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Saturday, March 21, 2009
President Obama's Weekly Radio Address, March 21, 2009 (Video and Transcript)
A Budget Equal to the Task Before Us
Transcript
Republican Response by Governor Haley Barbour, MS
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Friday, March 20, 2009
First Lady breaks ground for the First Garden
Twenty-six elementary schoolchildren wielded shovels, rakes, pitchforks and wheelbarrows to help first lady Michelle Obama break ground on a produce and herb garden on the White House grounds.
Among the crops to be planted in the coming weeks are spinach, broccoli, various lettuces, kale and collard greens, and assorted herbs. The planted produce will rotate with the seasons.
The first harvest is expected by late April.
Assistant chef Sam Kass says some of the produce will be cooked in the White House kitchen and some will be given to a local soup kitchen where Mrs. Obama recently helped serve lunch.
Mrs. Obama told the students that her family has talked about planting such a garden since they moved to the White House. She said her daughters, Malia and Sasha, like fresh vegetables better.
Mrs. Obama then led a cheer with the children, shouting, "Let's hear it for vegetables!" and "Let's hear it for fruits!"
The first lady joked with reporters, telling them to stop taking pictures and start shoveling.
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POTUS, Barack Obama's schedule
For March 20, 2009
DAILY GUIDANCE AND PRESS SCHEDULE FOR
FRIDAY, MARCH 20, 2009
In the morning, the President will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing, the Economic Daily Briefing, and meet with senior advisors in the Oval Office. These meetings are closed press.
In the afternoon, the President and the Vice President will meet with representatives from the National Conference of State Legislatures in Room 350 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The President will discuss the White House's commitment to oversight and transparency to ensure that Recovery Act dollars are spent on projects that will jumpstart job creation and lay the foundation for lasting prosperity. The President's and the Vice President's remarks will be pooled press.
The President will meet with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the Roosevelt Room to discuss the importance of investing in America's transportation infrastructure. There will be a pool spray at the top of the meeting.
Later in the afternoon, the President and the First Lady will attend a reception with the National Newspaper Publisher Association in the State Dining Room, where they will be presented the Newsmaker of the Year award. This event is closed press.
Also tomorrow, members of the National Conference of State Legislatures will hold a media availability at 1:30PM at the stakeout location outside the West Wing.
Intown Travel Pool
Wires: AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
Wire Photos: AP, Reuters, AFP
TV Corr & Crew: FOX
Print: New York Post
Radio: ABC
Magazine Photo: TIME
Independent Pool: C-SPAN
EDT
10:00AM Pool Call Time
10:45AM THE PRESIDENT receives Presidential Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press
11:15AM THE PRESIDENT receives Economic Daily Briefing
Oval Office
Closed Press
12:15PM THE PRESIDENT meets with senior advisors
Oval Office
Closed Press
12:35PM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT deliver remarks to representatives of the National Conference of State Legislatures
EEOB Room 350
Pooled for remarks (Pre-Set 10:15AM - Final Gather 12:10PM - Stakeout Location)
2:15PM THE PRESIDENT meets with Governor Schwarzenegger, Governor Rendell, and Mayor Bloomberg
Roosevelt Room
Pool Spray at the top (Gather Time 1:55PM - North Doors of the Palm Room)
2:45PM THE PRESIDENT and THE FIRST LADY attend the National Newspaper Publishers Association reception
State Dining Room
Closed Press
Briefing Schedule
2:00PM Briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs
##
FLOTUS, Michelle Obama putting a REAL garden at the White House
We all know she is very conscious of eating healthy. And reminds me of Alice Waters on 60 Minutes, this past Sunday. The ground is breaking, today at the White House.
First lady Michelle Obama is scheduled to break ground Friday on a new garden near the fountain on the South Lawn that will supply the White House kitchen.
She will be joined by students from Bancroft Elementary School in the District of Columbia. The children will stay involved with the project, including planting the fruits, vegetables and herbs in the coming weeks and harvesting the crops later in the year.
Mrs. Obama spent time earlier this week at an exhibit on rooftop gardening.
"We're going to get a big one in our back yard, the South Lawn," she promised the volunteers.
Such a White House garden has been a dream of noted California chef Alice Waters, considered a leader in the movement to encourage consumption of locally grown, organic food. She has been appealing for change through the taste buds since the 1960s.
She organized a series of fundraising dinners in Washington before President Barack Obama's inauguration in January that served foods purchased from local producers at an area farmer's market to show how it can be done.
Reached Thursday at her Berkeley, Calif., restaurant, Chez Panisse, Waters said she was thrilled by the news.
"It just tells you that this country cares about people's good health and about the care of the land," she said. "To have this sort of 'victory' garden, this message goes out that everyone can grow a garden and have free food."
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Thursday, March 19, 2009
GOP really are concern trolls, concerned about Obama on the Tonight Show (Video)
The party of no, which has given us NO ALTERNATIVES for ANYTHING, can only whine about the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and President Obama filling out his NCAA bracket picks? Do these senators get around as in OUT OF D.C. to the REAL WORLD? Geez, I filled mine's out and in a pool, so far doing pretty well.....
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"The state of California has a tremendous partner in Barack Obama," says Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in Los Angeles, CA (Videos)
President Barack Obama is playing a bit of divide-and-conquer this week, pitting his Republican critics against GOP governors and mayors eager for the federal money that his hard-fought stimulus plan will bring.
One of those Republican notables is California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who joined Obama at a town hall meeting on Thursday in Los Angeles.
"The state of California has a tremendous partner in Barack Obama," said the governor, who also called the president's stimulus package "the greatest."
Governor Schwarzenegger introduces President Barack Obama, Video
8-year-old Ethan Lopez tells President Obama that his elementary school is in "big trouble" due to budget cuts.
And clip from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno
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Eric Cantor put on blast by Lawrence O'Donnell from morning joe (video)
Lawrence O'Donnell is another one of those on television that can craft a question that is hard to wiggle out of not answering. He was not a writer, producer for the acclaimed television series The West Wing, for nothing.
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The Fed, Treasury bumbling idiots
I don't care how good or bad the news is, the Obama Administration should have been kept abreast of every step of the bonus fiasco that is brewing about AIG.
The gasbags on morning joke continues fake outrage, well they do that every morning, but one thing I do agree with is this, the Obama Administration knew by late last week about these bonuses and the pounding of AIG by the Sunday morning talk shows was in full force. Now the public is weeding through the when, who, and how the administration knew about these outrageous payments.
We can point fingers all day long, but it comes down to this, Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary failed in halting these bonuses, period. He knew about the bonuses and could not stop AIG from cutting the checks and issuing the checks by Friday.
The U.S. public owns 80% of AIG, which started to get major money pumped to them from the Bush Administration to stay afloat. Some hard decisions needs to be made about this company. Starting with the takeover from the U.S. government, the firing of management, the total shut down of that products division which put this company where it is at now to restore some confidence in management of this administration.
There is no way that a private company, taking public money, propped up by us, the taxpayers, and we, the taxpayers can not tell AIG where the wind blows?
Geithner is a smart guy, we know this, but is he the right guy for this job? Right now, NO.
As pressure mounted on AIG employees to return the bonuses, new details emerged yesterday about what the Fed, the Treasury Department and the White House knew regarding the payments and when. AIG executives said the Fed was informed three months ago by the company that it would pay $165 million by March 15 to employees working at its most troubled division. The Treasury and White House said they learned of the payments from Fed officials only days before they were due.
Close coordination between the Fed and the administration is now more important than ever as they near the launch of two signature programs to rescue the financial system, which together could reach $2 trillion and are aimed at reviving consumer lending and purchasing soured assets and loans from ailing banks.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, a central figure in the decision to bail out AIG last fall as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said in an interview yesterday that he had not been aware of the size of the bonuses and the timing of the payments.
"I was stunned when I learned how bad this was on Tuesday [March 10]," Geithner said. "I shouldn't have been in that position, but it's my responsibility and I accept that."
Two days later, Geithner told the White House. The last-minute disclosure irked some of the president's senior advisers, but they refuse to point fingers now, saying the timing had little impact on the outcome or the president's public statements this week.
"Would I have liked an earlier warning system on this? Yeah," said David Axelrod, a senior White House adviser. "Would it have markedly changed things? Probably not. The legal constraints are the legal constraints."
[snip]
Democrats and Republicans in Congress are increasingly questioning how Geithner could not have known about the bonuses, given his past role in AIG's bailout, which has totaled more than $170 billion.
"I'm sick and tired of hearing the administration and the Secretary of the Treasury say, 'I just found out about it,' " Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski (D-Pa.) said yesterday.
The shitty thing about all of this is that those making these decisions are the same players, mostly, who was for deregulation, crafted the deals that have come back to bite this administration in the "you know where" and comes up with this lame excuse that "we can't renegotiate these contracts". I am sorry but it smells of bullshit. If the auto industry can renegotiate, you mean to tell me the United States of America who OWNS 80% of AIG can not drag their asses to the table to do the same? It doesn't wash.
The Obama Administration needs to clean this up and I mean, yesterday. They deserve the criticism that they are getting right now and I don't think most will disagree. This is absolutely the opposite of what Obama campaign for since 2007. But there is something about Washington, D.C., where these folks get into a room, craft legislation, and somehow for the good of the people always fall short.
Obama Administration, clean it up, even if it means performing sweepers for a new Treasury Secretary.
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Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Pat Buchanan's Concerned Trolling on Hardball, (Video)
Really, this is a debate with Bob Shrum, Chris Matthews and the all of a sudden concern of Pat Buchanan for Barack Obama. Oh, brother....
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