You believe these two guys have been doing this for 3 damn years? WOW!
You think the show is funny, you ought to see the outtakes….:
Wish I could act a damn fool and get paid for it. đ
Tag: Conservative
Is the thrill gone with Obama on MSNBC?
I saw this tonight, and sort of thought the same thing….:
I can hardly believe what I’m watching on MSNBC right now. Chris Matthews is almost critical â no, not even almost, he’s flat-out critical of President Obama on the economic front. He mentions an earlier conversation with CNBC’s manic stock analyst Jim Cramer and a University of Maryland professor (Peter Morici?) knocking Obama for several economic decisions â that the stimulus bill needed more real infrastructure and less pork, that the housing bill isn’t inspiring confidence and doesn’t look like it will work, and that no one has faith in Tim Geithner’s solution for the banks.
Howard Fineman of Newsweek says Obama has been “grim and a little distant at the same time . . . Tim Geithner hasn’t inspired any confidence anywhere, as far as I can tell.”
Matthews: “He seems like Barney Fife to me.”
Eugene Robinson: “I actually referred to him as Doogie Howser, Treasury Secretary, and I think it’s a little unfair.” Much laughter ensues.
More Fineman: “Despite his high approval rating and obvious intellect and goodwill, he hasn’t quite yet seemed to convey the sense that he knows the way forward and that he can get us there . . . I thought the first fifteen minutes of this show were devastating. Not that Jim Cramer is the only person they have to convince, but they have to convince people that they know what they’re doing, that they’re not just feeling their way forward.” Robinson points out that they are feeling their way forward.
Matthews: “I thought 8,000 was the floor, and it looks like 6,000 is the floor. People are angry, I’m getting angry.
Cue the B.B. King!
Guest Voice: Chuck Baldwin Video Sermon “What Every Christian Should Know About The New World Order”
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):
Stupidity Unleashed: Republican Senator Jim Bunning
Egad.
U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning predicted over the weekend that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would likely be dead from pancreatic cancer within nine months.
During a wide-ranging 30-minute speech on Saturday at the Hardin County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner, Bunning said he supports conservative judges “and that’s going to be in place very shortly because Ruth Bader Ginsburg ⌠has cancer.”
“Bad cancer. The kind that you don’t get better from,” he told a crowd of about 100 at the old State Theater.
“Even though she was operated on, usually, nine months is the longest that anybody would live after (being diagnosed) with pancreatic cancer,” he said.
Ginsburg, who is 75, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier this month and surgeons removed a small tumor that had not spread. Doctors termed it a “Stage 1” cancer, meaning they found it in the early stages when it is most curable.
via Bunning: Justice Ginsberg likely will be dead in 9 months – The Courier-Journal.
If the Republican Party is looking to regain their legitimacy among the American people, this is not, I repeat not a way to go about doing so; at all.
Swiss are not happy about US probe of UBS
Now this is interesting:
The right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) called on Saturday for retaliation against the United States over a U.S. tax probe into the country’s biggest bank UBS that threatens prized banking secrecy.
The populist SVP, the country’s biggest party, said Switzerland should not take in any detainees from the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, which the Swiss government said last month it could consider to help shut the camp down.
Switzerland should also reconsider its policy of representing the United States in countries where it has no diplomatic presence, the parliamentary SVP said in a statement.
The SVP said gold stored by the Swiss National Bank in the United States should be repatriated and Switzerland should ban the sale of U.S. funds in the country to protect Swiss investors after the failure of U.S. regulators.
The SVP has one minister in the seven-member Swiss government which is made up of the biggest four parties, but its populist policies have shaken up usually consensual Swiss politics.
via Swiss party wants to punish U.S. for UBS probe – Reuters.
You see, this is what happens, when the United States entangles itself in the affairs of other Governments. Switzerland has been a neutral country for years and a somewhat friend of ours, now they’ve become a enemy. Real smart there Barry, Real fucking smart.
RedState Update on Bristol Palin And Abstinence
A message for teenage girls from Dunlap.
Obama to Unveil Class Warfare Plan
I knew this was coming:
President Obama is putting the finishing touches on an ambitious first budget that seeks to cut the federal deficit in half over the next four years, primarily by raising taxes on business and the wealthy and by slashing spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, administration officials said.
In addition to tackling a deficit swollen by the $787 billion stimulus package and other efforts to ease the nation’s economic crisis, the budget blueprint will press aggressively for progress on the domestic agenda Obama outlined during the presidential campaign. This would include key changes to environmental policies and a major expansion of health coverage that Obama hopes to enact later this year.
A summary of Obama’s budget request for the fiscal year that begins in October will be delivered to Congress on Thursday, with the complete, multi-hundred-page document to follow in April. But Obama plans to unveil his goals for scaling back record deficits and rebuilding the nation’s costly and inefficient health care system Monday, when he addresses more than 100 lawmakers and budget experts at a White House summit on restoring “fiscal responsibility” to Washington.
In his weekly radio and Internet address today, Obama expressed determination to “get exploding deficits under control” and described his budget request as “sober in its assessments, honest in its accounting, and lays out in detail my strategy for investing in what we need, cutting what we don’t, and restoring fiscal discipline.”
Reducing the deficit, he said, is critical to the nation’s future: “We can’t generate sustained growth without getting our deficits under control.”
Obama faces the long-term challenge of retirement and health programs that threaten to bankrupt the government years down the road, as well as the more immediate problem of deficits bloated by spending on the economy and financial-system bailouts. His budget proposal takes aim at the short-term problem, administration officials said, but also would begin to address the nation’s chronic budget imbalance by squeezing savings from the federal health programs for the elderly and the poor.
Even before Congress approved the stimulus package earlier this month, this year’s deficit was projected by Congressional budget analysts to approach $1.2 trillion, or 8.3 percent of the overall economy, the highest since World War II. With the stimulus and other expenses, some analysts say the annual gap between federal spending and income could approach $2 trillion when the fiscal year ends in September.
Obama proposes to dramatically reduce those numbers by the end of his first term, cutting the deficit he inherited in half, said administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the budget has yet to be released. His budget plan would keep the deficit hovering near $1 trillion in 2010 and 2011, but shows it dropping to $533 billion in 2013 — still high in dollar terms, but a more manageable 3 percent of the overall economy.
To get there, Obama proposes to cut spending and raise taxes. The savings would come primarily from “winding down the war” in Iraq, a senior administration official said. The budget assumes that the nation will continue to spend money on “overseas military contingency operations” throughout Obama’s presidency, the official said, but that number is significantly lower than the nearly $190 billion the nation budgeted for Iraq and Afghanistan last year
via Washington Post – Obama to Unveil an Ambitious Budget Plan.
Well, one can forget about any new jobs coming to Michigan or anywhere else in America, because if Businesses are taxed, they will not hire new people. Just more class warfare from the Democrats. I also notice that Obama is cutting funds to Iraq and Afghanistan, that will be the precursor to ending the war. Because you cannot fight a war, if you do not have the funds.
We are headed into a repeat of the 1990’s all over again, ending the deficit on the backs of the wealthy in the Country, while the rest of Country gets off scott free. Where is the fairness in that? The reason why this is so bad is this, if you tax the wealthy and business owners, they are much less likely to hire new employees and also they are less likely to spend money, thereby adding to the economy. This whole idea of the Democrats of Tax and Spending our way out of our Economic woes is just plain idiotic.
We are headed towards very scary times in America. Act accordingly.
(H/T and Thanks to Drudge)
Awesome Karl Denninger lays the smack down on White Press Secretary Gibbs
Nothing ever changes in Washington D.C.
Heh.
The Obama administration, siding with former President George W. Bush, is trying to kill a lawsuit that seeks to recover what could be millions of missing White House e-mails.
Two advocacy groups suing the Executive Office of the President say that large amounts of White House e-mail documenting Bush’s eight years in office may still be missing, and that the government must undertake an extensive recovery effort. They expressed disappointment that Obama’s Justice Department is continuing the Bush administration’s bid to get the lawsuits dismissed.
During its first term, the Bush White House failed to install electronic record-keeping for e-mail when it switched to a new system, resulting in millions of messages that could not be found.
The Bush White House discovered the problem in 2005 and rejected a proposed solution.
Hey far lefty liberals! How’s that Hope and Change working out for ya eh? đ đ
Too funny for words. What the Liberals get for putting all thier Faith and trust into a magic moonbat.
Others: Newshoggers.com, Flopping Aces
Report Says that Gitmo Meets Geneva Convention Standards
There is a quite a bit that could be said about this and I know some of you are thinking that I am going to sound like some of the Neo-Cons. But as some of you know, I am not on Neil or John Podhoretzâs payroll; so I do think for myself. So, no, I am not going to rile Obama for breaking his campaign promises. Thatâs because Obama has not broken any, when it relates to thisâŚ.yet.
Via The Washington Post:
A Pentagon review of conditions at the Guantanamo Bay military prison has concluded that the treatment of detainees meets the requirements of the Geneva Conventions but that prisoners in the highest-security camps should be allowed more religious and social interaction, according to a government official who has read the 85-page document.
The report, which President Obama ordered, was prepared by Adm. Patrick M. Walsh, the vice chief of naval operations, and has been delivered to the White House. Obama requested the review as part of an executive order on the planned closure of the prison at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, on the southeastern tip of Cuba.
Another aspect of the closure — what to do with the approximately 245 detainees — will be considered by an interagency task force, and yesterday the Justice Department announced the head of that group: Matthew G. Olsen, a 12-year career prosecutor and acting assistant attorney general for national security.
Review teams will examine each detainee’s case and report to Olsen, who will make recommendations to senior officials from Justice and other agencies, including the departments of State and Defense and the CIA. Those officials will make the final decision on each prisoner.
“The Task Force will consider whether it is possible to transfer or release detained individuals consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States; evaluate whether the government should seek to prosecute detained individuals for crimes they may have committed; and, if none of those options are possible, the Task Force will recommend other lawful means for disposition of the detained individuals,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
Now here is where most of your Neo-Conservatives, or those who supported George W. Bushâs asinine idea of going to war with a country, that had zero to do with 911; start carping, âSee! I told you so, I told you so, I told so!â But that, as always, is not the point. The point is that Obama wanted to know the standards being used at Gitmo, but he is going to close it anyhow. The Neo-Conservative fear mongers are playing this as some sort of horrible security risk. Which has to be one of the biggest insults to Nationâs various law enforcement agencies. We have had like death row inmates in California and Texas for how long? They have not escaped. I do believe that our Nationâs law enforcement agencies would well handle some of these guys. I must confess that the idea of a couple of them getting âbumped offâ in a prison really does not bother me at all. I mean, after all, I do remember what happened on 9/11 and turn about is fair play.
On an unrelated matter, Ed Morrissey, comments over at Neo-Con Central about this article here, spouts the following Neo-Con Stupidity:
All statements from Barack Obama come with expiration dates. Thatâs something that the HopeandChangizoids have begun to learn just a month after the dawning of the Age of Obama. A lot of them owe Bush â and us â apologies.
His sentiments about “The Magic Oneâ aside, I will take issue with the whole âA lot of them owe Bush — and us — apologies.â line. Ed; if anything, George W. Bush, The Republican Party and every last one of the fucking Neo-Conservative leaders; owes the American people an huge apology for lying to America about the fact that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, owes the American people for consistently moving the fucking goal posts every time one of his hair brained conclusions about Iraq was proven wrong, Owes the American people for illegally spying on million of Americans without warrants, owes the American people an apology for taking the damn focus off of Afghanistan and for allowing the actual mastermind of the 9/11 attacks escape and now leaving us with a situation where we might not ever be able to capture him. The Liberals and those of us who were against the war in Iraq owe the Neo-Conservatives nothing at all. Get used to it and enjoy being in the damned Minority, because, quite frankly, that is where you bastards fucking belong.
I know, youâre thinking, âDamn thatâs harsh!â Thereâs a reason I got a huge beef with Morrissey and his clan of âGo along to get alongâ crowd over there at HotAir.com. I was tossed and banned from HotAir.comâs Commenting section AND Edâs Chatroom that he runs during his show. Because I refuse to go along with the notion of embracing diversity, and because I dared to speak my mind about race of people that I personally believe have contributed to the moral decline of this country. No, I am not talking about Jews. I am talking about Negro race. Thatâs right folks, that is how I feel, I make no bones about it. Want to see a perfect example? Look at Detroit. Look at the rap music scene and you tell me, that the Negro race is not contributing to the moral decline in this country. Plus, my own cousin was shot and killed by two corrupt Negro Detroit Cops and one Mexican cop. I admit the details of that killing was some of my cousinâs fault, mostly because of some rather bone-headed stupidity on his part. But the Detroit cops that killed my cousin went way, way, way overboard on their use of force. It happened back in 1992 or 1993, I cannot remember which, it was never in the media. Oh they checked into it, but once they saw that my cousin was White and cops were black, they retreated from it, in a big hurry. Had the roles been reversed? It would have been on the front page of every newspaper in this country. But yet, Morrissey and his clan over there resented me coming in there and saying how I feel about blacks. Sorry, I categorically reject the notion that âAll men are created equalâ horse shit that the father of âBig Governmentâ, Abe Lincoln opined in his document that basically sold the American White man up the damned river. So does my dead cousin, Michael Hill.
Update: Ooops, Forgot these: QandO, Pirate’s Cove, Stop The ACLU, Power Line, Jules Crittenden, Don Surber, Outside The Beltway, PoliGazette
Malki-What?
Oh brother… Here we go…. đ
Robert Stacy McCain is whining about no one linking to him.
I got one thing to say McCain…:
Join.the.fucking.club
For the longest time, until I started whoring myself out to the folks over at Freedom’s Phoenix, I wasn’t getting shit for hits here.
McCain Yowls on here a bit:
That is to say, it’s not merely an oversight, or the fact that your blog sucks, or that blogospheric giants like Glenn Reynolds and Michelle Malkin get 2,000 e-mails a day from pesky little blogwhores begging for linkage. Rather, the bloggernoiac fears that there is some malevolent intent behind the non-linkage. In the rampant stage of this incurable disorder, the bloggernoiac may fear that other bloggers are talking behind his back, conspiring to deprive him of his righteous share of traffic.
Ya know McCain; I got one thing to say… fuck off. It just so happens that Malkin and Reynolds happen to be half decent bloggers. More so than your stupid ass-ed self, who doesn’t even go to Church on the right fucking day. Seventh Day Advents, Seventh Day Asshats is more like it. Fucking tool, does not even USE fucking WordPress and THEN bitches because no one pays attention to the fucktard.
He goes on:
“Is Ace angry that I stole his shtick with that last hobo joke?” or “Did my defense of Ann Coulter offend Charles Johnson?” Or, in the really dark moments of despair: “Has my utter shamelessness become so disgusting that people are embarrassed to link me?”
No, it could be that you are just some self-absorbed jackass and nobody wants to give you the fucking pleasure of masturbating while looking at in your incoming links. Ever thought of that, dicky?!?!
He ends it by saying:
You see why I’m paranoid?
Yeah, cause you’re a fucking douche bag, that’s why! đ
Some dickless wonder over there, commenting as “anonymous” said this:
I’d noticed over the past month or so that you don’t seem to be linked from Memeorandum as often. Bloggers find out about stuff through Memeorandum, so perhaps that’s the problem
Besides the fact that this unless fuck cannot grasp the idea of good grammar, the statement in itself has some merit. I am most likely the only blogger in the world, to have been banned from Memeorandum. It has to do with the fact that I basically told that faggot loving, San Francisco Liberal what I truly thought of his cockamamie Meme Tag scanner. So, yeah, he never scans me, ever; and you know what? I’m fucking glad as hell. The last thing I want is some asshat fucking idiot liberal coming to my fucking blog and acting like some fucking asshat idiot fucking tool, so he can run back to his faggot buddy liberal friends and tell them that he got a word in on a right wing blog, before I deleted it.
So, in closing, McCain, quite your fucking whining okay? Because I don’t wanna hear it. You get into my fucking shoes okay? and then come bitch to me.
A very valid point
I must say that I agree with this:
Our new Attorney General, Eric Holder, says that America is a ânation of cowardsâ when it comes to race relations. The race-baiting cabinet official made his remarks yesterday in honor of Black History Month. Apparently being the first black attorney general serving under the first black president isnât indicative of progress according to Holder. Listening to him, youâd think that Jim Crow had just ended with Obamaâs election.
Holderâs insulting remarks were no doubt aimed at white Americans, particularly those who didnât vote for Obama. Thatâs why Holder dragged out the tired rhetoric about âthe need to confront our racial past and to understand our racial present.â Itâs the same white-guilt lecturing weâve always heard before. Yet what makes this event noteworthy is the fact that a sitting attorney general is saying this nonsense, implying that heâll be incorporating this racialism into public policy at the Justice Department.
In their never-ending work to preserve victimhood for racial minorities, the Left will now have the perfect spokesman to help with that task. No, the real cowards are self-righteous liberals like Holder who build themselves up by tearing down Middle America for cheap political gain. If the fires of racism still exist in America (and they do), then itâs only because people like Holder keep stoking the embers. His political career depends upon it.
via Holderâs Racialist Lecturing | Conservative Heritage Times.
The only thing that I can really add to this is, that the Liberal African-American Community, led by the leadership within the Democratic Party wants to use racism as a false flag, to limit dissent and freedom of speech towards those, who disagree with their Race Baiting and more broadly disagree with their socialist agenda.
Which is just about as bad as the Identity Politics on the far right, amongst the Republicans. When it comes to the Jewish Community. What I am trying to say is, that I have nothing against the Jewish people, at all. But I refuse to be held responsible for what happened to the Jews in Germany. This is Identity Politics and the pushing of the “White Guilt” mentality. Again, let me be clear, I have zero against Jews, Israel, or their right to exist. But, I will not “Kiss up” to them at all. Neither will I do this to the African-American Community. I did not put them in chains, and I will not feel a bit of guilt for what happened to them 300 years ago. Because I did not have anything to do with it.
The problem with what I just wrote above is, that when a “Zionist” or a Race Baiting Liberals reads what I wrote; the first thing they will do is, play the race card. Which garners them support and paints the person that says these things, as Nazi’s and Hatemongers, and it’s bullshit. Because I do not hate. I just will not made to feel guilty for something that I did not have a part in; Period.
Race baiting and White Guilt is insane and Anti-American as hell.
The Southern Avenger on “Crisis-Mongering”
How President Obama’s haste and hysterics in passing his stimulus to alleviate the economic crisis is similar to Bush’s theatrics in addressing the terror “crisis.”
HELL FREEZES OVER! Andrew Sullivan says something nice about Ron Paul
Holy Moses ‘n Aaron! I never thought I’d see this day, ever!
I do not know these things. But I do know that a serious engagement with the ideas and principles of a non-Keynesian approach to economics – of the kind Ron Paul talks about – is worth having again. At some point the right will have to govern again; and reminding people of the dangers of excessive government, excessive debt, and printing money will be necessary. The groundwork needs to start now. And it needs to be free of partisan cant and ideological posturing.
via The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan (February 20, 2009) – A Conservative Of Doubt.
I agree with Sullivan; for a change. I feel so Odd, and like I need to shower. đ
Regarding the New York Post’s apology
Regarding the New York Post’s Apology and the other stupidity.
I dunno, what ya’ll think?
Family Resemblance?
So, like Michelle said; Sue me.
Other likemided people: Michelle Malkin, Gateway Pundit, Pat Dollard and JOSHUAPUNDIT
Yeah, I know what I wrote here. I still feel that way too. But this is not about Racism, this is about the Liberal Democrats controlling Conservatives right to free speech. The, ahem, chimps Liberal Black Democrats want to control what we honkey White Conservatives write, and I think it is a bunch of bullshit.
So, bring it on, there Mr. “Interloper”. I dare ya.
Chris Muir also weighs in here:
CNBC’s Rick Santelli goes off on a rant about the Bailouts and the Stimulus
Sometimes I just wuv BreitBart. This has to be one of the best things I’ve ever seen on MSBC/CNBC.
Exit Question: I just wonder how long it is before Rick Santelli gets terminated for not embracing the politics of hope and change?
Manufacturing Suffers
Some more grim news… đ
Via the Economist:
$0.00, not counting fuel and handling: that is the cheapest quote right now if you want to ship a container from southern China to Europe. Back in the summer of 2007 the shipper would have charged $1,400. Half-empty freighters are just one sign of a worldwide collapse in manufacturing. In Germany Decemberâs machine-tool orders were 40% lower than a year earlier. Half of Chinaâs 9,000 or so toy exporters have gone bust. Taiwanâs shipments of notebook computers fell by a third in the month of January. The number of cars being assembled in America was 60% below January 2008.
The destructive global power of the financial crisis became clear last year. The immensity of the manufacturing crisis is still sinking in, largely because it is seen in national termsâindeed, often nationalistic ones. In fact manufacturing is also caught up in a global whirlwind.
Industrial production fell in the latest three months by 3.6% and 4.4% respectively in America and Britain (equivalent to annual declines of 13.8% and 16.4%). Some locals blame that on Wall Street and the City. But the collapse is much worse in countries more dependent on manufacturing exports, which have come to rely on consumers in debtor countries. Germanyâs industrial production in the fourth quarter fell by 6.8%; Taiwanâs by 21.7%; Japanâs by 12%âwhich helps to explain why GDP is falling even faster there than it did in the early 1990s (see article). Industrial production is volatile, but the world has not seen a contraction like this since the first oil shock in the 1970sâand even that was not so widespread. Industry is collapsing in eastern Europe, as it is in Brazil, Malaysia and Turkey. Thousands of factories in southern China are now abandoned. Their workers went home to the countryside for the new year in January. Millions never came back (see article).
This is what happens when you create an economic bubble, by loosening up regulations to sell mortgages to those who cannot afford them. The whole world suffers. Our American companies suffer, the World manufacturing sector suffers. It is a domino effect. The problem is, that the United States is going about this all wrong. Instead of changing the way our economic system works. They are simply trying to reinflate the broken bubble. It is like trying to tape up a busted air ballon and trying to put air back into it again. It works for a while, but ends up breaking again.
Rat in the mouse house?
Well, something like that:
Youâve 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 havenât heard about a provision in the bill that threatens to politicize the way allegations of fraud and corruption are investigated â or not investigated â 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 â the RAT Board, as itâs 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 âthat an inspector general conduct or refrain from conducting an audit or investigation.â If the inspector general doesnât want to follow the wishes of the RAT Board, heâll 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 âconduct or refrain from conducting,â alarm bells went off. The language means that the board â whose chairman will be appointed by the president â 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
uh-oh – Nearly One-Forth of the House got donations from corrupt firm connected to Murtha
I suspect there will be some sort of fallout from this here:
More than 100 House members secured earmarks in a major spending bill for clients of a single lobbying firm â The PMA Group â known for its close ties to John P. Murtha , the congressman in charge of Pentagon appropriations.
âIt shows you how good they were,â said Keith Ashdown, chief investigator at the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. âThe sheer coordination of that would take an army to finish.â
PMAâs offices have been raided, and the firm closed its political action committee last week amid reports that the FBI is investigating possibly illegal campaign contributions to Murtha and other lawmakers.
No matter what the outcome of the federal investigation, PMAâs earmark success illustrates how a well-connected lobbying firm operates on Capitol Hill. And earmark accountability rules imposed by the Democrats in 2007 make it possible to see how extensively PMA worked the Hill for its clients.
In the spending bill managed by Murtha, the fiscal 2008 Defense appropriation, 104 House members got earmarks for projects sought by PMA clients, according to Congressional Quarterlyâs analysis of a database constructed by Ashdownâs group.
Those House members, plus a handful of senators, combined to route nearly $300 million in public money to clients of PMA through that one law (PL 110-116).
And when the lawmakers were in need â as they all are to finance their campaigns â PMA came through for them.
According to CQ MoneyLine, the same House members who took responsibility for PMAâs earmarks in that spending bill have, since 2001, accepted a cumulative $1,815,138 in campaign contributions from PMAâs political action committee and employees of the firm.
via CQ Politics | Firm with Murtha Ties Got Earmarks From Nearly One-Fourth of House.
I will simply say this, that ALL of the members of the House and Senate involved with this should resign immediately. This is a disgrace to the political system and should be dealt with harshly; that goes for Democrats AND Republicans.
Update: Here’s the list of people with their hands in the cookie jar:
Bold = Member Did Not Receive PMA Money between 2001 and 2008
* = No Longer Serving in the House
# = Member of House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the 110th Congress
Democrats
| Requesting Member | State | $ Secured Solo | $ Secured w/Others | Total Credited | PMA campaign $ since 2001 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peter J. Visclosky# | Indiana | $21,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $23,800,000 | $219,000 |
| John P. Murtha# | Pennsylvania | $31,705,000 | $2,400,000 | $34,105,000 | $143,600 |
| James P. Moran# | Virginia | $8,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $10,800,000 | $125,250 |
| Norm Dicks# | Washington | $11,330,000 | $800,000 | $12,130,000 | $91,600 |
| Bill Pascrell Jr. | New Jersey | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $73,200 | |
| Mike Doyle | Pennsylvania | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $69,400 | |
| Loretta Sanchez | California | $3,200,000 | $3,200,000 | $60,118 | |
| Tim Holden | Pennsylvania | $3,200,000 | $3,200,000 | $57,275 | |
| Tim Ryan | Ohio | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $54,250 | |
| Michael E. Capuano | Massachusetts | $2,000,000 | $800,000 | $2,800,000 | $54,000 |
| Chet Edwards | Texas | $6,040,000 | $6,040,000 | $48,734 | |
| Silvestre Reyes | Texas | $800,000 | $800,000 | $42,300 | |
| Christopher Carney | Pennsylvania | $5,900,000 | $5,900,000 | $38,500 | |
| Paul E. Kanjorski | Pennsylvania | $1,600,000 | $3,200,000 | $4,800,000 | $37,150 |
| Marcy Kaptur# | Ohio | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $34,500 | |
| Carolyn McCarthy | New York | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $31,500 | |
| Patrick J. Murphy | Pennsylvania | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $29,250 | |
| Allyson Y. Schwartz | Pennsylvania | $800,000 | $800,000 | $25,000 | |
| Jason Altmire | Pennsylvania | $2,600,000 | $2,600,000 | $24,500 | |
| Brad Sherman | California | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $15,500 | |
| Susan A. Davis | California | $800,000 | $800,000 | $13,750 | |
| Allen Boyd# | Florida | $6,400,000 | $2,200,000 | $8,600,000 | $12,000 |
| Sanford D. Bishop Jr.# | Georgia | $1,200,000 | $2,400,000 | $3,600,000 | $10,500 |
| Jane Harman | California | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $10,500 | |
| Jim Matheson | Utah | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $10,000 | |
| Steve Israel | New York | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $8,500 | |
| Jerrold Nadler | New York | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $8,500 | |
| Joe Sestak | Pennsylvania | $1,280,000 | $1,280,000 | $8,500 | |
| Jim Marshall | Georgia | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $7,000 | |
| Mark Udall* | Colorado | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $6,533 | |
| Michael H. Michaud | Maine | $800,000 | $800,000 | $6,500 | |
| Tom Allen* | Maine | $1,800,000 | $1,800,000 | $5,750 | |
| Danny K. Davis | Illinois | $295,000 | $295,000 | $5,500 | |
| Robert E. Andrews | New Jersey | $1,500,000 | $1,500,000 | $5,000 | |
| Gene Taylor | Mississippi | $800,000 | $800,000 | $4,750 | |
| Nancy Pelosi | California | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $4,500 | |
| David E. Price | North Carolina | $800,000 | $800,000 | $4,000 | |
| Steven R. Rothman# | New Jersey | $800,000 | $2,400,000 | $3,200,000 | $4,000 |
| Brian Higgins | New York | $3,400,000 | $3,400,000 | $3,000 | |
| Brad Miller | North Carolina | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $2,250 | |
| Brad Ellsworth | Indiana | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $2,000 | |
| Ed Perlmutter | Colorado | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $2,000 | |
| Phil Hare | Illinois | $6,800,000 | $6,800,000 | $1,500 | |
| Martin Meehan* | Massachusetts | $2,800,000 | $2,800,000 | $1,500 | |
| Howard L. Berman | California | $800,000 | $800,000 | $1,000 | |
| Carolyn B. Maloney | New York | $3,200,000 | $3,200,000 | $1,000 | |
| Ben Chandler | Kentucky | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $250 | |
| Shelley Berkley | Nevada | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | ||
| Dan Boren | Oklahoma | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | ||
| Leonard L. Boswell | Iowa | $1,650,000 | $1,650,000 | ||
| Baron P. Hill | Indiana | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | ||
| Gwen Moore | Wisconsin | $400,000 | $400,000 | ||
| Christopher S. Murphy | Connecticut | $400,000 | $400,000 | ||
| Mike Thompson | California | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 |
Republicans
| Requesting Member | State | $ Secured Solo | $ Secured w/Others | Total Credited | PMA campaign $ since 2001 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David L. Hobson*# | Ohio | $3,500,000 | $3,500,000 | $70,050 | |
| Jerry Lewis | California | $4,000,000 | $4,000,000 | $8,000,000 | $34,649 |
| Rodney Frelinghuysen# | New Jersey | $2,500,000 | $4,800,000 | $7,300,000 | $29,129 |
| Ander Crenshaw | Florida | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $27,300 | |
| Zach Wamp | Tennessee | $2,800,000 | $2,800,000 | $23,900 | |
| Todd Tiahrt# | Kansas | $5,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $7,000,000 | $21,250 |
| Tom Reynolds* | New York | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $12,000 | |
| Jack Kingston# | Georgia | $4,000,000 | $2,400,000 | $6,400,000 | $11,500 |
| H. James Saxton* | New Jersey | $2,000,000 | $1,500,000 | $3,500,000 | $11,500 |
| Jo Ann Emerson | Missouri | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $11,000 | |
| C.W. Bill Young# | Florida | $16,000,000 | $4,400,000 | $20,400,000 | $10,750 |
| Howard P. “Buck” McKeon | California | $1,000,000 | $4,000,000 | $5,000,000 | $9,500 |
| Heather Wilson* | New Mexico | $6,500,000 | $6,500,000 | $9,000 | |
| Jim Walsh* | New York | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $8,500 | |
| Mark Steven Kirk | Illinois | $390,000 | $390,000 | $7,750 | |
| Todd Akin | Missouri | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $7,500 | |
| Ray LaHood* | Illinois | $7,800,000 | $7,800,000 | $7,450 | |
| Jeff Miller | Florida | $1,600,000 | $2,200,000 | $3,800,000 | $7,000 |
| Duncan Hunter* | California | $15,200,000 | $15,200,000 | $6,500 | |
| Chris Cannon* | Utah | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $6,000 | |
| Kay Granger | Texas | $3,600,000 | $3,600,000 | $6,000 | |
| Joe Knollenberg* | Michigan | $2,800,000 | $2,800,000 | $6,000 | |
| David Dreier | California | $3,000,000 | $3,000,000 | $5,000 | |
| Jim Gerlach | Pennsylvania | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $4,500 | |
| Tom Latham | Iowa | $5,150,000 | $5,150,000 | $4,500 | |
| Joe L. Barton | Texas | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $4,000 | |
| J. Dennis Hastert* | Illinois | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $3,500 | |
| Roscoe G. Bartlett | Maryland | $400,000 | $400,000 | $3,000 | |
| Peter Hoekstra | Michigan | $3,700,000 | $3,700,000 | $2,500 | |
| Howard Coble | North Carolina | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $2,000 | |
| John T. Doolittle* | California | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $2,000 | |
| Kenny Hulshof* | Missouri | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $2,000 | |
| Steve Pearce* | New Mexico | $6,500,000 | $6,500,000 | $2,000 | |
| Bill Shuster | Pennsylvania | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $2,000 | |
| Frank A. LoBiondo | New Jersey | $1,500,000 | $1,500,000 | $1,500 | |
| Rob Bishop | Utah | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $1,000 | |
| Geoff Davis | Kentucky | $6,800,000 | $6,800,000 | $1,000 | |
| Virgil H. Goode Jr.* | Virginia | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $1,000 | |
| Doug Lamborn | Colorado | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000 | |
| Kenny Marchant | Texas | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $1,000 | |
| Christopher Shays* | Connecticut | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $1,000 | |
| John Sullivan | Oklahoma | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $1,000 | |
| Tom Tancredo* | Colorado | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $1,000 | |
| Michael C. Burgess | Texas | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $500 | |
| Ralph M. Hall | Texas | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | ||
| Doc Hastings | Washington | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | ||
| Sam Johnson | Texas | $1,200,000 | $1,200,000 | ||
| Todd R. Platts | Pennsylvania | $4,400,000 | $4,400,000 | ||
| Rick Renzi* | Arizona | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | ||
| Pete Sessions | Texas | $1,600,000 | $4,800,000 | $6,400,000 |
Wow. Can’t wait for the fallout.
Others: The Swamp, NPR, Outside The Beltway, The Washington Independent, Liberty Street, Right Wing Nut House, Betsy’s Page, Hot Air, Wizbang, Taegan Goddard’s âŚ, Riehl World View, Sister Toldjah, Michelle Malkin and QandO
New AG Eric Holder is nothing more than a race baiting shill for the left
Maybe it is just me. But am I the only person that seeâs a alarming similarity between this video here:
âŚ.and this video here: (Content Warning)
Just sayinâ
Others: Weekly Standard, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Riehl World View, The Campaign Spot, Cold Fury
Grim Local News – GM, Chrysler seek more money and will cut more jobs…
Kind of a depressing local story for me:
Video:
The Story:
Billions of dollars in government loans to prop up General Motors and Chrysler won’t be enough. The companies, which have received $17.4 billion so far, filed plans with the government more than doubling that request to a staggering total of $39 billion.
The requests, made in government-required restructuring plans filed Tuesday, were accompanied by plans for thousands more job cuts, slashing of models and brands, union concessions and the prospect of even further expense cuts.
In a dramatic acknowledgment that conditions in the U.S. auto industry have grown significantly worse in just two months, GM alone said it would cut 47,000 jobs globally by the end of the year â 19 percent of its work force. It also said it would close five more U.S. factories, although it did not identify them.
Chrysler said it will cut 3,000 more jobs and stop producing three vehicle models.
The grim reports came as the United Auto Workers union said it had reached a tentative agreement with GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. on contract changes. Concessions with the union and debt-holders were a condition of the government bailout.
GM said it could need up to $30 billion from the Treasury Department, up from a previous estimate of $18 billion. That includes $13.4 billion the company has already received. The world’s largest automaker said it could run out of money by March without new funds and needs $2 billion next month and another $2.6 billion in April.
“We have a lot of work to do,” General Motors Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said. “We’re still going at this with a great sense of urgency.”
via The Associated Press: GM, Chrysler seek billions more, to cut more jobs.
I think I’ll just refrain from public commentary on this one. There’s family, my family involved here; so, I’m totally biased. I just do not think those Conservatives who opposed this money to these companies really get it. All I am going to say. Anyone that’s read this Blog, or wants to know what I think. Do a search on “Tarp Loans” and you’ll see why I feel the way that I do.
Chuck Baldwin on Abraham Lincoln
In order to “preserve the Union,” Lincoln destroyed the very principles upon which the Union was created. His audacity is without equal. For example, to prevent a possible vote of secession by the Maryland legislature, Lincoln ordered federal troops to seize and arrest the Maryland congressional delegation. And of course, he was more than willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of America’s finest and best to destroy Jefferson’s declaration that the states of our Union are “Free and Independent States.”
I invite all those pro-Lincoln apologists out there to seriously answer this question: Does an abusive husband who beats and batters his wife have the right to force her (at the point of gun) to remain married to him? (Even the God of the Bible, Who cast marriage in the most sacred terms, recognizes the right of lawful separation.) If you answer no, how can you continue to justify Abraham Lincoln’s actions? In a political and governmental sense, that is exactly what Lincoln did. Forced union, of any kind, is slavery. In the name of emancipating slaves, Lincoln enslaved an entire nation.
It was Abraham Lincoln who, for all intents and purposes, destroyed federalism and limited government in America. In fact, on December 15, 1866, renowned British historian, Lord Acton, wrote a letter to General Robert E. Lee. In the letter, Acton said, “I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization; and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo.” – Chuck Baldwin on Abraham Lincoln
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 âon the tableâ.
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.
âYou should not get caught up on a word [nationalisation],â he told the Financial Times in an interview. âI would argue that we cannot be ideologically a little bit pregnant. It doesnât matter what you call it, but we canât keep on funding these zombie banks [without gaining public control]. Thatâs what the Japanese did.â
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 âSwedish modelâ â 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 âon the tableâ.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 âset our economy on a firmer foundation.â
The president said he would not pretend âthat today marks the end of our economic problems.â
âNor does it constitute all of what we have to do to turn our economy around,â Mr. Obama said at the signing ceremony in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. âBut 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.â
Mr. Gibbs, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Denver, said, âI think the president is going to do whatâs necessary to grow this economy.â While âthere are no particular plans at this point for a second stimulus package,â he added, âI wouldnât foreclose it.â
Mr. Obama began the first leg of a two-day trip, using the museum ceremony to spotlight the billâs 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. Obamaâs 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. Gibbsâs remarks on the plane seemed to echo that concern.
In describing the package, the press secretary called it âa strong start towards economic viabilityâ and âthe beginning of getting our economy back on track.â
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 â entire countries â would fare in a deepening global downturn.
âNobody believes itâs going get better yet,â said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard & Poorâs. âDo you see that light at the end of the tunnel? Any kind of light? Right now, itâs not there yet.â
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.
âIf we get substantially below 800 then look out below,â said Marc Groz, chief investment officer at Topos, a risk-advisory firm in Greenwich, Conn.
The broader Standard & Poorâs 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.