People criticized President Barack Obama for proposing small bail initiatives during his State of the Union address. Gone are the measures to confront climate change or to improve the immigration system.

Instead the president settled for small measures that can be passed unilaterally. He has several in his list and he mentioned three more in his recent State of the Union address. These are the Trade Enforcement Unit to check on China, Veterans Job Corps to help communities hire veterans as firefighters and cops, and a Financial Crimes Unit to investigate Wall Street.

The president knows that the coming year would have more gridlock and he promised that he would fight it with action. This would place Congress on the defensive for failing to improve the economy. He wants the public to think that he’s doing something to help the economy while Congress does nothing.

This type of strategy worked for Harry Truman when the Republicans controlled congress in 1948. This is a complicated situation for Obama because he has a Democratic Senate. Congress’ approval rating is 13 percent according to the latest NBC poll.

Obama’s effort to skirt around Congress is similar to what Democratic president Bill Clinton did after the GOP got control of Congress. But the difference is that Clinton chose programs based on values such advocating school uniforms and V-chips to control what children watch on TV.

President Barack Obama gave a populist economic vision during his recent State of the Union address. This would widen the policy battle between the Democrats and Republicans. The president wants to increase the tax on wealthier Americans, support domestic manufacturing, and launch a new probe into the mortgage crisis.

The president’s initiatives would place him as the defender of Americans from the unbalanced tax code. The president said that the same rules should apply from top to bottom. There should be no bailouts, no handouts, and no copouts.

The issues he tackled will be the same ones that Americans would hear all throughout the year as President Obama tries to convince voters to vote for him again. He also wants to discourage companies from outsourcing jobs out of the country.

The president gave little details about his initiatives as he tried to rally the nation to return to old-fashioned American values. He didn’t state anything directly against the GOP but all the initiatives were the opposite of what the Republicans hope to achieve with their policies.

Aside from the year-end extension of the payroll-tax cut, most of President Obama’s ideas don’t have the chance to be approved in Congress. But there are others that he could enact unilaterally, such as the creation of a government task force that would enforce trade laws to crack down on China.

President Barack Obama is set to deliver his annual State of the Union address to Congress but most of the goals that he set in previous speeches. Some of the goals include reforming the immigration laws and meeting congressional leaders of both parties each month.

The president’s promises were broken because of congressional opposition as well as being overshadowed by other priorities. These are the realities of a government full of bureaucracy. The State of the Union is an opportunity for the president to state his case in front of both houses of Congress and on primetime TV.

Just like his predecessors, President Obama laid out a lot of promises that turned out to be fleeting because he can’t get the approval from congress. He also can’t follow-through on some of the promises that he started.

President Obama’s first term is nearing its end and it was characterized by a divided government. The Republicans also made it hard for the president to achieve anything. His State of the Union speech on Tuesday would probably include a new list of initiatives that the president would try to achieve before his term ends.

Last year, the president made his State of the Union address after an assassination try on Representative Gabrielle Giffords. He called for national unity, which has never happened because Washington engaged into one partisan dispute over another.

The Justice Department rejected a new South Carolina law that requires the voters to present photo identification. It stated that the law would suppress the turnout of otherwise qualified minority voters. The move by the department was the first since it used its powers to block voter identification law, as stated under the Voting Rights Act.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. gave a speech that signaled an aggressive stance in reviewing new state voting restrictions. Most of the new laws were passed by Republicans as a way to fight fraud.

Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney for civil rights, sent a letter to the South Carolina government stating that the new requirement would result into significant racial disparities. He cited data given by the state that showed that there were 81,938 minority citizens who have already registered to vote but lack the ID requirement. At least 20 percent of the minority voters would be disenfranchised by the new law than white voters.

South Carolina must now drop the proposal or ask a federal court in the District of Columbia to approve the law. Analysts say that the state would most likely go to court and this could set up a decision in the Supreme Court with regards to the Voting Rights Acts.

Penn State’s special investigative committee that was formed after allegations of child sex abuse against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky were made public calls for a news conference. It is scheduled for Monday morning in Philadelphia.

The trustees committee is still in the process of examining the actions taken by the university officials with regards to the allegations of sexual abuse that was detailed in a grand jury report released earlier this month. The report stated how Sandusky had sexual contact with eight boys whom he met via the charity he founded in 1977.

The Second Mile is the charity that Sandusky founded. It is where he met the young boys who were allegedly abused by him. The organization is also conducting its own probe on the charges. Most of the claimed sexual contact happened on Penn State’s campus, which included the showers in a football facility. Sandusky retired as Penn State football coach in 1999 but he still got access to the university’s facilities.

Because of the scandal, Penn State’s legendary coach Joe Paterno and university president Graham Spanier lost their jobs. Two other school officials were slapped with perjury charges. The scandal affected the university, the Department of Education as well as the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Texas Governor Rick Perry just made plans to visit South Carolina during his summer travel tour. The Republican governor is building up his presidential bid by visiting an early presidential nominating state, which is his first this year.

Governor Perry hasn’t officially announced his decision with regards to his presidential nomination bid but his visit to South Carolina will bring him closer to it. He is scheduled to give a speech at a Red State conservative blogger conference on August 13 in Charleston. The event takes place on the same day as the Iowa straw poll, which is one of the earliest momentum making surveys leading to the 2012 presidential elections.

Politicians who wish to win the nomination would want to court the early voting states, which are Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire. To win in these states, candidates must make frequent visits to the said states and woo its local officials. The governor hasn’t been to Iowa since the 2008 presidential race when he campaigned for former New York Rudy Giuliani.

Governor Perry insisted that he would not run for president but his actions imply the opposition. In recent weeks his advisers began laying out the groundwork for a campaign in Iowa. His team says that the governor will announce his intentions in the coming weeks.

Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts said that at least two tornadoes rampaged through central and western Massachusetts, which slammed debris into buildings and killed four people. Two people died in Westfield, one in Brimfield and one in West Springfield. There were no details released about the victims.

The tornadoes did a lot of damage in Springfield, which is the state’s third largest city. State police said that there were 33 injuries in Springfield and five of those injured required surgery. Governor Patrick said that the more powerful of the two tornadoes went from Westfield towards the community of Douglas. The second tornado had a path from West Springfield and moved towards Sturbridge.

The governor had to declare a state of emergency and called up 1,000 National Guardsmen. The death toll is just the initial number reported to the authorities and the governor expects the number of inured people to rise.

The storm hit the Springfield area after a tornado warning was issued for the East Coast, which includes Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Senator John Kerry said that he would join the governor for a tour to observe the damage caused by the tornadoes. Homes and other buildings were damaged in Hampden County with at least 48,000 homes without electricity.

Tim Pawlenty is a former Minnesota governor who is trying to get the Republican nod to be its nominee in the next presidential election. He is said to be the leader that can restore the country’s economy and attract the investors back.

Part of his plan to gain the advantage among the other Republican hopefuls, Pawlenty will show up in different places such as Ohio, which is considered as the traditional battleground state and at present has a 9 percent unemployment rate.

Pawlenty has a lot of ground to cover if he wants to get the Republican nomination against popular personalities, such as former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. The latter is currently leading the race for the right to go against President Barack Obama in 2012.

Pawlenty believes that he can unite the social wing and fiscal wings of the Republican conservatives. He advocates common-sense Midwestern values of frugality and hard work. He reminds people that he came from humble beginnings and became the Republican governor of a predominantly Democratic state.

Part of Pawlenty’s agenda is to bring back the investors into the country and strengthen its economic leadership, which is currently losing ground to China. He reiterated that the United States should be the leader in everything and not lag behind anyone else.

House Majority Leader Brian Bosma announced that Minority Leader Patrick Bauer and his fellow Democrats would return in Indiana and end their boycott against the Republican agenda, which the Democrats considered as anti-union and public education. This move will end the longest legislative walkouts in recent United States history.

As a sign of protest against the 11 legislations filed by the Republicans, Bauer and the other House Democrats walked out of the session and fled to an Illinois hotel last February 22. This prevented a quorum needed to conduct any official state business.

Since the walkout, the Republicans killed the right to work proposal that would have banned union representation fees from being one of the conditions of employment in the state. They also agreed to amend the other bills, such as the limiting the number of students that can use tax money to attend private schools via a voucher program.

During the stand-off, the Republicans had resorted to dirty tactics, including name-calling, rallies, launch of a political ad campaign, and imposing of a $350 a day fine for the absent Democrats. Last week both parties simmered down as Bosma and Bauer discussed to reach a compromise.

House Majority Leader Bosma stated that the Republicans are open to amend their proposals but they would not take any item off their proposed agenda. The Republicans in both House and Senate assured the Democrats that the right to work bill will not be resurrected this year.

Former congresswoman Heather Wilson is seeking the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat, which is currently held by Democrat Jeff Bingaman who is retiring in two years. The former congressional representative from Albuquerque’s pan to run for Senate was first reported in Politico, an online news site. According to Republican volunteers, Wilson will make her official announcement on Monday. When Wilson was asked about the issue, she declined to comment on it.

Heather Wilson used to represent the First Congressional District of New Mexico from 1998 to 2008. She gave up her Congressional seat to run for the U.S. Senate seat but she lost in the Republican primary against U.S. Representative Steve Pearce.

Wilson hasn’t officially announced her intent to run for Senate but she is already attacked by both parties. New Mexico State Democratic Chairman Javier Gonzales brought up Wilson’s involvement in the firing for U.S. Attorney David Iglesias of Albuquerque. Iglesias claimed that then Congresswoman Wilson pressured him to charge former state Senator Manny Aragon before the 2006 elections.

The conservatives also asked the GOP leaders to think hard and don’t be hasty with their decisions to avoid the repeat of the 2008 Senate race that resulted into no national Republican representatives. Steve Pearce of Southern New Mexico stated that the Tea Party should be included in the process of selecting a conservative candidate in the upcoming elections.