• Obama repeatedly said the plan "will save or create up to 4 million jobs." Obama downgraded that estimate to 3.5 million once the House and Senate agreed on a less-expensive compromise bill. The projections come from at least three economists, but all say there is great uncertainty in their estimates.
  
  
• Republican House members claimed their substitute legislation tops that, creating "6.2 million jobs." But their calculation is even more fraught with uncertainty and is not backed up by independent economists.
  
  
• Obama said the bill doesn't contain "a single earmark." But whether one calls them "earmarks" or not, the Senate certainly added items that will benefit particular states. For example: $50 million for programs under the California-Bay Delta Act and $500 million for National Institutes of Health facilities in Bethesda, Md.
  
  
• Obama claims that funds in the bill will result in "every American" having health records computerized "within five years." But experts doubt it can be done that quickly.
  
  
• The president also says electronic health records will save billions of dollars. But the Congressional Budget Office says that even a decade of expected savings are unlikely to pay back the government what the government will spend on health IT.
  
  
• The president said the bill will modernize the nation's electricity grid, reducing consumption by 2 percent to 4 percent. That's optimistic. Industry reports say that a new grid could reduce energy consumption by up to 4 percent, but not until 2030 and at a cost much greater than the stimulus bill would cover.
  

Video: Useful idiot makes himself useful to Hamas

No surprise. He’s been making himself useful to them for years, from accusing Israel of apartheid to lying about the history of U.S. policy towards Hamas to insisting on national television that the group can be trusted to literally embracing their scumbag leadership and finally to blithely asserting here that Hamas’s leaders “want peace,” based on what evidence I can scarcely imagine. I wish he’d have elaborated on his point about the F-16s, though. I’m curious to know whether he thinks the solution there is to stop selling arms to Israel or to start selling arms to Hamas.

Lieberman opposes public plan in ObamaCare

BBC: US deliberately kept Britain in the dark over Uighurs, Bermuda

It’s a highly unusual move, all right.  I don’t recall the last time an ally sent trained terrorists into a territory for which the other ally had responsibility for security without their permission.  Why?  Because it hasn’t ever happened before now.

So, to our British friends: how does it feel to have Obama make security decisions about your territory without bothering to consult you at all?  The liberal press in the UK used to deride Tony Blair as George Bush’s poodle; what does that make Gordon Brown in relation to Barack Obama?  It’s a good thing that arrogant Bushisn’t running things in Washington any more, huh?

Progressive Americans — the kind who voted for President Obama — champion progress, change and new eras of, well, everything as hallmarks of their success.

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Now it can be told: Obama has “Muslim roots”

During a conference call in preparation for President Obama’s trip to Cairo, Egypt, where he will address the Muslim world, deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Denis McDonough said “the President himself experienced Islam on three continents before he was able to — or before he’s been able to visit, really, the heart of the Islamic world — you know, growing up in Indonesia, having a Muslim father — obviously Muslim Americans (are) a key part of Illinois and Chicago.”…

Since the election, however, with the threat of the rumors at least somewhat abated, the White House has been increasingly forthcoming about the president’s roots. Especially when reaching out to the Muslim world.

Oh my: Sotomayor made nearly identical “wise Latina” comment in 1994, too

The opportunity on Sotomayor, part II

Court sides with WH on Bagram detainees, temporarily

The Massachussetts version of healthcare reform has been an abject failure, as judged by everyone from Reason to the Boston Globe. That would explain the New York Times report that a split had developed between Kennedy and Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the Finance Committee, who is preparing his own bill. Baucus and Kennedy later issued a joint statement Saturday, saying they intend to cooperate so their committees pass similar bills. Kennedy’s bill serves the function of making whatever bill Baucus produces — which will likely be similar to Kennedy’s — seem more moderate by comparison.

Blaming Obama for the night on Broadway?

Why use Gulfstream planes at all?  Why not just use Air Force One, which would likely have kept at least one of the other planes on the ground, instead?  Perhaps the White House wanted to emphasize the non-official nature of the visit; I suspect they didn’t want AF1 to return to New York City’s skies so soon after the Scare Force One fiasco.  However, AF1 is built to keep the President in close touch with the government in times of crisis.  It exists for precisely that reason, and is meticulously maintained to ensure the safest possible flight.

But the real foolishness was the Gulfstream and helicopters for the media.  Are we to believe that the national news media has no reporters in New York City?  The BIg Apple isn’t exactly the Badlands of the Dakotas, or the remote peaks of the Rockies, in terms of media saturation.  It looks like Obama wanted to make this a media event and didn’t mind using three planeloads of taxpayer money to stage it.

And can anyone calculate the carbon footprint of three Gulfstream jets, three helicopters, and all the stalled traffic in New York City?  I’d say that it reaches Goracle-like levels.

Who pressured Justice to drop case against voter intimidation in Philly?

Politicization of Justice, part II