Tag: Republican
Republicans now supporting nationalization of banks
It looks like the party of Freedom is selling the American people up the river:
Nationalization, long regarded in Washington as a folly of Europeans, is gaining rapid ground among US opinion-formers. Stranger still, many of those talking about federal ownership of banks are Republicans.
Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator for North Carolina, said that many of his
colleagues, including John McCain, the defeated presidential candidate, agreed with his view that nationalisation of some banks should be “on the table”.
Mr Graham said that people across the US accepted his argument that it was untenable to keep throwing good money after bad into institutions such as Citigroup and Bank of America, which now have a lower net value than the amount of public funds they have received.
“You should not get caught up on a word [nationalisation],” he told the Financial Times in an interview. “I would argue that we cannot be ideologically a little bit pregnant. It doesn’t matter what you call it, but we can’t keep on funding these zombie banks [without gaining public control]. That’s what the Japanese did.”
Barack Obama, the president, who has tried to avoid panicking lawmakers and markets by entertaining the idea, has recently moved more towards what he calls the “Swedish model” – an approach backed strongly by Mr Graham.
via FT.com – Bank nationalisation gains ground with Republicans.
colleagues, including John McCain, the defeated presidential candidate, agreed with his view that nationalisation of some banks should be “on the table”.Nationalization is nothing more than Communism. We are being sold up the river. Remember this come 2010.
(H/T Drudge)
Obama signs the Generational Theft Act and Promises Another, Markets Tank…
I figured this was coming:
The Story:
President Obama has not ruled out a second stimulus package, his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said on Tuesday, just before Mr. Obama signed his $787 billion recovery package into law with a statement that it would “set our economy on a firmer foundation.”
The president said he would not pretend “that today marks the end of our economic problems.”
“Nor does it constitute all of what we have to do to turn our economy around,” Mr. Obama said at the signing ceremony in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. “But today does mark the beginning of the end, the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the way of playoffs.”
Mr. Gibbs, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Denver, said, “I think the president is going to do what’s necessary to grow this economy.” While “there are no particular plans at this point for a second stimulus package,” he added, “I wouldn’t foreclose it.”
Mr. Obama began the first leg of a two-day trip, using the museum ceremony to spotlight the bill’s clean-energy provisions. The president will also visit Phoenix, where he will unveil his new housing plan on Wednesday.
After a bruising legislative battle on the stimulus bill, which drew only three supporting votes from Republicans in the Senate and none in the House, the White House is trying to recapture the debate over the economy. Mr. Obama’s message is that the bill will create or save 3.5 million jobs over the next two years.
While the bill has been criticized by conservatives as bloated with pork-barrel spending, it has also been criticized by the left as too tepid and not bold enough to jumpstart the economy. Mr. Gibbs’s remarks on the plane seemed to echo that concern.
In describing the package, the press secretary called it “a strong start towards economic viability” and “the beginning of getting our economy back on track.”
via Signing Stimulus Bill, Obama Does Not Rule Out Another – NYTimes.com.
I figured Obama would do this, sign one porkus bill into law and say, “This is not the end, but just the beginning of the pork!”
Meanwhile, the markets basically tanked, even more so than last week: (Via the New York Times)
From Hong Kong to eastern Europe to Wall Street, financial gloom was everywhere on Tuesday.
Stock markets around the world staggered lower. In New York, the Dow fell more than 3 percent, coming within sight of its worst levels since the credit crisis erupted. Financial shares were battered. And rattled investors clamored to buy rainy-day investments like gold and Treasury debt.
It was a global wave of selling spurred by rising worries about how banks, automakers — entire countries — would fare in a deepening global downturn.
“Nobody believes it’s going get better yet,” said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard & Poor’s. “Do you see that light at the end of the tunnel? Any kind of light? Right now, it’s not there yet.”
At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 297.81 points or 3.7 percent to 7,552.29 points as losses in General Motors, Bank of America and American Express dragged the blue chips lower. The only Dow stock in positive territory was Wal-Mart, which rose after reporting better-than-expected profits.
“If we get substantially below 800 then look out below,” said Marc Groz, chief investment officer at Topos, a risk-advisory firm in Greenwich, Conn.
The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index slid 3.7 percent to drop below 800, which analysts said was an important trading threshold.
Investors know what this is, it is basically nationalization of our Economy, our banks, everything. They are just not going to invest money in a Government owned banking system. I believe this drop is just the beginning. Wait till it totally collapses and the world is thrust into chaos. It will be an interesting time, indeed.
Stupid: H-S Precision hires former FBI sniper who shot and killed Randy Weaver’s Wife and Son in Standoff
This is absolutely sick and disgusting…. 😡
An American gun manufacturer has hired a professional killer to tout the merits of its weapons. What better spokesman could a company have than one who has shot and killed a young mother with her baby in her arms?
The South Dakota company’s Internet website has proudly published a letter attesting the greatness of its new sniper weapon.
“Pound-for-pound, component-for-component, dollar- for-dollar, you will not find a better rifle,” says the new spokesman for H-S Precision in Rapid City. His name is Lon Horiuchi, a government assassin who retired from the FBI in 2006. AFP called to ask him if this was also the weapon he used to blow away the face of Vicki Weaver at the remote area of Ruby Ridge in Idaho in 1992, but he did not return the calls.
On Aug. 21, 1992, U.S. marshals perpetrated a sneak attack on the mountain cabin of the Randy Weaver family in northern Idaho. When the family dog, Striker, a docile and loving golden retriever, began to bark at the agents, they shot him dead “because he was giving away our position,” one said later. Sammy Weaver, 14, saw the incident and screamed, and the agents nearly blew his arm off (the impact of which spun him around), and then zippered him through the back with a three-round blast from automatic weapons. The boy was dead before he hit the ground. His father, Randy, later told this writer that when he got to him, “his chest was blown out and his heart was like raw hamburger.”
The marshal directing the raid, Bill Degan, was also killed, maybe by his own men.
During the afternoon and night, all sorts of deceptive information was being transmitted from the scene to the FBI headquarters in Washington. The marshals, desperate after being caught in the act of breaking the law, had made up all kinds of cover-up stories—the most outrageous being that the Weaver family had them pinned down for eight hours in an all-day shootout in which Randy’s 16- and 10-year-old daughters had been holding them off with high-powered weapon fire from the windows of the cabin.
via americanfreepress.net – Gun Company Hires Mother’s Assassin. (Yes, I know what kid of books they sell, but that doesn’t take away from this story at all.)
No matter one’s opinions of what happen during the Ruby Ridge stand off or of Randy Weaver, this has to be one of the worst P.R. Disasters in modern history. Hiring a man as a spokesman for a company, who basically murdered a child and a man’s wife. Someone somewhere made a huge bad marketing decision.
Please, keep in mind, that I do know the full history behind the “American Free Press”, and sometimes the Anti-Government and Anti-Zionist tone of much of their news, but this does shine through that, very much so. I think someone needs to rethink a marketing strategy, and fast!
(H/T Freedom’s Phoenix)
Allan Keyes still whoring for attention
Allan Keyes still does not get it, after all these years. After he was basically chased out of the Republican Party because of his outlandish behavior, he is still trying to garner some sort of spotlight.
Alan Keyes, a 2008 presidential candidate who now is a plaintiff in one of the many lawsuits seeking to verify whether Barack Obama qualifies under the U.S. Constitution’s requirements to occupy the Oval Office, says the tactics adopted by lawyers for the president confirm there is an issue for the courts to investigate.
Keyes, who was the candidate of the American Independent Party, cited a recent exchange with lawyers representing Obama in which they warned they might seek monetary penalties against those raising the question of Obama’s eligibility under the Constitution’s requirement that the president be a “natural born” citizen.
“It confirms the common sense suspicion that he won’t act forthrightly in this matter because he has something to hide,” Keyes wrote on his blog after WND reported the warning about “sanctions” was raised by Obama’s defense lawyers.
The onetime U.S. ambassador explained on his posting that those raising questions over Obama’s eligibility so far have simply been ignored by courts.
“In effect, the courts are refusing to admit plaintiffs on this matter into the courtroom, thereby denying them justice,” he wrote. “Madison wrote, ‘Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It will be pursued either until it be obtained or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.'”
via Keyes: President ‘has something to hide’ on eligibility.
From what sources tell me, the only reason Alan Keyes was ever offered a position in Reagan’s Cabinet is because Ronald Reagan felt sorry for the man. Also because Reagan wanted to make points with the Black Republicans at the time. Ever since then, Keyes has tried to garner the spotlight and has tried to make himself a so-called rightful heir to Reagan’s legacy; All the while being laughed at, by the rest of the Republican Party. One would think that this uppity fool would get the message that nobody, and I mean nobody wants this religious zealot in politics, but still he keeps on trying to get the spotlight. It is truly one of the tragic legacies of the Reagon era.
Heh: Grandpa McSame is Bitter
This is a bit funny.
Democrats are growing increasingly frustrated with the brash political attacks Sen. John McCain has launched against Barack Obama in the weeks since the new president took office. No one expected the Arizona Republican to be a legislative ally for this administration. But it was widely assumed that Obama’s overtures to McCain in the weeks
after the election would dull some of the hard feelings between the two. Now, they are realizing, it has not.
“He is bitter and really angry,” Bob Shrum said of McCain in an interview on Friday. “He is angry at the press, which he thinks is unfair. He is angry at Obama and angry at the voters. He has gone from being an angry old candidate to being an angry old defeated candidate.”
Indeed, during the debate over the economic stimulus package it was McCain, as often as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who spearheaded the opposition. The Arizona Republican denounced the proposal as pure pork on the Senate floor and introduced an alternative measure comprised nearly entirely of tax cuts.
On Sunday, McCain wouldn’t let the fight die, even with the legislation through Congress. Appearing on CNN, he described the $787 billion measure as “generational theft” and said that the bill’s authors should “start over now and sit down together.”
Meanwhile, appearing on ABC’s This Week, Sen. Lindsey Graham — McCain’s chief ally in the Senate — said of the process by which the stimulus was forged: “If this is going to be bipartisanship, the country is screwed.”
via huffingtonpost.com — Dems Fed Up With McCain: “Angry Old Defeated Candidate”.
after the election would dull some of the hard feelings between the two. Now, they are realizing, it has not.Humph… I don’t feel a bit sorry for the old bastard. When you run a terrible campaign and basically whore yourself and your running mate out to the far right, and then try and pimp yourself to the left; what do you expect? The old codger just needs to retire or preferably just drop dead, so Cindy can collect.
Quote of the Day
God seeks righteous agreement but His chosen people live in anarchy of their own making.
Faux Conservative Arlan Spector “Republicans Support Stimulus, Don’t Want ‘Fingerprints’ On It”
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
Watch the Video that two liberal stations refused to air!
Remember the program that the liberal station in Michigan here refused to air, that I blogged about?
Well, it turns out, two stations; one in Michigan here and one in Ohio refused to air the program.
Here is that program in full:
You can order this program to show at your Church and you can order the entire series of “Speechless…Silencing the Christians.”
Christians and Conservatives alike need to take a stand against the radical gay agenda!
Trackposted to Nuke’s, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Allie is Wired, Woman Honor Thyself, Walls of the City, The World According to Carl, DragonLady’s World, Shadowscope, The Pink Flamingo, Cao’s Blog, CORSARI D’ITALIA, Democrat=Socialist, Conservative Cat, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
Red State Update: Octuplet Mom
Jackie and Dunlap on the Octuplet Mom.
Senator Judd Gregg withdraws his nomination for Commerce Secretary, White House Shocked
Now this is a shock 😮
President Obama’s choice for Commerce Secretary, Senator Judd Gregg, withdrew his nomination on Thursday. He said there were “irresolvable conflicts” between him and the administration.
“It has become apparent during this process that this will not work for me as I have found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the Census, there are irresolvable conflicts for me,” Mr. Gregg said in a statement. “Prior to accepting this post, we had discussed these and other potential differences, but unfortunately we did not adequately focus on these concerns. We are functioning from a different set of views on many critical items of policy.”
The withdrawal comes one week after Mr. Gregg was named to become the third Republican member of the Obama Cabinet. It is the second time that the Commerce Secretary position has been vacant within the last month.
Mr. Gregg, a Republican of New Hampshire, had not resigned his seat in the Senate. He has been away from the Senate floor this week, presumably preparing for his confirmation, and did not vote on the administration’s economic stimulus plan.
via Gregg Withdraws as Commerce Secretary Nominee – The Caucus Blog – NYTimes.com.
Unreal. I believe that Obama’s idea of Bipartisanship is going down in flames. Obviously, the White House was caught off guard.
Update: Yup, the White House was caught off guard.
More via Memeornadum
Free Speech Attack: Grand Rapids TV Station pulls American Family Association’s Program on Radical Gay Agenda
This is disgraceful and a bit local to me here. This comes via the Detroit Free Press:
WOOD-TV 8 has decided not to air a controversial, one-hour paid program sponsored by the American Family Association due to criticism from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
“Speechless: Silencing Christians” targets the “radical homosexual agenda” and has garnered enough criticism to cause the Grand Rapids television station to pull the program.
After proposing that the program be moved from the Monday slot prior to President Barack Obama’s 8 p.m. news conference to a Saturday afternoon spot, the station made the decision to pull the program altogether.
“We made a gesture of the 2-3 p.m. Saturday time period. It’s been 24 hours and we had no response,” station General Manager Diane Kniowski told the Grand Rapids Press in a statement Wednesday.
“Our station is being bombarded with calls and messages, and we find ourselves in the middle of someone else’s fight. Ours was a fair offer and we are removing ourselves from this matter,” Kniowski said.
According to the Grand Rapids Press, “In a letter promoting the program, the American Family Association asserts that most Americans get their ‘information about the homosexual movement from the secular news media and Hollywood, which not only support but promote the gay agenda. What people know is tainted by pro-homosexual propaganda.'”
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBT civil rights organization, initiated a national action alert in response, urging people to call the television station and ask that the program be canceled.
“At a time when America is striving to come together, the AFA continues to use LGBT Americans as a wedge issue to divide us from reaching our basic equality,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese.
This is just another attack on the freedoms that Americans enjoy; freedom of speech, and for that matter, who says that gay people should be equal? I don’t care what they do behind closed doors, but when they try and rewrite the Constitution, I got a problem with it. I believe that the AFA has just as much of a right to say what they wish, as does the HRC. This attempt to intimidate a TV station into not broadcasting something like this, is just another case of Liberal fascism. Plain and simple.
I will be e-mailing this Blog entry to FOX NEWS and to Rush Limbaugh.
Members of the Black Press not Happy with President Obama
I have some very different feelings than you think about this story, I will explain below…:
After the first black president completed his first prime-time press conference, the black press was red hot.
“We were window dressing,” said Hazel Edney, a reporter with the National Newspaper Publishers Association, also known as the Black Press of America. “We were nothing more than window dressing.”
As the media filed into the stately White House East Room on Monday night, the reporter was shocked to find herself in the front row. Alongside her were the top news agencies, Associated Press, Reuters; also up front, 86-year-old Helen Thomas, who started covering presidents 50 years ago.
Alongside the most prominent journalists in America was Tiffany Cross from Black Entertainment Television. Like Miss Edney, she didn’t know why she was in first-class while all the television networks – every single one – was exiled to the steerage compartment.
“I really don’t know why I’m up here,” Miss Cross said with a shy smile.
While most on the front row got to pose a question to President Obama, the two reporters from the black press did not. Nor did any other black-press reporter, for that matter.
“This was like Reagan, when he’d put all the blacks up front,” said another prominent but visibly peeved black-press reporter who asked to remain anonymous. “He oughta’ be ashamed.”
As I said above, I have mixed feelings about this report; I tend to believe that this report is one those “Let’s stir the pot and see what happens,” kind of reports. President Obama, to his credit, did not run a “Black Power” Presidential campaign, if he had done so, the American people would have been turn off and President Obama would not have made it out of the Primary.
As much as I respect the reporting of the Washington Times and their Conservative stance, I believe that this story is nothing more of the rattling of the race baiting sabers that the Far Right Wing bunch are known for. Yes, that is correct, I am a moderate Conservative and I am admitting that there is a certain bit of reverse race baiting that goes on in those circles. It is a sad fact, but it is the truth.
The Road to European Socialism just got a bit shorter
Via the New York Times, it seems that the economic socialist stimulus plan has passed a procedural vote:
Senate Democrats on Monday advanced the $838 billion economic stimulus bill, clearing a major procedural hurdle by a razor thin margin with the help of just three Republicans. A vote on final passage of the bill is expected on Tuesday.
The Senate vote, by 61 to 36, to close debate on the stimulus, symbolized the partisanship that still grips Congress despite President Obama’s call for new cooperation. It also highlighted the rising power of the centrist Republicans who cast the critical votes. Under Senate rules, it takes 60 votes to invoke cloture and usher a bill to a vote.
Those votes, by Senators Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, along with the 56 Democrats and two Independents who regularly vote with them, followed a succession of floor speeches by Republicans criticizing the stimulus as a bloated, wasteful spending bill.
But supporters of the measure said that a good, bipartisan effort had been made at drafting a compromise bill.
“I am proud of the bipartisan work that we have done during the last 10 days,” said Ms. Collins, who supplied one of the three crucial Republican votes. “As with any major legislation, this bill is not perfect, but it can go a long way toward creating jobs and addressing the dire economic crisis facing our nation.”
The majority leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, said: “The United States senators from both parties met the seriousness of the economic crisis with an earnest approach to solving this emergency.”
Well, as you can see, the Republican Party, the part that is supposed to be the party of small Government and low taxes, has once again capitulated to “The One.” Remember this come election time.
Colorado McCain Staffer picked up on Child Molestor Charges, Liberal Blogs fawn over story
Here’s the new Meme for the Liberal Blogsphere for the weekend or this day at least.
Via the Colorado Liberal Independent:
Police arrested the former manager of Sen. John McCain’s Pueblo presidential campaign office Wednesday on charges he sexually assaulted a 5-year-old boy left in his care so the boy’s mother could attend a rally for McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, The Denver Post’s Howard Pankratz reported Thursday afternoon.
It’s the second arrest on charges of sexual assault on a child by a person in position of trust in a week for Jeffrey Claude Bartleson, 52, who has faced similar allegations at least five times since 1982 without being convicted of a crime, according to the Pueblo Chieftain’s Nick Bonham.
Two detectives have been assigned full-time to the investigation and are looking into allegations Bartleson lured victims through church groups, his work as a sponsor at a hospital drug rehab unit, and during involvement in political work.
I just have to ask, do you think that if President Barack Hussein Obama’s Campaign Manager had been picked up for oinking some kid, that the media would be all over it, like this?
I somehow very highly doubt it. 🙄
…besides that, why wasn’t this kids Mother watching her son more closely?
Whoops! Republican Representive Blows Security Cover
Um, Ooops!
A congressional trip to Iraq this weekend was supposed to be a secret.
But the cat’s out of the bag now, thanks to a member of the House Intelligence Committee who broke an embargo via Twitter.
A delegation led by House Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R-Ohio, arrived in Iraq earlier today, and because of Rep. Peter Hoekstra , R-Mich., the entire world — or at least Twitter.com readers—now know they’re there.
“Just landed in Baghdad,” messaged Hoekstra, a former chairman of the Intelligence panel and now the ranking member, who is routinely entrusted to keep some of the nation’s most closely guarded secrets.
Before the delegation left Washington, they were advised to keep the trip to themselves for security reasons. A few media outlets, including Congressional Quarterly, learned about it, but agreed not to disclose anything until the delegation had left Iraq.
Nobody expected, though, that a lawmaker with such an extensive national security background would be the first to break the silence. And in such a big way.
Not only did Hoekstra reveal the existence of the lawmakers’ trip, but included details about their itinerary in updates posted every few hours on his Twitter page, until he suddenly stopped, for some reason, on Friday morning.
Since it’s already a matter of public record, here are some of Hoekstra’s twitter dispatches, typos and all, delivered in just 140 characters or less:
“On the way to Andrews Air Force base.12 hour flight to mid east. Be back on Mon instead of tues. Votes mon. I’ll keep you posted,” he wrote on Feb. 4
In his last dispatch today, he wrote: “Moved into green zone by helicopter Iraqi flag now over palace. Headed to new US embassy Appears calmer less chaotic than previous here [sic].”
via CQ Politics | Congressman Twitters an Iraq Security Breach.
Had a Democrat done this, Michelle Malkin would have went into meltdown mode. Heckuva Job Pete! 🙄
(speaking of “Whoops!”… Corrected stupid grammar error… D’oh!)
Dreadfully and Painfully True
I don’t think I could have put this any better myself.
Prosecute Bush? Libertarians have long understood that criminals don’t prosecute fellow criminals, which is why so many libertarians have concluded that government per se is a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization as defined by the RICO Act of 1970, no matter how many checks and balances are checked and balanced or how separate the separation of powers are, and needs to be banned entirely. Which is why so many libertarians are anarchists at heart.
And perhaps, in the future, after the current president has had his run, having turned the United States into a third-rate Eastern European style Marxist hellhole, his former star struck extremists will scream, “Prosecute Barack Obama!”
You may disagree, but if you look at actual history vice the fairy tales that pass for history in our politicized government-run schools, you’ll discover the true nature of governments everywhere and everywhen.
And then you’ll puke.
Read the rest at: Dallas Libertarian Examiner — Prosecute Bush? Good luck!.
So true. This is why I do not vote Republican or Democrat any longer. Because anymore, they’re just two sides of the same damn coin. Been that way since the 1970’s.
Frum makes a good point
For a change, I agree with this guy. (Mark your calendars, it does not happen often!)
The first is that the social and cultural basis of American conservatism remains very much alive and active. Conservatives may have lost their majority, but that is not the same thing as disappearing outright.
The second is that conservative ideas continue to be relevant – and will soon re-emerge more relevant than ever. The current US administration and congressional majority seem determined to forget every economic lesson learned in the years since 1966. They are rapidly expanding social spending in the name of “stimulus.” They are redirecting investment from high productivity to low productivity uses in pursuit of “green jobs.” They are toying with “buy American” protectionism while repudiating “hire American” enforcement of immigration laws. They are so eager to restore the dominant liberalism of the 1930s that they cannot see that they are repeating their own errors of the 1970s.
via The New Majority.
I hate to say it. But Frum’s right on the money there.
Japan could serve as a lesson to the United States
Barack Obama could learn a lesson from Japan. There’s a very good article in the New York Times today, on the mistakes made by the country of Japan in the 1990’s to fix their failing economy:
The Hamada Marine Bridge soars majestically over this small fishing harbor, so much larger than the squid boats anchored below that it seems out of place.
And it is not just the bridge. Two decades of generous public works spending have showered this city of 61,000 mostly graying residents with a highway, a two-lane bypass, a university, a prison, a children’s art museum, the Sun Village Hamada sports center, a bright red welcome center, a ski resort and an aquarium featuring three ring-blowing Beluga whales.
Nor is this remote port in western Japan unusual. Japan’s rural areas have been paved over and filled in with roads, dams and other big infrastructure projects, the legacy of trillions of dollars spent to lift the economy from a severe downturn caused by the bursting of a real estate bubble in the late 1980s. During those nearly two decades, Japan accumulated the largest public debt in the developed world — totaling 180 percent of its $5.5 trillion economy — while failing to generate a convincing recovery.
Now, as the Obama administration embarks on a similar path, proposing to spend more than $820 billion to stimulate the sagging American economy, many economists are taking a fresh look at Japan’s troubled experience. While Japan is not exactly comparable to the United States — especially as a late developer with a history of heavy state investment in infrastructure — economists say it can still offer important lessons about the pitfalls, and chances for success, of a stimulus package in an advanced economy.
The Lesson to be learned here is:
“It is not enough just to hire workers to dig holes and then fill them in again,” said Toshihiro Ihori, an economics professor at the University of Tokyo. “One lesson from Japan is that public works get the best results when they create something useful for the future.
But the real lesson to be learned here is the follow and pay special close attention to what is said here:
In the end, say economists, it was not public works but an expensive cleanup of the debt-ridden banking system, combined with growing exports to China and the United States, that brought a close to Japan’s Lost Decade. This has led many to conclude that spending did little more than sink Japan deeply into debt, leaving an enormous tax burden for future generations.
Gee, is that not what Ron Paul said ALL ALONG, while he was running for President of the United States? For Ron Paul’s troubles and hard work he was slandered, maligned and marginalized by the Neo-Conservatives who hated him and the Liberal Democrats who were sacred to death of him.
I highly suggest that you read the rest of this article. The United States could learn much from this lesson that Japan had to learn. We could very well end up causing more harm than good to our economy.
Others: Glenn Thrush’s Blogs, Hot Air, A Blog For All, Cafe Hayek, Weekly Standard and QandO
Senate seeks to Revise Stimulus Bill
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)
Are the Democrats secretly attempting to bring back the fairness doctrine?
This is a very dangerous thing, Conservatives and Republicans ought to be raising the roof about this.
Despite the absence of any action pending to re-enact the so-called “Fairness Doctrine,” congressional Republicans have nonetheless introduced legislation to prevent its passage, insisting that Democrats are advancing a quiet agenda to silence conservative talk radio.
Whether Americans realize it or not, say Republican lawmakers, “Free speech is under attack.”
For their part, several Democrats have denied there’s any attempt underway to reestablish the “Fairness Doctine,” insisting the GOP is trumping up paranoia that amounts to “much ado about nothing.”
So which is it?
In 1949 the Federal Communications Commission adopted a policy that required broadcasters to devote airtime to the public interest and to air opposing viewpoints when discussing controversial and political issues. The FCC abandoned the policy in 1987, paving the way for talk radio to explode from fewer than 150 stations nationwide to more than 3,000.
The majority of the country’s talk radio programs are politically conservative, prompting some, as WND has reported, to long for a more “balanced” menu.
“For many, many years, we operated under a Fairness Doctrine in this country,” Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., told Albuquerque radio station KKOB last year. “I think the country was well-served. I think the public discussion was at a higher level and more intelligent in those days than it has become since.”
Former broadcaster Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., however, sees the policy as an attack on First Amendment rights.
“Bringing back the Fairness Doctrine would amount to government control over political views expressed on the public airwaves,” Pence has said in opposition to the policy. “It is a dangerous proposal to suggest the government should be in the business of rationing free speech.”
via Is there sinister plot to squelch talk radio? — WorldNetDaily.
Let me give you my opinion. That is what Blogs are all about, political opinion and discussion. I believe that the “fairness doctrine,” is nothing more pure communism. Control of free speech in America. FDR instituted it during World War II to control dissent towards the War. It was called Communism at that time, by many Conservatives of that era and it still IS communist in nature as far as I am concerned. The reason I say this, is because it is the same thing that Hitler did in Germany and what the Soviets did in Russia, they controlled freedom of speech to quell dissent. (Yes, I know, Hitler was not a communist!)
However, on a more practical level. I do not believe that the Democrats will succeed in bringing it back. Why? Because the Government does not have the resources to enforce such a law. Heck, the FCC has been cutting down staff since the 1980’s, because the high costs of maintaining the huge staff. Examples, The FCC has basically turned over the examination process of the Amateur Radio Service over to the Amateur Radio community themselves. The enforcement is there, but you have to be doing something rather obnoxious to get a visit from the FCC anymore. The Amateur Radio Service is essentially self policed. So, I seriously doubt that even something like this was even passed, that the FCC would even bother to enforce it. I also believe that it will never get to a vote, because there would be a push back within the FCC to stop it, because of the lack of enforcement funding.
So, while I believe that this is a huge political issue, and that Conservatives everywhere ought to stay on top of it. I just do not believe that one; it will ever pass and two, that the FCC would even bother enforcing it.
The Democrats have a new negro to kick around
I used that title for a reason, because the Democratic Party has a new threat to their propaganda machine. A black Republican Party leader.
The Democratic Party’s Racist roots come out. Check it:
via Talking Points Memo | Straight Outta Hooverville:
It gets better. The latest from RNC Chair Michael Steele: “Not in the history of mankind has the government ever created a job.”
This is such transparent nonsense it’s hard to know where to start; but I guess it builds on the DeMint nonsense. Has Steele ever heard of government road building? Defense spending? NASA? We don’t even need to get into the many ways that government spending on many things has spin-off effects in terms of heightened economic productivity either because of technological innovation or transportation efficiencies, or whatever. How we doing on the spending on research and initial deployment that created the Internet?
Wolf Blitzer was doing the interview. I guess he didn’t realize this is a false statement? I’m worried about Wolf. He needs some help.
Wow. I have not heard this much chutzpah out of the Democratic Party. The Spirit of George Wallace, a Democrat; lives again! I have never, ever heard this sort of tenor of criticism towards Mike Duncan, at all. Before you know it, the Democrats will be dragging out the old Klan outfits and burning crosses on this man’s front lawn. (anyone that really knows their history, like I do; knows what I am referring to.)
You see a black Republican leader is a threat, a threat to the Liberal Black Propaganda machine, that the Republican Party is the Party of the “White Rich Man”. So much for that idea! It also nullifies the very stupid notion that the White Republican Party is out to get, or is oppressive or hostile towards the Black man.
I also noticed that the Democrats are ridiculing Mr. Steel for not having much of a resume. Well, the last time I check, that floppy-eared Marxist in the White House doesn’t have much of a resume either! So much for experience argument eh? Between the one above and this douche nozzle here, the next four years ought to be very interesting.
The Story of John Birch
Here is a very excellent video on the life of John Birch:
This video is by the founder of the John Birch Society, Robert Welch explaining what the John Birch Society is about:
The Simulus and the Republicans
An interesting question to be asked.
Will the Republicans opt to do this, given the gravity of the recession? They are in no mind to allow the bill to go through without substantial changes. The Senate Republicans, just like the House ones, believe that the stimulus bill is something of a Trojan horse. While no one disputes that a big fiscal punch is needed, many items in the current plan (which has been hastily thrown together) will take too long to deliver; at least a third of the House’s $819 billion package will not have been spent 19 months from now, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.
The Republicans prefer tax cuts, which have the advantage of delivering their punch almost instantly. The problem is that in tough times like these, people are likely to save rather than spend their tax gains especially if—as in this case—the cuts are strictly temporary. Extra saving does nothing to boost demand in an economy that is suffering from a shortage of it. Republicans also object to some of the protectionist “Buy American” provisions attached to some of the money, and to inanities such as a $200m plan to returf the Mall in Washington, DC, (this last has now been removed from the House bill).
A party with a majority can usually pass whatever it likes in the House, but the same is not true in the Senate. Debates in the Senate are not rigidly time-limited as they are in the House, and in order to end discussion and move to a substantive vote, a motion of “clôture”, or closure, has to pass. The snag is that 60 votes are needed to pass such a motion; and the Democrats have only 58 senators. In theory, if the Republicans hang firm—and they held absolutely firm in the House—they could prevent the stimulus bill from ever being put to a full vote.
BARACK OBAMA’S gargantuan stimulus bill moves to the Senate on Monday February 2nd, after passing through the House of Representatives without a single Republican vote in favour. That means that it is in trouble.
via How Senate Republicans will respond to the stimulus bill | Stimulus and the Senate | The Economist.
Hopefully, the Senate Republicans will strip out all of the special interest pork that is within that bill and will pass a bill that will help the economy. Instead of further the socialist agenda of the far left. But I do not look for any huge sweeping changes. As Michelle Malkin has reported, the Republicans want to play Democrat-lite and go along with Obama’s plans. Wonderful. So much for the loyal opposition guys. 🙄
How about just letting the economy run it’s course and taking the Government’s hands off of it? Instead, they want to play communist-lite and prop up everyone. Yeah, it will work, until China cuts us off, as well as the other Nation’s that are buying our debt.
Sometimes, I really think that the psychos are running the “nuthouse” in Washington D.C. 😮