Saturday, January 10, 2009

We're Not Bitter Or Anything...But...



Image Courtesy of NewsMax.

From New England Republican...

Number of States won by:
Democrats: 19
Republicans: 29

Square miles of land won by:
Democrats: 580,000
Republicans: 2,427,000

Population of counties won by:
Democrats: 127 million
Republicans: 143 million

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Democrats: 13.2
Republicans: 2.1


Just saying....

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Another Obama Friend Indicted -- Does The President Elect Know Anyone Moral? Seriously!


Obama supporter, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, was indicted yesterday. Is this getting old, or what?







A Maryland grand jury on Friday indicted Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon on 12 criminal counts, including theft and perjury, for alleged official misconduct beginning when she was a councilwoman.


In addition, the Maryland prosecutor's office charged that for four years Ms. Dixon misused holiday gift cards that were intended to be distributed to needy families. Prosecutors say she gave them to members of her staff and used them to buy herself electronics and clothing.








The mayor and her chief of staff, Demaune Millard, traveled to Chicago yesterday evening and will meet with senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. Dixon "is very excited that she gets to sit at the table and help shape what an economic stimulus blueprint could look like," said Ian Brennan, Dixon's spokesman. The mayor was invited because of her work on the urban policy work group for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.




You get it yet? Is anyone connecting the dots? Has anyone realized yet that Barack Obama has a poor choice in friends? Blago...Jeremiah Wright...Tony Rezko...Rahm Emanuel...Father Flager...Michelle Obama...Louis Farrakhan...Bill Richardson...Iran....Hamas...Harry Reid...Bill Clinton...Hillary Clinton...Nancy Pelosi...Barney Frank...Valerie Jarrett...Karl Marx....




Yawn! 60 Million Strong voted for this guy! Good Luck! Hope we don't have to say "I told you so"!




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Terrorists Tell Obama "If you want to keep all your promises to your nation...withdraw all your troops from Afghanistan and other Islamic nations" WTF

Why is no one in the media reporting this? Liberal or otherwise?

JihadWatch.org is reporting this chilling item.

Afghan jihadist to Obama: "You should also cause one more addition to the U.S. history by becoming the first president to accept the Truth and by adopting the true faith of Islam"

In issuing this invitation to Obama to accept Islam, Maulawy Anwarulhaq Mujahid is following Muhammad's instructions:

Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war...When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action.

If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them....If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya.

If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah's help and fight them. (Sahih Muslim 4294)

In other words, the three options are conversion, subjugation, or war.

"In Open Letter to Barack Obama, the Chief of Tora Bora Battlefield In Afghanistan Warns: The Flames of this Fire will Blow Up on Washington," from MEMRI, January 8 (thanks to M.):

In advance of Barack Obama’s upcoming inauguration as U.S. President, the Taliban in Afghanistan led by Mullah Omar have released an open letter. Entitled "An Open Letter to the White House from the Peaks of Tora Bora," the letter notes that Obama has created history by becoming the first African American to control the White House.

The letter, dated December 27, 2008, urges him to create another history by accepting Islam. The letter was issued by Maulawy Anwarulhaq Mujahid, whose designation reads as the Chief of the Tora Bora Battlefield. It was simultaneously published in Pashtu, Urdu and English languages on the Pashtu language website, http://www.toorabora.com/.

Following are some excerpts from the letter translated from the Urdu version:"As Long as Baitul Muqaddas Remains in a State of Occupation, Israel and its Supporters will not Remain in Peace"


"President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama!

"First of all, you must know that protection from the wretchedness in the world and the fire of Hell is only available in Islam. Islam is the only religion that guarantees success in this world and in the Hereafter.

"You are the first black in the U.S. history who has established control on the White House; you should also cause one more addition to the U.S. history by becoming the first president to accept the Truth and by adopting the true faith of Islam....

"Do you know that your nation has been pushed into a war against such an Ummah that is like a single body; there is a beginning to this war, but there is no end.

"America thinks that an attack on an Islamic country is just an attack on a single country; this view is wrong; this is why the war has been longer than your expectation, supplies [to troops] have been more than estimated, and loss [of soldiers’ lives] several times more than you thought of. This is not our claim; it is accepted by [George] Bush....[...]

"The people voted you because they expect that you will restore the status of America [that was lost during George Bush’s times], that you will restore the deteriorating U.S. economy and peace; and you will free their beloved children from this war. You can gauge from this how dangerous waves have drowned the Americans that in order to find salvation they are trying to catch every weak straw.

"If you want to keep all your promises to your nation, to give the Americans humanity instead of savagery, peace instead of war, and a successful economy instead of poverty, you should quickly declare the policies of the U.S. and [George] Bush as false."

"Immediately, withdraw all your troops from Afghanistan and other Islamic nations, apologize to the oppressed nations and own up the responsibility for all of their losses.

"Every incident has a cause and until these causes are eliminated, no incident can be prevented [against the U.S.]. The 9/11 attacks in the U.S. and all attacks have some or the other causes. In order to bring peace to your nation and benefits to America, you should try to find and eliminate these causes; which is about America’s failed policy on Israel. Israel is a source of mischief and conflict not only for the Middle East but for the entire world. [...]

"You have technological [Sic.] enemies here [in Afghanistan] who can never bear your occupation... Do you remember the defeat in Vietnam? You have once tested [your strength in] this place; it will be meaningless to try it again. But if you want to make this mistake again be prepared that the flames of this fire will blow up on the White House too, and one day situations like those in [the Afghan province of] Helmand and [the Iraqi town of] Fallujah will visit in the cities like New York and Washington....

Tiny Minority of Extremists™ Update:

"Afghans have the ability to fight every kind of war to protect their faith and nation. Most of those people you regard as your supporters, friends or slaves hate you... and they silently and by heart support the Mujahideen confronting you....


This is really, REALLY, frightening.

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Democrats Want to Prosecute the CIA and Release Confidential Documents. Will Obama Administration Put National Security At Risk?

"I was clear throughout this campaign and was clear throughout this transition that under my administration the United States does not torture. We will abide by the Geneva Conventions. We will uphold our highest ideals. We must adhere to our values as diligently as we protect our safety with no exceptions." -- Barack Obama sympathizing with terrorists.

From the Associated Press via Breitbart:

WASHINGTON (AP) - While eager to find out more about the Bush administration's harsh interrogation and detainee policies, Senate Democrats are hinting that spy agency veterans need not fear that the groundwork is being laid for punishing those who carried them out.

People working in intelligence agencies worry that they may find themselves pursued in criminal and civil courts over their actions now that a Democratic administration critical of President Bush's policies is coming into power.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein told The Associated Press in an interview this week that there is a clear distinction between policymakers and those who execute the policy.

"They (the CIA) carry out orders and the orders come from the(National Security Council) and the White House, so there's not a lot of policy debate that goes on there," said Feinstein, D-Calif. "We're going to continue our looking into the situation and I think that is up to the administration and the director."


Feinstein declined to comment on whether her committee would take specific action to offer legal cover to those involved in harsh interrogations that some critics say amount to torture.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he is interested in revealing the origins and sweep of the Bush administration's controversial interrogation program and is willing to sponsor legislation if necessary to release many of the documents about the program.

Scores of secret documents have been assembled for the Senate Intelligence Committee's bipartisan investigation into the CIA's destruction of videotapes that showed U.S. interrogators conducting waterboarding of two terrorism suspects.

Wyden, a Senate confidant of Obama's, wants to declassify many top-secret documents that would reveal how the program came to be, whether severe methods have been effective in yielding useful intelligence, and what the legal arguments were for allowing them.

"I think the U.S. has got to come clean on this," he said. "It's about a program that goes right to the heart of what's needed to keep America safe and keep our moral authority in the world."



So the Liberals want to prosecute Intelligence employees for carrying out their duties? They want to legitimize the terrorists? They want to undercut the military?

And excuse me, Mr. Obama, but "what's needed to keep America safe" is to continue the policies of George Bush with respect to counter-terrorism and not worry about the Liberal Leftist Radical Media's "bleeding heart feelings" for those people trying to kill us and destroy our way of life!!!!!

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"Atlas Shrugged" Becoming Reality - Is Ayn Rand a 20th Century Nostradamus? Obama's Economic Plan Eerily Similar to Classic Novel


The Ayn Rand Institute (ARI seeks to spearhead a cultural renaissance that will reverse the anti-reason, anti-individualism, anti-freedom, anti-capitalist trends in today’s culture) released this press release yesterday titled "Obama's Backwards Economics"

Washington, D.C.--“Barack Obama claims that Americans can only stave off economic disaster by trillions in government spending--which means trillions of dollars taxed or borrowed to finance government make-work programs,” said Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights.

“Obama-nomics couldn’t be more wrong.


“Prosperity requires that the government drastically cut government spending. That way, as much real capital as possible will remain in private hands, and be put to productive use by entrepreneurs to create valuable goods and services to sell at home and abroad. By taxing and inflating our wealth away, Obama will simply be creating more of the crushing debt that brought about the current crisis.” “You don’t put out a fire with more gasoline. And you don’t end a recession by destroying capital.”


Stephen Moore wrote a wonderful column in Friday's Wall Street Journal titled, "'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years".


For the uninitiated, the moral of the story is simply this: Politicians invariably respond to crises -- that in most cases they themselves created -- by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.

In the book, these relentless wealth redistributionists and their programs are disparaged as "the looters and their laws." Every new act of government futility and stupidity carries with it a benevolent sounding title. These include the "Anti-Greed Act" to redistribute income (sounds like Charlie Rangel's promises soak-the-rich tax bill) and the "Equalization of Opportunity Act" to prevent people from starting more than one business (to give other people a chance). My personal favorite, the "Anti Dog-Eat-Dog Act," aims to restrict cut-throat competition between firms and thus slow the wave of business bankruptcies. Why didn't Hank Paulson think of that?

These acts and edicts sound farcical, yes, but no more so than the actual events in Washington, circa 2008. We already have been served up the $700 billion "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act" and the "Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act." Now that Barack Obama is in town, he will soon sign into law with great urgency the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan." This latest Hail Mary pass will increase the federal budget (which has already expanded by $1.5 trillion in eight years under George Bush) by an additional $1 trillion -- in roughly his first 100 days in office.

The current economic strategy is right out of "Atlas Shrugged": The more incompetent you are in business, the more handouts the politicians will bestow on you. That's the justification for the $2 trillion of subsidies doled out already to keep afloat distressed insurance companies, banks, Wall Street investment houses, and auto companies -- while standing next in line for their share of the booty are real-estate developers, the steel industry, chemical companies, airlines, ethanol producers, construction firms and even catfish farmers. With each successive bailout to "calm the markets," another trillion of national wealth is subsequently lost. Yet, as "Atlas" grimly foretold, we now treat the incompetent who wreck their companies as victims, while those resourceful business owners who manage to make a profit are portrayed as recipients of illegitimate "windfalls."


Finally, from Wikipedia "Atlus Shrugged":


Atlas Shrugged portrays fascism, socialism and communism – any form of state intervention in society – as systemically and fatally flawed. Rand said that it is not a fundamentally political book, but that the politics portrayed in the novel are a result of her attempt to display her image of the ideal person and the individual mind's position and value in society.

Rand argues that independence and individual achievement enable society to survive and thrive, and should be embraced. But this requires a "rational" moral code. She argues that, over time, coerced self-sacrifice (Conservativexpress note: This refers to forced altruism, i.e. welfare) causes any society to self-destruct.


Anybody alive out there!?! Anyone listening?




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Topps Releases Obama "Rookie" Card -- Card Company Celebrates Barack Obama’s Historic Presidential Victory with Commemorative Trading Card Series




Anyone else feeling nauseous?


With the much-anticipated inauguration of the nation's 44th President less than two weeks away, Americans will now have the opportunity to treasure an extraordinary collection of presidential memorabilia. The Topps Company, Inc. today unveiled a Barack Obama commemorative trading card series which pays special tribute to President-Elect Barack Obama and his historic achievements.

"The presidential election of Barack Obama is a milestone event destined to be written about and discussed for generations,” said Topps CEO Scott Silverstein.

“Through the medium of its familiar trading cards, Topps is proud and honored to offer consumers with a one-of-a-kind keepsake of this remarkable moment."

The Topps 90-card series documents, in nearly 200 color photos and fact-filled text, Obama’s only-in-America life story, beginning with his humble childhood and culminating with his incredible rise to the White House.

Each of the 90 cards comprising the Barack Obama Inaugural Edition tell a different and compelling story of his life—from his childhood in Hawaii to his college days at Columbia and Harvard…from his job as a community organizer on Chicago’s South Side to his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004…from his whirlwind presidential campaign to his rousing victory speech on election night. Poignant relationships with his parents, grandparents, wife, children and other family members are featured, as well as those with political figures and global leaders, in photos and words, many culled from Obama’s own speeches and writings.

The series also includes:
• Newsworthy appearances of influential public figures such as Oprah Winfrey, Caroline Kennedy and Bruce Springsteen

• A “first dog” redemption card which entitles fans to receive a printed Topps card featuring the to-be-determined White House pup

• A rare Obama card pictured in his Punahou High School basketball uniform – within a vintage 1978 Topps basketball card design

• Foil stamped inaugural parallel cards

• Silver foil sticker parallels which include powerful slogans and quotes as well as photographic imagery.


Please excuse me while I go throw up a little in my mouth.

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Obama's Weekly Radio Address -- Transcript From Obama's Radio Address

Fair and Balance. Here is the Obama Economic Apocalypse in his own words.

The Transition Team also released its full report The Job Impact of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. (A fascinating read for economics junkies! A real page turner! Better than Cats!)

If nothing is done, economists from across the spectrum tell us that this recession could linger for years and the unemployment rate could reach double digits.

Recovery won’t happen overnight, and it’s likely that things will get worse before they get better. -- Barack Obama 1/10/09

Full Transcript follows.





Courtesy of Change.gov


Remarks of President-Elect Barack Obama Radio Address Saturday, January 10, 2008Washington, DC


We start this new year in the midst of an economic crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime. We learned yesterday that in the past month alone, we lost more than half a million jobs – a total of nearly 2.6 million in the year 2008. Another 3.4 million Americans who want and need full-time work have had to settle for part-time jobs. And families across America are feeling the pinch as they watch debts mount, bills pile up and savings disappear.


These numbers are a stark reminder that we simply cannot continue on our current path. If nothing is done, economists from across the spectrum tell us that this recession could linger for years and the unemployment rate could reach double digits – and they warn that our nation could lose the competitive edge that has served as a foundation for our strength and standing in the world.


It’s not too late to change course – but only if we take immediate and dramatic action. Our first job is to put people back to work and get our economy working again. This is an extraordinary challenge, which is why I’ve taken the extraordinary step of working – even before I take office – with my economic team and leaders of both parties on an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that will call for major investments to revive our economy, create jobs, and lay a solid foundation for future growth.


I asked my nominee for Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Dr. Christina Romer, and the Vice President-Elect’s Chief Economic Adviser, Dr. Jared Bernstein, to conduct a rigorous analysis of this plan and come up with projections of how many jobs it will create – and what kind of jobs they will be. Today, I am releasing a report of their findings so that the American people can see exactly what this plan will mean for their families, their communities, and our economy.


The report confirms that our plan will likely save or create three to four million jobs. 90 percent of these jobs will be created in the private sector – the remaining 10 percent are mainly public sector jobs we save, like the teachers, police officers, firefighters and others who provide vital services in our communities.


The jobs we create will be in businesses large and small across a wide range of industries. And they’ll be the kind of jobs that don’t just put people to work in the short term, but position our economy to lead the world in the long-term.


We’ll create nearly half a million jobs by investing in clean energy – by committing to double the production of alternative energy in the next three years, and by modernizing more than 75% of federal buildings and improving the energy efficiency of two million American homes. These made-in-America jobs building solar panels and wind turbines, developing fuel-efficient cars and new energy technologies pay well, and they can’t be outsourced.


We’ll create hundreds of thousands of jobs by improving health care – transitioning to a nationwide system of computerized medical records that won’t just save money, but save lives by preventing deadly medical errors. And we’ll create hundreds of thousands more jobs in education, equipping tens of thousands of schools with 21st century classrooms, labs and computers to help our kids compete with any worker in the world for any job.


We’ll put nearly 400,000 people to work by repairing our infrastructure – our crumbling roads, bridges and schools. And we’ll build the new infrastructure we need to succeed in this new century, investing in science and technology, and laying down miles of new broadband lines so that businesses across our nation can compete with their counterparts around the world.


Finally, we won’t just create jobs, we’ll also provide help for those who’ve lost theirs, and for states and families who’ve been hardest-hit by this recession. That means bi-partisan extensions of unemployment insurance and health care coverage; a $1,000 tax cut for 95 percent of working families; and assistance to help states avoid harmful budget cuts in essential services like police, fire, education and health care.


Now, given the magnitude of the challenges we face, none of this will come easy. Recovery won’t happen overnight, and it’s likely that things will get worse before they get better.


But we have come through moments like this before. We are the nation that has faced down war, depression and fear itself – each time, refusing to yield; each time, refusing to accept a lesser fate. That is the spirit that has always sustained us – that belief that our destiny is not written for us, but by us; that our success is not a matter of chance, but of our own courage and determination. Our resources may be finite, but our will is infinite. And I am confident that if we come together and summon that great American spirit once again, we will meet the challenges of our time and write the next great chapter in our American story.

How did we go from Hope and Change to Doom and Gloom?

Contact Obama.

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Why Obama Will "Own" Recession, "Own" Economy. Will Liberals Blame Bush For Another 8 Years?

Another potentially socialist forecast...

From US News:

For eight decades, Democrats have successfully blamed Republican Herbert Hoover for the decade-long Great Depression. That, even though Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal failed to restore prosperity or dramatically lower unemployment, and his tax increases in 1937 snuffed out a nascent recovery.

Now today's Obamacrats are apparently going to try and Hooverize President Bush in an effort to shield themselves from the potential political fallout of a prolonged recession. It will take years to fix the American economy, Obama says, and years of trillion-dollar budget deficits to do it. And everyday it seems that Team Obama tries to lower economic expectations, such as bearishly predicting that unemployment would hit double-digits.

The not-so-subtle message in the middle of all these pessimistic prognostications: When ya'll go to vote in 2010 and 2012 and a)unemployment is still as high as it's been in decades, b) income growth is sluggish at best, c) the budget deficit is running at a trillion bucks a year, and d) stock prices remain stubbornly low -- hey, don't blame us, you can't rebuild Rome in a day or even in a first term. Remember, Bush really left us a mess.


The Left will argue it takes time to "recover", unless the economy recovers sooner rather than later.

And, really, how can Obama avoid taking responsibility when he will be so actively meddling in the economy? It will be his decision to forego deep and permanent new tax cuts, his decision to not extend the Bush tax cuts, his decision on how to spend the remaining $350 billion in TARP money, his decision to quasi-nationalize healthcare, his decision to push a cap-and-trade carbon emission program and his decision to spend hundreds of billions on a "green" industrial policy. It might even be his decision to try and reunionize the American laborforce. Obama will "own" the battered economy, perhaps almost literally, given Uncle Sam's bailout binge.

So what standard should voters hold Obama to? How about this one: The 1981-82 recession last lasted 16 months and was followed by an explosive recovery thanks largely to the Reagan tax cuts (even though they were slowly implemented).


The current downturn, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, started in December 2007. Mr. Obama better hurry.


The Bottom Line? If the recession continues, Bush will be at fault. If the economy turns around soon, Obama will take credit.

What happened to "Hope"? Why has Obama's tone shifted to dire apocalyptic predictions?

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Mother-in-Law-in-Chief...Mrs. Robinson Moves in to White House



It's official...Marian Robinson, Obama's mother-in-law is moving into The White House with the first family.
We wonder if she'll be paying rent or is this part of the stimulus package?

"Mrs. Robinson will be coming with the family to help the girls get acclimated, and she will determine in the coming months whether or not she wants to stay in DC permanently," said Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokesperson for the presidential transition.

To be fair and balanced...
It's not the first time that a president's mother-in-law will be around the White House. Laura Bush's mother, Jenna Welch, often spent weeks at a time living there, especially around holidays, according to a spokeswoman.

All kidding aside, here's to you Barack and Michelle! Mrs. Robinson will be a great asset for First Daughters Sasha and Malia.

Hopefully this will help Obama spend more time focusing on running the country, knowing his daughters are in good hands.

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USS George H.W. Bush/ President Commissions Air Craft Carrier For His Father

President George W. Bush landed Saturday on the USS George H.W. Bush, a new aircraft carrier named after his father — the ultimate honor for a decorated Navy pilot from World War II, Fox News reported.







"Laura and I are thrilled to be here to help commission an awesome ship and to honor an awesome man," Bush said. "So what do you give a guy who has been blessed and has just about everything he has ever needed? Well, an aircraft carrier."

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Media Slams Palin for Palin Slamming Media/ Clear Liberal Media Bias and Don't Tell Us Otherwise! Sex With Obama?

MSNBC reporter calls Governor Palin "clearly unqualified". Liberal Media Bias at its Finest.

Clearly, David Shuster is a snobby moron who wants to have sex with Obama!

SHE IS A GOVERNOR! She has actually been an executive! What has the Obamamessiah ever done!?!?!

America, good luck!





If you are not disgusted by this then you have no soul.

Obama did nothing today except nominate "clearly unqualified" Leon Panetta to head the CIA.

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Do Obama and Colin Powell Support "Bush Shoe Toss"? Who Throws a Shoe, Honestly!

From ABC News...


Colin Powell held a press conference in Washington, D.C., Friday, touting the launch of Barack Obama's new Web site, USAService.org, which allows Americans to find -- and to promote -- local service opportunities that are searchable by zip code.


President Bush's former secretary of state said he was on the site this morning and vouched for its usefulness.


But here's betting that Powell didn't have time to go through all of the events on it.


Wanting to see how the Web site works, I typed in my hometown zip code in Los Angeles to find events within a 10-mile radius.


It pointed me to several events, including a blood drive, a graffiti cleanup, and an "Obama Celebration and Bush Shoe Toss."



"Who throws a shoe, honestly!"


ABC also posted the link to the post which has been recently deleted.

Shame on you Colin Powell and Barack Obama.

Obama did nothing today except nominate "clearly unqualified" Leon Panetta to head the CIA.

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Pelosi Wants Obama to Raise Taxes/ Calls Bush Tax Cuts "The Biggest Contributor to the Budget Deficit."





"Put me down as clearly as you possibly can as one who wants to have those tax cuts for the wealthiest in America repealed," she said.

Pelosi said the income tax cuts to the highest earning Americans -- which were decreased from 39.6 to 35 percent as part of the 2001 Bush tax plan -- have been "the biggest contributor to the budget deficit," which now stands at $1.2 trillion for fiscal year 2009. That deficit figure does not include the impact of the pending stimulus measure, which will cost around $800 billion, nor does it include estimates for supplemental spending bills that will come later this year to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pelosi said the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy "have not grown the economy, have not contributed to the our economic security.""I couldn't be more clear: Put me down as one in favor for repeal as soon as possible," she said.

Not everyone agrees with you Madame Speaker.



"I'm not prepared to make a hard and fast commitment.... What I've said is that I'm less concerned about whether it happens this year or next year. More concerned with the basic principle that we've got to restore balance and fairness to the tax system," Obama said.


But Sen. Richard Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, put the chances for repeal at practically nil, especially given Obama's expressed reservations. "The president-elect believes this may not be the moment," Durbin said, referring to the economic crisis. "I agree with her in principal," he added, "but I disagree with her on timing."

Clearly America is in trouble if we conservatives don't, in the words of conservatism's new hero Blago, "Fight, fight, fight, fight"!
Obama did nothing today except nominate "clearly unqualified" Leon Panetta to head the CIA.

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Blago Is Officially Insane/Slams Illinois House For Not Backing Cancer Legislation/Blago the Scholar Quotes Tennyson

The Blago-Drama took another spicy twist today. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was impeached by the Illinois House today, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled on the Roland Burris case, and then Blago responded with the following arrogant, pompous and politically brilliant press conference.






"From the very moment of my re-election, I've been engaged in a struggle with the House to get things done for the people," Blagojevich said, citing his efforts to improve health care and cut property taxes.


"The House has stood in the way of letting that happen," he said, contending that his impeachment is related to their ongoing dispute and the failure of lawmakers to help Illinois residents.


"The House has failed to act," he said. "So the House's actions and the cause of the impeachment are because I've done things to fight for families who are with me today."


Blago concluded his spectacle with this:



And so I'll leave you with this poem by Tennyson, which goes like this.


"Though we are not now the strength which in old days moved Earth and Heaven, that which we are, we are. One equal temper, of heroic hearts, made weak by time and by fate, but strong in will, to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."


What else is there to say?

Read the Full Transcript at Fox News.com.

Obama did nothing today except nominate "clearly unqualified" Leon Panetta to head the CIA.

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Friday, January 9, 2009

Ill. Supreme Court Says Burris Does Not Need Sec. of State's Signature To Be Seated/Harry Reid Looks Stupid Again!Blago Rubs His Taint on The Senate

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled today that Secretary of State Jesse White does not need to certify the appointment of Roland Burris to the US Senate.

Fox News has confirmed.


The Illinois Supreme Court says Secretary of State Jesse White doesn't need to sign Roland Burris' appointment to the U.S. Senate to make it valid.

The ruling says no Illinois official has to do anything further to validate the appointment made by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Burris was refused President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat this week in part because Senate Democratic leaders said his paperwork was incomplete without White's signature.

The state Supreme Court says nothing in state law requires White to sign the appointment.

This means that Harry Reid once again looks foolish and now has no grounds whatsoever NOT to seat Burris. Reid has been saying for weeks he would not seat Burris.

We can only hope Reid follows through with seating Al Franken because that would only prove more hypocrisy.

Blago Wins Again! Governor successfully rubs his "taint" on Capitol Hill.

Obama did nothing today except nominate "clearly unqualified" Leon Panetta to head the CIA.

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Who Is Really To Blame For The Economic Crisis? Bush Warned Congress of Impending Economic Crisis. PART 2 (And Obama's Ties to Freddie and Fannie!)

Follow up to Previous Post...



Obviously there are those who despise Karl Rove and continue to blame George Bush for every ill and evil in the world. Fair enough, everyone has his opinions.



But here are some more facts about President warnings and attempts to avoid the housing collapse caused, in large part, by Freddie and Fannie.


President Bush's efforts over the years, not once, but several from The White House:



2001
April: The Administration's FY02 budget declares that the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is "a potential problem," because "financial trouble of a large GSE could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting Federally insured entities and economic activity."






2002
May: The President calls for the disclosure and corporate governance principles contained in his 10-point plan for corporate responsibility to apply to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (OMB Prompt Letter to OFHEO, 5/29/02)



2003
September: Treasury Secretary John Snow testifies before the House Financial Services Committee to recommend that Congress enact "legislation to create a new Federal agency to regulate and supervise the financial activities of our housing-related government sponsored enterprises" and set prudent and appropriate minimum capital adequacy requirements.



2004
February: The President's FY05 Budget again highlights the risk posed by the explosive growth of the GSEs and their low levels of required capital, and called for creation of a new, world-class regulator: "The Administration has determined that the safety and soundness regulators of the housing GSEs lack sufficient power and stature to meet their responsibilities, and therefore…should be replaced with a new strengthened regulator." (2005 Budget Analytic Perspectives, pg. 83)



2005
April: Treasury Secretary John Snow repeats his call for GSE reform, saying "Events that have transpired since I testified before this Committee in 2003 reinforce concerns over the systemic risks posed by the GSEs and further highlight the need for real GSE reform to ensure that our housing finance system remains a strong and vibrant source of funding for expanding homeownership opportunities in America… Half-measures will only exacerbate the risks to our financial system." (Secretary John W. Snow, "Testimony Before The U.S. House Financial Services Committee," 4/13/05)




2007
August: President Bush emphatically calls on Congress to pass a reform package for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saying "first things first when it comes to those two institutions. Congress needs to get them reformed, get them streamlined, get them focused, and then I will consider other options." (President George W. Bush, Press Conference, The White House, 8/9/07)



2008

February: Assistant Secretary David Nason reiterates the urgency of reforms, says "A new regulatory structure for the housing GSEs is essential if these entities are to continue to perform their public mission successfully." (David Nason, Testimony On Reforming GSE Regulation, Senate Committee On Banking, Housing And Urban Affairs, 2/7/08)



March: President Bush calls on Congress to take action and "move forward with reforms on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They need to continue to modernize the FHA, as well as allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to homeowners to refinance their mortgages." (President George W. Bush, Remarks To The Economic Club Of New York, New York, NY, 3/14/08)
April: President Bush urges Congress to pass the much needed legislation and "modernize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. [There are] constructive things Congress can do that will encourage the housing market to correct quickly by … helping people stay in their homes." (President George W. Bush, Meeting With Cabinet, the White House, 4/14/08)



May: President Bush issues several pleas to Congress to pass legislation reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the situation deteriorates further.



"Americans are concerned about making their mortgage payments and keeping their homes. Yet Congress has failed to pass legislation I have repeatedly requested to modernize the Federal Housing Administration that will help more families stay in their homes, reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure they focus on their housing mission, and allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to refinance sub-prime loans." (President George W. Bush, Radio Address, 5/3/08)



"[T]he government ought to be helping creditworthy people stay in their homes. And one way we can do that – and Congress is making progress on this – is the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That reform will come with a strong, independent regulator." (President George W. Bush, Meeting With The Secretary Of The Treasury, the White House, 5/19/08)



"Congress needs to pass legislation to modernize the Federal Housing Administration, reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure they focus on their housing mission, and allow State housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to refinance subprime loans." (President George W. Bush, Radio Address, 5/31/08)



June: As foreclosure rates continued to rise in the first quarter, the President once again asks Congress to take the necessary measures to address this challenge, saying "we need to pass legislation to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." (President George W. Bush, Remarks At Swearing In Ceremony For Secretary Of Housing And Urban Development, Washington, D.C., 6/6/08)



July: Congress heeds the President's call for action and passes reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as it becomes clear that the institutions are failing.




And just where was The Messiah during all of this?



From The Wall Street Journal

Finally, on the matter of deregulation and the financial crisis, Sen. Obama should consider his own complicity in the failure of Congress to adopt legislation that might have prevented the subprime meltdown.


In the summer of 2005, a bill emerged from the Senate Banking Committee that considerably tightened regulations on Fannie and Freddie, including controls over their capital and their ability to hold portfolios of mortgages or mortgage-backed securities. All the Republicans voted for the bill in committee; all the Democrats voted against it. To get the bill to a vote in the Senate, a few Democratic votes were necessary to limit debate. This was a time for the leadership Sen. Obama says he can offer, but neither he nor any other Democrat stepped forward.


Instead, by his own account, Mr. Obama wrote a letter to the Treasury Secretary, allegedly putting himself on record that subprime loans were dangerous and had to be dealt with. This is revealing; if true, it indicates Sen. Obama knew there was a problem with subprime lending -- but was unwilling to confront his own party by pressing for legislation to control it. As a demonstration of character and leadership capacity, it bears a strong resemblance to something else in Sen. Obama's past: voting present.



Heritage reminds us that Obama was involved in defeating reform for Fannie.

In 2004, after a tip from a whistle blower who was later fired, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (Ofheo) issued a report finding that the government-sponsored entity Fannie Mae had engaged in Enron-like accounting machinations that allowed Fannie to overstate its earnings and underestimate the risk the company faced. The accounting wizardry Fannie engaged in was designed so that Fannie could meet profit targets to maximize bonus payments to company executives like Clinton administration deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick and Carter administration assistant director for domestic policy Franklin Raines.


For years, conservatives have been critical of how Fannie, and Freddie Mac, have leveraged their government-sponsored advantages (including exemptions from state and federal taxes, lower capital requirements, and the ability to borrow at rates well below those paid by private companies), to create a co-monopoly in the housing finance sector. When Fannie’s accounting scandal came to light in 2004, conservatives pushed hard for reforms to phase out Fannie and Freddie. Led by former Walter Mondale and Barack Obama campaign adviser James Johnson, Fannie and Freddie pushed back hard, raising millions of dollars for members of the relevant oversight committees and opening up “Partnership Offices” that funneled money into various housing projects in districts of key members of Congress.


Fannie also bought off activist groups such as the corrupt Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which has been indicted, multiple times across the country, for vote fraud (Obama worked closely with ACORN as a street organizer in Chicago). Fannie’s lobbying efforts paid off as liberal politicians such as Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. William Clay (D-Mo.) worked to kill any real reform of Freddie and Fannie. The Washington Post reports: “In an internal memo in 2004, Fannie Mae executive Daniel H. Mudd affirmed what the company’s critics had long contended: In the political arena, ‘we always won’ and ‘we took no prisoners.’”


Fannie was created during the New Deal to make homes more affordable for lower- and middle-income Americans. Freddie was added years later for the same purpose. Fannie and Freddie have long outlived their purpose as the market for repackaging loans as securities is now well developed. When the housing market is booming, they are not needed, and they have both gone well beyond their original mission and are now backing loans for wealthy (witness Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s continued efforts to raise the cap on the size of the loans that Fannie and Freddie can buy).


Many parts of the bill the Senate passed last week only continue the worst aspects of the crony capitalism at the hard of Freddie’s success. This is especially true of the Community Development Block Grant funds that have long been a goal of partisan housing activist groups like ACORN. There is an opportunity here to use the recapitalization the White House is now proposing to re-organize housing finance by breaking up Fannie and Freddie and creating several smaller truly private entities that can compete.




From Hennesys View. Fannie and Freddie Donation dollars received per year by Congress. Obama is number one by far!







Again from The Wall Street Journal...Obama advisor's role in Countrywide scandal.

Countrywide Financial Corp. makes mortgage loans through a vast network of offices, brokers and call centers. But a few customers have gotten their loans a special way: through Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo.

These borrowers, known internally as "friends of Angelo" or FoA, include two former CEOs of Fannie Mae, the biggest buyer of Countrywide's mortgages, say people familiar with the matter.

One was James Johnson, a longtime Democratic Party power and an adviser to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign, who this past week was named to a panel that is vetting running-mate possibilities for the presumed nominee. Another was Franklin Raines, a onetime Clinton administration budget director, who left Fannie Mae amid an accounting scandal in 2004.

There is nothing illegal about a mortgage firm treating some borrowers better than others. But if Fannie Mae officials received special treatment, that could cause a political problem for the government-sponsored, shareholder-owned company.


These are the facts. We post, you decide!

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It's Official: Illinois House Votes to Impeach Blago

Surprising no one (except maybe Rep. Milton Patterson, the lone dissenter), The Illinois House voted to impeach Blago today.

From the AP via Yahoo:


The Illinois House voted overwhelmingly Friday to impeach Gov. Rod Blagojevich, an unprecedented action that sets up a Senate trial on whether he should be thrown out for abuse of power, including allegations that he tried to sell President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat.

Impeachment required just 60 votes. The final result was 114-1.


Legislators accused the second-term Democratic governor of letting down the people of Illinois by letting ego and ambition drive his decisions.

"It's our duty to clean up the mess and stop the freak show that's become Illinois government," said Rep. Jack D. Franks, a Democrat.


The Governor, displaying his narcissistic unrivaled vainglory, was out jogging around his Chicago neighborhood while the vote occurred, and yet again paraphrased an obscure piece of literature.


Blagojevich refused to answer any specific questions about the vote, but upon returning from his jog, he likened his situation to long-distance running.


"Let me simply say I feel like the old Alan Sillitoe short story 'The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner.' ... And that's what this is by the way, a long-distance run," he said.



From Wikipedia:

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is a story by the British writer Alan Sillitoe published in 1958, and it is contained in a collection of short stories published under the same title.

The book's title story was subsequently adapted into a film of the same name. In the film, an impoverished Nottingham teenager has few prospects in life and enjoys few pursuits beyond committing petty crimes. His home life is dismal as well. Caught for robbing a bakery, Colin is confined in a borstal, or prison for delinquent youth. He seeks solace in long distance running, attracting the notice of the school's authorities, but, during an important cross-country meet which he is winning, he stops running just short of the finish line to defy his captors.

Anyway....



During the House's 90-minute debate on impeachment, no one spoke up to defend the governor. But Rep. Milton Patterson, a Chicago Democrat, made the sole vote against impeaching Blagojevich.

Patterson said he read the impeachment committee's report and wasn't comfortable voting against the governor. "I have no firsthand knowledge of any of the evidence," he said.

"I went by my own gut feeling, it's as simple as that," he said. "I read the report. If the government is going to indict him, let them go ahead and do that. That's their job and I'm doing my job."

Rep. Elga Jefferies, another Chicago Democrat, voted "present."


This has not been confirmed by anyone and we have no realiable source, but it's rumored that Ms. Jefferies also goes by the name Barack Obama.

Obama did nothing today except nominated "clearly unqualified" Leon Panetta to head the CIA.

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Thursday, January 8, 2009

Obama Is A Sell Out! Obama Camp Uses Polls and Focus Groups to Sell Stimulus Plan! Messiah Once Again Deceives America!

From Bloomberg:


President-elect Barack Obama’s top political aides are transplanting their campaign tactics to the policy arena, using data from polls and focus groups to shape the debate over a stimulus plan that may cost at least $775 billion.

David Axelrod, Obama’s chief political adviser, along with campaign media adviser Jim Margolis, are encouraging lawmakers to use the word “recovery” instead of recession, and “investment” instead of “infrastructure.” Those recommendations came from focus-group research indicating that such framing would make the package more appealing to voters.


This is disgusting and irresponsible. Polling the American people to determine their wants and needs is one thing.

Using focus groups to intentionally deceive Americans is vial and reprehensible.

Transparency? Change? Yeah right!

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Obama Wants To Meet With Terrorist Group Hamas

Guardian is reporting some very frightening and dangerous news. It is becoming more lucid each day that Obama has no clue about foreign policy nor does he have a vested interest in protecting the American people.



The incoming Obama administration is prepared to abandon George Bush's ­doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the Islamist organisation, sources close to the transition team say.

The move to open contacts with Hamas, which could be initiated through the US intelligence services, would represent a definitive break with the Bush ­presidency's ostracising of the group. The state department has designated Hamas a terrorist organisation, and in 2006 ­Congress passed a law banning US financial aid to the group. The Guardian has spoken to three ­people with knowledge of the discussions in the Obama camp.

There is no talk of Obama approving direct diplomatic negotiations with Hamas early on, but he is being urged by advisers to initiate low-level or clandestine approaches, and there is growing recognition in Washington that the policy of ostracising Hamas is counter-productive. A tested course would be to start ­contacts through Hamas and the US intelligence services, similar to the secret process through which the US engaged with the PLO in the 1970s. Israel did not become aware of the contacts until much later.


Yes, the economy is sour. Yes, he needs to address this and we encourage him to seek advice from BOTH sides of the aisle.


But his naivety on National Security is becoming more "dire" each day.

Hugh Hewitt at Town Hall has a fantastic piece on this.

Solid, serious appointees cannot overcome such a profound misunderstanding of the nature of the radical Islamist movement. At least overtures to Iran could proceed with the hope of communicating with the pro-American population suffering under the rule of the mullahs. There is zero evidence that Hamas can be reformed or that there is a large population beneath its iron rule that longs for its overthrow in Gaza.

Obama seems to favor scare tactics as a way to advance his socialist economic agenda, so here's a scare tactic for him and his fellow Liberals. You want to get nuts and play dirty? Let's get nuts!


The most devastating thing to both Obama and our economy will be another terror attack against America.


And for that not happening since September 11th, 2001, we thank you George Bush.

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Illinois Panel Recommends Impeachment of Blago


From Fox News:

The Illinois House committee investigating Gov. Rod Blagojevich released a draft report Thursday saying the panel believes the Democratic governor has abused his power and recommending the full chamber vote on impeachment.


"The citizens of this state must have confidence that their governor will faithfully serve the people and put their interests before his own," the report reads. "It is with profound regret that the committee finds that our current governor has not done so."

The panel could vote to accept the report when it resumes work Thursday afternoon, which would set up a full House impeachment vote on Friday. If the House votes to impeach, the matter would go to the state Senate for a trial. No Illinois governor has ever been impeached.

The draft does not include a formal article of impeachment laying out the charges against Blagojevich, which could be written separately. But it says there is cause to believe Blagojevich engaged in pay-to-play politics.

"The committee has heard a great deal of evidence relating to various instances where the governor's inappropriate actions constitute abuse of power," the report reads.

Blagojevich's office had no immediate comment.



Say it say Blago! We don't want our favorite corrupt Liberal Governor to leave us!

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Pelosi's Plan to Silence GOP Minority

Courtesy of News Max:


Republican Rep. Roy Blunt tells Newsmax that rule changes pushed through the House on Tuesday by the Democratic majority leave “the deck stacked to shove a Speaker Pelosi agenda through the House.”

The former Minority Whip from Missouri also declared that the changes are an “absolute contradiction to everything Barack Obama said” about nonpartisan politics during the campaign.

One change puts new restrictions on motions to “recommit” a bill to the committee that approved it in order to add new amendments.

The new rule allows the full House to reconsider a bill without delay, depriving the minority party of an opportunity to add its input on the proposed legislation.

“These changes that the majority’s made are truly going to have negative effects on moving a positive agenda forward,” Rep. Blunt told Newsmax’s Ashley Martella.

[Editor's Note: Watch the Roy Blunt Interview - Go Here Now]

“They silenced the minority’s ability, in this case the Republicans’ ability, to bring other ideas to the floor.

“We used rules that had been in the rules package for at least a hundred years to maximum advantage in a way that brought other alternatives to the floor, that were used to take bills off the floor when they couldn’t defeat our efforts to send a bill back to committee…

“These tools of the motion to recommit, particularly the motion to recommit where the committee actually did have to look at the legislation again, were incredibly helpful to us and have now been taken away.

“These rules were put in place so that the minority would always have a chance to bring their ideas to the floor and even send a bill back to committee. Over and over again we were able to do that in the last Congress and apparently that was enough for Speaker Pelosi, and so this hundred-year-old precedent has been broken…

“This is a use of their power that appears to be in absolute contradiction to everything the next president said he wanted to do in Washington, and we’ll see if he’s the Barack Obama who ran for president and tries to make his party do the same, or the Barack Obama who was very comfortable being part of the Illinois political machine and never defied the party in any way.”

Martella cited another rules change enacted Tuesday, which eliminates the six-year term limit for committee chairmen.

Blunt called the move “a major reversal of the last dozen years of Republican majority,” which “further consolidates power in the hands of a few people and frankly makes more people have to go along with a very few leaders.”

Martella pointed out that when Republicans took over Congress in 1994 in the Newt Gingrich revolution, they offered conciliatory gestures to the Democrats regarding input and participation. “Now with what Pelosi has done, does it make the GOP upset with itself for playing Mr. Nice Guy back then?” he asked.


Said Blunt: “Well, it’s just the opposite certainly of what we did. I think the difference was that Republicans were confident in the 1995 Congress, and frankly for a dozen years, in our ideas and we were willing to let those ideas be challenged in the debate, to be challenged in the marketplace of ideas.


“One thing we saw in the Pelosi leadership in the last Congress was that if you’re not willing to let your ideas be challenged on the House floor, they probably didn’t have much of a chance of becoming law.

“Now in this Congress, with a Senate that’s much more inclined to agree with Nancy Pelosi and a president who’s more inclined to agree with the Speaker, they may be able to get their bills passed into law anyway.”

Asked if there are steps the GOP can take to counter these moves, Blunt said: “At the end of the day there’s not a lot Republicans can do.

“Clearly the deck is pretty well stacked to shove a Speaker Pelosi agenda through the House, and we’ll see if that’s also a Barack Obama agenda as it goes to the Senate.”



John Fund also blasted Pelosi in his Wall Street Journal column Pelosi Turns Back the Clock on House Reform. Fund states that not only are the new House rules damaging, but also inconsistent with Pelosi's previous rhetoric.

Mrs. Pelosi used to see things differently. Back in 2004, she unveiled a proposed "Bill of Rights" to protect House minority interests. It called on Republicans to allow more meaningful substitutes to bills, give members enough time to read bills before final votes, and stop holding roll-call votes past the normal 15 minutes. She had a point. In late 2003, Republican leaders held open a roll-call vote on the Medicare drug entitlement for three hours until they bullied enough wavering members into voting aye.

Mrs. Pelosi warned in 2004 that "When we [Democrats] are shut out, they are shutting out the great diversity of America." We want a higher standard." In 2006, just before becoming speaker, Mrs. Pelosi reiterated her plans to promote "bipartisanship" and "to ensure the rights of the minority."

That was then. This month, she even suggested passing a huge new stimulus package before Barack Obama is sworn in on Jan. 20.


Fund then mentioned that some "blue dog" Democrats will have their opinions squashed and they were used by Rahmbo.


All those nice pro-life, gun-owning young Democrats recruited to run by Rahm Emanuel will never have any real influence now," says Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform. "They were useful in getting Democrats a majority but now they'll be in the back of the bus."

Barack Obama ran for president pledging to end needless partisanship and to create "a new politics." He is at least making a stab at that by appointing a couple of cabinet members with Republican ties and consulting with GOP Congressional leaders. It's unsettling that his fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill seem intent on marching in a completely opposite direction.


America can no longer afford to be silent. Our voices are not being heard. We are being subject to censorship.

Hold you representatives accountable!

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Who Is Really To Blame For The Economic Crisis? Bush Warned Congress Many Times of Impending Economic Crisis. Government is Not the Answer!

President Bush tried to warn Congress repeatedly about a pending economic crisis but the Liberal media spun the whole thing out of context.

Read Bush's Warnings... then watch this 2004 video from Congressional Hearing on Freddie and Fannie





Karl Rove's Wall Street Journal Op/Ed President Bush Tried to Rein In Fan and Fred

Mythmaking is in full swing as the Bush administration prepares to leave town. Among the more prominent is the assertion that the housing meltdown resulted from unbridled capitalism under a president opposed to all regulation.

Like most myths, this is entertaining but fictional. In reality, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were among the principal culprits of the housing crisis, and Mr. Bush wanted to rein them in before things got out of hand.

Rather than a failure of capitalism, the housing meltdown shows what's likely to happen when government grants special privileges to favored private entities that facilitate bad actors and lousy practices.

Fannie and Freddie are "government-sponsored enterprises" (GSEs), chartered by Congress. As such, they had an implicit promise of taxpayer backing and could borrow money at rates well below competitors.

Because of this, the Bush administration warned in the budget it issued in April 2001 that Fannie and Freddie were too large and overleveraged. Their failure "could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting federally insured entities and economic activity" well beyond housing.

Mr. Bush wanted to limit systemic risk by raising the GSEs' capital requirements, compelling preapproval of new activities, and limiting the size of their portfolios. Why should government regulate banks, credit unions and savings and loans, but not GSEs? Mr. Bush wanted the GSEs to be treated just like their private-sector competitors.

But the GSEs fought back. They didn't want to see the Bush reforms enacted, because that would level the playing field for their competitors.


Congress finally did pass the Bush reforms, but in 2008, after Fannie and Freddie collapsed.


The largely unreported story is that to fend off regulation, the GSEs engaged in a lobbying frenzy. They hired high-profile Democrats and Republicans and spent $170 million on lobbying over the past decade. They also constructed an elaborate network of state and local lobbyists to pressure members of Congress.

When Republican Richard Shelby of Alabama, then chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, pushed for comprehensive GSE reform in 2005, Democrat Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut successfully threatened a filibuster. Later, after Fannie and Freddie collapsed, Mr. Dodd asked, "Why weren't we doing more?" He then voted for the Bush reforms that he once called "ill-advised."


But Mr. Dodd wasn't the only Democrat to heap abuse on the Bush reforms. Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts defended Fannie and Freddie as "fundamentally sound" and labeled the president's proposals as "inane." He later voted for the reforms. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York dismissed Mr. Bush's "safety and soundness concerns" as "a straw man." "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," was the helpful advice of both Sen. Thomas Carper of Delaware and Rep. Maxine Waters of California. Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York berated a Bush official at a hearing, saying, "I am just pissed off" at the administration for raising the issue.

Democrats had ready allies among lenders accustomed to GSEs buying their risky mortgages. For example, Angelo Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide Financial, complained that "an overly cumbersome regulatory process" would "reduce, or even eliminate, the incentives for the GSEs and their primary market partners."


It took Fannie and Freddie over three decades to acquire $2 trillion in mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. Together, they held $2.1 trillion in 2000. By 2005, the two GSEs held $4 trillion, up 92% in just five years. By 2008, they'd grown another 24%, to nearly $5 trillion. They held almost half of all American mortgages.

The more the president pushed for reform, the more they bought. Peter Wallison of the American Enterprise Institute and Charles Calomiris of the Columbia Business School suggest $1 trillion of this debt was subprime and "liar loans," almost all bought between 2005 and 2007.


This bulk-up in risky paper made it possible for banks to lend imprudently on a massive scale.

Some critics blame Mr. Bush because he supported broadening homeownership. But Mr. Bush's goal was for people to own homes they could afford, not ones made accessible by reckless lenders who off loaded their risk to GSEs.

The housing meltdown is largely a story of greed and irresponsibility made possible by government privilege. If Democrats had granted the Bush administration the regulatory powers it sought, the housing crisis wouldn't be nearly as severe and the economy as a whole would be better off.

That's why some mythmakers are so intent on denying that Mr. Bush worked to rein in the GSEs. But facts are stubborn things, as Ronald Reagan used to say, and in this instance, the facts support Mr. Bush and offer a harsh judgment on key Democrats. Perhaps that explains why so many in the media haven't told the real story.



We Post. You Decide.

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President-Elect Obama's Dire Warning: Fear Mongering? Even Fellow Liberals Have Reservations on Stimulus Package

"The majority of Americans' attitude toward government has changed drastically in recent years. Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy -- where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending."- Barack Obama


With all due respect, President Government, you are wrong.


You, and your cronies on Capitol Hill are trying to use politically motivated scare tactics to win the hearts and minds of the American People. By waging a shock-and-awe war of words, and predicting doom, gloom, death and destruction, some would say you are either out of touch or just plain dumb.













We do not believe you are either of those things. Instead, your plan is a calculated maneuver designed to for feed Americans nearly $1 Trillion worth of junk, bogus "tax cuts" and government bureaucracy.



The dangerous Liberal idealogy that Father Government Knows Best reared its Keynesian head again today. Government cannot be the only answer. What Obama proposed today is designed to dupe Americans into accepting a socialist state.


On the opposite extreme is Rep. Louie Gohmert's proposed tax holiday, backed by Newt Gingrich. Gohmert contends that the combination of the Bush/Paulson Bailout (what's left of it) and the Obama/Pelosi $800 stimulus package equated to the same dollar amount as giving Americans a Federal Tax Holiday for up to 6 months. The belief is that American tax payers would spend their money more wisely than the government. For most people, this is true, but the Gohmert plan is not without its drawbacks.


Newt Gingrich wrote last month in Human Events.com:

Thus, if you combined the Pelosi and Paulson proposals, you could create a tax holiday through June. That would mean no working American would pay a penny in income tax or a penny in FICA tax for the first six months of the year.


And that would mean no business would pay a penny in matching FICA tax for the first six months of the year. As a pro-small business, pro-jobs creation, pro-market stimulation measure, imagine the power of that much extra money in the hands of the American workers and the American entrepreneur.


Imagine how many more people could afford to keep their homes, how many people could pay down some of their debt, how many will be able to rebuild some of their retirement funds, how many people might find the extra resources to start a new business or expand their existing business.


Now that would be a stimulus plan that stimulates the American people.


That is quite a change from the big business, big bureaucracy, big politician model we have seen in Washington recently. Where Pelosi and Paulson would stimulate bureaucrats and politicians, Gohmert would stimulate American workers, American businesses and American productivity. In the long run, we will get more economic growth and more revenue for federal, state and local governments from a growing economy with more creative businesses, more productive private markets, and more incentivized workers. The Gohmert plan is a plan to get America growing again. It is not a bailout plan. It is an economic growth plan.


From the AP:

President-elect Barack Obama warned of dire and lasting consequences if Congress doesn't pump unprecedented dollars into the economy, making an urgent pitch for his mammoth spending proposal in his first speech since his election.


"In short, a bad situation could become dramatically worse" if Washington doesn't go far enough to address the spreading crisis, Obama said as fresh economic reports showed an outlook growing increasingly grim. Since his November election, he has deferred to President George W. Bush on foreign policy matters such as the Middle East. But, with the urgency of the economic crisis, Obama has waded deeply into domestic issues as he works to generate support for his plan to create jobs, jolt the economy and make long-term investments in other areas.


Obama laid out goals of doubling the production of alternative energy over three years, updating most federal buildings to improve energy efficiency, making medical records electronic, expanding broadband networks and updating schools and universities...


Indeed, the economic news is grim. Speaking a day after the release of a stunning new estimate — that the federal budget deficit will reach an unprecedented $1.2 trillion this year, nearly three times last year's record — Obama acknowledged some sympathy with those who "might be skeptical" of the stimulus. Vast sums already have been spent or committed by Washington in an attempt — largely unsuccessful so far — to get credit, the lifeblood of the American economy, flowing freely once again.


Such statements are coded to appeal to budget hawks in both parties, whom Obama wants to win over so that approval of a package draws wide, bipartisan support in the Democratic-led Congress. To answer their concerns, he promised to allow funding only for what works.


He also pledged a new level of transparency about where the money is going. A day earlier, he promised to tackle the out-of-control fiscal problem posed by Social Security and Medicare entitlement programs and named a special watchdog to clamp down on all federal programs.
Obama made broader arguments, too, saying that the private sector, typically the answer, cannot do what is needed now. "At this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe," he said.

The package is expected to include tax cuts for businesses and middle-class workers, money to help cash-starved states with Medicaid programs and other operating costs, and a huge share for infrastructure building, investments in energy efficiency and a rebuilding of the information technology system for health care. Much of the latter portions of the plan are aimed at what Obama likes to talk about as the need for "reinvestment" and not just "recovery.

...

NOT EVERY LIBERAL AGREES WITH THE OBAMA PORK PLAN


Not everyone agrees that "government is the only solution", Mr. Obama. Even some Democratic Senators, including former Presidential Candidate John Kerry, were at best skeptical, as Town Hall reports:


President-elect Barack Obama's proposed tax cuts ran into opposition Thursday from senators in his own party who said they wouldn't do much to stimulate the economy or create jobs. Senators from both parties agreed that Congress should do something to stimulate the economy. But Democratic senators emerging from a private meeting of the Senate Finance Committee criticized business and individual tax cuts in Obama's stimulus plan.

They were especially critical of a proposed $3,000 tax credit for companies that hire or retrain workers.


"If I'm a business person, it's unlikely if you give me a several-thousand-dollar credit that I'm going to hire people if I can't sell the products they're producing," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., a member of the committee.


"That to me is just misdirected," Conrad said.


Sen John Kerry, D-Mass., said, "I'd rather spend the money on the infrastructure, on direct investment, on energy conversion, on other kinds of things that much more directly, much more rapidly and much more certainly create a real job."


The cost of the economic rescue package Obama wants is expected to swell to $800 billion or more. About $300 billion of Obama's package would be for tax cuts or refunds for individuals and businesses.


One tax provision would provide a $500 tax cut for most workers and $1,000 for couples, at a cost of about $140 billion to $150 billion over two years. The individual tax cuts may be awarded through withholding less from worker paychecks, effectively making them about $10 to $20 larger each week.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said he doubted that a modest tax cut would change consumers' spending habits.

"In tough times people don't respond all that well to marginal changes, such as a small amount of money added per paycheck," Wyden said.

Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, chairman of the Finance Committee, said he hopes to schedule a committee vote on the stimulus package in about two weeks, which would coincide with the week of Obama's inauguration. Many senators still hope to approve a package by mid-February.

There is "general agreement that because of the recession we've got to move, we've got to move quickly, very quickly," Baucus said.

He added that it is too early to pass judgment on any aspect of Obama's plan.

"This is an early part of this whole process. A lot of preliminary questions are going to be asked," Baucus said.


At least Obama and Pelosi came up with something. But it's flat out wrong. Throughout history, when government controls all the money and has all the power, the people are the ones who suffer.

Let the free-market work. Let Capitalism live. Let America be America.

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