December 16, 2008

Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today on President-elect Obama's nomination of Arne Duncan, Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools, as Secretary of Education: "As the head of the Chicago public school system, Arne Duncan challenged students and teachers alike to grow and achieve, and his methods have delivered real results. I look forward to his quick confirmation so that together we can work to strengthen America's public schools."
Full release

On Wednesday, December 17th Governor Howard Dean will deliver a speech at the National Institutes of Health Summit: The Science of Eliminating Health Disparities in National Harbor, MD. The summit will be held in conjunction with the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD); the goal of the summit is to increase awareness and understanding of disparities in health care. Full release

The naming of Caroline Kennedy to a U.S. Senate seat from New York "would be a foolish, frivolous appointment," Richard A. Viguerie said. "It would show, once again, that many of our leaders simply don't take their responsibilities seriously." Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, noted "The country is facing a collapse in the trust and confidence necessary for the economy to function. Wall Street self-dealers are getting bailed out by their old friends with taxpayers' money. Top leaders in government and the private sector are being exposed as con men." Full release

Personal earnings will increase by $1.1 billion and the national gross domestic product will increase by $3.4 billion for every billion dollars invested in new infrastructure projects according to new national and state-by-state data released today by the Associated General Contractors of America. Full release

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Chairman of American Solutions for Winning the Future, today sent a letter to RNC Chairman Mike Duncan urging him to pull down a web advertisement attempting to link President-elect Barack Obama and disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Text of the letter is as follows: Dear Chairman Duncan, I was saddened to learn that at a time of national trial, when a president-elect is preparing to take office in the midst of the worst financial crisis in over seventy years, that the Republican National Committee is engaged in the sort of negative, attack politics that the voters rejected in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles. Full release

Bruce Fein, former General Counsel for the FCC and architect of the repeal of the "Fairness Doctrine" by the Commission during President Ronald Reagan's administration, says Speaker Pelosi has picked the next partisan political battleground in resurrecting the "Fairness Doctrine." Fein elaborated: "The doctrine is not about a balanced presentation of conflicting viewpoints, but about suppressing ideas over the airwaves disliked by detractors to promote a political agenda." A Democrat-Republican divide over the matter is predictable, a mirror image of the present liberal-conservative divide in broadcast news and talk shows. Full release

With money concerns looming, more than two-thirds (69%) of Americans are changing their family's holiday gift-giving traditions this year, according to Consumer Reports latest Holiday Shopping Poll. Among the changes, 37 percent of families are setting a spending limit for gifts, 14 percent are making homemade gifts, and 6 percent are not exchanging gifts at all. Full release

Industry claims that taser stun guns are safe and non-lethal simply do not stand up to scrutiny, said Amnesty International today as the organization released one of the most detailed reports to date on the safety of stun guns. The report, which includes deaths that occurred between June 2001 and August 2008, showed that the number of people who died in the United States after being struck by police tasers has reached 334. The human rights organization called on federal, state and local authorities to suspend the use of stun guns, known collectively as Conducted Energy Devices -- or, at a minimum, limit their deployment to life-threatening situations. Full release

Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Robert M. "Mike" Duncan released the following statement today. "It's extremely disappointing that Democratic leaders in Illinois are ignoring bipartisan calls for a special election to fill President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat. Considering the scandal surrounding Governor Rod Blagojevich's administration, a special election is the only way to credibly fill the seat. I hope that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan puts good government before partisan politics, and will heed Senator Durbin's call for a special election." Full release

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