Government Shutdown 2011: Barack Obama remains optimistic to resolve differences over the budget

President Barack Obama expressed hope that a US government shutdown 2011 can be averted on Saturday after late-night talks with the Republicans at the White House on Thursday night aimed at agreeing a budget deal.

US President Barack Obama remains optimistic as staff work through the night to try to resolve differences over the budget. Obama says the two sides have narrowed their differences and staff will work through the night to try to close a deal.

After meeting the house speaker, John Boehner, a Republican, and the Senate leader, Harry Reid, a Democrat, Obama said the two sides had narrowed their differences and staff would work through the night to try to close a deal.

Obama said: "I have just completed another meeting with the speaker. We made some additional progress this evening."

He said he expected to announce on Friday that the shutdown had been averted. But, he added, there remained significant differences. "I am not prepared to express wild optimism," he said. "But I think we are further along today than we were yesterday."

With the federal government due to shut down at midnight Friday, Obama said contingency plans would have to be put in motion to begin closing services and so he needed an answer from Boehner early on Friday.

Without a deal, about 800,000 federal staff face being suspended without pay and a range of government services will be withdrawn as hundreds of agencies either continue with a reduced operation or close altogether.

Boehner and Reid issued a joint statement confirming they had narrowed their differences but they had not yet reached agreement and that their staff would work through the night.

Obama postponed a trip on Friday to Indiana where he planned to make a speech which has been postponed because of the budget crisis. The president wants to be on hand for any further budget negotiations.

The US Congress has begun sending out letters warning staff they will be suspended from this weekend along with hundreds of thousands of other workers as part of a looming federal government shutdown.

The letters inform staff whether they are regarded as essential – necessary to maintain security and keep Congress running – or non-essential. The process will be repeated at the White House, the Pentagon and hundreds of federal agencies that are preparing to scale back or cease operation from midnight on Friday.

If no last-minute agreement is reached, the government will begin stopping everything from tourist visits to the Statue of Liberty and Alcatraz to wages for about 800,000 federal employees. In Washington, libraries will close, there will be no parking attendants and, for one week, no rubbish collection, and the University of the District of Columbia would also be shut.

One of the most emotional issues is that troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere would not receive pay cheques until the crisis is resolved. But they would at least continue earning during any shutdown, unlike civilian employees.

The Republicans want a cut in the federal deficit of $40bn (£24bn). The Democrats made a compromise offer of $34.5bn on Wednesday. The new sticking points are mainly the areas where the Republicans want cuts – abortion programmes and environmental protection, on which the Democrats refuse to give way.

Reid, speaking in the Senate early on Thursday, said: "The numbers are basically there. But I'm not nearly as optimistic – and that's an understatement – as I was 11 hours ago. The numbers are extremely close. Our differences are no longer over how much savings we get on government spending."

He added: "The only thing holding up an agreement is an ideology." He said the Republican leadership had drawn a line in the sand over abortion and clean air, issues he said had no place in a budget bill.

But Boehner's office disputed that there was even agreement on the numbers.

The House, which is controlled by the Republicans, passed a bill that would keep the federal government going for at least another week. But the Senate, which is Democrat-controlled, will not pass it and Obama said he would veto it anyway.

The Democrats say they are not interested in another stop-gap measure and insist is only a Republican attempt to avoid blame for a shutdown. As evidence, they say that the bill includes $12bn in cuts.

Source:

• Guardian.Co.UK
• Washingtonian

RIP: Geraldine Anne Ferraro

Geraldine Anne Ferraro was born in Newburgh, New York on August 26, 1935. She was an American attorney, a Democratic Party politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives. She earned a place in history as the first woman vice-presidential candidate on a national party ticket.

Geraldine Anne Ferraro grew up in New York City and became a teacher and lawyer. She joined the Queens County District Attorney's Office in 1974, where she headed the new Special Victims Bureau that dealt with sex crimes, child abuse, and domestic violence. She was elected to Congress in 1978, where she rose rapidly in the party hierarchy while focusing on legislation to bring equity for women in the areas of wages, pensions, and retirement plans. In 1984, former Vice President and presidential candidate Walter Mondale selected Ferraro to be his running mate in the upcoming election. In doing so she became the only Italian American to be a major-party national nominee in addition to being the first woman. The positive polling the Mondale-Ferarro ticket received when she joined faded as questions about her and her husband's finances arose. In the general election, Mondale and Ferraro were defeated in a landslide by incumbent President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush.

Ferraro ran campaigns for a seat in the United States Senate from New York in 1992 and 1998, both times emerging as the front-runner for her party's nomination but losing in primary elections both times. She served as a United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from 1993 until 1996, in the presidential administration of Bill Clinton. She also continued her career as a journalist, author, and businesswoman, and served in the 2008 presidential campaign of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Ferraro died on March 26, 2011, after a 12-year battle with multiple myeloma.

Ferraro continued to battle multiple myeloma, but died from complications of it on March 26, 2011, at Massachusetts General Hospital. In addition to her husband and children, she was survived by eight grandchildren.

President Obama said upon her passing that "Geraldine will forever be remembered as a trailblazer who broke down barriers for women, and Americans of all backgrounds and walks of life," and said that his own two daughters would grow up in a more equal country because of what Ferraro had done. Mondale called her "a remarkable woman and a dear human being . 

She was a pioneer in our country for justice for women and a more open society. She broke a lot of molds and it's a better country for what she did." George H. W. Bush said, "Though we were one-time political opponents, I am happy to say Gerry and I became friends in time – a friendship marked by respect and affection. I admired Gerry in many ways, not the least of which was the dignified and principled manner she blazed new trails for women in politics." Palin paid tribute to her on Facebook, saying, "She broke one huge barrier and then went on to break many more. May her example of hard work and dedication to America continue to inspire all women." Bill and Hillary Clinton said in a statement that, "Gerry Ferraro was one of a kind – tough, brilliant, and never afraid to speak her mind or stand up for what she believed in – a New York icon and a true American original."

Hosni Mubarak, The Second Richest in the World

Is Hosni Mubarak The Second Richest in the World?
If that’s true that the wealth of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak reached U.S. $ 70 billion, then he should have a more appropriate title of the world's richest.

"We at Forbes do not claim to know how much all of Mubarak wealth. But it could not close to $ 70 billion as claimed, "said a senior editor of Forbes who participated in compiling a list of the Richest People 2011, Kerry Dolan.

If Mubarak was so rich, so he'd be in second position, under Carlos Slim Helu from Mexico that his total wealth reached U.S. $ 74 billion. While Bill Gates, currently in second place with a wealth of U.S. $ 56 billion.

"Could Mubarak be richer than Carlos Slim? I doubt it, "added Dolan. Mubarak was ousted by his people on February 11 last, after a massive demonstration in Egypt. Forbes’s The World Richest List 2011 reported yesterday.

The Colonel’s Troops Attacks Back at Rebels on Central Libya Oil Refinery

The attacks by the colonel’s troops on an oil refinery in central Libya and on cities on either side of the country unsettled rebel leaders - who have maintained that they are close to liberating the country - and showed that despite defections by the military, the government may still possess powerful assets, including fighter pilots willing to bomb Libyan cities.

Rebel leaders said the attacks smacked of desperation, and the ease with which at least one assault, on the western city of Zawiyah, was repelled raised questions about the ability of the government to muster a serious challenge to the rebels’ growing power.

In an interview with ABC News, Colonel Qaddafi said he was fighting against “terrorists,” and he accused the West of seeking to “occupy Libya.” He gave no hint of surrender. “My people love me,” he said. “They would die for me.”

Those unyielding words, and the colonel’s attacks on Monday were met with both nerves and defiance by rebel military leaders as the two sides seemed to steel themselves for a long battle along shifting and ever more violent front lines.

Source : NY Times