La. Gov. Jindal demands U.S. government, BP uphold pledges to avert enviromental disaster

As a massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico threatened the U.S. coastline Friday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) expressed alarm that prevention efforts so far have been ineffective, and he demanded that the federal government and oil giant BP uphold their commitments to help avert an environmental disaster.

In an afternoon news conference with Obama administration officials, Jindal said he was worried that miles of booms deployed offshore are "not effective" in preventing oil from damaging coastal areas, wildlife and the livelihoods of fishermen. He announced that he is seeking to mobilize 6,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen for 90 days of duty to help provide security and support the response to the oil spill.

"I do have concerns that BP's current resources are not adequate" to meet three main challenges from the disaster: stopping the leak of oil from a damaged undersea well, protecting the coast and carrying out a swift cleanup.

Puerto Rico bank failures take bite out of FDIC - MarketWatch

Puerto Rico bank failures take bite out of FDIC - MarketWatch

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PARTY!!!!!!! Look at those earnings!

Look at those earnings!

38%; net income doubles; 29%; 30%; 16%

SNL – Arizona – Video 1:57

Louisiana coast bracing for oil spill impact

The offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon is now spewing an estimated 42,000 gallons of crude oil a day from two leaks in a drilling pipe, 5000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

Crews are using robotic submarines to help stem the flow of oil, now polluting more than 600 square miles of water in the gulf.

Gov. Bobby Jindal is asking for federal help to protect a 115,000 acre nature preserve near the mouth of the Mississippi River.

Hyperinflation for sale:

Hyperinflation for sale: Newsmax and Dick Morris cash in on anti-Obama rhetoric

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Oil Spill kills 11 – in Gulf - video

With hopes for survivors fading, the Coast Guard continued to search Friday for 11 missing Deepwater Horizon crewmembers. Operated by the offshore-drilling company Transocean and leased by BP, the oil rig suffered an unexplained explosion Tuesday and burned until its sinking midday Thursday. The investigation into the incident could take weeks, Transocean said.

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90,000 Protest U.S. Base on Okinawa

Not relocate, go away!

More than 90,000 Okinawans rallied Sunday to oppose the relocation of an American air base on their island, adding to the pressure on Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to resolve an issue that has divided Tokyo and Washington.

The demonstrators, in one of the largest protests on the southern Japanese island in years, demanded that Mr. Hatoyama scrap a 2006 agreement with the United States to move the Futenma United States Marine air station to a different site on Okinawa. Many of the protesters wore yellow to signal they were giving Mr. Hatoyama a yellow card, or warning, for appearing to waver on election promises to move the busy base off Okinawa altogether.
Since his party’s landmark election victory last summer, Mr.

Hatoyama has promised to come up with an alternative plan that would reduce the heavy American presence on the island, home to nearly half of the 50,000 United States military personnel in Japan. He has given himself until the end of May to put together such a plan that would also be acceptable to Washington.

Year’s Failures Rise to 57 - NYTimes

Regulators shut down seven banks in Illinois on Friday, putting the number of bank failures this year at 57.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took over four banks in Chicago: the New Century Bank, with $485.6 million in assets; the Citizens Bank&Trust Company, with $77.3 million in assets; the Broadway Bank, with $1.2 billion in assets; and the Lincoln Park Savings Bank, with $199.9 million in assets.

The F.D.I.C. also took over the Amcore Bank of Rockford, which had $3.8 billion in assets; the Peotone Bank and Trust Company in Peotone, with $130.2 million in assets; and the Wheatland Bank of Naperville, with $437.2 million in assets.

24 Service Members Who Became Americans Today

Two dozen U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, born in countries from Brazil to Tobago, stood before U.S. President Barack Obama in the White House Rose Garden today to take the oath of citizenship for the country they serve.
The naturalization ceremony was hosted by Obama, who was joined by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, and Alejandro Mayorkas, director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The servicemembers hailed from nations such as Brazil, China, Colombia, England, Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago.

TAX DAY TEA PARTY 2010- video

Tax Day rhetoric aside, Americans' bills are lower

You wouldn't know it by the Tax Day rhetoric, but Americans are paying lower taxes this year, even with increases passed by many states to balance their budgets. Don't expect it to last.

Congress cut individuals' federal taxes for this year by about $173 billion shortly after President Barack Obama took office, dwarfing the $28.6 billion in increases by states.

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Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated

Interactive

Article

Tea Party supporters are wealthier and more well-educated than the general public, and are no more or less afraid of falling into a lower socioeconomic class, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The 18 percent of Americans who identify themselves as Tea Party supporters tend to be Republican, white, male, married and older than 45.

Clinton Says He Got Wrong Advice on Derivatives

Former PresidentBill Clinton said his Treasury SecretariesRobert Rubin and Lawrence Summerswere wrong in the advice they gave him about regulating derivatives when he was in office.

“I think they were wrong and I think I was wrong to take” their advice, Clinton said on ABC’s “This Week” program.

Their argument was that derivatives didn’t need transparency because they were “expensive and sophisticated and only a handful of people will buy them and they don’t need any extra protection,” Clinton said. “The flaw in that argument was that first of all, sometimes people with a lot of money make stupid decisions and make it without transparency.”

Talking Points - video

Taxes - videos

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Health Reform Law – Hot Topic – video

Start at 2:20 – 3:30.

 

Ron Paul dynamic at Southern Republican Leadership Conference – video (start at 0.56)

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Ukraine to give up highly enriched uranium, convert nuclear reactors

Ukraine announced Monday that it has agreed to give up its highly enriched uranium, at the start of a summit called by President Obama to focus on protecting the world's stockpiles of nuclear materials from terrorist organizations pursuing the bomb.

The announcement, made by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, came soon after Obama's meeting with President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine. It was their first face-to-face meeting since Yanukovych's February inauguration.

Ukraine agreed to give up its roughly 90-kilogram stock of highly enriched uranium by the next Nuclear Security Summit scheduled to be held in the summer of 2012, much of it this year. In addition, Ukraine will convert its research reactors from highly enriched to low-enriched uranium, a complicated engineering task.

Gibbs said the United States has been working to secure the former Soviet state's highly enriched uranium for a decade, calling Monday's announcement "just the kind of step we want to see at this summit." He said the amount is sufficient to make "several nuclear weapons."

Gibbs said it has not been determined where Ukraine will send its stock, although the United States is a possible destination.

As Families Gather at Dover, Efforts to Ease Pain - NYTimes

Shortly after 4:20 a.m. on Easter Sunday, a pair of flag-covered cases with the remains of two Marines, both killed the previous week in Afghanistan, were carried out of the belly of a C-17 into the sight of their waiting families.

As two mothers, a widow and a knot of other kin watched from the tarmac, the bodies of Sgt. Frank J. World, 25, of Buffalo and Lance Cpl. Tyler O. Griffin, 19, of Voluntown, Conn., were loaded into a large van. Marines in white gloves and camouflage fatigues gave a final salute in the dark chill, then marched in formation behind the van as it rolled slowly toward the base mortuary, the largest in the nation.

Dow 11,000

Hopefully this info transfers to most Americans!

The Dow Jones industrial average briefly traded above 11,000 points on Friday, the latest mile marker in a yearlong rally that has catapulted the stock market from the depths of the financial crisis.

The Dow’s surge reflected a growing sense on Wall Street that the recovery might be accelerating. Risk-shy investors are snapping up stocks amid signs that consumer spending is improving and the economy is adding jobs.

But for all the optimism, some say they believe the market has come too far too fast. The major indexes have reached levels few could have fathomed in the recession’s darker days, climbing at least 68 percent in the last year.

On Friday, the Dow closed at its highest level since September 2008, when the near collapse of the financial system rattled global markets. But it remains a long way from the roaring days before the recession: the index is more than 3,100 points below its record high in October 2007.

Maverick - Say Anything - Video

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Say Anything
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

Factories Leading U.S. Recovery, Spurring Broader Job Growth

Factories kick-started the U.S. economy from its worst recession in seven decades. Now they’re taking the lead in reviving the labor market.

Manufacturers so far this year have added 45,000 workers to payrolls, the biggest three-month gain in the industry since March-May 2004. A 17,000 increase at factories last month was part of a 162,000 rise in employment, the most in three years, Labor Department figures showed April 2.

The gains in factory employment underscore recent data that show manufacturers are ramping up production as companies invest in equipment, replenish inventories and export more goods. Caterpillar Inc. is among those adding staff, showing the recovery that began last year is beginning to add the jobs needed to lift consumer spending and sustain the expansion.

Heal thy…

In this March 31, 2010 photo. a sign is seen posted on the office door of Dr. Jack Cassell, a Mount Dora, Fla. urologist. The notice on Dr. Jack Cassell's Mount Dora practice says, "If you voted for Obama, seek urologic care elsewhere." Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years. Cassell told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday he wasn't questioning patients or refusing care, because that would be unethical. (AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Deirdre Lewis) NO SALES

Deirdre Lewis / AP

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/02/1560464/fla-doctors-sign-warns-away-obama.html#ixzz0k3wlSim0

NBER’s Hall Says Payrolls Make It ‘Pretty Clear’ Recession Over

The biggest increase in employment in three years makes it “pretty clear” the deepest U.S. recession since the 1930s has ended, said the head of the group charged with making the call.

Payrolls rose by 162,000 workers last month, the third gain in the past five months and the most since March 2007, figures from the Labor Department showed yesterday in Washington.

That took way too long!

Private-sector job growth was again strongest in temporary help services and health care. The nation added 40,000 temporary service jobs last month, indicating that many employers were testing the waters before taking the plunge with a permanent hire. The health care industry, which grew steadily even during the depths of the recession, expanded by 27,000 jobs in March.

The March report may have been inflated, though, by a rebound from February when many people could not work because of snowstorms. Additionally, nearly a third of the hiring in March was temporary work on the 2010 census.

Though they know their new jobs are fleeting, many of the 48,000 new census workers are counting their blessings. To them, a job is a job, a closed hole in their résumés and maybe even a bridge to permanent employment elsewhere.

Drilling for votes - STRATEGY

This is going to be an interesting play.  A vote against it makes voters view the opposition as intransigent; a vote for drilling give the pres another win!

President Obama on Wednesday described his proposal to open vast expanses of American coastlines to oil and natural gas drilling, much of it for the first time, as a painful but necessary decision.

He said that his plan to allow drilling along the Atlantic coastline, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the north coast of Alaska — ending a longstanding moratorium on exploration from the northern tip of Delaware to the central coast of Florida, covering 167 million acres of ocean — would balance the need to produce more domestic energy while protecting natural resources. But it is also intended to generate revenue from the sale of offshore leases and help win political support for comprehensive energy and climate legislation.