

His toughly worded message — he said there was frustration in his voice, in case anyone missed the point — came amid a series of polls showing that people are disgusted with political dysfunction and are dispensing blame all around, including on Obama.

Obama aired his frustration with the ways of Washington at an event in Michigan before pivoting to his re-election campaign and a pair of big-money fundraisers in New York City.

He delivered a condensed version of that message at a fundraiser at the lower Manhattan home of movie producer Harvey Weinstein, where celebrities Gwyneth Paltrow and Jimmy Fallon, were among the approximately 50 guests who paid $35,800 each to attend.

Obama said he told his Michigan audience that it deserves better than what it's been getting from Washington.

"They look at what's happening in Washington and they think these folks are really from outer space because they don't seem to understand how critical it is for us all to work together, Republicans, Democrats, independents, in order to move this country forward," Obama said.

He added that the country is realizing the need to get involved.

"We're going to have to get engaged and we're going to have to speak out," Obama said. "We're going to have to register the fact that we expect more and we expect better."

Obama's visit Thursday to Holland, Mich., and New York, was his first official trip outside Washington after spending more than a month in the nation's capital dealing with the debt debate. Obama said Americans were right to be worried about the country's 9.1 percent unemployment rate and fluctuations in the stock market. The contentious and partisan debt debate in Washington, he said, has done little to help.

"Unfortunately what we've seen in Washington in the last few months has been the worst kind of partisanship, the worst kind of gridlock, and that gridlock has undermined public confidence and impeded our efforts to take the steps we need for our economy," Obama said after touring a Michigan factory that makes advanced batteries for alternative-fuel vehicles.

A Washington Post poll released this week showed widespread and deep discontent with Washington. Nearly 80 percent said they were dissatisfied with the way the country's political system works, compared with 60 percent in November 2009. Seventy-one percent said the federal government is mostly focused on the wrong things, up from 55 percent in October 2010.

Both Obama and congressional Republicans were targets of unhappiness, with only 19 percent of people polled saying that Obama had made progress in solving the country's major problems, and just 10 percent saying that about Republicans. At the same time, 28 percent said Obama had made things worse, while 35 percent said congressional Republicans had done that.

Obama sought to channel the public's anger in order to avoid being sunk by it himself. He urged the public to tell Washington lawmakers they'd had enough with the bickering and stalemates.

"You've got to tell them you've had enough of the theatrics, you've had enough of the politics, stop sending out press releases. Start passing some bills that we all know will help the economy right now," he said. "That's what they need to do. They've got to hear from you."

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, promptly responded with a news release, calling the president's remarks "political grandstanding" and urging him to deliver on promises to outline recommendations to rein in the nation's deficits.

The president has said he will send those recommendations in the coming weeks to a congressional supercommittee tasked with finding $1.5 trillion in savings. He also said on Thursday that he'd be offering new proposals "week by week" to create jobs, though he provided no details.

Despite Obama's calls for urgent action on the economy, Congress has left Washington for its August recess and Obama will soon follow for his annual summer vacation in Martha's Vineyard.

Obama urged lawmakers to get to work in September and pass a series of initiatives the White House says will spur job growth, including an extension of the payroll tax cut, three free-trade agreements and funding for road and bridge construction.

Obama has touted spending on clean-energy technologies as a job creator, and on advanced batteries such as those made at the Johnson Controls plant in Holland, Mich., as a way to boost U.S. auto companies.

Obama won Michigan in the 2008 presidential election and the economically battered state is crucial to his re-election hopes in 2012.

After the Michigan stop, Obama attended a pair of fundraisers in lower Manhattan that raised more than $2 million.

He attended a reception with about 15 people at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Battery Park that was thrown by Gary Hirshberg, chief executive of organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm, before heading to dinner at Weinstein's brick row house. Weinstein and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour were hosts.

Other notables seated at the round dinner tables were New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, singers Alicia Keys and Chris Martin, who is Paltrow's husband, Gayle King and designer Vera Wang. Obama's motorcade passed by ground zero on the way to the dinner.

The $35,800 admission price is the legal maximum donation per person. Obama's campaign keeps $5,000 and the Democratic National Committee pockets the remaining $30,800.

Debt Woes President Obama (BLOG)

President Obama faced an imposing figure Monday as he tried to reassure Americans that the U.S. economy will rebound, and overcome a downgrading of its credit rating: the 2008 version of himself.

The president’s pitch Monday—all that’s needed is a little “common sense and compromise”—was a far cry from the soaring rhetoric and optimism of his candidacy three years ago. And the first voters after Monday’s statement—Wall Street investors—weren’t entirely sold. The Dow Jones average fell 634 points Monday, with Obama’s words doing little to stop the downward momentum.

Still, Obama declined to join the chorus of critics assailing theStandard & Poor’s rating agency as misguided in its assessment, instead expressing the hope that the U.S. going from triple-A to double-A would motivate Congress to find a “grand bargain” that would reform both entitlement programs and taxes. And that optimism could spell a political benefit in the long term.

“He was reassuring—that was the aim,” says Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster.

The economy will have an outsized impact on next year’s election, but the real question, most analysts agree, is not whether it’s good or bad, but whether people feel it’s getting better or worse. More than a year from now, when voters go to the polls in November 2012, if they see light at the end of the tunnel, Obama will be in relatively good shape. “If there isn’t, then it becomes a pitched battle, hand-to-hand combat, trench warfare,” Mellman says.

A reelection campaign is typically a referendum on the incumbent, but it doesn’t have to be, says Mellman. He’s speaking from experience. He just went through one of the most bruising campaigns in the country with Democrat Harry Reid in Nevada facing Tea Party challenger Sharron Angle. “We turned that from a referendum into not just a choice but into a referendum on the other candidate,” Mellman says.

Right now, Obama is facing his toughest challenger, and that is the Obama of 2008 who inspired a nation with his call for “change you can believe in.”

Disappointed liberals are among Obama’s harshest critics. They feel he’s given away too much to conservatives, and they don’t understand where his gifts of intellect and oratory are now that the country is looking to him for a bold plan forward that can take the economy out of the doldrums.

The dimming enthusiasm for Obama could have serious repercussions for his reelection if disappointed liberals, young people, and minorities don’t come out in the numbers they did in 2008. The Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, hosted a discussion Monday on “The African American Vote in 2012 and Beyond.” Among the panelists was Jamal Simmons with the Raben Group, a public-relations firm that advocates for progressive policies. He said that right now Obama is being compared against the ideal progressive president imagined by his soaring rhetoric and promises of change, but once the campaign gets under way, “He’ll be compared against Mitt Romney, or Michele Bachmann, and that’s a very different conversation.”

One of the questions before the panel was this: With persistently high unemployment and continuing economic woes within the black community, is there room for the right to make inroads? The general consensus was that there is “no savior on the Republican side,” and that Obama could be confident of the support of more than 90 percent of African Americans.

African Americans, together with liberals and young people, won’t desert Obama, but unless the president finds a better way to connect with their hopes and dreams, and still their fears, he could come up short on Election Day. Karl Rove has already penned an analysis in The Wall Street Journalsaying even a 1 percent drop in black turnout in North Carolina, a state that Obama carried in 2008, would wipe out the president’s margin of victory two-and-a-half times over.

With Congress in recess until after Labor Day, the proposals Obama is relying on to spur the recovery continue to languish, uncertain to get a vote despite his calls for urgency. They include an infrastructure bank, an extension of the payroll holiday tax cut for working people, and three trade deals that are hung up over labor rights. All are worthy proposals but far from enough to capture a weary nation’s imagination. Given the scope of the jobs crisis, there is a dearth of ideas. “We’re working on it,” says Jared Bernstein, an economist who until recently was at the White House advising Vice President Joe Biden.

Now with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Bernstein is circulating a proposal dubbed FAST—Fix America’s Schools Today. The average public school building is 40 years old, with many much older, and repairs have been deferred by cash-strapped local governments. Bringing nearly 100,000 schools up to standard and “greening them up” would create some 10,000 jobs for every billion dollars spent.

Democrats are searching for the Big Idea that can carry an election. School construction, says one skeptic, “might appeal to some editorial writers, but nobody’s going to say, ‘Wow, I’m going to the barricades for that.' It’s not an automatic bell ringer.” If that’s the standard, it could be a very long election year.

President Obama says U.S. is still a AAA country (BLOG,VIDEO)

WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to recommend additional ways to reduce federal budget deficits following Standard & Poor's downgrading of U.S. credit — an action he said should "give us a renewed sense of urgency."

In his first remarks on the unprecedented downgrade since Friday, when the ratings agency moved the nation from AAA to AA+, Obama said it would be wrong to overreact either to plummeting financial markets or the S&P action.

"We didn't need a rating agency to tell us that the gridlock in Washington over the last several months has not been constructive, to say the least," Obama said.

Obama said analysts "doubted our political system's ability to act," and he called again for Congress to respond with a deficit-reduction plan that includes taxes as well as budget cuts. A committee to be created next week will have three months to devise a plan cutting at least $1.5 trillion over 10 years.



Federal credit downgrade could trickle down to states

That was immediately rebuffed by House and Senate Republican leaders — yet another sign that the grand compromise S&P yearns for will be tough to reach. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor released a memo to all House Republicans arguing that despite the S&P downgrade, they must hang tough against tax increases in the fall and take the issue to voters in 2012.

"There will be pressure to compromise on tax increases. We will be told that there is no other way forward. I respectfully disagree," Cantor said.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell also said the new congressional committee should focus on cutting entitlement programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid. "I disagree with the president's call for tax hikes on American families and job creators," he said.




The president didn't give any hints about his upcoming recommendations, but White House press secretary Jay Carney indicated they would be similar to those he made during the recent negotiations over raising the nation's $14.3 trillion debt limit.

At the time, Obama said he was willing to consider changes to Medicare, including raising the age of eligibility from 65 to 67, if Republicans would agree to higher taxes on people with income above $200,000.

"We are not reinventing the wheel here," Carney said. "A lot of specifics about our approach to this are already well known."

Obama's decision to address the issue from the White House after spending the weekend at Camp David did nothing to calm jittery financial markets. The Dow Jones industrial average continued to slide, closing down more than 600 points on the day. The president said the U.S. financial system remains strong and will get stronger with a "balanced" deficit reduction plan that asks wealthy Americans to pay their fair share. "Our problems are eminently solvable," he said.

The problem isn't a "lack of plans," Obama said.

S&P, in its downgrade, criticized the debt-ceiling deal reached last week by Obama and Congress. It calls for more than $900 billion in spending cuts over 10 years and an additional $1.5 trillion to be determined by the special committee. If the latter cuts don't materialize, $1.2 trillion would be cut automatically over a decade from defense and domestic programs.

Are you Watching the State of the Union Address tonight? Well you should! (BLOG)

Plans to create jobs and restore American competitiveness will be the centerpiece of President Obama's State of the Union speech Tuesday night. And understandably so, given the elevated level of unemployment and gloomy national mood.

But while the angst over jobs hasled to soaring political rhetoric, investors would do well to take a more sober look at the issue. Despite dire proclamations from both sides, a healthy economic turnaround may already be underway in the U.S.

Critics on the right have accused the Obama administration of creating an environment hostile to business and harmful to job growth. Those on the left have bemoaned the economic stimulus measures and Fed policies as inadequate for restarting robust growth and job creation.

The reality, though, is that the jobs picture has been quietly brightening behind the rhetoric, thanks to a strong economic recovery. Indeed, America may already be more competitive than the political posturing lets on.

Better Fundamentals Are Driving Business Decisions

The latest indication that hiring may be about to further accelerate came from a National Association for Business Economics survey of 84 of its member businesses. The percentage of businesses planning to expand payrolls in the next six months outpaced those planning to shed jobs by 35 points, the highest pace since the question wasfirst asked a decade ago.

See full article from DailyFinance:http://srph.it/e1n8tZ


Much has been made of President Obama's supposedly pro-business turn lately. And some House Republicans were quick totry taking creditfor the healthier outlook by saying they helped usher in more business certainty, according to reports.

But,according to the NABE release, the "majority of respondents anticipate no increase or decrease in investment spending or employment in response to new tax policies, suggesting business decisions are being driven by the fundamentals of the improving economy."

Businesses do have plenty to be optimistic about. Profits and share priceshave delivered a prolonged surge, defying once-pervasive predictions that the U.S. had entered a dark new economic era. Employment, too, has fared far better than the dire rhetoric would convey.

Job openings soared to 4.7 million at the end of the year according to some Internet sites. Despite the hand-wringing, job growth isalready outpacingthat posted at the end of the prior two recessions. And upward revisions to monthly government figures may indicate that job growth has been even more robust because government employment measurestend to underestimateduring upturns.

Needed: A Surgical Approach to Job Growth

But if anything is more predictable than job growth following an economic recovery, it may be the overreaching pessimism that precedes it.

"Remember the jobless recovery of the Bush years? A few years later, it turned out that job growth was pretty good, at least compared with initial estimates," wrote the often bearish money manager John Mauldin in a research report this month. "But did anybody care three years later?"

Some problems like long-term unemployment continue to be deeply troubling. But rather than a wholesale American renewal, what's needed is a surgical approach instead. For example,training and investments in educationcan help the U.S. labor force get into the hefty number of positions that are already open.

Plenty of media attention will no doubt be lavished on President Obama's words about his economic and jobs outlook. And both parties will try to take credit for any turnaround that does materialize. But despite the posturing in Washington, there's less to it than meets the eye. Job growth is simply following in the wake of a prolonged economic expansion -- as it has in the past.

See full article from DailyFinance:http://srph.it/e1n8tZ