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SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) – California lawmakers on Friday approved a state budget filled with spending cuts and creative accounting to fill a $19.1 billion deficit, 100 days after a spending plan should have been in place. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he hoped to sign the budget package as soon as Friday evening, but critics fear his successor, to be elected on November 2, will immediately face a new shortfall as rosy revenue assumptions prove unfounded. That's a familiar story for California, which has seen its revenue plunge in recent years due to recession, as well as turmoil in financial and...

Today is the last day to vote in CNN's National Report Card: Second 100 Days of President Obama. http://reportcard.cnn.com/

10. Challenged Kim Jong-Il to "fisticuffs." 9. Learned where the Middle East is. 8. Declared that he is "more popular than Jesus." 7. Was told that, despite his adamant beliefs, that the United Kingdom was no longer an Absolute Monarchy. 6. Watched more of the NCAA Basketball Tournament than he watched the situation in Pakistan. 5. Realized that "Checks and Balances" had nothing to do with money or banks.

Future historians might well look back on events of the last week and see a milestone of decline in the waning saga of American freedom. The bridge between the free market and a command economy was likely crossed when, at government demand, thousands of car dealerships all across the country were put out of business. They were profitable, they were legal, they were useful, and the White House ordered them closed. A presidential panel, comprised of everyone except car-industry experts, demanded that Chrysler and GM cut off a third of their dealers’ heads. Hundreds of thousands will lose their jobs....

Neal Boortz @ May 13, 2009 8:32 AM The Media Research Center did an analysis of the lamestream media's coverage of Obama's first 100 days. Guess what? Turns out that they have done a great job of sending tingles up their legs but a lousy job acting as watchdogs. MRC analysts looked at all 982 broadcast evening news stories about Obama and his administration from Inauguration Day (January 20) through April 29. Here are some of the interesting, though not surprising, things that they found: - Obama's first 100 days were defined by massive spending, aggressive intervention in the private...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. employers cut 539,000 jobs last month, the fewest since October, according to government data on Friday that signaled the economy's steep decline may be easing. The unemployment rate, however, soared to 8.9 percent, the highest since September 1983, from 8.5 percent in March and job losses in March and February were a combined 66,000 steeper than previously estimated, the Labor Department said. A big 72,000 jump in government payrolls tempered the overall job-loss figure. Private sector employment fell by 611,000 in April after a 693,000 job decline in March.

‘Remake America?’ No thanks, Mr. President By Luke Boggs For the Journal-Constitution Friday, May 08, 2009 On his 100th day in office, President Barack Obama renewed his inaugural address vow to “remake America.” While the grandiose phrase made me cringe in January, my reaction this time around was far more acute. Why? Because now we know he’s serious. This nation —- the greatest and freest the world has ever seen —- most emphatically does not need to be remade, despite our imperfections. What would we think of an artist who declared his intent to remake the Mona Lisa or the...

The American media has just released an avalanche of reports assessing President Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office. Ignore it all. It doesn’t matter. The revealing part of his presidency hasn’t begun yet. At about this point in his presidency, George W. Bush had, with the help of his secretary of state, Colin Powell, just won the release of the crew of a U.S. spy plane from China, leading the world media elite to declare Bush a pragmatic president in foreign affairs, and Powell his most important advisor. As for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, it was said that he...

I believe that today is something like day 104 and Barack Obama has had 320 news conferences. This guy loves to hear himself talk. But it is more than that. The president is doing one of two things. First, he is either getting things done, or second, he is telling you what he is going to get done. The 320 news conferences are to tell you what he is going to get done because he is getting nothing done. If we are not feeling good about the state of the economy maybe constantly hearing how he is going to make...

Barack Obama’s first 100 days just flu by, didn’t they? About the only thing to pass over the heads of Americans faster than the first three months of Obama’s first (and hopefully only) term was that Top-Secret, but apparently “routine” photo-op flight, where Air Force One, shadowed by F-16s, flew nearly nap-of-the-Earth and buzzed the tourists and office buildings in lower Manhattan. The only significance to Barack Obama’s first 100 days is that there are only 1,360 left, assuming he only serves one term. But since we have to live with Democrats and since Janet Napolitano and the Obama Administration...

We’re still in the first 100 days of the joyous observances of Barack Obama’s first 100 days, and many weeks of celebration lie ahead, so here are my thoughts: President Obama’s strongest talent is not his speechifying, which is frankly a bit of a snoozeroo. In Europe, he left ‘em wanting less pretty much every time (headline from Britain’s Daily Telegraph: “Barack Obama really does go on a bit”). That uptilted chin combined with the left-right teleprompter neck swivel you can set your watch by makes him look like an emaciated Mussolini umpiring an endless rally of high lobs on...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fir2JM5HByM

100 Days & Throwing People Under the Bus. Campaign promises, family members, and cabinet-level nominees have all been thrown under the bus. Celebrate Obama's first 100 days on a bumpy ride with President ZoBama. ZoBama's Under My Bus

Believe it or not, there are a few things that were not addressed in our white paper on the President's first 100 days. In particular, we didn't even touch on the many things that the President and his Administration have done to just make us scratch our heads and wonder out loud how this country ever elected this buffoon. Some of these things don't really rise my blood temperature like the stimulus package or the Employee Free Choice Act, but they really raise a serious cause for concern that this guys really has no clue whatsoever. So here are the...

News organizations have done an admirable job of recapping the first 100 days of the Obama administration. But rarely do we stumble across a primary source like Barack Obama's own Facebook feed. Scroll down for the full story. Barack Obama joined the Washington, D.C. network. Barack Obama is taking the oath of office. Barack Obama is taking the oath of office. Barack Obama deleted the group I'm a Lobbyist AND I Work at the White House! Barack Obama deleted the group Guantanamo Bay Detainees 4EVA.   Khalid Sheikh Mohammed likes this. Reggie Love wrote on Beyonce Knowles' Wall.   Not...

Obama's 12 Most Important Decisions in His First 100 Days (Charlie Archambault for USN&WR) Introduction President Obama has been remarkably busy since he took office in January, making a series of important decisions that have, in some cases, moved the nation in a new direction from the past eight years. Whether the impact will be good or bad, here are the 12 decisions that helped shape Obama's first 100 days and could shape history. —Kenneth T. Walsh

Obama’s 100 Mistakes, Misstatements and Missteps in his First 100 Days Undermining Our Values 1. Calling for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act on the White House website. 2. Calling on the White House website for the expansion of federal hate crimes to include homosexual behavior. 3. Calling on the White House website for policies like the “Fairness Doctrine” that could silence conservative and Christian talk radio. 4. Repealing limitations on taxpayer-funding of human embryonic stem cell research. 5. Repealing limitations on taxpayer-funding of abortions overseas. 6. Pledging $50 million to the United Nation’s Population Fund, which supports...

U.S. President Barack Obama marked his 100th day in office Wednesday by rallying support for his policies, and tackling an unfolding health crisis. On day 100, the president took questions from the public at a school near St. Louis, Missouri. "It is great to be back in the middle of America, where common sense often reigns," he said. And he fielded inquiries from reporters beneath the chandeliers of the White House East Room at his third formal news conference. Originally, the White House downplayed the 100 day marker. But in the end, it embraced the chance to showcase the president's...

Face Fwd Comments: Below is the text of 12 of the 13 questions asked Obama.(one I couldn't catch because it came from the floor) The answers don't really matter because because we learned nothing from them. Instead read the questions and you can learn much about how easy the press is treating this president. Here are some questions I would like to have seen asked: Question1: Mr. President, you campaigned on getting the troops out of the middle east within the first three months of talking office, but you have not. Does that mean you were just lying to get...

n April 29, the U.S. will have survived the first hundred days of President Barack Obama. Of course, unemployment is up and the stock market is down, but the president's optimism is still unbounded. Mr.Obama's staff is encouraging writers to find parallels to FDR and his first hundred days as president 75 years ago during the Great Depression. Let's take the challenge: Here are three points of similarity between the two presidencies.

President Barack Obama, feeling quite certain that in 100 days he has remade the United States into the Utopian that he and Michelle have longed for, has forgotten one important point: he has done nothing of substance in his three plus months as our nation’s 44th president. The so-called economic stimulus has created not one job, just as the economy continues to lose them. The Obama plan(s) has done nothing to increase the nation’s GDP, but rather it continues to linger in recession (falling 6.1 percent in the first three months of 2009). The President’s allowance of government funding for...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama’s 100 days in office have not shaken the world, but he has been compelled to focus on the legacy bequeathed by former President George W. Bush: the worst economic slump since the Great Depression and two wars. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, avoiding any credibility-destroying urge to praise his boss with ridiculous extravagance, gives the president a "B-plus" on his report card. "What the president has achieved is something we’re proud of," Gibbs said, adding: "There is room for improvement." Probably the biggest change Obama has brought about is the country’s new hopeful spirit,...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Wednesday night that waterboarding authorized by former President George W. Bush was torture, and the information gained from terror suspects through its use could have been obtained by other means. "In some cases it may be harder," he conceded at a White House news conference marking a whirlwind first 100 days in office. Obama also expressed optimism that Chrysler could remain a "going concern," possibly without filing for bankruptcy. He said "unions and creditors have come up with a set of potential concessions that they can live with," adding, "All that promises the possibility...

Although many news outlets and organizations are offering their own evaluation of the Obama administration's first 100 days, none are more comprehensive and thought-provoking. Link to white paper available after the jump.

On the occasion of President Obama’s first 100 days in office, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) highlights five memorable quotations from the Obama Administration:

This week marks Barack Obama’s historic first 100 days as President. Highlights of his Presidential actions are listed below. Impact on Spending, Debt, and Taxes• President Obama’s $3.69 trillion budget will raise taxes on all Americans by $1.4 trillion over the next decade, and will permanently elevate federal spending to nearly 23 percent of the entire economy by 2019—a level reached only three times since the end of World War II. • The President’s budget dumps a staggering $9.3 trillion in new debt—$68,000 per household—into the laps of America's children and grandchildren. This is more debt than has been accumulated...

At his 100th-day town hall meeting in St. Louis, Mo., President Obama took direct aim at the anti-tax “tea party” demonstrations that have cropped up over the last month – and took a veiled shot at FOX News Channel, at the cable news network closely associated with the protests. Asked about fiscal discipline and entitlements reform, Obama seemed to be repressing a smile as he jabbed critics of his spending plans. "Those of you who are watching certain news channels on which I'm not very popular, and you see folks waving tea bags around, Obama said, “let me just remind...

WASHINGTON - After Barack Obama's first six weeks as president, the American public's attitudes about the two political parties couldn't be more different, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds. Despite the country's struggling economy and vocal opposition to some of his policies, President Obama's favorability rating is at an all-time high. Two-thirds feel hopeful about his leadership and six in 10 approve of the job he's doing in the White House. "What is amazing here is how much political capital Obama has spent in the first six weeks," said Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted this survey...

100 days since Aretha's hat; How's the nation fared? Your chance to vote Lots of questions to vote on, and right now things look pretty good. For example: Besides the hat, the oath flub, the Cabinet tax problems and cheesy gifts for Britain's leader, how's Barack Obama doing: 9% Really Well -vs- 73% Scary Bad Obama's policies are: 1.4% Too Conservative -vs- 87.8% Too Liberal Obama's spending plans and deficits: 4.4% Inspire Me vs. 82.3% Really Scare Me [Snip] What I like most about Obama so far is: 10% His Confidence -vs- 80% His Dog [Snip] As a vice president...

*** At G20 .....Obama lent credibility to buffoons and despots. What wisdom did he glean from Daniel Ortega' s hate-filled excoriations? Fidel Castro has already hurled back Obama's olive branch, slamming the door on freeing political prisoners. Rather than celebrate the political legacy that put him in the White House, he breaks the bonds of our political traditions. NAMES REDACTED Westwood, NJ *** .........."righties" made such a fuss over Pres Obama's "World Capitulation Tour".......not simply because he threw the US under the bus in a fit of self-flagellation. It's because he was utterly ineffective....we were treated to the spectacle of...

The Fox Network is making a smart business move by passing on tonight's press conference celebrating President Obama's first 100 days in office. Other networks are losing millions of dollars of advertising revenue to air what amounts to an unpaid political ad.

Is Obama's 100th day an official holiday yet?

Washington, DC -- President Barack Obama marks his first 100 days in the White House today and his record is replete with aggressive promotion of abortion and attacks on pro-life advocates. Obama has used tax dollars to pay for abortion and embryonic stem cell research and stacked his administration with abortion advocates. Full story at http://www.LifeNews.com/nat5005.html

...Biden was in town for a Democratic National Committee fundraising reception at the River Oaks home of lawyer Neal Manne — who served as Specter’s chief of staff in Washington in the 1980s... The vice president said that, as a senator from Delaware, he was Specter’s best friend in the Senate for 33 years, and that he and Manne “have been trying to remind Arlen that he is really Democrat.” “I have been working on that in earnest for the past four years and double time for the past 100 days (as vice president),” Biden added. “It seems only appropriate,”...

Higher spending. More debt. New Taxes. Broken Promises. Obama’s First 100 Days. An interesting timeline compiled by Americans for Tax Reform’s John Kartch.

Well .. here we go. This is the day for the media "100 Days" orgy. Let's face it, if you're a right-of-center journalist or pundit you are not going to give him very high marks. If you're left-of-center he is going to be the BPE (Best President Ever) for these seemingly magic first 100 days.

Please FReep this poll: How is Obama doing? http://twtpoll.com/x7fjol

Behind closed doors in recent days, senior White House aides have been saying that measuring President Obama's first 100 days is the journalistic equivalent of a Hallmark holiday. "They don't mean anything," quipped one aide, "but you have to observe them." But literally in the next breath the very same aide got pretty bold -- saying that anyone doing one of these anniversary stories would be "hard-pressed to find another administration that has done as much" as Obama so early in a presidency, including FDR. In other words, Obama is just showing up for work on this "Hallmark holiday" with...

I don’t know what’s worst or where to begin. Mr. Obama’s cabinet picks, the incessant propaganda that surrounds him or his insane government mismanagement and overspending. (see story) One thing for certain though, yesterday’s Air Force One joy ride with fighter jets in tow combined with the fly-by of New York City buildings sum up quite nicely the scary ride that Mr. Obama’s first 100 days has been for America.

MIDI - 500 MILES

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Barack Obama marks his first 100 days as US president on Wednesday with swine flu freshly embossed on a long list of domestic and foreign crises to trouble his nascent administration, but with a measure of good news from Congress. Up against the deepest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a controversial program of economic reform, Obama must also work to prevent a global pandemic. The White House initially expressed its reluctance to take part in the media frenzy surrounding the traditional 100-day performance milestone, dismissing it as a...

In case you haven't heard--like, if you've been living on Jupiter for the last few weeks--Obamassiah is marking ONE HUNDRED DAYS in office this week! The nation REJOICES! The WHOLE WORLD REJOICES!! And the DUmmies are no exception. They are just OUT OF THEIR MINDS . . . with jubilation, that is. They're riding high in April. Will they be shot down in May? Who knows. But for now Obambi can do no wrong. He can terrorize Manhattan and get away with it. He can import swine flu from Mexico and get away with it. And what's more, the...

PRESIDENT Barack Obama marks the end of his first 100 days in office on Thursday. For those who didn't vote for him, it seems like 100 years. The remainder of Obama's tenure stretches out before us, as broad as the Sahara and about as devoid of sustenance. But if the past 100 days have been lacking in substantive achievements, they have certainly not been boring. Already, Obama has charted a course that should remind us of a fact of history: the post-war generation is passing from the scene and its tradition – based on a larger but still limited state...

It's official: Barack Obama is the second most reviled newbie president of the last forty years. A gallup survey today published in the Washington Times shows Obama to have an approval rating of just 56 per cent. The only president to have performed worse than that at the end of his first 100 days in office was Bill Clinton - and only then because it happened to coincide with the spectacular mishandling of the Waco siege, which might reasonably be laid at the door of ATF and FBI incompetence rather than presidential negligence. Obama's low approval ratings, however, are all...

The honeymoon is over for Barack Obama - at least, according to Fox. The U.S. president celebrates his first 100 days in office tomorrow - but one network appears to have finally tired of Obamamania. The right-wing Fox network has denied a presidential request to show his prime-time news conference tomorrow night. Instead, the network is sticking with its regularly scheduled programming - in this case, an episode of British actor Tim Roth's drama 'Lie to Me'. It's the first time a broadcast network has refused Mr Obama's request. This will be the third prime-time news conference in Mr Obama's...

At Sunday afternoon's White House press briefing on the administration's efforts to combat and control a potential swine flu outbreak, press secretary Robert Gibbs was joined by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, deputy national security adviser John Brennan, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acting director Dr. Richard Besser. Noticeably absent on stage was a fully confirmed federal health care official: There was no health and human services secretary (Kathleen Sebelius could be confirmed as early as tomorrow), no surgeon general (no new candidate has emerged since Dr. Sanjay Gupta dropped out) and no fully confirmed director of CDC...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A new national poll suggests that President Obama is personally more popular than his policies. The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll, released Monday, also indicates that 63 percent of Americans approve of how Obama is handling his duties as president. One in three questioned in the poll disapprove. The survey, released two days before Obama marks 100 days in the White House, indicates that three in four Americans feel Obama has the personal qualities a president should have. But when asked whether Obama agrees with the respondent on the issues, that number drops to 57 percent. "Americans have...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Campaigning for president, Barack Obama pledged to bring greater transparency and openness to the White House and to use technology to reboot government. One hundred days has not been nearly enough time to achieve his ambitious goals, but academics, technology analysts and nonpartisan groups say the man billed as the first "tech president" is off to a good start. On January 21, his first full day in office, Obama issued a memo informing the heads of agencies and departments that making government "transparent, participatory and collaborative" was a top priority of his administration. The primary vehicle for...

I was going to leave it to the policy wonks to argue about Obama's 100 Days, but then I reconsidered. Act one of the Obama Era, I believe, should also be judged in terms of sheer showmanship, and by that criterion it's been, to use a Variety word, downright boffo. Barack Obama's persona could easily have been buried amid economic upheaval. The unprecedented blizzard of policy initiatives could have canceled each other out and diluted the Obama message. But somehow this hasn't happened. What has emerged from the 100 days is not confusion, but rather a clear presidential presence --...

As he approaches 100 days in office, the President faces a grim reality check. Buddleia has taken over large parts of downtown Gary, Indiana. The city, once home to 300,000 people, is down to just a third of that. There are mile after mile of deserted, derelict and abandoned homes; sub-zero winds blow in off Lake Michigan. "Gary, Indiana is like an eagle poised to fly," mayor Rudy Clay tells me, "All we need is the air of the fiscal stimulus beneath our wings and we'll soar once again and make America proud." The mayor has applied for $400 million...