Free Republic

Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work. Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world's richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor.

When Evergreen Solar announced it was filing bankruptcy this week, the news sparked a flurry of stories pointing out how the “green” solar panel company had received money from the federal stimulus. The Massachusetts-based company was held up as another example of wasted taxpayers’ dollars under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). But Evergreen Solar may be a better example of just how complicated and difficult it can be to track the massive $821 billion federal stimulus. Because despite the White House and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick both citing Evergreen Solar as receiving stimulus money, the government’s website that...

Three days after the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the national unemployment rate had ticked up from 9.1 percent in May to 9.2 percent in June, President Barack Obama said that the loss of jobs in the public sector is “evidence” that his $830-billion economic stimulus legislation worked. “Now, without relitigating the past, I’m absolutely convinced, and the vast majority of economists are convinced, that the steps we took in the Recovery Act saved millions of people their jobs or created a whole bunch of jobs,” Obama said at his Monday press conference. “And part of the evidence of...

Something about Project Gunrunner (gunwalker, fast and furious) has been bugging me but I just couldn't put my finger on it. This morning when I woke up I remember seeing Project Gunrunner in a bill that was discussed here. The original thread about it was a rumor thread that HR45 had been rolled into the stimulus package. In that thread I scanned the text of H.R.1 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for gun, firearm, etc and came up with a hit. I posted in the thread: "Only time “gun” or “firearm” appears is in the part that give...

The federal government gave California's state government $120.7 billion in the 2009-10 fiscal year to underwrite education, health services, welfare grants and dozens of other programs, a very detailed new report from the state auditor's office reveals. More than a sixth of the money - $23 billion - may have been a one-time injection of funds, however, because it came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, otherwise known as "stimulus." Those funds eased the state's budget crisis, especially in education finance, and their disappearance has exacerbated the current budget deficit. Education was the largest single category of...

I recently visited Saipan (largest island in the "Northern Mariannas Confederation). Saipan was a Japanese "protectorate" from 1918 until 1944. Saipan is a Japanese resort area. Their Main St. looks like Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. There are literally thousands of Japanese (and some Taiwanese, Mainland Chinese and South Koreans) swarming the streets. The aiport for Saipan was named "Aslito Field" when the Japanese held the island. When we captured the Island, the airport was renamed "Isley Field" for a Naval Aviator killed during the battle for Saipan. The airport has been renamed "Aslito Airport". The US government has spent...

With the economic recovery sputtering and the midterm elections approaching, President Obama is considering additional tax credits and tax breaks, additional spending on clean energy and infrastructure — in other words, additional stimulus. But don't call it stimulus! In a recent Politico story about Obama's plans for "emergency fixes to stimulate the economy," the White House press office refused to comment on the scope "other than to say it won't be a 'second stimulus.'" It's a strange situation. The White House believes the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 helped avoid a depression and end a recession, saving or...

ST. LOUIS • Stacey Wright had more than a dozen choices when it came to enrolling three of her children in an elementary school, from charters to magnets to traditional public schools in every corner of the city. She chose Jefferson Elementary School, the brick St. Louis public school across the street. And for that, she may get $900. For the first time, a local organization is offering parents a cash incentive to enroll their children at Jefferson. ~ SNIP ~ Proponents say the cash rewards are no different from offering college scholarships to top achievers at a high school,...

Project: Computational Creativity: Building Model of Machine—Generated Humor • Start Date: June 1, 2009 • Total Award Amount: $712,883 NSF Award in Computer & Information Science & Engineering How the results of this project will benefit society: Computational creativity has been a goal of artificial intelligence since nearly its inception. But while many interesting models have been developed, and some of these have produced interesting creative works, most have been built on foundations that either don’t scale, or don’t easily scope across different domains, or both. This project will create intelligent comedic performance agents and deploy them both on- and...

On the road leading to Dulles Airport outside Washington, DC there's a 10' x 11' road sign touting a runway improvement project funded by the federal stimulus. The project cost nearly $15 million and has created 17 jobs, according to recovery.gov. However, there's another number that caught the eye of ABC News: $10,000. That's how much money the Washington Airports Authority tells ABC News it spent to make and install the sign – a single sign – announcing that the project is "Funded by The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act" and is "Putting America Back to Work." The money for...

Embattled Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano, under investigation by his own agency for financial issues, threw himself in front of a Metra train this morning and was killed, sources said. It happened in an unincorporated area near Crystal Lake just after 8 a.m.

In an ominous sign of a still-spreading political scandal, federal officials are probing potential misuse of U.S. funds by exiled Metra chief Phil Pagano. In a series of developments, U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., who has helped Metra obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants in recent years, called on the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation to "investigate whether any federal funds were misused or spent in any unauthorized way." Mr. Durbin's action came after the Federal Transit Administration — the USDOT unit that actually makes grants to transit operators — put Metra on restricted...

Topic: Economic StimulusTotal Allocated Cost: $862,000,000,000 *   In February 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In early 2009, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Recovery Act's combined spending and tax provisions would cost $787 billion. In early 2010, CBO updated its estimate of the cost of the Recovery Act. It now estimates that the Recovery Act will cost $75 billion more than originally estimated - CBO now anticipates that the 2009 Stimulus will increase deficits by $862 billion over ten years. *Source: Committee for a Reasonable Federal Budget  

Note Video included at article link. SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) - The Internal Revenue Service has launched a new global program to target what it calls “high wealth individuals,” IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said Monday. “Through our new global high wealth operating unit we are taking a unified look at the entire web of business and economic entities controlled by high wealth individuals so we can better assess the risk such arrangements pose to tax compliance,” Shulman said at the National Press Club on Monday. Shulman said the IRS is using “our robust and evolving enforcement program that ensures that everyone pays...

Note: The following text (minus the graph) is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/fact-sheet-high-speed-intercity-passenger-rail-program-cleveland-columbus Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release January 27, 2010 Fact Sheet: High Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program: Cleveland - Columbus - Dayton - Cincinnati Awardees: Ohio Department of Transportation Total Approximate Funding (entire corridor): $400,000,000 Benefiting State: Ohio Miles of Track: New - 250 miles This new corridor connects four major metropolitan areas in Ohio: Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati. This significant route, named the “3C Corridor,” has a length of 250 miles and will serve...

Press Release of Senator CardinCARDIN, MIKULSKI ANNOUNCE ARRA FUNDING FOR GREEN JOBS TRAINING IN MARYLAND Contact: Susan Sullam: 410-962-4436 Wednesday, January 6, 2010 Click here for a PDF Document WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senators Benjamin L. Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski (both D-Md.) today announced the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes funding for job training in renewable and energy efficient industries in Maryland through the Department of Labor (DOL). This $4.6 million ARRA grant has been awarded H-CAP, Inc to provide enhanced skills training to job seekers and entry-level environmental service workers for new and emerging green jobs in...

As you head out over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house for a fine Thanksgiving turkey, consider yourself forewarned that cousin Cathy and Aunt Alice, the family flaming libs, have been armed with Democrat talking points to stoke the fire in the annual Thanksgiving political brawl.   Control issues much?  The downloadable cheat sheet gives a list of potential myths the family conservatives might trot out and supplies the family liberals with "facts" for effective "myth-busting." First off, the term myths, as used by liberals, requires an Inigo Montoya retort: " You keep using that word. I do...

Nine months after President Obama promised that his $789 billion stimulus package would be the most transparent spending bill in history, much of the information available to the public for the Bay Area and the rest of the nation is incomplete or inaccurate. The White House's Recovery Act Web site - www.recovery.gov - shows that $660 million has been awarded to Bay Area transportation projects to create 997 jobs, which amounts to a staggering $661,986 per job. Last week, the site showed that California Congressional Districts 00 and 99 received millions of dollars in stimulus funding even though neither district...

Earlier today, Goldman came out with a harbinger piece on why a second stimulus announcement is essentially a formality. The administration has already promptly forgotten the lessons from the recent elections which were a failure for the Democrats, and a resounding vote against incremental deficit spending. The people spoke, and they will have no more of it. Alas, Obama is now stuck: any action he does to create jobs and to rope consumers back into the clearance sale stores, will be met with increased political disapproval and risk of a major failure at both the mid-term and next presidential elections....

The naming of winning bidders in the broadband stimulus grant/loan program will be delayed by a month or so, according to the heads of the relevant government agencies. The self-imposed deadline had been early November, but NTIA head Larry Strickling said Tuesday: "We're going to take a few more weeks here to get this right...I will not fund a bad application." That came in a Senate Commerce Committee's Communications Subcommittee oversight hearing on the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) and Rural Utilities Services' (RUS) broadband stimulus grant and loan programs under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. The committee heard...

Policymaking: If the stimulus isn't working, perhaps it's because it was largely written by a collection of leftist interest groups called the Apollo Alliance that counts among its directors a co-founder of the Weather Underground.The Labor Department reported Friday that 42 states lost more jobs than they gained in August, and that 14 plus Washington, D.C., reported unemployment rates of 10% or more. Michigan's rate rose to 15.2%, highest in the nation. Nevada, represented by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, is second with 13.2%. California, home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is tied for fourth with Oregon at 12.2%. Clearly,...

A 90-page document released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released on September 24 proposes 77 standards for smart grid development. The report also detailed 14 areas that the government agency will prioritize in order to facilitate development. Utilities, regulators, and vendors have been waiting for this release from the NIST. The report details specific standards that utilities and developers will be expected to meet in their smart grid deployment. The institute will continue working on cybersecurity standards which should be released by the end of the year. The NIST began working on a set of standards...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 — The Apollo Alliance, a national coalition of business, labor, environmental and community leaders, today proposed a comprehensive quick start, clean energy economic recovery strategy to immediately create or retain 650,000 direct green-collar jobs and an additional 1.3 million indirect jobs in communities across the country. The Alliance’s proposed Apollo Economic Recovery Act responds directly to President-elect Barack Obama’s call last week for a “big stimulus package” in January to “jolt” the economy and “lay the groundwork for long- term, sustained economic growth.” “With a new president and Congress taking office in January, we have a tremendous...

Note: The following text is a quote: News Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, August 12, 2009 HHS Deputy Secretary Bill Corr today announced the release of $13.4 million for loan repayments to nurses who agree to practice in facilities with critical shortages and for schools of nursing to provide loans to students who will become nurse faculty. The funds were made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), signed Feb. 17, 2009, by President Obama. “The need for more nurses is great. Over the next decade, nurse retirements and an aging U.S. population, among other factors, will create...

Note: The following text is a quote: News Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, July 28, 2009 Secretary Sebelius Makes Recovery Act Funding Available to Expand Health Professions Training HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the availability of $200 million to support grants, loans, loan repayment, and scholarships to expand the training of health care professionals. The funds are expected to train approximately 8,000 students and credentialed health professionals by the end of fiscal year 2010. Today’s funds are part of the $500 million allotted to HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), to address workforce shortages under the American Recovery...

Georgia’s many doctors, through their professional organization, the Medical Association of Georgia, have gone on record opposing the horrendous health care “reform” legislation now before the House of Representatives, which is being pushed heavily by President Obama. The MAG is opposing this legislation because it would, if implemented, destroy medicine as we know it in America. Georgia’s doctors understand that, with all its flaws, our health care is of the highest quality and is the most technologically advanced of any country in the world; which is why far more people come to the United States for medical care than leave...

In case you missed it, the Obama administration challenged the Congressional Budget Office's ObamaCare cost predictions on Saturday. White House budget director Peter Orszag criticized the CBO after it issued a cost estimate that halted momentum for an independent Medicare panel that Obama wants. Orszag accused the CBO of exaggerating the future costs of the current proposal, which the CBO estimates at nearly $240 biilion over the next ten years. Yeah, because we all know that government programs regularly cost less money than expected, right? Not exactly. Turns out, CBO estimates are kinda like the first quote your mechanic gives...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM Office of Communications & Outreach 400 Maryland Ave., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20202 _______________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release July 24, 2009 PRESIDENT OBAMA, U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION DUNCAN ANNOUNCE NATIONAL COMPETITION TO ADVANCE SCHOOL REFORM Obama Administration Starts $4.35 Billion "Race to the Top" Competition, Pledges a Total of $10 Billion for Reforms President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced that states leading the way on school reform will be eligible to compete for $4.35 billion in Race to the Top competitive grants to support education reform...

House healthcare negotiations dissolved in acrimony on Friday, with Blue Dog Democrats saying they were “lied” to by their Democratic leaders. The seven Blue Dogs on the Energy and Commerce Committee stormed out of a Friday meeting with their committee chairman, Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), saying Waxman had been negotiating in bad faith over a number of provisions Blue Dogs demanded be changed in the stalled healthcare bill. “I’ve been lied to,” Blue Dog Coalition Co-Chairman Charlie Melancon (D-La.) said on Friday. “We have not had legitimate negotiations. “Mr. Waxman has decided to sever discussions with the Blue Dogs who are...

"This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery;" "Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offence, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the majesty of heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings. " "...it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes...

Just how bad IS the new proposed legislation on so-called health-care reform for investors? Well, how much time do you have? Let's start with the price. This thing is going to cost trillions of dollars. And how do you think it's going to get paid for? Investors are going to get taxed. You are going to get taxed. It's that simple. The people without health insurance -- the very people whom this is supposed to help -- are going to get taxed too. And millions of them will be left without insurance (even though they have to pay higher taxes).

Big new taxes. Big new spending. Big new government. This seems to be the proposed cure for the Wall Street-inspired recession. The government now runs major banks and companies, and plans to take control of the American health-care system. And it aims to tax how energy in the United States is used to monitor carbon use. But wait! Recent financial rescue and stimulus plans, together with other new government initiatives, have already led to the largest dollar deficits in American history, projected to be near $2 trillion at fiscal year's end. Before some of these new proposals are even enacted,...

We know the drill: Read the teleprompter for a few minutes, take questions from a few plants in audience, total of twelve or thirteen questions in an hour, filibuster, end to rave reviews from the state run media. White House propaganda e-mail sent to NextGov.com

I cannot believe MY tax money is paying the White House to maintain, compile, and publish these types of communications to voters in each state. There is something about this is that is not right? Sending out Press Releases to voters on my dime is wrong and should be illegal! This is nothing more than a marketing stunt and a continuation of the Democrat Presidential campaign. To: Interested Parties Fr: White House Communications Da: April 22, 2009 Re: The Obama-Biden economic plan: creating jobs, strengthening the economy for Georgia families... Facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, President...

Barack Obama sure likes his symbolism. Who can ever forget the hopeful rising sun coming up over a horizon of stripes, suggesting a new day of change coming? Or the Obama for President seal, complete with a spread-eagled eagle, heart filled with the hope of Obama's first seal? And certainly not the self-adulatory hubris of the Office of the President Elect. Today President Obama unleashed the latest creation of his egomaniacal mind, a stamp that will forever glorify (and transform, I'm sure) all the wasteful projects stemming from his porkulus spending bill, ARRA. President Obama announced today that his administration...

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is a nationwide effort to create jobs, jumpstart growth and transform our economy to compete in the 21st century. The compromise package of $789 billion will create or save 3.5 million jobs over the next two years. Jobs created will be in a range of industries from clean energy to health care, with over 90% in the private sector. 1 The table below outlines the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act compromise package on employment by congressional district.

The American economy is in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime. (snip) Etc, etc, blah blah blah, ad infinitum or ad nauseum (whichever comes first)...

Delegates from across Arkansas participated in a special Arkansas Republican Assembly (ARRA) Endorsement Convention. They considered 9 Republican presidential candidates. Unlike the Republican Party of Arkansas (RPA), who may not endorse a candidate before the primary, the ARRA may endorse candidates. While all the members of the ARRA are Republicans, the ARRA is an independent caucus made up of social, moral, and fiscal Conservative Arkansans who believe in God, family, and country and who work together in County Republican Assemblies in Arkansas to strengthen and to uphold moral and traditional family values and Republican principles and ideals. An endorsement convention...