Tax hikes would fund Obama job bill

In a sharp challenge to the GOP, President Obama proposed paying for his new jobs plan Monday with tax increases that Republicans have already emphatically rejected. The reception to his new proposal was no more welcoming, setting the stage for a likely new fight with Congress.

Flanked at the White House by workers whom he said the legislation would help, Obama declared: "This is the bill that Congress needs to pass. No games. No politics. No delays." He sent it to Capitol Hill on Monday afternoon saying, "The only thing that's stopping it is politics."

The proposal drew criticism from House Speaker John A. Boehner (R., Ohio), who had previously responded in cautious but somewhat receptive tones to the $447 billion jobs plan made up of tax cuts and new spending that Obama first proposed in an address to Congress on Thursday.

Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said: "It would be fair to say this tax increase on job creators is the kind of proposal both parties have opposed in the past. We remain eager to work together on ways to support job growth, but this proposal doesn't appear to have been offered in that bipartisan spirit."

The biggest piece of the payment plan would raise about $400 billion by eliminating certain deductions, including on charitable contributions, that wealthy taxpayers can claim. Obama has proposed that in the past - to help pay for his health-care overhaul, for example - and it has been shot down by Republican lawmakers, along with some Democrats.

Yet by daring Republicans anew to reject tax increases on the rich, Obama could gain a talking point, if not a legislative victory, as the 2012 presidential campaign moves forward.

At a Rose Garden event, Obama surrounded himself with police officers, firefighters, teachers, construction workers, and others whom he said the bill would help. Adopting a newly combative tone, Obama demanded immediate action on the legislation. "Instead of just talking about America's job creators, let's actually do something for America's job creators," he said.

Even as Obama was accusing Republicans of playing politics, he and his Democratic allies were marshaling an aggressive political response of their own.

Obama was traveling to Boehner's home state of Ohio on Tuesday to promote his jobs plan, following that Wednesday with a trip to North Carolina, a traditionally Republican state he won in 2008.

The Democratic National Committee announced a television ad campaign starting Monday to promote Obama's jobs plans in key swing and early-voting states.

In an appearance later Monday for a group of African American news Web sites, Obama suggested that even a legislative loss for his plan could be political win for him.

"I need people to be out there promoting this and pushing this and making sure that everybody understands the details of what this would mean, so that one of two things happen: Either Congress gets it done, or if Congress doesn't get it done, people know exactly what's holding it up," the president said.

His package would combine tax cuts for workers and employers by reducing the Social Security payroll tax, with spending elements including more money to hire teachers, rebuild schools, and pay unemployment benefits. It also includes tax credits to encourage businesses to hire veterans and the long-term unemployed.

The payment method the White House announced Monday would consist of:

$405 billion from limiting itemized deductions for charitable contributions and other deductions that can be taken by individuals making more than $200,000 a year and families making more than $250,000.

$41 billion from closing loopholes for oil and gas companies.

$18 billion from requiring fund managers to pay higher taxes on certain income.

$3 billion from changing tax treatment of corporate jets.

Republicans have indicated they are receptive to supporting Obama's proposed payroll-tax cut and finding a way to extend jobless benefits, though many have rejected Obama's planned new spending.

Jurors suspect Blagojevich was tailoring testimony to them(Photo-Video)

Last year’s jury thought the prosecution’s case against Rod Blagojevich lacked a smoking gun.
This year’s jury called the same evidence “overwhelming.”
What changed?
Rod Blagojevich took the witness stand in his retrial. And the 11 women and one man on the former governor’s jury not only didn’t buy what he said — they thought he was in full spin mode.

Jury forewoman Connie Wilson, 56, of Naperville, said she thought she recognized what Blagojevich was up to when he started picking and choosing details from his personal history. The details appeared to mirror personal information that came out when the judge questioned the jury pool before testimony began, she said.
“I said, ‘Do you remember what he talked about . . . [while testifying about his home] library?’ ” Wilson said she told other jurors during their deliberations. “He pointed to something in the library that pertained to almost everybody on the jury.”
She said jurors started piecing it together.
Over his seven days of testimony, Blagojevich mentioned books, targeting a librarian on the jury; pointed out an interest in music, directing the comment toward Wilson, the former choral director at Holy Spirit Catholic Community in Naperville; and discussed the importance of education, to connect with a teacher, Wilson said. “He even brought out at one point something about Boston, and of course our gentleman was a huge Boston fan,” she said with a laugh, remembering the male juror’s many Boston-themed T-shirts.
That juror, John McParland, was the lone male in the group. He wasn’t having any of Blagojevich’s testimony.
Particularly unconvincing, he said, was the politician’s attempt to explain what he “meant” by comments caught on tape by the government.
“You’re talking in, like, two different languages, then?” McParland said in an interview.
The target-your-audience strategy may work with voters in politics, but it didn’t fly with this group.
It made juror Karen Woj­cieszak, 64, of Tinley Park, downright angry.
“We had heard seven days of Mr. Blagojevich’s ‘blah, blah, blah,’ ” Wojcieszak said. “I don’t care if he grew up poor on the North Side of immigrant parents. We’re all immigrants unless you’re a Native American.
“He really cheated the people of Illinois, or tried to,” she continued. “He took an oath to do what was best for the people of Illinois and he didn’t do it. So we’ll have another governor in jail.”
Even though they believed he was lying, many of the jurors still liked him.
“I almost feel like I’d want to apologize to him, but it’s not my fault, so why do I have those feelings?” said Maya Moody of Hyde Park. “Sometimes I think he was just surrounded by people that just didn’t have the heart to speak the truth to him. It’s either that or . . . that’s just how the political machine in Illinois is, and he didn’t think he was doing anything wrong. But, either way it goes, you know, when you look at the law . . . it was all illegal.”
Juror Maribel DeLeon, 45, of West Dundee, described her decision to convict as “heartbreaking,” particularly after Blagojevich, during his testimony, frequently mentioned his love for his wife and two daughters. His testimony did little to sway her views, she said. “His answers weren’t consistent,” she said. “There [were] many times it was clear he lied.”
She said Blagojevich’s own words secretly recorded by investigators were critical in convincing her that Blagojevich tried to extort campaign cash and was looking to personally benefit by trading President Barack Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat.
“The tapes were very convincing,” DeLeon said.
Deliberations took nearly 10 days because jurors worked hard to keep their personal feelings about Blagojevich out of their discussions.
“We really followed the letter of the law,” DeLeon said. “We kept going back to that, we were like ‘this is exactly what it says, this is what we’re going to do.’ That’s why it took so long.”
“I believe Rod was out there helping the people,” said DeLeon, who believes Blagojevich became “disgruntled” in office and started looking for a way out. “Everything was a snowball effect and he made poor choices,” she said.
Jessica Hubinek, of Carol Stream, said about 3 p.m. Thursday, on their ninth day of deliberations, she and her fellow jurors had decided: He was guilty of 17 of the 20 counts.
And in the careful, deliberate way they had discussed, reviewed and analyzed the evidence, they wanted to sleep on it and send their final decision to the judge Monday morning, said Hubinek, a 32-year-old librarian and married mother of a teenager.
Rosemary Bennett, 73, of Aurora, said the morning of the verdict she did something she did every morning before that.
“I prayed every morning that the Lord would help each one of us jurors to base our decision of evidence and nothing else,” she said. “It’s easy to judge on preconceived notions.”
While McParland said he feels for Blagojevich’s two daughters, he has little sympathy for Blagojevich.
“It’s hard to feel sorry about him,” McParland said, “because, why are you doing this in the first place?”
Karin Wilson, 48, of Palatine, wouldn’t say whether she voted for Blagojevich in his gubernatorial elections. But this summer, while hanging out with her daughter and 18-year-old son, she’s eager to read about Blagojevich’s first trial, which ended in a hung jury, and find answers to a few questions she wondered about during the second.
“It was the most interesting thing I’ve ever done,” Wilson said. “And the most boring thing I’ve ever done.”
Because Hubinek took the judge’s orders to avoid the media so seriously, she missed a bunch of other big news, too. A colleague asked her late in April if she watched the wedding?
“What wedding?” she said, unaware of Prince William’s royal extravaganza.

NY legalizes gay marriage 42 years after Stonewall(Photo-Video)

Champagne corks popped, rainbow flags flapped and crowds embraced and danced in the streets of Manhattan's Greenwich Village as New York became the sixth and largest state in the U.S. to legalize same-sex marriage.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the bill shortly before midnight Friday, almost 42 years to the day that the modern-day gay rights movement was born amid violent encounters between police and gay activists

at the Stonewall Inn.
Hundreds who gathered inside and outside the landmark bar erupted in celebration after the Republican-led state Senate cast the decisive vote.
Scott Redstone and his partner of 29 years, Steven Knittweis, hugged. And Redstone popped the question. "I said, 'Will you marry me?' And he said, 'Of course!'"
Queens teacher Eugene Lovendusky, 26, who is gay, said he hopes to marry someday.
"I am spellbound. I'm so exhausted and so proud that the New York state Senate finally stood on the right side of history," he said.
He then repeated a chant he had screamed during a protest at a fundraiser for President Barack Obama the previous night: "I am somebody. I deserve full equality."
Alex Kelston, 26, who works in finance in Manhattan, said he hopped in a cab and rushed to the bar when he heard the news.
"This is the place where the movement started, and it's a way to close the loop and celebrate the full equality of gay people in New York," he said.
The so-called Stonewall riots of June 28, 1969, helped spark the equal rights movement for homosexuals. Gay activists had pinned their hopes on a positive vote this week in New York to help regain momentum in other states in light of recent failed attempts.
Amid Friday's celebration, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and bishops around the state released a statement condemning the passage of the law by the Legislature, saying they were "deeply disappointed and troubled."
"Our society must regain what it appears to have lost — a true understanding of the meaning and the place of marriage, as revealed by God, grounded in nature, and respected by America's foundational principles," the statement from the Roman Catholic leader read.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who lobbied for the bill, was mid-sentence at a press conference on the city budget when City Council Speaker Christine Quinn interrupted him to announce it had passed.
The room exploded in cheers from other lawmakers and staff, as Quinn — the first gay person to hold the job — embraced her colleagues and smiled, tears welling in her eyes.
"It's hard to describe the feeling of having the law of your state changed to say that you ... are a full member of the state and that your family is as good as any other family," she said.
In a way, the decision will change everything for her and her partner, Quinn said.
"Tomorrow, my family will gather for my niece's college graduation party, and that'll be a totally different day because we'll get to talk about when our wedding will be and what it'll look like, and what dress Jordan, our grand-niece, will wear as the flower girl. And that's a moment I really thought would never come," she said.
"I really can't really describe what this feels like, but it is one of the best feelings I have ever had in my life," she said.
Bloomberg called the vote "a historic triumph for equality and freedom."
He said he would support the Republicans who voted for the measure Friday, and that he believed their actions were consistent with GOP ideals of liberty and freedom.
"The Republicans who stood up today for those principles I think will long be remembered for their courage, foresight and wisdom," said the mayor, a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent. "Ten, 20, 30 years from now, I believe they will look back on this vote as one of the finest and most proud moments in their life."
Bloomberg, a billionaire who had lobbied in Albany for the measure along with Quinn, has the personal resources to help the Republicans withstand any backlash from their own party.
Celebrities also responded, with Lady Gaga posting on Twitter that she "can't stop crying." The pop star has been urging her 11 million followers to call New York senators in support of the bill.
"The revolution is ours to fight for love, justice+equality. Rejoice NY, and propose. We did it!!!" she also posted.
Talk show host Wendy Williams posted to her Twitter followers as well, saying: "Yay for Gay Marriage! NY, it's about time... jersey we're next! How you doin?"
Meanwhile, the city's official tourism marking agency said the bill was "good news" for the $31 billion industry that it represents.
"Now, more gay couples — and their families and friends — will have an opportunity to celebrate their special day here," said George Fertitta, the CEO of NYC & Co.
In San Francisco, where a march kicked off the city's pride weekend, participants said they were just hearing about what had happened across the country.
"What happened tonight in New York is great, is wonderful, so long as we pick up and keep moving beyond this because a lot more needs to get done," said 26-year-old Kate Lubeck of San Jose.
Pete Weiss of Oakland said he has a lot of good friends in New York who he thinks will take advantage of the new law.
"You'd think California would have been first, but maybe this will spread and we'll be next," the 42-year-old said.
Legalization of gay marriage comes as New York City celebrates gay pride, culminating in a parade on Sunday.
Michael Musto, a columnist for the Village Voice, an alternative weekly, said the timing of the vote "could not be more fortuitous. "
"It's definitely going to be the most exuberant gay pride parade in history," he said.