AP – Businesses in the South and Southwest benefited most from the first federal contracts awarded under President Barack Obama’s stimulus program, according to initial data released by a government oversight board. Military construction and environmental cleanup contributed to a boost of about 30,000 jobs. Excerpt from: (AP)”> (AP)”>STIMULUS WATCH: Stimulus boon for South, Southwest (AP)

(SKAGIT COUNTY)- Congress ponied-up $359,000 for the endless Skagit River General Investigation Study for fiscal year 2010. The bill is now headed to President Barack Obama for his signature. The General Investigation Study is scheduled to be completed in 2012. Meanwhile, Skagit County has an informational meeting regarding flooding issues in the Samish River basin on Tuesday night. Last January, the Samish River flood caused significant damage.

These poll numbers were released earlier today by Rasmussen Reports — “an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information.” GOP 2012: Huckabee 29% Romney 24% Palin 18% Friday, October 16, 2009 Twenty-nine percent (29%) of Republican voters nationwide say former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is their pick to represent the GOP in the 2012 Presidential campaign.

McCain presses Obama to pardon black boxer WASHINGTON ? Sen. John McCain is pressing President Barack Obama to give a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, the black heavyweight boxing champion who was imprisoned nearly a century ago because of his romantic ties with white women. In a letter Friday, McCain of Arizona and Rep. Peter King of [...]

By Bill Emmott , a former Editor of The Economist (THE TIMES, 16/10/09): Can there ever have been an American president who has been prejudged, judged and then rejudged as soon and as relentlessly as has Barack Obama? Certainly not George W. Bush in 2001, for whom expectations were low — at least until 9/11 changed everything. Arguably not Bill Clinton in 1993 either, though he did begin with a whirlwind of pledges and initiatives, before being slowed down by the onrush of the Whitewater scandal in his first autumn.

There are two things that render this type of thinking preposterous: 1. The pilot had over 40 decades of experience in his field. Obama virtually has none. 2. The pilot actually DID something to warrant his accolades. Obama has done jacksquat. ‘A few minutes after 2 pm Eastern time, anchorman Wolf Blitzer recalled “Soledad [O’Brien] and I were talking about this earlier and she was saying metaphorically in some ways, the pilot of that airplane is very much like Barack Obama — that he got the plane down safely, but everybody else had to join together to get out of the plane and pull together to get through that adversity.

Obama’s First Six Months’ Accomplishments 1. Offended the Queen of England. 2. Bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia. 3. Praised the Marxist Daniel Ortega. 4. Kissed Socialist Hugo Chavez on the cheek. 5. Endorsed the Socialist Evo Morales of Bolivia. 6. Sided with Hugo Chavez and Communist Fidel Castro against Honduras. 7. Announced we would meet with Iranians with no pre-conditions while they’re building their nuclear weapons. 8. Gave away billions to AIG also without pre-conditions. 9.

- By Anita MonCrief In May of 2008 I was working at a respected non-profit and learning the ropes of the corporate nonprofit world. At ACORN you never knew what you would find. I once walked into a lobby and saw a man on his knees talking to DC local ACORN about the “man” and something about Bush. My new position was defiantly not grassroots. Everything was efficient, clean and well run. I was making a nice salary and loved the mission of the nonprofit.

They sure are crafty, those CodePink dames. First they manage to get within a few inches of Condoleezza Rice. Now they waltz up to Barack Obama and give him some paper. See, while at last night’s Democratic Party fundraiser (which raised $2 million), Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans, according to KTVU , handed Obama a petition “allegedly signed by Afghani women who want an end to the war in their country.” After handing Obama the petition, Evans said the President told her “‘You know we are not

Apparently Ryan Frazier’s announcement yesterday that he will run for Congress in CD-7 instead of U.S. Senate didn’t go all that well. We’ve heard estimates of only about 30 people, half of whom were staff or volunteers.
But don’t take our word for it. Here’s a video of Frazier’s announcement speech yesterday, and you can judge for yourself based on the crowd reaction (or embarrassing lack thereof) to Frazier’s uncanny vocal impression of Barack Obama .

We’ve said before that Frazier is not prepared for a big race like Senate or Congress, and our analysis holds.