1.) Joe Biden refuses to criticize totalitarian Egyptian president, admits liking The Onion — Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak has not truly “won” an election in the 30 years that he has been president of Egypt. Instead, he’s used secret police and state-controlled media to intimidate and incarcerate his critics and political opponents, including the runner-up in the first presidential election where someone other than Mubarak was allowed on the ballot. On January 25, Egyptians rose up against Mubarak, and the Egyptian president responded by shutting down the country’s Internet and sending armed thugs into the streets to do violence against his own people. By definition, Mubarak is a dictator. Unless, of course, your dictionary was penned by Vice Pres. Joe Biden, in which case geopolitical interests supersede honesty and/or human rights. “Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things,” Biden told PBS’ Jim Lehrer last night. “I would not refer to him as a dictator.” In other Biden news, the vice president likes the Onion’s made-up coverage of him. “I think it’s hilarious, the stuff they do on me,” Biden told Yahoo! News Thursday. “I saw the one of me washing a Trans-Am automobile in the driveway shirtless with tattoos all over myself and out there,” he added. “By the way, I have a Corvette– a ’67 Corvette– not a Trans-Am.” (more)
1.) Deficit commission gets no respect during SOTU address — “Wait for the deficit commission.” That’s what the White House told Reuters’ James Pethokoukis whenever he asked about Pres. Obama’s strategy for dealing with America’s debt problem. “Obama’s panel has come and gone,” Pethokoukis wrote after the SOTU address. “And in his speech last night, he failed to explicitly endorse any of its budget-cutting recommendations.” After 10 months of deliberation and town halls across the country to the tune of $500,000, and a contentious fight over which commission faction’s proposal was the best proposal, Obama has essentially scrapped the whole thing. “I don’t agree with all their proposals, but they made important progress,” Obama said last night. “To put us on solid ground, we should also find a bipartisan solution to strengthen Social Security for future generations.” Never mind that Obama has endorsed exactly zero of the commission’s ideas, but as Pethokoukis points out: “Did Obama not check his in-box? His bipartisan commission gave him a Social Security fix.” (more)
1.) Obama’s jobs team gets green-washed — “President Barack Obama will name Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric Co.’s chief executive officer, to head his outside panel of economic advisers, replacing former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker,” reports Bloomberg News. “Immelt has sounded many of the administration’s themes: boosting jobs through U.S. exports, ensuring companies can compete with powers like China and India, and jumpstarting a clean-energy economy. Immelt wrote today that he and Obama ‘are committed’ to making the U.S. ‘the most competitive and innovating economy in the world.’” According to Bloomberg, “Immelt is among a group of executives — Boeing Co. CEO Jim McNerney; Motorola Solutions Inc. CEO Greg Brown, and Honeywell International Inc. Chairman David Cote — who have voiced support for Obama policies. The four serve on several of the president’s outside advisory boards”–and all four have made a killing on green jobs subsidies (more)
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head last week at a Tucson “Congress on Your Corner” public event, has improved enough to scroll through an Apple iPad, Reuters reported Thursday. (more)
(Reuters) – “American Idol” returns to television next week not only with two new celebrity judges, but a whole new attitude — less of the cutting put-downs and more support and coaching for aspiring new pop stars, producers said on Tuesday. (more)
(Reuters) – Jim Schneller is not the type of congressional candidate a political progressive or liberal Democrat would ordinarily support. (more)
(Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Sunday it had a 120-member team prepared to review a massive leak of as many as 500,000 Iraq war documents, which are expected to be released by the WikiLeaks website sometime this month. (more)
(Reuters) – American voters unhappy at high unemployment are set to oust President Barack Obama’s Democrats from control of the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2 elections, a Reuters-Ipsos poll projected on Wednesday. (more)
LONDON (Reuters) – Anti-terrorism police, on high alert during a visit by Pope Benedict to the British capital, arrested six men on Friday on suspicion of preparing an attack. (more)
Taxpayers are likely to lose out on the initial public offering of General Motors Co. stock, according to a report published Saturday. (more)
(Reuters) – The Muslim center planned near the site of the World Trade Center attack could qualify for tax-free financing, a spokesman for City Comptroller John Liu said on Friday, and Liu is willing to consider approving the public subsidy. (more)
The biggest U.S. companies stepped up their lobbying on Monday to block Democrats’ plans to let taxes on wealthier Americans rise at year’s end, asking lawmakers not to cut short the hearing process in Congress. (more)
Florida (Reuters) – Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum on Wednesday proposed legislation that would toughen law enforcement measures against illegal immigrants in the melting-pot southeastern U.S. state. (more)
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama is looking at candidates to fill a top White House economic post with no announcement expected this week, spokesman Bill Burton said on Monday. (more)
Spending as much as $250,000 on a bachelors degree from world-renowned U.S. universities such as Harvard University and Yale is a waste of money, a new book asserts. (more)
Taliban would like to send Wikileaks founder some flowers — Charlie Rangel’s luck just ran out — NYT editorial board doesn’t understand why Obama is doing this — Deficit anxieties freeze Congress —
Weird assemblage of freaks and geeks run Charlie Crist’s campaign — Fifteen years from now, China could own everything (more)
The unprecedented leak of secret U.S. military reports this week about the war in Afghanistan could have severe consequences for U.S. troops and their allies, and could cost people their lives, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday. (more)
One of Obama’s hand-picked fiscal commissioners calls him a liar — Lad mag offers Democrats an econ lesson — Former health care execs cannot stop patting one another’s butts — If you smoke, shoot, or booze, the government robbed you good this year — Obama flunky is crushed that businessmen do not want to listen to her monotone nonsense all day — Why are Democrats punishing the poors who have no jobs? (more)
(Reuters) – A New York lawyer who helped a terrorism suspect smuggle messages to his followers from prison was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday. (more)
England (Reuters) – The Church of England moved a step closer on Monday to ordaining women as bishops, but deep divisions remained which could threaten their consecration or lead to a split between liberals and traditionalists. (more)
