THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release December 3, 2009
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT THE NATIONAL CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING CEREMONY
The Ellipse
5:25 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Merry Christmas, Happy [...]
Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) agreed that there is “a lot of merit” to complaints about the raid on long-term reserves. But, he said, “Where is there a source of income big enough to fill the [$520 million] hole? There isn’t any. [...]
WASHINGTON--A contingent of Illinois political officials and activists with ties to President Obama and wife Michelle attended a holiday party at the White House on Thursday, featuring new, tighter security measures installed after wannabe reality TV show stars crashed a Nov. 24 state dinner.
One of my spies told me [...]
Not only does Al Gore think the Copenhagen climate change convene, he's in disbelief about Climategate, the Times of London tells us. 
This is not an onion piece. And I do not think I can make up something this funny.
From The Telegraph
This just in. The Institute for Scriptural Geology in Waco, Texas, today offered “unswerving support and fervent prayers” for the scientists caught up in Climategate. Professor Elmer [...]
What is Drinking with Bob’s take on the Troop buildup in Afghanistan?????
Click here to view the embedded video.
Share and Enjoy: [...]
The St Louis Atheletica started a Twitter contest to win free season tickets and be the official Twitterer for the Teams twitter account @TheoJoanies. And I was one of the top 10 finalists. Woo Hoo.
So bare in mind I will be posting more about [...]
There's a Springfield twitterer, whom I don't follow and doesn't follow me, but is a mutual follower with some twits I follow and who follow me, that I've come to figure out is two degrees of separation from me. This would be by virtue of her job and my cousin' [...]
From the Sun-Times Newsgroup, the Southtown Star.
Video. ‘April, Calm Down’: Robert Gibbs Compares Reporter to Bratty KidYou have done well so far in airing the current problems that physicians have with Medicare (& Medicaid) reimbursements. One of your surgeon callers adequately described that an in-house level III consult is worth $70 (of which overhead & taxes take ?), and few physicians [...]
The city is moving ahead with its next plan to privatize taxpayer-owned property. Proposals are due next Friday, December 11th, from firms interested in leasing the city's three garbage sorting centers, which were byproducts of one of the most striking and costly public policy flops of the mayor's 20-year [...]
Anyone who's been following the City of Chicago's budgeting process knows that neither the public nor elected officials have had much substantive input into each year's spending. But up in Chicago's 49th Ward, Ald. Joe Moore and some of his constituents are testing out a new process -- "participatory budgeting" -- at [...]
Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman is floating a few ideas for how to improve teacher quality. He says fewer third year teachers should be granted tenure...WBEZ-FM I understand the need for tenure at colleges and universities where it serves as bulwark for intellectual freedom. Academics should be free to [...]
Below are our daily picks from the Illinois blogosphere and media at large:
Putting Wage Theft On The Map
Partnering with the University of Illinois at Chicago, Arise Chicago has created a map of local employers accused of wage theft.
Major Changes
The Tribune explains the new state [...]
The White House “Jobs Summit” is neither. First, for those of the liberal persuasion, the president has ruled out another federal stimulus bill to boost government job growth, which is good because we can’t afford it.
Second, for those of us who believe the only way to create real wealth is [...]
[Article syndicated from TomRoeser.com. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of IR.]
by Tom Roeser
Lucky Sperm Club.
Help me to build a list of members of The Lucky Sperm Club-politicians who wouldn't be in office or even considered as candidates if they hadn't been conceived by the right male forebears. Any number [...]
There’s no good way to tell this story. Two young guys allegedly in a dispute over in a girl, one allegedly loses it and runs the other one over with a car. A stolen car.
And the 16-year-old victim is dead.
A Maine East High School student [...]
by Russ Stewart
Add this word to Chicago’s political lexicon: Feigenholtzed. It’s a verb describing a stupid, simplistic, stereotypical campaign, which culminates in an embarrassing and resounding defeat.
Add this word to the North Shore’s political lexicon: Footliked. It’s [...]
Although he is approaching 70, Bob Dylan continues to surprise. He just released Generational businesses were dealt a blow by the US House today when by a 225 to 200 vote, when a majority of our Congressional members decided it would be best to tax families passing the benefits of their hard work onto their children. While denying the next generation up [...]
The essence of style is avoidance. We learn not to attempt what we know we cannot do well. Authors who can’t write dialogue concoct an aesthetic that has no use for it—and hope critics call them daring and experimental. Reporters allowed to pick and choose among topics reject perfectly [...]
Here's the latest from the Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate.
Alexi Hits The Airwaves
State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is going up with his first television ad of the season, which focuses on his involvement in the fight this past spring to protect the 122-year-old, Chicago-based clothier Hartmarx Inc. from liquidation. (You can find [...]
by Mark Silva
While President Obama seeks "a new era of engagement'' with the rest of the world, Americans are showing less interest in reaching outward than they have in a long time.
"For the first time in [...]
Note to all -- it does matter what party you identify with in primaries. Those who say they've jumped to another party to help a primary candidate, or to defeat another primary candidate for the general election should be aware: doing favors outside your political party' [...]
by Mark Silva
"We've seen significant turnaround in the economy,'' President Barack Obama said today. "Our economy was in a freefall.''
Yet, with unemployment running at over 10 percent, the White House opened a "jobs-summit'' today.
"Today, our economy is growing again for the first time in a year,'' the president said' [...]
(Second in a series. First is here.)
As I said to Ald. Moore of Chicago's 49th Ward and Sarah, one of the group leaders: when one is good at something they make it look easy. Partly I suppose, that after 6 or 7 previous neighborhood assembly meetings, you would get good [...]
A reader sends in the following pic:
State lawmakers aren't the only Illinois residents facing loads of debt. According to new research released this week by the Project on Student Debt, last year's crop of college graduates here in Illinois borrowed mightily before receiving their diplomas.
On average, local students in the 2008 class left school with $
On the last day of withdrawing from the February 2, 2019 Republican primary, 14th CD candidate Jim Purcell dropped out of that district's 5-way race, leaving Ethan Hastert, Mark Vargas, Randy Hultgren and Jeff Dankelfsen.
The Tribune makes a decent stab at addressing ClimateGate, acknowledging the suspect nature of the revealed emails from scientists at the center of the supposed UN IPCC consensus that global warming is man-made.by Mark Silva
Desiree Rogers came to Washington touting "the Obama brand.''
Now it's Rogers' brand of social management that some are questioning, with the White House Social Secretary at the center of congressional subpoena talk that in past times has been reserved for the likes of political architects" [...]
As he makes his rounds on the gubernatorial campaign trail, State Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) loves to tout his "executive experience" as former Gov. Jim Edgar's chief of staff. And there's no accomplishment he loves to brag about more than his experience helping the former governor turn "a mountain of debt" into [...]
As of yesterday, some section editors at all of (A.H. Belo Corp) papers, including The (Dallas Morning) News, will now report directly to (senior vice president of sales Cyndy) Carr's team of sales managers, now referred to as general managers. In short, those who sell ads for A.H. Belo's products [...]
Someone needs to tell the White House what the American public thinks about global warming as the President prepares to fly over to Copenhagen and promote his base's religious views on the environment. 52% of Americans is skeptical of glabal warming science, a devastating development for radical leftists' agenda. Rasmussen Reports today:
But just [...]
Ratings for President Obama's Afghanistan speech on cable outlets--during the actual address at 8:02-8:36 PM on Tuesday. FOX took the lead in the overall ratings and in the 25-54 age group, according to Nielsen ratings.
Presidential Address (8:02-8:36 PM ET) - P2+ and A25-54
FOX: 4,554,000 in P2+ (1,252,000 in [...]
WASHINGTON--Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Thursday that the agents who let Tareq and Michaele Salahi crash the Nov. 24 Obama state dinner have been placed on leave.
Sullivan told the committee procedures "were not followed at the initial checkpoint...in our line" [...]
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the First Lady
___________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release December 2, 2009
REMARKS BY THE FIRST LADY
AT HOLIDAY PRESS PREVIEW
Grand Foyer
12:01 P.M. EST
MRS. OBAMA: Hello. Good afternoon. Welcome to the White House and Happy Holidays! Thanks to all of you for joining us here today as we preview how [...]
The White House is holding a jobs summit today, which is essentially going to be only a dog and pony show--all pageantry, no results. For instance, the US Chamber of Commerce, which happens to be one of the biggest critics of President Obama's economic policies, won't be' [...]
There is no assurance that Congress will act on it quickly, but a bill extending unemployment benefits through 2010 has now been introduced in the U.S. House. Yesterday, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), the chief House sponsor of the jobless insurance extension signed into law last month, officially offered H.R. 4183. If approved this [...]
[...]
Just hours befor the White House "dog and pony show" jobs summit, House Republicans held their own meeting, led by Minority Leader John Boehner, a former small businessman. 
[...]
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