Daily Babe News

From hindustantimes.com; Actress Pamela Anderson finds US President Barack Obama incredibly sexy and wants to dance with him.

"I love him. He is incredibly sexy. Everything he does is brilliant. He's my favourite political figure. There's a lot going on in the world and I think he's got it together," the dailystar.co.uk quoted her as saying. [read more]

From forbes.com; Yesterday, the story broke that 17 senior SEC staff members were surfing pornographic Web sites on the job while the financial industry crashed around us. As if this weren’t shocking enough, it was also revealed that at least one of the staff members was a woman. Shame on me, I suppose, for assuming it would have been only men.

The female accountant tried to access online pornography from her office laptop nearly 1,800 times in two weeks, CNN reports. She also had 600 sexually explicit images saved on her hard drive. [read more]

From E!Online; Fame, ain't it a bitch. Rielle Hunter's learning that the hard way. John Edwards' baby mama is reportedly in tears today over some "repulsive" photos of her that appeared in GQ magazine.

Just to be clear, these aren't stalkerazzi photos. The seductive mom actually posed for the Mark Seliger magazine spread, which includes a pantless pic on her daughter's bed and the belly shot. [read more]

From Yahoo News; WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Dick Cheney believes his old boss, President George W. Bush, gradually turned away from his advice during their second term in the White House, showing a surprising independence as he started taking more flexible positions on a range of issues, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Cheney, often described as the most influential vice president in U.S. history, has been discussing his years in office in informal talks with authors, diplomats, policy experts and past colleagues, the Post said, as he works on a memoir due out in 2011 from Simon & Schuster's Threshold Editions.

Robert Barnett, who negotiated Cheney's book contract, passed word to potential publishers that the memoir would be packed with news, said the article published on the Post Web site, and Cheney himself has said, without explanation, that "the statute of limitations has expired" on many of his secrets. [read more]

From Reuters; PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire (Reuters) - President Barack Obama assailed insurance companies on Tuesday as he sought to counter an onslaught of conservative opposition to a U.S. healthcare overhaul at a town hall meeting that drew protests outside.

Obama opened his speech by saying Americans are too often "held hostage" by insurance companies that deny or drop their coverage or charge fees they cannot afford.

"I believe it is wrong; it is bankrupting families and businesses and that is why we're going to pass health insurance reform in 2009," Obama said.

Outside the event at a New Hampshire high school, about a thousand people gathered on the road leading to the school. [read more]

From Yahoo News; Last year's howls of outrage when U.S. auto executives flew to Washington on private jets to seek government bailouts may soon be repeated, now that the House of Representatives has added $330 million to the 2010 defense budget to buy four new planes for the Air Force's VIP fleet. That's because the planes that usually fly generals and White House officials around the globe are also being used - on 15% of their flights - to ferry lawmakers around in the kind of comfort that most Americans who endure long security lines and cramped economy cabins can only dream about.

Senators are already grousing that the additional planes are a waste of money amid a recession. "Talk about the wrong message at the wrong time," Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri said. "While American families are tightening their belts there is no way we should be buying extra executive jets." The anger is spreading. [read more]

From Yahoo News; KINSHASA, Congo – Hillary Clinton has a message for the world: It's not all about Bill.

The secretary of state bristled Monday when — as she heard it — a Congolese university student asked what her husband thought about an international financial matter.

She hadn't traveled to Africa to talk about her husband the ex-president. But even there, she couldn't escape his outsized shadow.

She abruptly reclaimed the stage for herself.

"My husband is not secretary of state, I am," she snapped. "I am not going to be channeling my husband." [read more]

From Yahoo News; WASHINGTON – The nation's drugmakers stand ready to spend $150 million to help President Barack Obama overhaul health care this fall, according to numerous officials, a staggering sum that could dwarf attempts to derail Obama's top domestic priority.

The White House and allies in Congress are well aware of the effort by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a somewhat surprising political alliance, given the drug industry's recent history of siding with Republicans and the Democrats' disdain for special interests.

The campaign, now in its early stages, includes television advertising under PhRMA's own name and commercials aired in conjunction with the liberal group, Families USA.

Numerous people with knowledge of PhRMA's plans said they had been told it would likely reach $150 million and perhaps $200 million. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to divulge details. [read more]

From Yahoo News; ANCHORAGE, Alaska – In her first communication since leaving office, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin described in an Internet posting Friday that President Barack Obama's plan to overhaul the health care system was evil.

"Who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course," the former vice Republican presidential candidate wrote on her Facebook page.

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil," Palin wrote. [read more]

From NY Times; BOSTON — John Quincy Adams, president, statesman — and Twitterer?

They may be two centuries old, but, written with staccato-like brevity, entries from one of Adams’s diaries resemble tweets sufficiently that they began appearing Wednesday on Twitter.

The Massachusetts Historical Society, under the Twitter tag JQAdams_MHS, is posting the entries, from a diary Adams started writing the day he left Boston for St. Petersburg to serve as minister, or ambassador, to Russia. [read more]

From NY Times; WASHINGTON — It was a stirring scene: Bill Clinton, the former president, and Al Gore, his former vice president, back together, sharing a long and emotional hug as Mr. Clinton delivered back to American soil from captivity in North Korea two journalists who worked for Mr. Gore.

The tableau was a visible reminder of how circumstances had conspired over the past few days to bring all the reigning families of the Democratic Party together around the drama of Mr. Clinton’s trip to North Korea. [read more]

From Yahoo News; WASHINGTON – Two of President Barack Obama's economic heavyweights said middle-class taxes might have to go up to pare budget deficits or to pay for the proposed overhaul of the nation's health care system.

The tough talk from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers on Sunday capped a week that brought rare good news for the economy: The worst recession in the United States since World War II could be on the verge of ending. Even so, officials appeared willing to extend unemployment benefits. [read more]

From Reuters; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government's $1 billion "cash for clunkers" auto sales incentive program reached its funding limit unexpectedly after an avalanche of business exhausted its funds, an Obama administration official said late Thursday.

Auto dealers began offering government-backed rebates in early July of up to $4,500 to consumers who traded-in their gas-guzzlers for more fuel-efficient vehicles.

But the Transportation Department will need additional cash after rebates for nearly 250,000 vehicles jammed the pipeline nationwide. [read more]

From Yahoo News; WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama played bartender-in-chief on Thursday at a "beer summit" of the main players in a racially charged case that he hoped would be a "positive lesson" in a national dialogue on race.

Obama, the first black U.S. president, said it was a "friendly, thoughtful" conversation over beer at the White House with prominent Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, who is black, and police Sergeant James Crowley, who is white.

Crowley arrested Gates, a well-known documentary filmmaker, for disorderly conduct on July 16 after a confrontation at the professor's home, sparking a media frenzy as Gates, 58, accused the policeman of racial profiling. Crowley, who had taught courses against racial profiling, denied that. [read more]

From Yahoo News; If the medium is the message, then what's the message when politicians use 140-character tweets to talk about their state's dire economic circumstances or ethics charges?

Yesterday, embattled Govs. Sarah Palin and Arnold Schwarzenegger addressed career-changing (or ending) issues facing them...on Twitter. Palin was responding to a new report on ethics charges against her, tweeting:

Re inaccurate story floating re:ethics violation/Legal Defense Fund;matter is still pending;new info was just requested even;no final report. [read more]

From Yahoo News; WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Public support for President Barack Obama's handling of healthcare reform, the pillar of his legislative agenda, has fallen below 50 percent for the first time, a Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Monday said.

Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress have run into stiff opposition this month as they try to pass legislation to restructure the $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare industry through the creation of a government-run health insurance program.

Republicans and some fiscally conservative Democrats argue the plan, with an estimated cost of more than $1 trillion, could hurt small businesses, add to budget deficits and reduce the quality of medical care for many Americans.

Those concerns may be having an impact on the public, according to the poll, which showed 49 percent of respondents approving of Obama's stand on the issue compared to 57 percent in April.

Those saying they disapproved rose to 44 percent from 29 percent during the same period. [read more]

From Reuters; WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The CIA withheld information from Congress about a secret counterterrorism program on orders from former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, a U.S. senator said on Sunday amid calls for an investigation.

Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein told "Fox News Sunday" that CIA Director Leon Panetta disclosed Cheney's involvement when he briefed members of Congress two weeks ago. She said Panetta told them he had canceled the program.

President Barack Obama appointed Panetta to head the agency early this year. The still-secret program, which The New York Times said never became operational, began after the September 11 attacks on the United States. [read more]

From Associated Press; WASILLA, Alaska – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin abruptly announced Friday she is resigning from office at the end of the month, a shocking move that rattled the Republican party but left open the possibility she would seek a run for the White House in 2012.

Palin, 45, and her staff kept her future plans shrouded in mystery, and it was unclear if the controversial hockey mom would quietly return to private life or begin laying the foundation for a presidential bid.

Palin's spokesman, David Murrow, said the governor didn't say anything to him about this being her "political finale." He said he interpreted Palin's comment about working outside government as reflecting her current job only.

"She's looking forward to serving the public outside the governor's chair," he said. [read more]

From NY Times; Immigration authorities had bad news this week for American Apparel, the T-shirt maker based in downtown Los Angeles: About 1,800 of its employees appeared to be illegal immigrants not authorized to work in the United States.
But in contrast to the high-profile raids that marked the enforcement approach of the Bush administration, no federal agents with criminal warrants stormed the company’s factories and rounded up employees. Instead, the federal immigration agency sent American Apparel a written notice that it faced civil fines and would have to fire any workers confirmed to be unauthorized.

The treatment of American Apparel, which has more than 5,600 factory employees in Los Angeles alone, is the most prominent demonstration of a new strategy by the Obama administration to curb the employment of illegal immigrants by focusing on employers who hire them — and doing so in a less confrontational manner than in years past. [read more]

From Human Events; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to re-write House rules today to ensure that the Republican minority is unable to have any influence on legislation. Pelosi’s proposals are so draconian, and will so polarize the Capitol, that any thought President-elect Obama has of bipartisan cooperation will be rendered impossible before he even takes office.

Pelosi’s rule changes -- which may be voted on today -- will reverse the fairness rules that were written around Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America.”

In reaction, the House Republican leadership is sending a letter today to Pelosi to object to changes to House Rules this week that would bar Republicans from offering alternative bills, amendments to Democrat bills or even the guarantee of open debate accessible by motions to recommit for any piece of legislation during the entire 111th Congress. These procedural abuses, as outlined in the below letter obtained by HUMAN EVENTS, would also include the repeal of six-year limit for committee chairmen and other House Rules reform measures enacted in 1995 as part of the Contract with America. [read more]