Obama's Schedule May 11

Obama has a day full of meetings, no public announcements or speeches.
At 11:20 am eastern, Obama meets with senior advisors, then he'll have lunch with Joe Biden. Then Obama and Biden meet with Hillary at 1:25 pm, and then that group meets with Karl Eikenberry at 1:45 pm.
At 2:15, Obama meets with Sen. Patrick Leahy, who chairs the judicial committee, so the meeting probably has to do with Kagan's nomination. Leahy will be on This Week on Sunday.
At 4:30 pm, Obama and Biden meet with Stanley McChrystal and Robert Gates.

Obama's getting ready for his meeting with Hamid Karzai on Wednesday.

Schumer and Snowe's Affordability Amendment

Schumer and Snowe's affordability amendment to the health care bill says that if you can't find insurance that is 8% or lower of your income, you don't have to buy it.

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Leahy Press Conference on Sotomayor

Sessions and Leahy Debate Sotomayor on Meet the Press

Republicans just don't get it.
And Rush Limbaugh is ruining politics, or rather the media is ruining politics by giving him a platform. I guess maybe it's republicans who are ruining politics choosing Rush as their guy. Who shares his views? Very very few. Many people just listen to him because they love to hate him. I'm tired of seeing clips of Limbaugh. His opinion is worthless.
Republicans really lost this battle. Sotomayor has enough votes to be confirmed. They should've just taken the higher road. Calling Sotomayor a racist is just sickening to me.
Jeff Sessions agrees with Rush. He just wouldn't use the word "racist." Watch that in the first clip. David Gregory didn't catch what Sessions meant. He kept asking the question over and over.
Sessions doesn't get what empathy means. That word really threw everyone for a loop. It simply means someone other than a white guy will be making important decisions on behalf of the nation. In order to achieve justice and fairness, you need to have diverse people representing. This "justice is blind" stuff is crap. We all know justice isn't blind. Blind justice is THE IDEAL but until we're ALL EQUAL, justice can't be equal. Empathy is an advantage on the court, not a negative, because only empathy aspires to fairness. I think Obama realizes that most Americans get it. 

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Patrick Leahy Tackles Cheney

Dick Cheney, on a tour of defense, says he's a hero, fighting the Obama administration to save the nation. Cheney is a Tea Partier.

Obama and Sen. Patrick Leahy also discussed the next Supreme Court judge. Leahy says Obama should nominate someone soon.

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John McCain Says Torture and Torture Prosecutions Wrong

Torture is wrong and has made it easier for terrorists to recruit, McCain said.
But you can't prosecute people for bad legal advice. I agree with McCain, though I'd like to see more details on the role of Cheney and the rest of the higher ups.
I know many people are arguing that it's not just bad advice, it was lawbreaking advice but there again, Bush's lawyers made it legal. They were horribly wrong about most things. But we need to forget about the idea of prosecutions. All of Congress was responsible. Not just Bush-Cheney and the republicans. Americans are responsible too. We elected Bush-twice. We knew the Bush administration was lying through its teeth but we were a fearful nation then.

Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont wants a truth commission, of which Obama is opposed:

Obama, Douglas and Leahy Talk Stimulus

This stimulus WILL pass. Except for a few straggly conservative republicans, I've got to think that most of congress has to realize that the economy is seriously tanking and it's tanking fast.
Here's what Jim Douglas and Obama had to say today:

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AND GOVERNOR JIM DOUGLAS OF VERMONT
BEFORE MEETING
TO DISCUSS THE AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT PLAN
Oval Office, The White House
February 2, 2009

GOVERNOR DOUGLAS: Well, Mr. President, thank you for your time today. Thank you for your leadership on matters of great importance to the American people. You were gracious in reaching out to the governors of our country in December before you took office. We had an opportunity at that time to discuss the economic crisis, the fiscal crisis that's confronting most of our states. And we indicated that we needed some assistance from the federal government to stimulate the economy, to create jobs, to help us balance our budgets and preserve essential programs for the American people and avoid the need to raise taxes at the state level.

The House of Representatives has passed a bill, and we look forward to working with your administration, with the senators and members of the House to fashion a piece of legislation that fulfills the goals that we have articulated.

I know there are some differences of opinion on some of the elements. And if I were writing it, it might be a little different. If you were writing it, it might be a little different. But the essence of a recovery package is essential to get our nation's economy moving.

And it's not just a matter of the bigger picture or numbers, it's really quite personal, in many cases. On my floor alone in the office building where I work, four relatives of employees have lost their jobs over the last couple of weeks. So this is a serious matter. It's the kind of recession that is deep, that appears to be long, and the only way we're going to get the country moving again is a partnership between the states and the federal government.

So we appreciate your hard work and look forward to coming to some conclusion in the very near future so we can get America moving again.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I want to thank Governor Douglas for being here. We met early on during the transition period with all of the governors from across the country, and with very few exceptions, I heard from Republicans and Democrats the need for action -- and swift action -- and that's what we've been trying to do in moving this package forward.

And nobody understands this better than governors and mayors and county officials who are seeing the devastating effects on the ground of this contraction in the economy. People are being laid off, and that means that governors like Jim are having to not only deal with declining revenue, but increased social services to provide support for people who are unemployed as they're seeking work.

And the recovery package that we are moving forward is designed to provide states relief, to make sure that people who are laid off from their jobs are still able to get unemployment insurance, are still able to get health care, and that we are putting in place the infrastructure of rebuilding roads, bridges, waterways, other projects at the state levels that allow us to put people back to work. And we want to create or save 3 million jobs, and we want to put the investments in place that are going to ensure long-term economic growth.

So, as Jim indicated, there are still some differences between Democrats and Republicans on the Hill, between the White House and some of the products that's been discussed on the Hill. But what we can't do is let very modest differences get in the way of the overall package moving forward swiftly.

And so I'm very gratified that Governor Douglas, along with many governors from across the country, are going to be weighing in in these critical next few days, and we hope to be able to get a bill to you in the next couple of weeks so we can put America back to work and start digging ourselves out of this deep hole that we're in.

Douglas and Patrick Leahy talk about the stimulus:

Holder Confirmed, Daschle? Gregg Tuesday

Of the last four attorneys general, Eric Holder had the biggest "aye" vote. Holder is the first black attorney general and the only black cabinet member, other than Obama, of course. He's also one more addition to Obama's basketball playing cabinet.
Tomorrow, Obama will announce Judd Gregg as commerce secretary, which means New Hampshire will have a new republican senator.

Obama still supports Tom Daschle, who apologized today for not paying his taxes.