Tag: Congress

Unbelievable: Eric Holder Considering Prosecuting Bush Administration officials; for keeping America safe

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This piece of sorry news comes from NewsWeek:

It’s the morning after Independence Day, and Eric Holder Jr. is feeling the weight of history. The night before, he’d stood on the roof of the White House alongside the president of the United States, leaning over a railing to watch fireworks burst over the Mall, the monuments to Lincoln and Washington aglow at either end. “I was so struck by the fact that for the first time in history an African-American was presiding over this celebration of what our nation is all about,” he says. Now, sitting at his kitchen table in wtcattack1jeans and a gray polo shirt, as his 11-year-old son, Buddy, dashes in and out of the room, Holder is reflecting on his own role. He doesn’t dwell on the fact that he’s the country’s first black attorney general. He is focused instead on the tension that the best of his predecessors have confronted: how does one faithfully serve both the law and the president?

Alone among cabinet officers, attorneys general are partisan appointees expected to rise above partisanship. All struggle to find a happy medium between loyalty and independence. Few succeed. At one extreme looms Alberto Gonzales, who allowed the Justice Department to be run like Tammany Hall. At the other is Janet Reno, whose righteousness and folksy eccentricities marginalized her within the Clinton administration. Lean too far one way and you corrupt the office, too far the other way and you render yourself impotent. Mindful of history, Holder is trying to get the balance right. “You have the responsibility of enforcing the nation’s laws, and you have to be seen as neutral, detached, and nonpartisan in that effort,” Holder says. “But the reality of being A.G. is that I’m also part of the president’s team. I want the president to succeed; I campaigned for him. I share his world view and values.”

These are not just the philosophical musings of a new attorney general. Holder, 58, may be on the verge of asserting his independence in a profound way. Four knowledgeable sources tell NEWSWEEK that he is now leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration’s brutal interrogation practices, something the president has been reluctant to do. While no final decision has been made, an wtcattack2announcement could come in a matter of weeks, say these sources, who decline to be identified discussing a sensitive law-enforcement matter. Such a decision would roil the country, would likely plunge Washington into a new round of partisan warfare, and could even imperil Obama’s domestic priorities, including health care and energy reform. Holder knows all this, and he has been wrestling with the question for months. “I hope that whatever decision I make would not have a negative impact on the president’s agenda,” he says. “But that can’t be a part of my decision.”

[….]

Holder began to review those policies in April. As he pored over reports and listened to briefings, he became increasingly troubled. There were startling indications that some interrogators had gone far beyond what had been authorized in the legal opinions issued by the Justice Department, which were themselves controversial. He told one intimate that what he saw “turned my stomach.”

It was soon clear to Holder that he might have to launch an investigation to determine whether crimes were committed under the Bush administration and prosecutions warranted. The obstacles were obvious. For a new administration to reach back and 911firefightersmemorialinvestigate its predecessor is rare, if not unprecedented. After having been deeply involved in the decision to authorize Ken Starr to investigate Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, Holder well knew how politicized things could get. He worried about the impact on the CIA, whose operatives would be at the center of any probe. And he could clearly read the signals coming out of the White House. President Obama had already deflected the left wing of his party and human-rights organizations by saying, “We should be looking forward and not backwards” when it came to Bush-era abuses.

Still, Holder couldn’t shake what he had learned in reports about the treatment of prisoners at the CIA’s “black sites.” If the public knew the details, he and his aides figured, there would be a groundswell of support for an independent probe. He raised with his staff the possibility of appointing a prosecutor. According to three sources familiar with the911attack process, they discussed several potential choices and the criteria for such a sensitive investigation. Holder was looking for someone with “gravitas and grit,” according to one of these sources, all of whom declined to be named. At one point, an aide joked that Holder might need to clone Patrick Fitzgerald, the hard-charging, independent-minded U.S. attorney who had prosecuted Scooter Libby in the Plamegate affair. In the end, Holder asked for a list of 10 candidates, five from within the Justice Department and five from outside.

[…]

The next few weeks, though, could test Holder’s confidence. After the prospect of torture investigations seemed to lose momentum in April, the attorney general and his aides 911attackfirefightersturned to other pressing issues. They were preoccupied with Gitmo, developing a hugely complex new set of detention and prosecution policies, and putting out the daily fires that go along with running a 110,000-person department. The regular meetings Holder’s team had been having on the torture question died down. Some aides began to wonder whether the idea of appointing a prosecutor was off the table.

But in late June Holder asked an aide for a copy of the CIA inspector general’s thick classified report on interrogation abuses. He cleared his schedule and, over two days, holed up alone in his Justice Depart ment office, immersed himself in what Dick Cheney once referred to as “the dark side.” He read the report twice, the first time as a lawyer, looking for evidence and instances of transgressions that might call for prosecution. The second time, he started to absorb what he was reading at a more emotional level. He was “shocked and saddened,” he told a friend, by what government servants were alleged to have done in America’s name. When he was done he stood at his window for a long time, staring at Constitution Avenue.

I hope that if and when Mr. Holder decides to appoint this special prosecutor; that he keeps the follow items in mind: (H/T to The Corner)

*  Alberto Gonzales did not attempt to mislead Congress in 2007 when he testified that the controversy that erupted at the Justice Department in 2004 was not over what was popularly known as the “terrorist surveillance program” (i.e., the NSA’s warrantless surveillance program to intercept suspected terrorist communications that crossed U.S. borders — the effort the Left smeared as “domestic spying”).  In fact, as Gonzales told the Senate judiciary Committee, the controversy was about other intelligence activities.

*  When congressional Democrats rolled their eyes, suggested that Gonzales was lying, and groused that a special prosecutor should be appointed, they well knew he wasn’t lying — but they also knew he couldn’t discuss the intellligence activities at the center of the controversy because those activities were (and remain) highly classified. That is, they knowingly badgered the Attorney General of the United States at a hearing in a calculated effort to make him look dishonest and to intimate something they knew to be untrue: namely, that the dispute at DOJ arose because senior officials believed warrantless surveillance was illegal.

*  Before Gonzales and President Bush’s then chief-of-staff, Andy Card, went to see Attorney General Ashcroft in the hospital (where he was being treated for pancreatitis), President Bush directed his administration to meet with top congressional Democrats and Republicans (Senate leaders Frist and Daschle, Speaker Hastert and House minority leader Pelosi, Roberts and Rockefeller from Senate Intel, and Goss and Harman from House Intel) to alert them that Ashcroft’s deputy, Jim Comey, had refused to sign off on intelligence activities that Ashcroft had previously approved.  Advised of the problem, the Gang of Eight did not agree to a quick legislative fix but, according to Gonzales’s contemporaneous notes, agreed that the intelligence activities should continue.  (Three years later, after Gonzales’s testimony, Pelosi, Rockefeller and Daschle claimed that they hadn’t agreed.)

*  Only after this meeting with the bipartisan congressional leaders, and with the prior 45-day authorization for all the program’s activities about to expire, did Gonzales and Card go to the hospital to visit the ailing Ashcroft — at the direction of President Bush.

*  Between the time the time the collection intelligence activities that came to be known as the “Terrorist Surveillance Program” was first authorized after the 9/11 attacks until the warrantless surveillance aspect of the program was exposed by the New York Times in December 2005, the Bush administration briefed the bipartisan leadership of the congressional intelligence committees 17 times about the activities involved in the program.

In sum, congressional Democrats knew about the program and knew that the dissent of the Justice Department’s senior leadership in 2004 was not about warrantless surveillance. They knew that if they postured that the dissent was about warrantless surveillance, Gonzales — not an adept communicator — would not be able to rebut them in a public hearing because the details of the dispute were classified.  Congressional Democrats also knew that President Bush agreed to make changes in the program in March 2004 to assuage DOJ’s concerns, and they knew that the program activities continued thereafter for a year-and-a-half (i.e., until the Times blew part of the program) without incident and with bipartisan congressional leadership continuing to be briefed.

The point I am trying to make is this, that the so-called “torture”; which was approved by Congress, prevented attacks on Los Angeles and various cities around the country.  It also saves lives and gets people to talk. It is also used to train our Military as well.

My advice to Holder is this; if you want to tear this Country apart, again, after a long eight years of it being sharply divided; go right ahead. If you want to tear down the Democratic Party; you know; the one of your own boss? The go right ahead and do this. If you want ruin the chances of America ever defending itself from another terrorist attack, then go right ahead and do this.  If you want to make a mockery of yourself and the entire polical system in America, go right Mr. Holder and do what you must do. It will be on your hands, what becomes of this Country.

I dread the next coming months.

Others: Gateway Pundit, Atlas Shrugs,

Congress put the brakes on Obama’s Cap and Trade bill

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Looks like the Hope and Change will be slightly delayed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s push for quick action by Congress on climate change legislation suffered a setback on Thursday when the U.S. Senate committee leading the drive delayed work on the bill until September.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer said her self-imposed deadline of early August for finishing writing a bill to combat global warming has been put off until after Congress returns from a recess that ends in early September.

“We’ll do it as soon as we get back” from that break, Boxer told reporters. Asked if this delay jeopardizes chances the Senate will pass a bill this year, Boxer said, “Not a bit … we’ll be in (session) until Christmas, so I’m not worried about it.”

But Boxer did not guarantee Congress will be able to finish a bill and deliver it to Obama by December, when he plans to attend an international summit on climate change in Copenhagen.

“I want to take this as far as we can take it (before Copenhagen). The more we do the better,” Boxer said.

via Obama’s drive for climate change bill delayed – Washington Post. (H/T to HotAir)

Contrary to what the Democrats are trying to tell the media, this here is why the bill has been delayed:

WHEELING – He is not yet back to work in the Senate chamber, but U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd is opposing “cap and trade” legislation pushed by the Obama administration.

The 91-year-old Byrd, D-W.Va., was released from an unidentified Washington, D.C. hospital last week after a month-long stay for a staph infection. He expects to return to the chamber before the Senate begins debate on “cap and trade” – which is tentatively set for this fall, according to Byrd’s office.

“I cannot support the House bill in its present form,” Byrd said in a statement. “I continue to believe that clean coal can be a ‘green’ energy. Those of us who understand coal’s great potential in our quest for energy independence must continue to work diligently in shaping a climate bill that will ensure access to affordable energy for West Virginians. I remain bullish about the future of coal, and am so very proud of the miners who labor and toil in the coalfields of West Virginia.”

Byrd grew up in the coalfields of Stotesbury, W.Va., in Raleigh County. Jesse Jacobs, spokesman for Byrd, said the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will begin marking up the “cap and trade” bill later this month, with floor debate scheduled for September or October.

I will give kudo’s to that old man. He might have been a Klan member at one point; something that he has profusely apologized for many times. He might be a democrat, but I cannot sit her and fault a man for looking out for his people. That is what Congressman are supposed to do, and I give all the credit due for that. Senator Byrd is of the old school Democratic Party. Before the stupidity of socialism took it over, he still believes in the principles of free markets and capitalism; in short, he has not sold out to the Socialist nonsense of the modern day Democratic Party.

God Bless Him for that. 🙂

How’s that stimulus working out for you Barry?

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Apparently not too well it seems.

The Washington Post (!) Reports:

Five months after Congress approved a massive package of spending and tax cuts aimed at reviving an ailing economy, the jobless rate is still climbing and the White House is scrambling to reassure an anxious public that President Obama’s prescription for economic recovery is on the right track.

Yesterday, Obama took time out of his first presidential trip to Moscow to defend the $787 billion stimulus package, arguing that the measure was the right medicine at the right time. “There’s nothing that we would have done differently,” he told ABC News

So, beings the Democratic Party’s proverbial teeth chattering session, where they realize, “Uh-Oh, we messed up! Now how do we fix it?”

Back in Washington, senior Democrats on Capitol Hill were nervously contemplating whether additional government stimulus spending may be needed to pull the nation out of the worst recession since the 1930s. Senior administration officials acknowledged that the effects of the stimulus package have been overshadowed by an unexpectedly sharp drop-off in employment since the measure passed in February. But they reported that only about $100 billion has so far been spent and that as increasingly large sums flow out of Washington, the program is on pace to save or create 600,000 jobs over the next 100 days.

“It is clear from the data that there needs to be more fiscal stimulus in the second half of the year than there was in the first half of the year,” White House economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers said. “Fortunately, the stimulus program designed by the president and passed by Congress provides exactly that.”

Leading economists agree that the most powerful effects of the stimulus package have yet to be felt. But even if the measure lives up to Obama’s expectations, it would barely offset the 433,000 jobs the nation lost last month alone, and the resulting employment would represent a drop in the bucket compared with the 6.5 million jobs lost since the recession began in December 2007.

“Just 130 days out on the adoption of a very, very major effort to get the economy moving, certainly I don’t think we can make a determination as to whether or not that’s been successful,” House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said yesterday. But, he said, “I think we need to be open to whether or not we need additional action.”

Oh Yes! We just poured a couple generation’s worth of money into a Economic system that is basically; on it’s face, is broken and does not work. This did not work, so, we’re going to basically pour money into that same broken system and see if we can make the economy recover. Rolling Eyes

If anything this ought be a lesson for the Democratic Party that Keynesian Pump Priming, just does not work. But you think that the Democrats would learn that lesson? No. Because they’re dumb! Silly

Of course, the Republicans are a bit more smarter about this:

Republicans, meanwhile, pounced on news that the unemployment rate increased to 9.5 percent in June and accused the Democrats of sinking the nation deeper into debt to finance an economic recovery package that has failed to save American jobs. Noting that the Obama administration predicted earlier this year that stimulus spending would keep the unemployment rate under 8 percent, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the No. 2 Republican in the House, said, “I think any objective measure would indicate there’s a failure when you have a commitment of nearly $800 billion in taxpayer funds and you have the type of job loss we’re experiencing.”

With many economists forecasting that the jobless rate will continue to climb — and is likely to stay above 10 percent through much of next year — Republicans vowed to make the 2010 midterm election a referendum on Obama’s stewardship of the economy. “I think they’re going to have some significant problems,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), who leads the GOP campaign operation in the Senate, “and I view those as opportunities for us.”

Hopefully, the Republicans will frame these opportunities properly. Of course, their track record here as of late, has not been too good.

Meanwhile, in the reality sector:

Despite the deepening pain of the recession, many Democrats in the White House and on Capitol Hill yesterday counseled patience. They said it would be extraordinarily difficult to win approval for more spending on the economy when Obama is pursuing a host of other expensive initiatives, including a $1 trillion expansion of the nation’s health-care system. And they argued that the current stimulus package should be given a chance to work.

The stimulus was designed to deliver a gradually stronger push to the economy through the end of next year. It contains about $499 billion in new spending and about $288 billion in tax cuts for working families, businesses, college students and first-time home buyers.

When the measure passed, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted that about a quarter of the money would be spent by year’s end, and that about 75 percent would flow by the end of 2010. So far, economists said, spending appears to be on track.

According to administration estimates, about $158 billion in new spending had been committed to specific projects by the end of June, but just a fraction of that money — about $56 billion — had been delivered to struggling state governments, unemployed workers and other recipients. An additional $43 billion had been left in the pockets of individuals and businesses through uncollected taxes, much of it the result of Obama’s signature Making Work Pay tax credit for working families.

Those figures track closely with estimates by Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com, who calculates that the government made $242 billion in stimulus funds available for various purposes through the end of June and paid out about $110 billion. In a recent analysis, Zandi predicted that “the maximum contribution from the stimulus should occur in the second and third quarters of this year,” when it will add more than three percentage points to overall economic growth.

“It’s pretty much according to plan in terms of the payout and in terms of its economic impact. This is in the script,” Zandi said. The problem, he said, is that “the economy has been measurably worse than anyone expected,” with a surprisingly sharp “collapse in employment and surge in unemployment” that caught most economists off guard.

“That’s why the administration’s forecasts have been so wrong,” he said.

None of this surprises me in the least. I warned on this blog long ago that this would happen. But, of course, you have the Democrats spinning this, and very hard too:

The White House continues to predict that the stimulus package will save or create 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year. Zandi predicts it will fall short of that, producing about 2.5 million jobs — still a significant impact.

Whatever the number, Democrats are hoping it will be enough to convince voters that Obama is leading them out of the economic wilderness.

“I think the president was very clear that things were going to take a long time to turn around,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who leads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in charge of electing Democrats to the House. Republicans “are making the argument to the American people that doing nothing would have been the best policy. And I don’t think people will buy that. . . .

“The measures we have taken have certainly prevented things from getting much worse.”

According to what figures? Because the charts I have seen, say otherwise:

stimulus-vs-unemployment-june-proj-dots

What this chart shows is that unemployment was far higher with the stimulus plan, than it would have been, if Team Teleprompter would have just left well enough alone.

What this means to me personally is this; I will most likely be unemployed until like 2010 or longer. Thereby making myself impossible to he hired anywhere, because I haven’t worked in so long. Which is just wonderful. Rolling Eyes

Thank you President Bambi Teleprompter for ruining America, you feckless idiot! Angry

Others:  Hot Air,  

The Southern Avenger says “Partisans Make Us Less Safe”

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How support for both “financial security” and “national security” reveal partisan hypocrisy and make us less safe.

President Obama, The time is now.

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That’s correct, you read that headline right. Enough is enough, the deception and lies needs to stop. I am sure that most of you have been following the internet Meme floating around right now about Nancy Pelosi’s saying that the CIA lied to her about the enhanced interrogations. Well, the accusations just got some serious merit and I do mean huge serious merit.

The Huffington Post is now reporting:

In testimony that could bolster Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s claim that the CIA misled her during briefings on detainee interrogations, former Senator Bob Graham insisted on Thursday that he too was kept in the dark about the use of waterboarding, and called the agency’s records on these briefings "suspect."

In an interview with the Huffington Post, the former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman said that approximately a month ago, the CIA provided him with false information about how many times and when he was briefed on enhanced interrogations.

"When this issue started to resurface I called the appropriate people in the agency and said I would like to know the dates from your records that briefings were held," Graham recalled. "And they contacted me and gave me four dates — two in April ’02 and two in September ’02. Now, one of s-GRAHAM-large the things I do, and for which I have taken some flack, is keep a spiral notebook of what I do throughout the day. And so I went through my records and through a combination of my daily schedule, which I keep, and my notebooks, I confirmed and the CIA agreed that my notes were accurate; that three of those four dates there had been no briefing. There was only one day that I had been briefed, which was September the 27th of 2002."

As for the one briefing he did attend, the Florida Democrat said that he had "no recollection that issues such as waterboarding were discussed." He was not, per the sensitive nature of the matters discussed, allowed to take notes at the time. But he did highlight what he considered to be pretty strong proof that the controversial technique was not discussed.

"What struck me…was the fact that in that briefing, there were also two staff members," he said. "As you know, the general rule is that the executive is to brief the full committees of the House and Senate Intelligence committees about any ongoing or proposed action. The exception to that is what is called "covert action," where the president…only briefs the Gang of Eight, which is the four congressional leaders and the four intelligence committee leaders. Those sessions are generally conducted at an executive site, primarily at the White House itself. And they are conducted with just the authorized personnel, not with any staff or any other member of the committee…. Which leads me to conclude that this was not considered by the CIA to be a Gang of Eight briefing. Otherwise they would not have had staff in the room. And that leads me to then believe that they didn’t brief us on any of the sensitive programs such as the waterboarding or other forms of excessive interrogation."

The remarks made by Graham bolster the comments offered by Pelosi on Thursday. The Speaker told reporters that during her briefing session in the fall of 2002 she was not just kept in the dark about the issue of waterboarding, she was assured that it had not been used.

[….]

"The irony," said Graham, "is that the whole series of events in late September of ’02 were concurrent with the CIA’s release of the first classified version of the National Intelligence Estimate, which was one of the key factors that led me to vote against the war in Iraq because I thought that their case was so weak. And they were making to the public these very bold statements about how we were in extreme danger if we didn’t move quickly to eradicate Saddam Hussein. The whole, ‘a smoking gun may appear in the form of a mushroom cloud’ kind of argument."

I know some Conservatives that read this blog are going to say something to the effect of, “Oh, that’s the Huffington Post, you cannot trust what they say.” Well, to that I say; Unsinn! (nonsense!) While I may have a personal problem with the way that the comment sections are handled over there and I may have some issues with the political ideology behind that website. I am quite sorry to say it, but news is news; and this my friends is big news.

Since I began blogging back in the winter of 2006; first as a populist and then when my site was hacked, and which at the time this happened; I had began to change my views, and I finally came out as a “Right of Center” or a Traditional Conservative or if you will, a Paleo-Conservative. (As opposed to a Wilsonian, Neo-Conservative; like George W. Bush) I made it quite clear for my disdain of the Wilsonian, Neo-Conservatism of George W. Bush and his Administration. Having said this, I believe it is time that I be the first “Right of Center” blogger to say this:

It is time that the United States of America actually used it’s systems of “Check and Balances.” It is time for a formal investigation into the Bush Administration.

I realize that the Obama Administration wants to avoid a “partisan witch-hunt.” I can respect this, but at this point, this whole mess has gone way beyond the bounds of partisanship, and to the point of an outright betrayal of the American values and of the United States Constitution that the now former President was supposed to swear to uphold.  It is quite obvious to this writer that the now former President of the United States and his Administration fully instructed the C.I.A. to lie to the Democrats in office about the techniques used in the enhanced interrogations that took place after the invasion of Iraq.

Lying to the Congress of the United States of America under the orders of the President of the United States of America for the sole purpose of achieving a political goal, in this case the Iraq War and the supposed “War on terror,” in this writers opinion, amounts to treason of the worst kind. Lying to Congress in order to skirt around the agreements signed by the United States of America and many other Nations, under the accord of the United Nations is a crime and should be dealt with immediately. I am not a huge fan of the United Nations, but agreements are agreements and laws are laws, and it is quite obvious, to this writer, that this previous Administration was not interested in upholding those laws or the United States Constitution or the Geneva Conventions.  Instead the President of the United States ordered the C.I.A. to lie to Congress on it’s use to waterboarding in the enhanced interrogations. This, my friends, is treason. It is wrong, and it should be prosecuted.

I realize that some Conservatives  are going to disagree, that is their prerogative. However, those Conservatives and those who are non-partisan who believe that the rule of law in this Country should be upheld, not just for Conservative Presidents, but also for Democratic Party Presidents; will agree with me in saying that the current attorney should open a full an unbiased investigation into this situation forthwith. The future of this Constitutional Republic depends on it.

Mr. President, The time is now.

The Worry in my Father’s Eyes (A Personal GM Posting)

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As many of you know, I am the son of a retired General Motors worker.  Ironically, I am also a Conservative.  No, I am not a Republican; or even a formal Libertarian.  I am someone that believes that the less Governmental interference in my life, the better.   However, there is a place, where my politics ends and a genuine concern for my family begins.

I see that General Motors is going to be taking more money from the Government, and is desperately trying to salvage what is left of that company:

Quote:

General Motors Corp. will get up to $5 billion and Chrysler LLC $500 million in short-term aid, according to a 250-page government report obtained Monday by The Detroit News.

The Detroit News reported Friday that GM would get about $5 billion and Chrysler $500 million, citing an Obama administration official, which prompted a denial from the White House.

The short-term aid figures are disclosed in the report from the Treasury Department’s Inspector General on the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The report was obtained from a congressional source late Monday.

Meanwhile General Motors is is doing its damnedest to rid itself of waste:

General Motors Corp. has started notifying about 1,600 white-collar workers — most of whom work in southeast Michigan — that they will lose their jobs this week as the cash-strapped automaker cuts costs that could help the automaker qualify for up to $16.6 billion in additional federal aid.

The announcement was made by GM North American President Troy Clarke in an e-mail sent to employees today, spokesperson Tom Wilkinson said.

“This is part of really restructuring the company to a smaller, leaner company, one that can, as the (Obama) administration requested, be profitable on an ongoing basis,” Wilkinson said.

While this might be a good thing, there are those out there that believe that this is too little too late:

It’s ironic enough that Italy’s Fiat Auto could end up being the savior for Chrysler. After all, former Chrysler President Bob Lutz once likened Fiat to a dead bride when his old boss, Lee Iacocca, wanted the company to join up with the Italian carmaker. Now, Lutz is at General Motors until he retires in December, and Fiat may help his current employer.

Yes, the Italian carmaker is reportedly in talks with GM about forming a partnership with its European and South American businesses, says Automotive News. How ironic is that? Well, in 2000, GM bought 20% of Fiat Auto for $2.4 billion. Back then, GM was healthy and Fiat was in serious financial trouble. The Italian company was wracked by quality issues. It was so bad that GM actually paid another $2 billion a few years later just to avoid a put option that would have made GM the sole owner of Fiat. GM’s board didn’t want that kind of headache.

But now, after Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has fixed the company, he could help save Chrysler in the U.S. and GM in Europe. GM lost $1.5 billion in the Olde World last year, with its Opel and Vauxhaul brands suffering mightily with too many factories. GM is actually doing very well in Latin America, where the auto giant earned $1.3 billion last year. Fiat is pretty strong there, too, so they could make a powerful pair down there. The only catch is that Fiat doesn’t have any cash either. But the alliances will help be getting each company jointly-engineered vehicles and sharing parts.

The bottom line: Fiat is not a great carmaker by any stretch. But Chrysler and GM are in so much trouble that anyone could help at this point. Even Fiat.

Which brings me to my point; have any of you really looked at your Father?  I have.  I see worry in his eyes.  I see worry in both my parents eyes.  The questions my parents are facing, as they enter into their golden years are unfathomable, for someone my age.  Will my parents lose everything that my father worked hard to obtain?  We are talking 31 years worth of blood, sweat, and tears.  My Father earned every damned last penny.  I dare some idiot beltway type to say otherwise.

I have been a critic of the Obama Administration for much, as of late.  However, I will give him credit for one thing.  The President is looking out my Father.  I just hope he does not throw my Father under the bus, as he has many others in his short time in the White House.

Some of you might look at this posting and call me some sort of a hypocrite.  That is your right as an American.

However, if you could only see my Father’s eyes; you might just might be able to understand.

The Southern Avenger on “The Radical Right”

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Generational Theft Act of 2009 has been passed

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It seems that the Liberal Congress and Obama are hell bent on devaluing our dollar:

Congressional Democrats overwhelmingly embraced President Obama’s ambitious and expensive agenda for the nation yesterday, endorsing a $3.5 trillion spending plan that sets the stage for the president to pursue his most far-reaching priorities.

Voting along party lines, the House and Senate approved budget blueprints that would trim Obama’s spending proposals for the fiscal year that begins in October and curtail his plans to cut taxes. The blueprints, however, would permit work to begin on the central goals of Obama’s presidency: an expansion of health-care coverage for the uninsured, more money for college loans and a cap-and-trade system to reduce gases that contribute to global warming.

The measures now move to a conference committee where negotiators must resolve differences between the two chambers, a prelude to the more difficult choices that will be required to implement Obama’s initiatives. While Democrats back the president’s vision for transforming huge sectors of the economy, they remain fiercely divided over the details.

via Congress Approves Budget – washingtonpost.com.

$3.5 trillion dollars; That’s more money than I’ll ever see in this lifetime. Spending that much money will do nothing more than devalue our dollar to the point where the simplest things will cost more than most can afford.  Ron Paul said it right in this video here; the Liberal Congress are simply trying to recreate the bubble that burst and they are simply going to try create another.

This of course will create another burst somewhere down the road that will be greater than this one. Our only hope is that someone like Mark Sanford will get in there and order the fed audited and possibly closed. Also maybe Sanford would put us back on the Gold Standard and back Austrian Economics and put this silly Keynesian economics to pasture, where it belongs.

One can only hope.

Others: Sweetness & Light, , Fausta’s Blog, Donklephant, Hot Air, Right Wing News, Dr. Sanity, , QandO and Wake up America

The Southern Avenger on “AIG Bonuses are a Ruse”

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How the controversy over the AIG bonuses imbedded in the stimulus obfuscate the root problem of spending in general.

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The Southern Avenger @ Taki’s Magazine

About Reid’s comments on Roberts

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This is kinda odd.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday that John Roberts misled the Senate during his confirmation hearings by pretending to be a moderate — and that the United States is now “stuck” with him as chief justice.

“Roberts didn’t tell us the truth. At least Alito told us who he was,” Reid said, referring to Samuel Alito, the second Supreme Court justice nominated by President George W. Bush. “But we’re stuck with those two young men, and we’ll try to change by having some moderates in the federal courts system as time goes on — I think that will happen.”

Reid’s comments, which came during a wide-ranging discussion hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, reflect Democratic concerns that Roberts presented himself as a neutral arbiter of the law but has wielded a relentlessly conservative agenda. Republicans reject the attacks, saying Roberts has been a fair judge and has been consistent in his opinions.

via Reid: Roberts ‘didn’t tell us the truth’ – Manu Raju – POLITICO.com.

I guess my only question is, why’d Reid believe him in the first place? I mean, the dude is a Conservative. You’d think that even Liberal Reid would know not to take his word for it.

Others: Power Line, Weekly Standard, The Sundries Shack, Fox News, Sweetness & Light and The Corner

(Via Memeorandum)

President Barack Hussein Obama’s March Towards Communism

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In all honesty….  it is more like a marathon run towards Communism actually.

Thanks to the stupidity of the Carter and Clinton Administrations and the inaction on the Republican controlled 2003 Congress. We are now becoming a Communist Nation. We have no one to blame, but ourselves.

The Communist owned Washington Post reports:

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.

Giving the Treasury secretary authority over a broader range of companies would mark a significant shift from the existing model of financial regulation, which relies on independent agencies that are shielded from the political process. The Treasury secretary, a member of the president’s Cabinet, would exercise the new powers in consultation with the White House, the Federal Reserve and other regulators, according to the document.

The administration plans to send legislation to Capitol Hill this week. Sources cautioned that the details, including the Treasury’s role, are still in flux.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is set to argue for the new powers at a hearing today on Capitol Hill about the furor over bonuses paid to executives at American International Group, which the government has propped up with about $180 billion in federal aid. Administration officials have said that the proposed authority would have allowed them to seize AIG last fall and wind down its operations at less cost to taxpayers.

The administration’s proposal contains two pieces. First, it would empower a government agency to take on the new role of systemic risk regulator with broad oversight of any and all financial firms whose failure could disrupt the broader economy. The Federal Reserve is widely considered to be the leading candidate for this assignment. But some critics warn that this could conflict with the Fed’s other responsibilities, particularly its control over monetary policy.

The government also would assume the authority to seize such firms if they totter toward failure.

Besides seizing a company outright, the document states, the Treasury Secretary could use a range of tools to prevent its collapse, such as guaranteeing losses, buying assets or taking a partial ownership stake. Such authority also would allow the government to break contracts, such as the agreements to pay $165 million in bonuses to employees of AIG’s most troubled unit.

The Treasury secretary could act only after consulting with the president and getting a recommendation from two-thirds of the Federal Reserve Board, according to the plan.

Geithner plans to lay out the administration’s broader strategy for overhauling financial regulation at another hearing on Thursday.

You see folks, this is where it starts. They start seizing businesses, and taking the assets for themselves. Then the Government decides to take YOUR assets; because they happen to think that you are making too much money. What amazes me, is the resounding silence from the Republicans, especially the Neo-Conservatives like Michelle Malkin and over at HotAir.com. Could it be that the Neo-Conservatives secretly approve of such actions? Possibly the Republican Party as well? Could it be that the Republican Party is now infiltrated with Communists to the point of having lost it’s true identity?

You decide.

Others: The Moderate Voice, Reuters, pw,  , The Strata-Sphere,Bloomberg, Washington Monthly, Pajamas Media, Right Wing News, Sweetness & Light, Neptunus Lex, Stop The ACLU, Sister Toldjah, and Fausta’s Blog

(Via Memeorandum)

The party is over for Obama among independent voters

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Looks like the Independents in America have sobered up from the Hope and Change stupor:

In the new National Public Radio poll conducted by the Democratic polling company Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and its Republican counterpart, Public Opinion Strategies, 42 percent of the 800 likely voters surveyed March 10 to 14 said that if the next congressional election were held today they would vote for the Republican candidate; an identical percentage of respondents said they would vote for the Democratic one. For several years, Democrats held a substantial lead on this question.

Democrats still outnumbered Republicans in terms of party identification in this poll by 6 points, 45 percent to 39 percent. Democrats also favored their own party’s congressional candidates 83 percent to 7 percent. But voters who call themselves independents gave GOP candidates the edge by 14 points, 38 percent to 24 percent. And self-identified Republicans supported their own party’s candidates 85 percent to 3 percent.

via National Journal Magazine – Are Independents Hedging Their Bets?.

I recommend you go read the whole thing, as it is a very interesting read. The political climate in America is changing very fast. Most Americans do not want to see their children paying for some economic mess, that was not even of their own making; but rather was of some Democrat in Washington D.C.’s making. Now, in fairness, the Republicans could have stopped this mess in 2003, they tried and the people creating the mess played the race card and also denied that anything was even wrong.  However, if Jimmy Carter and later on Bill Clinton would have left well enough alone, this whole economic mess would have been avoided.

I do truly hope by 2010 that the poll numbers for the Democrats are so low that Republican Congress will be able to take back the majority and out of the hands of these crazy people who want to spend out country into bankruptcy.

More Coverage:

Susan Duclos / Wake up America: Independents Jumping Ship
Jennifer Rubin / Commentary: Flotsam and Jetsam  —  A thought provoking piece on whether …
Gaius / Blue Crab Boulevard: The Train Wreck  —  Charlie Cook has been looking at elections for a while now.
Moe Lane: National Journal reporting tie on partisan identification.

An Interesting Movie

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I post this because I believe that it is interesting. Alex Jones has always struck me as a kook. Someone amongst the “Tin Foil Hat” crowd. However, it is something interesting to watch.

Enjoy…

What do you think? Do you think that there is any truth to this?

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A New Parody “Barry’s Farm”

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Here’s the Original Song:


Update: It seems that some Fascist Socialist Liberal twit keeps going around getting my video yanked. No biggie, if they yank it. I will find it elsewhere and put it up. This is America and not fascist Germany and I have the RIGHT to express my opinions about the President and his fascist polices. You liberals don’t like it? TOUGH SHIT! 😡

History about the song and concert

New Lyrics:

Barry’s Farm

(Sung to the tune of Maggie’s Farm by Bob Dylan)

Written by Paleo Pat

I ain’t gonna work on Barry’s farm no more.
I ain’t gonna work on Barry’s farm no more.
Well, I wake up in the morning,
Fold my hands and pray that I might keep my gain.
I got a bill full of Taxes
That are drivin’ me insane.
It’s a shame the way he makes me tip the whore.
Naw, I ain’t gonna work on Barry’s farm no more.

I ain’t gonna work under Barry’s Law’s no more.
I ain’t gonna work under Barry’s Law’s no more.
Well, he hands you a Dollar,
Taxes you a dime,
Looks at you with a grin
While robbin’ you fuckin’ Blind,
Then he taxes you every time you open the door.
I ain’t gonna work under Barry’s Laws no more.

I ain’t gonna be a slave for Barry’s Government no more.
No, I ain’t be a Slave for Barry’s Government no more.
Well, he puts a Tax Bill
in your face just for kicks.
His White House
It is made out of Bricks.
The Secret Service stands around his door.
Ah, I ain’t gonna be a slave for Barry’s Government no more.

I ain’t gonna work for Barry’s Bitch no more.
No, I ain’t gonna work for Barry’s Bitch no more.
Well, she talks to all the people
About Equality and Race and Law.
All the while the workin’ people
Are payin’ for other peoples bad calls
She’s a lying thief, but she says her honesty stands tall.
Naw, I ain’t gonna work for Barry’s Bitch no more.

I ain’t gonna work on Barry’s farm no more.
I ain’t gonna work on Barry’s farm no more.
Well, I try my best
To do the best I can,
But everybody wants you
To pay thier bills for them.
They eat steak while you slave and I just get bored.
I ain’t gonna work on Barry’s farm no more.

Guest Voice: Chuck Baldwin Video Sermon “What Every Christian Should Know About The New World Order”

Posted on1 Comment

This is a sermon that I think every Christian of all denomination ought to listen to.

High Speed Video

Video for Dial Up Speeds:

Audio (BroadBand):

Audio (Dial Up):

Chuck Baldwin Live official Website

Crossroads Baptist Church – Pensacola, FL

Rat in the mouse house?

Posted on1 Comment

Well, something like that:

You’ve heard a lot about the astonishing spending in the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, signed into law this week by President Barack Obama. But you probably haven’t heard about a provision in the bill that threatens to politicize the way allegations of fraud and corruption are investigated — or not investigated — throughout the federal government.

Photographers take pictures of the economic stimulus bill after President Barack Obama signed the document during a ceremony at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Denver, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

The provision, which attracted virtually no attention in the debate over the 1,073-page stimulus bill, creates something called the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board — the RAT Board, as it’s known by the few insiders who are aware of it. The board would oversee the in-house watchdogs, known as inspectors general, whose job is to independently investigate allegations of wrongdoing at various federal agencies, without fear of interference by political appointees or the White House.

In the name of accountability and transparency, Congress has given the RAT Board the authority to ask “that an inspector general conduct or refrain from conducting an audit or investigation.” If the inspector general doesn’t want to follow the wishes of the RAT Board, he’ll have to write a report explaining his decision to the board, as well as to the head of his agency (from whom he is supposedly independent) and to Congress. In the end, a determined inspector general can probably get his way, but only after jumping through bureaucratic hoops that will inevitably make him hesitate to go forward.

When Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, a longtime champion of inspectors general, read the words “conduct or refrain from conducting,” alarm bells went off. The language means that the board — whose chairman will be appointed by the president — can reach deep inside a federal agency and tell an inspector general to lay off some particularly sensitive subject. Or, conversely, it can tell the inspector general to go after a tempting political target.

via The RAT hiding deep inside the stimulus bill – www.dcexaminer.com.

Sounds like Communism to me. One must report the fuhrer before he can exercise his authority. Hope and change? I hardly think so. More like control and tyranny.

Others: JustOneMinute, Riehl World View, Hot Air,  protein wisdom, Wizbang, Cold Fury and Sister Toldjah


Faux Conservative Arlan Spector “Republicans Support Stimulus, Don’t Want ‘Fingerprints’ On It”

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Oh Please, this is about the lamest damn thing ever….

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), who broke with his party to support President Obama’s stimulus package last week, said before the final vote Friday that more of his colleagues would have joined were they not afraid of the political consequences.

“When I came back to the cloak room after coming to the agreement a week ago today,” said Specter, “one of my colleagues said, ‘Arlen, I’m proud of you.’ My Republican colleague said, ‘Arlen, I’m proud of you.’ I said, ‘Are you going to vote with me?’ And he said, ‘No, I might have a primary.’ And I said, ‘Well, you know very well I’m going to have a primary.'”

Specter, along with centrist Maine Republican Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, joined with Democrats last week to move the stimulus bill forward. Specter said he doubted there would be any more Republican votes than those three Friday night.

“I think there are a lot of people in the Republican caucus who are glad to see this action taken without their fingerprints, without their participation,” he said.

Specter was asked, How many of your colleagues?

“I think a sizable number,” he said. “I think a good part of the caucus agrees with the person I quoted, but I wouldn’t want to begin to speculate on numbers.”

via HuffPo Says: Republicans Support Stimulus, Don’t Want ‘Fingerprints’ On It.

Name one, Arlan, name just one. I dare you. Truth is, there were no other supporters, nobody self-loving Republican, Conservative or Libertarian would ever vote for a bill of this sort. This bill is nothing more than watered down, and in some places; not-so-watered down communism!

I find it absolutely amazing that Sen. Arlan Specter would stoop to outright lying about something as paramount as this bill.

Others: Gateway Pundit

As Geithner rolls out Bailout Plans and Stimulus passes senate, stocks plummet

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So much for reviving the economy. No sooner does Obama’s Treasury secretary roll out his plan for bailing out the banks and Obama’s “stimulus plan” passes muster in the Senate; the stock market drops and drops quite hard.

Here are the charts (as of 1:34 PM EST):

Dow Jones:

image

New York Stock Exchange:

image

The rest of the numbers:

image

So much for Stimulus eh?

I think Barry needs to try again… Badly.

(Charts by Think or Swim)

Rasmussen Poll: Support for Economic Stimulus Support drops to 37%

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It seems that the American people are wising up to the underhanded tricks by the Far left wing of the Democratic Party:

Support for the economic recovery plan working its way through Congress has fallen again this week. For the first time, a plurality of voters nationwide oppose the $800-billion-plus plan.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 37% favor the legislation, 43% are opposed, and 20% are not sure.

Two weeks ago, 45% supported the plan. Last week, 42% supported it.

Opposition has grown from 34% two weeks ago to 39% last week and 43% today.

Sixty-four percent (64%) of Democrats still support the plan. That figure is down from 74% a week ago. Just 13% of Republicans and 27% of those not affiliated with either major party agree.

Seventy-two percent (72%) of Republicans oppose the plan along with 50% of unaffiliated voters and 16% of Democrats.

via Support for Stimulus Package Falls to 37% – Rasmussen Reports.

I think it is good to see that media and we lowly bloggers,  are getting the message out that this so called “Stimulus package” was nothing more than a far left socialist crap sandwich. (Sorry Michelle... ;)) The best we can hope for, is that the Senate strips out all the garbage and keeps in the stuff that might actually work.

Others: Power Line, Townhall.com, Hot Air, The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room, Boston Globe and Flopping Aces

(Via Memeorandum)

Senate seeks to Revise Stimulus Bill

Posted on7 Comments

This is an encouraging sign:

Senate Democratic leaders conceded yesterday that they do not have the votes to pass the stimulus bill as currently written and said that to gain bipartisan support, they will seek to cut provisions that would not provide an immediate boost to the economy.

The legislation represents the first major test for President Obama and an expanded Democratic Congress, both of which have made economic recovery the cornerstone of their new political mandate. The stimulus package has now tripled from its post-election estimate of about $300 billion, and in recent days lawmakers in both parties have grown wary of the swelling cost.

Moderate Republicans are trying to trim the bill by as much as $200 billion, although Democrats working with those GOP senators have not agreed to a specific figure.

The Senate’s first vote on a stimulus amendment, a failed effort yesterday to add more infrastructure spending to the package, signaled the change in course. For weeks, the measure has grown to meet a worsening economic crisis with the largest possible infusion of government cash. Despite warnings of dire consequences if Congress does not act boldly, Republicans have become resolute in their opposition to what they view as runaway and unnecessary spending in the legislation. And as the total in the Senate version climbs to $900 billion, unease also is stirring among moderate Democrats.

via Senate Lacks Votes to Pass Stimulus – washingtonpost.com.

I am glad to see that the Republicans and some of the more saner elements of the Democratic Party are ridding this Economic Stimulus Bill of unnecessary pork. I think that it is a shame that the Far left wing of the Democratic Party would use this economic downturn to try and further their socialist agenda.  I think the voters should remember this when they go to the polls in 2010.

Others: Washington Monthly, Matthew Yglesias, Megan McArdle, Marginal Revolution, Balance of Power, Free exchange, LiberalOasis, The Washington Independent, The Plum Line, Associated Press, Reason, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, The Caucus, The Corner, The Plank, D-Day, Gawker, Wonk Room, Outside The Beltway, AMERICAblog News, Wizbang and Shopfloor

(via Memeorandum)

Recieved via e-mail

Posted on2 Comments

This popped in my in box:

Citizens Against Government Waste

Dear Newsmax Reader,

Democratic congressional leaders and the Obama Administration have hyped the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 as an urgent and essential “economic stimulus” package. This bill would be more aptly titled, the Pelosi-Reid Borrow-and-Spend Act!

The Senate is planning to vote on S.1, its version of the “stimulus,” this week. We can defeat it if all of the Republican members of the Senate vote NO, as their Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives did. I urge you to send a powerful message to your U.S. Senators today that you oppose this bloated, ill-conceived plan!

The $819 billion “stimulus” package approved by the House last week and the nearly $900 billion version now under consideration in the Senate would add to a federal deficit already projected to reach a record $1.2 trillion this year. This bill is not only one of the largest spending measures ever to pass through Congress, it will cost more over two years than we’ve spent to date on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan!

The bill’s ability to fulfill its stated mission of stimulating the economy is also questionable at best. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has concluded that more than half of the hundreds of billions of dollars in infrastructure spending contained in the bill, such as $26 billion of the $30 billion allocated for highways and $15.5 billion of the $18.5 billion for renewable energy projects, will not take place for more than two years — long after economists predict the current recession will have ended.

What’s more, the tax cuts in the package are narrowly targeted, with the largest portion going to more rebate checks, a strategy that failed to reverse our economy’s slide last year.

Even worse, the bill contains all sorts of special-interest and congressional pet spending projects that have virtually nothing to do with economic growth. As just one example, it allocates $335 million to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. Not only will this “healthcare” spending do nothing for the health of our economy, CDC has a track record of using such funds for events like a transgender beauty pageant in San Francisco and a conference, entitled “Got Love? Flirt/Date/Score,” that taught participants how “to flirt with greater finesse.”

Rather than burdening today’s and tomorrow’s taxpayers with this massive government spending spree, Congress should create more incentives and opportunities for private-sector jobs and growth by cutting government spending and enacting across-the-board tax cuts for individuals and businesses, like those that helped reverse economic slumps in the 1960s, 1980s, and earlier this decade.

If the Senate follows the House’s lead and passes this borrow-and-spend “stimulus” bill, it will waste record amounts of tax dollars, provide virtually no benefit to the economy, and only add to our nation’s soaring liabilities.

Please tell your Senators today that you want them to vote NO on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act!

Sincerely,

Thomas A. Schatz
President

P.S. If the Senate approves the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, federal lawmakers will have authorized more than $2 trillion in new government spending since February, 2008. While the cost of “jump-starting” the economy is sobering, the coming fiscal mushroom cloud is truly alarming. The national debt currently stands at a mind-numbing $10.6 trillion, and America is sinking into debt at the rate of $3.3 billion per day. Our children and grandchildren simply can’t afford this borrow-and-spend “stimulus” bill. Please deliver that message to your Senators today!

***
The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), the nation’s largest taxpayer watchdog organization with more than one million members and supporters nationwide. CCAGW is a 501(c)(4) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that lobbies for legislation to eliminate waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. Contributions to CCAGW are not tax-deductible for federal income tax purposes. For more information about CCAGW, visit www.ccagw.org. Help CCAGW wage and win this battle to stop the Senate from passing this disastrous ”stimulus” bill and burdening future generations with crippling debt by making a contribution to support our grassroots and lobbying efforts today.

Please help us put a stop to this so-called “economic stimulus” bill by contacting your friends and neighbors and urging them to write to their Senators.

Daschle-Gate Continues

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The Scandal continues:

President Obama’s choice for health secretary, Tom Daschle, was aware as early as last June that he might have to pay back taxes for the use of a car and driver provided by a private equity firm, but did not inform the Obama transition team until weeks after Mr. Obama named him to the health secretary’s post, senior administration officials said Saturday.

As Senate Democrats rushed to save the nomination of Mr. Daschle, their former leader, the White House spent the day trying to explain how he survived its vetting process despite his failure to pay $128,000 in taxes.

The White House would not say when the president himself learned of the tax issue, but said Mr. Obama is standing by his nominee.

“The president believes that nobody is perfect, but that nobody is trying to hide anything,” Robert Gibbs, the president’s press secretary, said in an interview, adding, “I think Senator Daschle rightly is going to have to answer questions, but I think members will be satisfied with the answers that he gives and will understand that he’s the right man for the job.”

At least six leading Democratic senators have come out in support of Mr. Daschle, but the fate of his nomination is unclear. The Senate Finance Committee, which is charged with holding a confirmation hearing on Mr. Daschle’s nomination, will meet behind closed doors Monday to discuss his taxes. After Timothy F. Geithner, Mr. Obama’s Treasury secretary, faced similar issues, some senators may have little appetite for confirming another nominee with tax problems.

“It’s totally shocking,” an aide to a Democratic senator said Saturday. “Why do we have to continue to have the same story over and over again with these nominees?”

via Daschle Knew of Tax Issues Over Car Use Last June – NYTimes.com.

I find it absolutely amazing that the Democrats would still confirm this guy, after learning about all these indiscretions. But then again, integrity is not one of the Democrats strengths. If the shoe was on the other foot. The Republicans would have already withdrawn his nomination and someone else would have been offered.  But because he is one the team of “The One”, he will confirmed and his tax problems quickly forgotten. Funny how that works, is it not?

Others: Althouse, Betsy’s Page, JustOneMinute

(via Memeornadum)

Tom Daschle has serious issues with taxes.

Posted on2 Comments

Seems Senator Tom Daschle has got issues. Big Issues. 😮

ABC News has learned that the nomination of former Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., to be President Obama’s secretary of health and human services has hit a traffic snarl on its way through the Senate Finance Committee.

The controversy deals with a car and driver lent to Daschle by a wealthy Democratic friend — a chauffeur service the former senator used for years without declaring it on his taxes.

It remains an open question as to whether this is a “speed bump,” as a Democratic Senate ally of Daschle put it, or something more damaging.

via Political Punch: Bumps in the Road: Obama’s HHS Secretary Nominee Faces Tax Questions Over Car and Driver.

I saw this last night and I thought, “Okay, no big deal.” But then I read about this:

Via Jack Tapper:

ABC News has obtained the Senate Finance Committee Report on Tom Daschle’s nomination to be Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which indicates that Daschle’s tax problems were even more substantial than earlier reported.

The report indicates that Daschle’s failure to pay more than $101,000 taxes on the car and driver a wealthy friend let him use from 2005 through 2007 is not the only tax issue the former Senate Majority Leader has been dealing with since his December nomination prompted a more thorough examination of his income tax returns.

Mr. Daschle also didn’t report $83,333 in consulting income in 2007.

The Senate Finance Committee Report also notes that during the vetting process, President Obama’s Transition Team “identified certain donations that did not qualify as charitable deductions because they were not paid to qualifying organizations.  Daschle adjusted his contribution deductions on his amended returns for 2005, 2006 and 2007 to remove these amounts and add additional contributions.” This adjustment meant a reduction in the amount he contributed to charitable foundations of $14,963 from 2005 through 2007. With the unreported income from the use of a car service in the amounts of $73,031 in 2005, $89,129 in 2006 and $93,096 in 2007; the unreported consulting income of $83,333 in 2007; and the adjusted reductions in charitable contributions, Daschle adds a total of $353,552 in additional income and reduced donations, meaning an additional tax payment of $128,203, in addition to $11,964 in interest.

On January 2 of this year, Daschle filed amended tax returns to pay the $140,167 in unpaid taxes.

Oy Vey… Good luck in getting confirmed dude. I mean, not to sound crass, but; how the fuck can you forget to pay your damn taxes? It must be nice to have so much money that you cannot remember how much you have, so you can pay your taxes! I mean, I’ve got 43 bucks and some change (Not hope and change!) in my account, luckily for me, I’ve been out of work so damned long that I do not have to pay income taxes this yet. I even called to make damned sure too; anyhow, I’m just saying man, how can someone forget? Just does not make any damned sense.

Of course, if this blog takes off; I might have to start paying taxes on the income and register a business name and all. But I’m nowhere near that level, yet. I’m getting decent hits, but zero income. I mean, 10 bucks here, 3 bucks there. But nothing huge, yet.  It takes time, I suppose.

Others on the subject: The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room, Fox News, Washington Monthly, The Politico, Outside The Beltway, USA Today, Fausta’s Blog, Warner_Todd_Huston’s blog, QandO, RedState, TigerHawk, Hot Air, NewsBusters.org, Neptunus Lex, Betsy’s Page, TIME.com, Don Surber, The Moderate Voice, Glenn Thrush’s Blogs, PoliticalBase.com Blog, D-Day and AmSpecBlog and More via Memeorandum