Glenn Beck talks with Congresswoman Bachmann

GLENN: 888 727 BECK. Congressman Michele Bachmann is with us now. Congressman, how are you?

CONGRESSWOMAN BACHMANN: Good morning, Glenn, good afternoon, good evening, good to see you.

GLENN: How are things?

CONGRESSWOMAN BACHMANN: Well, things are hot on the front lines in Washington, D.C. There's a lot happening, a lot of pots are boiling over and we're very concerned about what we're seeing.

GLENN: I want to talk to you a little bit about Timothy Geithner. Explain to America what is happening with how close are we to having Timothy Geithner be able to shut down private businesses if they feel it's a threat to the economy?

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/23295/

New Era of Spend & Blame

For a guy who talks so much about wanting a new era of re sponsibility, President Obama spends an awful lot of time blaming Republicans for all the wild and reckless spending he crammed into his own budget.

After running a campaign against the $1 trillion deficit he "inherited" from President Bush and the Republicans, Obama quickly matched it. During his first 50 days in office, he and his Democratic-controlled Congress spent $1 billion an hour.

Under Obama's proposed budget, the overall national debt doubles in five years and triples in 10.

Not exactly "moving from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest," as he promised.

How does Mr. Responsibility explain the disconnect between this reality and his absurd claims? By insisting that Republicans were worse.

http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/seven/03272009/news/columnists/new_era_of_spend__blame_161557.htm

Obama is flunking economics

Welcome to March Madness on the Potomac.

Many Americans are so emotionally invested in the Obama presidency that they consider it too historic to fail.

They won't tolerate any criticism of the president or his administration, finding it easier to simply attack critics. And whatever goes wrong that they can't defend or deflect, they just blame on George W. Bush.

http://cnn.site.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Commentary%3A+Obama+is+flunking+economics+-+CNN.com&expire=-1&urlID=34968338&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2009%2FPOLITICS%2F03%2F27%2Fnavarrette.obama.economics%2Findex.html%3Feref%3Drss_topstories&partnerID=211911

Terror inmates may be released in US: intel chief

President Barack Obama's intelligence chief confirmed Thursday that some Guantanamo inmates may be released on US soil and receive assistance to return to society.

"If we are to release them in the United States, we need some sort of assistance for them to start a new life," said National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair at his first press conference.

"You can't just put them on the street," he added. "All that is work in progress."

http://www.breitbart.com/print.php?id=CNG.18e9e5692442aa61d7510553b5ffc14e.e01&show_article=1

Another "Don't let a crisis go to waste" moment

The ObamaBots really like this line, don't they? Rambo E. was the first one to come out with it: "you never let a good crisis go to waste." We've actually heard those words from the Leader of the Free World as well. Yesterday it was the tax cheat in chief ... Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. He was testifying before some group of self-important legislators in Washington when he uttered the line again, though in slightly different form. Said Geithner: "We have a moment of opportunity here, and we don't want to waste this opportunity." What was he talking about? Regulation. Getting the government more and more involved in regulating the private sector.

I know you hate it when I bring this up, but how else are you going to learn? What sort of economic system do you call it when industry, businesses and financial institutions are privately owned but government controlled? The word would be "fascist." Never let a good learning opportunity go to waste.

http://boortz.com/nealz_nuze/2009/03/another-dont-let-a-crisis-go-t.html

An Alarming video every Westerner should see

Anyone (like Barack Obama) entertaining ideas of western democracies establishing friendly relations with the radicals of the Islamic world should watch this video.While watching the inflammatory rhetoric of the speaker, remember that this is not a Jihadists from Iran but a professor from Kuwait - a country with every reason to be grateful to the USA for liberating it from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein's invasion.

http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=0861ff3eabea1ceb73e4

House Health Plan to Include Government-Run Option

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House this year will consider health-care legislation including an option for a government-run program that would compete with insurers.

“This is a big agenda, and I believe it should have a public option in it for it to be really substantial,” Pelosi told reporters at her weekly news conference in the U.S. Capitol.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=worldwide&sid=axI6NVjq8cfI

Critics Say Senate Bill to Rescue Newspapers May Invite Government Control of News

Call it the opening salvo of the broadsheet bailout. Castaway columnists and struggling stringers might be America's next charity case if Sen. Benjamin Cardin has his way.

The Maryland Democrat proposed a bill Tuesday that would rewrite tax law to allow newspapers to operate as tax-exempt nonprofit organizations, just as long as they don't make official endorsements of political candidates.

But some media analysts say that could create government control of the news.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/26/critics-say-senate-invite-government-control-news/

Roubini Says Stocks Will Drop as Banks Go ‘Belly Up’

U.S. stocks will fall and the government will nationalize more banks as the economy contracts through the end of 2009, said Nouriel Roubini, the New York University professor who predicted last year’s economic crisis.

“The stock market is a bit ahead of the real macroeconomic and financial news,” Roubini, a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business and the chairman of consulting firm Roubini Global Economics, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in London today. “We’ll have some major banks going belly up that will need to be taken over.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=worldwide&sid=aUzSQ01UhV6s

Bush Deficit vs. Obama Deficit in Pictures

President Barack Obama has repeatedly claimed that his budget would cut the deficit by half by the end of his term. But as Heritage analyst Brian Riedl has pointed out, given that Obama has already helped quadruple the deficit with his stimulus package, pledging to halve it by 2013 is hardly ambitious. The Washington Post has a great graphic which helps put President Obama’s budget deficits in context of President Bush’s.

What’s driving Obama’s unprecedented massive deficits? Spending.



http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/

Let 'em have it, Daniel Hannan

If only some politicians would stand up to the leadership here in America... I salute you, Daniel Hannan!

The Worst Is Yet to Come: Possible toLose Even More Jobs?

President Obama warned America today during an online town hall meeting that the country hasn't stopped losing jobs in this recession.

The president picked a dozen questions from more than 100,000 that were submitted online or by YouTube during the last week as Obama made himself"Open for Questions" from regular Americans.

The overriding issue of the inquiries was about the country's economy and the president warned that despite signs of fiscal improvement, people could expect even more jobs to be eliminated before the unemployment rate stops rising.

"We're going to have to be patient and persistent about job creation because I don't think that we've lost all the jobs we're going to lose in this recession," Obama said.

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=7177676

98% of Obama's budget through..except

GLENN: This is great. How many times did you hear this during the campaign: How could Obama be a socialist if he's cutting taxes for 95% of all Americans? How could that possibly be? Well, it's very easy to be a socialist and take from one small group of wealthy people and give it to everybody else to buy their favor. I mean, that's actually a standard feature. That car comes loaded with that. I'd like, "Ooh, is that the new Buick Socialist?" "Yes, it is." "Does it have redistribution of wealth?" Oh, sure, it's standard on that.

How many points did the campaign promise, "I'm going to cut taxes for 95% of Americans." How many people bought that, how many people? Well, enough to win the election, right? He argued this on two fronts. One, it's not a real tax cut. The tax cut he's offering has an income cap that keeps falling and falling. And even if you get it, it's going to be overwhelmed by thousands of dollars in increased energy costs away from his global warming taxes. Number two, what in Barack's history makes you believe that he's actually going to cut taxes for anyone? What evidence is there that he actually cares about cutting taxes? Everything in his record points to the fact that he really enjoys doing the opposite. Well, here we are, two full months into his presidency. He has now spent more than even most critics including me could have possibly imagined. We have the largest deficits in our history by far locked in for the next 10 years and now this from ABC News: On a conference call with reporters, budget director Peter Orszag indicated that while 98% of the budget markups in the House and Senate are on par with the administration's budget blueprint, some campaign trail promises may get left on the cutting room floor like... wait for it, wait for it. Let me give you a second just to guess. 98% of the things that he wanted and he promised are in the budget. That means of every 50 things he wants, he's only not able to get one. What's that one thing? What's that one thing he really wants, he really, really cares about that he's not going to be able to get? Wait for it. Remember he wants it so very much. Give you a second to think. Time's up. Oh, what is free milk? No, sorry. While 98% of the budget markups quoting from ABC News in the House and Senate are on par with the administration's budget blueprint, some campaign trail promises may get left on the cutting room floor like middle class tax cuts. What? But did he get the free milk? Actually that's not true. To extend the movie analogy, tax cuts won't be on the cutting room floor because they never made it into the cutting room. They were never flamed. They were never in the script. They weren't discussed at any pitch meeting. The only place tax cuts ever appeared was in the trailer. Barack Obama is like a Ben Affleck movie. The trailer looks great but then when you get there, you're like, I don't remember seeing that advertised.

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/23229/

States Rebellion Pending

Our Colonial ancestors petitioned and pleaded with King George III to get his boot off their necks. He ignored their pleas, and in 1776, they rightfully declared unilateral independence and went to war. Today it's the same story except Congress is the one usurping the rights of the people and the states, making King George's actions look mild in comparison. Our constitutional ignorance -- perhaps contempt, coupled with the fact that we've become a nation of wimps, sissies and supplicants -- has made us easy prey for Washington's tyrannical forces. But that might be changing a bit. There are rumblings of a long overdue re-emergence of Americans' characteristic spirit of rebellion.

Eight state legislatures have introduced resolutions declaring state sovereignty under the Ninth and 10th amendments to the U.S. Constitution; they include Arizona, Hawaii, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington. There's speculation that they will be joined by Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nevada, Maine and Pennsylvania.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?print=yes&id=31201

Death of the Obama dream

Well, that was fast.
On March 20, only two months after the cosmic anointing, Vanity Fair, of all places, unloaded on Barack Obama, in the terms it had reserved for the past four or five years for the likes of George W. Bush.

Well, not the whole magazine, but one of its writers, media writer Michael Wolff, took an axe to the president, in a posting beginning “Sheesh, the guy is Jimmy Carter,” ending “This guy is leaden and this show is in trouble,” and titled “Barack Obama is a Terrible Bore.”

The same day, ex-fan Peggy Noonan called him “insubstantial and weightless...not fully focused...jumping from issue to issue and venue to venue from day to day.” “The administration’s difficulties...have created an unfortunate impression of incompetence,”
said The Economist. Politico noted that his skills as a salesman have begun to desert him.

It all came at the end of what Rick Klein of ABC News called Obama’s ‘lost week,’ which got worse on Sunday, when he was attacked by the New York Times in three columns and one editorial. One warned of an oncoming fall of Katrina dimensions. And these were his friends.

http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=www.washingtonexaminer.com+%3E%3E+Noemie+Emery&expire=&urlID=34922777&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonexaminer.com%2Fopinion%2Fcolumns%2FNoemieEmery%2FDeath-of-the-Obama-dream-41801612.html%23&partnerID=436229

Obama's Just Not That Into You

Does President Obama truly believe that he can castigate and condemn Wall Street on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and then secure its cooperation on the other days of the week?

Does he not understand that when he ignites a public furor over AIG bonuses and then incites Congress to pass a punitive tax, he sends shivers down the spines of every other corporate executive who makes a lot of money?

Does he seriously believe that Wall Street investors will not worry that their winnings, should they join the Treasury as partners in risky investments, would be subject to public abuse, publicity and confiscatory taxation?

Of course he realizes that his rhetoric makes it unlikely that his program will succeed. He obviously gets it that the entire concept of a public-private partnership is impossible amid a climate of waging class warfare, taxing the rich and heaping contempt on anyone who makes money. The president is quite bright and certainly understands that you cannot shake hands with your right while you launch a roundhouse with your left.

So why does Obama persist in his aggressive rhetoric? Why does he continue to treat Wall Street as something out of Dante's Inferno?

Because he's just not that into you! He doesn't really care if the public-private partnerships work out.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/printpage/?url=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/03/obamas_just_not_that_into_you.html

O'S FOREIGN FAILURES

AMERICA'S enemies smell blood and it's type "O."

All new administrations stumble a bit as they seek their footing. But President Obama's foreign-policy botches have set new records for instant incompetence.

Contrary to left-wing myths, I wasn't a fan of the Bush administration. (I called for Donald Rumsfeld to get the boot in mid-2001.) But fair's fair. Despite his many faults, Bush sought to do good. Obama just wants to look good.

Vice President Dick Cheney was arrogant. Vice President Joe Biden is arrogant and stupid. Take your pick.

Don't worry about the new administration's ideology. Worry about its terrifying naivete.

Consider a sampling of the goofs O and his crew have made in just two months...

http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/seven/03252009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/os_foreign_failures_161154.htm

'Mandatory youth service' bill advances

Congress appears ready to pass an Obama administration plan that could create mandatory public service requirements for all American youth, fulfilling a campaign promise.

The bill, HR 1388: The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act, otherwise known as the "GIVE Act," has already passed the House by a vote of 321-105.

On Tuesday, the Senate voted closure on the motion to proceed by a margin of 74-14 in a move that makes its ultimate passage likely.

The bill, promoted by the Obama administration as a means of encouraging America's youth to participate in voluntary community service, has received little scrutiny from Congress or the public.

Yet, a version of the bill in the House proposes to establish a Congressional Commission on Civil Service tasked with determining whether a mandatory service requirement for all young people in America could be developed and implemented, though it is not clear that provision will survive a conference committee.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=92902

White House Open to Global Currency?

Last night, President Barack Obama expressed confidence in the dollar and declared: "I don't believe that there's a need for a global currency."

Normally, that would settle the issue. But in the past 24 hours two of Obama's top economic advisers have signaled an openness to such a new global currency -- in one form or another. What's going on?

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/03/white_house_open_to_global_cur.asp

To GIVE and To SERVE: The $6 Billion National Service Boondoggle

Maybe it's just me, but I find federal legislation titled "The GIVE Act" and "The SERVE Act" downright creepy. Even more troubling: the $6 billion price tag on these bipartisan bills to expand government-funded national service efforts.

Volunteerism is a wonderful thing, which is why millions of Americans do it every day without a cent of taxpayer money. But the volunteerism packages on the Hill are less about promoting effective charity than about creating make-work, permanent bureaucracies and left-wing slush funds.

The House passed the "Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act" — or the GIVE Act — last week. The Senate took up the companion SERVE Act Tuesday afternoon. According to a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Senate bill (S.277), it would cost "$418 million in 2010 and about $5.7 billion over the 2010-2014 period."

Like most federal programs, these would be sure to grow over time. The bills reauthorize the Clinton-era AmeriCorps boondoggle program and the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973.

The programs have already been allocated $1.1 billion for fiscal year 2009, including $200 million from the porkulus package signed into law last month. In addition to recruiting up to 250,000 enrollees in AmeriCorps, the GIVE/SERVE bills would create new little armies of government volunteers, including a Clean Energy Corps, Education Corps, Healthy Futures Corps, Veterans Service Corps, and an expanded National Civilian Community Corps for disaster relief and energy conservation.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin032509.php3?printer_friendly

Teleprompter King

GLENN: I saw the Barack Obama speech last night anytime telling you blood shot out of my eyes which did -- first of all, let me just, may I have an ADD moment here before we get into the meat and potatoes of everything. Is it bothering anybody else about the TelePrompTer? The TelePrompTer is really, really, really bothering me only because I have never seen -- I mean, we're looking for a guy who's real, who's himself, who's just like -- well, I got news for you, gang. I do three hours a day without a TelePrompTer. You know, the president is worried about, you know, well, one word can, you know, trip him up. Well, you don't think people like me or Rush or Sean are worried about that as well? You don't think people in talk radio know that there are people that have been hired to transcribe every word I say to be able to distort it, to take it out of context and use it against me.

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/23188/

EU Presidency: Obama Plans 'a Way to Hell'

A top European Union politician on Wednesday slammed U.S. plans to spend its way out of recession as "a way to hell."

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, told the European Parliament that President Barack Obama's massive stimulus package and banking bailout "will undermine the stability of the global financial market."

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,510445,00.html

The Incredible Shrinking Dollar

The one thing tonight is a question: why?

Why is no one in the media or government speaking out when huge U.N. countries — like China, Russia and France — publicly attack the U.S. dollar and support dropping it as the world's currency?

Maybe it's because most people simply don't understand the consequences of what that would mean for America.

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/23146/

NRSC launches direct attack on Obama

Republicans are increasingly trying to create a wedge between President Obama and Candidate Obama in a growing campaign to undermine his ambitious agenda.

In advance of his primetime news conference Tuesday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee unveiled an ad, entitled, “Change We Can Believe In?” that attacks Obama for flip-flopping on spending, taxes, earmarks and his handling of the lavish bonuses for AIG. The internet ad takes Candidate Obama sound bites and contrasts comments made by broadcast journalists suggesting the opposite.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20417.html

Obama Upgrade: Teleprompters Swapped for Giant TV Monitor for News Conference

He read that opening statement from one massive TV monitor from the back and middle of the East Room. White House officials removed the normal glass teleprompters that usually are positioned on both sides of the podium. That change likely a reaction to the focus on the President's heavy use of teleprompters.


http://www.breitbart.tv/html/304123.html

Brawl over Obama budget brews in Congress

Barack Obama is preparing for one of the toughest fights of his young presidency as Congress begins work on a budget that may trim his spending plans but back his healthcare, energy and education proposals.

Obama will meet fellow Democrats in the Senate on Wednesday to try to shore up support for a budget blueprint that likely would increase the deficit more than initially estimated by the White House -- it was forecast at $1.4 trillion for next year.


http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USTRE52G3OX20090324

Grassley: Budget freeze to stop 'socialism'

The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee on Monday said an across-the-board freeze on federal spending is needed to reel in President Obama´s massive budget plan, signaling a more active Republican stance in fighting the president's agenda.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, also said the president is pursuing a "socialist" form of government that will stifle the free market.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/24/grassley-urges-budget-freeze-on-socialist-trend/print/

Bernanke: I Wanted to Sue AIG to Halt Bonus Payments

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Tuesday that he tried to prevent American International Group from paying out lavish bonuses, and even asked that the company be sued to halt the payments, but was advised against it.

Bernanke told lawmakers at a tense House Financial Services Committee hearing that he found it "highly inappropriate" for the bailed-out insurer to pay $165 million in bonuses to the very division that was "the primary source of AIG's collapse."

He said he was told the payments could not be stopped because of contractual obligations -- but he was also warned that legal action, which he wanted to pursue, could end up awarding the same employees more money in punitive damages.

"I then asked that suit be filed to prevent the payments," Bernanke said. "Legal staff counseled against this action on the grounds that Connecticut law provides for substantial punitive damages if the suit would fail. Legal action does have the perverse effect of doubling or tripling the financial benefits to the (employees)."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/24/bernanke-says-wanted-sue-aig-halt-bonus-payments/

Our enemies sense weakness

President Obama's stewardship of the national security portfolio to date amounts to a wrecking operation, a set of policies he must understand will not only weaken the United States but embolden our foes. After all, the communist agitator Saul Alinsky, a formative influence in Mr. Obama's early years as a “community organizer,” made the following Rule No. 1 in his 1971 book “Rules for Radicals” — “Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/24/our-enemies-sense-weakness/print/

Global Warming Is Running Out of Hot Air

The coldest winter in a decade in many places, with snow in unlikely cities such as New Orleans, has deflated some of the hot air in global warming. And a heavy snowfall that paralyzed Washington, D.C., upstaged a mass demonstration scheduled to promote global warming.

Nevertheless, according to Al Gore and the mainstream media, "the debate is over" proving that global warming exists, that humans are causing it and that "science is settled."

But 680 of the world's leading scientists, economists and policy analysts, who met March 8-10 in New York City for the second Heartland International Conference, beg to differ. The title of the conference expressed their doubts: "Global Warming: Was It Ever Really a Crisis?"

These authorities assert that scientists worldwide do not agree that global warming is human induced (in scientific lingo, anthropogenic). They do not even agree that the Earth is still warming.

Many scientists and other observers have come to realize that global warming is no longer a question of science but is all about politics and money. Their slogan, cap-and-trade, was best explained by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, as "a carbon tax that will increase taxes on all Americans who drive a car, who have a job, who turn on a light switch."

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?print=yes&id=31198

Obama nudges Congress to empower regulatory units

President Barack Obama says he hopes "it doesn't take too long" to convince Congress to approve new authority to oversee financial firms.

The administration is pushing the idea of an overarching regulator, such as the Federal Reserve, to have the ability to take over nonbank financial entities whose failure could topple the entire financial system.

Obama spoke to reporters about the matter in the Oval Office Tuesday after meeting with visiting Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Obama heads to London next week for a meeting on the global crisis with the leaders of the Group of 20 major world economies.

http://www.breitbart.com/print.php?id=D974GU800&show_article=1

Grassley: Obama budget step toward 'socialism'

President Obama's budget of tax hikes to pay for massive new spending programs is a "trend toward socialism" that will stifle a creative free market, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee said in an interview Monday.

Sen. Charles Grassley, Iowa Republican, also criticized the new president for going back on campaign promises to run an open and transparent government, citing Mr. Obama's use of a presidential "signing statement" on the recent stimulus law unilaterally cutting back protections for federal whistleblowers.

"I'm just telling you a president who said he was going to be the most transparent president, the most open president ought to stick with it," Mr. Grassley told reporters and editors at The Washington Times. The signing statement was "completely contrary to what he said in the campaign."

While saying he was open to working with the new president on key agenda items such as health care, the five-term conservative lawmaker directly attacked Mr. Obama on a number of fronts, from his handling of the economic crisis and relations with Congress to taking time to predict the winners of the college basketball tournament live on national television.

"We should just be asking the president to not be a showman, to be on ["Tonight Show host Jay] Leno or other things that detract from what he's doing, like bracketing the NCAA game. Those are distractions," he said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/23/grassley-obama-budget-step-toward-socialism/print/

YOU'RE PROBABLY A TERRORIST IF....

You're probably a terrorist if you supported former presidential candidates like Ron Paul, Bob Barr, or Chuck Baldwin. The guy with the flip-charts doesn't count. Yet.

You're probably a terrorist if you're against the New World Order, the North American Union, and those united numbskulls, the UN. Reading Tom Clancy novels doesn't help your case.

You're probably a terrorist if you're against abortion, against illegal immigration, and against gun control. If you're just against paying taxes you could be a terrorist unless you're a member of the presidential cabinet or a congressional representative, then you're excused.

http://www.naplesnews.com/blogs/observation_post/2009/mar/22/terroristdefentry/

I Am Asking You to Trust Yourself

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/23097/

U.S. Seeks Expanded Power to Seize Firms

The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy, according to an administration document.

The government at present has the authority to seize only banks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/23/AR2009032302830_pf.html

Glenn Beck - Another sign you are in a militia: Congressman Paul

GLENN: From Radio City in Midtown Manhattan, third most listened to show in all of America. Hello, you sick twisted freak. Welcome to the program. My name is Glenn Beck. Mr. Ron Paul, Congressman Ron Paul is with us now. Congressman, are you now or have you ever been a member of the libertarian party?

RON PAUL: Boy, that's a tricky question. If I answer honestly, could I be in trouble? That's the big question.

GLENN: Well, I wanted to know if you answer yes to that and you happen to have a Ron Paul bumper sticker on your car, you're definitely a militia member.

RON PAUL: Uh-oh. Well, since this is a public record, I have to tell you the truth. Yes, I have been a member.

GLENN: Are you -- do you have a Ron Paul bumper sticker on your car?

RON PAUL: Yes, I do.

GLENN: Oh, boy.

RON PAUL: That too --

GLENN: You just stay on the phone. We're tracing the call right now. You just stay on the phone.

RON PAUL: Yeah, but you may be traced as well for bringing up the subject.

GLENN: I know. Oh, I know they are tracing my calls.

RON PAUL: You better be careful, too.

GLENN: Listen, Congressman, there was this story that came out last week about Missouri where they did this study on who's a militia member, and there were some pretty remarkable things in there. For instance, if you have a Ron Paul bumper sticker on your car, that's a sign. If you talk about the Constitution, if you're against the United Nations, if you've ever passed along cartoons against the FBI, ATF or IRS, that's another sign. I mean, it's -- this is insane.

RON PAUL: You know, they are really taking on something. I don't know how they can handle this. Hopefully this will awaken the American people because I think I saw a poll the other day where 25% of the American people now think the UN is not a good idea and we should be out of it. What are they going to do? Round us all up or what?

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/23082/

Soon there may be nobody left to lend to America

Anyone who thought Ben Bernanke and his Federal Reserve Board colleagues were out of ammunition received a rude, or pleasant, shock last week. Rude, if you worry that a few extra trillions sloshing around the economy might one day trigger a wave of inflation; pleasant, if you worry that the economy is sinking fast, and the Obama administration and Congress haven’t a clue what to do about it.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article5950258.ece?print=yes&randnum=1237825448457

Judge Blocks Rule Permitting Concealed Guns In U.S. Parks

A federal judge yesterday blocked a last-minute rule enacted by President George W. Bush allowing visitors to national parks to carry concealed weapons.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by gun-control advocates and environmental groups. The Justice Department had sought to block the injunction against the controversial rule.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/19/AR2009031902801_pf.html

Obama's terrorist pals get away with murder? Literally?

You are earnestly urged to believe that President Obama's Justice Department is seriously investigating a 39-year-old murder case involving his political friends and communist terrorists Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dorn. That assurance is given as justification by Attorney General Eric Holder's agency to tell San Francisco police officers (present and retired) to shut up because any day now, some arrests are to be made in this "active" case.

Earlier this month, members of the San Francisco Police Officers Association appeared at a news conference sponsored by America's Survival Inc. here in Washington to demand that FBI Director Robert Mueller — who independently serves in his post until 2011 and does not need to take orders from the Obama administration — pursue the probe and bring the perpetrators to justice.

http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/vernon/090323

Econ board has yet to meet publicly

Six weeks after President Barack Obama appointed a blue-ribbon panel to help him dig America out of its economic crisis, the board has yet to hold an official public meeting.

The White House initially said that the 16-member Presidential Economic Recovery Advisory Board, headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, would meet “every few weeks.” Last month, a spokesperson told POLITICO the group would meet monthly. More recently, the White House said the high-powered board, set up to address what Obama has called the worst economic emergency since the Great Depression, would gather only about four times a year, with the next session due in “late spring.”

But comments from board members and Obama himself indicate that some members of the panel are meeting, in smaller gatherings that have not been announced or opened to the public. And that raises the question of whether an administration that prides itself on openness and transparency is in fact finding it more convenient to conduct public business in private.

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=30677ECD-18FE-70B2-A889FF16D7F8DECA

Is this the end of America?

Helicopter Ben Bernanke's Federal Reserve is dropping trillions of fresh paper dollars on the world economy, the President of the United States is cracking jokes on late-night comedy shows, his energy minister is threatening a trade war over carbon emissions, his treasury secretary is dithering over a banking reform program amid rising concerns over his competence and a monumentally dysfunctional U. S. Congress is launching another public jihad against corporations and bankers.

http://www.financialpost.com/story-printer.html?id=d4939fef-48a8-4db2-8fcf-4d82e6e87a56

Off With Their Heads

This comes courtesy of Neal Boortz. Check out his site, http://boortz.com/nealz_nuze, to read his daily rants. Good stuff there...

This is nuts. I mean, really folks ... we have gone bat-guano insane over this AIG bonus brouhaha. You're being manipulated. The wealth-envy is being stoked. What we have here is a phony outrage wholly generated by the political class to take the minds of the dumb masses (if you're reading aloud, do so slowly) off of the spectacularly irresponsible bailout, stimulus and budget bills that have been passed in recent months. We have an anti-capitalist Democrat party working with a president who thinks that America's greatness is based in government, together with no small number of Republican sycophants, spending this country into oblivion ... and looking for ways to distract your attention in the process.

NO ... I'm not saying that the AIG employees who got these bonuses necessarily earned them. I'm still waiting to meet the man who actually earned every dollar and benefit he has received from his employer. We call him Sully. The Financial Services Division of AIG is a basket case. The fact is, though, AIG had a contractual obligation to pay those bonuses, and failure to do so would have been actionable. A good trial attorney would manage to get double the amount due plus fees. All of the wealth envy and moaning about the evil, disgusting, putrid, worthless rich won't make those contracts void. The decision to pay those bonuses pursuant to the legally enforceable contracts was the right one.

More disgusting than the bonuses, however, is the political reaction to them. If ever there was a time for pitchforks and torches -- this should have been it. Not because of the AIG bonuses ... but because of what transpired in the Congress last week. For the first time that I can remember the Imperial Congress of the United States has passed a law establishing a confiscatory tax to be levied on certain individuals -- not for the purpose of raising revenue -- but strictly for the purpose of punishment. The political class has determined, without the benefit of due process or a trial, that the actions of the AIG employees in accepting these bonuses was a crime, and that crime shall be punished by seizure of the money. Legislation to single out and punish someone without due process is constitutionally forbidden. But who cares? What does the Constitution mean any more anyway?

Saturday night I had to sit meekly, as is my custom, while three fellow CNN panelists blathered on about how these bonuses were paid entirely with bailout funds. Say what? By what magic accounting trick do these rocket surgeons determine that the entire bonuses paid to these AIG so-called "executives" were paid from the very bailout funds that amounted to only nine-hundredths of one percent of the dollar amount of the bonuses paid? Oh, wait! I can answer that myself: It's the same accounting process that causes Chuckie Schumer to declare that "we shouldn't quibble over $200 million dollars" of taxpayer's money spent when the discussion is congressional earmarks, but who then starts spinning around on his eyebrows when a private business fulfills a legal obligation to pay $175 million due pursuant to an enforceable contract.

Thanks to generations of government education, inexorably leading to a populace with only rudimentary thinking skills, most Americans don't readily see the danger in government hosting a popularity contest in which the masses decide who does and who does not deserve to keep what they have earned. Maybe a few news bulletins from the not-so-far future might yank your chain a bit:

"Democrat Congressman Barney (Sylvester) Frank announced today the introduction of legislation calling for a 90% tax on all income in excess of $500,000 paid to any person who foments political dissention on the public's airwaves."

Think about this. If these hacks can use this "public's airwaves" idiocy in order to control what someone says on a radio show, who's to say they couldn't use the same fiction to control income? They control what the radio station can make by limiting commercial minutes and demanding fealty to the "public's interests," so why not extend that control to all on-air personnel? Thank goodness this one wouldn't apply to me. I neither foment dissention nor do I meet the salary cap.

Here's another:

"Speaker Nancy Pelosi dispatched a delegation of flying monkeys this afternoon to deliver a message to the media that she was calling for legislation to establish a 90% tax on all book royalties payable to tall blond women weighing less than 110 pounds."

OK .. got ya to smile. You can come up with your own "punish them with taxes" ideas and put them in the comments section.

The point here is that we have set the precedent whereby is now OK to single out private individuals, demonize them for political advantage, and then march them to the IRS guillotine for a financial beheading. Madam LeFarge for Treasury Secretary. At least she's not a tax cheat.

http://townhall.com/Common/PrintPage.aspx?g=3167f849-4cea-449e-9721-e3249c9a4e88&t=c

What does 4 Trillion dollars look like?

Inspired by the PageTutor article What does one TRILLION dollars look like?, I decided to expand on that a bit.

Listed below are major spending items that Barack Obama has authorized during the first few weeks of his presidency.

$2,000,000,000,000 -- Bank bailout
$1,000,000,000,000 -- Printed by treasury
  $787,000,000,000 -- Stimulus package
+ $410,000,000,000 -- Omnibus bill
-----------------------------------------
$4,197,000,000,000 -- $4.2 Trillion dollars

Everyone is familiar with the $1 bill...



When stacked neatly on a standard sized pallet to form a 3 1/2 foot cube, it amounts to $1,000,000. A pallet contains ten thousand packets. Each packet contains $1,000 (one hundred $1 bills).


Here is what $64,000,000,000 (64 billion) looks like... The little blob in the lower right corner is an average sized adult male. The stack of money measures 130 feet by 133 feet by 140 feet.


To put this in comparison, a standard sized 18 wheeler semi truck and trailer measures 53 feet in length and 15 feet in height.


Air force one measures 236 feet in length (nose to tail) and 195 feet in width (wingtip to wingtip).


The space shuttle (with external fuel tanks) measures 342 feet tall.


The $4 trillion stack measures 700 feet in length, 700 feet in width, and 333 feet in height!!! This is a total of 163,333,333 cubic feet in volume!! The small speck visible in between the shuttle and the semi truck is a person.


Two space shuttles laid down on their sides would still be 16 feet shorter than the base of the money stack (width or length). Twenty two semi trucks stacked on top of each other would be 3 feet shorter (height) than the stack of money.

The Obama Budget: Spending, Taxes, and Doubling the National Debt

During his presidential campaign, President Barack Obama promised the American people a "net spending cut."1 Instead, he signed a "stimulus" bill that spends $800 billion, and he has proposed a budget that would:

* Increase spending by $1 trillion over the next decade;
* Include an additional $250 billion placeholder for another financial bailout;
* Likely lead to a 12 percent increase in discretion­ary spending;
* Permanently expand the federal government by nearly 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) over pre-recession levels;
* Raise taxes on all Americans by $1.4 trillion over the next decade;
* Raise taxes for 3.2 million taxpayers by an average of $300,000 over the next decade;
* Call for a pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) law despite offering a budget that would violate it by $3.4 trillion;
* Assume a rosy economic scenario that few econo­mists anticipate;
* Leave permanent deficits averaging $600 billion even after the economy recovers; and
* Double the publicly held national debt to over $15 trillion ($12.5 trillion after inflation).

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/bg2249.cfm

Capping & Trading on Obama's $250,000 Lie

In explaining their tax plan, the President and his minions continue to repeat two crucial figures: 95 and 250,000. The first is the percentage of Americans the Obudget purportedly provides tax relief to and the second is supposedly the minimum annual income of families who’ll be forced to pick up the tab for the benefits bestowed upon the first. But just as are those the administration proposes for carbon, these caps are easily worked around – for a price.

By now you’ve probably heard these campaign words repeated in one form or another at least a hundred times: “We are going to cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans.” As well as the standard double-talk response when someone points out that nearly 40 percent of Americans don’t actually earn enough to pay federal income tax. That “they do pay other taxes” and the “cut” they’ll receive will be in the form of a “credit” paid for by those who earn enough to pay the taxes that must be hiked to cover those credits. While Karl Marx certainly would have applauded the idea as “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs,” we’ll just call it what it is -- plain old fashioned redistribution of wealth at a time we can least afford it.

http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/03/capping_trading_on_obamas_2500_1.html

House adopts plan for 'volunteer' corps

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a plan to set up a new "volunteer corps" and consider whether "a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people" should be developed.

The legislation also refers to "uniforms" that would be worn by the "volunteers" and the "need" for a "public service academy, a 4-year institution" to "focus on training" future "public sector leaders." The training, apparently, would occur at "campuses."

The vote yesterday came on H.R. 1388, which reauthorizes through 2014 the National and Community Service Act of 1990 and the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973, acts that originally, among other programs, funded the AmeriCorps and the National Senior Service Corps.

It not only reauthorizes the programs, but also includes "new programs and studies" and is expected to be funded with an allocation of $6 billion over the next five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Many, however, are raising concerns that the program, which is intended to include 250,000 "volunteers," is the beginning of what President Obama called his "National Civilian Security Force" in a a speech last year in which he urged creating an organization as big and well-funded as the U.S. military. He has declined since then to elaborate.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=92288

Treasury's toxic asset plan could cost $1 trillion

The Obama administration's latest attempt to tackle the banking crisis and get loans flowing to families and businesses will create a new government entity, the Public-Private Investment Program, to help purchase as much as $1 trillion in toxic assets on banks' books.

The new effort, to be unveiled Monday, will be followed the next day with release of the administration's broad framework for overhauling the financial system to ensure that the current crisis - the worst in seven decades - is not repeated.

A key part of that regulatory framework will give the government new resolution authority to take over troubled institutions that would pose a threat to the entire financial system if they failed.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090322/D973AFAO0.html

Kroft to Obama: Are you punch-drunk?

President Barack Obama said he believes the global financial system remains at risk of implosion with the failure of Citigroup or AIG, which could touch off “an even more destructive recession and potentially depression.”

His remarks came in a“60 Minutes” interview in which he was pressed by Steve Kroft for laughing and chuckling several times while discussing the perilous state of the world’s economy.

“You're sitting here. And you're— you are laughing. You are laughing about some of these problems. Are people going to look at this and say, ‘I mean, he's sitting there just making jokes about money—’ How do you deal with— I mean: explain. . .” Kroft asked at one point.



http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20339.html

Hamas leader hails Obama's new approach

The exiled leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Sunday hailed the "new lexicon" being used by US President Barack Obama towards foreign policy issues the Middle East.

"The challenge for everyone is that (Obama's new language) is a prelude to a sincere change (of direction) in US and European foreign policy," Khaled Meshaal said in an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

http://www.breitbart.com/print.php?id=CNG.69e53576ca2b225f618982074308e3e2.671&show_article=1

Vice President Biden at Gridiron, on Easter and the President (whispering): 'He thinks it’s about him'

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN KILLS AT GRIDIRON: “Axelrod really wanted me to do this on teleprompter -- but I told him I’m much better when I wing it. … I know these evenings run long, so I’m going to be brief. Talk about the audacity of hope. … President Obama does send his greetings, though. He can’t be here tonight -- because he’s busy getting ready for Easter. (Whisper) He thinks it’s about him.

http://dyn.politico.com/printplaybook.cfm?uuid=2E190247-18FE-70B2-A8510116E3463EE6

Resistance grows to Obama's bigger government

A public furor over big bonuses paid by firms bailed out with U.S. taxpayer money is fueling resistance to President Barack Obama's ambitious plans to extend government intervention in the U.S. private sector.

Republican opponents say his commitment of huge sums to try to revive the ailing economy is driven by a philosophical belief in greater government intrusion in many areas, from healthcare to education, dubbing it socialism.

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USTRE52L0J820090322

Orlando 'Tea Party' rally draws more than 4,000

Singer Lloyd Marcus told the crowd assembled in Lake Eola Park on Saturday that he was going to give them his take on the first days of the Obama administration.

Then he shrieked.

That pretty much summed up the mood in the park Saturday afternoon, when more than 4,000 people attended the Orlando Tea Party, a conservative rally aimed at expressing discontent with Washington.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-locteaparty21032209mar22,0,426670.story

Sen. Gregg says Obama budget will bankrupt US

The top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee says the Obama administration is on the right course to save the nation's financial system.

But Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire also says President Barack Obama's massive budget proposal will bankrupt the country.

Gregg says he has no regrets in withdrawing his nomination to become commerce secretary. He pulled out after deciding he could not fully back the administration's economic policies.

The senator said Obama's spending plan in the midst of a prolonged recession would leave the next generation with a country too expensive to live in.

Gregg appeared Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090322/ap_on_go_co/gregg_budget/print

Why South Carolina Doesn't Want 'Stimulus'

America's states are laboratories of democracy. They are both affected by, and relevant to, the larger national debate. What we've found in our own corner of the country is that carrying a substantial debt load limits our options when it comes to running government.

A recent report by the American Legislative Exchange Council ranked us 47th worst in the nation for annual debt service as a percentage of tax revenue. Our state dedicates nearly 11% of its annual tax revenue to paying debt. On top of that, South Carolina has another $20 billion in unfunded, long-term political promises for pensions and other liabilities. The state budget has already been cut four times in recent months as the national economic downturn has impacted South Carolina and driven down tax revenue.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123759827524401409.html#printMode

Administration Seeks Increase in Oversight of Executive Pay

The Obama administration will call for increased oversight of executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies as part of a sweeping plan to overhaul financial regulation, government officials said.

The outlines of the plan are expected to be unveiled this week in preparation for President Obama’s first foreign summit meeting in early April.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/us/politics/22regulate.html?pagewanted=print

Obama White House bars press from press award ceremony

We are not making this up:

Barack Obama was elected commander in chief promising to run the most transparent presidential administration in American history.

This achievement and the overall promise of his historic administration caused the National Newspaper Publishers Assn. to name him "Newsmaker of the Year."

The president is to receive the award from the federation of black community newspapers in a White House ceremony this afternoon.

The Obama White House has closed the press award ceremony to the press.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/03/obama-newspaper.html

$1 Trillion deficits seen for the next 10 years

President Barack Obama's budget would generate deficits averaging almost $1 trillion a year over the next decade, according to the latest congressional estimates, significantly worse than predicted by the White House just last month.

The Congressional Budget Office figures, obtained by The Associated Press Friday, predict Obama's budget will produce $9.3 trillion worth of red ink over 2010-2019. That's $2.3 trillion worse than the White House predicted in its budget.

Worst of all, CBO says the deficit under Obama's policies would never go below 4 percent of the size of the economy, figures that economists agree are unsustainable. By the end of the decade, the deficit would exceed 5 percent of gross domestic product, a dangerously high level.

http://www.breitbart.com/print.php?id=D971T0RG0&show_article=1

Credit System Gone Mad Thanks to Government

It is said that “whom the gods would destroy, they first drive mad.” Even the most cursory glance at this nation’s current banking crisis would strongly suggest that the deities are out to get us.

Plainly said, our entire credit system -- the basis upon which the economy rests -- has gone stark raving mad. If you don’t believe that, I suggest you take a look at where the various bailouts have left us, or the current phony furor over the AIG bonus payments that resulted from the actions of members of Congress and Obama administration.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?print=yes&id=31144

Obama's Videotaped Remarks to Iran

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/VIDEOTAPED-REMARKS-BY-THE-PRESIDENT-IN-CELEBRATION-OF-NOWRUZ/

What Would Thomas Payne Say?

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/22914/

13 companies getting bailout money owe back taxes

At least 13 companies receiving billions of dollars in bailout money owe a total of more than $220 million in unpaid federal taxes, a key lawmaker said Thursday.

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., chairman of a House subcommittee overseeing the federal bailout, said two companies owe more than $100 million apiece.

"This is shameful. It is a disgrace," said Lewis. "We are going to get to the bottom of what is going on here."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090319/ap_on_go_co/bailout_delinquent_taxes

Guantanamo Detainees May Be Released in U.S.

Attorney General Eric Holder said some detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may end up being released in the U.S. as the Obama administration works with foreign allies to resettle some of the prisoners.

Mr. Holder, in a briefing with reporters, said administration officials are still reviewing individual cases of the approximately 250 detainees to determine which will be put on trial and which may be released to comply with plans to close the detention facility by next year.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123741378746277081.html

Obama struggles as communicator

Of all the pitfalls Barack Obama might face in the presidency, here is one not many people predicted: He is struggling as a public communicator.

The sluggish and unsteady response to the uproar over AIG bonuses highlights a larger problem of his White House: Obama’s surprisingly uneven campaign to educate people about the economic crisis and convince Washington and the broader public that he is in command of circumstances.

It was brilliant communications skills that carried Obama to the presidency, with a national campaign built on the strength of his personal story and the clarity of his promise to transform politics. On the rare occasions when he was thrown on the defensive, he quickly turned problems into opportunities and regained control of his public image.

What’s different now? The polished phrases and unflappable delivery haven’t gone away. His prime-time news conference and speech to Congress drew the usual praise.

But the discipline and strategic focus of the campaign have yet to move into the White House. The story of the day often catches the president flat-footed or on the defensive — and regularly undercut by fellow Democrats.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20234.html

White House walks back on 'Special Olympics'

President Barack Obama made his difficult week worse Thursday by saying his poor bowling skills are “like Special Olympics or something,” an athletic competition for people with disabilities. His spokesman quickly said Obama hadn’t intended any offense.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20268.html