Hello
Packed mishmash ahead.
Here's something you wouldn't dream to see couple of years back: The president of the United States hosting a summit with Muslim business leaders, foundations and entrepreneurs from all around the world. Participators arrived from 50 countries, some of them are in the US for the first time ever, many of them women. MSM cover on scale of 1 to 10? Pfffffff. Just one more change that goes completely unnoticed :
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Mark Halperin been abducted by aliens who implemented some X-Files chip in his mind. That's the only explanation i can find to this glowing piece about the president. Not that it's free of some usual Halperin/beltway nonsense - but it is still an extremely refreshing article and in the current climate, it feels almost like an Oasis (Or, an alien implants). Few excerpts:
The Secrets of Obama's Underappreciated Success
...By Election Day 2010, Obama will have soundly achieved many of his chief campaign promises while running a highly competent, scandal-free government. Not bad for a guy whose opponents (in both parties) for the White House suggested that he was too green in national life to know how to do the job — and whose presidency began in the midst of a worldwide economic crisis that demanded urgent attention and commanded much of his focus...
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Let's start with the competence Obama has shown. As he proved in the campaign, he is a master of personnel decisions, choosing people who are excellent at what they do, but also requiring that they play nicely with others. In the two most vital areas, national security and economic policy, all the President's women and men generally get along well with one another, and have had critical roles in advancing the agenda. It is true that the economics team has some rivalries, and the Administration still hasn't figured out how to overcome its collectively weak public-communications skills on the economy. But overall, the White House is populated by hard workers who are rowing in unison to advance the cause and rarely take their disagreements public through damaging leaks...
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Beyond health care, Obama acted decisively to stop the world from going into economic depression, after inheriting a mess from his predecessor. Quibble all you wish about the dimensions of the stimulus law or the administration of TARP or the Detroit bailout, but the actions taken were professionally handled, apparently necessary and, so far, constructive. Strikingly underrated by the Washington press corps are Obama's gains on education policy, including a willingness to confront the education establishment on standards for both teachers and students. Overseas, Obama has snagged an arms-reduction deal with Russia, managed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq exactly as promised, eliminated numerous terrorist leaders through an aggressive targeting operation and laid the groundwork for dealing with Iran and, perhaps, North Korea...
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In the months ahead, the President will likely pass a financial-regulation overhaul (despite this past weekend's snags), manage the confirmation of a second Supreme Court nominee with relatively little commotion, announce the reduction of the U.S. troop level in Iraq to about 50,000, showcase the undercovered gains on education reform, take advantage of the improving economy to tout his stimulus efforts and sharpen his "Obama-Biden future vs. Bush-Cheney past" argument to help stave off massive Democratic losses in November...
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USA Today quarterly economic survey: Economists say recovery looks stronger than expected
The recovery is shaping up to be stronger than expected and there is little risk the economy will slip back into a recession, according to USA TODAY's quarterly survey of 46 leading economists.
Yet most still say the rebound will fall short of the sharp, V-shaped upturns that often follow severe slumps, and the 9.7% jobless rate will fall slowly.
As the Fed meets to assess the economy this week, seven in 10 economists say they're more optimistic than they were three months ago.
"I think we've gotten to a point where it's a self-sustaining recovery," says Standard & Poor's chief economist David Wyss.
The experts predict growth of 3% this year, up from forecasts of 2.8% in January. In V-shaped upswings, growth is often 7% or more.
None see a return to recession by next year, and those who see some risk say it's lessened markedly...
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NABE Survey: U.S. Firms Raise Hiring on Optimism Over Recovery
WASHINGTON — U.S. companies expect to hire more and fire less as they become more confident that the economy will continue to recover in 2010, a survey released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics shows.
The share of companies increasing payrolls rose to 22% from 13% in January, the survey of 68 NABE members conducted between Mar. 25 and Apr. 10 showed. The poll reflects first-quarter 2010 results and the near-term outlook.
...Expectations for economic growth in 2010 have "improved significantly," the survey showed. Some 24% of NABE panelists believe the economy will expand by more than 3% this year, while 70% of respondents expect gross domestic product to rise by more than 2.0%.
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Consumer confidence rises to 57.9 in April - highest level since September 2008
NEW YORK - Americans' confidence in the economy rose in April to the highest level since September 2008, just as the financial crisis escalated, according to a private research group.
The upbeat reading, combined with upbeat earnings reports this week from companies ranging from Whirlpool Corp. to UPS Inc., offers more hope the economic recovery is gathering steam.
The Conference Board, a private research group based in New York, said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence index increased to 57.9, up from a revised 52.3 in March. The April reading is the highest since September 2008's 61.4, before going into freefall. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting a reading of 53.5.
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Here's a remarkable story. A young family from Texas looked to cover their (then) 5 years old epileptic son, and were rejected by 60 (!) insurers, due to a pre-existing condition. The parents were so desperate, at some point they considered getting a divorce so the mother and their two children could qualify for federal assistance.
The boy, Alec, is now 12 and for his parents, the new health care law is a godsend. But, obviously, everyone he knows is a Republican and of course they hate this reform, no matter how much it will help them. So Mr. Griffin is all alone in his support. Even his family (!) still oppose it:
Andrew Griffin is upbeat these days — about Alec and about the Obama health care plan, which, he jokes, makes him the only person in the Fort Worth area, including in his own family, who supports it.
"I'm very optimistic," said Griffin. "This opens up avenues that were not available to me."
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More health care news:
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Tax credits for small businesses start to roll out
More than 500,000 Internal Revenue Service postcards will go out this week to California small businesses and tax-exempt groups that may qualify for new tax credits on their employees' health care premiums.
The federal tax credits — up to 35 percent of health care premiums paid this year by qualifying small businesses — are one of the first pieces to roll out of the health care legislation signed last month by President Barack Obama.
The notices are being issued to 4.4 million recipients nationwide.
"It's an effort to incentivize small businesses to offer employee health care or to continue it if they've already done so," said IRS spokesman Jesse Weller.
The credits would be applied to 2010 tax returns filed next year and run through at least 2014.
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And more:
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Montana Ready for Health Care Overhaul
Montana's insurance regulator told lawmakers Monday that the state's first role in implementing federal health care overhaul will go into place shortly.
State Auditor Monica Lindeen said her office will have a new high-risk insurance pool running this summer, paid for by a $16 million federal grant.
An interim committee of lawmakers will be looking at legislation needed to implement federal health care overhaul, much of which will be run and administered by the states.
Lindeen said that no new legislation is needed to set up the high-risk pool because Montana already has a similar state-run high-risk pool in place. Larger and more complex pieces — such as setting up an insurance exchange for the uninsured by 2014 — will require action from the state Legislature.
The new high-risk pool will be run alongside the existing one, which serves about 3,000 residents who have difficulty getting health insurance usually because of a pre-existing condition...
..."We may be one of the first states in the nation to figure out exactly what our exchange looks like," Lindeen said. "The rest of the nation will be looking at us."
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Research into stem cells of adults stirs hopes
A year after President Barack Obama eased restrictions on research into embryonic stem cells and pledged billions in new stimulus money for it, researchers are almost giddy with enthusiasm about progress in the field. They're confident stem cells will treat -- maybe someday cure -- heart disease, diabetes, spinal cord injury and other disorders.
But the excitement is not generated by stem cells harvested from human embryos.
Instead, researchers are coming to believe they can get results almost as good from adult stem cells taken from the patient's own bone marrow or belly fat, and even full-fledged adult cells from muscle tissue or skin...
The full story is fascinating and a highly recommended read.
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Media Matters: So now a 50% job approval rating is a bad thing?
It's rather amusing to see how the Beltway press corps has developed a completely new standard by which they judge president Obama.
Here's John Harwood in today's New York Times:
Inside Washington, President Obama is savoring a springtime resurgence: signs of economic recovery, victory on health care, the upper hand in the financial regulation debate. Outside Washington, not so much. Polls show the president with job approval ratings of 50 percent or lower, as Democratic strategists brace for a thumping in the midterm elections.
The political press has spent the last eight months erroneously claiming that Obama was suffering from "falling poll numbers." But he wasn't. At Gallup, Obama's rating hasn't really budged from the 50 percent mark since late last August. So now some in the press have dropped the "falling poll numbers" approach, but claim that his is 50 percent approval is very, very troubling.
But is it? As I noted last week, these were the job approval ratings for recent presidents at the same juncture of their first term as Obama is now:
-Clinton: 52%
-Reagan: 46%
-Carter: 48%
-Ford: 47%
And yes, by all indications president George W. Bush was headed for the exact same polling spot, prior to the attacks of 9/11, which artificially boosted his ratings.
So basically, Obama's approval rating is right where recent presidents were, or even slightly higher than that. But in today's press corps, that's a bad thing.
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President Obama to eulogize Dorothy Height
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House says President Barack Obama will deliver the eulogy Thursday at the funeral for civil rights leader Dorothy Height.
Height died last week at age 98 after a long illness. She was a pioneering voice of the civil rights movement whose activism stretched from the New Deal to Obama's election.
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President Barack Obama attends a memorial service in Beckley, W.V., April 25, 2010, for 29 miners killed in an explosion at Big Branch Mine. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
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The Yankees visits the White Sox fan. A lot of fun teasing until the end.
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Very cute little story from the president's weekend in Asheville. Working the voters early.
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All by AP. Please don't hot-link. Thanks.
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The president and the Yankees.
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The Presidential Summit with Muslim entrepreneurs.
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President Obama tour of the Siemens Wind Turbine Blade Manufacturing Plant in Fort Madison, Iowa, earlier today:*
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Visiting Mogoorganic farm in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, earlier today:
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lunch at Jerry's Pizza restaurant in Mt. Pleasant.
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