Obama now blames poor job numbers on congressional inaction. Wait! His party runs Congress

Just a few minor things to catch up on for the weekend now that the Fundraiser-in-Chief has gone on another vacation (Don't worry though. White House chef Sam Kass went along, so the first family need not eat ordinary human food.)
-- The Congressional Budget Office says the 2010 federal deficit will be in excess of $1.3 trillion, as in $1,000,000,000,000+. (BTW, the next level we'll be talking about out of Washington is quadrillion, which has fifteen 0's.)

-- Despite Vice President Joe Biden's April boast that administration stimulus spending would spur the economy to add a half-million jobs a month by now, initial unemployment claims jumped a half-million last week, the worst since last November, as national unemployment remains at 9.5% and the economy sheds 131,000 more jobs.

-- But the economy's going great at the Democratic National Committee, which reports collecting $11.5 million from donors in July on top of the $53.8 million already taken in from various sources this year. The president just devoted three workdays across five states to rake in several more millions for his party.
-- But before leaving for his ninth presidential vacation, 10 days at a.......secluded estate on Martha's Vineyard, Obama devoted four minutes in the White House driveway to a special statement on the latest disappointing jobs numbers. (Full text, as usual, can be read on the jump, along with a brief reaction from the Republican National Committee chairman.)

No questions allowed because the president didn't want to explain why despite the administration's announced Recovery Summer Program, the jobs numbers have started going backward again after 19 months of promises and $787 billion in alleged stimulation spending. Because, faced with the uncertainty of the economy and the certainty of new taxes after Nov. 2, employers are holding back on hiring.

Full Story L.A Times

Obama makes recess appointment; picks Dr. Donald Berwick “ We must redistribute wealth” to run Medicare and Medicaid Services

WASHINGTON -- President Obama Wednesday bypassed the Senate and announced the recess appointment Dr. Donald Berwick to be the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The move drew fire from Republicans who had planned to fight his nomination. Obama said the job had to be filled.

"It's unfortunate that at a time when our nation is facing enormous challenges, many in Congress have decided to delay critical nominations for political purposes," Obama said.

The New York-born pediatrician is clinical professor of pediatrics and health care policy in the Department of Pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School. He is well regarded by medical groups, but conservatives say his views are "radical."

Under the recess appointment, Berwick will avoid the Senate nomination process and he will serve until the end of the year, when the congressional term expires.

"Democrats held no hearing, allowed no public testimony, and called no votes on this nomination," said Republican Study Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.).

"In short, they did everything to hide Dr. Berwick's radical views and made absolutely no effort to follow the regular, established process for confirming a presidential nomination. Clearly, they did not want Berwick's adamant support for rationing health care debated in the light of day."

Berwick supporters scoffed at GOP complaints and accused them of stonewalling.

"Republican lockstep stalling of Don's nomination was a case study in cynicism and one awful example of how not to govern," said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.). "Republicans screamed that these federal programs were in trouble, then tried to deny the Administration the capable guy the President had chosen to oversee them."
Nydailynews

Death Threats Against Bush at Protests Ignored for Years

Obama said of President Bush's First meeting, the president's demeanor turned downright frightening

Obama's account of the meeting in his second memoir, "The Audacity of Hope.

President Bush and President-elect Barack Obama are probably hoping their meeting Monday goes better than their first get-together, which left a bad taste in the mouths of both men.

Four years ago, Obama and other newly elected members of the Senate were invited to the White House for a breakfast meeting with Bush, who pulled the young Chicagoan aside.

"Obama!" Bush exclaimed, according to Obama's account of the meeting in his second memoir, "The Audacity of Hope." "Come here and meet Laura. Laura, you remember Obama. We saw him on TV during election night. Beautiful family. And that wife of yours -- that's one impressive lady."

The two men shook hands and then, according to Obama, Bush turned to an aide, "who squirted a big dollop of hand sanitizer in the president's hand."

Bush then offered some to Obama, who recalled: "Not wanting to seem unhygienic, I took a squirt."

The president then led Obama off to one side of the room, where Bush said: "I hope you don't mind me giving you a piece of advice."

"Not at all, Mr. President," Obama told the commander-in-chief.

"You've got a bright future," Bush said presciently. "Very bright. But I've been in this town awhile and, let me tell you, it can be tough. When you get a lot of attention like you've been getting, people start gunnin' for ya. And it won't necessarily just be coming from my side, you understand. From yours, too. Everybody'll be waiting for you to slip, know what I mean? So watch yourself."

Bush then noted that he and Obama had something in common.

"We both had to debate Alan Keyes," the president said. "That guy's a piece of work, isn't he?"

Obama laughed and even "put my arm around his shoulder as we talked," he recalled, although he added the gesture "might have made many of my friends, not to mention the Secret Service agents in the room, more than a little uneasy."

Despite this display of bonhomie, Obama said the president's demeanor turned downright frightening when he laid out his agenda to the freshly minted lawmakers.

"Suddenly it felt as if somebody in a back room had flipped a switch," Obama wrote. "The president's eyes became fixed; his voice took on the agitated, rapid tone of someone neither accustomed to nor welcoming interruption; his easy affability was replaced by an almost messianic certainty. As I watched my mostly Republican Senate colleagues hang on his every word, I was reminded of the dangerous isolation that power can bring, and appreciated the Founders' wisdom in designating a system to keep power in check."

When I quoted from this passage to Bush during an Oval Office interview, the president seemed irritated to learn he had been taken to task by the senator he once counseled.

I thought I was actually showing some kindness," Bush said indignantly. "And out of that he came with this belief?"

The president added with a bit of a scowl: "He doesn't know me very well."