Moving right along, on the bailout/stimulus efforts from the Obama administration, President Obama unveiled a $75 billion plan today geared to help millions of “homeowners refinance their mortgages or avert foreclosure.” The initiative Obama said  ”would shore up distressed housing prices, stabilize neighborhoods and slow a downward spiral that he said was ‘unraveling homeownership, the middle class, and the American Dream itself.’”

Speaking at a high school gymnasium in Mesa, AZ, Obama told the crowd, “This plan will not save every home, but it will give millions of families resigned to financial ruin a chance to rebuild. It will prevent the worst consequences of this crisis from wreaking even greater havoc on the economy. And by bringing down the foreclosure rate, it will help to shore up housing prices for everyone.”

The plan has three basic components. One would help homeowners who continue to make loan payments on time, but are paying high interest rates and would otherwise not be able to refinance because they do not have enough equity or their houses are worth less than they borrowed. A second would assist people who are at risk of foreclosure by providing incentives to lenders to alter the terms of loans to make them substantially more affordable to struggling homeowners. The third would try to assure there is plenty of credit available for mortgages by giving $200 billion of additional financial backing to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-controlled mortgage finance companies.

The new plan will officially take effect on March 4, when the Obama administration will publish the detailed rules to explain it. The NY Times notes that “most of the plan can be enacted by Mr. Obama though his executive powers, although part of it — including changing the bankruptcy laws to allow homeowners to seek changes to their mortgages through bankruptcy proceedings — will require legislation.”

The White House Blog has a lot more info here. Personally, I prefer seeing this sort of bailout, the kind that helps Americans and not corporations. Nothing is going to fix this colossal  economic mess overnight, but there is a sense that far more is being done by the Obama administration to fix this mess than we ever got from fool that left us with it.

On Tuesday after President Obama signed the stimulus bill, General Motors and Chrysler jumped up and asked the federal government for another another $14 billion in bailout funds. In return for more bailout from the goverment, both companies “promised to make further drastic cuts to all parts of their operations, in the hope that they can eventually strike a balance between their bloated cost structures and a dismal market for new car sales.”

G.M. announced they would “cut 47,000 more of its 244,000 workers worldwide” and shut down ”five more plants in North America, leaving it with 33.” They also plan to cut their “lineup of brands in half, to just four: Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick.” Pontiac will also “have a much smaller role, if any, in G.M.’s future.” And G.M. said they would phase out the “Saturn brand, which it once hoped would build small cars to counter the best of the Japanese brands.”

What a mess. None of us want to see anymore people added to the unemployment rolls, but these companies don’t seem to get that Americans “need cars that go farther on a gallon of gasoline, pollute less and save money at the pump.”

The bailout requests are now like some sort of endless money pit in the abyss.

Sit back, take a load off and listen to Johnny A‘s stellar instrumental version of Witchita Lineman.

Change has come to Washington in many ways in recent weeks, including this latest bid by Obama to reverse more bad Bush environmental policy:

The Obama administration on Tuesday agreed to review whether it should regulate carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, portending a major reversal of the Bush administration’s policy on global warming.

The Environmental Protection Agency granted a petition from environmental groups seeking to overturn a Bush-era EPA memo that prohibited controls of those emissions.

President Obama has signed the Stimulus Bill and the hope is that putting the plan into action will jumpstart the economy and bring some relief to recession weary Americans.

Word has it that President Obama has also readied “a new $50 billion foreclosure rescue for legions of Americans who are in danger of losing their homes.”

White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said today that President Obama has also “not ruled out a second stimulus package. Let’s hope we don’t need to go down that road, but frankly, as a small business owner, I want to see the economy back on track.

While speaking to reporters on Air Force One, en route to Denver, Mr. Gibbs said, “I think the president is going to do what’s necessary to grow this economy.” While “there are no particular plans at this point for a second stimulus package,” he added, “I wouldn’t foreclose it.”

Obama will visit Phoenix on Wednesday, where he will “unveil his new housing plan.” 

Americans United Coalition released an ad today to remind everyone that economic recovery act is one of the many steps the government needs to take to straighten out the economy:  

Well… I think consumers need to get their confidence back. We’ll see what the stimulus brings before we all run out and spend, eh?

Is it time for Senator Roland Burris to go? Just when we thought the whole Burris/Blago spectacle might be over, there are new revelations and Burris is now coming clean, admitting that he did seek “to raise campaign funds for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich at the request of the governor’s brother at the same time he was making a pitch to be appointed to the Senate seat previously held by President Barack Obama.”

Burris’ latest comments in Peoria Monday night were the first time he has publicly said he was actively trying to raise money for Blagojevich. Previously Burris has left the impression that he always balked at the issue of raising money for the governor because of his interest in the Senate appointment.

In comments to reporters after appearing at a Democratic dinner, the senator several times contradicted his latest under-oath affidavit that he quietly filed with the Illinois House impeachment panel earlier this month. That affidavit was itself an attempt to clean up his live, sworn testimony to the panel Jan. 8, when he omitted his contacts with several Blagojevich insiders.

You can read Burris’ give-and-take with reporters here.

It really doesn’t look good that Burris keeps changing his story. Maybe it’s just me, but I think that the time has come for Burris to consider resigning. The distraction and the drama has gone on too long.

In the final days of the Bush presidency, Dick Cheney apparently lost his Svengali hold over Bush. The Daily News reports that Cheney ”launched a last-ditch campaign to persuade his boss to pardon Lewis (Scooter) Libby – and was furious when President George W. Bush wouldn’t budge.”  

In multiple conversations, both in person and over the telephone, Cheney tried to get Bush to change his mind. Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in the federal probe of who leaked covert CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity to the press.

Several sources confirmed Cheney refused to take no for an answer. “He went to the mat and came back and back and back at Bush,” a Cheney defender said. “He was still trying the day before Obama was sworn in.”

After repeatedly telling Cheney his mind was made up, Bush became so exasperated with Cheney’s persistence he told aides he didn’t want to discuss the matter any further.

Word has it that Cheney thinks Libby got a “raw deal.” But some Bush loyalist seem to think Cheney’s push for Bush to pardon Libby was “excessive” and even “over the top.” It must have a blow to old Dick’s overblown ego leaving him feeling rather impotent…

This morning, during an interview on NBC’s Today Show, Karl Rove claimed the Daily News story was ‘overblown‘. And speaking of Rove, what’s up with this: Obama seeks delay in deciding on Rove subpoena. It’s a no question issue in my opinion. Rove must testify.

California for all intents and purposes is in the toilet economically speaking. Things have gone from bad to worse out there, as Governor Schwarzenegger is now preparing to send out 20,000 pink slips. That will leave many more Californians singing the blues.

If there’s any bright news at all coming from the state that’s been hit so hard from the recession, it’s the fact that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled a new plan on Monday that is being billed as the “largest effort by a U.S. city to reduce pollution by retrofitting incandescent street lights with more efficient LEDs or light emitting diodes.”

Over a five-year period starting in July, the city will retrofit 140,000 of its residential street lights with  LEDs, officials said during City Hall news conference. The project is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 40,500 tons and save $10 million annually.

Bill Clinton was on hand for the announcement of the new project. Clinton said:

“This is the best place in the world — in the U.S. at least — to lead this. This is like taking 6,000 cars off the road. If every major city followed your lead, we could eliminate 2 1/2 coal-fired power plants.”

Last night AP News reported that “close to 3,000 American soldiers who recently arrived in Afghanistan to secure two violent provinces near Kabul have begun operations in the field and already are seeing combat.” AP is also speculating that President Obama will soon make a decision about “sending additional troops to Afghanistan.”

The NY Times editorial board said today it’s time to make the U.S. food supply a priority. We’ve had far too many episodes of “dangerous food,” of late.

President Obama will sign the stimulus bill today in Denver. It’s reported to be just the “beginning” of his economic plan:

Obama will hear from automakers Tuesday on how they’ll restructure to get more taxpayer bailout money. Then he’ll sign a $787 billion stimulus bill in Denver and fly to Phoenix , where on Wednesday he’ll unveil how his administration will spend at least $50 billion of Wall Street rescue money to begin halting mortgage foreclosures nationwide.

And sometime during the hectic week, the Treasury Department is expected to provide more details on a $100 billion -plus plan for the federal government and private investors to team up to rid bank balance sheets of toxic assets. Those are the distressed mortgage securities and other complex financial instruments that investors are shunning, and that are crippling bank balance sheets and restraining lending.

On their own, each of these developments would be dramatic by historical standards. But for any of them to succeed, they’ll need to work in unison with the others. 

Finally, the new Governor of Illinois is purging Blago’s people, while Blago picked Senator Burris, is making his own headlines once again. That’s what I love about politics, the drama.

I have no idea what route Taylor is taking on her cross country journey, but if she’s driving via the southern route she’ll be hitting Tulsa Time after some good hard driving.

Throughout my cross country drive, we found that the GPS we were using was lousy at finding gas stations, but great at directing us to Starbucks, which became few and far between in the heartland. An editorial in the Philly Inquirer yesterday suggested that Starbucks was good model to “forecast the U.S. economy.”

In the middle of 2006, Starbucks’ stock price peaked at $39.63 a share. Everywhere you looked, a new Starbucks was opening, an average of six new stores a day. The company had 12,241 shops in the United States, with plans to expand to 40,000 locations worldwide. Citing increased demand from less-affluent customers, chief executive officer Howard Schultz told investors: “We don’t believe that we are even 50 percent through to the unique opportunity we have.”

Things have changed.

At the end of January, Starbucks Corp. announced its second round of store closings, bringing the number of U.S. stores it will shutter to 800. The company’s revenue has shrunk. Its net income for 2008 declined 54 percent. Its first-quarter profit from 2009 is down 69 percent. Today, Starbucks’ stock price hovers around $9.50.

From Wall Street to Main Street, the days of sipping latte’s are long gone for many, and only time will tell if the stimulus plan will provide the boost everyone is hoping for.

It is a bit of a slow news day today being President’s Day, which I had totally forgot about until I tried to go to the bank this morning. C-Span did a survey ranking the Presidents for the occassion. Lincoln was named as the top President and Buchanan as the worst. George W. Bush, came pretty close to Buchanan ranking 36th out of the 42.

It will be interesting to see a few years down the road where President Obama ranks in a similar survey. The WaPo reported a few days ago that Obama had scored an early victory of “historic proportions” when it came to the stimulus package. And, that said Obama still has a “sky-high” approval rating in the polls despite the obstructionist Republicans and their chatter.

If you haven’t read “Former Gitmo Guard Tells All,” in Harper’s, it is an absolute must read. There’s some doubt being raised about how far Obama will allow Bush probes to go. Screw the “moving forward” restraint routine. Americans have a right to the truth about Bush’s secrets.

Secretary Clinton took questions from the press while en route to Japan, the transcript is here. And you can check in at DipNote to read HRC’s first blog post on her trip.