Archive for January 26th, 2009
California stands to gain the most of any state in an economic recovery package the U.S. Congress is considering, according to two separate analyses.
In its current form, the plan would give California $4.46 billion for investment in water, roads, public transportation, highways and bridges, according to the House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
More than half of the state’s infrastructure funding would go to highways and roads.
26
Jan
09
January 26 – This Day in History
1788 The first European settlers in Australia landed in present-day Sydney.
1802 Congress passed an act calling for a library to be established within the U.S. Capitol.
1837 Michigan became the 26th state.
1988 The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Phantom of the Opera,” the longest-running show in Broadway history, opened at the Majestic Theater in New York.
1998 President Bill Clinton denied having an affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, telling reporters, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
26
Jan
09
Manic mondays with jillian
A little boy threw a fit and threw his teddy bear down a cliff and his parents went after it (We’re not kidding! Check it out.)
Jillian is here to give you the advice you need so that the future generation will not end up bratty, stubborn and throwing things to get there way!
26
Jan
09
The Sag Awards
The SAG Awards were last night… Listen to the show to hear what Tim and Cassie had to say about the trainwrecks of the evening.
On Friday, when President Obama met with congressional leaders from both parties to discuss his economic recovery and reinvestment program, he told GOP leaders, “You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done.” Asked for a response by National Review yesterday, Limbaugh said that Obama’s “plan is to isolate elected Republicans from their voters.” He added that passage of the stimulus bill would hurt Republicans electorally:
Obama’s plan would buy votes for the Democrat Party, in the same way FDR’s New Deal established majority power for 50 years of Democrat rule, and it would also simultaneously seriously damage any hope of future tax cuts. It would allow a majority of American voters to guarantee no taxes for themselves going forward. It would burden the private sector and put the public sector in permanent and firm control of the economy. Put simply, I believe his stimulus is aimed at re-establishing “eternal” power for the Democrat Party rather than stimulating the economy because anyone with a brain knows this is NOT how you stimulate the economy.
Limbaugh’s argument echoes former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell’s recent claim that Obama’s stimulus plan “could create a major electoral advantage for Democrats at taxpayer expense.” “Creating 600,000 new jobs might help cement Virginia in the Democrat column, making it harder for Republicans to retake the White House,” said Blackwell.
26
Jan
09
Blagojevich the maniac!!!!!
Impeachment proceedings against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich are scheduled to begin Monday in the state Senate, but the embattled governor is expected to skip the trial and instead appear on several television programs.
Blagojevich is facing federal corruption allegations, including trying to trade or sell the Senate seat that became vacant after Barack Obama was elected president.
The second-term Democratic governor has denied wrongdoing.
In his first live prime-time interview, Blagojevich will appear Monday on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”
He spoke with ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Monday morning and appeared later on ABC’s “The View.”
On “Good Morning America,” Blagojevich said he considered appointing Oprah Winfrey as Obama’s Senate replacement.
“She seemed to be someone who had helped Barack Obama in a significant way become president,” he said. “She was obviously someone with a much broader bully pulpit than other senators.” 
Watch Blagojevich say he’s done “nothing wrong” »
The governor said Winfrey was one of several candidates he had considered for the position.
Blagojevich eventually picked former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to replace Obama. Senate Democrats initially disputed seating Burris due to the cloud over Blagojevich, and Illinois’ secretary of state refused to sign off on the appointment.
But Illinois’ highest court validated Burris’ appointment earlier this month, and Senate Democratic leaders recognized it.
Blagojevich on Monday restated his complaints about what he called the “unconstitutional” impeachment trial, which he said “denies me the right to call witnesses to defend myself and prove my innocence.”
He said he is certain the Illinois Senate will vote to remove him from office and said he expects they will demand he step down “relatively soon.”
Earlier this month, the Illinois House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to impeach him. Blagojevich has said the vote was politically motivated.
Under the Illinois Constitution, the House can vote to impeach an executive or judicial officer, but it is the Senate that conducts the trial. A two-thirds majority vote in the Senate is required to convict an officer of an impeachable offense.
According to a federal complaint issued in December, Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris — who also was arrested on federal corruption charges — were “conspiring to obtain personal financial benefits” for the governor by leveraging his sole authority to appoint a U.S. senator to replace Obama.
“I’ve got this thing and it’s [expletive] golden,” Blagojevich allegedly said in one recorded phone conversation, referring to his authority to appoint, according to the complaint. “I’m just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing.”
When asked about those alleged quotes, Blagojevich told ABC that federal prosecutors “took snippets of conversations completely out of context.”
“When the whole story comes out, you’ll see that the effort was to work to have a senator who can best represent Illinois,” he said.
In an interview over the weekend with NBC’s “Today,” Blagojevich said his December 9 arrest took him by surprise, but he is drawing inspiration from people such as Nelson Mandela, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi.
“I thought it was actually a friend of mine who was playing a practical joke,” he said of his arrest. “Unfortunately it wasn’t. And then the day unfolded and I had a whole bunch of thoughts — of course my children and my wife — and then I thought about Mandela, Dr. King, Gandhi and tried to put some perspective in all of this, and that’s what I’m doing now.”
Blagojevich has said his basic rights are being violated because he cannot challenge assertions in the House impeachment report. Watch Blagojevich demand a fair trial »
Blagojevich also is asking for a change in a Senate trial rule that he said is preventing him from calling witnesses such as Valerie Jarrett, a confidant of President Obama; Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.; and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
Emanuel, claimed Blagojevich, agrees that he did not break any laws.
State Sen. Matt Murphy, part of the nine-member committee that put the Senate trial rules together, called Blagojevich’s complaints “the theater of the absurd.” iReport.com: Do you trust your political leaders?
“What you’ve seen here … is a cynical effort on the part of this governor that’s perfectly consistent with his actions over the last six years, to try and further undermine the faith in this process that the people already have,” Murphy said.
Blagojevich missed deadlines this month for answering the impeachment charge and for filing a motion to dismiss, a spokesman for Illinois Senate President John Cullerton has said.
