The hot contest over the legislation also known as “card check” may have cooled for the moment, but labor has rolled out a national TV ad and grass-roots campaign to coincide with the congressional recess, and there is still a chance that a stripped-down version of the bill will pass this year.
But those still attempting to sort out their feelings on the matter will find little assistance in the data bytes being served up by the parties on either side.
“Nearly three-quarters of the public - 73 percent - support the Employee Free Choice Act,” crows the AFL-CIO on its website.
• “Seventy-four percent of voters oppose the Employee Free Choice Act,” concludes research cited by the pro-business Coalition for a Democratic Workplace.
ATLANTA — Tom Glavine may retire if his sore left shoulder doesn’t improve in two weeks. Glavine was told Tuesday he must rest for at least two weeks after inflammation was found in his left rotator cuff. The 43-year-old had an MRI and was examined by Dr. James Andrews, who advised treatment and rest. Glavine said he’s tired of rehabbing after elbow and shoulder surgery last August. He’s willing to give the shoulder two weeks, but not much longer. “I’m willing to put in a little more time but I’m not willing to put in another six weeks or eight weeks because by then, you know what, I’m going to have to start all over again and I’m not interested in doing that,” he said.
The bad news for Mr. Obama is that without making major policy concessions that would alienate his own base, there is probably little he can do to win the support of either regular Republicans or independent Republicans. The good news for Mr. Obama is that because independent Democrats outnumber independent Republicans by about the same 5 to 4 ratio that regular Democrats outnumber regular Republicans, he has a good chance of maintaining a positive net approval rating if he continues to pursue policies that are supported by both regular Democrats and independent Democrats.
Billionaire real-estate investor Donald Trump says that banks are “laughing” at loan applicants who come in for a mortgage - no matter how good their credit rating is - even though the federal government has completely recapitalized the financial industry.
Banks and Wall Street received “billions and billions” of dollars and this made them solvent once again, yet some now scurry to pay back the funds right away, said Trump. These financial institutions instead should lend to boost the economy, said Trump.
“The banks are not lending money. There’s no money out there, no matter how strong you are, no matter how good your deal is, if you go to a bank today they virtually laugh at you if you’re asking for money. They don’t have money or they’re hoarding money,” Trump told CNBC.
Just one-out-of-three voters (34%) now believe global warming is caused by human activity, the lowest finding yet in Rasmussen Reports national surveying. However, a plurality (48%) of the Political Class believes humans are to blame.
Forty-eight percent (48%) of all likely voters attribute climate change to long-term planetary trends, while seven percent (7%) blame some other reason. Eleven percent (11%) aren’t sure.
These numbers reflect a reversal from a year ago when 47% blamed human activity while 34% said long-term planetary trends.
Most Democrats (51%) still say humans are to blame for global warming, the position taken by former Vice President Al Gore and other climate change activists. But 66% of Republicans and 47% of adults not affiliated with either party disagree.
Thirty-one percent (31%) of Texas voters say that their state has the right to secede from the United States and form an independent country.
However, the latest Rasmussen Reports poll in the state finds that if the matter was put to a vote, it wouldn’t even be close. Three-fourths (75%) of Lone Star State voters would opt to remain in the United States. Only 18% would vote to secede, and seven percent (7%) are not sure what they’d choose.
Microchips in pills could soon allow doctors to find out whether a patient has taken their medication.
The digestible sensors, just 1mm wide, would mean GPs and surgeons could monitor patients outside the hospital or surgery.
Developers say the technology could be particularly useful for psychiatric or elderly patients who rely on a complicated regime of drugs - and are at risk if they miss a dose or take it at the wrong time.
With his working-class roots (his father was a truck driver) and unorthodox conservatism (he’d just as quickly bash pharmaceutical companies as praise them), Pawlenty seems uniquely suited to appeal to independent voters, who in recent years have favored Democrats. It’s little wonder that he’s said to be seriously considering a run for the White House in 2012.
Which is why Pawlenty is about to come to a political crossroads. In a matter of weeks, the Minnesota Supreme Court will almost certainly uphold a three-judge panel’s determination that Al Franken beat Norm Coleman in last November’s U.S. Senate race by 312 votes. Coleman has indicated that he will likely challenge the expected ruling in federal court. And Pawlenty, as Minnesota’s governor, will face a decision: Does he certify Franken’s election and fill Minnesota’s second Senate seat? Or does he refuse to sign Franken’s certificate of election, without which the Senate refuses to seat him, until Coleman has fought and–according to the predictions of most legal minds not in Coleman’s direct employ–inevitably lost his case in the federal courts?
With Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle’s (R) withdrawal from the race last week, state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine (R) leads seven other potential GOP primary candidates in a new Strategic Vision poll (April 17-19, 800 LV, +/- 3%) of the Georgia gubernatorial race. Attorney General Thurbert Baker (D) leads two others in a potential Democratic primary race.
GOP Primary
John Oxendine 33
Karen Handel 14
Jack Kingston 11
Lynn Westmoreland 7
4 others total 10
Und 25
Dem Primary
Thurbert Baker 41
David Poythress 8
Dubose Porter 5
Und 46
During the protracted presidential campaign of 2008, the media analysis of Barack Obama focused almost exclusively on his communication skills and his ability to inspire hope in millions of Americans. Lost in this constant fawning was any real discussion of the real vision of Obama, his party or of liberals in general - the very people who were the rocket fuel behind his meteoric rise to power.
Created in 2004 by Congress, the DCOSP provides disadvantaged students living in the nation’s capital tuition scholarships to attend private school. The federal legislation creating the program required a rigorous evaluation to determine the program’s impact on participating children’s education. This included a randomized-experiment trial comparing the outcomes of a treatment group (students who were offered scholarships through a lottery) and a control group (students who applied but were not offered vouchers through the lottery).
On April 3, the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences released the results of the third-year evaluation of the program.[2] Importantly, the evaluation found a statistically significant positive effect for the treatment group in reading. Specifically, students who had been offered vouchers were performing at statistically higher levels in reading, after approximately three months of additional learning. The report also found that families who had been offered a voucher were more satisfied with their children’s school and safety.
Sixty percent (60%) of Americans say the federal government has too much power and too much money, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Just nine percent (9%) say the government has too little power and money. Twenty-four percent (24%) believe the government has about the right amount of both.
Not surprisingly, the Political Class sees things a lot differently. While 85% of Mainstream Americans say the government has too much power and money, just two percent (2%) of the Political Class agree. Nearly one-our-of-four members (24%) of the Political Class, in fact, believe the government has too little money and power, but 68% say it has about the right amount of each.
Charter schooling continues to grow apace. The nation’s four-thousand-plus charter schools now enroll more than a million students and are approaching (or have exceeded) traditional district enrollment in communities like Dayton, Ohio; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Washington, D.C. Many of the most successful charter school providers are embarking on ambitious growth plans; most notably, the famed KIPP Academies hope to nearly double the number of their schools in the next five years, from fifty-seven to roughly one hundred. The climate for expansion seems hospitable: President Obama has called for doubling federal support for charter school facilities. But what will it take for charter schooling to succeed at scale?
On March 19, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 328 to 93 to pass H.R. 1586, which imposes a 90% income tax on bonuses earned by employees who work at a company that received an aggregate of $5 billion in federal TARP bailout funds, including specifically Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Observers have noted that the bill is a direct result of bonuses awarded by bailout recipient American International Group (AIG), an insurance company now in something akin to bankruptcy trusteeship. Critics of the bill have raised policy concerns as well as suggestions that the bill may violate the constitutional prohibition on Bills of Attainder and other restrictions on legislation. Because the purpose of the legislation is to strip a specified group of people of their property, even though other nonpunitive options are available, and because the evidence suggests a punitive motive, the bill could be found unconstitutional as a bill of attainder.
An investment company run by the head of the Obama administration’s auto task force has been accused of paying more than $1 million to an aide to New York’s former comptroller in a bid to win a lucrative deal with the state pension fund.
Steven Rattner was an executive at the Quadrangle Group, a private equity firm, until he left this year to lead President Barack Obama’s efforts to fix the U.S. auto industry. The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported that Rattner met with two now-indicted men to try to win
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. tech sector’s road to recovery may take a bit longer than expected, if mixed results reports from two of the largest players are a guide.
Intel Corp and Google Inc handily beat Wall Street’s earnings expectations for the first three months of the year. But the cautious tone that permeated comments from executives at both companies left investors feeling cold.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Americans rate Earth Day as at least somewhat important, including 28% for whom it is Very Important. Women (64%) deem the day more important than men (50%). Thirty-five percent (35%) of all adults say the day is not very or not at all important.
Yet while most Americans value Earth Day, just 21% plan to do something special to celebrate Earth Day. Sixty-eight percent (68%) have no such plans. Younger adults are more likely to celebrate it than older Americans.
The Earth Day findings are largely unchanged from a survey a year ago.
Most (51%) adults are aware that Earth Day takes place in April, although one third (34%) aren’t sure when it is. Seven percent (7%) thought it was in July, five percent (5%) thought October and four percent (4%) said January.
Campaign fundraising reports for the first three months of 2009 were due at the Federal Election Commission yesterday.
This is one of the Fix’s favorite parts of the year (yes, we are well aware of how lame that is) — combing through stacks of numbers to sort out who won, who lost and who isn’t even really trying.
A caveat: We reserve the right to revise and extend these thoughts over the next few days. Have suggestions of who we missed? The comments section is open for business.
HEROES
Joe Sestak: We had heard rumors that the Pennsylvania House Democrat was making a major fundraising push in the first quarter to position himself for a potential race for Senate. Mission accomplished. Sestak raised $550,000 between Jan. 1 and March 31 and now is sitting on a whopping $3.3 million war chest. (Honorary mention to Rep. Allyson Schwartz, who, like Sestak, is reconsidering a Senate bid in Pennsylvania; she raised just short of $400,000 and has more than $2 million on hand.)
Mitt Romney: Like him or hate him, you have got to give the former Massachusetts governor his due — he can raise money with the best of them. Romney collected $300,000 for his Free and Strong America PAC in March, bringing his total fundraising for the organization to more than $870,000 for the year. Romney will, without doubt, set the pace for the 2012 Republican presidential field — the standard by which all cash-collection for GOPers will be measured.
