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Glenn Beck appears every Friday on "The O'Reilly Factor". I love his inherent snarkiness. They both made great points about Obama. A must watch just to see Beck's facial expressions and body language.
If you believe in Conservatism or Libertarianism this is a must watch. Classic discussion.
My favorites:
Beck: "I'm a libertarian, I'll vote for whoever has the best ideas."
Beck: watches O'Reilly and saw him "Hammer the bat snot out of both sides [Dems and Reps].
Beck on Sarah Palin: She may be the future of the GOP; "She took on her own party."
O'Reilly: "Obama doesn't' know what he's doing" with respect to the economy.
O'Reilly: "We're going to have to exhume Truman's body"
Beck on O'Reilly: "He's crazy!" :-)
O'Reilly calls Beck out on "Fallout Shelter" and Beck replies "I'm going to deny that until the day you are vaporized outside the fallout shelter!"
Beck viewer letter: "I think Bill hates you! I think he's trying to stump you like you're Sarah Palin and he is Charles Gibson. Except Sarah Palin is much better looking than you and smarter..."
Other topics included: Bill Ayers, Pat Leahy, prosecution of Bush officials for "torture"
Speaking of Beck so-called "Survival Fallout Shelter", I am seeking ideas for what should be included in an "Obama Fallout Shelter".
John Kerry is angry at bankers for using tax payer money to party, but claims he's no Dean Wormer!
March 6 (Bloomberg) -- Last week, when American taxpayers learned that a bank receiving Troubled Asset Relief Program funds had thrown a lavish bash and spared no expense to celebrate with the bands Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire, I introduced legislation based on a simple concept: if a company accepts bailout funds from the taxpayer, it can’t waste money on lavish parties, expensive dinners and Tiffany trinkets.
The reaction in some quarters suggests that I had attempted -- like a modern-day Dean Wormer in “Animal House” -- to ban fun of any kind, or that the wheels of commerce and marketing would grind to a halt.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Normal marketing and travel wouldn’t be affected one iota.
An organization that serves as a watchdog on the U.S. government for American taxpayers has launched a campaign to uncover exactly how much tax money is being spent on parties at the Obama White House.
The president has shown a penchant for lavish galas, such as the huge assembly orchestrated in Denver when he accepted his party’s nomination for president – an outdoor gathering for some 75,000 featuring a stage with Greek columns. He also held a multimillion-dollar victory celebration in Chicago, and his fancy inauguration cost an estimated $170 million, according to ABC News.
Now, Larry Klayman, founder of Freedom Watch, told WND today he’s seeking information about the partying in the White House since the Obamas moved in…
…Klayman said the reports of the partying at the White House, “with the likes of Steve Wonder and other high priced entertainment stars,” will be the focus of document requests being submitted to the General Services Administration. The requests will seek to determine how much taxpayer money is being used.
“Barack and Michelle Obama have been throwing taxpayer funded parties nearly every night with their ‘friends’ and supporters, with Michelle Obama even exhorting them not to ‘break’ White House property,” Klayman’s announcement said.
“This party atmosphere sends the wrong message to the American people. As the Obama-Clinton crowd party on, the American people are suffering greatly,” Klayman said.
So many things we could do with a habitable planet like earth!
I could move there to escape ObamaLand or
We could ship off Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and their Liberal Moonbats on a "Special Envoy" to distant lands or
Hey, Mr. President! Now we know where to put the Gitmo detainees
NASA's planet-hunting spacecraft, Kepler, has blasted off aboard a rocket from Cape Canaveral.
Rocketing into the night sky late Friday, Kepler, the space agency's long-awaited $591 million space telescope, opens a new era in planet detection.
In its four-year mission, planetary scientists expect the spacecraft to discover roughly 1,200 planets, more than quadrupling the number of worlds spotted orbiting nearby stars since 1995.
"I call it our planet census-taker," say NASA's Jon Morse. "Its discoveries may fundamentally alter humanity's view of itself and our place in the universe."
...A HA HA HA...Whooo! Those rockets scientists are a riot! I gotta catch my breath!
Says mission chief scientist William Borucki of NASA's Ames Research Center: "Kepler is designed to find hundreds of Earths. Kepler won't find E.T., but it hopes to find E.T.'s home."
HA HA HA! These guys are slaying me! Oooh, oh, my stomach hurts...
Only about 10% of planets orbiting nearby stars are expected, purely by chance, to orbit at an angle accessible to Kepler's view, says planetary theorist Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Already a dozen jumbo planets have been spotted by transit with telescopes on Earth. Unhindered by clouds and daylight in the depths of space, Kepler should find many more:
"Purely by chance"? $600 Million dollars and the best scientists in the world are relying on "chance"?
The discovery of many Earths "certainly may well mean that life may be common throughout our galaxy," Borucki says.
"On the other hand, if we don't find anything, that may well mean that life is very rare."
WASHINGTON — President Obama has chided his attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., for describing America as a “nation of cowards” when discussing race, wading into a tumult that flared over Mr. Holder’s indictment of the way this country talks about ethnicity.
“I think it’s fair to say that if I had been advising my attorney general, we would have used different language,” Mr. Obama said in a mild rebuke from America’s first black president to its first black attorney general.
Mr. Obama was asked whether he agreed with Mr. Holder. He hesitated for five seconds before responding.
“I’m not somebody who believes that constantly talking about race somehow solves racial tensions,” Mr. Obama said. “I think what solves racial tensions is fixing the economy, putting people to work, making sure that people have health care, ensuring that every kid is learning out there. I think if we do that, then we’ll probably have more fruitful conversations.”
I don't understand that last statement, but then again, I don't really understand anything Obama says these days.
And he hesitated for five seconds and that's the best he could come up with?
Yo! Bama! The question was about race and you answered with a BS economic talking point?
Scroll to 4:05 to hear him tell Obama "Obama vaya a lavarse ese palto," which translates to "Obama go wipe your ass!" This comes after four straight minutes of Chavez ripping the President and accusing him of being "the same as the previous administration.
Every Saturday, I break down President Obama's address, inspired by Sean Hannity's "Liberal Translation".
Something to keep in mind, Team "O" is enacting parts of the "Cloward-Piven Strategy" right before our eyes: (For the record, actor Jeremy Piven portrays Ari Gold on HBO's "Entourage", a character based on Ari Emanuel, The Ballerina's brother... just saying...)
First proposed in 1966 and named after Columbia University sociologists Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, the "Cloward-Piven Strategy" seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.
At least the entire Obama Team is on board with the radical agenda! Last November, Rahm The Ballerina, commented 'You never want a serious crisis to go to waste'.
Hillary Clinton chose radical Saul Alinsky as the topic of her senior thesis and yesterday used the "crisis" mantra to address so-called "climate change".
Obama: Yesterday, we learned that the economy lost another 651,000 jobs in the month of February, which brings the total number of jobs lost in this recession to 4.4 million. The unemployment rate has now surpassed 8 percent, the highest rate in a quarter century.
ConservativeXpress: And it's all your fault! It's The Obama Recession you fool!
Obama: These aren't just statistics, but hardships experienced personally by millions of Americans who no longer know how they'll pay their bills, or make their mortgage, or raise their families.
ConservativeXpress: But don't worry, Obama's housing plan is here: (1) raise taxes on the responsible, "rich" people to pay the fools who were too stupid to buy an affordable home, (2) The Bama will give you a house or (3) encourage ACORN's anarchistic rule to break and enter homes illegally.
Obama: From the day I took office, I knew that solving this crisis would not be easy, nor would it happen overnight. And we will continue to face difficult days in the months ahead. But I also believe that we will get through this -- that if we act swiftly and boldly and responsibly, the United States of America will emerge stronger and more prosperous than it was before.
ConservativeXpress: Crisis, crisis, crisis, crisis. "From the day I took office, my team was determined to use the crisis to deceive the American people and use smoke and mirrors to enact the Radical American Communist Experiment (R.A.C.E.)"
"And if we act swiftly" I will create a Socialist dystopia that will make The Federal government stronger and more prosperous to control every element of society. The great Socialist power grab to establish a permanent voting majority!
Obama: That's why my administration is committed to doing all that's necessary to address this crisis and lead us to a better day.
ConservativeXpress: That's why my administration is committed to using the word "crisis" at every opportunity to fulfill the Cloward-Piven/Alinsky Radical destruction of capitalism.
Obama: That's why we're moving forward with an economic agenda that will jumpstart job creation, restart lending, relieve responsible homeowners, and address the long-term economic challenges of our time: the cost of health care, our dependence on oil, and the state of our schools.
ConservativeXpress: Team "O" has no idea how to fix the economy or the housing crisis so instead, they will use it to their advantage to nationalize health-care and appease the radical left-wing environmentalists, hence screwing the rest of us! Remember, never waste a crisis.
Obama: To prevent foreclosures for as many as 4 million homeowners -- and lower interest rates and lift home values for millions more -- we are implementing a plan to allow lenders to work with borrowers to refinance or restructure their mortgages. On Wednesday, the Department of Treasury and Housing and Urban Development released the guidelines that lenders will use for lowering mortgage payments. This plan is now at work.
Obama: To restore the availability of affordable loans for families and businesses -- not just banks -- we are taking steps to restart the flow of credit and stabilize the financial markets. On Thursday, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve launched the Consumer and Business Lending Initiative -- a plan that will generate up to a trillion dollars of new lending so that families can finance a car or college education -- and small businesses can raise the capital that will create jobs.
ConservativeXpress: And they loaned the FDIC $500 Billion because Team "O" has no real plan, the markets see right through the "transparency". But hey, why not just go ahead and spend another trillion for free cars and free college! What the hell is Obama talking about?!?
Obama: And we've already begun to implement the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- a plan that will save and create over 3.5 million jobs over the next two years -- jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges, constructing wind turbines and solar panels, expanding broadband and mass transit.
ConservativeXpress: The CRAPulus Spending Bill will, hopefully, be the downfall of Obama's presidency.
Obama: And because of this plan, those who have lost their job in this recession will be able to receive extended unemployment benefits and continued health care coverage, while 95 percent of working Americans will receive a tax break beginning April 1st.
ConservativeXpress: Does Obama think anyone still believes the 95% tax break bullsh*t?
Obama: Of course, like every family going through hard times, our country must make tough choices. In order to pay for the things we need -- we cannot waste money on the things we don't.
ConservativeXpress: Unless you happen to be President or a Liberal Socialist in Congress; in that case, America is a multi-trillion dollar blank check for pork, earmarks and the radical take-over of America!
Obama: My administration inherited a $1.3 trillion budget deficit, the largest in history. And we've inherited a budgeting process as irresponsible as it is unsustainable. For years, as Wall Street used accounting tricks to conceal costs and avoid responsibility, Washington did, too.
ConservativeXpress: Stop whining about the deficit you "inherited"! And please, Mr. President, refrain from giving anyone advice about using "tricks to conceal costs and avoid responsibilty" -- that is exactly what you doing!
Obama: These kinds of irresponsible budgets -- and inexcusable practices -- are now in the past. For the first time in many years, my administration has produced a budget that represents an honest reckoning of where we are and where we need to go.
ConservativeXpress: I think I just threw up in my mouth... there is nothing "honest" about your budget, sir. If by "honest reckoning" you mean Socialism then I DO NOT appreciate your honesty.
Obama: It's also a budget that begins to make the hard choices that we've avoided for far too long -- a strategy that cuts where we must and invests where we need. That's why it includes $2 trillion in deficit reduction, while making historic investments in America's future.
ConservativeXpress: What the hell are you talking about! You are such a blatant liar! Deficit reduction? Who the f*ck do you think you're kidding!?!?! Oh, and believe me, I know that the "cuts" are in things like the military, counter-terrorism, tax breaks that actually create wealth, etc and the "needs" you speak of is a laundry list of Radical Socialist implementation.
Obama: That's why it reduces discretionary spending for non-defense programs as a share of the economy by more than 10 percent over the next decade -- to the lowest level since they began keeping these records nearly half a century ago.
ConservativeXpress: You're a liar!
Obama: And that's why on Wednesday, I signed a presidential memorandum to end unnecessary no-bid contracts and dramatically reform the way contracts are awarded -- reforms that will save the American people up to $40 billion each year.
ConservativeXpress: You've already spent over $3 Trillion and we're supposed to happy about a $40 billion rebate?
Obama: Finally, because we cannot bring our deficit down or grow our economy without tackling the skyrocketing cost of health care, I held a health care summit on Thursday to begin the long-overdue process of reform. Our ideas and opinions about how to achieve this reform will vary, but our goal must be the same: quality, affordable health care for every American that no longer overwhelms the budgets of families, businesses, and our government.
Things. Now we know what they are. The markets' recent precipitous decline is a reaction not just to the absence of any plausible bank rescue plan, but also to the suspicion that Obama sees the continuing financial crisis as usefully creating the psychological conditions -- the sense of crisis bordering on fear-itself panic -- for enacting his "Big Bang" agenda to federalize and/or socialize health care, education and energy, the commanding heights of post-industrial society.
Clever politics, but intellectually dishonest to the core. Health, education and energy -- worthy and weighty as they may be -- are not the cause of our financial collapse. And they are not the cure. The fraudulent claim that they are both cause and cure is the rhetorical device by which an ambitious president intends to enact the most radical agenda of social transformation seen in our lifetime.
Obama: Yes, this is a moment of challenge for our country. But we've experienced great trials before. And with every test, each generation has found the capacity to not only endure, but to prosper -- to discover great opportunity in the midst of great crisis.
ConservativeXpress: Yes, and the solution has always been capitalism, free market enterprise, personal responsibility and limited government you Radical Socialist!
Obama: That is what we can and must do today. And I am absolutely confident that is what we will do. I'm confident that at this defining moment, we will prove ourselves worthy of the sacrifice of those who came before us, and the promise of those who will come after.
ConservativeXpress: Indeed, many have sacrificed for the America that you are destroying before our eyes, Mr. President. And the only thing you have promised to "those who will come after" is a nearly insurmountable debt burden.
Mr. President, you are arrogant, radical, dishonest and dangerous.
And yes, I hope you fail... miserably! I want my damn country back!
President Obama has used the fear-mongering of the "worst economic crisis since The Great Depression" as the impetus to pass his radical Socialist agenda.
The irony is, he may be on the verge of making a bad situation even worse.
Maybe 100 years from year -- if America still exists -- people will be talking about The Obama Depression.
Click to enlarge; chart compares the S&P 500 during the Great Depression to the current trends. This may end up worse than anyone would have predicted.
Donald Luskin, an economist at Smart Money makes the case:
Over the last couple years I loved to ridicule all the scaremongers who always said this, that or the other thing is “the worst since the Great Depression.” I stand by my ridicule, for the most part -- those prophets of doom were mostly broken clocks who look right now just by sheer luck. But there's no question now that things have gotten quite bad in the economy and the markets.
So let me do the preachers of Armageddon one better. Today's stock market isn't just the “worst since the Great Depression,” like they're so fond of saying. No, it's even worse than the Great Depression.
Take a look at the chart, below. It shows the daily progress of the S&P 500 in terms of percentage change from the very top. The brown line is the change from the recent all-time highs on October 9, 2007. The blue line is the change from the all-time highs just before the Great Depression, September 6, 1929.
As of yesterday's close (Thursday, March 5), the S&P 500 has lost 56.4% from its all-time highs 513 days ago. At the same point in the bear market associated with the Great Depression, that is at the 513 day mark, the S&P 500 had only lost -- only! -- 49%.
In other words, to be no worse than the catastrophe that happened to stocks in the Great Depression, the S&P 500 today would have to rally 17%.
Looking forward, if stocks are going to continue along the same bleak path they followed during the Great Depression, then I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we're halfway through it. In the Great Depression, the bear market lasted 997 days. We passed that halfway mark two weeks ago. Maybe that's what Barack Obama meant when he said, as he signed the so-called “stimulus” bill, that this was “the beginning of the end.”
He signed that bill on Friday the 13th, by the way. Which brings me to the bad news. By the time the bear market was over in the Great Depression, on that 997th day, the S&P 500 had lost 86.2% from the top. To match that, we'd have to fall another 68.3% from here. Hmmm… maybe that's what the president meant when he said this was “the beginning of the end.”
We can't blame President Obama for the mess he inherited. But we can definitely blame him for making it worse. Stocks are off 28.4%since his election, 15.2% since his inauguration, and 17.2% since his so-called “stimulus” bill was enacted. To say the very least, whatever he's doing, it ain't working.
I have to say I'm a little surprised. I didn't support Obama in the campaign, but I had expected that the wave of good feelings from the election of such a charismatic man would help lift the economy and the markets out of their doldrums. And while I don't agree at all with his liberal orientation in economic policy, at least I thought he was generally a centrist who wouldn't muck things up too much or too quickly. I even hoped his so-called “stimulus” bill would at least have a placebo effect.
But Obama has done nothing for confidence in the markets. I'm not sure he even cares. When asked by a reporter whether it was the president's job to do so, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs stammered, “Oh, absolutely. I don't think that -- I mean, I think the president would agree with that wholeheartedly. But again, I think Well, again, I think the -- I think -- obviously I'm not on Wall Street, but I think it is not…”
But I didn't count on the extent to which he'd use the present economic mess as an excuse to push his agenda of more government regulation, greater involvement of government in the economy, and higher taxes. Why am I surprised? White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel laid out the strategy a week after the election when he said, “Rule one: Never allow a crisis to go to waste.” This is really no different than what power-seeking politicians have done since time immemorial. Please forgive what may seem like an outrageous comparison, but this is exactly how Adolph Hitler came to power in 1933 -- by exploiting public panic in the aftermath to the Reichstag fire.
And I also didn't count on how downright incompetent Timothy Geithner would be as Treasury secretary. We still don’t have a coherent plan for stabilizing the U.S. banking system. Okay, you can say that he's only been in office for about a month at this point. But that doesn’t let him off the hook. In his prior role as president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, he was right in the thick of things with Fed chair Ben Bernanke and former Treasury secretary Henry Paulson in the interventions in Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman, Washington Mutual, and others. He ought to have had a pretty good idea what he wanted to do before he even sat down at his new desk.
My guess is he did have an idea. But once he got the job of Treasury secretary, he quickly found out that his idea didn't count for much. He'd have to listen to President Obama, chief economic advisor Lawrence Summers, Obama political operatives like David Axelrod, and last but certainly not least, congressional leaders like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd. No wonder Geithner can't come up with a plan -- that’ll never happen if he has to get that crowd to all agree on it.
The reason stocks can't stabilize here is that the new administration is promoting an agenda of inherent instability. We can argue about whether its aspirations are right or wrong separately -- but, as promised, they all involve a great deal of change, to use Obama's own favorite word.What will our world look like when President Obama “reforms” health care by nationalizing it given that it represents about one sixth of U.S. economic activity (and the part that's still working)?
What will happen to the cost and availability of electricity when he puts in place a “cap-and-trade” tax on carbon emissions? What will happen to Wall Street when taxes are raised on hedge fund and private-equity managers? What will happen to all of us when all our taxes go up and our deductions go down?
I have a pretty decent idea that none of that will lead to anything good at least not economically. You may disagree. But can't we at least agree that President Obama is stirring the pot by ramming all these things through now, at a time when he ought to be calming things down so we can all catch our breath and the economy can get back on its feet?
I've been writing this column for almost eight years now. If you've been reading it all that time, you know that if there's an optimistic way to look at the world, I'll find it. But I have to say, I'm getting pretty discouraged.
My only comfort is that with stocks down so much, they're really cheap. Obama said this week, “...profit and earning ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal if you've got a long-term perspective on it.” I've said similar things myself all the way down. I have to say, I'm beginning to worry that stocks are cheap for a reason. That reason may be President Obama.
It's already the Obama Recession. Is The Obama Depression around the corner?
I know this is a few days old, but it's a pretty funny satire of the society we've become; we have officially blurred the lines between entertainment and news media.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday called upon US President Barack Obama to follow the path to socialism, which he termed as the "only" way out of the global recession. "Come with us, align yourself, come with us on the road to socialism. This is the only path. Imagine a socialist revolution in the United States," Chavez told a group of workers in the southern Venezuelan state of Bolivar.
The controversial Venezuelan leader, who taunted the United States as a source of capitalistic evil under former president George W Bush, added that the United States needs a leader who can take it to a "higher" destiny and bring it out of "the sad role that it has been given, as a murderous, attacking power that is hated all around the world."
Chavez said that people are calling Obama a "socialist" for the measures of state intervention he is taking to counter the crisis, so it would not be too far-fetched to suggest that he might join the project of "21st century socialism" that the Venezuelan leader is heading.
"Nothing is impossible. Who would have thought in the 1980s that the Soviet Union would disappear? No one," he said.
"That murderous, genocidal empire has to end, and some day there has to come a leader ... who interprets the best of a people who also include human beings who suffer, endure, weep and laugh," the outspoken Chavez said.
What the hell is Chavez talking about? Didn't the Russians conduct a military training exercises party recently off the Venezuelan coast?
I was thinking my favorite punching bag, Roland Burris was old news considering the Obama Recession!
Now, Sangamon County, Illinois State's Attorney John Schmidt is seeking FBI wire taps to decide if perjury charges are warranted against "Senator" Burris.
CHICAGO -A county prosecutor exploring the possibility of perjury charges against U.S. Sen. Roland Burris has asked federal officials for FBI tapes of phone conversations between Burris and ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich's brother, an individual with knowledge of the case said Friday.
Sangamon County State's Attorney John Schmidt wants to compare the taped conversations with what Burris said under oath before the House committee that voted to impeach Blagojevich, said the individual, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter could come before a grand jury.
Schmidt's request, first reported in Friday editions of the Chicago Sun-Times, comes after Burris repeatedly changed his story about his contact with Blagojevich's friends and aides in advance of being appointed.
It was not clear whether federal officials would give tapes to Schmidt, but the U.S. Attorney's office did release four FBI wiretaps of Blagojevich conversations — edited to delete information the government considered too sensitive — to state lawmakers who ultimately removed Blagojevich from office in January.
Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich could not be reached for comment because I do not have his phone number.
Yet, considering Blago's affinity for the media, I might be able to score an interview on of these days!
Gingrish architected the "Contract With America" and the GOP's rise to power during the Clinton Administration.
(March 6) - Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has stayed active in Republican circles since leaving office, told reporters in Virginia Thursday night that he is considering running for president in 2012.
Gingrich and his wife "will look seriously and we'll probably get our family totally engaged, including our two grandchildren, probably in January, 2011, and we'll look seriously at whether or not we think it's necessary to do it," he said, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
"And if we think it's necessary we'll probably do it,” Gingrich said. “And if it isn't necessary we probably won't do it."
“I think it's conceivable that by 2012 you could have a second Contract for America,” the former Speaker added.
The Contract With America was crafted by Gingrich and other Republicans in 1994 and helped propel the GOP to a majority in both houses of Congress. It outlined a number of promises, many related to taxes and spending.
On CBSNews.com’s “Washington Unplugged” last week, Gingrich said the GOP “got off track, it failed to perform, and it got fired.”
"That’s the great genius of America, if you don’t do your job, the customer gets to choose somebody else," he continued.
Gingrich toyed with a run for the GOP nomination in 2008 but ultimately decided against it. Last night, he explained his attitude towards working with President Obama and Congressional Democrats: “Cooperate when you can, offer a better solution when possible, stop something only if you have no alternative.”
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a red "reset button" to symbolise improved ties, but the gift drew smiles as the word "reset" was mistranslated into the Russian for "overcharge".
"I would like to present you with a little gift that represents what President Obama and Vice President Biden and I have been saying and that is: 'We want to reset our relationship and so we will do it together," said Clinton, presenting Lavrov with a palm-sized yellow box with a red button.
GENEVA—Secretary of State Hillary Clinton opened her first extended talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by giving him a present meant to symbolize the Obama administration’s vow to “press the reset button” on U.S.-Russia relations.
She handed a palm-sized box wrapped with a bow. Lavrov opened it and pulled out the gift: a red button on a black base with a Russian word peregruzka printed on top.
“We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?” Clinton asked.
“You got it wrong,” Lavrov said.
Instead of "reset," Lavrov said the word on the box meant “overcharge.”
Clinton and Lavrov laughed.
“We won’t let you do that to us,” she said. Trying to recover, Clinton said the new administration was serious about improving relations with Moscow. “We mean it, and we’re looking forward to it.”
Lavrov said he would put the button on his desk and he and Clinton pushed the button together, before sitting down for their meeting.
A State Department official said the misspelling on the button was being corrected, in time for the post-meeting news conference.
I don't find any of this "Obama Experiment" to be particularly amusing.
Barack Obama won the presidency in large measure because he presented himself as a demarcation point. The old politics, he said, was based on "spin," misleading arguments, and an absence of candor. He'd "turn the page" on that style of politics.
Last week's presentation of his budget shows that hope was a mirage. For example, Mr. Obama didn't run promising larger deficits -- but now is offering record-setting ones. He'll add $4.9 trillion before his term ends and $7.4 trillion if given a second, doubling the national debt in five years and tripling it in 10. Mr. Obama's deficits will be much larger than he admits because he relies on rosy economic assumptions and gimmicks that mask spending and debt (like assuming popular new programs he supports won't be renewed).
Nor did Mr. Obama run promising more earmarks. Instead, he said he'd reform the earmark culture and "scour the federal budget, line by line, and make meaningful cuts." Now he wants to wave through a $410 billion omnibus spending bill with about 8,500 earmarks. This is on top of the $787 billion stimulus bill signed into law two weeks ago.
His justification comes to us from the White House's budget director, Peter Orszag, who recently called the omnibus spending bill "last year's business." But it will fund the federal government for the next six months. Mr. Obama could veto the legislation or push congressional Democrats to ditch the earmarks. But he has given little indication that he will do either.
Nor is it credible to claim that the spending spree on Mr. Obama's watch is someone else's responsibility, as Mr. Orszag did by saying the president had "inherited" these deficits.
Mr. Obama ceded authority to congressional appropriators, who wrote the stimulus bill that is history's largest spending increase. Then Mr. Obama got behind the pork-laden omnibus-spending bill. And Mr. Obama has also proposed $4 trillion in outlays this fiscal year and $3.6 trillion next fiscal year. Mr. Obama cannot dismiss critics by pointing to President George W. Bush's decision to run $2.9 trillion in deficits while fighting two wars and dealing with 9/11 and Katrina. Mr. Obama will surpass Mr. Bush's eight-year total in his first 20 months and 11 days in office, adding $3.2 trillion to the national debt. If America "cannot and will not sustain" deficits like Mr. Bush's, as Mr. Obama said during the campaign, how can Mr. Obama sustain the geometrically larger ones he's flogging?
There is more. Mr. Obama pledged "no tax hikes on any families earning less than a quarter million dollars." What he didn't draw attention to was $600 billion in higher energy taxes he wants to impose through a cap-and-trade system on carbon emissions. These taxes will hit everyone who drives, flips a light switch, or buys anything manufactured, grown or shipped.
Mr. Obama devoted four times as much space in his campaign stump speech to cutting taxes as he did to talking about raising taxes on the wealthy. In the election's most widely watched speech, his Denver Convention address, he didn't even mention raising taxes, instead stressing he'd "cut taxes -- cut taxes -- for 95% of all working families." Yet higher taxes are what every American is going to get.
Today's White House health-care summit should also remind us of one of Mr. Obama's most popular ads, which declared, "On health care reform -- two extremes. On one end, government-run health care, higher taxes. On the other, insurance companies without rules, denying coverage. Barack Obama says both extremes are wrong."
Mr. Obama's plan will lead us to the extreme of government-run health care. And in an effort to reach that goal, Mr. Obama's budget proposes, as a starting point, a $630 billion fund to expand government-run health care. And that $630 billion comes not from reduced spending, but higher taxes.
Mr. Obama's personal popularity remains higher than support for his proposals. A raft of opinion surveys show Americans take the conservative side on issues ranging from the efficacy of government spending, to nationalization of banks, to bailouts for auto companies, to whether tax cuts or government spending will create more jobs. Packaging Mr. Obama's proposals is easier than rigorously defending them. Team Obama will find this out as the details of their budget and other plans are scrutinized.
Barack Obama has been president for a little more than five weeks. During his speech to a joint session of Congress last week, he showed what a skilled speaker he is and how persuasive he can be. But words delivered from a teleprompter, while important, have to line up with actions. Promises have to be met. And a president who promised to be one thing cannot be another. At some point, the gap between good feelings and results, between perception and reality, closes. Eloquent words and "spin" work better in a campaign than they do while governing. And as Mr. Obama is discovering, the laws of economics won't change, even for him.
The nation's unemployment rate bolted to 8.1 percent in February, the highest since late 1983, as cost-cutting employers slashed 651,000 jobs amid a deepening recession.
Both figures were worse than analysts expected and the Labor Department's report shows America's workers being clobbered by a relentless wave of layoffs unlikely to ease anytime soon.
The net loss of 651,000 jobs in February came after even deeper payroll reductions in the prior two months, according to revised figures released Friday. The economy lost 681,000 jobs in December and another 655,000 in January.
A record 31.8 million Americans received food stamps at the latest count, an increase of 700,000 people in one month with the United States in recession, government figures showed Thursday.
It's hard not to see the continued sell-off on Wall Street and the growing fear on Main Street as a product, at least in part, of the realization that our new president's policies are designed to radically re-engineer the market-based U.S. economy, not just mitigate the recession and financial crisis.
The illusion that Barack Obama will lead from the economic center has quickly come to an end. Instead of combining the best policies of past Democratic presidents -- John Kennedy on taxes, Bill Clinton on welfare reform and a balanced budget, for instance -- President Obama is returning to Jimmy Carter's higher taxes and Mr. Clinton's draconian defense drawdown.
Mr. Obama's $3.6 trillion budget blueprint, by his own admission, redefines the role of government in our economy and society. The budget more than doubles the national debt held by the public, adding more to the debt than all previous presidents -- from George Washington to George W. Bush -- combined. It reduces defense spending to a level not sustained since the dangerous days before World War II, while increasing nondefense spending (relative to GDP) to the highest level in U.S. history. And it would raise taxes to historically high levels (again, relative to GDP). And all of this before addressing the impending explosion in Social Security and Medicare costs.
Bravo to pharmacist Danny Cottrell; this is a great American story that shows not all hope is lost!
I wish we could see more of this instead of the Radical Socialist takeover we are seeing out of the White House these days!
Yes, Americans are still capable of digging ourselves out if the government would just leave us all alone!
BREWTON — A small-town pharmacist intrigued by the government's economic stimulus plan decided to launch his own version with $16,000 in $2 bills, and area stores have already felt the impact.
Danny Cottrell gave each of his full-time employees $700 and part-timers $300. He asked them to donate 15 percent to charity and spend the rest locally, particularly downtown, where store owners say that business has been lean.
"I wanted to do something for my employees, let them know our business is not in jeopardy, and for the local merchants," said Danny Cottrell, owner of The Medical Center Pharmacy with its main store in Brewton and a second in Atmore. "This seemed like a good way to do it."
Cottrell said he paid his employees with $2 bills so he and the rest of the Escambia County business community could see how the money circulates.
Before he explained the plan to his employees last week, Cottrell said, he couldn't resist creating a little suspense.
"Times are hard," he said, "and the downturn has hit us some. Employees start to worry if they will even have a job. So I called a meeting of the staff. One employee broke out in hives from the nerves. My partner, Tom Henderson, said he heard some employees talking about the meeting. They were scared to death."
Cottrell said he began the meeting as usual, encouraging workers to answer phones faster and serve customers better. Then he began passing out envelopes.
When workers saw the cash, some were so excited that they wept, he said.
"I was so worried, I made myself physically sick," said Lana Jackson. "But spending it has been fun. It feels like you are doing a good deed."
Carolyn Kennedy said she was so shocked she couldn't speak at first.
Workers are keeping a log of the stores that they visit, more than 65 at last count. Some have stopped in at stores they never tried before.
From the Winn-Dixie to the Peebles department store, merchants said the $2 bills have been noticed.
"I've had three customers this week come in and pay with $2 bills," said Candy Smith, owner of a clothing boutique downtown.
Sammy Weaver, owner of Weaver's in Brewton, said he appreciates Cottrell and his commitment to the town.
"The $2 bills make it easy to see where it's going, see how it turns over and generates tax revenue that helps our town and schools," said Weaver, whose store sells jewelry and clothing. "I plan to save up the bills that come in here and pay Danny my bill with them."
Some of the $2 bills have even circulated back to the pharmacy.
"It's not a huge amount of money," Cottrell said of his hometown stimulus package. "It would have a more noticeable impact if someone with more resources came up with a huge amount of money, but the times are tough."
Still, for the workers with the windfall, this is just more of their boss' big heart shining through, they said.
"I tell you, I love him like cooked food," said Bobbie Edwards.
At least the entire Obama Team is on board with the radical agenda! Last November, Rahm The Ballerina, commented 'You never want a serious crisis to go to waste'.
Hillary Clinton chose radical Saul Alinsky as the topic of her senior thesis .
Hillary, like her boss, is a huge fan of the radical socialist.
In 1969, Hillary Rodham wrote a 92-page senior thesis for Wellesley College entitled "There Is Only The Fight…": An Analysis of the Alinsky Model. The subject was famed radical community organizer Saul Alinsky. Rodham, an honors student at Wellesley, received an A grade on the thesis.
The work then went unnoticed until Hillary Rodham Clinton entered the White House as First Lady. Clinton researchers and political opponents sought out the thesis, thinking it contained evidence that Rodham had held strong radical or socialist views.
In early 1993, the White House requested that Wellesley not release the thesis to anyone. Wellesley complied, instituting a new rule that closed access to the thesis of any sitting U.S. president or first lady, a rule that in practice applied only to Rodham.
Clinton critics and several biographers seized upon this action as a sure sign that the thesis held politically explosive contents that would reveal her radicalism or extremism.
Hostile Clinton biographer Barbara Olson wrote in 1999 that Clinton "does not want the American people to know the extent to which she internalized and assimilated the beliefs and methods of Saul Alinsky."
In her 2003 memoirs, Clinton mentioned the thesis only briefly, saying she had agreed with some of Alinsky's ideas, but hadn't agreed with his belief that it was impossible to "change the system" from inside.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an audience Friday "never waste a good crisis," and highlighted the opportunity of rebuilding economies in a greener, less energy-intensive way.
Highlighting Europe's unease the day after Russia warned that gas flows via Ukraine might be halted, she also condemned the use of energy as a political lever.
Clinton told young Europeans at the European Parliament that global economic turmoil provided a fresh opening. "Never waste a good crisis ... Don't waste it when it can have a very positive impact on climate change and energy security," she said.
First proposed in 1966 and named after Columbia University sociologists Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven, the "Cloward-Piven Strategy" seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.
In an op/ed in the British Telegraph, James Delingpole, author of Welcome to Obamaland (a must read, by the way, tells us what to expect from Obama's socialist agenda from a man who experienced the same BS 1st hand under Tony Blair) just absolutely destroys First Lady Michelle Obama.
Trust me. This guy knows what he's talking about. Read the book and you'll understand. In fact, I've discussed this with several British citizens and they all say Delingpole is dead on with his assessment and predictions for Obama-merica.
That said, I truly value his opinion.
I have tried to avoid attacking the First Lady, mostly out of respect for her children, but the truth is clear. The facts speak for themselves.
Michelle Obama is a racist!
Delingpole's column:
On US radio's Garrison show today, I was asked for my reaction as a true born Englishman to President Obama's double insult - first the sending back of the Winston Churchill bust, then his snub to Gordon Brown. "Tough one. Really tough one," I said, torn - as most of surely are - between delight at seeing Brown roundly humiliated, and dismay at having the special relationship so peremptorily, cruelly and bafflingly ruptured. Iain Martin is quite right here: no matter how utterly rubbish we have become as a nation in the Blair/Brown years, Britain's friendship is something Obama will come to regret having dispensed with so lightly. This was not the act of a global statesman, but of a hormonal teenager dismissing her bestest of best BFs for no other reason than that she felt like it and she can, so there.
What was the guy thinking? In researching my new book Welcome to Obamaland, I discovered that Obama's judgment is pretty dreadful - but this? My favourite theory so far - suggested by presenter Greg Garrison - was that it was a move calculated to please his Lady Macbeth. At the moment in Britain, we're still in the "Doesn't she look fabulous in a designer frock" stage of understanding of Michelle Obama. Gradually, though, we'll begin to realise that she is every bit the terrifying executive's wife that Hillary Clinton was. Or, shudder, Cherie Blair.
We may just LURVE Michelle's fashion sense. But Michelle doesn't reciprocate our affection, one bit. Her broad-brush view of history associates Brits with the wicked white global hegemony responsible for the slave trade. Never mind that a white, Tory Englishman - William Wilberforce - brought the slave trade to an end. Judging by her record, Michelle does not make room for such subtle nuance.
Consider her notorious statement that: "For the first time in my adult life I am really proud of my country." Consider her (till-recently suppressed) Princeton thesis, "Princeton Educated Blacks And The Black Community." In it she writes: "I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances underwhich I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second."
Here we see that she has mastered the authentic voice of grievance culture. She also - the thesis was written in 1985 - pre-empts the Macpherson report's ludicrous, catch-all definition of racism: "A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person." No matter how hard young Michelle's white undergraduate contemporaries try to be nice, it's not their behaviour that counts, but how Michelle feels.
More worrying, though, and dangerous, than young Michelle's desperate quest for validation through victimhood is the other strain within her thesis. "As I enter my final year at Princeton," she writes. "I find myself striving for many of the same goals as my White classmates - acceptance to a prestigious graduate or professional school or a high paying position in a successful corporation. Thus, my goals at Princeton are not as clear as before."
"Yes, exactly, you silly girl" you want to shriek at young Michelle as you give her a good shake. "It's called 'opening your mind', 'broadening your experience', 'allowing youthful dogma to be shaped by reality.' It's why people go to university, don't you know?"
First Barack Obama defeated Hillary Clinton. Then he whipped John McCain. But now he may have met his match.
Tonya Harding is mad at the president. Plenty mad. And we’d rather face a rabid pit bull than that angry little she-devil.
During a campaign stop last summer, Obama ad libbed something about “pulling a Tonya Harding” on his opponents. Tonya heard about it. Tonya didn’t like it. Tonya is pissed.
No word yet on Obama’s reaction, but we can guess what Bill Clinton would say.
“Back off, Barack. I already called dibs on trailer park trash.”
A small victory for conservatism. You think Obama will veto the earmark-laden bill?
Ha ha! I kill myself sometimes!
WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans, demanding the right to try to change a huge spending bill, forced Democrats on Thursday night to put off a final vote on the measure until next week. The surprise development will force Congress to pass a stopgap funding bill to avoid a partial shutdown of the government.
Republicans have blasted the $410 billion measure as too costly. But the reason for GOP unity in advance of a key procedural vote was that Democrats had not allowed them enough opportunities to offer amendments.
Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., canceled the vote, saying he was one vote short of the 60 needed to close debate and free the bill for President Barack Obama's signature.
Democrats and their allies control 58 seats, though at least a handful of Democrats oppose the measure over its cost or changes in U.S. policy toward Cuba. That meant Democrats needed five or six Republican votes to advance the bill.
None of the GOP's amendments is expected to pass, but votes on perhaps a dozen are now slated for Monday night, Reid said.
The huge, 1,132-page spending bill awards big increases to domestic programs and is stuffed with pet projects sought by lawmakers in both parties. The measure has an extraordinary reach, wrapping together nine spending bills to fund the annual operating budgets of every Cabinet department except for Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs.
Once considered a relatively bipartisan measure, the measure has come under attack from Republicans — and a handful of Democrats — who say it is bloated and filled with wasteful, pork-barrel projects.
Maybe the Senators are getting nervous that Americans are beginning to see through the Change?
Glenn Beck Vs Communist Party Chair Sam Webb. I love how Beck wins arguments while acting so polite! Anyone surprised that the Communist Party has a crush on Obama?
WASHINGTON – For five weeks, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has battled the worst economic crisis in generations with no key deputies in place. That's made for a rocky debut for the man President Barack Obama put in charge of addressing the financial crisis.
With an awkward first television appearance, a bank rescue plan that lacked promised specifics and two restructured bailouts that raised taxpayer risk, Geithner has failed to calm financial markets desperate for answers.
Critics say part of the problem is that Geithner is flying solo: Not one of his top 17 deputies has been named, let alone confirmed. And without senior leadership, lower-level Treasury employees can't make decisions or represent the government in crucial conversations with banks and others.
As Geithner strives to address the financial crisis, advance Obama's agenda and work with foreign leaders to stave off economic disaster, he's assembled a 50-person "shadow cabinet" of would-be appointees. Those people have received hall passes and can advise Geithner, but they lack any authority.
The person Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wanted as his chief deputy withdrew from consideration Thursday, dealing a setback to the agency as it struggles to address the worst financial crisis in decades.
Annette Nazareth, a former senior staffer and commissioner with the Securities and Exchange Commission, made “a personal decision” to withdraw from the process, according to a person familiar with her decision.
The decision followed more than a month of intense scrutiny of her taxes and multiple interviews. No tax problems or other issues arose during Nazareth’s vetting, said the person, who requested anonymity because Geithner’s choice of Nazareth was never announced officially.
“She did put a great deal of consideration into the potential of taking the position, and she concluded that she really enjoys what she’s doing now,” this person said.
Though popular in policy circles, Nazareth has drawn criticism for her role in creating what some considered to be lax oversight of the banking industry.
Nazareth, 53, a partner at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, could not be reached for comment. Treasury and White House officials said they would not comment.
Geithner has been criticized for staffing his department too slowly as it grapples with a banking crisis that has crippled the economy. Uncertainty about Treasury staff also has unnerved financial markets.
Geithner’s choice for undersecretary of international affairs, Caroline Atkinson, also withdrew from consideration, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
No wonder the Obama Recession continues its downward spiral, destroying capitalism as we know it in its wake!
Tax issues? Or did someone finally realize President Obama is arrogant, radical, dishonest and dangerous?
Just remember, in 2003, he was named one of PEOPLE magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive" and a "pop culture icon" by USA Today. And those might have been his best qualifications!
Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, will not leave his television career to become the U.S. surgeon general, he told network officials, according to sources familiar with his decision.
Gupta, who had been the leading candidate for the post, withdrew his name even as President Obama hosted a health care summit at the White House. Gupta did not attend.
There was not immediate word to explain his decision. Sources had confirmed weeks ago that Obama had offered the job to Gupta and that the neurosurgeon had intended to take it. At the time, sources said Gupta would leave his network job for the government post.
But no further progress was evident, especially after Obama's first choice for secretary of health and human services, former senator Tom Daschle, was derailed by tax problems.
Gupta was never officially named to the post and continued to report on CNN during the last several weeks.
Sources said Gupta told CNN executives that he wanted to devote more time to his medical practice and to his duties at the network.
President Obama launched his "bold" nationalized health-care plan today.
Just as Rahmbo The Ballerina said never let a good crisis go to waste, Obama continues to use the economic crisis as the impetus for passing his radical agenda.
It's our view, that the President is not terribly concerned with actually fixing the economy. Instead, he will use smoke and mirrors to covertly pass a radical Socialist agenda, establish a vast power grab for voting supremacy, and attempt to implode America from within.
“The cost of health care now causes a bankruptcy in America every thirty seconds," President Obama said at the White House forum on health care reform, a summit of 150 Democrats, Republicans, and advocates for doctors, nurses, patients, labor unions, and business groups. "By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes.”
“If we want to create jobs and rebuild our economy, then we must address the crushing cost of health care this year, in this Administration," the President added. "Making investments in reform now, investments that will dramatically lower costs, won’t add to our budget deficits in the long-term – rather, it is one of the best ways to reduce them.”
It's ridiculous that Obama is radical, deceitful and dishonest enough to equate health-care reform with the economy and, for good measure, tie in the housing crisis.Obama is flat out lying again, but his dishonesty and hypocrisy is becoming old hat these days.
Besides the lies, he continues his strategy of doom and gloom, fear and loathing to pass his Radical Socialist agenda.
Disturbingly, Obama is allowing Congress to write the bill since they did such a bang up job on the CRAPulus Spending Bill! Nancy Pelosi is going to write national health care legislation? That's the most frightening thing I've ever heard!
We already know how pompous and narcissistic Obama is but what gives the Messiah so much confidence that after 60 years of debate, he and the Commun-O-crats in Congress have finally figured it all out?
In calling for comprehensive healthcare reform to be enacted by the end of the year, President Obama has set an ambitious goal – one that has eluded Congress for more than 60 years.
Past efforts at reform have been stymied by the complexity of the healthcare system, ideological differences between Republicans and Democrats, and the inability to make trade-offs between containing spiraling healthcare costs and ensuring that every American has access to healthcare.
But at Thursday's White House Forum on Health Reform, Mr. Obama declared "this time is different," saying the economic crisis has turned health reform into an imperative. He attributed the failure of past healthcare reform efforts to "special interests" who had their way over the "public interest."
"This time, the call for reform is coming from the bottom up, from all across the spectrum – from doctors, nurses and patients; unions and businesses; hospitals, healthcare providers and community groups," he said.
"This time, there is no debate about whether all Americans should have quality, affordable healthcare – the only question is, how?" he continued.
"The status quo is the one option that is not on the table," he said.
"And those who seek to block any reform at any cost will not prevail this time around."
"The only question is, how"?!?! My thoughts exactly! There is no way whatsoever Mr. Obama that "universal", "affordable", "quality" and "health care" will ever fit together! His arrogance is astounding!
And I'm so glad that unions and "community groups" will be at the bargaining table. I really hope we get to see the ACORN Anarchists!
• Guaranteeing choice of health plans and physicians;
• Making health coverage affordable;
• Protecting families’ financial health;
• Investing in prevention and wellness;
• Providing portability of coverage;
• Aiming for universality;
• Improving patient safety and quality care; and
• Maintaining long-term fiscal sustainability.
Yeah, it all sounds great! But at what cost? In total, through the SCHIP Bill, the CRAPulus Spending Bill and the Obama budget plan, the Obama health care agenda already tops $1 Trillion!
But where will it end?
“The budget calls for an effort beyond this down payment, to put the nation on a path to health insurance coverage for all Americans. However, additional funding will be needed," Obama said of the $634 Billion downpayment!
That's an ass load of money for a plan that has yet to be proven to a success - anywhere in the world!
Taking Your Own Pulse: A bipartisan health care summit may be nice window dressing, but the test of real bipartisanship is found in policy, not in photo ops. So far on health care, the President’s promise for bipartisanship is more hope than change. Since January, President Obama has signed into law over $200 billion spending to advance his health care agenda—$136 billion alone on in the stimulus—with little, if any, notion of bipartisanship.
Consolidated Power: To achieve his goals, President Obama’s health plan will need to depend on a massive top-down infrastructure to control health care dollars and decisions. Instead of empowering patients and doctors, Washington will be in charge.
Loss of Private Coverage: At a time when Americans are worried about losing their health care, the promise of a new government health plan will only undermine the private health insurance that million of Americans depend on today. Not only do government programs cost more than they project, but they also promise more than they deliver.
And all of this crap to get health care that Europe has proven as a complete and utter failure!
As Europe demonstrates, millions go without good health care under government paid systems regularly.
According to 2004 survey only 22 percent of Spaniards think their universal care system offers “satisfactory” service. It is certainly unsatisfactory that citizens there have to wait months for a simple test like an MRI. In England, patients must wait nearly a year for hip and knee replacements.
In Spain everyone pays taxes for the universal health care system. There is, however, a select group of people who get to choose. Central government civil servants can opt-out of the public system and have the government pay for their private insurance. 91 percent of civil servants choose private insurance. That is quite an endorsement of the free market’s ability to meet consumers needs better than socialized medicine.
To paraphrase Rush Limbaugh, this is exactly the sort of Socialist Legislation which I hope completely fails.
I hope, like Hillary and Bill 15 years ago, Obama's plan for Nationalized, "Social" health care becomes an abject failure.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair said the fund it uses to protect customer deposits at U.S. banks could dry up amid a surge in bank failures, as she responded to an industry outcry against new fees approved by the agency.
“Without these assessments, the deposit insurance fund could become insolvent this year,” Bair wrote in a March 2 letter to the industry. U.S. community banks plan to flood the FDIC with about 5,000 letters in protest of the fees, according to a trade group.
“A large number” of bank failures may occur through 2010 because of “rapidly deteriorating economic conditions,” Bair said in the letter. “Without substantial amounts of additional assessment revenue in the near future, current projections indicate that the fund balance will approach zero or even become negative.”
The FDIC last week approved a one-time “emergency” fee and other assessment increases on the industry to rebuild a fund to repay customers for deposits of as much as $250,000 when a bank fails. The fees, opposed by the industry, may generate $27 billion this year after the fund fell to $18.9 billion in the fourth quarter from $34.6 billion in the previous period, the FDIC said.
GM is facing bankruptcy. Government bailouts are not working for the auto makers, they are not, and will not work to fix the banks. And tax dollars won't help the mortgage crisis.
Such a sickening waste of money.
DETROIT (AP) - General Motors Corp.'s auditors have raised "substantial doubt" about the troubled automaker's ability to continue operations, and the company said it may have to seek bankruptcy protection if it can't execute a huge restructuring plan. The automaker revealed the concerns Thursday in an annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
"The corporation's recurring losses from operations, stockholders' deficit, and inability to generate sufficient cash flow to meet its obligations and sustain its operations raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern," auditors for the accounting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP wrote in the report.
In pre-market trading, GM shares fell 18 percent from Wednesday's close, to $1.80. GM has received $13.4 billion in federal loans as it tries to survive the worst auto sales climate in 27 years. It is seeking a total of $30 billion from the government. During the past three years it has piled up $82 billion in losses, including $30.9 billion in 2008.
SUFFER, Fools
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Nothing Trump is likely to do will affect me much
(if we can somehow avoid a major nuclear exchange).
But millions of morally hollow, economically-obtuse...
Moving Day
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This is the day when we're moving to our new server! I've been working hard
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softwar...
1*Sherrie (TS CG)'s blog post was featured
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1*Sherrie (TS CG)'s blog post was featured
Sarah Palin CPAC Texas August 2022
The former Governor of Alaska and US Congressional candidate is interviewed
at...
(TMZ)
