That's how much Obama is going to ask for under his housing plan.

Earlier reports said more than $50 billion, but it looks like the figure is going to be $75 billion now.

While everyone is paying attention to stimulus news, President Obama has authorized sending roughly 12,000 troops to Afghanistan, 8,000 Marines and a 4,000-soldier Army brigade, plus support troops, according to the Politico.

Tlhe stimulus bill has been signed.

And, now without even giving time for the ink to dry on the legislation President Obama will be jetting off to Phoenix, Arizona where he will ask taxpayers to pony up another $50 billion to bailout the banks and people who can't afford their mortgages under his new housing plan.

Yes, that's right. He's going to bailout banks and bad borrowers. Again. This will come less than 24 hours after he just spent $787 billion and less than a week after his uninspiring Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner couldn't explain the Administration's plan to spend $350 billion in TARP funds.

My profile on Mitt Romney for the Washington Post's WhoRunsGov.com project is live if you'd like to give it a read.

I'm booked for Fox's Live Desk at 2:20pm to talk about the stimulus bill.

Yesterday, I told you about the film Speaker Pelosi's daughter has produced for HBO. The Washington Post’s Michael Leahy called it “drive-by journalism, to put it charitably, a string of stupefyingly brief hit-and-run interviews” in his review. He apparently did not read her Salon interview, where she described what it was like talking with GOP voters on the campaign trail.

PELOSI: For me, it wasn't so much the Muslim thing, it was the socialist thing. Respectfully, I wanted to say to them, I live on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. I am on the winning side of capitalism. I work for HBO, corporate America. The Man has been good to me. You, on the other hand, are driving a truck that says, ‘Obama is a socialist idiot,’ and you're in a much lower tax bracket than most of the people in Manhattan that are voting for Obama.” 

Pelosi the Younger also blames blogs for contributing to all the "hate" she saw on the campaign trail coming from conservatives. 

"I think that the blogs have poisoned the political atmosphere in such a way that I never saw this kind of anger and hatred in 2000," she said. In 2008, I was impressed by how angry it got. But you know elections have gotten nasty. I do think that blogs have really given people a place to, I don't know, maybe it's therapeutic for them. But it’s really gotten them fired up in a way. They talk to each other online and then they get worked up and then they go meet each other at rallies. And I just feel like the Internet has really changed the climate at the political rallies."

H/T Newsbusters

Connecticut voters haven’t forgotten the sweetheart mortgage their state’s senior senator took from Countrywide while overseeing what we are repeatedly told is the greatest banking and housing in history as Chairman of the Senate’s Banking Committee.

51 percent of Connecticut voters said they “probably won’t” or “definitely won’t” vote to reelect him in 2010, according to Quinnipiac.

These are the worst ratings Dodd has ever received. 42 percent of voters said they would “definitely” or “probably” vote for Dodd.

“Sen. Dodd is vulnerable. His approval has sunk to a new low. More voters disapprove than approve of the job he is doing for the first time in 15 years of polling,” Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz said. “The mortgage controversy has taken a toll on his approval rating. Most voters are not satisfied with Dodd's explanation and say they are less likely to vote for him next year because of it.”

Kudos to CNSNews.com reporter Fred Lucas for this story.

He's found five pages of exceptions to a prohibition in the stimulus bill to allow the sale of government controlled health records. That's right. Not only will HHS officials store them and read them for whatever purpose they may have, they will be able to SELL your personal medical information as well.

This is from Lucas's story:

Though the legislation says there is a “prohibition on sale of electronic health records or protected health information,” there are five pages of exceptions to the prohibition that include research, treatment of an individual, or a decision by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to wave the prohibition. (See Legislation, PDF pages 391-395.)
 
One exception listed in the legislation is if, “The purpose of the exchange is for public health activities.” Another exception is apparently to ensure the data – if sold – are not for commercial reasons, saying, “The purpose of the exchange is for research and the price charged reflects costs of preparation and transmittal of the data for such purpose.”
 
Another exception is rather broad saying, “The purpose of the exchange is otherwise determined by the secretary in regulations to be similarly necessary and appropriate” in accordance with the other exceptions.

Nancy Pelosi’s aspiring filmmaker daughter Alexandra received an incredibly caustic review for her latest “documentary” from the Washington Post’s Michael Leahy.

HBO’s “Right America: Feeling Wronged—Some Voices from the Campaign Trail, which premieres Tuesday evening, is Pelosi’s attempt to providing a forum for Republicans “who saw their hopes and dreams evaporate in the wake of a Democratic victory” in 2008.

“It's drive-by journalism, to put it charitably, a string of stupefyingly brief hit-and-run interviews with a bunch of unidentified people who we know are going to say nothing that will surprise us,” Leahy wrote. “By then, we've already figured out they're going to be fried by Pelosi's camera. We know they're going to sound like yahoos, often goaded, always reduced to sound bites and caricatures.

Given the clout Big Labor has over the Democratic party and the upcoming “card check” legislation Sen. Roland Burris (D.-Ill.) could be voting on soon, Burris’s recently disclosed discussions with labor leader Ed Smith warrant further inquiry.

As you all know, Burris was controversially tapped to become senator by disgraced Governor Rod Blagojevich last January after federal investigators announced they had evidence the governor had attempted to “sell” President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat. And, remember U.S. Attorney Patrick’s Fitzgerald’s criminal complaint against Gov. Blagojevich said the governor engaged in discussions with his chief of staff and an unnamed SEIU official about a “three way” deal to make Blagojevich head of an SEIU-affiliated organization called "Change to Win" in exchange for appointing the SEIU's preferred candidate.

Blagojevich asked he be paid a $250,000-$300,000 salary for the labor slot.

The SEIU official was later identified as Tom Balanoff, who acted as “an emissary” for Valerie Jarrett.

But now that Burris has revealed he discussed the appointment with Smith, that brings another labor leader into the mix, showing how closely labor was to Chicago’s “pay to play” politics.

Smith, president of union insurance provider ULLICO Inc., is one of three people associated with disgraced Governor Rod Blagojevich that Burris suddenly “remembered” discussing his appointment with. Smith also serves as alderman of the 28^th ward in Chicago.

Burris said he initiated the conversation by calling Smith. "I asked Smith whether I had any chance of to be appointed to the Senate seat," Burris said.

Weeks after being sworn in as a new U.S. senator, submitted an updated affidavit to the Illinois State House detailing these conversations. The other two people were the governor’s brother, Robert, who headed the governor’s fundraising arm and solicited Burris for hefty donations and John Harris, the governor’s former chief of staff, with whom Burris discussed a government job his nephew was pursuing.

Burris describes Smith "as a friend and supporter of the former governor's" but defensively says, “I do not consider Mr. Smith closely related to or a representative of Governor Blagojevich” in the new affidavit, but leading media outlets say otherwise.

The Chicago Tribune describes Smith as “a labor ally of the former governor.”

So what is it? Was Smith close to Blagojevich or not?  Why would Burris be discussing the "chances" of his appointment otherwise? This doesn't pass the smell test. And, given the fact important labor legislation may be soon coming up for a vote, more urgency is needed in finding out exactly what role Big Labor played in helping the former governor decide Burris was the right man to send to Washington.