Friday, December 31, 2010

Obama's 2010: By the Numbers

WASHINGTON - No numbers in the year just ending are more consequential for President Obama than the results of the midterm elections. His party lost seats in the Senate and its majority in the House. The full impact of those numbers will only start to be felt when the 112th Congress convenes next Wednesday.

But other numbers from 2010 add shading and perspective to other aspects of the second year of the Obama presidency:

Speeches, statements and remarks: 491

-Since taking office: 883

News conferences and press availabilities: 27

-Formal, solo White House Press Conferences: 6

-Since taking office: 69 total, 11 WH.

Town hall meetings: 17

-Since taking office: 40

-Backyard chats: 7

Domestic trips: 65 spanning 104 days

-Since taking office: 111 spanning 176 days

States visited for the first time: 9

-Since taking office: 38

Vacation trips: 6 (all or part of 32 days)

-Since taking office: 10 spanning 58 days

Foreign trips: 6 trips to 8 countries spanning 22 days.

-Since taking office: 16 trips to 25 countries spanning 70 days.

Flights on Air Force One: 172

-Since taking office: 328

Flights on Marine One: 196

-Since taking office: 386

Unemployment Rates:

-January 8 2010: 10 percent.

-December 3, 2010: 9.8 percent.

National Debt in 2010: Up $1.56-trillion

-January 1, 2010: $12.311-trillion

-December 28, 2010: $13.871-trillion

Bills signed in 2010: 203.

-Since taking office: 329.

Cabinet meetings: 6

-Since taking office: 12

Visits to Camp David:

-In 2010: 4 visits, 8 days.

-Since taking office: 15 visits: 35 days.

Recreation:

-Golf: 29 rounds in 2010

-Since taking office: 57 rounds.

-Basketball: 20 basketball outings.

-Since taking office: 28

Interviews: 107 in 2010

-Since taking office: 254

Meetings with foreign leaders: In 2010, President Obama had face-to-face meetings with 61 foreign leaders, 30 for the first time.

Days of no appearances: 24

-Since taking office: 45

Presidential pardons: 9

-President Obama granted the first and only pardons of his presidency on Dec 3, 2010.

After 'progress,' Obama rating stays

President Obama has averaged a 46 percent approval rating since November.

Close The spate of legislative accomplishments in the lame-duck session celebrated by the White House appears to have had little effect on President Obama’s approval rating, according to Gallup’s latest tracking poll.

Between Dec. 26 and 28 – soon after Obama arrived in Hawaii for his Christmas vacation – Obama’s approval rating was 47 percent, two points lower than his rating from the previous week, Gallup reports.
He has averaged a 46 percent rating since November.

Before leaving for Hawaii, Obama called an end-of-the-year press conference to recall some of Congress’s final moves, like repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” ratifying the START pact with Russia and passing his tax-cut plan with Republicans.
He labeled the activity “a season of progress for the American people.”

Where were these jerkoffs when GWB REAGAN GHB where taking their vactions in Texas, California, Maine!?

Obama vacation costing more than $1.4M, paper claims

No one knows exactly how much President Obama's vacation in Hawaii is costing taxpayers -- neither the White House nor the Secret Service like to provide such information -- but one local news outlet is putting the tab at more than $1.4 million, at least.

The Hawaii Reporter did some calculating, though, as we've explained before, it's almost impossible to assess the true cost of these kinds of trips.

For example, most of the cost of the Reporter's estimate is the president's Air Force One ride to Hawaii on the night of Dec. 22; Air Force One is under constant maintenance, and could well be used even if the president wasn't on vacation. (The paper also points out that Mrs. Obama and the Obama daughters flew out early to the islands.)

Secret Service costs are included, but they would be guarding the president anyway, though their housing has to be paid for when they are on the road. The same applies to the president's staff.

President Obama gets a Shave Ice in Hawaii.CAPTIONBy Pool, Getty ImagesWe should also point out, as the Reporter does, that Obama is paying his own house rental.

And there are also a host of unknown costs, and one basic truth: Being president is expensive, especially when they are on the road.

Here's part of the paper's breakdown:

With estimates secured from a host of professionals, city officials and law enforcement, Hawaii Reporter estimates costs to taxpayers will at least include:

Mrs. Obama's early flight to Hawaii: $63,000 (White House Dossier)
Obama's round trip flight to Hawaii: $1 million (GAO estimates)
Housing in beachfront homes for Secret Service and Seals in Kailua ($1,200 a day for 14 days): $16,800
Costs for White House staff staying at Moana Hotel: $134,400 ($400 per day for 24 staff) -- excluding meals and other room costs
Police overtime: $250,000 (2009 costs reported by Honolulu Police Department)
Ambulance: $10,000 (City Spokesperson)
TOTAL COST: $1,474,200

UNKNOWN COSTS:
Rental of office building in Kailua on canal
Security upgrades and additional phone lines
Costs for car rentals and fuel for White House staff staying at Moana Hotel (Secret Service imports most of the cars used here to escort the president)
Surveillance before the president arrives
Travel costs for Secret Service and White House staff traveling ahead of the President

US Teen Birth Rate Still Far Higher Than W. Europe

ATLANTA (AP) — The rate of teen births in the U.S. is at its lowest level in almost 70 years. Yet, the sobering context is that the teen pregnancy rate is far lower in many other countries.

The most convincing explanation is that contraceptive use is much higher among teens in most Western European countries.

Last week, U.S. health officials released new government figures for 2009 showing 39 births per 1,000 girls, ages 15 through 19 — the lowest rate since records have been kept on this issue.

That's close to the teen birth rate for Romania, Turkey and Bulgaria in 2007, the latest numbers available from the World Bank, which collects a variety of data gauging international development.

The teen birth rate for Western Europe and a few other countries is dramatically lower. In the United Kingdom it's 24 per 1,000 girls. In traditionally Catholic Ireland, it's 16 and in Italy it's 5. France's rate is 7 per 1,000. Canada's rate is under 13, Sweden's is under 8, Japan's is about 5, and in the Netherlands it's close to 4.

The disparity has existed for decades. Several experts say the reason mostly has to do with more realistic approaches to birth control.

Birth control is less expensive and easier for teens to get in many other developed countries than in the United States. And teachers, parents and physicians tend to be more accepting of teenage sexuality and more likely to encourage use of contraception, said Sarah Brown, chief executive of the Washington, D.C.-based National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

Teen births are a concern: The hazards of teen pregnancy include higher dropout rates, as well as possible health and other problems for young mothers and their kids.

There are few comprehensive studies of why teen birth rates vary from country to country. And experts say there's probably not one overarching explanation. For example, the reason for a low teen birth rate may be different in the Netherlands, where prostitution is legal, than in Japan, which traditionally has a more conservative culture when it comes to sex and sex education.

Some countries may have predominant social values that discourage teenage sex, but abstinence-only education programs — a hot topic in the United States — are generally not considered a major reason other countries have lower teen birth rates.

"Not at all," said Cecilia Ekeus, a researcher in international public health at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute.

"We're working the opposite way," she added, describing Sweden's comprehensive sex education and easy teen access to condoms and birth control pills.

Experts say teen births can be lower when:

—Teens have less sex.

—Teens use contraception correctly and often.

—A larger proportion of pregnant teens has an abortion.

But do those explain the international differences?

As to the first, there is no evidence teens in Europe are having less sex than American teens, so that's not considered a likely explanation.

If anything, "there may be more sex there than here" among teenagers, said Carl Haub, a demographer with the Washington, D.C.-based Population Reference Bureau.

As to the third, most international comparisons of abortion rates are considered dated and somewhat unreliable because of incomplete information. One smaller study found the United States had a higher abortion rate than Canada and some European countries, and not all experts think it's a major reason for different birth rates.

But some researchers say abortion is a significant factor in some nations. In Sweden, for example, abortions are legal without parental consent — and quite common. Indeed, one in two women who get pregnant in their lifetime has an abortion, said Ekeus.

There's much more consensus that birth control is the key to a lower teen birth rate.

Studies indicate that about 80 percent of sexually active teen girls in Sweden and about 88 percent in England and France use contraception. In the United States, it's about 61 percent.

And in some European countries they are more likely to use longer-lasting forms of birth control, such as the IUD, experts said.

Other explanations? Perhaps race and ethnicity, said Dr. Monique Chireau, a Duke University assistant professor who researches adolescent pregnancy.

She noted the birth rate for white U.S. teens — about 26 per 1,000 — is much lower then the black and Hispanic rates (59 and 70, respectively).

"There are distinctions between different ethnicities," and the U.S. whites are more comparable to countries with more homogenous white populations, she said.

Factors like proportions of teens that are married in each country, proportions living in poverty, and other demographics also should be considered, she and others said.

Cultural expectations have a lot to do with it, too, said several sources pointing to societies where teen childbearing is not considered an attractive option.

In Sweden, teen motherhood is so far outside the norm that young moms often are assumed to have other problems like a psychiatric diagnosis or drug addiction, Ekeus said.

Swedish teen mothers "differ very much from the general population," she said.

Man Strips at Va. Airport Checkpoint in Protest

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Police say a man stripped to his underwear at a Virginia airport checkpoint in a protest against security procedures.

Airport police said the man took off his shirt and pants at Richmond International Airport on Thursday. He had scrawled across his chest a reference to the Constitution's 4th Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

Police identified the man as 21-year-old Aaron B. Tobey of Chalottesville, Va. He told police he was a student at the University of Cincinnati.

Tobey was interviewed by airport police and federal authorities, issued a citation for disorderly conduct and released. He is scheduled for arraignment on Jan. 10.