Laughing all the Way to the Bank

With 9,000 earmarks in this latest omnibus spending bill the Democrats just can't keep from laughing at the American people. Everything they have wanted to stick us with for the past 10 years is in this bill.

Barack Obama was very clever last night when he said his people were going through the stimulus bill line for line to make sure there was no "pork" then he said next years spending bill will be treated the same way. Next year... what about this year?

He knows it's stuffed with pork and as usual, doesn't care. Apparently his pay back to congress for the great spending bill of last week.

He should be embarrassed to sign this bill after saying in speech after speech during his campaign, "We need earmark reform"... "earmark reform"... "I will go line for line... "We need earmark reform now." I got tired of hearing it over and over again as if he actually meant it. And guess what? He's making us all look like fools.

House Democrats propose $410B spending bill

House Democrats unveiled a $410 billion spending bill on Monday to keep the government running through the end of the fiscal year, setting up the second political struggle over federal funds in less than a month with Republicans.

The measure includes thousands of earmarks, the pet projects favored by lawmakers but often criticized by the public in opinion polls. There was no official total of the bill's earmarks, which accounted for at least $3.8 billion.

The legislation, which includes an increase of roughly 8 percent over spending in the last fiscal year, is expected to clear the House later in the week.

Democrats defended the spending increases, saying they were needed to make up for cuts enacted in recent years or proposed a year ago by then-President George W. Bush in health, education, energy and other programs.

And we all just sit he like sheep while we watch our children's America dissolve before our eyes.

US Stock Markets Throw in the Towel

On justifiable fears President Obama's socialist plans are about to take hold on the banking industry, U.S. stock markets have continued their downward spiral to lows not seen since 1997.

Major stock market indexes fall

The major market indexes have staggered to their lowest levels in a decade, pulled lower by investors rapidly waning confidence.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell to April 1997 levels Monday, while the Dow Jones industrial average, down about 215 points, reached its levels of October 1997 as investors succumbed to their growing worries about a recession that has no end in sight.

"People left and right are throwing in the towel," said Keith Springer, president of Capital Financial Advisory Services.

Most financial stocks were pounded even as government agencies led by the Treasury Department said they will launch a revamped bank rescue program that includes the option of increasing government ownership in financial institutions without having to pour more taxpayer money into them.

Although the government has said it doesn't want to nationalize banks, many investors are clearly still concerned that this could be a possibility as banks continue to suffer severe losses because of the recession. They're also worried that banks' losses will keep escalating as the recession sends more borrowers into default.

"The biggest thing I see here is the incredible pessimism," Springer said. "The government is doing a lousy job of alleviating fears."

Way to go Barry! More hope and change.

The Race Card v.9000000000.02

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

"If you speak up, you're a racist, if you don't you're a coward."

Top Democrat accuses anti-stimulus GOP governors of…RAAAAACISM!

Well, Attorney General Eric Holder, here's your conversation about race: House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina is now accusing GOP governors who have fundamental misgivings about the trillion-dollar stimulus of opposing the law because they don’t like black people.

Who’s being divisive, Eric Holder? Who’s obsessed with race? Who needs to stop self-segregating and stop spreading race-based poison? Where’s the outrage? Clyburn earlier this year invoked plantation imagery to suggest that S.C. GOP Gov. Mark Sanford’s opposition to earmarks was based on RAAAACISM.

I think we're sliding backwards... fast.

Eric Holder: You Are All Cowards

More hope and change. Feel that forward momentum? It's overwhelming isn't it?

If you speak up, you're a racist, if you don't you're a coward.

Let's see if anyone of us cowards will have the audacity to call him out on it. I'm betting no, and this is just the precursor.

Holder: US a nation of cowards on racial matters.

Eric Holder, the nation's first black attorney general, said Wednesday the United States was "a nation of cowards" on matters of race, with most Americans avoiding candid discussions of racial issues. In a speech to Justice Department employees marking Black History Month, Holder said the workplace is largely integrated but Americans still self-segregate on the weekends and in their private lives.

"Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards," Holder said.

Race issues continue to be a topic of political discussion, but "we, as average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race."

I learned a long time ago when an individual can not make an intelligent argument on a subject, they often resort to name calling.

For those of you cowards who would like to contact Mr. Holder, you can do so at the Department of Justice. I'm sure he can't wait to hear from you.

White House Policy Changes Go Unnoticed by Media

Change we can believe in or SOS?

Where is the "transparency?"

Politics as usual in the White House and the liberal media is all hush hush. Hood winked by the secretive Obama administration and nary a peep from the MSM. Where's all the outrage? For six years all I heard from the MSM was the Bush administration was too secretive.

Are you wondering how long this love affair and media cover up is going to continue? My guess is, a long time.

Love is blind so strap yourselves in, it's going to be a long ride.

The White House's missing documents

In his first weeks in office, President Barack Obama shut down his predecessor’s system for reviewing regulations, realigned and expanded two key White House policymaking bodies and extended economic sanctions against parties to the conflict in the African nation of Cote D’Ivoire.

Despite the intense scrutiny a president gets just after the inauguration, Obama managed to take all these actions with nary a mention from the White House press corps.

The moves escaped notice because they were never announced by the White House Press Office and were never placed on the White House web site.

They came to light only because the official paperwork was transmitted to the Federal Register, a dense daily compendium of regulatory actions and other formal notices prepared by the National Archives. They were published there several days after the fact.

A Politico review of Federal Register issuances since Obama took office found three executive orders, one presidential memorandum, one presidential notice, and one proclamation that went unannounced by the White House.

Two of Obama's actions on regulatory reform were spotted by bloggers, lobbying groups and trade publications after they emerged in the Federal Register.

Most of the documents were posted to the White House web site Tuesday night, after Politico inquired about their absence. “It was a simple oversight,” a spokesman, Ben LaBolt, said.

Read the Full Article

Obama Approves Additional Troops for Afghanistan

The AP is reporting the Obama administration has approved an additional 17,000 troops for Afghanistan as early as this spring.

Defense and congressional officials say President Barack Obama has approved an increase in U.S. forces for the flagging war in Afghanistan. The Obama administration is expected to announce on Tuesday or Wednesday that it will send one additional Army brigade and an unknown number of Marines to Afghanistan this spring. One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the total is about 17,000 troops.

That would be the first installment on a larger influx of U.S. forces that have been widely expected this year. It would get a few thousand troops in place in time for the increase in fighting that usually comes with warmer weather and ahead of national elections this summer.

The Spendocrats on Speed

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) launched a new web site to call attention to the wasteful spending in the Porkulus bill recently passed by Democrats in Congress with the help of the three little pigs, Arlen Specter, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe.

The site has put together videos and news articles showing how bad this porkulus package really is.

The Spendocrats.com

In response to Congressional Democrats’ support for the massive “stimulus” bill, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) launched a new Web site today, TheSpendocrats.com, holding the Democrats accountable for their egregious spending projects in Washington.

The site features video and research regarding the growing national debt and the Democrats’ rhetoric versus reality in Congress. TheSpendocrats.com will be updated with future alerts regarding the Democrats’ out of control spending and the Republicans’ proposed alternatives.

The Spendocrats Stimulus:

Nice!

Obama Strengthing Our Image Abroad?

Obama sends message to Brits and sends bust of Winston Churchill back to Britain.

Barack Obama has sent Sir Winston Churchill packing and pulse rates soaring among anxious British diplomats.

A bust of the former prime minister once voted the greatest Briton in history, which was loaned to George W Bush from the Government's art collection after the September 11 attacks, has now been formally handed back.

The bronze by Sir Jacob Epstein, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds if it were ever sold on the open market, enjoyed pride of place in the Oval Office during President Bush's tenure.

But when British officials offered to let Mr Obama to hang onto the bust for a further four years, the White House said: "Thanks, but no thanks."

Diplomats were at first reluctant to discuss the whereabouts of the Churchill bronze, after its ejection from the seat of American power. But the British Embassy in Washington has now confirmed that it sits in the palatial residence of ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald, just down the road from Vice President Joe Biden's official residence. It is not clear whether the ambassador plans to keep it in Washington or send it back to London.

Nothing personal guys, I'm sure he would just prefer a bust of rapper Ludacris or Young Jeezy chillin' the 'O-office'.

Invasion of Medical Privacy Mandated in Porkulus Bill

Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins both of Maine are voting for this massive porkulus spending bill even though they say they are against a very controversial provision in it that creates a government database that will control the personal medical records of all Americans.

Another Republican Senator, Arlen Specter said yesterday on Fox News that he would not vote for this bill if this provision was in it. I personally think that's BS, but we'll see.

Update 5:50pm Eastern. Specter votes …Aye.

The bill actually says the database is designed to allow for government access to patients personal information to "help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care." If this is not an invasion of privacy I don't know what is.

Interesting how Democrats constantly complain about invasion of privacy issues, until it benefits them. Even though I'm not sure how this benefits anyone.

Stimulus Bill Creates Mandatory Medical Records Database

The bill calls for the creation of a federal “Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.” This office will be responsible for creating the national database and a plan for “the utilization of an electronic health record (EHR) for each person in the United States by 2014.”

The House version of the bill said the database would be used, among other things, to provide “appropriate information to help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care” and improve “coordination of care and information among hospitals, laboratories, physician offices, and other entities through an effective infrastructure for the secure and authorized exchange of health care information.”

Critics argue that it is an invasion of privacy and also a precursor element of a national health care plan that will be used to guide the rationing of medical services by the federal government.

“I think they [Americans] should be able to opt out and before such a thing is established that opportunity will be provided,” Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) told CNSNews.com.

But “the important thing is that we get a stimulus package enacted quickly so that we can begin to, hopefully, create pro-growth energies in the economy,” Bingaman said. “There are going to be a lot of details in there we will have an opportunity to correct to the extent it’s required down the road.”

That's interesting, "we never have time to do it right, but we always have time to go back and fix it." More political BS.

BTW: The medical records database is expected to cost taxpayers $19 billion dollars.

World Markets: Geithner Financial Plan Muddled

While lawmakers in the U.S laugh at the Geithner/Obama financial plan, the rest of the free world sees no humor in it. As well they shouldn't.

Geithner's new 2 trillion dollar bailout program, v2.0 is called the "Financial Stability Trust." The problem is... nobody trusts it.

The trouble is that investors do not respond well to uncertainty and Geithner just seemed to create more of it with his proposal which severely lacks specifics.

(Emphasis mine)

World stock markets dropped Wednesday, following a steep sell-off on Wall Street, as investors reacted with skepticism to the U.S. government's latest plan to rescue the ailing financial industry with as much as $2 trillion in funding.

Nearly ever major market in Asia retreated, further hurt by new figures showing China's exports plunged 17.5 percent in January — the sharpest drop in more than a decade. European shares fell in early trade as Credit Suisse reported a massive quarterly loss far worse than expectations.

As in the U.S., investors across Asian and Europe questioned whether the revamped bailout program, unveiled Tuesday by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, would be enough to absorb the bad assets saddling bank balance sheets and free up the credit markets that govern lending to consumers and businesses.

Geithner said the plan to get trillions of dollars in financing flowing through the world's largest economy was urgently needed as part of the government's effort to stave off "catastrophic failure" of institutions. A centerpiece involves the government teaming with the private sector to buy up to $1 trillion in souring assets from financial firms. A separate lending program would be expanded to as much as $1 trillion from $200 billion for consumers and businesses.

He says he is going to get investors to help with this bailout but I think he means you and me, the taxpayer, when he says "private sector."

However, investors complained about they what they viewed as a lack of detail. For example, officials were short on specifics about how exactly the public-private partnership might work, analysts said.

Garry Evans, a chief Asian equity strategist with HSBC in Hong Kong, called the plan "muddled." He said the government was skirting around what many investors have already concluded: that the U.S. may have to nationalize the banks for a period.

"People are not convinced that this plan is what it is needed," Evans said.

"They (U.S. officials) have still philosophically backed away from the ultimate conclusion, which is the government will have to take over financial institutions," he said. "Philosophically that's quite hard for the U.S. government to admit, but the history of banking crises shows that is what governments usually do."

Not even the colossal amounts of money announced in the U.S. are likely to make up the funding shortfall created by the risky mortgage securities and other distressed assets banks are holding, said Paul Schulte, a chief Asia equity strategist at Nomura International in Hong Kong.

The financial hole could be as big as $4 trillion, but U.S. officials have yet to fully explain the scope of the problem, he said.

"The problem is much larger than people thought and the solutions to this much larger problem are still not coherent," Schulte said. "The plan is absolutely a step in the right direction, but we have like 45 more steps to go."

Analysis: (45 steps x 1 trillion dollars per step = #@$&%$*)

Socialism will commence in 3... 2... 1...

Read more >> Options >>

Tax Cheat Geithner's Bailout Plan Laughable

A bailout plan so bad it drew laughs and snickers from lawmakers on both sides of the isle. The tax cheating Treasury Secretary rolled out his plan today before the American people and within minutes the stock market began to tumble. And tumble it did. It didn't stop till the end of the day with a 4% loss across the board. Seems nobody is impressed with this bundle of crap.

Economist Brian Bethune of IHS Global Insight said of the plan, "The bottom line from the Geithner speech is that it was too general, and it lacked the specifics needed to be credible."
UPDATE: 2/11/09 (scroll down)

Administration Officials Met With Laughter At Bailout Briefing

Administration officials were greeted with sarcasm and laughter Monday night when they briefed lawmakers and congressional staff on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's new financial-sector bailout project, according to people who were in the room.

The laughter was at its height when Obama officials explained that the White House planned to guarantee a wide swath of toxic assets -- which they referred to as "legacy assets" -- but wouldn't be asking Congress for money. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), a bailout opponent in the fall, asked the officials to give Congress the total dollar figure for which they were on the hook. The officials said that they couldn't provide a number, a response met by chuckling that was bipartisan, but tilted toward the GOP side. By guaranteeing the assets, Geithner hopes he can persuade the private sector to purchase a portion of them.

Congress may be able to do little more than laugh. The Federal Reserve, in extreme situations, is allowed to intervene in the financial markets in dramatic ways. The Fed jumped into the markets long before the $700 billion bailout passed through Congress by guaranteeing toxic assets held by CitiGroup and Bank of America.

The plan appears to be nothing more than another hope and a prayer.

UPDATE: CNBC “Fast Money” host Dylan Ratigan had his own description of Geithner’s performance. In an appearance on MSNBC’s Feb. 11 “Morning Joe,” he likened it to “soiling a bed.”

“He soiled the bed,” Ratigan said. “He did, and that’s not to say it’s not a good plan – potentially, that it doesn’t have good elements.”

Hillary Who?

Has anyone heard from Hillary lately?

Who?

Hillary... you know... Hillary Clinton!

...Window dressing?

If it looks like a duck and quakes like a duck...

Hillary’s incredible, shrinking role

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is finding that her job description is dissolving under her feet, leaving her with only a vestige of the power she must have thought she acquired when she signed on to be President Obama’s chief Cabinet officer.

Since her designation:

• Vice President Biden has moved vigorously to stake out foreign policy as his turf. His visit to Afghanistan, right before the Inauguration, could not but send a signal to Hillary that he would conduct foreign policy in the new administration, leaving Hillary in the role of backup.

• Richard Holbrooke, the former Balkan negotiator and U.N. ambassador, has been named special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. He insisted on direct access to the president, a privilege he was denied during much of the Clinton years.

• Former Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine), negotiator of the Irish Peace Accords, was appointed to be the administration’s point man on Arab-Israeli negotiations.

• Samantha Powers, Obama’s former campaign aide, who once called Hillary a “monster,” has been appointed to the National Security Council (NSC) as director of “multilateral affairs.”

• Gen. James L. Jones, Obama’s new national security adviser, has announced an expansion of the membership and role of the NSC. He pledges to eliminate “back channels” to the president and wants to grow the NSC’s role to accommodate the “dramatically different” challenges of the current world situation.

• Susan Rice, Obama’s new United Nations ambassador, insisted upon and got Cabinet rank for her portfolio, and she will presumably also have the same kind of access to Obama that she had as his chief foreign policy adviser during the campaign.

So where does all this leave Secretary of State Clinton?

While sympathy for Mrs. Clinton is outside the normal fare of these columns, one cannot help but feel that she is surrounded by people who are, at best, strangers and, at worst, enemies. The competition that has historically occupied secretaries of State and national security advisers seems poised to ratchet up to a new level in the current administration.

Hillary’s essential problem is that she is an outsider in the current mix. She was the adversary in the campaign, and Rice and Powers — at the very least — know it well, having helped to run the campaign that dethroned her. Can they — and she — be devoid of bitterness or at least of normal human trepidation? Not very likely.

Is Bubba going to be pissed? You know it!

Biden Under the Bus Again

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

Obama again tries to explain what his VP was talking about when he said he and the President would only get it right 70% of the time. Obama obviously didn't want to go there when asked about it at a news conference so he did the only thing he could do, he threw him under the bus.

Barack Obama throws Joe Biden under the bus
by Toby Harnden

Pity poor Joe Biden. His "there's still a 30 percent chance we're going to get it wrong" quote is put straight to President Barack Obama during the White House press conference just now and his boss seemed to want to say: "Vice-President Who?"

As reporters started giggling, Obama came close to conceding that Biden was indeed a joke. "You know, I don't remember exactly what Joe was referring to, not surprisingly."

The President went on to say that "I think what Joe may have been suggesting, although I wouldn't ascribe any numerical percentage to any of this, is that given the magnitude of the challenges that we have, any single thing that we do is going to be part of the solution, not all of the solution."

Of course, Biden wasn't saying anything of the sort - Obama knew that and all the rest of us did too.

Biden's exact quote, read out by Fox's Major Garrett at the presser was: "If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, if we stand up there and we really make the tough decisions, there's still a 30 percent chance we're going to get it wrong."

Clearly, Obama and his aides were unhappy about Biden's loose lips. On Friday, top Obama adviser David Axelrod said on CNN: "I don't know exactly about what that math was."

We're probably going to have to get used to Obama explaining "what Joe may have been suggesting". And Biden must be wondering if he's going to end up as a Dan Quayle figure.

Joe loves to talk... but not to think.

Dem claims Reid & Pelosi Really Failed

No kidding!
Finally some of the Democrats are starting to wake up and see the real lack of leadership on capital hill. Hope & Change doesn't have a chance with Pelosi and Reid in charge, and it's starting to get to him (Obama).

Pelosi, Reid have "failed," Shuler says

Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C) has further ingratiated himself with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — not — by declaring that Pelosi and Harry Reid "failed" the bipartisanship test on stimulus.

"In order for us to get the confidence of America, it has to be done in a bipartisan way," Shuler said in Raleigh following an economic forum, according to the AP.

"We have to have everyone — Democrats and Republicans standing on the stage with the administration — saying, 'We got something done that was efficient, stimulative and timely.'"

Here's the kicker: "I truly feel that's where maybe House leadership and Senate leadership have really failed."

Shuler, rumored to be mulling a '10 Senate run, was one of 11 House Democrats to vote "no" on the stimulus and was already deep in Pelosi's doghouse. Now he'll have to build a Harry Reid wing.

To simply call these two a failure is something of an understatement.