President Obama Celebrates His Irish Roots

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President Obama landed in Dublin
today as the sixth United States
president to visit Ireland and
celebrate his Irish roots.

"It is heartwarming to be here,"
Obama stated. "People even
arranged for the sun to come
out shortly after I arrived."

Presidents John F. Kennedy,
Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan,
Bill Clinton and George W.
Bush visited the small island
home of 4.5 million people.

His visit will include an
hour-long visit to Moneygall,
in County Offaly, where his
great-great-great grandfather
was born in 1830, and a speech
in Dublin at an outdoor concert
to tens of thousands of people.

Kennedy, Reagan and Clinton are
the most celebrated presidents
to have visited. Kennedy came
first, in 1963, just months
before his assassination, and
spent three days. Reagan visited
another tiny village south of
Moneygall called Ballyporeen to
celebrate his family's ancestry
there.

Clinton helped to bring peace
to Northern Ireland in 1998
through the signing of the Good
Friday Agreement.

Obama's visit is being celebrated
culturally too. There's a new 90-
minute film, Barack Obama's Irish
Roots, which just premiered at
Cannes. There's a painting by
former Miss Ireland Nuala Holloway,
Famine Ship, depicting the type
of vessel that would have brought
Falmouth Kearney, Obama's ancestor,
to America

Source: http://newsblaze.com/story/20110523080037writ.nb/topstory.html

Last Hour Budget Discussions

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Last hour budget discussions
avoided a partial government
shut-down and President Barack
Obama will lay out his plan for
long-term deficit reduction
demanded by conservatives this week.

White House Senior Adviser David
Plouffe was on Sunday talk shows
to reveal Obama's intentions and
deliver the administration's message
that more deals like the one reached
last Friday night with House Speaker
John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada,
will be necessary as Congress and the
administration face more major budget
decisions in the coming months.

Obama's plan would address rising costs
of Medicare, Medicaid, cut defense
spending and raise revenue by ending
tax breaks for the wealthy, Plouffe.

"He does believe that to grow economically,
to be a strong country, we can't sustain
this fiscal situation," Plouffe explained
on CNN. Acknowledging some dissent among
the president's liberal base, Plouffe
continued, "there are some that don't
agree with that, but he believes strongly
that we do have to engage in serious
deficit reduction."

Last week, Obama and congressional leaders
reached an agreement to cut $38.5 billion
in non-military discretionary spending for
the rest of the current fiscal year, ends
on September 30.

The deal came about an hour before funding
authorization for the government was scheduled
to expire, and would have partially shut down
government operations.

Source: http://newsblaze.com/story/20110412045658writ.nb/topstory.html

Published: March 08, 2011

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Conservative legal watch-dog group,
Judicial Watch, filed a lawsuit
Monday against Florida Democratic
congressman Alcee Hastings, accused
him of sexually harassing a one
time female staffer during an
assignment to Vienna, Austria.

"My comments will be limited since
I have not seen the complaint filed
in U.S. District Court by Judicial
Watch. I have seen a draft complaint
prepared by my accuser that contains
numerous inaccuracies and untruths.

"I have never sexually harassed
anyone. In fact, I am insulted that
these ludicrous allegations are being
made against me. When all the facts
are known in this case, the prevailing
sentiment will be, 'How bizarre!'

"I will win this lawsuit. That is a
certainty. In a race with a lie, the
truth always wins. And when the truth
comes to light and the personal
agendas of my accusers are exposed,
I will be vindicated," Alcee Hastings.

Tom Fitton, Judicial Watch president,
during a news conference announced the
lawsuit, stated the alleged harassment
took place for more than two years, and
ended in early 2010 when she left a
staff job with a panel- the Helsinki
Commission, based in Vienna, Austria.

Hastings was chairman of that group at
the time, formally known as the United
States Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.

Source: http://newsblaze.com/story/20110308112342writ.nb/topstory.html

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Reveals His New State Budget

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In an effort to control the
collective bargaining rights of
most public workers, Wisconsin
Governor Scott Walker is scheduled
to reveal his new state budget
on Tuesday.

The spending plan is being displayed
as protesters enter a third week of
demonstrations at the state capitol,
and Democratic law-makers stay away.

The state's 14 Democratic senators
went to neighboring Illinois to stop
a quorum of 20 votes needed for a
budget repair bill that would require
public employees, with the exception
of police and firefighters, to cover
more of their retirement plans and
health care premiums.

The budget repair bill would apply to
the current spending plan, and limit
collective bargaining for wages. Any
pay increases beyond the rate of
inflation would be subject to voter
approval.

"There are plenty of states that do
not have collective bargaining,"
Republican Governor Scott Walker
stated Monday. "We have a right to do
this with the statutes and that's
what we're doing."

Union leaders agreed to pay more for
benefits, but resisted limiting
bargaining rights that the governor
argues is needed for meaningful
fiscal reforms.

The governor defended his budget
repair bill, said the measures are
needed to head off a $3.6 billion
budget gap by 2013 that could result
in thousands of layoffs.

The state faced a suggested Friday
deadline to balance the budget, but
the important date is March 16, per
officials.

Source: http://newsblaze.com/story/20110301054541writ.nb/topstory.html

Egyptian Defense Ministry: 'It Is Time To Go Back To Normal Life'

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The Egyptian defense ministry asked
the youth to return home, saying,
"It is time to go back to normal
life," as protesters assembled for
a ninth day to push the departure
of President Hosni Mubarak forward.

The crowd had families with young
children in Cairo's Tahrir Square
on Wednesday. Some camped out at
Tahrir which means "freedom" or
"liberation" in Arabic for one week.

Mubarak, on Tuesday, said he wouldn't
run for office again in the elections
scheduled for September, but is firm
on remaining in the country to finish
his term.

"My first responsibility now is to
restore the stability and security of
the homeland, to achieve a peaceful
transition of power in an environment
that will protect Egypt and Egyptians
and which will allow for the responsibility
to be given to whoever the people elect in
the forth-coming elections," Mubarakin in a
televised address Tuesday night.

Thousands of protesters exploded in chants
of "Down with Mubarak!" and "The people want
the president to be judged!" following his
announcement.

Some waved shoes in the air, a deep insult
in the Arab world. They vowed to continue
their demonstrations until Mubarak quits now,
not when his term is over.

Source: http://newsblaze.com/story/20110202080440writ.nb/topstory.html

Deficit Panel Proposes Cuts

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A White House commission proposes
to cut the federal budget deficit
by hundreds of billions a year.
Social Security benefits, middle
class tax breaks and defense spending
are of interest.

The initial plan is to stop various
breaks the middle class are getting
like the deduction for home mortgage
interest.

On Social Security, the plan would
slowly raise the retirement age to 68
around 2050, 69 by 2075. It would combine
various cuts to benefits with an increase
in taxes on wealthier people's incomes.
Also, it's looking to curb federal spending
on health care except what's needed for the
recently passed health care plan. This would
be achieved by introducing further changes,
including reform of medical/malpractice law,
and by slowing the growth of the Medicare p
rogram.

A version of the plan would dramatically lower
individual rates to 9%, 15% and 24%.

"Tough choices" are going to be necessary to
tame a deficit that has soared to more than
$1 trillion a year, President Barack Obama
shared with leaders of his own Democratic
Party.

"Before anybody starts shooting down proposals,
we need to listen, gather up all the facts, and
be straight with the American people," Mr. Obama
stated at a press conference Thursday in Seoul,
where he attended a Group of 20 nation's summit.

The commission staff's goal is to curtail growth
of the federal debt by roughly $3.8 trillion by
2020.

"In the end, the president is going to have to
decide whether to incorporate some of this into
the 2012 budget," David Walker, a former U.S.
comptroller general and an advocate for deficit
reduction. "He's going to have to lead, because
if the president doesn't lead on this, it goes
nowhere fast."

Justice's Wife Wants An Apology

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Nearly 20 years after sexual harassment
allegations that almost stopped Clarence
Thomas's Supreme Court nomination, the
justice's wife, Virginia Thomas, telephoned
Anita Hill, his principal accuser, to ask
for an apology.

"I certainly thought the call was inappropriate,"
Ms. Hill explained through a spokesman. "I have
no intention of apologizing because I testified
truthfully about my experience and I stand by
that testimony."

Ms. Hill said she originally assumed the call,
which a spokesman said came 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday,
was a prank. She notified campus security, Brandeis
spokesman Charles Radin, which in a routine procedure
alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

"Good morning, Anita Hill, it's Ginni Thomas," the
message began. "I just wanted to reach across the
air-waves and the years and ask you to consider
something. I would love you to consider an apology
sometime and some full explanation of why you did
what you did with my husband. So give it some thought
and certainly pray about this and come to understand
why you did what you did. Okay have a good day."

Justice Thomas, nominated by President George H.W. Bush,
denied Ms. Hill's allegations and called the hearing
"a high-tech lynching." He accused committee staffers
of digging up "dirt" to block a black conservative
from succeeding the liberal Justice Thurgood Marshall,
the court's first African-American member.

The transcript was first published by ABC News.